“Agh!”
A painful scream woke Vince from his slumber with a shudder.
He coughed the little bit of water in his lungs and took deep breaths before looking around. Three different-sized moons were high in the sky and ominously illuminating the dark shore. Vince was between two halves of a longship as a strong scent of blood and disgusting odor filled his nostrils.
Vince wanted to stand up, but a sudden pain in the right side of his head made him wince with pain. When he touched that part of his head, he felt a thick, warm liquid stain his skull. Vince looked at his hand and saw the dark color of his own blood under the moonlight. It seemed he hit his head somewhere.
Remembering the megalodon and the destruction that followed it, Vince got goosebumps and pushed that thought aside. He needed to find a way to survive now.
What should he do?
Should he search for shelter and food and water in the morning?
Or just find some survivors and ask them if there was a town nearby they could take shelter?
To Vince, the answer was obvious.
Vince took a sturdy-looking plank that came in handy and stood up. He felt his naked feet washed by the sea waves and dug into the sand below it; a cold shiver went down his spine.
I hope I don’t drop dead because of some brain trauma.
Vince, while holding his free hand to the wound in his head, walked through the shipwrecks and looked at the corpses around. Although he couldn’t see the details due to low light, his eyes selected many corpses that were decimated in one way or another. He saw the lower half of some unlucky dude and grabbed the shoes the corpse was wearing.
After some tries, he found a suitable one with relatively less blood and gore and continued to wander. Now, his feet didn’t feel hurt whenever he stepped onto shells.
Slowly, Vince made his way to a sound echoing in the shipwrecks and started to hear the heavy and rapid breaths of a man. When he passed through a giant rock blocking his view, Vince saw a man who was impaled by a broken piece pole of the longship. He was grunting and screaming as he tried to push the pole out of the hole in his stomach.
Sensing Vince’s gaze, the man turned to him and yelled between his pained breaths, “Hey you. Agh! Come and help me to pull this thing out. We leave quickly before the damned Drowners arise.”
Vince rushed to the man's side and grimly looked at the pole before saying, “I don’t think you can survive much longer, mate. Even if we take it out, you will die because of blood loss.”
Man, in his pain, spared a glance to Vince saying if he was a piece of work and said, “My path is [Caveman], as you know, I mainly focus on [Vitality] and [Regeneration]---Oh…” Man finally perceived the loose wet sleeping outfit Vince was wearing and his stolen shoes, “You are an Extinct that was rescued by the Expedition.”
Man cursed his luck under his breath before saying, “Listen. Did your caretaker say anything about your lifespan? That glowing blue tattoo on your left forearm,” Vince nodded, and the man grunted before continuing, “Good. You can spend those lifespans to upgrade your [Attributes]. I think if you have around 30 [Strength], we had a chance to budge this bastard.”
Vince frowned while looking at the man’s pained eyes, “How do I do that?”
“Just say Status, and you will understand what you need to do,” Man said while desperately trying to lift the pole.
Status? Am I in some kind of RPG Game or LitRPG Novel?
Vince glanced at the man doubtfully but said the word nonetheless, “Status.”
Then a blue hologram popped into Vince’s vision.
No way.
Name: Vincent D’Raan
Age: 2 hours
Rank: Extinct
Citizenship Tier: T1 [+] (1 Years)
Remaining Lifespan: 2 months 29 days 22 hours
Talent: Dormant [+] (6 months)
Path: [None.] (Seek a Monolith of Power.)
Skill(s):
* Dormant (Select a Path to Unlock Skills.)
Basic Attributes:
* Strength: 7 [+] (12 hours)
* Agility: 9 [+] (12 hours)
* Endurance: 10 [+] (1 Days)
* Vitality: 8 [+] (12 hours)
Special Attributes:
* None.
Vince’s mouth gaped as he read his status window. A distant excitement appeared in his heart as his deep gamer vein throbbed. He had a System!
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Now focus or tap at the plus sign next to [Strength]. Hurry. We don’t have much time left,” Man broke Vince out of his excited gaze.
Vince nodded his head in excitement and pressed three times to the plus sign. His muscles spasmed in pleasure as Vince immediately felt he was stronger than ever. But after the pleasure passed away, his head throbbed in pain as Vince felt a little bit lethargic, like he didn’t sleep for two days continuously.
Vince glanced at his remaining lifespan and the new upgrade cost of [Strength] with a deep frown.
[Remaining Lifespan: 2 months 28 days 10 hours]
Strength: 10 [+] (1 day)
The cost was doubled, and Vince calculated roughly he needed to spend a month to make his [Strength] around 30 points. If he felt this bad when he spent a meager one-and-a-half day of his life span, what would happen if he spent one month of his remaining lifespan?
A doubt started to manifest in Vince's mind and he sweat coldly as he thought of that possibility. He would be dead tired even before lifting that pole, not to say after. Would the man impaled help him when he was lying on the sand, dead tired?
