"Move!"
In the chaos of the building, amidst the firelight and smoke from the explosion, Riku and Sasha sprinted through the hallway.
The elevator was in the opposite direction, where most of the mechanical guards were coming from. The explosion had cut off that route, leaving them no choice but to head the other way—toward the stairwell, their ticket out.
"Stay behind me," Riku said to Sasha as they ran, his tone making it clear: he was ready to be her human shield.
"…"
Sasha pursed her lips, staying silent. Her neko-like face was all business, her mind racing to recalculate their escape route.
They reached the stairwell but froze. The heavy clank-clank-clank of footsteps was too close for comfort—mechanical guards were coming up the stairs.
Bang!
The stairwell door flew open, and the guards stormed out, guns raised. But the narrow doorway bottlenecked them, letting only two through at a time.
Shink!
Riku and Sasha were ready. Each took one guard, their claws slicing through with brutal efficiency, dropping the pair like scrap metal.
Without hesitation, they charged through the doorway, straight into the remaining guards.
At a distance, the guards' guns could pin Riku and Sasha down. But up close? These tin cans were as flimsy as origami. They couldn't handle the duo in melee.
The guards came in squads of three or four. This time, eight of them showed up, split into two groups of four.
After taking out the first two, Riku and Sasha dove into the fray.
Both wielded claws, but their fighting styles were like night and day.
Sasha moved like a cat—graceful, precise, no wasted motion. She stabbed one guard clean through the neck, then used its body as a pivot, spinning low to face another. Her claws flashed upward, piercing the square head of the next guard.
Her eyes glowed faintly, locking onto the farthest guard. It froze, as if hacked, and she dispatched it with a single, effortless claw strike.
Riku, on the other hand, was a charging bull. He barreled into three guards, sending them tumbling down the stairs in a chaotic heap of metal and man.
In the mess, Riku's claws slashed left and right, shredding the trio into scrap.
Ding! Experience bar full. Level up to Lv3. Current EXP: 2/300.
Gained 1 attribute point.
Gained 1 skill point.
Even after cutting down all the guards, the experience settlement prompt didn't appear. But the level-up notification did.
With the level-up came one attribute point and a skill point—something he hadn't gotten from the last level.
It clicked for Riku. The system didn't always show the EXP gain in real-time, but kills were automatically tallied. Once the bar filled, the level-up was instant.
This was handy. In the heat of battle, he could allocate points on the fly.
"Limit System, add points," Riku muttered in his mind, dumping the attribute point into Constitution, sticking to his plan.
His goal: get Constitution to 24, enough to sustain his undead state for 48 hours.
As for the skill point, he didn't hold back, tossing it into his only skill: Onika.
No point saving it now. From what he could tell, skill points came every two levels—not too hard to come by.
By extension, skill optimization points probably followed a similar rule, though he wasn't sure how many levels it'd take to earn one.
Onika Lv3: Transformed into a demon by the Demon King's blood. Strength, Agility, Constitution +7, Charisma -9. Gains Blood Demon Art and Constitution Altered State.
Blood Demon Art · Shadow activated.
After dumping the skill point into Onika, two prompts popped up. Riku's jaw dropped.
That one skill point was worth its weight in gold!
Not only did it boost Strength, Agility, and Constitution by 1 each, but it also reduced the Charisma penalty by 1—basically a free point.
Most importantly, the Blood Demon Art · Shadow, which had been grayed out and unusable, was now active!
"Blood Demon Art · Shadow…"
The system panel offered no further details. Clearly, Riku would have to figure out what this Blood Demon Art did on his own.
But now wasn't the time to experiment. He had to get Sasha out of here.
"You okay, Devil? Is it your wounds?" Sasha asked, leaning in with concern.
She'd noticed Riku pause for a moment and thought his injuries might be acting up.
"Nah, I'm fine. Look at this frame—bullet wounds are nothing to me," Riku said with a grin, flexing his arm to show off his muscles. Even under his clothes, they looked intimidating.
"Good. Let's move. I've got a new route planned," Sasha said, smiling with a nod. She seemed to buy his confidence.
She'd noticed his wounds weren't bleeding anymore, which helped sell it.
"Move out!" Riku said, taking point.
He'd deliberately let Sasha see his wounds, not healing them instantly but letting them close slowly to seem more natural.
Sure, it meant enduring the pain longer, but a gradual recovery was way less suspicious than instant regeneration.
In this world, bio-components like "self-healing muscles" existed. While groups like the Animal Gang—nuts about body mods—weren't common, research into bio-components (as opposed to cybernetic ones) never stopped.
That's why V thought Riku might be an escaped lab experiment from some megacorp. No background, weird body, inhuman structure—it all added up. Riku didn't even need to mislead anyone; V had come up with the theory himself.
This world was full of bizarre stuff. People were used to it. As long as Riku didn't act too outlandish, he'd be fine.
belamy20