An audible sigh could be heard as Ryzen dragged himself across the university hall to get to his next class. After all, he wasn’t thrilled at the fact that he would be taking his calc 3 finals with little to no studying. Unfortunately, he didn’t have much of a choice since he spent much of his free time working to pay off his ridiculous student debt. Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered since the continuously added interest made it nearly impossible to manage.
Ryzen entered the large university classroom and quickly sat in his corner seat, isolated from as many people as he could be. It wasn’t that he disliked socializing and couldn’t stand it but it was always much simpler to be by himself. This even extended to his own family. Ryzen felt no need to constantly show affection. He felt that words and such, were much more meaningful when spoken rarely rather than constantly.
As more students gathered inside the large classroom, the professors prepared the students for the exam and inevitably started to hand it out. Soon, Ryzen’s own copy was placed in front of him and he had no choice but to get to work. Due to his lack of studying, he was far from confident in his capability to succeed on this test but he still felt like he needed to try.
Around the halfway mark, a slight flickering of the lights snapped Ryzen out of his thought process and caused him to look up. Every single one of the lights that shone throughout this large classroom were flickering. While this may not have been odd during a storm, it was certainly out of place during what seemed to be a quiet day.
It seemed that Ryzen was not the only one who noticed this as many of the other students looked around, questioning what was going on. The professor slowly rose out of his seat with a frown and moved to turn off the lights, hoping that would solve the problem. To everyone’s shock, the light switch seemed to do nothing to stop the flickering, and low murmurs filled the air.
By this point, Ryzen knew that something was off and it seemed that many of the other students did too. Unfortunately, what happened next was simply nothing any of them could control.
A blinding light erupted throughout the classroom, forcing Ryzen to slam his eyes shut. When he opened them, he was no longer in the classroom but a huge cavern. After a moment of adjustment to the dim lighting, Ryzen could see that he was not alone but was with the exact group of students in his calc class. Even the professor was there. Despite this, nobody seemed to have the slightest clue as to what was going on. This was evident as a sense of panic emanated from each student while they loudly talked with each other.
All of these conversations suddenly stopped when a booming voice echoed throughout the cavern.
“Ah, welcome my little subjects. I am ever so grateful that you are here.” Each word seemed to induce a primal fear in Ryzen as if he were listening to the devil himself.
It seemed the effect was consistent among his fellow students as many went as far as to fall to the ground in shock.
“Now before I introduce myself, I want to make one thing very clear.” A heavy feeling filled the air as Ryzen felt himself beginning to shake. An extremely pale man slowly walked out from the shadows of a ledge much higher up in the cavern.
“You are no longer in whatever pathetic world you came from. You are all now mine. You will do what I say and you will do it willingly or you will die. You will act like the lambs you are and not anything more or less.” At this point, nearly everyone around Ryzen was shaking intensely and doing everything in their power not to break down in tears.
“It can’t be real! You can’t do this to us!” one of the student’s shouting started only to quickly come to an end with a sickening crunch.
A plethora of screams arose from the crowd only to quickly be silenced in a similar manner.
“Now are we quite done?” the voice projected mockingly.
Nobody dared to make a sound after what they had just witnessed. Nobody had seen how those people had died just that it had been so quickly that they knew resisting was completely and utterly futile.
“Good, my name is the great and mighty Venis. Do well to remember it. Now line up nice and easy. We have a few things to check before we let you go to your… enclosure.” The man sneered and walked back into the shadows.
Multiple forms seemingly appeared out of thin air and pushed the students into an orderly line. The professor was made to be at the front while Ryzen was near the back.
The people who had just appeared around them pushed the professor to move up and he easily conformed.
“Quickly now, show me your status. Don’t try anything or your death will be swift.” A person suddenly appeared next to the professor who quickly jumped back.
“S-status? I-I don’t know what you mean,” the professor stuttered out.
“Oh? Your world is even more pathetic than we thought. Simply think of your status and imagine sharing it with me,” the man said impatiently.
“Y-Yes sir.” After a few seconds of contemplation, the professor quickly pulled up some blue holo screen, and the man checking him sneered.
“Pathetically weak. Good, you may go on.” The man motioned for the professor to move into a cave to which he readily agreed.
The next person in line was pushed up and was forced to do the same except when the man saw his screen, he frowned. “I see, well too bad.”
The student froze at the man’s reaction and stood there for a second before his head fell off his body.
