[You have killed a domestic chicken, 5 exp.]
As blood spurted from the now headless chicken, staining the skin and face with warm red, Alexander remained focused on the message before him.
Name: Alexander
Race: human
*Level:___
Exp:5/40
Strength:+
*Stamina:___
*Dexterity:___
……………….
There was a new line in the character sheet. According to the explanation he received, he knew that reaching 40 EXP would cause him to level up.
At once, the warmth of the blood, its presence, and its color, dyeing him red, lost all meaning as he quickly took out another chicken from the cage. Then, holding it in front of the knife, without batting an eyelid, its head was also severed by him.
[You have killed a domestic chicken, 5 exp]
The first time, he hadn't sensed it, but now, a faint warmth tingled through him, just as the voice had said he would.
Without hesitation, he produced two chickens this time. His gaze held nothing but curiosity and anticipation. Confronted with the promise of gaining strength, the life of the living creatures before him seemed meaningless.
Such was after all human nature, in front of the right price, everything was meaningless The inner voice within Alexander comprehended this truth all too clearly. Alexander himself harbored no claims to saintliness or extraordinary prowess; ultimately, he was merely human.
There was no need to tell him; in mere minutes, Fa almost killed 8 chickens. The upper half of his body was drenched in blood, and the sinister gaze from his eyes, tinged in red, fixed upon the message in front of him. He didn't even spare a glance at the bodies splayed all over, and even the chickens in the cage were quiet, as if afraid.
[You have gained, 40 exp]
[Would you like to level up]
[Yes/No]
With a grin on his face, tainted with a devilish gleam from the blood splattered across him, he hastily clicked "yes." Instantly, he felt warmth spreading to specific parts of his body, yet there was no sudden surge of strength or anything of the sort.
[Congratulation you have gotten 3 free points.]
[Distribute the points to confirm your level up]
Name: Alexander
Race: human
*Level:___
Exp:0/75
[free point: 3]
Strength:+
*Stamina:___
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
*Dexterity:___
……………….
However, Alexander found himself in a dilemma. Despite the instruction to allocate his three points, he couldn't find a way to do so. He attempted both physically and mentally to press the plus icon next to the strength attribute, but nothing happened.
Did it fail, or was one level up not nearly sufficient? Alexander was genuinely perplexed. According to the description of the voice, according to litRPG standards, they should have utilized this point on the attribute, but it was unresponsive.
"Sigh," the voice sighed deeply, "Well, this is exactly what I was talking about."
Before Alexander had the chance to say anything, the voice continued,
"Sit cross-legged in a meditative position."
Alexander complied without objection, following the instructions diligently.
With expertise as a cultivator, he was intimately familiar with the position.
"Now, focus your attention inward. Can you sense the patches of warmth scattered everywhere on your entire body?"
"After some searching, Alexander confirmed, 'Yes.'
'Alright. There should be three lumps larger than the others, find them.'
After a while, Alexander responded again, 'Hmm.'
'Good. Now focus on those lumps and align them with all the scattered points on your body.'
After a period of effort, Alexander was drenched in sweat, his brows furrowed deeply."
"It's impossible to move them all at once."
"You fool! Who told you to attempt controlling all of them at the same time.?"
"I can focus on controlling one at a time. Why the fuck didn't you tell me that earlier?" Alexander wasn't one to curse so frequently, but trying to manage all three of the lumbers of wroth simultaneously was not only excruciating but also exhausting for both his body and mind.
"Ah, I had hoped for a miracle, but it seems I was mistaken," murmured the voice.
Alexander couldn't muster the energy to focus on the voice as he tentatively tried to move a lump of warmth he felt. As a former cultivator, this task wasn't entirely foreign to him. While moving one lump wasn't as difficult as anticipated, it was still painfully challenging compared to his usual methods.
"Oh, don't forget, you must distribute all the scattered warmth equally among the three, or this won't succeed. And who knows, you might even lose the experience," the voice reminded.
