A heavy weight pressed down on her stomach.
Her body trembled slightly from the cold.
Her heart pounded like a drum in her ears, her eyelids felt heavier, and she was slowly sinking into a pitch-black void.
On the ground, fresh blood stained the ritual altar. Faint black energy rose from nothingness, greedily and frantically pouring into Ivy’s body.
Ivy closed her eyes, seeming to fall asleep, lying motionless on the floor. Only her lips moved continuously, muttering strange, inhuman syllables.
Low, evil.
In the dark, cramped space, time seemed to lose all measurement. Only the invisible progress bar crept forward at a snail's pace.
It grew even slower, much like downloading a game in her past life.
Perhaps a minute had passed, perhaps an hour.
Ivy suddenly opened her eyes wide, dazedly staring at the progress bar before her—[Blood and Iron completion in progress… 63%!!!]
“???” Ivy was shocked. “What the hell?”
A question mark popped up above Ivy's head. Just as she was pondering the problem, a short, muffled thud echoed in her ears.
Ivy's face changed, and she held her breath.
Bang!
“The sound came from…”
Ivy glared at the wooden shelf that blocked her view.
“There’s someone else in the storeroom.”
Ivy instantly understood why the ritual had stalled.
“The ritual requires complete silence. The noise from the other side of the wall disrupted my sacrifice.”
Ivy frowned, sifting through the sacrifice knowledge in her mind.
Quickly, Ivy found the answer.
The good news was that the ritual hadn’t failed, it was only paused, and could be continued. The progress bar could be resumed.
The bad news was that she had to wait until the person outside was gone. Otherwise, the ritual would be interrupted again by the noise.
For safety reasons, Ivy could wait for the person to leave before continuing. However, whether her body could wait was another matter.
Her wrist was soaking wet, a heavy weight pressed on her stomach, and every breath reminded her that the sands of time were running out, relentlessly ticking away each second.
“There’s usually not even an animal in this place, but today, of all days, someone's here. I’m so damn frustrated!”
Rage surged through her chest like a burning ice pick, making every pore exude fury.
Ivy crawled up from the ground, slowly moving step by step towards the wooden shelf.
She moved slowly, but each step was heavy and deliberate.
To avoid making any gasping sounds, Ivy could only bite her lip fiercely. Her pale lips were bitten raw, and even blood wouldn’t come out. Large beads of sweat, the size of peas, rolled down her forehead, dripping into her bloodshot eyes, stinging them.
Pressing against the wall, her body shifted slowly. First, half her face appeared, her bloodshot eyes staring unblinkingly at the source of the noise.
The storeroom was dark. A shattered phone screen on the ground flickered, its cold blue light faintly illuminating the air.
A man crouched on the ground, his hands raised high, ready to strike down. A body lay on the floor.
That body was clearly dead, still and lifeless.
“Murder!” Ivy thought.
“He won’t be leaving anytime soon. After all, he has to hide the body. He might even check behind the wooden shelf.”
“What bad luck. No, wait, isn’t this a sacrifice offering sent right to my doorstep?”
“Insane people, vicious beasts… the rules don’t say I can only choose one, do they?”
“Maybe this isn’t bad luck, but good luck?”
The man was still striking frantically, completely unaware of the presence of another face lurking in the shadows behind him. The sounds of his blows and the victim's crushed flesh were masked by approaching footsteps.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
He was hitting the body with wild abandon, letting out a cruel cry, “Why didn’t you listen to me? I paid you, why did you suddenly resist? Damn it, damn it!”
He raised his blood-stained hand high once more and slammed it down again.
But this time, the shadow on the floor seemed unusually long and distorted.
Bang—
Blood spattered. The corpse’s eyes widened, revealing dark, empty sockets. A claw hammer was embedded in its forehead, hooked in between its eyebrows.
Two bodies lay on the floor.
...
The bodies were dragged, leaving twisted trails of blood across the floor, smearing against the walls and the wooden shelves.
And so,
The sacrifice ritual resumed.
[Blood and Iron completion in progress......]
[63%, 64%, 65%.......]
[98%, 99%, 100%......]
Ivy, her body drained of its last strength, fell into a deep sleep. Beside her, a corpse lay equally still, the crimson blood from its forehead mingling with the already dried dark blood on the floor.
[101%, 102%, 103%.....]
[156%, 157%, 158%.....]
[198%, 199%, 200%.....]
[Casting off the blood of mortals, devouring the merciless iron, reborn in blood and iron, you are neither the fearless madman nor the weak, vicious beast. Fate is watching!]
[Congratulations, Player, on completing the activation mission. The game inheritance system is now officially operational!]
[Congratulations, Player, on receiving the activation gift pack. Rewards are as follows:
1. Inheritance of the [Iron Eater]
2. Inheritance of the [Blood Frenzy] (Passive)
3. Inheritance of the [Feast] (Active)]
*
*
Ivy awoke again. When she opened her eyes, it was well past midnight.
