Never. I would never stop foot in the Bastion again. That was the conclusion I arrived at after ruminating further about what to do. Although the benefits of attending and graduating would be an immense help, the chance of success was virtually 0.
Truly, it was impossible to attend without getting beaten up.
Armed with a new found goal, I pushed myself away from this accursed room and began to make my way to the city in attempts to find employment. Swishing my hands in the air, I tried to piece together all the things I needed.
First, accommodation. Renting out a cheap apartment would suffice, but even that was far out of my budget without getting a decent job. Food and water may also be a struggle for the first few days, but as long as someone was gracious enough to grant me work then it could be managed.
Exhaling a deep sigh, I shook my head for the future to come. Even in another world, it seemed mundane work would never leave me.
Blink.
Strangely, the world had turned black.
…What?
"W-What? Did I go blind?"
No! This hadn't happened last time, why was trouble appearing again?
Looking down however, showed me signs of my body, though heavily obscured. Was it not blindness? Then what had happened?
Focusing all my effort on my feet, I ensured that I wouldn't lose balance under these strange conditions.
Though I couldn't see, it semed that my ears were still working enough to hear the entle flow of wind circling around me. Leaves began to rustle with the movement of the wind; louder and louder, the leaves continued to fly along with the rampaging gust.
Definitely. It was moving closer towards me. Blood had started to trickle down from both ears at the thundering gale, forcing me to begin my sprint backwards. Whatever that was happening was certainly not a blessing.
A click rang out. With it, silence ensued. A roaring, obnoxious silence.
Perplexity deepening, I dropped down to the floor and attempted to catch my breath.
[Cannot…Bastion…leave…]
Man or woman, child or adult, it had nothing.
Merely, a [voice].
Something spoke out to me.
"...Hello? Is there any—"
[Refusal…death…must…Bastion….go…until…rank…one]
My eyes turned downwards.
All I managed to do was scream.
"A, Arhgh!! Arghh! W-What, what the fuck?!!"
Every nail had become contorted, leaving a river of blood flowing down from my hands. All limbs had started to turn into inhumane positions, and the more I looked, the greater the ruby tint became.
Only as I saw a drop of blood fall from my face did I understand why.
My eyes were crying blood.
[No…rank….one…death…]
[Death…]
[Death…]
[Death…]
[Must…get…Holy…Relic…]
"Aarhghghhhh!"
I'mgoingtodieimgoingtodieimgoingtodieimgoingtodieimgoingtodieimgoingtodieimgoingtodieimgoingtodie.
I couldn't think.
Death.
Death was here.
It had come for me.
I was going to be slaughtered.
[Choice…make…]
[Memory Parasyte]
[Self Suggestion{Restricted}]
[Hypnosis]
[Rewire{Restricted}]
….
….
The voice disappeared.
But the blood remained. The pain remained. The fear remained.
I couldn't move. No, I didn't want to move. I wanted to hide. The entirety of this darkness couldn't provide me with enough protection.
Dying was better than this. If I could die peacefully, then there was no issue. Burning to death would be fine. Drowning would suffice as well.
"Just get me out, get me out!"
All I knew how to do was scream.
Each nerve in my body was being pulled apart, every fibre of muscle melting into a viscous liquid.
I still had a mouth, however.
And until that left, silence would never return. My own voice was what haunted my ears.
Only, as I slipped further and further into my head, a heavy cerulean fog appeared in front of me.
Without any delay, it slithered inside my body and circulated all across, gently soothing my broken body.
The screams that once were threatening to destroy my body became mellow. Instead, a sublime peace came over me.
"..."
A body that I had seen clearly melt had regained its form.
Insanity. Perhaps that was what I had experienced. Looking back at the hell I had gone through, I couldn't feel any of the emotions. It had happened just a few seconds ago, but it had felt now that they weren't even my own experiences. A disconnect that wouldn't be gapped.
It had happened to [someone], not me. Indeed. The voice had spoken, and I had gone crazy. Logically, I knew that was what happened, yet I couldn't feel anything for it at all.
Somehow, it was as though...it had never happened in the first place.
I couldn't be certain of what that blue fog had done, but certainly, it was responsible for my salvation.
Or rather, the salvation for whomever that had occurred to.
Exhaling deeply, I turned my eyes to the new appearance within this darkness.
Tens upon tens of vermillion slates suddenly popped up, washing away the darkness. Each one carried a different name, and when further inspected, would shove words down into my head.
[Hypnosis: Implant a small packet to an entity's mind. The user must set a specific, physical trigger to activate the packet. Packets can contain exclusively a mental message or a physical message. 3 day buffer. Cannot be {stacked} on the same entity]
…Was there another cheat that the god had forgotten to tell me about? Looking at the obscene amount of choices, it seemed to be a considerable amount of help. And once I remembered the nonsensical skill he had given me before, it may not have been wrong to say that this had the potential to be greater than his first gift.
