{Quick Notification - Event happening at the same time period as the last chapter.}
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Location: Shinjuku, Kaldea Military Training Centre for JSDF (Japanese Self -Defence Force)
In a military centre a young red-haired woman of outstanding beauty was busy being bellowed at by a large-tall superior officer. The girl was around the age of 18-19, with shiny red phoenix hair that burned with a vigorous passion, as if it were shouting 'look at me I'm special'. The girl had light blue eyes and a soft-cute face that didn't suit that of a typical lifeless cadet soldier.
Here in this training facility this very cadet was scowling, an expression that didn't suit her pretty face at all. Why was this girl scowling you ask, well that was because of her cruel superior officer of course... why else! This angry psycho man started bellowing at her for no good particular reason and he did it with such energy and passion you would think that he was a pastor who had just received revelations from God himself.
"Cadet Leyanne, what is this absolute bullshit! You call yourself a soldier huh. That's laughable, you can't shoot the fucking target from here, my Grandma could easily hit that ... and guess what she's goddamn dead, seriously are you fucking blind! the instructor yelled.
The young lady didn't say anything, instead she held her own mouth from releasing a string of her own curses. She knew if she did anything remotely like that, that she would be subjected to even more of the man's hormonal temper. It simply wasn't worth it. Holding in her ever-growing anger she held in her string of already formulated retorts, not a pin drop left her mouth, she didn't want to be subjected to more of his seething rage, or even worse go through the 'military disciplining'.
In these types of scenarios and situations silence was always the correct answer, right? There was nothing wrong with silence, nothing you could fault with it, so that's what she chose.
"Hey Cadet Leyanne, I asked you a question... are you fucking blind!?" he yelled again, clearly trying to provoke her.
The young girl annoyed and angry began to ponder, did he enjoy harassing others? Was he a pathological asshole? She would fully believe someone if they stated that he was diagnosed with such a condition.
Although she thought of all of these things, she didn't dare to say any of it out loud, after all he was still her superior.
"No, superior officer Payne, I am not 'fucking blind' sir" she responded back stoutly, saluting at the officer. She couldn't help herself but to add a small sarcastic tone to the end of her sentence.
The commanding officer's face went purple as if even the air itself around him was avoiding him.
"You think that you're funny cade....
Before he could finish his wrath filled sentence, a loud pounding force hammered itself into all the skulls of everyone in the room, causing each and every individual to fall to the floor clutching their heads. What was the cause of such excruciating pain that their fingertips were digging into their scalps. It was then that a synchronised message embedded itself into the minds of everyone...
[Initialising system....]
[World system enabled... welcome to the new world.]
[Mana stream- ready for transfer (confirmed)]
[Odds of rejection, 45%, state of patient (immense pain)]
[Injection status (ready).... injecting host with mana]
[Operation starting]
After the message finished, a unique, strange sensation started filling through the body of cadet Leyanne. It felt as if a foreign entity was invading her body, taking over every single part of her; the sensation started spreading around like a liquid, weaving and bobbing changing the bodily cells until it had completely taken over everything. Surprisingly, after it had been fully absorbed into her body, the immense feeling of pain that she had endured subsided before disappearing completely.
[Operation success, mana stream implementation complete]
[Providing user- profile]
After hearing these odd messages, a weird status screen showed up in the girl's face.
Name: Leyanne Williams
Gender: Female
Race : Human
Class : Speedster (Level 1) (XP; 0/25) (F rank)
Health: 65/65
Strength: 7
Endurance: 13
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Defense: 12
Agility: 25
IQ/Intelligence: 120
Mana: 3
Essence: 0
Talents: Race to the future
Skills: Boost Overload (lvl 1)
Confused and bewildered, she looked at the status screen in front of her. What is all this she wondered, taken aback by the weird display. This was certainly not normal at all. Glaring passionately at the screen she forgot to notice that almost everyone around her were either in an extreme state of pain or looking at their own screens just like her.
Intrigue can do funny things to people sometimes, it can cause them to totally become isolated in their own little world's, as if they are separated from reality. It took a while before Leyanne came out of her tranced like state and took into account her surroundings.
She looked around her and all she could see where countless soldiers both male and females clutching their bodies desperately as they sprawled around on the floor like worms. She observed that some people like her were fine, although more in number were suffering. If she had to put it into a ratio it would be 1 person was fine for every 3, or something across that line... she didn't really know the exact answer.
To the right of her she could see her superior commander enthralled with pain. 𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, she thought to herself as a glimpse of a small smile appearing on her face. After slightly enjoying the scene, she came back to her senses, she may have hated her commanding officer but there were still some people that she liked in the training centre, Eleni was one of them.
Unsure of her friends’ condition, she scoured the room looking for her and sure enough there in the corner of the room was a petite looking girl gasping desperately for air. Leyanne could see that she was seriously struggling with pain.
