As the shimmering light dissipated a red mass entered Atlas' vision. It was hovering above the Ogre's corpse. Glowing softly as if inviting Atlas to retrieve it. Reaching his hand towards it an interface appeared.
[Ogre's Essence FF-Grade]
>>----------------------<<
Description: Increases all physical stats below FF-Grade by 1
>>----------------------<<
Seeing this Atlas was surprised. It was the first time an item was ever granted a description, but he assumed this was because of its relatively unique nature. 'So if I consume this somehow, my body will grow more powerful?' This was the conclusion he naturally came to after reading the description. He then reached forward and grabbed the red mass.
Just as he was going to pocket it, the red mass seemed to penetrate through his palm before diffusing around his body. In merely a matter of seconds a red glow covered his body. He could feel his muscles, tendons, and bones gain a sort of strength. It felt almost like when he wore the Amulet of Strength, but oddly different. When he wore the amulet he felt his body fill with strength, but now it was almost as if he himself was generating it.
'What a treasure! With this my chances of survival are definitely much higher. But I shouldn't stay distracted. I have to get away before the rest of the Ogres arrive. They may have been sitting back before, but that doesn't mean they won't approach. Especially if they smell the blood of their fallen comrade.'
Immediately Atlas rushed out of the cave, even faster than before. Not only had the Ogre's Essence strengthened him but it seemed to have rejuvenated him as well. His previously depleted stamina now felt full. Of course Atlas wouldn't make the same mistake as last time and nearly deplete it all once again.
He swiftly went towards the nearby lake and swiftly got rid of any Ogre blood on his body. Fortunately due to how swiftly he killed the monster and the precision at which he did so, there wasn't very much blood on him. Atlas simply plunged the sword into the lake and then wiped off the remaining pieces of what he assumed was bone and brain matter.
'I also got some blood on my face and body, I have to hurry up though.' With every second counting, Atlas swiftly splashed some water on himself and then left the lake. This time he made doubly sure to cover his tracks, and ran in a very roundabout fashion. He wasn't much of a survivalist but he hoped this would be enough to throw off the Ogres.
Just when he was about to relax Atlas' ears picked up four blood curdling screams. Fortunately they were far enough away where Atlas wasn't in very much danger. 'They must've just found the corpse. If I stay on guard I can survive through the next 10 hours and hopefully the tutorial will be over then.' Atlas than entered a nearby cave and sat down, but before he could catch his breath the system appeared before him.
>>----------------------<<
The Ogres have deemed humanity a threat!
They are enraged!
Mission No.1 Survive has been updated to, Special Mission Blood Debt!
Ogres and humans' positions will now be displayed!
>>----------------------<<
Looking at this display Atlas immediately felt like coughing up blood. What was this bullshit? He killed one Ogre and the whole mission changed? Was he not even allowed to fight back. 'Lets see what the actual details are.'
>>----------------------<<
Special Mission: Kill all remaining Ogres! Tutorial ends when all Ogres are defeated or all Humans are dead! Blood debts must be paid in kind, and beams of hatred will illuminate this conflict.
>>----------------------<<
Reading this his face visibly twitched. Was this a joke? While he had killed one it arguably took everything out of him, and a lot of luck. But to kill the remaining four? And alone at that? The system should've just killed him. 'This is some mother fucking bull shit, whoever designed this shitty system I curse your ancestors.'
"BOOM!"
Four red beams, and one blue beam shot into the sky. Naturally the blue beam came from Atlas and was even able to penetrate the cave's ceiling. These were their markers, and what the system had alluded to previously. Seeing this naturally Atlas' face paled, but little did he know something was happening back on Earth.
---------------------------------------
March 23rd 2030
An hour after the incident occurred the world was in a panic. Countless people had disappeared, causing numerous others to die untimely deaths. Not counting those who simply disappeared, the death toll was estimated to be in the 10s of millions.
"There is still no concrete evidence on what has happened, although the Unite Global Alliance has announced that some computers detected a spatial anomaly around the time the disappearance occurred. But the rest is still a mystery." The news anchor could only report the little they knew. This was a global crisis after all, and even a number of the news station's staff had disappeared due to the incidence.
>>----------------------<<
Special Mission Activated!
Tutorial Broadcast conditions have been met!
Enjoy your viewing
>>----------------------<<
All of a sudden this odd screen appeared in front of the masses, and then another oddity occurred. The sky seemed to display images, no a projection of sorts almost as if it was a portal into other realities. This occurred above every major city in the world. New Crimson in the North, Tianshan in the East, Dominus Europa in the West, and countless other cities. At once as if compelled to, citizens young and old left their homes and stared at the sky above.
People appeared within the projection, their faces obscured. Could these be some of the people who had disappeared? And what were those fiendish creatures they were facing? Humanity had to bear witness as 10s of men and women fought fiercely against four fiendish Ogres, before unfortunately perishing. The projection in the sky then abruptly cut off.
"T-This is a joke right?"
"Isn't this too gory to be displayed so publicly!"
"But did anyone else see that video game like screen before coming outside? I can't be the only one right?"
Across the globe the masses were baffled, but this wasn't the end. Countless new projections began playing. So many that it was impossible to keep track of, but somehow the people could understand what was going on. Humanity was fighting, fighting against these brutish hulking green creatures.
In most bouts they lost, with every last person slaughtered. But amongst them there were the rare few where humanity was triumphant. In one particularly projection, a second Ogre was killed after the first. Immediately it took priority over the others.
Within the projection was a man standing with a gun. He shot one Ogre dead, and then proceeded to shoot another dead, then another and another till they were all dead. That particular projection then shut off. This man made the whole ordeal look trifling, but in fact it had cost humanity over a million lives at this point.
Another similar projection then appeared, but it wasn't as simple as the previous one. Multiple people had already died, and one man in particular was frantically shooting at the Ogres. Fortunately he had killed 3 and heavily injured the remaining 2, but this still resulted in the remaining 70 or so people being forced to engage the 2 Ogres in combat. Somehow though, maybe seeing hope after killing 3 they banded together and killed the remaining Ogres.
These scenes continued to happen for some time. While there were a few groups who banded together and managing to fight the Ogres with stones and makeshift spears and somehow coming out on top. Using their sheer numbers to overpower them. But for the most part majority of human victories stemmed from firearms.
As time passed the number of projections lessened, until eventually, from the previous hundreds playing every second, there were only maybe 20 at a time. Although these were interesting in their own way, some of the people displayed moved with a high level of speed or exerted great strength all while using medieval weaponry. These were the most baffling of the projections. But people began to wonder why the number of projections were declining, which naturally led to online speculation.
BigRaga3333: Is anyone else confused why there's only 20 projections now?
IntellectualConsumer: Clearly if you were paying attention it has to do with the Special Mission activation condition. LMFAO.
OrangeShrimp8787: It could just be because the whole thing began when the disappearance occurred, meaning 5 hours in they've either killed all Ogres or are fr all dead.
IntellectualConsumer: What an idiotic take! If you paid attention to the projections you'd notice 1 Ogre is always dead to begin with. Meaning that's the Special Mission activation condition! With millions if not billions of people possibly wrapped up in this, obv not all are gonna kill 1 Ogre. But they don't gotta since its a special mission, duh. LMFAO.
WiseGreenTea: K bro we get it you're a smartass.
IntellectualConsumer: You all simply can't handle my brilliance! LMFAO.
Eventually 10 hours in only five projections would run at a time give or take. And as more time passed this number declined, eventually reaching about zero 12 hours in. That was until the 14th hour when a lone figure appeared.