He couldn't dodge it, could not even move. He had lost all hope, when something happened. It was stopped by someone, something. It could be the man.
"What are you doing?" The girl screamed.
"Move" it was the girl with the hoodie.
The impact deflected the ghoul just enough for the skilled man to pivot and decapitate it in one clean motion.
Black blood sprayed across the door, across Abraham's clothes and face.
The symbol burned white, when they all placed their palms on the symbols.
[00:12]
"Hold it!" the man shouted.
More shapes moved between the trees. There were too many.
They wouldn't survive another wave.
The wood beneath Abraham's palm grew warm, then hot.
The door split down the center with a deep, resonant crack.
Blinding light spilled through the seam. Wind roared outward. The ghouls recoiled, shrieking violently as the light touched them.
"Go!" the skilled man commanded.
The door swung inward into pure white.
The timer hit,
[00:00]
And the light swallowed them mid-motion.
One moment he was in the middle of a forest and the next he was in his room, still processing the shock and horror that had just happened.
For a moment he expected the gouls to attack, to tear him apart, or black blood spilled on his face, his clothes but nothing happened. The room stayed the same.
For a while longer, he sat still in his chair, the room revolving around him. He was in daze, surprised. The ghouls still playing in his vision, not really but in his mind.
Them tearing people apart was so horrible that he ran to the bathroom and vomited. At that time he was desperate to survive so he couldn't process everything properly but now, when everything had come to an end and he no longer had to run, he was horrified.
His body convulsed as if trying to expel something deeper than food, the images, the sounds. The teenage boy pinned beneath that thing. The office woman dragged through grass. The ghoul that almost reached his throat.
The sound of bone splitting under the curved blade of that man.
He gagged again, dry heaving until his stomach hurt.
"Stop," he whispered hoarsely. "Stop."
But the memory wouldn't blur like last time.
It was sharper and moredetailed. He remembered the way the ghouls' joints bent wrong. The way black blood sprayed across the wooden Gate.
He pushed himself up after staying on the bathroom floor for some time. He washed his mouth repeatedly, staring at his reflection between splashes of water.
After washing up, when he came out, his phone vibrated with a message.
[Survival Compensation- Orientation Phase 2]
$2000 deposited in his account.
Guess he had no other choice but to keep going with the games and the money.
Abraham slammed himself into his bed lifelessly. His ceiling stared down at him, familiar and cracked in the corner near the fan. The dim yellow bulb buzzed faintly.
Outside, a motorcycle passed on the street below.
Two missions. Five thousand total.
His mother's hospital tests. Rent for months. Groceries. It would solve problems.
But at what cost?
He pressed his palms into his eyes. Is there a way to quit? If there isn't, will he be able to survive further? In order to give his mother the life he always wanted to give, he will have to survive for sure itherwise all this money would be for nothing.
He thought about the man in the firest, how he was almost easily able to kill the ghouls. Level two ghouls. If there were level 2 entities, it meant there could be higher. And if he were to face them he would be dead in no time in his current stats. There wouldn't always be someone stronher to save him each time.
From stats, he remembered to check his status window. He wasn't able to do it during the mission. He didn't know if he will be able to open it in here.
"Status Window," he whispered.
Nothing happened. He frowned and tried to focused harder.
"Open Status."
A faint flicker shimmered in the air before him. Then the translucent panel materialized.
________________________________________
STATUS WINDOW
________________________________________
Name: Abraham Clark
Level: 0
Experience: 27 / 100
Class: None
Title: None
Phase Participation: Orientation Phase 2
________________________________________
ATTRIBUTES
________________________________________
Strength: 4
Agility: 6
Stamina: 3
Vitality: 4
Perception: 9
Mental Resilience: 5
Luck: 5
Adaptability: 13 ★
________________________________________
DERIVED (Last Mission)
________________________________________
HP: 86 / 100
Energy: 71 / 100
Combat Probability vs Lv.2 Entity: 11%
Evasion Probability: 42%
System Note:
Growth Pattern: Irregular
Monitoring Active
________________________________________
Passive Traits
───────────────────────────
• Survival Instinct (Faint)
Slight increase in physical response when lethal threat detected.
• Emotional Suppression (Unstable)
Temporary reduction in hesitation during crisis.
Post-event psychological backlash likely.