Though, when I had first spoken to the god, there weren't any such effects that happened to the man I saw whom the voice speaking to right now. Strange as it was, I had to focus on things I could understand better.
[Memory Parasyte: Implant a segment of your consciousness inside another entity's mind. Thoughts, memories and habits of the entity that you have binded to will slowly be transferred to the user. If the difference of mind between the user and victim is too large, the user will experience severe repercussions. 6 month buffer]
As I continued to glide my attention across the plethora of slates, I realised that the vast majority were unavailable to me, simply showing a restricted sign. It seemed that at the current moment, my only two choices were [Memory Parasyte] and [Hypnosis].
…What was the better choice?
Inferring the meaning of the message conveyed by the voice wasn't hard. Become the first rank of the Bastion, otherwise known as the [Heavenly Star]; by achieving this, get hold of the Holy Relic.
Well, my words were wrong. The first part wasn't hard to infer.
To deduce what it meant by the Holy Relic? Arlen's memories were of no help.
Understanding the crux of the issue didn't need Arlen's memories, though—I was made sure to get the memo.
Death.
Failure to achieve this goal would result in the end of my existence. There was no need to doubt the capability of the voice, for I had seen its atrocious might against the man from before.
So what did that mean? In a year, I somehow had to squeeze out enough skill to defeat the greatest geniuses of the Empire.
[Arlen] wasn't enough. This meagre talent could never get me to the level I needed to be at.
I felt my eyes sting.
Something had just dawned upon me.
If…I was to be killed due to failure.
And my chances of success were infinitely closer to 0 than even 0.1 percent.
Would I be stuck, living the same year over and over?
…for eternity?
My fingers had begun to shake. In fact, it seemed that a large portion of my body had started to convulse at the thought, but even then I couldn't take my attention away from my head.
"What does…eternity mean?"
To live forever.
To live the same, impossible year forever.
It was something that a human couldn't fathom.
"No…it won't be like that."
I would escape.
I had to escape.
If I didn't want to go insane, I had to believe in something right now.
I would escape.
"I will escape..."
If I ever let go of this faith.
If I ever stopped to assess the rationality of this delusion.
I would sink to the deepest pits of suffering, never to rise above again.
Merely thinking about it was dangerous. Erase. I had to erase it.
Rubbing the moisture that had spread across my face, I sat up and patted my back. Squeezing my eyes closed, I tried to smile.
A weak upward line was all I could produce. But that was enough. I would escape. Thoughts were threatening to jump out and seize my brain, but I continuously shoved them down. Not now. I had to be strong. For myself, I had to remain calm.
Attempting to change my focus, I once again looked at the two options provided.
The life of Arlen and the experiences he had known. I tried to digest them even more, in hopes of finding something that could help aid my decision.
Hypnosis would solve one of the biggest problems that had plagued the future—dying due to someone thrashing me for no reason. Simply implanting a thought not to hit me, it may have been good enough to escape. Of course, it was mere speculation about if it was potent enough to even do that.
But the chance was worth taking a risk.
I had my choice.
"Memory Parasyte."
In an instant, the cherry slate exploded towards me, or more specifically, my head and dissipated into a thin mist. The words it carried had become jumbled until they too joined the mist. A spiral formed in the centre of the mist that had determined its exit point as my mind.
As my vision began to blur, the entirety of the mist had entered inside me and had made room, slowly inputting the information to me.
—
"...It's interesting."
Hearing the word parasyte, I expected there to be a physical form that I would deploy which would somehow get access to their brain, but it was a pure mental skill. Upon placing my hand on their head, a portion of my thoughts would agglomerate, taking in something called [Origin Wave] along with it, and enter the victim's mind.
There was a simple reason as to why I chose [Memory Parasyte]. Hypnosis alone was simply delaying death, not preventing it.
It was true. With hypnosis, it was possible to prevent myself from getting beaten, meaning I wouldn't have to regress meaninglessly.
But what would happen afterwards?
Uselessly squirming about, I would try and become first rank with the worst talent in the entirety of the Bastion. Hypnosis wouldn't work on those who decided ranks either, considering that the slate mentioned the difference of mind strength.
Would I, someone who lived not one but two lives as a pitiful fool be of greater mental strength than the leader of the Bastion? Someone whose mana levels would be enough to fuel an entire city?
Of course not.
What I needed was a chance to change the very essence of Arlen Droder.
There would be things to learn in the memories of others. Conceptual understanding towards topics, was it not possible to learn that as well? Talent in itself was {Understanding}, no? Just as with hypnosis, all of this was nothing but speculation, but in the case that my speculations were right, the potency of [Memory Parasyte] seemed greater.
There was a chance that everything I had blabbered to myself was wrong.
Still, I didn't have to wait long to see.
As I felt the air push slam against my face before coming to an abrupt stop, I hardened my heart.
Once more, I was inside the Bastion, and this time with a greater purpose. For survival.
For freedom.