The room was pitch black.
She turned on her phone and shone the light on the floor.
The blood patterns had solidified into a dark brown, resembling a corrosive paint, deeply penetrating the ground and leaving uneven cracks.
The floor seemed to have been truly carved into an embedded sacrificial altar.
In the center of the altar lay a shriveled, desiccated corpse.
Ivy lowered her head, pondering how to deal with the body.
“Not only is there this corpse on the ground, but there’s also that woman’s body outside. Damn it, my bag can’t hold them both.”
“The most important thing is this [Altar]. How am I going to hide it?”
Ivy felt a headache coming on. She didn’t have any tools to dispose of the bodies, and dawn was approaching. She didn’t dare to stay any longer at the crime scene.
“Damn this sacrifice ritual! Why can’t It clean up the scene themself?!”
Ivy cursed inwardly. She checked the time, then quickly stuffed the blade and claw hammer into her bag and left through the window.
She went around to the front of the storeroom and saw the broken lock lying on the ground. Ivy now understood how the two people got in.
She picked up the lock and locked the door again.
“If nobody comes this week, I can find a way to dispose of the bodies later.”
With this thought in mind, Ivy, under the cover of darkness, scaled the wall and left the school, hurrying home.
This was absolutely the first time Ivy, since her arrival in this world, felt true gratitude.
Yes,
Thank you, world, thank you City, thank you Ninth District government. Thank you for not installing ubiquitous surveillance cameras that violate every citizen’s privacy.
Thank you so much.
...
She arrived home at 5:43 AM.
The house was quiet; everyone was asleep.
As the marginalized member of the family, there was no light left on for her late arrival. It felt rather desolate, but Ivy only felt relieved.
She crept back into her room, took off her soiled clothes, and carefully packaged them to burn later.
“I need to find a place to bury the blade and the hammer, too.”
Ivy lay in bed, calculating for a while. The tension and excitement finally subsided, and her attention turned to the activated system.
[Iron Eater], [Blood Frenzy], [Feast]!
Three glowing icons—one silver, two gold—appeared next to her character model.
According to the game’s criteria, silver represented A-grade rarity, and gold represented S-grade rarity.
“So it’s one A and two S-ranks to start!!!”
Ivy’s eyes widened, as if struck dumb by a pie falling from the sky. A golden pie, at that.
The descriptions of the three skills certainly lived up to their game rankings.
[Iron Eater]: Iron is your sustenance. You can absorb the power contained within iron.
[Blood Frenzy]: All your attributes will increase exponentially as your HP decreases. If your base attributes are high enough, you could slay gods in a blood frenzy.
[Feast]: The blood of your kind holds an alluring fragrance. Devour them, and you will achieve immortality.
A cold breath swept through Ivy. “If I understand correctly, these three abilities mean—eating iron makes me stronger, I go berserk when my blood is low, and… everyone is my blood bag?!?”
Growth-type ultimate skill + Late-game ultimate skill + Survival ultimate skill = The perfect combination!
“Good thing I killed someone. Otherwise, if I had missed out on [Feast], the build would be incomplete!” Ivy thought to herself.
Anyone could see that [Blood Frenzy] and [Feast] were inseparable siblings, like two sides of the same coin. Just like people and beasts, they represented two sides of the same reality, and one couldn't be complete without the other.
Suppressing her excitement, Ivy slowly calmed down.
“This is ridiculously powerful, but I need time to develop it fully. For now, I need to focus on growing, eating iron to get stronger.”
Ivy desperately wished she could fast-forward to the late game, but she knew it was wishful thinking.
However, becoming stronger wouldn't be difficult for her. She only needed to eat iron. She believed it wouldn’t take too long.
Ivy made a mental calculation, closed her eyes, and a series of game prompts popped up.
[The game has been fully activated and integrated into reality!]
[Next, as long as the player continues to act in accordance with the game persona, they can accumulate progress. As the progress bar rises, the player will gradually inherit the game character’s attributes and assets.]
[When the progress bar reaches 100%, the player will fully inherit the game character and rule the Destiny Organization!]
[Tip 1: Illegal acts, disruption of order, using violence to control violence, rivers of blood… extreme actions will rapidly accumulate progress.]
[Tip 2: Safety is boring, hiding is just surviving. Break everything openly and boldly.]
[Tip 3: Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill….]
Ivy’s eyelids twitched. She gritted her teeth and closed the pop-up window, muttering to herself, “I don’t need that. I got one silver and two gold abilities. Why bother with a bicycle-to-motorcycle transformation? Isn't steadily eating iron much more efficient?”
A fool would risk their life when there’s a safe way. Ivy only wanted to eat iron now. After all, eating iron is easy enough, isn’t it?