"Hold on Eleni, I'll go look for help!", Leyanne shouted in a panic. How could she have been so stupid as to not notice her friends’ dire condition earlier. Eleni was one of her close friends from the academy; they had enrolled in the cadet training scheme together. Eleni was someone who truly understood her and accepted all parts of her, whether her annoying tendencies or her abrupt temper, Leyanne vowed to definitely save her.
As she turned around looking for others to help, she could see that people in similar conditions to Eleni began to start acting oddly. At first it was only their physical state that changed, their bodies started convulsing and shaking. But before long, things turned to towards the worst, the once shaking bodies started changing very rapidly, layers of human skin started boiling revealing an unnatural unpleasant grey layer underneath. Furthermore, the nails of the exhibitors started becoming longer and sharper.
It was clear they were losing their humanity. What's going on Leyanne thought.
Their hair began to lose colour and fall out, their skin smoothening and tightening.
"Monsters!", a young cadet called out as he pointed to one of the individuals before retreating away from them as quickly as his human legs could move.
Confused, the victim to the name calling started talking, "What do you mean monster, Kevin it's me Marco", it said not aware about its own condition. The creature that was once Marco seemed to still hold a small semblance of its human conscious, but before long that also disappeared as it let out a loud shriek and started running towards Kevin.
It quickly burst forward, lunging on top of Kevin, and started ripping out chunks of his flesh as it drew its dagger like teeth into his skin.
"Arghhh, help!”, Kevin shouted out as his life started disappearing before his own eyes.
The monster continued to devour and eat chunks of his body ripping apart pieces of flesh here and there until parts of Kevin's skeletal structure could be seen. For a whole minute, the room was silent, before some brave individuals grabbed their guns and started letting shells of bullets rip out towards the creature’s body.
*BAM! * *BAM! * *BAM! *
The sounds of bullets digging into flesh were the only things that could be heard in that training facility room. Hundreds of metal bullets raced towards the creature piercing and penetrating its skin. One...two...three minutes past before the monster fell down with a thud.
Leyanne's body started trembling, she felt sick, she felt like throwing up, she felt like screaming. What on earth was going on? Marco, the young man that she had endured military discipling with only last week had turned into a vicious monster and was shot down dead on the floor. He was dead now; he wasn't coming back, and neither was Kevin. Tears started to stream down her eyes, why... why was this happening?
Eleni seeing this and noticing her own body condition getting worse started looking at Leyanne. Similar to the others her body was also going through these monstrous changes, just at a slower rate. She didn't want to become like Marco, a thoughtless blood-thirsty zombie. No, if she were to die, she wanted to go out in a respectable way!
Looking at Leyanne she desperately voiced her concerns, exerting all her efforts not to let her primal instincts take over.
"Leyanne, you've got to kill me, kill me now before I become a crazed monster like Marco. I don't want to become like that, if I die by your hands, I think I'll be able to handle it" she said whilst grey tears fell from her eyes.
Leyanne turned around to hear this! What was she saying, she was her best friend, and she was asking her to kill her? What about all the memories they made together? Everything they'd been through together? She couldn't except it. She saw what happened to Marco but still she couldn't accept it.
"Leyanne, I'll never forgive you if I turn out like them, you can stop it before it's too late. I don't want to die a monster; I want to at least die a human! ", Eleni cried out.
Leyanne's hands were trembling. Would she be able to do it? Would she be able to kill a friend? Hesitating she took in a deep breath. This was Eleni's last wish; she didn't want to go out as a monster. Leyanne might've hated the idea of taking a comrade’s life, but she'd hate herself even more if she let her beautiful Eleni turn into one of those evil monsters. She was a soldier cadet, she needed to have the resolve to kill.
Her hands which gripped onto her gun were still trembling as she pointed it to Eleni's head. It was point blank right in front of her skull, there was no way she was going to miss. Leyanne wanted to close her eyes, but stopped herself, if she was going to do it, she had to do it properly, this was the weight that came with taking a life and she had to embrace it head on.
Sweat beads dripped down her fair porcelain skin, as her anxiety cranked up to its maximum. Slowly, she pulled down on the trigger button until she heard the impending click sound.
It felt, like forever, like time itself briefly stopped although in reality it had only been a second.
*BAM! * *BAM! * BAM! *
[3 Essence Acquired]
Three bullets pierced through Eleni's brain coming out on the other side. Eleni died within an instant, straight away, never to come back. Slumping against the wall graceful, the dead girl had a smile on her face, through all the pain, agony, and animalistic feelings that she had felt she died with a smile, she was happy. Happy that she didn't become a monster. Happy that she had at least a small control over her own fate.
Leyanne stood there for a moment, as still as a statue. Her hands, her eyes, her legs they all felt heavy. So, this was what it felt like taking a human life.