Five minutes before Scenario 2.

  “Dammit! Tonight is what we’ve been waiting for!” someone yelled. “Why are we the ones on guard duty? They’re bodies, for fucks sake. They don’t need guards!”

  “I know, Storth,” another said. “But suck it up. A few hours from now, and the inconvenience of it won’t bother you.”

  “You got a point, but…”

  Jun kept still as the voices tapered off, not risking a single movement that might draw attention. His face remained pressed into the shallow puddle on the ground, unmoving even with someone’s barefoot brushed against his nose.

  They’d been piled into a wagon and brought here once everyone fell asleep, then dumped onto the floor haphazardly. The clink of a key turning in its lock told him all he needed to know about their arrangement. He didn’t open his eyes until those voices had faded completely.

  Then his eyes shot open.

  “Hey!” he hissed.

  He grabbed the body next to him—the young girl from earlier. She wasn’t wearing boots for some reason, and her complexion was inhumanely pale. He nearly panicked when he noticed the ghastly scar on her chest, but it was old and had long since healed.

  “Get up!” he whispered. “We’ve gotta get out of—”

  It was no use. She wasn’t responding.

  She was alive but in a vegetative state. He checked her pulse, then applied pressure to her nail beds, eye ridges, and temporomandibular joints. Still, she didn’t stir.

  So he tried something outside of his ordinary routine.

  Identify.

  ERROR

  Redacted

  Status Effects - Sacrificial Mark

  Sacrificial Mark?

  Jun’s mind raced. Now that he thought about it, an unnatural murkiness hung over her, but what was that error over her name? There was also that strange timer ticking down from three minutes above her head. He checked the other bodies, they were all afflicted with the same sacrificial marks. Then he returned to the girl. Desperately, he gave her another shake—

  She opened her eyes and angrily motioned him to shush, before closing them again. She was completely motionless now. He felt her pulse, and this time it was almost entirely gone.

  What…?

  “You can stop trying,” a new voice said, startling him. “None of these guys are waking up either.”

  “They… aren’t?”

  But she just…

  “No. I think they’re—”

  The man fell silent. Jun froze, flattening himself against the ground. Relief at not being alone quickly turned into horror as footsteps echoed closer.

  “Heard a voice, you said?”

  “Not sure. Things echo a lot down here. Could’ve been anything.”

  The first voice gave a mocking laugh. Jun heard the jingle of keys, followed by the clank of metal against what he assumed were the cell bars. His eyes darted open, locking with the other man’s. In the dim light, Jun knew they had the same thought.

  “Could’ve been anything, you say? Oh quit worrying,” The guard said. He grabbed his sword by the scabbard and prodded the body nearest to him. “See? Out cold. Relax. It’s not like you to jump at every little thing.”

  The guards’ argument grew heated but Jun couldn’t hear their words over the thundering of his heart. The man, a few bodies away, pointed emphatically in his direction.

  It has to be me. I have to do it. But… Can I?

  No, he had to. If he didn’t, then all these people would…

  “Calm down,” the guard said. “I was only jo—”

  Jun sprang to his feet in a mad rush, hooking his arm around the guard’s neck. He squeezed the man’s carotid artery, still unsure of himself.

  “Knew we had rats! You—”

  “Stop!” Jun shouted. “Move that sword even an inch, and I’ll crush his windpipe!”

  Jun saved lives; he didn’t take them. This…was a bluff, right? Was it naive to think they could sort out their differences? He didn’t want to kill these people, and surely they didn’t want that either…

  Which was why it unnerved him all the more when both guards chuckled darkly. The other prisoner unfastened the keys from the guard’s waist. Jun felt the man in his grasp stiffen as a notification flashed briefly before his eyes. Jun tightened his hold almost reflexively, but something felt off.

  Weird… The guard’s neck, it’s suddenly… thin and pointy? Almost like…

  It snapped, twisting 180 degrees until Jun was face-to-face with a fleshless skull. He gasped as it leered at him, then it lunged, trying to snap its jaws between the bars. Jun leaped back as its bony hand reached for a dagger.

  “Shit!”

  Jun’s new friend barely had time to yell out before the skeleton guard swung his knife down. Jun unleashed a beastly Howl.

  Status Effect: Stun

  Two mobs, 24 Awakened have been affected.

  Everyone in his vicinity—himself included—froze. The man’s hands were still at the keys by the guard’s waist; the guard’s dagger was an inch away from skewering him. Sweat collected on Jun’s forehead. Affecting so many targets at once was straining him, yet he couldn’t control the output of his skill.

  “That’s because you’re Attuned,” Alex had told him.

  “Attuned?”