He couldn’t use his lifespan so recklessly.
Vince lowered his hand and looked at the impaled man coldly, “Do you have anything to say? Like, why am I fatigued after spending some of my lifespan?”
Man stopped his struggles and looked into Vince’s eyes before trying to say with a shaking neutral tone in his fucked up situation, “Don’t worry, just a side effect. Will pass soon enough.”
Vince narrowed his eyes and took a step back. This man wasn’t telling all of the story.
Vince turned to leave when he heard the man's voice again.
Veins appeared on the man's face as he grunted again but this time because of anger instead of pain, “Look. If you pass the 3-month mark again, fatigue will disappear, so don't panic over it.”
Vince glanced at the man over his shoulder and asked, “How do I earn more lifespan?”
Man’s face twisted in annoyance as he replied, “Just drink some fucking monster core. Agh. Come here. I will give you some of my lifespan. We don’t have that much time. Drowners may appear at any given moment.”
Vince turned toward the man again and slowly walked before him. The impaled man lifted his bloodied arm and gestured to give him his tattooed arm. After hesitating a couple of moments, Vince slowly lifted his left arm, but the man grabbed his arm and yanked.
The pull was irresistible as Vince fell to the ground and felt the breath of the impaled man near his ear.
He muttered dangerously to his ear while squishing his left arm, “Just accept the feeling.”
A lively and energetic force traveled through the impaled man’s arm to Vince’s as he jolted awake from his daze with sudden bliss. Wherever force passed through, Vince felt that part of his body felt throbbed with vitality and brimmed with excessive energy. He felt like he could run a few miles and never tire. Lively force soon passed through his skull, and Vince felt the wound on his head close like it was never there in the first place.
Vince took a deep, cold breath as bliss slowly passed away. The impaled man released his hand, and Vince stood with widened eyes.
“What was that?” Vince asked in wonder.
“Rush. You feel that whenever you earn a hefty lifespan. More lifespan in one go, denser rush you feel. Now, quickly give the [Attribute] points and help me.”
“Status,” Vince muttered and opened his status window.
[Remaining Lifespan: 4 months 8 days 14 hours]
So he gave me around 1 month and 10 days?
Vince looked at his [Strength] and hovered his hand around the plus, hesitating. There was a question bugging him.
The man was clearly annoyed with him.
What if the man tries to kill him when he is free?
From the pull, Vince felt man’s [Strength] must be high, so high that he effortlessly dragged Vince to the ground with one hand while being impaled to the ground. If the man was free, he would only need a single move to kill Vince.
Man saw his hesitation and dangerously growled, “Why are you not upgrading your [Strength] after you take my lifespan?”
Yep. This man was going to kill him.
“Are you trying to ditch me?” Man questioned more as he grabbed the pole with rage.
He managed to bulge the pole and lift it slowly. The more the man's face twisted with rage, the more he managed to bulge the pole. Blood was sweeping away from the man like an open tap.
Vince opened his mouth to answer, but then something caught his attention in the corner of his eyes. Something was glowing with purple light in the water. At first, it was one, then two, three, and rapidly multiplied as Vince only guessed there were dozens now, if not hundreds.
Vince pointed at the sea and asked while his heart skipped a beat with the feeling of foreboding.
“What are those?”
The impaled man broke his concentration of rage and turned to the sea. When he saw the glowing purple light, desperation appeared in his voice as he struggled more to lift the pole, “Quickly help me. Drowners are here.”
Vince didn’t do anything as he watched in horror as purple glows hit the shore. The source of the glow was the heart of a corpse. Vince couldn’t see the many details under the moonlight, but he discerned the pruned skin and smelled the putrid odor radiating from it. The corpse stirred and slowly lifted itself from the ground. Vince saw a net of purple veins woven around the corpse's heart and disgusting pale purple eyes radiating soft purple light.
“Shit, shit, shit!” The impaled man panicked more as he saw more corpses hit the shore and stood up.
Corpses with purple hearts started to walk to the duo slowly. Some of them even faster than others as they used four limbs to move.
He turned to Vince and screamed, “What are you doing?! Help me!”
Vince panicked and had only one thought in his mind.
Run!
He quickly glanced at his status window and rapidly tapped at the plus sign next to [Agility]. He felt different pleasure around his body, but this time, he had no time to delve into it as he turned toward the back and started to run for his life.
“Hey! Come back here! You need to help me! You took my lifespan!” Man hysterically screamed as he saw corpses surrounding him.
Feeling the impending doom, the man dropped all of his bravado and viciously cursed Vince, “Fuck you, Extinct! I curse you. Curse you to die a horrible death worse than me. Even if I turn I will find you and d–AGH!!!”
Vince heard the desperate scream of the impaled man, but it slowly died down.
The only thing left behind was a soft meat-mincing sound.