“Wait, the Harrowed Hand?” Nathan said. “I’ve heard of you!”

The man narrowed his eyes. “Where?”

“An orc by the name of Bjorn. We’ve been traveling together to try to find you guys.”

The man’s hand twitched.

“Oh, yeah. One of the exploratory squads mentioned something about that.” He nodded. “Good to meet you—aside from the whole water attack.”

Nathan rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”

“We’re all good,” the scarred man said. “I’m glad that we’ve run into another person.”

Nathan pointed backward. “I think we should meet with the rest of my group. We’ll talk more with them.”

The man nodded. “You’re right, lead the way.”

On the way back, Nathan looked at his new achievements.

[Achivement get: F-Rank Cultivator]

Congrats! You’ve finally ascended beyond total garbage into slightly above-average garbage!

Basically, you’ve chosen the path of mystical enlightenment, which is basically the grindy road to nowhere… but hey, you now have a Soul stat! Sure, you don’t know what it does yet, but it’s there, a spark of cosmic potential just waiting for you to spend the next thousand years figuring it out.

+10 Soul

[Achievement Unlocked: Gifted]

You possess an above-average talent for cultivation, making you more likely to make progress without face-planting quite as often as everyone else. Sure, it’s not the blazing brilliance of a true genius, but you’ve got potential—and that’s at least a bit reassuring.

+10 Soul

Nathan was gifted?

His lips turned down at the word. He ignored the description and popped open his menu.

Stats:

Strength: 10 (+47) = 37

Dexterity: 28 (+3) = 31

Constitution: 30 (+5) = 35

Magic: 3 (+5) = 8

Luck: 12 (+46) = 58

Soul: 10 (+20) = 30

Available Stats: 32

As the system had said, he now had a new stat. Soul.

What was soul? He clicked on the stat to see if there would be a pop-up, but nothing appeared.

I really need to invest my stats soon.

The group of three walked back to the camp. Mara was cleaning a gun, Chad was talking to his camera, and Emi chanted something under her breath while Bjorn cleaned up the camp.

Emi perked up when she saw Nathan. “Nathan, you’re back—“ she looked at the scarred man and his companion. “Who are they?”

“They’re a part of the Harrowed Hand. I just ran into them.”

Chad flipped off his phone and cast a glance over them. “Huh. Nice to meet you guys.”

“Likewise,” the scarred man said. “We’ve been searching for other survivors. I’m glad to see so many in one place.”

After a few brief introductions, they sat around in a circle.

The scarred man stared at Emi. “An elf and an orc. Didn’t think that you guys existed—despite what the boys said, but here we are.” He shook his head. “So why were you looking for us in the first place?”

“Mana Stones.” Nathan pointed at Bjorn. “He mentioned you might have them and be willing to trade.”

The scarred man nodded. “We do. We’ve been collecting them, assuming they might be valuable later. I only have one at my camp, though.”

“We’d need to go meet your leader to make a deal, though,” Chad said.

The scarred man grinned. “Actually, you’re speaking to him.”

“Really?”

“Yup. At least, the leader of our camp. I don’t have any control over our regional operations.”

Regional? It’s only been two or three days since we dropped out of the tutorial.

“Can we back up a little?” Nathan said. “I don’t get how you guys have formed an entire organization. I can believe that you managed to find a bunch of people and put together a survivor camp, but a whole organization?”

The scarred man nodded. “Two things. First, the tutorial. Our tutorial was different than your—we were dropped in with about fifty thousand people. We were also inside for several months, not two weeks.” He looked at Nathan. “I’m assuming you guys had smaller groups.”

They were inside for months? No wonder they were able to get so organized, they had so much time.

“Yeah, everyone here was dropped in with only ten or twenty except for me, right guys?”

A bunch of nods came from everyone except Mara, who was too busy examining the scope of a rifle.

“Is she always like that?” the scarred man said.

“Yeah,” Nathan said. “Pretty much.”

The scarred man quirked his lip before regaining his neutral expression. “Anyway, a couple thousand of us banded under one man. The guy who formed the Harrowed Hand. The goal was to bring order to the tutorial, make sure everyone was fed, quell any violence, you know?”

Chad adjusted his sunglasses, his expression blank. “That’s a noble goal. But how did you not get disbanded when you entered here? The rest of us all were separated from our groups once we left the tutorial.”

