Saya kicked the Faceless corpse aside and struggled to her feet. Her entire body was caked with mud and blood. And every inch of it hurt, covered in cuts and bruises.
But she was alive. And right now, that was all that mattered.
The feeling of being so close to death... Saya never wanted to experience it again. The despair and pain, the helpless struggle again the end... Those wasn't something any sane person would ever want to feel.
Sizzle, sizzle.
A small white flame emerged from the monster's body and floated in midair. At its center was a strange character, as though the character itself were burning within the flame.
It hovered right in front of Saya, filling her with curiosity. Even stranger, Saya suddenly had an urge to to reach out and grasp it, as if someone or something were telling her to do so. No matter how suspicious the flame seemed, she couldn't stop thinking about touching it. And she did.
The moment she touched it, the flame was immediately sucked into Saya's fingertip, making her freeze in fear. Fortunately, the flame didn't seem to hurt her. Instead, Saya just felt the pain from her wounds lessen slightly. How strange.
DING!
Huh? What the hell is this?
A notification window suddenly appeared in front of hers eyes, followed immediately by another one.
[New Achievement: You are the first person in this area to kill a monster.]
[Reward: The skill of the first monster you killed.
Reward: Dice of Fate ×1.]
Two dice appeared in midair and dropped near Saya's hand. She picked them up and examined them. One was pure white, while the other was pitch black. And as Saya focused her gaze on the two dice, a small window appeared beside them.
[Dice of Fate: Upon use, you will receive a random outcome.
Note: Roll them, and embrace your fate.]
"Hmm... This is like... Some kind of game of chance?"
Saya considered rolling the dice, but hesitated. If this were simply a matter of receiving a "reward," that would be great, but... These two dice probably do not work like that.
Fate... Fate had two sides: good luck and bad luck. And with the dice coming as a black-and-white pair like this, Saya thought she had figured out their true purpose.
Perhaps they didn't just bring good fortune. These dice might also bring misfortune upon her.
"Goddam it... Why the hell does the reward have to be this monkeys paw bullshit?"
Saya wasn't much of a gambler, so she didn't dare take the risk. In the end, she slipped the dice into her pocket. It might come in handy later, but for now, she had no use for it.
"But still… All of this is really like a game huh..."
It was absolutely insane, but if this really was a game, then perhaps...
"Character Information... Status Window... Maybe?" Saya whispered.
Just as she expected, another window immediately appeared.
[Character Information
Name: Takagi Saya
Strength: 3.1
Agility: 3.5
Perception: 6.5
~0~
Skill: Pain Resistance: Reduces the body's sensation of pain. Proficiency: 0.1%]
It really was just like a game!
Though the stats weren't measured in whole numbers, but in decimals. Even so, Saya's physical abilities had essentially been quantified and displayed right in front of her eyes.
"Anyway... Are there any hints or anything like that... Oh wait!!! There's actually a HELP button in the corner of the window!?"
Saya reached out and tried touching the button with the question-mark icon, but her finger just passed straight through the window. So, it didn't work like those touchscreens in sci-fi movies after all.
"Help."
Saya tried activating it with her voice, and it actually worked. But instead of another window appearing, a huge amount of information suddenly flooded into her mind, as though she had simply remembered all of it at once.
It was incredibly convenient, but also several times more frightening. Saya had the unsettling feeling that her own brain was no longer private.
Shaking her head and pushing her worries aside, Saya focused on processing the new information that had just been implanted in her mind.
According to what she had learned, the flame that had entered her hand earlier was called "Origin." It was the fundamental power of all living creatures. Whenever she killed a creature registered by the "System", Origin would drop from its body, though the type of Origin that dropped was completely random.
And the power of Origin was truly extraordinary, it could break every law of physics.
Strength-type Origin affects a person's physical strength, from their pushing and punching power to the explosive force in their legs. But it doesn't suddenly turn an ordinary person into a hulking mass of muscle, it simply makes them... stronger.
Agility-type Origin work in much the same way... Just a little stranger. It doesn't follow ordinary logic, it simply changes the flow of time around a person. If Strength can make someone run faster through greater physical power, Agility makes them faster in terms of time itself. In other words, it makes the entire world seem slower to them.
Perception meanwhile, affects all of a person's senses, making them sharper and more sensitive. It sounds simple, but it is actually extremely difficult to achieve, because the senses are something we are born with and are almost impossible to enhance.
They aren't something that automatically becomes stronger just because you regularly visit the gym, nor do they improve simply through frequent use. And yet, Origin can change all of that.
There were also many other types of Origin, but Saya would only know what they did once she actually picked them up.
The monster Saya had just killed had dropped 0.1 points of Strength-type Origin. It wasn't much, but even that was equivalent to several weeks of hard work at the gym.
After several minutes of being stunned by what she had learned, Saya was startled once again.
Along with the information about Origin, she had also discovered something else, a terrifying revelation about the place she was in.
Suppose every universe were represented by a circle of a primary color. Saya's universe would be blue, while another universe might be red. When the two colors overlapped, they would create an entirely new color.
That was where she was standing now, a region where two universes intersected, where the two of them had merged together.
And Saya couldn't leave this overlapping region until the two universes separated.
As for when they would separate...
That was up to whoever had pulled the two universes together in the first place.
That's right. Someone was behind all of this. And whoever it was possessed the power to alter entire universes.
Saya felt like she was truly screwed.
There went her hopes and dreams. Any thought of escaping through the north gate was crushed the moment she learned that she wasn't allowed to leave this overlapping region. Not allowed, rather than unable, because there was a way out. She just need to fulfill certain conditions by finding and following clues, or simply wait until the designated time.
One month.
A whole month in this place. God only knew what might happen.
And that wasn't even mentioning the giant Human Centipede lurking somewhere behind her. Who knew what other monsters might be hiding inside the school...
"SHIT! I forgot I was running from that centipede!"
Saya couldn't see the centipede from where she was, which made it even more terrifying. She had no idea where it was in Building A. It could still be on the highest floor, or it could be just one wall away from her.
"No, I can't stay here any longer!"
Saya knew she had to keep moving, which meant heading straight into the alley crawling with Faceless.
Between the disgusting centipede and the Faceless, enemies she actually had a chance of defeating, the choice was obvious.
The Faceless might be incredibly spooky, but if a single pair of scissors could kill one of them, then those scissors could kill the rest as well.
Having made her decision, Saya took a deep breath. Then she stepped into that terrifying alley.