Autonomy. This was the ability to act on one's own will, independent of outside influence or control. Most of the time, humans had this privilege, though it was thoroughly abused.

So Semi-Autonomy was half of that? No. It was the ability to act independently outside of external control or influence… to a degree. That degree was a slider that varied per the specific situation, but it was there.

So if one had a semi-autonomous entity connected to them that was fully loyal as well as having its life and death tied to yours, its degree of autonomy would depend on the 'slider'. It could be long or it could be short.

In Dominic's case, he had underestimated the degree of autonomy that his death clones had. When he was awake and in control, they were like sims from the game of the same name, only able to move when an order was given.

Like such sims, it was entirely possible for the death clones to stand in one place aimlessly for an entire year if Dominic consciously gave the order.

However, much like in the game, autonomy could be granted to the sim characters, in that they would take certain actions automatically depending on their needs and wants at the moment.

The user - the player - could cancel them at any time, impose new orders, or even fully take charge of the sim character in question, and that sim would fully obey.

Similarly, Dominic's death clones were like such sim characters with the autonomy setting activated, only that they took actions not in their personal interest but in the interest of Dominic himself.

This was manifested in the fact that one of his death clones snuck out and stealthily moved towards the house opposite to Dominic's. The two death clones had communicated using some means unknown to Dominic himself and realized that having two of them guarding at the same time was redundant.

In fact, if you asked the death clones - something which would yield no result since they theoretically had no thoughts of their own - they would even want Dominic to repeatedly commit suicide to increase their numbers, and thereby his power.

But the death clones could easily recognize that the young man was nowhere near such an extreme yet, and so, they chose the next best option which was to empower Dominic while he was unable to make any actions due to his resting state.

The Death Clone listened into the house for a while before sneaking in through an open window. Just because Dominic could not hear or smell through this sense - only see - did not mean that the Death Clone could not do so.

Its nose - or what should have been its nose as that place was flat and shapeless - seemed to twitch as it smelled something and then crept quietly towards the kitchen of this house. This one was slightly larger and wider than Dominic's as it served as a rented location for four different people.

The woman with the pitbull that caused Dominic so much trouble had been one of them, as during the day, Dominic saw the other residents being dealt with by their pets right after she was mauled to death.

That was why the pitbull had time to come after him, so the other pets turned monsters were still here. The death clone entered the kitchen and saw that the fridge door was wide open and a huge beast was standing before it, carefully putting human parts within slowly using its jaw.

The sight would have sickened and angered Dominic, but it did not move his death clone. It analyzed the kitchen area and saw that apart from this beast that was doing its task, there was no other in the vicinity.

The death clone held up its rifle and realized that the shots would be even more thunderous at this time of night. It wanted to achieve the kill with minimal scuffle so that the other dangerous beasts in this house would not be alerted.

As such, the death clone took out the M1911 that had a silencer attached to its end. After all, the father who had bought these guns initially planned to teach his son how to shoot when he came of age, not to mention he also occasionally wanted to have a few shots in the silence of his yard.

It was torturous for a man to have cool toys but not be able to use them.

The death clone silently snuck up to the beast, which was easy enough since it was focused on its task and its strongest sense was its sense of smell, which was useless against the death clone with not a single piece of flesh or hair on its body.

When it got close, it glanced around to be sure and then resolutely placed the muzzle of the gun against the beast's genitals. It was thankfully a male, so when the death clone fired directly upon the sensitive organ, there were instant results.

The beast reacted quickly and yowled in pain before jumping up and turning around to see who dared to make the attack. The death clone leaped back and kept firing, but the suppressed bullets could not penetrate far into its skin.

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It was then that the death clone could identify the beast as a mutated dog, one that had formerly been a bearded collie. As such, its fur was thick enough that you couldn't even see its skin, and its eyes were almost covered by its fur.

However, it was now the size of a Tibetan Mastiff and just as fierce. Its fur stood up and revealed its bloodshot eyes full of pain and hatred as it growled dangerously at the death clone, saliva leaking from its mouth.

