Carl paced back and forth in the alley, waiting for someone. It was already nighttime, and the street was deserted. Two days ago, he had ordered three packs of cigarettes from a delivery service—he couldn't buy them directly from the store because he was underage.
"Huh, where is that delivery person? He said he'd meet here at eight, but it's almost half past nine and he still hasn't shown up!" Carl hugged himself, feeling a chill, until a loud thud outside the alley caught his attention.
The man walked forward slowly, and as he got closer, he could hear strange sounds outside the alley. There were sounds of cracking bones and also sounds like someone chewing meat. Carl swallowed his saliva quietly, peeking from behind the wall, his eyes widening as he saw a human body being torn apart and two strange monsters devouring the flesh with savage ferocity. Carl looked down near the body being eaten by the monsters—a plastic bag containing cigarettes lay on the ground. He immediately backed away when he realised the man being eaten by the two monsters was the deliveryman delivering his goods.
Carl covered his mouth as he hid behind the wall in fear. He hoped the two monsters would leave quickly, and he could return home safely. Unfortunately, Carl didn't know that the demons had an extremely sharp sense of smell. Carl closed his eyes and prayed to God; he had to flee immediately after the two monsters left the area.
"This one looks tasty!" At that moment, Carl suddenly startled and opened his eyes. With their large, fatty bodies, big eyes—though only one—and numerous fangs, the two monsters were now beside him.
Steven walked along the road carrying a wooden stick in his hand. The area around here was deserted because this place was known to be dangerous. The ball system detected something; he found a spot where there were demons nearby.
"Aaah… Please let me go!!" Carl crawled backward as the two demons crawled toward him, drooling as if they were about to eat him. His body collided with the wall, leaving him unable to retreat further. Now cornered, Carl could only cover his face in fear as the demon leaped toward him with its sharp teeth and claws.
Srass…
A silent slash, only a spatter of blood reaching Carl's face. The man slowly opened his eyes, initially seeing a vague figure of a man standing tall, holding a sword in his hand after dispatching the two monsters.
"Steven?" The man called out, turning to look at Carl, who was still crouching in fear and now seeing him. Steven didn't seem to care; after all, this man was the one who had bullied the original owner of this body to the point of wanting to commit suicide. Coldly, Steven turned away without acknowledging Carl. As he walked, he opened the point system and asked the system ball,
"What level is this Demon?" The system opened the statement column and explained.
"This is a Level 2B Demon, sir. You earned 33 points after killing two Demons at once. Your total points, after deducting the sword item, are now 4 points." Steven still felt it wasn't enough. He walked away to find another Demon and increase his remaining points.
Carl saw Steven walking away, so he quickly got up, called out to him, and followed him.
"Wait! How did you do that? What kind of creatures are they?" Carl asked while following Steven. The man felt too lazy to answer and just kept walking. Carl looked back at the corpses of the two monsters and felt scared. Then Carl grabbed Steven's hand, making the man stop.
"That… if you'd take me out of here, I'd be very grateful," Carl said, though he was too proud to admit it. But he didn't know if there were more monsters around. Now his hope for survival depended entirely on Steven.
"No way…" Steven shook off Carl's hand and continued walking away.
"Wait! I don't want to die here, I won't bother you anymore! No, from now on I'm your subordinate." Carl shouted while kneeling. He owed Steven a huge debt of gratitude.
Ting!...
"Additional mission! Open a martial arts and sword fighting course, then teach them all! You will earn 150 points." The system notification sounded again. Steven pressed the "understand" button, then propped his chin up with his hand and looked at them all lazily.
"Do you want to eat my bento?" Carl came over and offered him his lunchbox.
"I told my parents about what happened yesterday. Hearing that, they became worried and now spend more time at home. Before, they would only come home at night and leave early in the morning. Oh, they want to meet you to thank you." Steven glanced at the bento, then took a rice ball and ate it.
"Thank you! But I can't go to your house." Steven stood up and was about to leave the classroom. However, he paused for a moment, then turned back to approach Carl, who was sitting and eating his bento.
"You… Are you interested in learning sword techniques and martial arts?" Carl, who was biting into his grilled meat, was startled by Steven's question.
Gulp!
Carl swallowed his food and fell silent, deep in thought. Steven saw Carl looking hesitant and immediately turned around and left him.
"If you don't want to, it's okay." Seeing Steven walking away, Carl quickly stood up and shouted,
"WAIT!"
"I WANT TO! I WANT TO LEARN SWORDSMANSHIP AND MARTIAL ARTS!" The shout made the entire class look at them. The whole class was stunned, and some even laughed when they heard that Carl wanted to learn swordsmanship and martial arts from Steven.
"Why are you laughing?! You might not know that yesterday he fought two monsters at once. Now the world is getting more dangerous; we have to train to be strong if we want to survive!" They looked down on Steven and went back to their usual activities, ignoring Steven and Carl's words.
"I want to sign up!" Amidst the chaos of laughter and mockery, a brown-haired girl sitting in front raised her hand.
"Emely?"
"You accept female students, right?" Emely smiled confidently as she approached Steven. Steven rolled his eyes lazily at Emely. Steven hated women, especially since the last time he died, it was because he was killed by a woman.
"Master, just accept Emely. Even though she's a woman, she's from the sports club and also very intelligent." Steven sighed heavily. The minimum requirement for forming a club was three people, excluding Steven. If he accepted Emely now, it would be two. But he was still one person short.
"Can I join too?" Someone stood outside the door, raising their hand. A silver-haired man who wasn't one of the students in this class volunteered.