[You have slain a Lv 2. Corrupted Squirrel]

[Defeated higher level being]

[Awarded 10 xp]

[Congratulations for reaching Lv. 1]

[My name is Scorn.]

Sebastian shivered at the sudden warmth coursing through his body, his vision clearing; which made him realize he could see the blood red words perfectly even when his sight was nearly gone. He still felt weak, but marginally less so as he clenched his fists. An action that caused pain; a reminder that the ‘Corrupted Squirrel’s teeth in his shoulder hadn’t left his shoulder. Afraid that he’d bleed out if he removed the monster from him, he resigned himself to just inspecting the new blood red words in his vision.

Am I in a game? He thought. Does that mean I have stats?

[Sebastian Albrecht, no title]

[Lv. 1 Human]

[Class: N/A]

[Profession: N/A]

[Attributes]

Strength: 13

Agility: 8

Constitution: 11

Intelligence: 7

Wisdom:8

Perception: 5

Attribute Points: 5

[Skills]

Identify

[Please allocate your attribute points now.]

The voice, one that somehow sounded both like a child and old man echoed within Sebastian’s ears. He blinked a few times, as if to make sure what he was seeing was real.

Just like a game.. Sebastian looked to the sky. Was ‘Scorn’ as it called itself the reason people disappeared? Why did he not get taken? He shook his head hard and cleared his thoughts. He couldn’t take another one of those squirrels on, and he could only assume they wouldn’t be the only things that got corrupted.

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He had about 52 stats total, and with the assumption that 10 in each stat was average for a person because he quite frankly refused to believe he was beyond average in every way; he wasn't doing that bad for himself.

He quickly thought over his choices. He was a little skeptical of whatever the fuck was going on, but at this point he was pretty confident he’d die if he didn’t choose to believe in the blood red text in front of his eyes.

Strength would help him pull the squirrel off of him, but he was sure he could do it without the boost too. Agility wouldn’t help him either, he was bleeding out. He wasn’t sure what intelligence, wisdom or perception would do, but it certainly wouldn’t help in this scenario. That left him with a constitution. Sebastian had a feeling as to what it would do, but at this point he has to gamble on it. Can’t do much about it if he’s wrong.

He closed his eyes and thought. He put one stat point into Constitution, and he felt the pain lessen, but not fade away. With the second, he almost thought he could feel his torn and bruised muscles fix themselves. The third stat point only amplified that. With the fourth stat point, he heard an audible crack, and his body instantly felt more stable. As if his bones had mended. He instinctively felt he wasn’t completely healed, but he knew he could probably stand up straight and run if he needed too.

With one stat point left, Sebastian brought his arms up, clasped the squirrel by the neck, and pulled it off of his shoulder with one movement. It’s teeth brought a big chunk of flesh with it, leaving somewhat of a crater in his muscle. Even with the strengthening of his body, he knew that would put his shoulder out of commission for a while as it hung somewhat limply.

He felt one more point into constitution wouldn’t mean anything, so he decided to put one into strength. The feeling wasn’t quite as invigorating as the other attribute, but he was sure there was an effect.

Sebastian scowled and did his best to suppress the pain before standing. As if to prove his earlier thoughts right, most of the pain he felt at the moment came from his shoulder. His ribs still ached slightly, so they probably hadn’t mended completely yet, but nothing he couldn’t handle. Now he had to decide where to go.

If, and I assume if, this isn’t an isolated event, I don’t know how many people disappeared. The best place to go would be somewhere public, with a lot of people. Prove it’s not an isolated event, and see how common the.. corrupted animals are. I guess I just go to work then? It wasn’t the best plan, but he had to find out what was going on, even if just for his curiosity..

Supermarkets usually have lots of people, yeah? Sebastian thought, ignoring that it was well past midnight at the moment, and power seemingly had gone out. He decided to just head to where he meant to go in the first place.

He worked at a supermarket called Dallas’ Deals. Usually had a fair amount of visitors even during the night, partially because a lot of the people nearby worked jobs with weird shifts as well. Some came home from work and stopped by, others stopped by before heading to work. Still only a few dozen people at most.

Sebastian kept thinking about his job, but it became apparent to him very quickly; he needed to pay attention. A stench entered his nose, one that smelled of iron and rust. He felt his boot step into a familiar warm, sticky substance.

He opened his eyes and turned to look towards what he gathered was the source, only to be met with a pitch black alley.

Then the eyes appeared.

He had never run so fast in his life.

Every single cell in his body screamed danger as he ran towards the supermarket. He heard the soft scampering of what he imagined used to be paws against the concrete behind him. He felt faster, an effect he assumed brought on by the increase in strength, but he still heard the sounds approach. Closer and closer.

He felt it was weird no one had shown up at the crash, even if some had disappeared. He had the vague idea now that there were people nearby. It was just that they were found before they found him.

And that terrified him.

Sebastian brought forth all the energy he could, every ounce of strength his body could muster, the pain of his still broken bones and the torn flesh in his shoulder adding to what he could only describe as adrenaline.

Four? Five? Eight? He wasn’t sure how many were behind him, or if they were even just more squirrels. His eyes lit up when he saw the supermarket, lit with dim, orange lights, hardly seen from down the street.

A few seconds later he could finally see vague, moving figures at the front doors.

Another couple seconds and he saw the broken windows with even more shadowy outlines behind them.

And right after that, he felt the first creature jump on his back.