Chapter 18: Back Home

[Initiating Transfer to Earth]

Ishiki stared at the notification with satisfaction bleeding into his features. After all this was what he wanted from the very start, but then his expression turned dark.

Where was he supposed to go? Earth? if this was all real, then the fact that earth had been destroyed couldn’t be cast out… his apartment was most likely destroyed too… his mom.

’ugh… don’t think about that’

What was he supposed to do in a place utterly destroyed.

He grimaced at his thoughts. ’Anything would be better than that place… I don’t wanna go to that place… uh what was it called again… NEXUS!’

Another window appeared, this time just barely colored.

[Time Until Next Scenario: 30D]

Ishiki’s satisfactory expression vanished and turned dark. What the hell was this Scenario supposed to mean now? And the time… it showed 30D.

’Days? that means one month? For what?’ He frowned.

As if reading his thoughts another window appeared in front of him. And this one contained information from hell itself.

[As a Player you will be occasionally sent to NEXUS which will help you grow strong and fight the Corruption, Players will Participate in Scenarios Along with other Players of their group, Unlike Trials which are Solitary.]

’Wh… what the hell?’ Ishiki gritted his teeth, it was… just too much. The damned thing wanted him to go back to that cursed place and not once, but again and again whenever it or perhaps they wanted.

It was as if he was a slave to the damn system.

“Screw this… Hey! I don’t want to be a Player anymore. Can I… uh… resign? Quit?”

There was no reply… the system was ignoring him.

’Of course… why would anyone care.’

He sighed, defeated, and looked around. Everything seemed normal—endless grass, impossible sky, the general atmosphere which can be called wrong but peaceful enough.

Then his eyes caught something that definitely hadn’t existed before.

Three rocks. One large, two smaller. Arranged in a single line like decorations or grave markers or some kind of minimalist art installation.

’Huh… where did these stones came from? What why are they placed like that?’ Ishiki frowned and then shrugged.

He had no idea what those things were.

“Well… you know what, I was told to never touch suspicious objects. So, there you go.”

A system window appeared, again in the platinum hue.

[Title Exclusive Skill Created]

[Title Exclusive Protocol Created]

[Title Exclusive Corruption created]

[Congratulations, You have received a Skill]

Ishiki stared at them with twitching eyes. ’How am I supposed to know what any of that means? The system just drops cryptic notifications like i know everything. Damned bastard.’

Then he paused.

’Wait skill? Oh… so I finally have a skill. Great.’ colors breathed into his eyes once again… he didn’t have skill before so… he was more than happy to have one now.

Suddenly the similar status screen bloomed open in front of him, but previously it had been blue and now it was platinum and lustrous, feeling as if it was shining, but it wasn’t.

========= Player : ????? ========

Name : Ishiki

Age : 16

Title : [Memory Reaper]

Rank – [Mythical]

Exclusive Skill – [Soul Archive]

Skill Description – [Allows the bearer to chain the very consciousness of the Slain in an eternal collection. The new master can reap the memories within.]

Exclusive Corruption – [Phantom Voice]

Corruption Description – [Listen closely When the Reaper speaks, You may hear the whisper Of everyone they’ve reaped.]

Synth Reactor Tier – Innate

Level – 7/50

Data Fragments – 2,980/3,500

Basic Abilities :

Strength : 12/100

Agility : 12/100

Endurance : 12/100

Charisma : 10/100

Protocols : [Recursive Anomaly (Unknown)], [Curse of the Forgotten (Exclusive)]

Attribute : [Half Royalty (Epic)]

Skill Cards : [Ghost Blade (Epic)]

==============================

{Vestiges}

{Relics}

{Shop}

===============================

Ishiki was flabbergasted at the sight of all this, it was all… weird, kind of exciting and dreadful. There were a bunch of emotions running wild in Ishiki’s mind right now.

With that he started reading the screen from the very top, and indeed it had changed. He now had a Title… whatever that meant and even that of Mythical rank, which was the highest in the system measurement.

A somber smile appeared on his face as he glanced at the next line, it was beautiful… well all of the screen was, but the lines that described his Exclusive skill, were much more… or so he felt!

Though after reading it, he was not so sure.

The words were beautiful in a terrible way—poetic language for something deeply wrong.

’What does even that description mean… for fuck’s sake, that doesn’t explain anything.’

But… it was what it was, he had to make do with the information.

Then he glanced at the next line and frowned. ’what is a corruption? And an Exclusive one at that… seems like premium way to get fucked. Uh… no i don’t want that, I should shut up.’

His eyes scanned the description: Listen closely when the Reaper speaks. You may hear the whisper of everyone they’ve reaped.

’Great. That’s not creepy at all. Definitely won’t drive me insane.’

He shuddered and kept reading.

Everything else seemed fine… just that his Synth Reactor Tier was Innate now. And what that meant? Ishiki had no idea.

Leaving that he followed, he was now at level 7. His grin enlarged.

’7 levels that’s a good leap i guess.’

He followed through and his basic abilities, feeling content from the rise in stats and especially from the negative marking gone from his charisma gone. Did he look better than before?

But there was a limit cap to everything now. So once everything reaches a certain point they would stop increasing? How would he be able to lift the limit caps then?

’More questions. Always more questions and never any answers.’

There were a lot of questions… and there were still things he needed to look, so he sighed and shook his head.

Moving ahead… there were not much changes, but he had gotten a Skill and a new protocol. Whatever it was, he didn’t even knew how it worked no less.

[Recursive Anomaly] was marked as Unknown, and there was no such classification as far as he knew. So what was it?

There was a new one too, [Curse of the Forgotten], It was exclusive and had a strange line cutting through it.

Reading the name Ishiki felt shivers running down his spine.

’Why is it crossed out? Is it inactive? Broken?’

As his thoughts focused on the new protocol another window materialized in front of him, this one looked… lifeless and drained.

As Ishiki read the details, his eyes widened in disbelief, then horror, then something close to rage.

=============================

Protocol – [Curse of the Forgotten]

Rank – [Exclusive]

Protocol Description – [A Reaper must remain hidden, especially the one who enslaves dead to the shackles of eternity. Beware the forgotten might curse from beyond the grave…]

Ability – Forced Elimination

Ability Description – [The God of death had done the Forbidden. The forbidden must always stay hidden. When any entity speaks the Title “Memory Reaper” within your presence, this Protocol activates without consent or warning. Your consciousness is suppressed, your autonomy stripped away. The body moves with inhuman precision toward a singular purpose: the elimination of the knowledge vector.]

Status – Dormant

=============================

’Screw it. Screw this damned title. Screw this protocol.’

Ishiki cursed, bewildered and furious. If this was true—and nothing the system said had been a lie yet—then he could never tell anyone his real title. Ever.

He gritted his teeth, then took a few shallow breaths.

’Its alright… I just don’t have to tell anyone my true Title. Seems easy. Everyone lies, its alright!’

[Transferring to Earth…]

’Uh wait… I still need to check other things too…’

[3…]

’No, seriously, give me a minute—’

[2…]

’This is bullshit! can’t you just—’

[1…]

Suddenly everything went black… the grass field and everything around him turned into nothingness.

Ishiki was finally going…

To a world that might not exist anymore.

To a home that he might never find.

But!

He was going ’Back Home’…

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