***
In an unusual realm, a cold sensation enveloped him, seeping into his consciousness. Dizziness clouded his mind, and darkness became his sole vision. The ground beneath him felt uncertain, as if he were treading on water. With each step, he ventured deeper into the abyss.
Suddenly, a shift occurred, and he found himself on a battlefield. Monstrous creatures soared through the sky, war cries echoed, and the ground trembled with the emergence of colossal serpents. Amidst the chaos, an odd tranquility surrounded him. He sensed an immunity to harm, yet he couldn't interact with anything in his surroundings.
While wandering, he spotted a figure in the distance, human in form. Adorned in crimson attire with a fiery red scarf and blood-like pants, the person stood out against the bleak backdrop. A peculiar connection resonated with him, as if an unseen gaze focused on him. The figure approached, and with each step, the world around him succumbed to darkness, until only the red-clad man remained.
As the figure drew near, darkness consumed his sight entirely, leaving only the memory of crimson attire. Dizziness overwhelmed him, his hand blurred away, and like a wisp of smoke, he vanished.
***
February 10, 2029
Lucas awoke with a groan, his eyes blinking open slowly.
“Ouch!!” he exclaimed, wincing at his condition.
“Lucas! Lie still, you need more rest,” Lucy urged gently.
Lucas surveyed their surroundings; confusion was evident in his voice. “Where are we?”
“I'm not entirely sure. You flew us here after all,” Lucy replied, her tone carrying a hint of amusement.
Lucy, a towel pressed to her forehead, approached him with a bucket of water. Her voice held a playful scolding. “You've got to be kidding me! Did you lose your memory from blood loss or something?”
Lucas's apology was heartfelt. “I'm sorry.”
Gently, Lucy worked to clean his body, carefully wiping away the dried blood that clung to his skin.
“Why apologize? We're a team, remember?” Lucy reassured him, her voice warm and steady.
Closing his mouth, Lucas let his head rest against the pillow, attempting to close his eyes. Strangely, the pain was bearable, and he found himself managing it surprisingly well.
‘Could this be because of the system?’ he pondered silently. Though he had experienced trembling from even a minor cut in his childhood, now a wound to his stomach didn't provoke the same reaction.
“That jerk! I'm going to hunt him down,” Lucas muttered in frustration.
“Who are you talking about?” Lucy asked, her curiosity piqued.
Raising a weak hand, Lucas pointed towards his knife wound, as if the answer should be obvious.
“Ah, right,” Lucy nodded. “Are you planning to take revenge?”
“Yes.”
Lucy's response was casual. “Well, okay then.”
Time had blurred since the beginning of that fateful day. With death an everyday occurrence, the act of killing had become disturbingly commonplace.
Lying on his back, Lucas stared at the ceiling, his gaze eventually drifting to the window. Lucy's gentle touch with the towel on his forehead brought his attention back to the room.
“Lucy, could you change the towel, please? The blood smell is getting a bit much. And why were you wiping my forehead, anyway?”
“Sure thing,” Lucy said, carrying the soiled towel to the bathroom. As she left, Lucas struggled to suppress the urge to touch the wound on his stomach.
“Ouch!”
Lucy hurried back to his side. “What's wrong?”
“Nothing,” Lucas mumbled, attempting to brush off the pain.
“Lucas, don't hide things from me. You know how worried I'd be if my only friend left in this world was in danger.”
“Yeah, sorry… By the way, when I was unconscious, did you get a good look at my body?”
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Lucy fell silent.
“Ew!” she finally exclaimed, leaving Lucas astonished.
***
“Does it taste good?”
“Yeah, it's delicious.”
“I found a gas stove. It's been a while since we've had a proper meal, right?”
“I'm just relieved the rice in my pouch isn't going to waste.”
“Are you sure you're not trying to get me to pamper you? After all, I'm injured.”
“Your healing is impressively quick. I'm not going to cater to someone who fights level 1 zombies like they're slicing cabbages.”
