She walked in through the door with her eyes cold as ice and gaze at the floor.
They looked at her with shaking eyes and pale skin while a single scream played in the background.
"Where were you?!" Taewoon asked, dressed in bloody clothes.
Beside him was a bloody puddle and a girl screaming in pain while holding her bandaged arm.
"We almost lost two this time when you were out! What were you even doing in the last 5 hours?!"
Harin's hair glowed subtly, not visible to those not paying attention to it. a strange mist was being let out without anyone noticing.
"It was nothing." She said with a soft smile but his expression instantly worsened at her reply.
"Huh? What do you mean it was nothing?! Do you jot understand the situation we are in?!"
"Yeah, it was nothing." She answered before going to the screaming girl lying on the ground.
"Hey, I'm not done?!"
Besides her were two bags of food painted in blood from her now gone arm, replaced by bandages.
Harin bent down next to her and faced her as the mist continuously flooded the room without anyone noticing.
The screams she let out stopped to give room for words and shortly after, her eyes began glowing similarly to the color of the mist.
"We were holding each other's hands… then it came…"
"Can I have the extra food, please?"
"Yes…"
Harin took the bag of canned food and stood up while leaving the girl in a daze, unable to say anything, simply staring with a void in her lit-up eyes.
+
[Skill 'Otherworldly Mist' is active.]
+
'She won't do anything after being exposed to this much mist, not to mention that huge wound entry through her cut-off arm...'
She looked at the motionless girl's bandaged arm that dripped with blood.
'It's the skill I awakened while exposed to my little sister's mist after all.'
An angry shout came from behind.
"Hey, I'm talking to you!"
Harin turned to face him, and to her gaze, she was met with countless suspicious stares.
"What the hell happened to her while she was out of the safe zone…"
"She's acting so cold…"
"Do you think she's the ally?"
"Don't be ridiculous!"
Countless whispers filled the room and the minimal candlelight reflected dreadful eyes.
She felt as if the air in her lungs became heavy and her joints turned stiff.
"What happened to you when you were out?!" He said.
The other students either had their mouths at each others' ears or had their attention on what words would come out next.
'I had a positive public image so far.' She thought.
'Even though they're quite suspicious of me right now, I should still be able to use my mist and the past image they have of me to change that.'
The mist moved at the end of her thought process and filled the room, piercing through the students' wounds, grazes, and even skin pores.
+
[Blood level is nearing a dangerous threshold.]
+
But the more mist she let out, the paler her skin became. Standing alone had slowly become difficult and her mind steadily turned numb.
'It's consuming way too much blood… I need to finish this quickly.'
Putting strength into her legs, she tried her best to keep the side effect of her skill unnoticed.
"Harin, I'm just trying to keep you safe, but you're not making this easy for me!" He whispered into her ear.
He grabbed her shoulder as he spoke, his skin was dry and his hands were shaking as if he had yet to eat anything.
"You can trust me, I won't betray you."
But while he spoke, her eyes were on something else.
His clothes were bloody but there were no visible wounds on him, yet he breathed heavily.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
'Inhale more mist. only then will I answer you.'
"Well, if you must know…" She whispered back.
"I'm here for you, trust me."
She opened her mouth and voiced her answer for everyone to hear.
"If you want to know where I was, then I'll tell you." She let out a voice that echoed in the empty room.
"I found out who the monster's ally is, who the traitor is!" She said.
Everyone's ears perked up and the subtle whispering completely dispersed. Harin let her words run amidst the total silence guided by the mist.
'The best way to villainize someone…"
Drawn in their eyes she saw a lust for blood, a witch hunt.
'Is to draw them as the worst of the worst.'
Then someone stood up from within the students, his words filled the room after hers. it seemed as if someone had finally clicked within the students.
"Who is it?!"
one by one, they all stood up while a subtle glowing effect shone in their eyes, like an overlay.
"Tell us!"
"Who's the traitor?!"
Bloodthirsty screams filled the room.
'And what's worse than someone whose mere existence is threatening your very livelihood?'
Like a cult, their feet stomped on the ground repeatedly.
'When you sat there and watched others die in a flash of a second… When you don't know if it would be you who dies next… Can you really not villainize the person threatening your life?' She gripped her calloused hand hard.
