A Necromancer's Sacrifices

Cyrus immediately understood her intent and exclaimed, "I'll stall the bear!"

Chu gave him a thumbs up in response and exposed her rotting left arm.

He equipped the starting sword, and they both ran towards the bear.

The bear rammed towards them.

However, as he was about to charge at them, Cyrus changed his trajectory.

He jumped on the bear's back and attacked it with the sword.

'His fur is so tough!' Cyrus frowned.

Only the tip of the sword pierced through.

The amount of damage he dealt appeared on top of the bear's head.

(-6 HP)

Cyrus grit his teeth.

Against ordinary beasts with ordinary Defense, he dealt an average of 12 Damage Points.

However, this was clearly no ordinary beast, as he was only able to deal half of that number to it.

The bear was moving back-and-forth violently, and he would soon lose his footing if he didn't retreat.

Cyrus used the bear's body as a scaffold, and jumped towards a high tree branch, attaching himself to the branch.

He hoped he had attracted enough of the bear's ire towards himself.

Looking up, Chu was close to the clearing.

Just as he sighed a sigh of relief, the bear turned its attention from Cyrus back to Chu.

Cyrus jumped off the tree and landed unstably on the ground.

Then, he ran towards the bear.

Fortunately, its body was the size of a car, so even as it ran, it provided enough surface area for him to attack.

Cyrus made a great jump, and his sword pierced into its claws.

*ROAR*

The bear turned back and rammed into his body like a bull.

However, Cyrus wouldn't let his opponent go by unharmed.

The bear didn't even take time to properly observe him in the midst of its rage, as the entire blade of his sword went through its throat.

(-53 HP)

This attack dealt an astounding level of damage to the bear.

However, it didn't negate the force of the gargantuan bear.

The bear rammed Cyrus into a thick tree, making the latter cough out blood.

He hadn't messed around with the sensory settings, so the pain he felt was at about 80% of the pain he would feel from this same attack in real life.

(-109 HP)

The blood of the bear spilled down on the weak Cyrus.

He only had 11HP left.

'Almost, what a disappointment.'

Cyrus closed his eyes, fully expecting to see the (Respawn) and (Log-out) choices in front of him.

However...

*BAM*

As he didn't feel the heavy fangs of the bear on his body anymore, Cyrus opened his eyes.

A miraculous phenomenon occurred in front of him.

A heavy horse with zombie-like rotting skin and thin mane had attacked the bear.

The bear retaliated, and its saliva and blood intermixed as it fiercely bit the horse.

However, behind it, another ambush had taken place.

Dozens of zombified foxes attacked every inch of its body.

The bear roared out in pain.

"Chu, you did i-

Cyrus stopped speaking when he saw her appearance.

Previously, only her left arm was a mess of rotting flesh and bones.

Now, the entire left part of her body, including her face, seemed to be those of a zombie.

"Cyrus, you've done a great job."

An enraged zombie cat suddenly jumped at the bear, and its fangs pierced the beast's two eyeballs.

The bear's cried turned from fierce to weak, as the stampede of zombified monsters drained away its strength.

Soon enough, the bear dropped to the ground and did not move again.

(LEVEL UP!)

(LEVEL UP!)

Cyrus instantly became Level 5, even though Chu received the most Experience Points since she dealt the most damage.

'Necromancers sure have it though,' Cyrus assumed that her strange appearance was a result of her powers.

"Stop looking at me like that, I hate it too."

He still wanted to ask her how she had such powers despite only being Level 7, but they didn't know each other that well yet.

Then, she took out two pieces of bread from her Inventory and passed him one.

Cyrus needed it desperately, so he thanked her, and immediately wolfed down the food.

Suddenly, the zombified monsters fell to the ground, and Chu did the same.

Cyrus immediately helped her up.

She was looking at the value of her (Decay) stat.

(Decay: 62%)

(62% reduction in Endurance, and 62% Extra Damage from Holy Attacks)

This was bad, but she didn't know how to recover from it.

If it reached 100%, she very well knew that the consequences would be severe.

"Let's go, Berglion should be quite close..." Chu coughed and walked on her own.

