Suspicious Talent

"Corrupted Other Side of the Moon?" Ten whispered, while staring at that particular statement.

The sentence was unsettling even after it left Ten's head and was released with word of mouth. This greatly reminded Ten of some cultivation novels he had read over the years…. Where the protagonist would harvest souls to cultivate an evil technique.

Ten wasn't shaken by the thought of an evil talent, but the glaring words, Corrupted, was too unsettling. If he went ahead to activate the technique would he be corrupted? After all, the talent was described as the Corrupted Other Side of the Moon, meaning the talent itself might very well have an affinity with Corruption.

On the other hand, Ten was not sure about the full meaning of Corruption in this context…. Off the top of every wuxia novel he had read including the story of a particular transmigration guru who had transmigrated into an alternate victorian world, Ten was greatly disturbed by the word CORRUPTION.

"Of course the Corruption could simply be a wordplay to add badassery to the description?" Ten murmured, rubbing his palm on his forehead.

Then his eyes swept back to the clown who revived that feeling of cold nothingness surrounding him and an unforgiving disturbing feeling at the bottom of his gut while he had watched IT.

"Wishful thinking." He added, while looking at the two colored eyes of the mysterious clown.

He ignored the large activate now sign at the end of the information, and left the template for his talent.

On his way to enter the chat screen, the banging of his door made him jolt. Ten craned his neck to the door upon hearing the loud knocking on his door.

"... This is?" He thought aloud, fresh tension rising from the bottom of his chest.

Was it a potential danger that was behind the door? Naturally Ten straight up thought of the worst case scenario as the knock continued. He remembered the system called itself the Universal Survival Games system…. The keywords Survival was too glaring to anybody with a desire to live.

If he really had a Survival Game system in his head, who was to say the "Survival Games" hadn't begun? Ten was having creative thoughts of what was behind that door if he dared to open it. He could just wait it in here till the knocking stopped?

At that thought the child-like voice of the system echoed in his head— "The first mission will begin in a few minutes, all doors have been forcefully opened to push forward the progress of the first scenario."

"...." Ten was dumbstruck by the sudden development of things. "Fuck off…." He couldn't even muster the strength to add the kind of grievance he was feeling to his words.

The illusionary template in his sight disappeared right after those words.

"...." Ten was not amused.

The doors really opened. There was a creaking sound of old metal resounding in the room as the door opened. Ten felt his heart skip a beat, he remembered there was a chainsaw by the side of the door, but the chance to grab it had long passed with the door already opened.

At the other side of the door was a man. The man was so much larger than Ten was, bulging muscles constricted by the military outfit he was putting on. He had a crew cut, his hair almost gone completely by the cut close to balding his head. He had a dastardly cut scar on his cheek down to his neck.

What stood out about him was the illusionary miniature template with the words—

Player: Dunne Reyes

Level: Fifteen

Talent: UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS

"Why didn't you open the door just now?" The man with a gruff voice asked.

Ten was taken aback by the question. "The door was jammed." The words came out fluidly without much thought.

To Ten's surprise the man didn't say anything, simply walking away like he hadn't just been banging on Ten's door like no tomorrow.

Ten astounded walked forward, eyes wide at the scene outside his room. He was definitely no longer in Maryjane's apartment building.

Everywhere was painted white. The space was wide with only a single pillar which held a plasma television at four corners. The space was packed with strange people Ten had never met in his entire life.

Above their heads was the same miniature template, holding similar information of their names, their level, and their Talents being unauthorized as well.

Strangest thing was all of them were focusing on the same thing. Watching what was shown on the screen.

Below the scene on the television on a red stripe was a few words like— Rank F of Tales by moonlight mission.

'Tales by moonlight mission?' Ten watched the characters on the television.

On the screen were several people banded together in a circle, each backing each other, probably because their eyes were on the horde of people that resembled villagers that had them cornered.

Anyone could tell villagers were not human by first glance. They had patches of white scales on their obsidian skin.

As they matched forward despite being blown into bits and pieces from shotguns of some of the players, they sang a solemn, eerily beautiful hymn.

"Praise the sea,

Praise the beloved daughters of the sea,

Praise the water goddess."

The hymn was short and monotonous but there was something eerie and disturbing about it, especially coming from those almost human villagers.

Some of the players got down on their knees, clutching their hair, and pulling it, their skin slowly changing into an obscene paper white. Some even pulled out a bundle of their hair along with chunks of their flesh.

Ten, although feeling uneasy by this scene that he thought reflected his future, was not disgusted nor was he disturbed. Perhaps it chalked up to his fear of the unknown evil rather than the evil before your eyes…. These kinds of horrific images had been the highlights of his dreams since childhood.

"Players, get ready to begin a mission". The child-like voice of the system said.

Suddenly the scene changed. On the screen was written in bold red letters—

New players: "Survive your very first mission."

Ten had no time to register the words on the screen, when the illusionary template returned to his sight, some words were written with bold prints—

New players: "Survive your very first mission."

The shocking thing was the statement was canceled by a black line, and there was another statement underneath that one.

Player Ten: "Destroy the 3000th Otherworld evil— Lady of the Red Shoes."

Ten's heart swayed from those few words he saw. "What the fuc—?!"

The words were cut short as a bright red light fell upon him, blinding his sight.