________________________________________
Abraham stared at the numbers. Twenty-seven experience. Not even halfway to Level 1. He knew that when experience increases, you level up from the video games he had played in his teenage years, when he was carefree.
That man from phase 2 had cut through ghouls effortlessly. Which means his level was higher. What level was he? Three? Five? Higher?
How many missions had he survived?
Abraham leaned forward.
"How do I increase experience?" he muttered.
The panel did not respond so he tried again, more focused.
"How is experience gained?"
For a moment nothing happened. Then a small subtext flickered beneath
[Experience:
Experience Acquisition Conditions:
• Direct Elimination of Hostile Entities
• Mission Contribution Score
• Objective Completion
• High-Risk Exposure
• Supporter Bonus (If Applicable)]
His jaw tightened.
Direct elimination. He had not killed anything. He had only survived.
He had touched the Gate, provided support but he hadn't fought.
The man had fought.
Which meant, killing monsters gives more experience.
The idea made his chest tighten. He thought of the ghoul lunging at him.
If the girl hadn't struck it, he might have been the one torn open.
His fingers hovered in the air.
"What is Mission Contribution Score?"
Response:
[Contribution Score is determined by measurable impact on mission success probability.]
His mind raced. So hiding might not be enough long term. If he remained passive, his growth would stall. And stalled growth meant death in later phases.
He closed the window slowly. His hands trembled.
He didn't want to become that man with the blade. He didn't want to feel comfortable cutting something apart. But comfort wouldn't matter. Survival would.
His phone still lay in his hand. The money notification glowed faintly. He opened his banking app again.
Three thousand dollars.
He switched apps, opening a browser. His heart pounded as he typed,
"Accident in the forest"
Nothing.
"Bpdies in a forest"
Nothing related to the forest clearing he wanted.
"Strange monsters"
Some conspiracies.
He refined it.
"People missing after sudden blackout tonight"
Therr were forums, random posts, conspiracy threads but nothing concrete.
If it didn't appear on the internet, did it really happen.
He searched for missing persons in the last 24 hours. Faces filled the screen but none of them feel familiar enough.
He scrolled through missing persons databases, filtered it by age range.
Nothing matched. Butvit had not been long since the mission. For people to appear missing, it will take some time and someone to notice.
"Are we even missing though?" he whispered.
What if to the world he had never left his room?
He stood abruptly and checked the time.
About 40 minutes had passed since he had been dumped in his room, blodd splashed all over him.
He typed another search.
"Strange deposits bank account unexplained compensation"
There were articles of inancial frauds, scams but nothing he was searching for.
He reopened his status window.
[Level 0.
Experience 27.]
To reach Level 1, he needed 100. He replayed the mission mentally. The Gate required four participants.
Contribution Score.
Maybe touching it mattered or maybe proximity to lethal threat counted.
High-Risk Exposure.
He swallowed.
Did he need to almost die to grow?
His eyes drifted to Adaptability: 13, highlighted and with a star. It was higher than the others.
The system note:
Growth Pattern: Irregular.
Monitoring Active.
Monitoring.
Something was watching, ofcourse they were.
He closed the window as if it would stop them from monitoring him.
Silence filled the room.
He could hear his mother moving in the kitchen.
He glanced at the money again. Five thousand dollars total now.
In order to be able to gain experience, he will have to fight the monsters or whatever threat is present there. And for that, he would have to come out of his lazy, unactive life towards a healthy one. He would need to exercise, build stamina and strength. In this condition, where he runs out of breath only after a little run or going up the stairs, he would have to work on it.
He could train and could improve physically. Real world training nay work.
He reopened the window experimentally.
"Does physical training increase stats?" He said.
There was a moment delay and then it responded.
[External physical conditioning may improve baseline attributes.
System scaling efficiency varies by growth type.]
Growth type? He stared at the words. He still didn't have a class or a title, and didn't even know what those meant or when he would be able to get them.
Right now, ge only needed to train harder to be able to fight any strange entities that he might face further. At level 0, he would become meat if the monsters evolved. And ge had a feeling that they would.
He had enough money to join a good gym. Opening his laptop he started searching for a good gym near him. There weren't many and so it wasn't that difficult to choose one.
"Inspire fitness studio"
He clicked and applied for it. It sent him to the waiting list but he didn't have much time before he would be dragged into yet another deadly mission so he made a mental note to visit the place himself.