  “To put it simply: you sense Essence too strongly, so you can’t differentiate your Skills’ function from the Mana that powers it. The fact that you’re even perceiving skill-patterns as ‘shapeable’ is proof that your mana output is always full throttle. You need to narrow your focus to just the flow of Mana. You can’t focus on the finer details if you’re constantly seeing the bigger picture.”

  Jun was still shouting. He could feel the threads of Essence lining his throat with power, and Essence emanating from his spirit to enforce his will. Closing his eyes to that felt like closing his eyes to a vital truth of the Universe, but he did so anyway. Then he sensed the soaring river of his mana beneath it, and calmed it to a gentle flow, as he’d spent all of last night figuring out how to do.

  Finally freed, the other man scrambled to his feet, unhooking the ring of keys. He snatched the dagger from the skeleton's frozen hand. Jun himself was still frozen—still strained as his vocal chords burned.

  No, not him! The farther one! He wanted to yell. The man was about to kill the one pressed against the cell bars, but the farther skeleton was the one Jun struggled to contain. His skill’s resistance grew with the distance.

  The farther one! Prioritize him! Get—

  “The farther one?”

  His companion frowned, quickly unlocking the cell door and escaping.

  Kill assisted! An Undead Adventurer has been slain!

  +50 Essence

  +1 point

  Howl’s burden suddenly lightened. Jun touched his throat in shock as he realized he’d stopped roaring. Had he said that aloud? He glanced at his arm, waving it around even while the skill stayed active

  “The cores!” the other man shouted. “You have to go for the cores on these ones!”

  Cores?

  Jun spotted a black sphere in the center of the… undead’s rib cage. Energy swirled there—not just Essence but… some weird sort of mana? The guard twitched beneath him, reaching for his sword so Jun tightened his grip, summoning his own sword from his inventory.

  He… just held it there.

  “Getting nervous now?” the other man asked. “Fine, if you don’t want the Essence—”

  A blue glow emanated from behind them. Both stopped to look as strange tattoos spread across the prisoners’ skin. One by one, they began to levitate before disappearing.

  Distressed, Jun pulled up the notification from earlier, and his concern deepened.

  Mandatory scenario has been triggered.

  Scenario 2 — Night of the Undead

  This wicked town has sold its souls for unfathomable power. Now, they will feast upon yours! Escape the sacrificial ritual! The High Council enlists your help in putting this great evil to rest once and for all!

  Clear Conditions:

  Survive until sunrise.

  Good luck!

  Jun glanced back at the undead guard still wriggling in his grasp. He’d expected something after Alex’s warning, but an “undead”? This guy had been laughing and talking to them normally only moments ago.

  And what about all those people? That girl.

  Jun closed his eyes; her pulse had barely even been there last he checked, and now she had disappeared with all the others. He’d kept trying to subtly warn her, but she’d drunk the water down all in one gulp. It wasn’t like she was the nicest person around, but a teenager? In a place like this?

  “Look, I’m not trying to demean you,” the other man said. He was a well-built man with short, cropped hair and brown skin. “If it’s your first time killing these things, I can do it for you.”

  “Wait,” Jun mumbled.

  “What? You can’t seriously think this guy’s still human.”

  Jun closed his eyes and took a steady breath. The cell behind him wasn’t empty—not completely. He didn’t need to turn to know. Somehow, he could sense their lifeforce—like how he’d used to know when a bad case arrived before the stretcher was even carried through the tent flaps.

  “No,” Jun said. “I don’t think he’s human. But I want to keep him alive for a little longer.”

  They weren’t alone. That thought gave him comfort—confidence in what he was about to do.

  * * *

  Jun and the other man—Ishaan—stepped back from the wall to admire their handiwork.

  “Are you sure this… is a good idea?” Ishaan asked, still catching his breath.

  Jun took a moment to recover before responding. “No, but it’s the only one I have.”

  They straightened themselves, staring at their handiwork in bewilderment and disbelief at what they’d just done. Jun understood these things were out to kill them—they had to defend themselves however they could—but this? This just made him feel weird.

  His hold on the undead wouldn’t have lasted much longer, but rather than killing it, they’d severed its limbs and used some spare chains to bind it. Four chains—one for each limb—and a fifth for the head, which they gagged for good measure. There was no practical reason for that last touch. Jun was pretty sure that between his Howl and all the expletives and curses the undead had spat during the process, anyone who could hear them already had.

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Moving the undead had proven far more difficult than expected for something with so little muscle. Its severed limbs had thrashed about, clawing and scratching at them. By the time they finished, they were so exhausted they settled for tossing its torso into a separate cell and locking it up. Even now, it hurled itself against the bars.