Unfortunately, it only took one step forward before yelping and limping, stretching its hind legs apart as it began to whimper in pain. It was then that the death clone could see the copious blood leaking from that area which had soaked its fur, and one could easily put two and two together.

Seeing that it was practically crippled, the death clone did not hesitate to raise its weapon and unleash the remainder of the clip onto the dog before dashing to take a relatively sharp kitchen knife and leaping over to do close combat.

The beast reacted and met the battle head-on, going at it with the death clone. Unfortunately for the mutated dog, it was suffering a severe disadvantage that not only did not allow it to move properly but even stole its focus at crucial moments.

In no time, its fur was completely matted with blood, and its breathing was labored as it lay on the kitchen floor, bleeding out and pitifully whimpering. The death clone was not in good condition, having lost an arm with many bite marks all over.

However, it did not seem tired nor handicapped per se. It simply grabbed the ripped-off arm and stuck it on the stub, which - almost miraculously - caused it to reattach shabbily. The new arm was not perfect and seemed like it could fall off if stressed too much, but it was enough for the death clone to continue.

In the end, it glanced at the now-dead beast one more time before gripping the silenced pistol strongly and walking up the stairs to finish its task…

When Dominic woke up in the morning, he found that he had drooled into his pillow. He looked up and saw the sun peeking through the blinds and was shocked by the fact that he had slept for more than 12 hours.

Just how tired had he been? More importantly, how dare he get this much sleep in such a dangerous situation? Did he really have no sense of danger in a Death Game where he could be killed by anything at any time?

Dominic rubbed his head and sat up slowly, feeling his body creak. Despite his increased potency that made his physique better, that was only for activity. His vitality was still as it was before, which meant that he had poor recovery.

His eyes were bloodshot, and he groggily walked to the bathroom with half-lidded eyes, relying more on his muscle memory than his sight. In front of the sink, he splashed water on his face and then looked at the world with clear vision.

Immediately, he first saw the running water that was still pristine, making him wonder how much longer this would be the case, and he secondly saw his new body through his own eyes. He was just like back in high school but now even better, with the airtight muscular body that he dreamed of.

But apart from the use of survival, what else could this be for? Previously, Dominic wanted to be healthy, good-looking, and to attract women easier. Now, those things had next to no value given the situation.

Finally, Dominic noticed that the Omega System had pinged him many times while he was asleep, and he opened the list of exclamation marks, only to be bombarded with prompts.

Dominic was dumbfounded by the list and did not know what to do for a while as the water kept running. Immediately, he closed the tap and rushed back to his bedroom, noticing that his two death clones were gone.

When he tried to sense them, he realized that they had returned to his body since they had both been killed, so he had to re-summon them. Dominic was thoroughly puzzled and sat on his bed, pondering what happened.

In the end, he summoned his two death clones who were good as new, and then glanced at them. They looked back at him emptily, like dolls that were awaiting orders. Dominic tried to talk to them mentally, but it was hard to describe their responses.

It was not like words at all, but more like… sound effects? It was like how whenever you pressed a button or performed an action in a game, there was a sound response. It was like a natural affirmation that the order had been received, and that was it.

As such, Dominic could only try the 'hard way'. He looked up at the death clones and hesitated slightly before asking: "Were we attacked yesterday?"

To his surprise, the death clones shared a look and shook their heads normally. It seemed like they could understand his physical speech and perform actions to respond to him! While this was not as ideal as direct communication through the mind or speech, it was better than nothing!

However, Dominic was puzzled again for a short instant. "If we weren't attacked, how did you guys rack up so many kills?"

Because Dominic knew it could only be them as he had not done anything to warrant such a battle record. The two death clones shared a look again and glanced at the pile of weapons at the corner of the room.

Dominic looked over and saw that the weapons he gave the death clones were not present, which meant that they had gone out.

From there, he put two and two together and asked incredulously: "You guys took the initiative to go out and hunt?"