Chapter 31 - Tutorial (Hunter) - 17
Vesper cackles and admires his work. Earlier, he deployed a regular bear trap in front of the door, preventing Brad from rescuing Anna. Everything worked as intended, though the bear trap disappeared upon activation.
The troublesome woman is down, and the survivors are in disarray. Nothing pleases Vesper more than this development.
Still, he spent a lot of energy. The hoarder dies, and her name is crossed out from the list. Vesper can no longer summon her again. Phantom is also injured from the previous struggle, but she still has 50% HP left. Vesper ponders the damage that a holy stake inflicted upon the phantom. He understands how it works.
'One holy stake can instantly reduce a guardian's HP by half. It's indeed useful, however…'
Brad, Noah, and Zillion no longer have any holy stake. The only suspicious item among them is the voodoo doll that Zillion has been carrying with his mouth.
Not letting his guard down, Vesper proceeds to the next step of his plan. He smiles at Anna's corpse.
'Lovely sacrifice.'
Vesper points at the corpse and chants the spell in his mind.
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- Soul Sacrifice (4th Grade) (Active)
(Survivor): Spend 100 energy to sacrifice a survivor's corpse to the Lord of Protectors. Heal all wounds and acquire a small amount of credit.
(Hunter): Sacrifice a captured survivor or a survivor's corpse to the Lord of Judges. Restore energy to the maximum.
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Anna's corpse dissipates into dust in front of the crowd, but no one bats an eye. However, something extra happens in the aftermath.
Her transparent soul remains in the house. She looks around in confusion and notices Vesper's cage and his appearance. Seeing Vesper, Anna glares at him.
"Damn reaper! I'll get you next time! Just you wait!"
As Anna is about to unleash profanities, the floor under her feet turns into lava. A dozen skinless human hands emerge and grab her legs, arms, and body, dragging her into the pool of magma. Anna screams in fright, but unfortunately, nobody except Vesper can see the entire event unfold.
*DING*
Vesper shrugs. He doesn't like the rune as he prefers abilities over status buffs. After all, status attributes can be increased by consuming low-grade runes.
'Meh. Can I exchange this for credits or store it?'
*DING*
'Oh, never mind.'
Vesper realizes that he still has a lot to learn. Being a hunter is not a simple job.
.
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Meanwhile, as Anna's body disappears and is dragged to hell, no one bothers to look at her because they can't see the skinless humans and the lava pit.
The atmosphere turns sour, and Brad stops speaking. He collects all the white runes and puts them in his backpack. While doing so, Brad uses a blue rune in his hand.
The rune gives him options to increase permanent stats, temporary stats, or receive a random item. Brad chooses the third option. A holy stake manifests from nothingness, and Brad grabs it. He then picks up another green rune and leaves the house.
Zillion scoffs at Brad, who leaves behind a trail of blood from his injured leg. Zillion shifts his attention to Noah, who miraculously survived the ordeal despite being blind.
Noah fervently scratches his face. The yellow puke earlier dissolved a portion of his eyeballs, rendering him blind for the rest of the game. Unless someone heals him or he uses a monster rune, he will be useless for the remainder of the mission.
Instead of giving Noah the rune, Zillion takes it with him. He snorts and boldly heads to the garage.
*DING*
<25:00>
The sky clock warns the survivors about their remaining time and marks the next phase of the trial, during which one or more entities can appear.
"Tsk!"
Zillion embraces the darkness and dashes through the corridor, reaching the garage, his favorite farming area.
*DING*
Brad is handling all the work outside while Zillion ignores the voice messages and heads to the breaker unit. He opens the console cover and flips all the switches, restoring power to the house.
As usual, Zillion scans the area for runes and good weapons. He also approaches the shutter console and presses the UP button, opening another exit route.
On the truck, a green rune sits untouched. Two white runes are rolling on the ground, having been accidentally kicked by Zillion on his way there. He picks up the two white runes and places them on the back of the truck. Walking toward the driver's seat, he peeks inside the car for any other hidden runes.
Another white rune sits on the driver's seat, and a blue rune is under the passenger's front console. Zillion grins and tries to open the door.
*CLICK*
It's locked.
"Tsk!"
Zillion looks around and notices a hammer nearby. He grabs it and smacks the window with force, causing it to crack after the first strike. With two more hits, the window shatters. Zillion extends his hand inside and unlocks the door.
*GRAB*
A cold hand suddenly grabs Zillion's ankle. He widens his eyes and looks down.
*CHOMP*
There's a man without facial skin underneath the truck, biting Zillion's right ankle!
*CLICK*
At the same time, the breaker is turned off again, plunging the room into darkness. Zillion instantly recognizes this attack pattern; he has faced this type of foe before, even in the dark.
"GODDAMMIT! YOU STUPID ZOMBIE!"
Exerting his strength, Zillion wrenches his leg away from the zombie's mouth, tearing a layer of flesh. The zombie crawls menacingly toward him, baring sharp teeth and revealing its heinous, rotting face.
Angry and frustrated, Zillion raises his hammer and swings it. Because of the darkness, his strike misses!
Not giving up, Zillion swings his hammer again, aiming at the general location of the zombie. However, it only grazes its cheek.
The zombie lunges, grabbing his chubby belly and biting into it. This double bite humiliates him, fueling his anger as he swings his hammer twice at the zombie's head. The monster's skull shatters, scattering juicy, soft black brain tissue.
Shoving the dead zombie away, Zillion kicks and swats pieces of brain away from his body, though the zombie drops nothing.
Frustrated, he mutters, "I was saving the healing rune for an emergency! Because of you, I have to use it! Why did you have to spawn here of all places?!"
Paranoid about the zombie virus, Zillion activates the monster rune to heal his wound, causing bad blood to seep from his pores as the wounds vanish. He wipes sweat from his face with one finger, exhaling deeply as the crisis passes. He then turns his attention to the truck and climbs into the passenger seat to search for more runes.
"KIHIHIHIHIHI!"
Due to the loud noise, a freshly spawned monster leaps down from the rooftop, landing in front of the garage. The crawler lady slips through the gap into the garage, charging toward Zillion with her jaw detaching to reveal long fangs.
"SHIT!"
Zillion hears her voice and attempts to close the truck's door, but the lady tears it apart and grabs his legs, pulling him out of the vehicle.
Unable to resist her immense strength, Zillion is dragged from the truck. As soon as he comes out, the crawler presses him facedown on the ground and lowers her head to bite his nape.
"DAMMIT!"
Faced with yet another crisis, Zillion activates the voodoo doll.