  I’m not sure what I was thinking…

  But how else were they supposed to detain something that could reattach its limbs at will?

  Jun glanced at Ishaan, who looked equally ready to put the whole ordeal behind them. Jun wasn’t squeamish, but he was used to at least wearing gloves when he touched raw flesh. He was happy to step away for the moment, though they were on borrowed time.

  Warning: All those in the underground rooms at the countdown’s end will be killed alongside the sacrificed.

  Time remaining: 57:02

  “I’m telling you, a fool’s errand,” Maria said, shaking her head.

  They headed back to their cell, joining the others who had been faking unconsciousness.

  Maria was a spry and fit older woman with a perpetually disapproving look. The man next to her, Juan, who had also been faking unconsciousness, simply grunted. Yet, from how he’d avoided eye contact with the undead’s moving carcass, Jun guessed Juan’s refusal to help wasn’t entirely from disagreement. He had a stern expression and a bull-like stature, but he seemed to be on the more squeamish side.

  As they sped through proper introductions, Jun noticed something peculiar—many people here seemed to have come from roughly the same geographical region. Then he noticed the fifth figure slumped in the corner of the cell.

  One of them wasn’t taken?

  He knelt, and recognized the woman as Jolyn, one of the people they’d shared a table with earlier. He rolled the somewhat chubby woman onto her side, recalling that she had hardly touched her water. She coughed, stirring sluggishly before whimpering in her sleep.

  She’s not unconscious. Just inebriated.

  Slowly, Jun eased her awake.

  “Where…where am I?” She asked.

  She started to cry, already remembering. He felt a pang in his chest.

  “You’re not alone in this, Jolyn,” he told her. “I’m here with you. And I want to help, but we have to think about what comes next.”

  He wasn’t so sure she’d processed his words.

  “We can’t stay here,” Ishaan pointed out.

  It was the obvious thing to say, yet his words were met with awkward silence. People like Alex, Ishaan, and even that young girl weren’t normal. Most people couldn’t ignore their feelings and press on unless they were in direct danger.

  “We probably can’t,” Jun agreed, “But we need to collect ourselves first, then come up with a plan of action.”

  “A plan?” Maria shook her head. “Christ, son, there are dozens more up there where these came from. What good will a plan do?”

  “That’s just being defeatist!” Juan yelled. Then, as if realizing he’d spoken too loudly, he flushed and mumbled, “I mean… it’s not like we can go on without one…”

  Jun ran Identify on them both. Unlike with Gloomy, it worked since they were both lower level than him, at level five. That was… weird, now that he thought about it. Jun was Level four before all of this started, but Alex had been lower level than him.

  He turned his attention back to the others as Maria went off on Juan for raising his voice at her.

  “We don’t have time for this,” Ishaan said pointedly. “Not for arguing, and not for talking either. Time is ticking down and you saw that announcement. Do you really think we can afford to sit around doing nothing?”

  Jun had worked with these types of people before. His tone sounded harsh, but it seemed like he was genuinely asking. “Yes, I’m certain,” he answered. “That warning said there’d be a penalty for staying here, right? That implies there’s no immediate threat stopping us from doing so.”

  “That’s just guesswork,” Maria muttered.

  “I don’t agree. Think about it; this place emulates a game. It’s obviously not the same thing, but the system follows certain rules. There has to be a way out of this.”

  “Eric…” Jolyn sobbed. “If Eric was here… he could protect… someone, please…”

  No one else addressed the woman as she sobbed harder. Jun crouched beside her, patting her back, talking her into puking the alcohol out of her system.

  “Really?” Maria asked. “Is everyone else just buying this crap?”

  “No, it makes sense,” Ishaan said. “Otherwise none of us would even be alive. They would’ve just slaughtered us if there weren’t restrictions of some sort… And think about the amount of turns we took when they were wheeling us from the guild. It’s gotta be a maze down here. They can’t have every inch of it covered.”

  Jun nodded in agreement as Ishaan started guessing at what exactly those restrictions might be. Juan gradually got less exasperated as time went on, and even Maria seemed to grow more compliant. It was good. But, his stomach felt hollow. If they did this right, they might make it out. But what about the others? What about that young girl—

  “If all this is true…” Juan’s voice had a determined tremor to it now. “What should I do? What can I do to see my family again?”

  The group fell silent at the mention of family. The mood had changed once they started speaking in actionable steps.

  “There’s only one thing to do,” Ishaan said. “We team up, and everyone who is able gets out of here together.”

