A chapter full of me just collapsed on the floor
My hands are cut off. Tears are overflowing.
[Stop....! Please stop it...!! It hurts...!!]
Systematic killing. At this point, they didn't even try to keep me alive. I was cornered against the wall in a dark room full of corpses. My corpses.
[Test Subject N-0000 has increased tolerance to having their limbs cut off by 0.0087%.]
A man in a white virus protection suit stood in front of me holding an axe. He held it up and swung it down on my chest.
[Gaaaaaaahhhh!!!!]
Someone.... please save me...
[Sav..e... m-]
The axe struck down on me once again, this time on the head. My body collapsed to the ground with a thud. Everything went black... and I opened my eyes. The me that just died is right next to me. Not just that one body. The room is filled with a mountain of my corpses. All killed in the same way.
[N-no.... Nooooo!!!! Stop!! No moooore!!!]
The man raises his axe again.
[Subject N-0000 has successfully been cloned. Continuing tempering process.]
Hello struck his axe at me again, this time horizontally. My arm got cut off.
[Aaaaaahhhh!!!!]
I cried. I begged. I ran. But no matter how much I do so... nothing saved me.
[Tolerance against limbs getting cut off has been increased by 0.0008%. Continuing tempering process.]
[Nooo!!! Sto-]
This time it was my neck. I couldn't scream anymore. It hurts. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!!!
[A.... s.....to....]
The axe came down on me once more. And once again, I opened my eyes in a new body.
[Subject N-0000 has been tempered 6000 times today using the method of amputation. Daily routine complete.]
It's finally over....
Tears overflow from my eyes.
[Uuuu..... uaaaah...!]
The man turns back to face me.
[Now proceeding to 6000 tempering cycles using the method of burning.]
The man has a flamethrower in his hands. No.... no...!!!
The man blasts fire at me and slowly burns my body.
[Aaaaahhhhh!!!! It's hot!! It's hoooooot!!!! It huuuuurts!!! Nooooooo!!!!]
I open my eyes in a new body. No... stop it.... please....
A wave of heat surrounds my body again. No... stop!!! I said stop!!!!
I run at the man and try to take his flamethrower. I'm a lot stronger than him at this point, so I took it easily.
[Subject N-0000 has started rebelling again. Code T177. I repeat, Code T177.]
I point the flamethrower at the man, tears still overflowing, but before I can shoot it, and electric shock numbs my entire body.
[Aaaaack!!!!]
I drop to my knees and drop the flamethrower. No... if I stop now... they're going to hurt me more... just... no more...!
[Subject N-0000 is showing movement. Tolerance to electric shocks has increased by 2.8%. Double the voltage to incapacitate subject.]
JJIRIRIIT!!
[Kuaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!]
I collapse to the floor. I can't move my body.
[The will to rebel has been detected. Punishment Protocols will be carried out.]
The man grabs me by the hair and drags me out of the room. I can't even scream...
The man drags me into a smaller chamber. No... not this again...!! I try to speak but can't.
No... please, no... not that... anything but that... no.... no...!!!
The man throws me into the room and closes the door. No light can reach the room. I'm in complete darkness.
I can hear the whirring of something. Tears flowed down my cheeks. Ah... not this again...
-------------------
I wake up. Was that a dream...? No, more like just reexperiencing whatheppened back then... Where am I...? Oh. I'm still in that dungeon... I can see the armor that used to be Brukt. It's lost its shine. I look around. Traces of destruction everywhere. Who was that man? He's a complete mystery. He didn't even touch me but he crushed me with some kind of power. Because of that, all the bones in my body are broken. I lost too much blood. It doesn't hurt too bad, and I won't die from this. But I need to get back...
I try to move my body, but I can't. Did that guy do something to me before he left?
That guy... he was strong. I can tell he's a lot stronger than those guys who sealed me... would I have been able to beat him even if I had my full power? How come I didn't know about his existence? Of someone so powerful? I could see everything in the entire universe when back then. Could he be from outside this universe? I had damaged the demon realm, which is in another dimension. The demon realm is a dimension parallel to this universe. My influence even reached the demon realm... he's from even further than that?
For now, I should try to get back home... I try to teleport home. Hm? What...? I can't sink into my shadow? What did he do to me... tsk. Do I have to ask for help? There's nobody here though. Ah, maybe someone will come. It's been a while since the gate formed. Some adventurers or government officials should have come to check it out. I'll wait here.