“Our boss, the leader of the Harrowed Hand.” An odd light came to the scarred man’s eyes. “He’s invincible. I’ve never seen anything like him. He killed monsters, developed his magic, and somehow got an award from the system allowing him to group people together for transportation to the first circle.”

“He must be pretty powerful,” Nathan said.

“Extremely so.” The scarred man’s voice grew higher, more excited. “And he had a dream. He wanted us to spread our order everywhere. Save people all over the place, and we couldn’t do that if we were all just bunched up as one big blob, so he came up with a plan.”

Mara perked up curiously. “What kind of plan?”

“He divided us into groups of a couple hundred each, led by a regional governor. Once we dropped, we’d establish camps, absorb fellow survivors, and conquer the Nine Circles. The long-term hope is to set up some kind of communication and transportation between each other, but that’s way off.”

“That’s a pretty heroic dream,” Nathan said. “I’d like to meet him.”

“Maybe you’ll run into him at some point,” the scarred man said. “But anyway, you guys want a Mana Stone, right? How about we head back to my camp? If possible, I’d like you to meet our regional governor. I think he’ll be very interested in someone of your capabilities.”

Nathan shrugged. “Sure. It couldn’t hurt to meet him, right?”

“Yeah. He’s only a day’s travel away,” the scarred man said. “Oh, and he should have more Mana Stones, too.”

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Nathan nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

They set off. The scarred man walked alongside his partner, leading them toward the camp. Nathan walked in front.

He felt a tap on his shoulder. Chad stared at him with a solemn expression. He signaled toward the back of the group with his eyes, then slowed his walking pace. Nathan slowed down, curiousity in his mind, and he fell in line with Chad at the back of the group.

“What is it?” Nathan said.

“I don’t trust them,” Chad said.

“You didn’t trust Emi—“

“No, you don’t understand.” Chad took off his sunglasses, revealing his blue eyes. They were clear and steady and altogether different than what Nathan had expected. “Nathan, there’s something really off about those guys.”

Nathan would’ve dismissed Chad, but something about his tone concerned him. Chad always had a lightheartedness about him, even when he’d been attacked by a T-Rex. There was none of that now. Instead, he was dead serious.

“What is it?” Nathan said. “Is it something they said?”

“Look, I’ve met a lot of people as a streamer,” Chad said. “Most of them are good. Most of them are awesome. But there were a few people… you just meet them and you know something’s off, but you don’t say anything about it, cause it’s just a silly feeling, right?”

Nathan hesitantly nodded. “Right.”

His voice lowered. “Every single person who gave me that feeling turned out to be batshit insane. It always comes out that they were pedophiles or some shit.”

“You’re not accusing this guy of being a pedophile without any evidence.”

Chad let out a hot breath and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“No, Nathan, you’re not…” He breathed out slowly and stared at Nathan. “There was this one case I remember. It was so distinctive I still remember it even now. I’d just been invited to a collab. I was an up-and-coming streamer with only a handful of followers while she was crazy popular, so I was super grateful. We met up. She was a sweet girl. We were joking, having fun, but the whole time, there was just… something in her eyes. She wanted to schedule another collab, but I declined.”

“Okay—“

“Nathan, a week after that collab, she killed her family,” Chad said.

Nathan’s jaw dropped.

“I’m telling you,” Chad said. “That look in her eyes? I saw it just now. In both of those two. I don’t know what they’re hiding, but there’s something they’re not telling us.”

Nathan nodded slowly. “I… Jesus, Chad. I get your point. I’ll keep an eye out.”

Chad nodded and slipped his sunglasses back on his face. “Thanks, man. That’s all I wanted to say.”

Nathan turned back toward the front of the group. The scarred man was looking back at him. He smiled and waved before turning his neck back toward the front.

A chill went down Nathan’s spine.

He wasn’t going to bank everything on Chad’s gut feelings… but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t feeling nervous now.

----------------------------------------

“Welcome to our camp!” the scarred man said.

Dozens of tents were scattered across a cleared section of the forest. Timber had been used to set up spikes in the area leading to the central part of the camp. A single wooden tower had been set up with a man watching it. Off to the side, there was a wooden building with a shut door.

Several people walked from section to section, dragging wood and taking care of various tasks. One burst out laughing at something another man said.

“As you can see, we’ve got pretty robust defenses,” the scarred man said.