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Before anyone else could react, the next person was pushed up and the body was pushed to the side.
Ryzen felt himself sweating bullets as he fully comprehended what had just happened. He wasn’t on earth anymore and these people had no regard for their lives. They were treated just as the man said they would be. Like animals.
Ryzen slowly walked up the line as most people were let through easily. However, there continued to be a few who were seemingly slaughtered out of nowhere. As he got closer to the front, he quickly pulled up his own status which seemed to be invisible unless he wanted it to show.
Ryzen Litfield
Race: Otherworlder
Class: Shadow Soldier
Level: 1
Hp: 30
Mp: 100
Strength: 6
Dexterity: 8
Agility: 10
Vitality: 6
Endurance: 4
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 9
Skills:
Disguise: 1
Ryzen quickly scanned through his list in a panic. He didn’t know what might set him apart from the ones who died but he could sort of piece together an idea. Considering the man smiled when the professor was shown to be weak, Ryzen could only assume that the people who were being killed were stronger than average. The problem was that Ryzen had no clue what was average or not. This prompted him to take a risk.
“Hey,” he quietly beckoned to the person behind him.
“W-what do you want? Do you want to get us killed?” the student behind him frantically responded.
“No, of course not. Quickly, tell me your status,” Ryzen said as subtly as possible.
“O-Okay. “ A holo blue screen appeared in front of the student and Ryzen rapidly processed the information.
Sam Maker
Race: Otherworlder
Class: None
Level: 1
Hp: 10
Mp: 70
Strength: 3
Dexterity: 2
Agility: 5
Vitality: 2
Endurance: 6
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 7
Skills:
Ryzen’s neutral face contorted into a frown after reading Sam’s stats. Ryzen still didn’t know what would qualify him for death but he was sure that having a class didn’t help.
“T-Thanks,” Ryzen said before turning back around, rapidly thinking about his next move.
“Wait, what’s your status look like?” Sam asked.
Ryzen only shook his head and grimaced. “You’ll be fine.”
Sam’s eyes went wide and he slowly nodded his head.
Ryzen was running out of time and if he didn’t figure something out then he would die. Honestly, it was looking like he was a goner either way. What was he to do against people whom he couldn’t even see move when they killed?
Ryzen’s eyes then glanced towards his skill and he realized he didn’t know how it worked. As soon as he thought this, a brief description appeared before him.
Disguise (Unranked): Allows the user to hide/edit the outside appearance of their status. Stats must be lower than their actual value.
Suddenly, a powerful hand forced Ryzen forward and he came face to face with the man who was inspecting him.
“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Ryzen internally screamed as he was taken by surprise. He had forgotten where he was in line!
“Do you not know how this works already? Show me your status worm,” the man growled.
Ryzen panicked and activated his skill, praying that he wouldn’t mess it up. After taking a single second to edit his stats, he quickly prompted for his screen to show.
Alex Smith
Race: Otherworlder
Class: None
Level: 1
Hp: 10
Mp: 30
Strength: 3
Dexterity: 2
Agility: 5
Vitality: 2
Endurance: 6
Intelligence: 3
Wisdom: 2
Skills:
Upon seeing his screen, the man’s face formed into a wide smile displaying two sharp fangs that poked out. “No wonder you were so slow to figure this out! You are absolutely fucking stupid!”
Ryzen was shocked at what he was seeing. Unless this was some glorified cosplay cult, this man wasn’t even human. He was a vampire.
Ryzen dragged himself forward while deep in thought. What the hell was going on? After only a few moments of walking, Ryzen found himself in a pitiful room with dozens of disgusting-looking mats practically layered on top of each other.
All the other students that were sent forward also seemed to be here. Soon, Sam and the few other students behind Ryzen showed up as well. Sam gave Ryzen a grateful nod and Ryzen returned it, considering that Sam just potentially saved his life with his status information.
A cold presence once again filled the room as everyone’s attention was brought to the vampire who had inspected them earlier.
“This will be your new living quarters. I hope you find them adequate.” A cold smile accompanied the vampire’s words.
“You will spend all your time here until you are summoned for the feeding hour. We, vampires, do need to nourish ourselves after all. Oh and don’t worry about turning into one of us. Whatever nonsense your world has taught about us is likely wrong. Besides that, don’t cause trouble and you will be allowed to live. Those who do will find that… difficult.” The vampire gave a menacing glare to reinforce the threat and left without giving anyone a second glance.