Sadly, my staring contest with the silver-haired beauty was cut short, as I didn't get to see if she would blink first.
*Rumble!*
The white marble beneath our feet began to vibrate, a low hum that quickly escalated into a bone-rattling tremor.
Above us, the massive timer that had been counting down the final seconds of peace hit zero.
[DING!]
[The Tutorial Preparation Phase has ended.]
[Teleporting Players to Floor 1, City Of The Rotting Sun]
"Time to go, I guess."
I barely had time to mutter the words before the world twisted.
It wasn't the gentle transition of a high-speed elevator.
It felt like a giant hand had grabbed me by the stomach and yanked me through a straw.
*Ziiiip!*
My vision blurred into streaks of white and gray.
And then, just as abruptly as it began, it stopped.
*Thump.*
My boots hit solid cobblestone.
Immediately, a stench assaulted my nose.
It smelled of sulfur, stagnant water, and the distinct, copper-sweet tang of old blood.
"Ugh…"
I wrinkled my nose, my hand instinctively resting on the hilt of my sword.
I opened my eyes.
Gone was the pristine white lobby.
In its place stood a city straight out of a grimdark fantasy novel.
Narrow, winding streets lined with timber-framed houses that looked like they were leaning in to whisper secrets to each other.
The sky was a bruised purple, choked with thick, gray smoke that rose from several fires burning in the distance.
But what caught my eye wasn't the architecture.
It was the noise.
"Graaaah…"
"Kiiiek!"
"Hel-Help me!"
It was a cacophony of inhuman groans and human screams.
[DING!]
A red screen materialized in front of my face, blocking the view of a burning wagon.
------| Floor 1 Mission |------
[Objective]: Survival of the Fittest
[Location]: The Dead City of Oakhaven.
[Description]: A plague has swept through the city, turning the populace into mindless undead. You are trapped within the walls.
[Task]: Survive for the duration of the timer & Kill zombies to earn points.
[Point System]:
Rank G- Zombie: 1 Point
Rank G Zombie: 5 Points
Rank G+ Zombie: 10 Points
Rank F- Zombie: 20 Points
Rank F Zombie: 50 Points
Rank F+ Zombie: 100 Points
[Time Limit]: 12:00:00
"So this year's theme is still Zombies, huh."
I read the screen, a dry chuckle escaping my lips.
Slow, shambling bags of points just waiting to be harvested.
"Classic. Truly classic."
*Shuffle. Shuffle.*
I turned my head.
Emerging from the alleyway to my right were three figures.
Their skin was gray and sloughing off the bone. Their clothes were tattered rags stained with grime.
One of them was missing an arm. Another had its jaw hanging loose by a thread of skin.
[Race]: Lesser Zombie
[Rank]: G-
"Weak."
I didn't even draw my sword fully.
I just stared at them as they shambled toward me, their groans growing louder as they sensed fresh meat.
They were slow. Pathetically so.
"Is this the best the Tower has to offer for the first course?"
I sighed, disappointed.
*Sssshing!*
My thumb pushed the crossguard of the Miao Dao.
The black blade slid out just an inch.
*Click.*
I slammed it back into the sheath.
*Splat! Splat! Splat!*
Three heads slid off their necks simultaneously.
The zombies took another step before their bodies realized they were dead, crumpling to the cobblestones in a heap of rotting flesh.
[+3 Points]
"Boring."
I shook my head.
This wasn't combat. This was like pulling up mere weeds.
I needed more.
I needed a horde.
Two hours later.
The streets of Oakhaven were running red.
Or rather, black, given the color of the zombies' coagulated blood.
*Swoosh!*
My sword danced through the air, a black blur that drank the dim light of the city.
I wasn't using any fancy techniques. I wasn't even using footwork.
I was just walking.
Every step I took was accompanied by the sound of severing flesh.
*Crack!*
A zombie lunged at me from a rooftop.
I didn't look up. I just swung the blade in a casual overhead arc.
The creature was split from groin to skull before it could even touch me.
[+10 Points]
"Too soft."
I muttered, kicking the corpse aside.
"Too slow."
I spun around, decapitating two G+ Runners that tried to flank me.
"Too… fragile."
My Legacy [One Who Likes To Cut] was humming in the back of my mind, demanding something tougher. Something that would offer resistance.
But these things? They were like wet paper.
"Haa…"
I stopped in the middle of the town square.
A mountain of corpses lay around me, piling up like grotesque sandbags.
My breathing was even. My clothes were pristine, thanks to the repelling enchantments on the silk.
But I was bored.
"Maybe I should spice things up."
I looked at the sword in my hand.
The darkness blade pulsed, as if eager for my mana.
During the last ten days of training, I had focused solely on my swordsmanship.
Why?
A great question indeed.
However, if I were to give a reason, it would be thanks to the previous owner's significant influence on me.
'Magic is only for weeklings,' he used to say in my memories. 'A true swordsman cuts with the sword, not with puny tricks.'
"What a pretentious load of bullshit."
I scoffed at the memory.
Why limit yourself?
