Ryker internally laughed when he saw the drop. However, the sight caused a shift to occur in his brain.
Certain death vs. guaranteed death. Rolling off a 350-foot cliff was the logical thing to do!
But first, he needed something that could increase his long-term survival rate from 0% to 1%.
Otherwise, it would be useless. So he resolved to make that impossible chance a reality.
"Not… letting… go. So eat my arm." Ryker taunted with his knife between his teeth.
A wolf carefully circled him to bite his left arm.
"Little closer." Ryker laughed with the knife in his teeth.
When the wolf got close enough, he whispered to himself. "Butter knife."
It disappeared from his mouth. "Butter knife."
Immediately after, it reappeared in his left hand.
"AREFH!"
The wolf froze when the knife released its intent and whined as it lost its leg.
After stumbling a few times, it dropped off the cliff, smashing against something large before moving to the bottom.
Ding! [Congratulations! The user has leveled up!]
Ryker cried out in joy. He finally destabilized the balance!
Five wolves, seven levels!
The wolves would recover from their shock at any moment and eat him, or he'd die at the bottom of a cliff, but at least he got what he wanted most!
After confirming a kill, he waved the butter knife around with lethal force.
It was comical because he was swiping at the ground opposite the wolves.
Unfortunately, the fear of a blade only goes as far as being able to use it.
The wolves eventually recovered from their shock and reassessed the situation.
They decided to continue eating him from the legs up when they did.
Ryker laughed internally at the development. "Butter knife."
The knife disappeared again.
He was certain he'd die of blood loss or getting eaten, so he used his grip strength and the confusion to heave himself over the cliff top.
Then he fell with a vibrant smile on his face.
THUD!
...
Ryker awoke to the sound of dripping water.
"Agh e alk."
He tried to speak, but he couldn't. He could barely breathe, let alone talk.
When he tried to summon his only attached limb, he found it was horrifyingly broken.
The sound of [water] was his blood draining over the mountain top.
He couldn't see the blood.
Ryker was facing the wall of the bright yellow mountain, unsure how close he was to the edge.
He could only estimate how close he was by the sound of the blood pouring off.
That was worthless, given that every limb he had was pouring blood.
[I should be dead].
[But I'm alive].
[I should be dead].
[But I'm alive].
[I should be dead].
[But I'm alive].
Ryker laughed internally at the surreal phenomena playing out.
On earth, he would have died from blood loss.
Now that he was a superhuman, his body recovery rate was staggering.
However, he imagined he'd die of dehydration before long, so he had to act.
Ryker summoned his status window.
—
Congratulations, Revenger!
You have completed the requirements for the Revenge Game: Revenge Games Qualification Exam!
Mission: Revenge Games Qualification Exam
Rewards:
1. Temporary access to a team of hackers who will alter live feet and communications footage, allowing you to level up without detection until Scythe Corps orientation.
2. The ability to alter your stats to hide your power.
3. A full health recovery potion.
4. A minor resource request
Note: You completed the task and survived somehow… maybe… that's awkward. We would've made your task possible if we wanted you to live.
Oh well. We'll figure out the logistics with your target and enjoy your short yet entertaining life some more. A deal is a deal, so you'll receive your privileges as promised. Cheers!
—
Ryker didn't have the strength or time to laugh.
"Rewecroy pseow." He slurred.
When nothing happened, he laughed internally.
If Ryker had the power to slap himself off the cliff, he would. Trying to speak the potion when it wasn't necessary aggravating him.
'Recovery potion.' He thought, and a red vial materialized next to his face.
Luckily the items he got were [slotted] for quick drawing. Normally a person had to set up themselves. However, the system had access to his storage. It was extremely convenient.
Ryker stared at the potion with a mocking grin.
At times like these, he was glad he was insane.
Without hesitation, he lifted his head and tipped the vial in the indent left from his head.
Once in position, he smashed his head down with all his might.
CRACK!
The vial exploded from his unreserved head, which left glass riddling his forehead.
Without looking, Ryker forced his tongue out of his broken jaw and began licking, slicing his tongue on hundreds of shards of broken glass.
Every time he got the glass in his mouth, he swallowed it, sending excruciating pain waving through his body.
However, the health potion healed it immediately after.