  Everyone who is able…

  Jun looked at Jolyn whimpering against the floor, feeling angry. But the man wasn’t wrong. Alex’s actions hadn’t been entirely wrong either, however morally corrupt they were. It’s just…

  Jun still remembered that woman at the very start of the first Scenario. He didn’t even know her name, just heard her pleas as she tripped and fell in the dark woods behind him. He’d thought about turning around, but when he remembered his skill stunned him too, he hesitated. In the end, he hadn’t. He hadn’t.

  He flinched as he saw how tight his grip got on Jolyn’s arm, though she was too drunk to notice. He took a quiet breath.

  Okay, let’s calm down. Outbursts solve nothing.

  He’d been distantly paying attention as the others exchanged skills and strategies, catching the occasional nervous glance from Ishaan as he continued nursing Jolyn back to health. She’d finally managed to puke, and a bare trace of lucidity returned to her eyes. “Please…” she croaked.

  I’m not like him.

  “So, Jun, what are your skills?” Ishaan asked cautiously.

  Ishaan Kumar

  Tier 0 - Level 6, Unranked

  Rather than answering, Jun simply commanded his System open and sent everyone his barest profile. Ishaan looked briefly unsettled. Jun didn’t think he was a bad man, but it was clear in his eyes that he saw Jun as a threat to his control of the group. In all fairness, he was. Navigating situations like these wasn’t his strong suit, but if he wanted any say in their actions then he didn’t have a choice.

  Jun Shin

  Tier 0 - Level 8, Unranked

  Class: None

  > Skills

  Howl (Novice)

  Bone Mend (Novice)

  Taunt (Novice)

  “You have three skills already?” Juan exclaimed.

  “Four,” Jun corrected. “I’d like to express my agreement with Ishaan, that we should act sooner rather than later. But our time here isn’t a waste either. We’ll have better odds as a unified group and we still haven’t examined all our options yet.”

  Ishaan narrowed his eyes as Jun stepped into the cell opposite theirs. The undead had been quiet after its initial outburst of muffled expletives, but that changed as soon as Jun removed its gag. “If you cocksuckers think you can torture me, then you’re dumber than I thought! I’m not afraid of death. I’m an undead, and I don’t feel pain you—”

  Jun tuned him out, deep in thought. He had sensed it instinctively when the Metal Knight had rushed him the night before. Alex’s explanation had been beyond oversimplified, and he wasn’t sure the man himself even understood the full extent of which it was. Altering the skill pattern of Howl even slightly had shown him there were infinitely more ways to manipulate Essence than just pushing or pulling.

  He’d been wondering what to do with that knowledge, but now he had an answer. He rested his hand against the skeleton’s fractured body.

  This thing isn’t human, he reminded himself.

  “Wait… No! What are you doing?!” the skeleton yelled.

  Fragments of bone began reattaching to its splintered arm and to its leg nearby.

  “Are you crazy?!” Ishaan shouted. “You’re healing him!”

  In a sense, Jun was. Bone Mend.

  The undead shrieked as its right arm fused to its left foot. Both appendages twitched and jerked in different directions. For the first time, the creature seemed genuinely terrified.

  Achievement unlocked! You have mutilated a monster beyond recognition and without the sweet mercy of death. You have gained an attribute!

  [Joyous Cruelty]

  Mutilation of defeated enemies causes 35% more pain and discomfort!

  Jun flinched at the description. The bodily horror made him want to gag, but he swallowed the feeling and leaned closer in. “Look, maybe you aren’t afraid of death. I don’t want to be heavy handed in my threats, but you still see through those eyes of yours, right? You still hear through your ears? If you don’t want me to seal those shut and leave you down here, please answer my questions honestly.”

  The undead vigorously nodded, and the tension left Jun’s body—but only a little. The next part would be more challenging, as it involved humans.

  People weren’t perfect creatures, Jun knew that. Nobody was born standing on their own two feet. He’d seen the horrors people were capable of under poor circumstances—when they were impoverished and divided—but he’d also seen the good communities could do when brought together. They’d have to do it together if they were to survive this. And by together, he meant all of them.

  So here goes the hard part.

  “If you have a shred of humanity left inside of you, please tell me. Where are you keeping the people you abducted? How do we lift this Sacrificial Mark?”

  Jun felt his companions’ eyes boring into him, judging him. The undead hesitated, then spoke. It laughed—a mocking, grating sound reverberating in Jun’s bones.

  When the laughter subsided, and he told him the information he’d needed, Jun kept his promise. He felt the trace of life extinguish, the same as it had with patients he couldn’t save. These things weren’t human, but there was no doubt in his mind that he had just taken a life.

  An undead adventurer has been slain!

  +100 Essence

  +3 Points

  [Map of Chambers] has been obtained!

