When we cleared the final room, I collapsed onto the dusty, blood-stained stairs at the building's entrance. My spear slipped from my hand, clattering loudly against the marble floor. Elara slumped down beside me, breathless. We were covered head to toe in that disgusting grey grease and black blood.
Reflexively, I reached for my head. That smooth, marble-like sensation was gone. Instead, I felt short, coarse, needle-like stubble under my palm.
"It’s growing..." I whispered, a weary smile spreading across my face. "My hair is coming back, Elara. It wasn't permanent."
Elara struggled to open her eyes, which were heavy with exhaustion, and looked at my head. "I told you," she said in a raspy voice. "It just... needed a little time. But I have to be honest, watching a bald man pounce on monsters was much more terrifying."
I let out a soft laugh, but the sting in my ribs cut it short. I summoned that blue screen in my mind.
[SYSTEM PANEL - ALEX]
- Level: 6
- Class: Genetic Abomination
- EXP: 140 / 600
[Attributes]
- Strength (STR): 4 (+1)
- Agility (AGI): 11 (+4)
- Vitality (VIT): 5 (+1)
- Intelligence (INT): 6 (+1)
- Luck (LUK): 8 (+5)
Active Skill: Genetic Roulette Passive Skill: Biological Harvest [Unallocated Points: 0]
I carefully calculated the 12 stat points I had earned. After seeing the effects of Genetic Roulette, I realized that the only thing that could influence the outcome of this gamble was Luck. I dumped a third of my points (4 points) directly into Luck. I gave another third (4 points) to Agility for the speed and reflexes that kept me alive. I distributed the remaining points (4 points) evenly between Strength, Vitality, and Intelligence.
"How are you doing?" I asked, turning to Elara.
Elara opened her own panel. The blue light reflecting off it illuminated her weary face.
[SYSTEM PANEL - ELARA]
- Level: 5
- Class: Light Priestess
- EXP: 50 / 500
[Attributes]
- Strength (STR): 2
- Agility (AGI): 3
- Vitality (VIT): 3
- Intelligence (INT): 9
- Luck (LUK): 6
Active Skill: Holy Light Passive Skill: Protection of Light [Unallocated Points: 12]
"Alex, I'm Level 5, but I don't know what to do with these points," Elara said desperately. "Should I put them all into Strength? Would I be more effective against the monsters?"
I shook my head. "No, your strength isn't in your arms; it's in your mind and those holy lights of yours. Put half of your points—6 of them—directly into Intelligence. In games, Intelligence is one of the most important stats for mages. It helps expand your mana pool. Distribute the rest evenly; take some Vitality so you don't go down in one hit, and some Agility so you can escape."
Elara pressed imaginary buttons in the air as she followed my directives. When the distribution was finished, her panel looked like this:
[SYSTEM PANEL - ELARA]
- Level: 5
- Class: Light Priestess
- EXP: 50 / 500
[Attributes]
- Strength (STR): 2
- Agility (AGI): 5 (+2)
- Vitality (VIT): 5 (+2)
- Intelligence (INT): 15 (+6)
- Luck (LUK): 8 (+2)
It was obvious even from the outside that a fresh wave of energy had entered her; her mind looked clearer and her body a bit more invigorated.
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"Look at this," I said, opening the notification tab in my mind.
[MAIN QUEST #1: BREAKING THE ICE] [STATUS: COMPLETED] [AWAITING END OF QUEST DURATION...] [TIME REMAINING: 22 HOURS 14 MINUTES]
"We finished it," Elara said, letting out a deep breath. "I can't believe it, we actually did it. At least for now, we won't die..."
"Not yet," I said, picking up my spear and standing up. "It seems like a new quest won't arrive until the time is up. We didn't get any rewards from the System, but the levels and stats we’ve earned are our biggest rewards for now. We have 22 hours, Elara. This time might be the only peace we get before the next hell begins."
I looked out the daycare door into the dark street. 22 hours was a great opportunity to rest, but every minute that passed in this world meant the birth of a new monster.
"Alex," Elara said softly. "Back there... while killing those babies... I wasn't crying anymore. Does that make me a bad person?"
I looked at Elara. Her face covered in blood, but whose eyes now looked much harder. "It doesn't make you a bad person, Elara," I said. "It makes you a survivor. We aren't the ones who are evil; it’s this world that forces us into this."