“Are you any different?”
“What does it matter? Lucas, I used to enjoy being pampered with food all day long. Would you like that?”
“Forget it.”
With the first proper meal in a while finished, Lucas drifted back to sleep, while Lucy settled in with a book she had discovered.
“How Price Ceilings and Price Floors Affect Market Outcomes,” the title read. It was a subject unfamiliar to her, but with Lucas asleep, she dove into the book, even if it seemed irrelevant now.
***
Stepping outside the room, they were met with a dark corridor.
“It's pretty dark here,” Lucas remarked.
“Let me help with that.”
“Fire shield!” Lucas whispered, creating a protective barrier of light around them. The hallway was bathed in a red glow, as though illuminated by LED lights.
“This feels like something out of a horror movie,” Lucy murmured as they walked down the illuminated corridor.
They encountered a blood-smeared handprint on the wall, followed by the sight of a woman's lifeless body with long hair.
“Should we search each room individually?” Lucas suggested.
“Should we? Hotel rooms often have snacks and drinks. Let's split up and check,” Lucy proposed as the red light slowly faded, plunging the hallway back into darkness.
Using his knife, Lucas easily bypassed the locked door and entered a room. However, there was nothing particularly startling – most of the rooms were similar to the one they had just left. In fact, this room seemed to be of lower quality, containing only two water bottles and no snacks.
After about ten minutes, Lucas and Lucy regrouped.
“You take the upstairs; I'll cover the lower floor,” Lucas instructed.
“Why am I the one going upstairs?”
“I'm stronger, and there's a higher probability of encountering more zombies’ downstairs.”
“Fire abilities are ridiculously overpowered. All I can do is freeze things.”
“There might be higher-tier abilities waiting for you. You'll get there.”
“Ice abilities are such a cliché for women.”
“But isn't that what people love? The cold, icy queen.”
Lucy huffed in response as they separated, with her ascending the stairs and Lucas’s descending.
The hotel seemed to have around six floors. The rooms weren't particularly luxurious, and as Lucas descended from one floor to another, he only encountered a few zombies. Most of the rooms lacked proper ventilation, with windows that appeared to have never been opened.
As he reached the second floor, something caught his attention. There were no zombies present on this floor, and some of the walls were smeared with blood. The mystery was solved when he entered one of the rooms and discovered a rat the size of a toddler.
“Ew!” Lucas exclaimed, inadvertently drawing the rat's attention as he opened the door to their nest. Rats were known to live in groups, unlike solitary creatures like hamsters. Upon seeing Lucas, all the rats in the nest rushed towards him.
Without hesitation, Lucas activated his ability. Dealing with a few rats shouldn't be a problem given his strength.
“Fire blaze!” he invoked; his dagger aimed at the first rat that leaped at him. He kicked away some of the rats that followed behind. The area-of-effect flames from his fire blaze caused most of the rats that had charged at him to halt for a few seconds, providing him with a window to take action.
With around twenty rats in the room, Lucas summoned his jian sword and swung it in a manner reminiscent of Lucy's fighting style. He knocked a majority of the rats backward.
“@?!%$!” he muttered. Due to their fur-covered bodies, stabbing through them proved challenging. It took several attempts to hit them in the skull and incapacitate them.
Finally, with a moment to catch his breath, Lucas retrieved his dagger and systematically dispatched each rat by piercing its head.
---
[Level 1 Mutated Rat Killed, Awarding 30 Exp!]
[Received 3 Coins!]
[Level 1 Mutated Rat Killed, Awarding 30 Exp!]
[Received 3 Coins!]
[Level 1 Mutated Rat Killed, Awarding 30 Exp!]
[Received 3 Coins!]
[Level 1 Mutated Rat Killed, Awarding 30 Exp!]
[Received 3 Coins!]
[…]
---
In all honesty, it wasn't much of a challenge for him. The only difficulty lay in the toughness of their skin and the thickness of their fur.
“Oh… Can I store dead things in my pouch?”