------------------------
It's been 2 days since Neo went out. He still hasn't come back... is there something wrong? Did something happen to him? I want to go check, but I don't know where he is... maybe I'll go check the guild again.
I close the book I was reading and stand up. I go to our doorstep and put my shoes on. I run to the guild. Neo, please come back already...
After about 10 minutes, I arrive at the guild. I'm a pretty fast runner, after all!
I go into the guild.
[Miss receptionist, has Neo come back yet?]
The receptionist lady, Ella, turns around to see me.
[I'm afraid not, miss Seol-ah. He hasn't come back since he went out a few days ago.]
[Oh... I see...]
I turn around and walk out of the guild.
[Thank you...]
Haah... I feel so worried. Where could he have gone? He's going to come back soon, right...?
-------------------
3 days passed since I woke up. Nobody has come. Damn it. Well, what did I expect. I can't rely on others. I tried a lot of things over the past few days, but nothing I did helped me move.
Hm? I hear a sound. Somebody is coming. Hopefully they can get me out of here. I can't talk because I can't move at all. Hopefully they'll see me...
A few people come in. They're dressed in white. They look like commanders of an army... 3 of them. 1 female, 2 males. One of them has light yellow hair reaching down to her lower back. Her bangs are trimmed so they don't cover her sky blue eyes. She has a sword on her side, and she's got a gun on the other side. She has quite the body. Like that of all model. Her breasts are shapely even over her military-esque outfit that normally doesn't help show it. The outfit has gold and red lines highlighting the white fabric with one of those shoulders pads on each shoulder. And then there are the two other guys, one has deep blue hair and is smiling innocently. He's tall and has a bunch of guns on his waist. But he gives off a bad feeling. He looks like someone who would stab my back. The other guy is even taller than the blue one. Well over 6 feet tall, and I can tell he has a lot of muscle. His clothes are tight on his chest and arms. He has short brown hair, and he looks a bit stupid.
Well, I don't care who they are. Get me out of here first...!
I try to say something, but I'm still paralyzed and can't move my mouth.
[Wow~ what happened here? There's so much blood everywhere~ but those knights earlier didn't have any blood. The insides were empty. Was there a person here? They must be dead~]
The blonde girl looks really relaxed as she says that. Her voice is high but soothing. She's turning her face my way. Yes, a bit more and- oh. She turned her face the other way. I'm currently on the corner of the room, so they can't see me unless they turn this way.
[Tch. I wanted something to fight, but everything here is already dead! Who the heck did this? If I catch them, I'm gonna smash their teeth in.]
The brown brawn just said something savage. He looks like a battle maniac. His voice makes him sound like one too.
[Now, now~ if you find them, wouldn't it be more fun fighting them fairly since they're strong enough to do all this?]
[You're right... but works come first. We need to investigate this place first.]
[Yeah, yeah. S ranks dungeons are important and all, but this one is so uneventful!]
S-rank dungeon? This place? The monsters were pretty easy... but the boss was hard. Are all S ranks dungeons like this? If this is really an S ranks, it looks like I'll be getting a lot of money when I return.
Hm? The blue haired one... he looked this way! Is he going to come-
[Heh.]
.....! He's sneering. I knew it. I had a bad feeling about him. He just turns his head away and ignores me.
[Our job is just to return with the basic layout of the dungeon, so our job is done. Brunheart, it's go back~]
[Ugh, I was expecting some action... let's go, Jin.]
The blue haired one turns away and leave with his group. So the blue haired on is Jin, the musclebrain is Brunheart, and... I didn't catch the girl's name. Anyways, they just left after investigating the site a while. That Jin just pretended I wasn't here and left. Haah... what did I even expect. They're humans, after all. I shouldn't have relied on help in the first place. The world is full of guys like him. I'll need to rely on myself. But what can I do...? I can't render any shadow energy, ki, mana, chakra, or anything else.... okay then. Let's try to find out what that guy did to me. I close my eyes and look into my internal structure. I see a bunch of interweaved energy circulating in my body. Let's see... ki tends to gather in a medium called dantian in my body... hm... nothing seems off. And then chakra... my Chakra points are fine. And then mana... my mana is circulating normally too. Shadow energy doesn't circulate, it just stays at rest within my body.... all my other energies are working fine. What's the problem..? ...! Could it be... did he disconnect my nerves from my brain? That's very plausible. If that's what he did, how do I undo it... ah, I know. I can't use any energy, but I can slow down it's circulation in my body. When the flow Chakra slows down, it sends a signal to the brain that makes people faint... I'll try that. If I do that, I'll at least be able to connect my Chakra to my nerves. If I do that, then there's one gateway open between my brain's signals and Chakra. I'll be able to use Chakra then and I can move my body.