Mara shook her head. “It needs more rifles. Where are the rifles?”

“Um, we don’t have any rifles.”

Mara snorted. “Lame.”

The scarred man laughed. “You remind me of Vince’s right hand man. He trained some of the men here. Ex-military. Smart guy.”

Nathan looked around for any signs of… something. Blood on the ground or scared faces or a rotting smell.

But there was nothing.

A man approached them. “Sir. You’re back, we need to discuss—

“This is our logistics head,” the scarred man said. “He’s something of an egghead, but he gets work done.”

“Sir, please.”

The scarred man waved his hand over the camp. “We’re still working on getting some of the basic amenities set up, but when you’ve got this much manpower, you can get a lot done.”

The logistics head started to debate with the scarred man. Nathan looked at the logistic head’s hand.

Blood.

Nathan’s heart rate increased.

“What’s that red color on your hand?” Nathan said.

The logistics head stopped arguing with the scarred man and looked at Nathan. “What, this?” He held up his hand. “I got attacked by one of those raptors outside camp. It was a bad choice on my part.”

It was a reasonable explanation. Nathan started to relax.

Maybe Chad was just being paranoid.

“I’ll go take a look around for that mana stone,” the scarred man said. “Feel free to walk around and check out the sights.” He paused. “Oh, except for the storehouse. We preserve food in there and it smells awful—and besides that, we keep sensitive materials there that outsiders aren’t allowed to see.”

He walked off.

They all looked at each other and shrugged.

“I want to see if anyone has a gun,” Mara said. “For research purposes.”

Emi glanced around. “There are so many humans.”

“I will remain here,” Bjorn said.

Chad didn’t bother to speak, instead walking off toward the storehouse immediately.

Nathan’s eyes widened and he followed behind.

“Wait, where are you going?” Nathan said.

Chad brushed Nathan off and continued walking. “I’m going to see what they’re hiding.”

“He said something about outsiders not being allowed to go there.”

“Don’t care. Privacy laws have never stopped me before, and that was when we still had police.”

Mildly concerning.

Nathan sighed and followed behind Chad. Before long, they were in front of the door to the storehouse. The distinct smell of blood and meat filled Nathan’s lungs, the scent so powerful that Nathan wanted nothing more than to turn around on the spot. Chad leaned down and tugged on the door.

“Jammed,” he muttered. “Gimme a sec.”

Nathan looked from left to right. “Chad, we’re right in the open, we shouldn’t—“

The door clicked open, swinging into the darkness.

Chad walked inside. Nathan grumbled and followed behind him, shutting the door.

Meat had been strung up in the middle of the storehouse using ropes. To the side, on a table, there were a few sheets of paper. Chad went deeper into the ware house, his eyes searching the walls from top to bottom like a machine. Nathan walked over to the sheets of paper. Camp locations, camp information. Boring things.

“There’s nothing here,” Nathan said. “It’s not even that interesting.”

Chad stopped. He stared around the dark room.

“There’s nothing.” He clicked his tongue. “Sorry, Nathan. I guess my paranoia got the better of me—“

A muffled groan echoed out.

Nathan and Chad froze on the spot. Nathan looked down. It had come from… underneath?

Nathan dropped to his knees and wiped his hands across the wood floor, the texture rubbing against his palms.

“What are you doing?” Chad said.

“Searching for a hidden passage,” Nathan muttered.

He crept forward and his hand passed over a crack. Nathan smashed his fist into the wood, cracking it and revealing an underground passageway.

Chad pulled out his phone and flipped on the light.

“Come on,” Chad muttered. “I want some answers.”

The two walked down the dugout passage.

The groan came again, louder and more pained.

Nathan’s heart started to beat in his chest. What were they about to find?

He clenched his jaw and continued walking.

There was a sheet in front of them. A makeshift door. A rotting smell entered Nathan’s nose, almost making him gag. It was the smell of death and decay, corpses and cremation. What were they hiding down here?

The thoughts filled Nathan’s mind. A corpse, meat, filled with ants and worms. Chains and shit strewn all over the ground in some kind of sick tribute to some pagan god.

Nothing could’ve prepared him for what he was about to see.

Chad’s hands reached up for the sheet.

He tore it off.