As we descended the building's stairs, I noticed my steps were much lighter thanks to the Agility points I had just allocated. I was trusting my Luck; in the next Genetic Roulette, instead of that cursed baldness that took my hair, perhaps a power that could move the world would come.
"Now," I said. "We’re going back to our safe house. We'll spend these 22 hours resting and preparing for the next step. We don't know what awaits us when the time is up, so we must at least be at full strength."
When we left the bloody and suffocating atmosphere of the daycare and stepped onto the street, the dead silence that had fallen over the city met us like a tomb. Thanks to my newly earned Agility points, my steps were as light as feathers on the asphalt; I felt more balanced, more alert, and faster than ever. It was as if the clunkiness in my body had vanished, replaced by the tension of a tiger ready to spring. Elara was right behind me, scanning the surroundings with that uncanny focus brought by her increased Intelligence stat, analyzing even the slightest whisper of the wind.
We didn't say a single word along the way. Every shadow was an ambush, every click a monster. As we glided through the dark streets, I felt like a ghost; I couldn't even hear the sound of my own footsteps. But finally, when we arrived in front of our apartment building, I was able to relax that lethal grip on my spear just a bit. We had reached the safe zone, the small sanctuary where we could survive.
Entering the apartment and locking the door behind me, feeling the wild world outside left behind the door, soothed my soul slightly. I locked the door three times and pushed a heavy dresser behind it, completely severing the room from the outside world. I immediately went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror, seeing that the terrible baldness was slowly becoming history. My hair was now clearly visible; a short, coarse stubble like sandpaper covered my scalp. Rubbing my head and realizing that smooth, disgusting sensation was gone brought me incredible relief. "At least I didn't die bald," I muttered to myself, savoring this tiny victory.
When we collapsed around the small table in the kitchen, exhaustion hit us like a sledgehammer. Elara pulled out the last biscuits from the bag along with a few cans and two cans of peaches. This was a feast for us. I opened the cans with the tip of my spear; the metallic sound echoed in the silent room. That sugary syrup of the peach was the best thing to drown out the metallic taste of blood and dust that had been in our mouths for hours. We ate in silence, almost as if performing a ritual.
"Those Intelligence points you allocated just now..." I said, ?i?nerken a peach slice, fixing my eyes on Elara. "Do you feel a change in yourself? I mean, how did it affect you mentally?"
Elara turned the plastic fork over in her hand, as if trying to weigh that new energy within her. "I'm not entirely sure, Alex," she said, her voice trembling slightly. "But I feel... stronger. It’s not just a physical strength. It’s as if that chaos, that never-ending hum in my mind has subsided a bit. My gaze is sharper, I grasp details around me faster. My fear is still there, but it feels like I can use this fear as a tool. I don't know, maybe this really is a cursed game and we are just pawns in it."
I nodded slowly. "I agree. I feel much different too. This world is forcing us to become as savage as itself, to turn into hunters in order to survive. Stat points just accelerate this process."
After dinner, we lay on the beds we had laid out in the middle of the living room, our bones aching. The uncanny crimson light seeping through the window illuminated the room in a ghostly way; it was as if even the night hated us.
"Alex," Elara said, wrapped tightly in her blanket, her voice a weak echo in the darkness. "Yesterday... I mean, just yesterday, my biggest worry was whether I would pass that damn exam. Now, I'm thinking about whether the next hour will come, or if the sun will ever rise again. Do you think the world will ever be like it was before? Will we ever go back to those noisy, crowded, and safe streets?"
I looked at the cracks in the ceiling. In my mind’s eye, I saw Matt’s mutated form and those fatty babies we had slaughtered at the daycare. I knew that nothing could ever be "normal" again. "It won't be like before, Elara," I said honestly. "That world is just a memory now. But maybe we won't turn into something better or worse, just something 'different.' Our real task isn't to solve what the world will be like or what it will turn into by philosophizing; it’s to survive long enough to see that world, to survive long enough to rule it."
Silence filled the room once more, but this time the silence was different from the death-scented silence in the street. It was that strange sense of trust, beyond words, that I felt for this girl lying in the bed next to me, who had now turned into a priestess. The numbers on my countdown timer continued to flow in a corner of my mind, synchronized with the rhythm of the blood flowing in my veins: 21:45... 21:44...
Feeling every fiber, every muscle in my body aching with pain, I surrendered myself into the arms of a heavy and dark sleep.