As a result, the next fifteen minutes became a hellish cycle of slicing up his tongue, swallowing broken glass, and then healing.
At the same time, his left arm snapped into alignment at a terrifying rate, and his limbs began growing again.
Ryker grinned when he saw the development.
The key term was [full] health recovery potion, which restored a person's body to its peak condition in the last seven days.
However, it wasn't enough to fix his limbs, given that he lost a good deal of the potion.
So when he had enough strength in his left hand, he began scooping and eating it.
It was extremely painful. The minimal potion in the dirt didn't heal Ryker immediately with the broken glass.
However, his limbs were more important for survival than his throat. So he continued.
After thirty gruesome minutes, his body healed enough to recover naturally.
During that period, he didn't move much, as he still didn't know how close he was to the cliff's edge.
Looking over his shoulder could cause him to roll off. It was a brutal development.
Despite the extreme danger of falling asleep, Ryker's body gave out and fell unconscious.
Twelve hours passed, then fourteen, and then finally twenty. Almost an entire day passed by before he finally awoke.
Ryker opened his eyes in a haze.
THU-DUMP!
When he tried to roll, his brain immediately snapped to attention, instinctually remembering his situation. His body froze, and he carefully accessed his situation.
There were three feet to the mountain face before him.
He decided to carefully move there, giving him just enough room to lay down.
Ryker jimmied his body slowly over to the wall until his nose touched it, and he could smell the strange aroma of the yellow Lexicon dirt compacted there.
Then he carefully laid on his back.
When he did and looked to his left, he immediately began laughing uncontrollably.
If he had laid on his back instead of his side, almost half of his body would have been of off the cliffside.
Waking up mid-balancing could have caused him to fall, the shaky ledge three hundred feet from the bottom might have broke, or any other lethal situation.
"I can't believe I'm still alive!" Ryker laughed.
He needed to stop, but he couldn't help it!
Ryker was half naked, indicative of his limbs being eaten.
His funeral suit had a massive puncture hole where he was impaled and was on a ledge 300 feet above the ground.
He fell on it with a collapsed lung and one limb before breaking innumerable bones.
Now it came out that rolling to his back while sleeping meant certain death!
"This is… hahaha… a sign… a sign!" Ryker laughed uncontrollably.
He gripped his stomach with his new right arm, which was still weak, but recovering quickly with his new superhuman healing.
"It's a sign that a god… haha… does exist!" Ryker laughed, "And that… hahaha… he wants that motherfucker dead!"
Maxwell. God wanted Maxwell dead.
"Scythe. I love that name now." Ryker chuckled, "I'm here to reap what the god's sowed; the false god who impregnated this paradise through his disgusting ways."
The God-class hunter was a demi-god among humanoids, openly flaunting it as an official title.
Only two people in the connected universe could take that title from him. Both were also false gods, enjoying lavished lives without a desire to risk it for a confrontation.
They enjoyed peace through mutually assured destruction and wouldn't follow a real god's will to end his life.
Only one person sought to dethrone the false god, and it was him!
Ryker could care less if there was a god or their intentions. He was simply enjoying frivolous explanations for his insanity-triggering series of fortunes.
Any explanation would do, and that one stood out to Ryker.
The teen was now a Scythe and wanted to believe he was there on God's behalf to heap the head of the universe's thorniest weed.
To believe that he was given God's Blessing to survive, to fulfill God's Intent to kill Vincent Lawrence Maxwell.
It was a delightful thought that kept him chuckling with madness for hours.
Ryker watched the purple horizon cast a hue of vibrant pink light over the multicolored landscape. It was a stunning sight that left him with a bright smile on his face.
He was alive and witnessing the start of his journey toward power.
While most would struggle to get others to help them with their first kill, he was already miles above the rest. He was unrestrained by the struggle to accomplish anything.
Lexicon was his to use as his playground, and he would use it mercilessly.
With determination pulsing through his veins, he tried to stand to scream a declaration to the world.
However, when he tried to push up with his right arm, it immediately buckled, and his fragile elbow crashed to the ground.
"Guhhhhhh." Ryker groaned in pain, "I guess my body hasn't caught up to my ambition."
Only then did he realize how truly tired he was. He chuckled a few times before falling asleep.