[You Have Died.]
Kenmei Isayama sat up on the couch, clutching his chest, his face twisted into a mask of pure agony. He looked like he had just seen a ghost. It wasn't until he patted his chest and felt his ribcage intact that he collapsed back onto the cushions, breathing a heavy sigh of relief.
"What the hell... was that?"
Closing his eyes, the scene from moments ago replayed in his mind. Kenmei hadn't really seen anything—just a blur of shadow rushing him from behind in his peripheral vision.
The sickening crunch of twisting bone and tearing flesh had flooded his brain. Before he could even process the attack, he had looked down to see a gaping hole blown through his chest.
Then came the sensation of his insides being rummaged through. Thanks to that anonymous "Good Samaritan," Kenmei had gotten a front-row seat to see exactly what his own beating heart looked like.
Heh. It actually popped like a water balloon.
It was decidedly not a pleasant experience. Even though he didn't die in reality, the excruciating pain and the despair of those final moments were simulated with perfect, high-definition clarity.
The last frame frozen in Kenmei's memory was a blood-drenched hand reaching through his chest, ripping the heart out, and crushing it.
His brain had practically short-circuited. Even now, as his consciousness returned to the real world, he subconsciously expected to find a massive cavity in his torso.
But here was the million-dollar question:
It was currently 11:08 PM. There were fifty-two minutes left before his two daily entry attempts refreshed.
Should Kenmei go to sleep?
Or should he keep grinding this masochistic, broken game?
He was exhausted...
But as the thought crossed his mind, he already knew the answer.
Kenmei sprang up from the couch, unlocked the psychic seal to the basement, and trotted down the stairs. He saw his sister, hair disheveled, doing something in the corner. He gave a quick wave and rushed straight into the storage room.
"Hey, Sis."
After a loud commotion of rummaging and clanging, Kenmei emerged from the storage room. As he passed his sister again, he tossed a quick farewell over his shoulder.
"Goodnight. Bye, Sis."
"?"
Sakura Isayama watched, dumbfounded, as her brother stormed in and out like a hurricane.
Locking the psychic seal behind him, Kenmei—now empty-handed—flopped back onto the sofa.
[Do you wish to enter the "Temple of All Living Things" plane?]
Hell yes.
As long as his heart was still beating, the grind didn't stop.
How can you become strong if you're afraid of dying?
Points were Kenmei's top priority right now. Even if he had to sacrifice sleep, he had to stack that paper.
The familiar ringing filled his ears. When Kenmei opened his eyes, he was back at the exact spawn point where he had died on his first run.
There was no corpse on the ground, no bloodstains. Everything was reset to exactly how it was when Kenmei first arrived.
Pitch-black forest. Torrential rain. Water rising past his ankles. No lights anywhere, except for the eerie, ghostly glow of the Temple of All Living Things high up on the mountain.
However, this time, the system's warning about the "Temple" wasn't as exaggerated as the first time; the bloody crimson text had dimmed significantly.
"If the script follows the first run, then..."
Standing in the oppressive gloom, Kenmei waited silently. He reached into his pocket and popped a salted caramel hard candy into his mouth.
A bit of sugar and salt to settle the nerves and keep his energy up.
"Here it comes!"
Whoosh!
The sharp sound of breaking wind assaulted his ears. The black shadow was closing in fast—speed that would make a normal man's blood run cold.
Hearing the familiar noise behind him, Kenmei used the faint light from the mountain and the reflection in the puddles to react instantly. Unlike the first time, he was ready.
He spun around, dropping into a defensive stance.
CLANG!
A sharp, blade-like object collided with a slab of hardened metal, producing an ear-splitting screech. Sparks of orange fire erupted in the darkness from the friction.
By the light of those fleeting sparks, Kenmei finally got a good look at the "murderer" that had gutted him.
At first glance, it looked like a human.
At second glance, it was pure nightmare fuel.
It was male, dressed in the tattered rags of an ancient peasant. Its face was a rotting mess—lips fallen away to reveal teeth, strips of necrotic skin and flesh hanging off the bone like melted wax. One eye had rotted in its socket; the other was gone entirely, leaving a hollow, black pit.
This wasn't a human. It was a corpse that had been rotting for God knows how long.
"Heavy..."
Gritting his teeth, Kenmei braced a Riot Shield—something he'd pulled out of nowhere—in front of him. But the metal plating was already showing a deep dent.
Evidently, this "Walker," which looked straight out of a zombie flick, possessed monstrous strength.
Setting aside why this thing could still move, what terrified Kenmei was the physics of it. How could something so emaciated, with flesh so rotted you could see the bone, hit like a truck?
"But now... I've got you!"
Kenmei took a deep breath. bracing his left arm against the shield, he channeled all 6 points of his Strength attribute into his shoulder and shoved forward with everything he had.
It was a struggle, but thanks to the heavy rain and the slick mud, Kenmei managed to knock the monstrosity off balance.
Sensing the creature tipping, Kenmei released the handle of the shield. As the "Walker" and the heavy shield crashed into the water together...
SPLASH!
Water sprayed everywhere. Kenmei stomped his foot down hard onto the shield, pinning the creature beneath his weight and the metal slab.
As for his hands?
Kenmei's right hand gripped a handle that had materialized out of thin air. He lowered the guide bar onto the foul creature's exposed neck.
With his left hand, he ripped the starter cord.
The terrifying tool of destruction roared to life.
VRRR-ROAR!
It was a massive chainsaw. A high-horsepower, diesel-guzzling logging saw.
The kind Kenmei's family used to trim trees in the yard.
In the "Temple of All Living Things" instance, Kenmei's System Inventory functioned normally. The candy he ate earlier was a test to see if he could retrieve items stored in the grid.
The engine screamed continuously.
ZZZRRRT!
Flesh and bone turned to mist. Black ichor sprayed across the clearing. The high-speed chain tore through everything Kenmei wanted it to. The walker's neck, no match for a tool designed to fell hardwoods, offered zero resistance.
The head severed cleanly, plunking into the water and turning the puddle into a pool of black sludge. Without its head, the evil spirit went limp, motionless as the dead thing it was supposed to be.
[You have killed Wraith - Villager]
[Points +300]
[Exploration +0.005%]
[Lore: This Wraith was an ordinary villager from the hamlet at the foot of the Temple. Implicated by the monks of the Temple, the entire village of 55 people was slaughtered in a bloodbath.]
How much?
"300 Points?!"
Kenmei gasped in disbelief.
He completely ignored the lore about the tragic villager possessing such terrifying strength.
Kenmei's eyes were practically glowing green with avarice. That was the look of pure, unadulterated greed.
There are 55 more of these things?
Kenmei was about to go full Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
There was only one word for this.
KILL! KILL! KILL!!!