"Thanks God that Vlad still made him practice some magic even though he did not like it."
If I have a nuke, I'm going to use that fucking nuke.
"Let's see…"
I closed my eyes, tapping into the reserves of mana deep within my body.
I focused on the Laws etched into my soul.
[Law of Sharpness].
[Law of Darkness].
"Combine."
I opened my eyes.
*Voooooom.*
The air around me screamed.
It wasn't a sound. It was the pressure.
Gravity seemed to double in a two-meter radius around me.
Black, viscous mana erupted from my skin, coiling around the Miao Dao like hungry serpents.
And then... the Sharpness.
The chaotic darkness smoothed out. It condensed.
It became thin.
Impossibly thin.
The blade seemed to extend, projecting a phantom edge of pure, oscillating mana that distorted the light around it.
It was no longer a mere blade of steel wrapped in magic.
It was a single, two-meter-long line of absolute power.
"Oh?"
A smile tugged at my lips.
"Now this… looks promising."
*Groaaaaan!*
From the main street, a massive shape emerged.
It was an Abomination. A conglomeration of corpses stitched together, standing three meters tall, wielding a massive rusted cleaver.
[Race]: Corpse Giant
[Rank]: F+
Finally. A big boy.
"Graaaah!"
The monster roared, charging at me with surprising speed. The ground shook with every step.
It raised the cleaver, ready to smash me into paste.
I didn't move.
I waited until it was five meters away.
Then, I swung.
*Swish.*
There was no sound of impact.
No resistance.
No crunch of bone.
I just swung the sword horizontally, and the dark line passed through the giant's waist.
The monster froze.
It blinked, its small, piggy eyes confused.
It tried to take another step.
*Slide.*
Its upper torso slowly, agonizingly, began to slide off its lower half.
The cut was so clean, so perfect, that the blood didn't even spray immediately.
It took a full second for gravity to do its work.
*THUD!*
The top half crashed to the ground.
[+100 Points]
"…"
I looked at the sword.
Then I looked at the clean cut on the monster's torso.
"Heh."
A dark, twisted laugh bubbled up from my throat.
"Sethius really didn't know what fun he was missing."
This wasn't just cutting.
This was art.
"Status."
I checked the time.
[Time Remaining: 04:20:00]
Nearly eight hours had passed.
I sat on top of a fountain in the middle of the plaza, wiping a small speck of black blood from my cheek.
"This floor…"
I glanced around at the carnage I had wrought.
"It's tailor-made for him."
Alastor Necro.
The Protagonist.
While I was here running around playing whack-a-mole with my sword, that one-eyed bastard was probably having the time of his life.
This city was filled with dead bodies.
Fresh dead bodies.
And for a Necromancer, corpses weren't trash.
They were precious resources.
"He doesn't need to hunt," I mused, tapping my finger against the hilt of my sword.
"He just needs to kill one. Raise it. Kill two. Raise them."
Exponential growth.
By now, he probably had a small army sweeping through his zone, farming points while he sat back and picked his nose.
"Leaderboard."
I commanded.
A massive golden screen replaced the red one.
------| Zone 10 Rankings |------
1)Sethius Von Nevermore - 15,400 Points
2)Alicia Ashborn - 15,251 Points
3)Hans Kroenen - 6,204 Points
"Tch."
She was close.
Alicia. The Regressor.
"She really is a monster."
But I was still First.
"Now… let's see the big picture."
I switched tabs.
------| Global Rankings |------
1)Arthur Albaclara - 16,705 Points
2)Sethius Von Nevermore - 15,400 Points
3)Alicia Ashborn - 15,251 Points
My eyes narrowed.
The smile on my face vanished instantly.
"Arthur."
I hissed the name.
Arthur Albaclara. The Crown Prince of the Human Empire.
And, more importantly… the wielder of the [Codex of Life].
In the novel, he was the 'Perfect Prince.'
The rival character who was better than the protagonist at everything until the very end.
He had huge backing, the love of the people, and a Codex that allowed him to be quasi-immortal and essentially act as a one-man army.
"Of course."
I stood up, the [Maniac of Slaughter] trait flaring to life, turning my irritation into a cold, buzzing excitement.
I gripped the Miao Dao tightly.
Arthur was probably using his [Law of Life] to purify entire streets at once.
"16,705 points, huh?"
I looked at the horde of zombies gathering at the end of the street, drawn by the smell of the Corpse Giant's blood.
"I guess I need to stop playing around."
I raised my sword. The black mana flared, swallowing the light around me.
"Let's see if you can keep that lead, Golden Boy."
I dashed forward, as if I were a blur of darkness ready to consume everything in its path.
._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._.
A/N: With a heavy heart I must say that until the 9th of February I will take a hiatus because exam season is upon me and I need to lock tf in or I will be beyond cooked ( cuz I did nothin all year till now)
But, when I'll finally be back on ma Birthday for the entire week there will be 2 chapters a day ( if there will still be any people reading this shi by dat time) and after dat we will go to 1 chapter a day before anythin destroys my plans once more
Happy month without me and cya o7