As they were about to leave the dorm building, Aiya glanced at the downpour outside and hesitated for a long time before finally speaking:
"U-uhm... B-Boss…"
Kai glanced sideways at her and corrected, "Kai."
In the apocalypse, the word "Boss" was overused.
Sounded just like all the "President Wang" and "CEO Liu" from before the world ended.
He hated it.
Aiya quickly adjusted, "Kai-senpai… earlier, Council President Qi Feng mentioned the rain might be... weird...?"
"Mhm." Kai responded offhandedly and stepped straight into the rain.
"…"
The wire was still looped tightly around Aiya's neck, so she had no choice but to follow him.
Into the storm.
The rain was heavy.
Yet oddly enough, Aiya noticed something strange—despite how hard it poured, it didn't hurt at all.
More surprisingly, it wasn't even cold.
In fact…
It felt warm?
Not like the water itself was warm—but rather, being in it made her feel a strange internal heat.
Like she'd just watched an epic war movie and her blood was pumping.
And then, around ten minutes later, she noticed her stat panel:
All four attributes had jumped above 4.
But instead of joy, she only felt dread.
Kai also glanced at his own panel—
[Kai]Level: 0 (0/10)Strength: 9.2Constitution: 8.5Agility: 8.7Spirit: 9.1
Talents: Fireball, Small Fireball (F), Constitution Boost (F), Strength Boost (F), Diamond Shield (B), Invisibility (B), Anti-Magic Field (S), Blood Refining Secret Technique (S)
Explosive growth.
No wonder people rushed out into the rain despite being warned—it was just too tempting.
Too bad this boost... was temporary.
Once the rain stopped, everyone who got soaked would be hit with a Debuff that reduced all stats to 0.1.
Basically paralyzed.
But Kai wasn't worried.
He had a way to bypass the debuff entirely.
So with Aiya leashed by a wire, he headed into a grove.
Rain pouring. Wire tight.
Aiya was panicking more with every step.
Sure, Kai was good-looking. Strong. Carried an air of mystery.
But she didn't want her first time to be with someone she had zero emotional connection with.
That wasn't intimacy—it was violation.
She'd rather die than lose her dignity that way.
She braced herself. Ready to fight.
Then Kai glanced around the grove and said, "Raise your hand."
"…Huh?"
Confused, she hesitated, then slowly lifted her right hand.
She was small-framed, her arm thin and pale.
Her fingers trembled in the rain.
Kai stepped forward, grabbed her hand.
She flinched hard—ready to scream, ready to struggle.
Then—
A sharp pain.
He'd sliced her palm open.
Blood gushed, pooling in her hand.
Kai frowned, shielded her palm from the rain with his own, then tossed a rock into the distance.
"Use your talent. Now!" he barked.
"Wha—okay!" Aiya instinctively obeyed.
Then blinked.
"…Wait, how do you know what my talent is?!"
She had never told anyone. And her ability… wasn't exactly wholesome.
Kai didn't answer.
She didn't have time to push—because suddenly:
Buzz. Buzz. BZZZZZ.
A terrifying sound came from the trees.
"Wasps! You hit a wasp nest!!" she screamed.
She turned to flee.
But the wire held her still.
Kai didn't move. So she couldn't either.
The furious swarm buzzed toward them—
Then veered off course.
Every wasp zeroed in on her bloody hand.
Aiya had mild trypophobia.
So when her palm got swarmed, she nearly passed out.
Her face went pale. Her brain emptied.
She was losing too much blood.
Blood Curse Technique—a talent Kai considered extremely useful.
Just... kind of a blood hog.
Thankfully, it wasn't his blood being used.
He watched her calmly, letting her talent do its work.
Meanwhile, he opened the global chat.
People were busy talking about international murderers—players who had been added to the Slaughter Rankings, now drawing hate and fear.
He didn't bother checking the Level Rankings—too fake.
But the Slaughter Rankings… now that was interesting.
He saw three familiar names:
Bakanov: previous wielder of Death's Grasp. A pure-blood killer.
August: previous owner of the Slaughter Ring, an item that turned kills into stat or skill points.
Yui Terao: wielder of the terrifying S-tier talent Fate Well, which drained life in an instant.
Even if she didn't look it, Kai had no plans to face her anytime soon.
These three would likely rise again, just like last time—climbing to the top through sheer slaughter.
Then—
A global announcement rang in everyone's mind:
[Ding! Congratulations to player Bakanov for becoming the first player in the world to reach Level 2! All attributes +2 as reward!]
[Ding! Congratulations to player Bakanov...]
[Ding...]
Three times in a row.
The chat exploded:
"WHAT?! I thought the level cap on Day One was Level 1!"
"Who is this Bakanov guy? He wasn't even on the boards earlier!"
"Wait—I remember! He was Slaughter Rank #892 earlier!"
"Nope—he's shot up. He's now Level Rank #1, Slaughter Rank #618!"
"Jesus! That's a real boss!"
"Yo, share the leveling secret, bro!"
"I'm guessing he's just been... killing nonstop since this started. Think leveling up is tied to murder?"
And with that—
The chat went quiet.