I close my eyes. I slow down the flow of my chakra... slower... okay...
Everything goes black. I'm fainting again... I haven't gone unconscious in such a long time. When I was in that seal, I was awake the whole time since the time for my physiology is suspended. After that, I haven't slept at all... so maybe this isn't bad. I normally just close my eyes and rest my body, but I can just... do nothing...
I wake up. I've been out for a while. Maybe a few hours? Well, now that my chakra sent a signal to my brain, a connection has been forced and I can use my chakra to force my body to move. I slowly stand up... phew.... I can move now. I can't teleport home since my authority over shadow isn't working right now... I'll have to walk home. It's very far, though... at least I can use some jutsu to boost myself.
I weave some handsigns.
[Glacier Transmutation.]
A gigantic slide of ice is made. It leads to outside the dung- wait... if Brukt was the boss, the gate must have closed, right? Then the gate outside must have... no. Those three commanders came in. There must be a kind of backdoor. I need to locate it.... I'll just go around looking for it. I ca,not run too fast because my legs and bones are damaged. I walk around the dungeon, looking for a way out. Haah, this is a pain in the butt....
-------------------
I'm Jin. I've always been different as a child. Most children would love to hear stories with happy endings. I, on the other hand, preferred tragedies where everyone dies. Stories don't truly end when the main characters are alive. When there's a happily ever after, the ending is just an indefinitely suspended story. You don't know what happens to them afterwards. It's just a "happily ever after." But when they all die... that's when the story ends. There's nothing to wonder about. They're dead. Death is the definite end. And when people are at the doorstep of death... ah, how marvelous it feels! When people die, you can see fear etched into their eyes... pleading for help. Ah, it feels amazing when I abandon them to die. It feels wonderful seeing them despair. Maybe I might be crazy. That's right, I'm crazy. I'm sick in the head.
Right now, I'm in an S-rank dungeon with my allies Brunheart and Sharon. For some reason, all the monsters in here are dead.
[I wonder why they're all dead~?]
Sharon is as laid back as ever. Ah, I forgot to explain. We're commanders who directly serve his majesty, the king of Argon. S-rank dungeons are too dangerous for normal people to investigate, so the king sent us to see what it's about. The gate was even larger than a normal S ranks gate.
[Sharon. I think that's the boss room.]
There's a huge gate. It's slightly open. Did something happen?
We go in to investigate..
[Wow~ what happened here? There's so much blood everywhere~ but those knights earlier didn't have any blood. The insides were empty. Was there a person here? They must be dead~]
This much blood... there's too much for it to be from just one person.
[Tch. I wanted something to fight, but everything here is already dead! Who the heck did this? If I catch them, I'm gonna smash their teeth in.]
Brunheart is being as brutish as usual.
[Now, now~ if you find them, wouldn't it be more fun fighting them fairly since they're strong enough to do all this?]
[You're right... but works come first. We need to investigate this place first.]
[Yeah, yeah. S ranks dungeons are important and all, but this one is so uneventful!]
They sure are taking it easy. I look around the boss room. Blood everywhere, the floors has a bunch of craters in it, and few pillars are broken, and there's some empty golden armor...
I turn around. Huh? Is that... a dying person? Hahaha!! Lucky me. I get to have the pleasure of leaving them to die!
I sneer and turn away, pretending not to have seen him. That guy... he's as good as dead. He looks like a corpse. He'll probably die in a few minutes... hehe.
After investigating for a while, we turn back.
[Our job is just to return with the basic layout of the dungeon, so our job is done. Brunheart, it's go back~]
[Ugh, I was expecting some action... let's go, Jin.]
I smile and follow them out of the boss room. So long, nameless, dying man. You've given me the pleasure of abandoning you. For that, I thank you.