Tremors could be felt throughout the temple as a battle was ongoing inside. 115 had made his way over to the king's room and wanted to sneak attack it like he had the priests, but the second he set foot inside, the king had already locked onto him and attacked.
Looking at the King 115, one could see its level and, well…
Katarin king - level 16. Needless to say, 115 knew this fight would not be as easy.
The king himself was wearing a gold-plated suit of armor and holding a black staff with lines of gold running along its body.
Narrowingly dodging a sweep of the king's staff, 115 threw a jab at the king's exposed head but was quickly blocked by the king, who responded with another sweep of his staff.
Jumping back, 115 was trying to think of some way to get past the king's tight defense. Everything he had thrown at the king so far had been swiftly blocked, so 115 knew he needed to switch the strategy up.
Watching the king attack him again while dodging to the left, 115 had an idea. As the king's staff was still extended, he stopped down, pushing the king's staff to the floor while quickly throwing another punch.
Hitting the king finally, 115 did not let up but continued his assault while the king was trying to regain his bearings. As he was about to throw his fourth attack, he felt a sense of danger from his left, causing him to swiftly duck before feeling air brush over his head.
A loud boom could be heard after the attack thrown at 115 hit the wall and seeing the destruction, 115 knew if he got hit by that attack, he would have been dead.
Waiting for the king's next move, 115 finally saw what had been thrown at him from before, it was some type of magic blade made from what he assumed was wind.
Watching the king conjure three more similar blades 115 jumped into action and sprinted at the king.
Seeing 115 run at him, the king swiftly attacked with the blades of wind before also launching himself forward with his staff in hand.
115 swiftly dodging the blades met the king in a fierce clash and after pummeling eachother for a few minutes 115 decided it was time to end this.
Launching himself forward 115 threw a kick at the king's right side making the king block with his staff, but 115 was prepared for this, and before his kick made contact with the staff jumped with his other foot and threw a spinning backfoot kick with his other foot hitting the king in the head sending him crashing to the ground.
When the king hit the ground, 115 got a ping from the system.
*PING* The subject has defeated Katarin king lvl 16 3000 xp earned.
Earned: 1x Kings, amulet, 1x staff of the ancients and ?? fragment.
Looking at his rewards 115 noticed the last one was still displaying question marks and decided to look at its description first
?? fragment—This fragment is not meant to be seen by subjects of the?? Using it will cause the subject to experience unknown effects and maybe even death. (To use the fragment, the user needs to press it against their forehead.)
Reading it 115 was now extremely curious and also weirded out a bit.
‘What does it mean by “not meant to be seen by subjects?”’
“System, can you tell me why you have been calling me a subject?” 115 wondered why he had not asked himself this question sooner.
‘The system calls you a subject because you are a subject.’
Hearing this, 115 had a bad feeling in the depths of his soul, almost like something was trying to free itself from inside him.
115 thought to himself that things had always been weird for him. He woke up randomly on a beach with seemingly no other living beings in sight, not even animals, but then humans showed up out of nowhere.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
In addition, the humans taught him how to talk, seemingly to ask for information about food, and everything just seemed normal to 115 at first, as there really was nothing weird about the situation.
That is until he got this fragment and read its description. Seeing the word “subject” awakened something in him and made him want to start questioning things he otherwise did not think about.
Thinking back on how Aaron had taught him to speak and understand language 115 thought it was almost eerily fast for someone who had forgotten EVERYTHING to learn so quickly.
He had initially brushed this off after seeing his stats as his intelligence was displayed at 1000, but now that he thought about it, what if his stat was so high to try and help his mind justify it to himself? But that was not even what puzzled him the most now that he was thinking about all this.
What puzzled was how Aaron and his crew seemingly disappeared, and he did not even question it.
When 115 awoke the day after, he brought back food for the crew to eat. The ship they had arrived on was gone, and once again, 115 just did not even bother to question it and just went about his day.
It was almost like something was pointing him in a direction, nudging him to do things they wanted while removing 115’s ability to see it happen.
The more 115 thought about everything, the more stuff appeared weirder to him, and his heart began to pound as he steeled himself to ask another question.
“Alright, well, can you tell me what exactly I am a “subject” to?” 115 said with a tense look.
But this time, 115 did not get an answer; instead, the system said something that made his heart drop.
‘Subject showing signs of awakening, deploying emergency measures.’
115 instantly felt himself become dizzy and unable to think straight.
‘Subject resiting emergency measures deploying another wave.’
115 could barely make sense of what the system had said and felt a feeling of dread from inside him again, but this time, he decided he needed to do something to stop the system otherwise…. He did want to know the consequences.
Taking out the fragment he had gotten, he did what the description had said and barely managed to press it against his forehead.
When the fragment made contact, he heard the system speak again.
“Emergency measures failed; the subject will soon awaken, commencing lockdown protocol.”
Before 115 could question anything, his vision turned black.
While this was happening to 115, blaring sirens could be heard in the halls of a building, and a robotic voice could be heard.
“Alert, alert, the subject is showing abnormality and will soon awaken.”
In one of these halls, two men and women could be seen rushing forward each with weapons of different variety on them
The two men carried axes strapped to their sides while the first woman had a sword on her back and the second carried a dagger at her hip.
The woman with a sword spoke up and said, “Someone better have an explanation.”
The other woman with a dagger appeared extraordinarily nervous and responded, “Ma… madam, we have no idea what happened. The simulation was progressing decently after the subject initiated the system, but for some reason, he became aware, causing the system to take emergency measures.” She said while looking at the floor and fidgeting.
“So you're telling me that SOMEHOW he just becomes aware, and there is NO reason for it? If you do not tell me an actual reason right now, you will die along with the others.” the first woman said coldly with a glare.
With a look of horror, the other woman reluctantly told her the truth: “No, please. I'm sorry, the... The subject was fighting one of the bosses, and after killing it and getting his rewards, one of the items he was giving was something we never placed within and, by all means, should not exist. So, we believe someone on the inside is trying to help the subject escape.
“What item was he given?” the madam asked.
“From what we could tell, it was a simulation fragment, but that was not what alerted the subject. It was the description. After reading it, the subject's heart rate increased massively, and his face appeared extremely grave.”
Hearing her explanation, the madam smiled while looking at the other woman and said, “You're free to go.”
Hearing this, the woman felt relieved and turned around to walk away. Once her back was turned, the “madam’s” smile disappeared, and she swiftly pulled her sword from her back and sliced at the woman's head, severing it.
Blood rained from the woman’s headless body before it slowly fell over with a thud.
“One of you, get this cleaned up; the other, come with me.”
“Yes, madam.” they both responded before one left to go dispose of the body.
Turning to the last person with her, she looked at him sternly and said.
“We better get there in time if we do not well… you know the consequences,” she said, glancing back at the dead woman.
The man shivered and responded with a nod.
“Good boy.” the woman said with a smile.