  Named Quest has been triggered!

  [Lionheart’s Madness]

  Guild Master Lionheart has cursed the living, imbuing them with the Sacrificial Mark! Only he can complete the ritual. It falls to you to foil his evil machinations!

  Clear Conditions:

  Disrupt the sacrificial ritual. The mark will only disappear upon Guild Master Lionheart’s death or the destruction of the ritual’s formation.

  Rewards: 5,000 Essence Crystals

  Time to Ritual - 31:42

  Accept? Yes / No

  * * *

  Alex’s heart pounded with exertion as he stared at that random blur of darkness in the northern distance. Something’s gone wrong.

  22:09

  The night was silent. Much too silent. They should’ve surfaced by now. His memory of this night was shaky, but he knew that much with certainty. This was playing out differently from before.

  But why? What the hell did I do to cause something like this?

  He didn’t know. Maybe something miniscule—the butterfly effect. Spinning his mind on it was useless. He hadn’t known the future the first time, so what if he didn’t now? Or at least that’s what he’d normally say…

  Stamina: 13%

  Alex’s arms burned as he gripped a roof’s ledge with all his strength. His grip was slipping and the sound of rushing footsteps cut off his darkening thoughts. They came to a sudden stop in the alleyway beneath him.

  “Goddammit!” an undead barked. “You lot go that way! The rest of you head down the other street! I want you raiding all the houses! Figure out where he’s hiding!”

  The sounds resumed, and Alex’s gaze returned below him… to the adventurer who stood just beneath where his feet dangled. His men followed his commands, leaving him... alone.

  Undead Adventurer Level 6 has been slain!

  +100 Essence Crystals

  +3 points

  Points toward next reward: blank

  Alex landed in a crouch where the pile of bones and armor collapsed beneath his feet. He ripped his sword from the crown of the dissipating skull in an awkward, curved arc, then swooned on his feet. His vision blanked.

  Because of me… Three capable people—

  Three cards. He was down the hand he’d been counting on, that was what really mattered here. And he couldn’t say it was because of anything he’d done either. He wasn’t a god.

  Funnily enough, thinking of himself as one had only screwed him over. He should’ve already known he was the only one he could rely on. He’d pegged all his hopes on things outside his control when he should have prioritized himself and been prepared for anything. And now… quite frankly, he was fucked.

  Grimacing, Alex bent down to sift through the ashy remains of the undead adventurer. There wasn’t anything noteworthy—just gear that either didn’t fit or was worse than his, a core that was useless to him, and a few bones for alchemy ingredients, but nothing smith-grade.

  Nothing that could help him now.

  He hid the corpse this time, and as the cacophony of footsteps returned, he ducked out of view. Voices soon carried over to his position.

  “The fuck? Where’s Thomas?!” one snapped.

  “Shit, I don’t know. Maybe he went back to relay orders.”

  “Right, you really think he went back to the captains right after leaving?”

  “I said I didn’t fuckin’ know! If you’re gonna be an asshole about it, why don’t we go back and check? Ever thought about that, Bracho?!”

  Alex waited for the pair to finish bickering and watched as they led a squad of a dozen or so townsfolk back the way they’d come. They’d started traveling in larger numbers since he’d started ambushing them.

  That was the pain of dealing with the undead. They weren’t all smart or all dumb; they were never just one thing. They were as varied as the living, because once, they had been. It made them unpredictable. And dangerous.

  He stepped from his hiding spot and entered one of the houses the undead had already searched.

  Syste—

  Alex froze and drew his sword. He wasn’t alone.

  But as he squinted into the shadows, the sight greeting him wasn’t what he expected.

  In the corner of the room crouched a female undead. Her hair was white and patchy from her cracked skull, but he still recognized her as the woman who had given them flowers when they’d first entered the gate. She growled defensively as she shielded an undead child.

  Lylucius, that was the child’s name. Alex didn’t know how he knew, but he did. He approached slowly, his sword’s crescent point thrumming softly. A distant memory replayed in his mind—the kind you never forget.

  “Do you know why you always need a cleric against the undead?” the priestess once asked him.

  He’d frowned at the question. “Of course. Holy aspect attacks prevent them from rising back up. They aren’t impervious to normal attacks, but anything short of a severed head or shattered core won’t do. Plus, depending on the stat optimization—”

  Laura had shut him up by that point—with a kiss if his memory served him well.

  He pushed the thought away, stepping carefully until he hovered over the undead pair. He poised his blade for a clean strike, and as he saw the fear in their empty sockets, he repeated what she’d told him the day she’d died.

  “It’s a mercy,” he said.

  [Cleanse] activated.