"Remember the three who suddenly came here not so long ago?!" She shouted.
"It was them! They are the traitors! They are the ones who killed your friends!"
'The worst crime, or at least one of the worst crimes against others.'
"They betrayed us for their own good!"
The students appeared like angry farmers holding pitchforks and lit-up torches in the 1700s, standing before Harin who resembled the Lord of the land.
Their voices shook the walls and their stomps simulated an earthquake, but then someone's hand grabbed her arm with force.
"Harin! What's the meaning of this?!" Said Taewoon.
Harin turned around, and to her shock, Taewoon stood there, barely holding on as he clutched his head in pain.
"You're holding on pretty nicely for someone who isn't physically talented. Do you perhaps test drugs for your dad?" A little smile took shape while her eyebrows arched downwards and her eyes shook.
"What…?"
"I'm sorry, Taewoon, but can't you just sleep for a while?"
"What are you saying?"
His shaking hand barely put any pressure on Harin's arm as she swept it out of his grip.
Harin grabbed something from her jacket's pocket, it was a can opener with a particularly old design.
'Just a small wound would suffice.'
Its sharp blade swiftly traveled and launched itself into his forearm.
"Agh? You! Why?!" Incomprehensible words left his mouth in the form of a scream.
The other students looked at him with terrifying gazes, glowing in a bright red, as if countless devils surrounded him.
"Join us!"
"One of us!"
"Do not stand in our way! Join, or die!"
They crept up to him, surrounding him.
His spine shriveled in terror and his veins and limp muscles convulsed in pain from pushing them away to no avail before he eventually fell backward.
Some laughed, others shouted in disdain, and some pinned him down as they pushed down on his limp arms and legs.
"It'll be over quickly, so don't resist. Alright, Taewoon?"
"One of us! Haa… Haa?"
"One of us!"
"Why…?" His last words before his eyes closed faded within the others' heavy ventilating noises before opening again in a bloody red hue.
Harin collapsed down as the world spun around in circles. Her stomach growled in pain and her skin looked pale as snow.
"Haa? I'm almost going to pass out from blood loss…"
+
[Your targets have succumbed to the effects of 'Otherworldly Mist'.]
[Blood levels have reached a dangerous level. Please replenish your blood before continuing with using the skill.]
+
'I haven't even used it for that long and I'm already in this state…'
She looked at her blood-ridden hand, it was as pale as snow that any veins beneath the skin were visible with barely any blood running within them.
Taewoon got up after he succumbed to Harin's mist. Joining the rest of the students, his eyes glowed like them in a bloody red hue surrounding emotionless pupils resembling a void.
Taewoon knelt on one knee and held up his arm to Harin.
"Blood."
Blood dripped from the deep cut caused by the old blade.
"Pfft? I'm not a vampire. That's not how I regenerate, so, just hand me the can opener back."
He went and grabbed the can opener from the puddly floor before handing it over to Harin as ordered.
'I wonder why he seems so different from the other ones…' She thought as she took one of the cans out of the plastic bag.
The old can opener's blade slid right through like butter.
'The others are practically drooling and acting like zombies. But him? He's… more refined?'
Grabbing one of the plastic spoons in the button of the bag, she took a spoonful and started eating while surrounded by mindless living versions of zombies.
+
[You have consumed food.]
[Due to the effect of 'Otherworldly Mist', conditional regeneration will take effect.]
+
Screens popped up in front of Harin and looking down, she saw her pale hand that once resembled snow slowly turn red.
'It's nice to have the sensation in my hands back.' She thought as she continued eating.
The more she ate, the redder her hands, arms, and face became.
Blood ran in vividly in her veins, bringing colors back to her otherwise sun-ridden skin. But, even though the blood she lost was regenerated at hyper speed, the cuts, wounds, and bruises on her didn't heal.
'Fascinating. It's just like the game screen said…'
Her hand drew lines in the air, making a specific gesture, and soon after, a blue screen appeared out of nowhere in front of her.
+
.
.
?Skills (1/1):
- [Otherworldly Mist]
Type: active skill.
Explanation: release mist made out of your own blood imbued with different limited properties.
Buff: hyper-speed blood regeneration upon food consumption (Any wounds will not be healed using this buff and will have to heal naturally or by other means).
+
"Yurim… Just wait a little longer."