Cyrus worriedly looked at her, but then, he simply shrugged, and they resumed their trip after finding that the bear did not drop any loot and that its carcass was too big to fit in their Inventories.

-An hour later-

The two hiked and walked again, resting along the way to eat, and most importantly for Chu, recover her subpar Endurance.

After that monotonous trip, they saw several whiffs of smoke rising up from a spot that was concealed by a hill.

They swiftly climbed up the hill, and in front of them, a peaceful and fortunately, alive village appeared.

This was Berglion, 'The village of the mountain lion' in a local language of the region.

As they walked through a path between farmland and found peasants hard at work plowing the land, they sighed in relief.

Suddenly, a growling sound rang out from Chu's stomach.

She bit her tongue and tried to pretend it didn't happen, but Cyrus very well heard it.

When one was at an extreme level of hunger in real life, it alerted the player in-game through the feeling of actual hunger.

"We've reached Berglion, we can log out now," Cyrus kindly gave her a pretext.

She frantically said, "I ate a lot of rice before coming...I just feel hungry a lot more these days..."

'Rice? She must be well-off,' Cyrus was surprised by this declaration.

The only producer of rice that exported it was the Qinoese Republic.

However, the price of the foreign staple grain was so high no middle-class citizen of the EEF would be able to afford to eat it regularly.

Chu had a guilty look on her face, and quickly said, "I'll log out."

Then, she disappeared.

Cyrus shrugged in confusion and also logged out of the game.

__________

-Kowloon, The World's Slum-

Chu Wang's feeble body rose from the hard futon, and she removed the game helmet from her head.

As she expected, her stomach loudly protested, and her mind wasn't clear from the hunger.

Then, a strange ringing sound came from outside her apartment.

'The water truck is here...' Chu Wang weakly stood up and left the apartment.

The door to the outside of the apartment complex led to a narrow alleyway.

Next to the door, two older men were playing mahjong on a dirty sandstone board.

When they saw her, they whispered something to each other, and one of them laughed out loud.

Chu Wang sighed and made her way out of the alleyway.

The main street was wide, but it was so dirty she did not want to look at it.

The skyscrapers were high, but being over one hundred years old, wear and tear had made the skyline of the island city into a miserable sight.

A large truck parked next to the main street.

Chu Wang approached the truck, and the windows slid down.

"12L of water this week, be quick and fill up your barrel," A middle-aged man sternly said.

She nodded and took a clean barrel and a hose that extended from the truck.

Water poured out into the barrel and stopped when it was half-full.

She put the hose back in its place and was barely able to hold the heavy barrel.

However, no one helped her.

Kowloon wasn't a city where the people helped each other to all become wealthier and happier.

It was simply a battle royale for social ascension, and the fight was a perpetual and omnipresent one.

Chu Wang persevered, however.

As she always did.

After some time, she was able to bring it back up to her apartment.

She couldn't afford the Ration Program anymore, so the only food she had was a dirty jar of processed rice starch.

'I need hot water...' Chu Wang did not have heating.

She filled a bucket with water and left her apartment again.

This time, her destination was the apartment in front of her.

*Knock* *Knock*

The door opened, and a middle-aged woman with tattered clothing greeted her vision.

"WHO IS IT?!" A man's voice reached from inside the apartment.

"IT'S THE SLUT FROM NEXT DOOR!" The woman faced the inside of her apartment and shouted.

Then, she looked back at her with a disdainful face and asked, "What do you want?"

"Can I get hot water, please? I don't have any heating," Chu Wang cupped her hands.

The woman's wrinkles folded together, and she said, "Wait here."

She forcefully took the bucket from her and disappeared.

Then, she came back, but the bucket now had boiling hot water in it.

Chu Wang took the bucket and thanked her, then turned around to leave.

"You only know how to beg."

"That's why your parents left you."

Chu Wang halted her steps.

Her fist clenched on the searing hot metal handle of the bucket.

Nonetheless, she stayed silent and went back to her appartment.

After that, she mixed the brown rice starch with the hot water and drank it in one gulp.

It was disgusting to an incredible point, but she couldn't afford anything other than this starchy water for now.

'When I get the money from the study, I'll buy three months of the Ration Program...'