Leveled Up!

Ding! [Warning! A dred is coming your way!]

The robotic voice of the system had a different tone this time, almost as if it carried a hint of worry. As the system's warning blared, the earth trembled beneath Elion, and the surrounding debris began to tumble down.

"D-Dred? How do they know I'm here?" he muttered, scanning his surroundings. "Damn it. The falling rubble will crush me if I don't leave soon."

For a moment, Elion stared at the knife that successfully materialized from his imagination and grabbed it, then he began to crawl back out of the narrow alley, filled with debris, just as he had come in.

Yet, there was one thing he had not thought about—where the Dred would come at him from.

He continued to crawl until a bright light pierced his eyes. The light vanished in an instant, revealing a terrifying figure with a clown face and long, jagged scars around its eyes. The creature's haunting sound echoed in Elion's ears once more.

"Aaah!" Elion screamed in shock as he fell backwards to the ground.

The Dred did not pause for its target to recover. It immediately crawled toward Elion with a sharp knife clutched in its hand.

Seeing that, Elion quickly turned his body and crawled back to his previous spot.

But just as the Dred approached, he seized Elion by the ankle and pulled him back with force. Then the creature lifted its arm slightly, preparing to bring the knife down toward Elion's ankle.

"G-Get away from me!" Elion yelled in fear.

Just as the knife was about to slice into Elion's ankle, he summoned all his strength and kicked Dred directly in the face with his free leg.

Just as he was on the verge of escape, his kick went through the air, missing its target and passing right through the clown's face without making contact.

"W-What?"

Elion was surprised. The system had spoken the truth to him. Fear and negative emotions consumed him, preventing any chance of a successful attack on the Dred.

The monstrous creature stared blankly at Elion's misdirected blow for a brief while. Elion felt a chill run down his spine when a broad smile appeared on its clown face in the next instant. Elion has never seen a more terrifying smile in his life.

Now, the Dred sensed the weight of negative emotions and fear that clung to its target. This suggested that although the Dred could easily inflict pain on Elion, Elion would find it impossible to cause any damage in return.

When Elion saw the thing swing its knife at his ankle again, he quickly thought of what to do. He looked around, then quickly grabbed a small piece of debris and threw it past Dred's head.

The Dred turned to look at the moving objects that fly past the side of its head, momentarily taking its eyes off of Elion.

Elion seized the chance and violently shook his leg until he was free from the Dred's grip. He then crawled away as fast as he could, leaving the strange creature behind.

His knees ached, his hands were scraped and bleeding from rubbing against shards of stone and glass, but Elion didn't care. All he wanted was to escape this terrifying situation and survive.

Elion crawled steadily until he finally came out of the narrow crack in the walled-off alley. With his back turned, he rushed through the city streets.

For the hundredth time, Elion stood before the desolate landscape, doubt creeping into his mind. Buildings torn apart, shards of glass littering the streets, wrecked cars scattered everywhere—endless signs of the world's ruin.

"This is wrong."

Elion stopped his tracks all of a sudden. He shook his head and clenched his hands.

Amidst the ruins of a shattered world, the memories of his life danced vividly in his minds.

Am I going to keep running away from everything? Elion's inner conflict raged.

Elion had never faced his problems head-on.

When his classmates laughed at him, all he could do was lower his head in silence. When his parents divorced, he just sat quietly, blaming himself. Even when his mother abused him, he endured it without a word.

Indeed. In the face of every challenge, he sought refuge in the sanctuary of his own imagination, retreating into a world woven from dreams and fantasies.

In that world, he found liberation from all that had caused him pain. In a world far removed from the harshness of reality, where he had known only rejection, he found himself exalted, revered as a hero among the masses.

In a world completely different from the one that made him weak and constantly escaping from the harsh realities of existence, his mind created a vision where he stood as the mightiest of all beings.

Yet now, the world he had once loathed lay in ruins, and all its inhabitants had disappeared. Even the world of his imagination, which had once offered him refuge, could now take shape in reality.

What was there left for Elion to fear? He had to let go of the past. He needed to embrace the present and confront it with all his might.

The sunset spread its gentle glow over the horizon, gradually dipping below the lovely skyline. The breeze softly touched Elion's face, and at that moment, all the negative emotions and fears he had carried for years began to fade away, swept off by the wind into the endless ocean.

For the first time in his life, Elion experienced the beauty of the world around him.

But soon, a strange noise came from behind him, breaking the peace. He turned slowly and saw the Dred, still looking like the clown doll, standing there with its big grin.

The creature's shoulders grumbled, seemingly mocking Elion, who was destined to become its prey.

But this time, the circumstances had changed. Elion had ceased to tremble in fear. He met the Dred's gaze, his look conveying a depth the creature found difficult to comprehend.

"I've made my decision," Elion stated, firmly holding the knife he had created from his imagination. "I will bring this to an end."

The Dred pulled back in fury, almost as if it got what Elion was saying, its face becoming even more intimidating—like it just heard the worst dad joke ever.

In a flash, they both rushed forward, knives at the ready, like a couple of too enthusiastic chefs in a cooking competition.

The Dred charged directly at its target, while Elion, the intended victim, swiftly maneuvered in a circle around the Dred.

Elion noticed a small rock at his feet, picked it up, and threw it at the Dred with all his strength.

The Dred, believing the rock would effortlessly pass by, chose not to evade it. To its surprise, the rock struck its head forcefully, making it take a step back.

Elion came to the realization that his throw had found its mark, and at that moment, he realized that his negative emotions and fears had genuinely disappeared.

He tightened his fists, a subtle smile forming on his lips.

It was a feeling he had never experienced before—happiness.

The clown-faced creature snarled in anger, charging at Elion with terrifying speed. On the other hand, Elion continued to pick up rocks scattered along the street and throw them at the Dred.

Regrettably, the Dred was skillfully evading each stone, swiftly reducing the gap between them.

Elion, with his short legs and small steps, found it impossible to widen the distance between himself and the Dred, which soon closed in to a striking range.

The Dred grinned again, quickly swinging its knife toward Elion's neck. But Elion didn't give up.

He leaped aside, evading the Dred's strike, and started calculating in his mind—the gap between him and the Dred, the wind's flow, the force required, and the exact angle for his throw.

As his mind engaged more intensely than ever, the world around him appeared to move in slow motion.

"Distance: 2 meters. Dred is moving at 1 m/s toward the east. Wind speed: 3 m/s from the north..." Elion muttered quickly. "Throwing speed and the correct angle: 10 m/s and 17.46 degrees!"

With his body halfway in the air, Elion threw the knife in his hand, sending it flying straight toward the shocked Dred. It pierced deeply into the creature's forehead. At the same time, a loud thud echoed as Elion's body hit the ground.

A peculiar sound emerged from the Dred, which remained motionless with the knife lodged in its forehead until it ultimately fell forward onto the ground.

Silence settled on the destroyed street, with Elion resting there, tired yet satisfied. He paused to catch his breath when, out of nowhere, a system message showed up in the darkening sky.

Ding! [You have successfully killed a dred]

[You have leveled up!] [Lv. 1 → Lv. 2]