Hearing this, Alexander felt as though a mountain had been dropped on his head. Things had just become way harder. Not only did he need to circulate the lump of warmth around his body and collect the scattered ones, but he also needed to determine their quantity and how to divide them equally among the three. He pondered the best approach, considering which path would yield the most efficient results and which would be a futile effort.
This was too damn hard.
But as they say, a sinking man will even grasp a hair for support, so Alexander did not give up. He took some time to figure out the optimum path for at least one merger and then started.
At first, it was easy, relatively speaking of course. But as one by one, the warmth started merging with the lump, it somehow got heavier and more difficult to control and move around at the same time. But through the excruciating pain, patience, and inhuman effort, he continued.
After some, well much more time he was able to gather all the requr3ed for one of the lambs.
"Now, guide and pour that into the golden meridian-like structure beside your heart."
Alexander felt the urge to complain, believing his task was complete, but he resisted. Carefully, he maneuvered the now amalgamated lump of warmth through his body, guiding it towards the golden meridian beside his heart. Navigating through the myriad pathways within the human body was challenging, but not impossible.
After successfully maneuvering the warmth for an equal amount of time, he poured it into the golden meridian beside his heart.
Instantly, he felt a pulse of warmth extend from his heart throughout his entire body, coursing through him like a dam bursting. However, it happened too quickly for him to notice anything clearly."
Name: Alexander
Race: human
Level:1
Exp:0/75
Strength:1
*Stamina:___
*Dexterity:___
……………….
The first thing he did was to open up his status screen his expression mirroring that of a laborer receiving their hard-earned wages at the end of a grueling day's work.
The * mark beside the level was gone along with its transparency as there was a 1 in its front.
Without wasting any time and even before the voice’s reminder he quickly started cultivating, or in other word moving the next lump of worth.
Though he was excited, he did not forget to be vigilant and focused throughout the process. After almost three hours, he completed moving the remaining two lumps of warmth into his newly formed golden meridian.
Before the gore-splattered sink, reminiscent of a butcher's abattoir, he sat cross-legged, soaked in perspiration with a small pool forming beneath him, as if he had just surfaced from a swim.
It was not an easy task, not only physically and spiritually but also mentally taxing, especially toward the end.
Alexander felt as though the channels in his veins were ablaze, a sensation that, though slight, multiplied into a consuming pain throughout his entire body.
Yet, he paid no heed to the discomfort; a grin adorned his face as he observed his stretched state, now marked with a 3. And all be it minutely, as a self-contours man life fee he clearly felt the his strength upgrading.
Without wasting time, he stood up and gulped down large mouthfuls of water, feeling severely dehydrated at that moment. Following this, the killing spree commenced immediately.
No remorse, no disgust, no regret, no guilt, no pity. Alexander was feeling excited. The redness of the blood felt like a festive invitation to him as he gloriously dismembered one chicken head after another with a grin on his face, which looked quite disturbing from an outside perspective.
It did not take him long to slaughter another 15 chickens, getting to 75 experience points and leveling up once again. Distributing the points, he went back to killing and soon reached level 3. After distributing the points again, he looked at the remaining two chickens with pity.
“I told you to buy a goat,” the voice chided him.
Even though he knew, that was impractical he was regrading not buying one.
“sigh.” He signed, but did not refuted the voice.
He contemplated the notion of dispatching the remaining two chickens. Transitioning from level 2 to level 3 had demanded 100 experience points, equivalent to sacrificing 20 chickens. Now, he faced a steeper requirement of 150 experience points to ascend from level 3 to level 4. Realistically, those two remaining birds wouldn't provide the necessary experience, so he reasoned it might be prudent to dispose of them and return to the market for replenishment, perhaps even acquiring a goat.
Lost in his ruminations, he paid no heed to his surroundings, which resembled a scene from a macabre nightmare: the kitchen adorned with splatters of blood, his own body drenched in a mixture of blood and sweat, akin to a demented demon.
As the door swung open, his parents and brother entered simultaneously. Catching sight of the bloodied man by her kitchen, his mother let out a piercing screech.