Five corpses had been thrown inside, hog-tied. They were all in varying states of decay. One corpse oozed with maggots, flesh falling off the bone. Another was little more than a skeleton. The smell of rotten eggs slammed into Nathan like a freight train, making him gag. Blood coated the walls, the ceiling, everything, like some kind of sick snuff film.

Nathan barely held back the vomit in his throat.

“What the fuck is this, man?” Chad took a step back and covered his mouth and nose. “I knew these people were screwed in the head, but…”

The groan came back.

Chad shone the flashlight to the right, revealing that one of the corpses wasn’t as dead as they thought.

It was a man—at least, that’s what Nathan thought. He was so malnourished that his ribs poked painfully out of his chest. He wheezed for air and his glassy eyes blinked.

“W-who’s there?” the man said. “Please, don’t hurt me.”

“N-no, dude, we’re not here to do that,” Chad staggered forward and pulled a knife from his inventory. He dropped to his knees and shakily cut through the man’s rope bonds. “I’m so sorry, god…”

The man flexed his wrists. “I’m free?”

“Yeah,” Chad said. “Yeah, you are.”

“Thank you… who are you?” the man gazed at them vacantly. “You don’t seem like you’re with the Hand.”

“We’re just passersby,” Nathan said. “I… I hate to ask this of you, but can you please explain what happened? Why are you… what is this?”

The man’s hands shook.

“What were you told?” he said. “What did that bastard tell you?”

“That they were a peacekeeping organization set up to help people,” Nathan said.

“It’s all bullshit,” the man spat. “It… might’ve started that way, but…”

He coughed.

“Start from the beginning, please,” Chad said. “We need to know.”

“When… when we were summoned into the tutorial, everyone was terrified,” the man said. “Within days, murder had become commonplace. Theft was normal. Thousands of people. No government. It was a recipe for disaster. So we got scared.” The man coughed. “And I think that was our first mistake. We wanted someone, anyone to save us. And that’s what happened. A messiah emerged, a leader.”

“A tyrant,” Nathan said.

“Yes,” the man said. “How sad is that? Thirty days. That’s how long it took for everyone to become convinced that he was the savior we needed. They all fell in line. Every single one of them. He rounded up his opposition. Thousands of deaths. It was horrible.”

“You opposed him,” Chad said. “Didn’t you?”

“Yes. All five of us,” the man said. “The regional governor—Vince—has a policy of bringing the corpses along. It’s to break our spirits.”

“W-we need to get him out of here,” Chad said. “Maybe we can heal him—“

The man laughed, the sound more like a dead frog’s ribbit. “I’m already dead, boy. But at least I’ll die a free man and not a prisoner.”

Nathan’s fists clenched.

“Run,” the man said. “Escape. They will find you—“

“That’s not happening,” Nathan said.

A fire roared to life in his chest. A fire he’d only felt once before when he’d lost his arm.

Rage.

Pure hatred for another flooded his veins like a drug, the sensation so overpowering that it almost made his legs collapse.

He wouldn’t let these people get away with this.

Nathan’s hands twitched. “Are there any innocent people in this camp, sir?”

The man coughed. “You can’t… challenge them—“

“Please. I need to know.”

The man was silent.

“No. U-unless they’re chained, they’re guilty.”

“That’s all I needed to know. Thank you.”

The man coughed. His body spasmed, then stopped.

Chad stared at the corpse for several seconds, an empty look in his eyes.

“Dude,” he muttered. “What the hell is wrong with these people?”

Nathan stood to his feet and walked back the way they came.

Chad turned back and sucked in a breath. “Nathan, wait.”

Nathan didn’t stop. He climbed his way out of the hole.

“Nathan, we need to plan this out!” Chad said.

Nathan slammed the door open. His eyes looked from left to right. Where was the camp leader?

There he is.

Nathan marched in his direction.

Chad hurried to his side, sweat pouring down his cheeks.

“Shit, shit, shit,” he muttered. “You need to stop.”

Nathan walked until he was directly behind the scarred man. He reached into his inventory and pulled out his fishing rod. The scarred man was talking with someone, laughing without a care in the world, as if he wasn’t a monster in human skin.

Nathan shifted his left foot. The scarred man turned around.

“Nathan!” he said. “I have the mana stone. What’s with the fishing rod—“

Nathan swung out his fishing rod.

The hook flew through the air and slammed into the man’s head, popping it like a watermelon.