Ugh...
E999—Lucien Morningstar—groaned as sharp pain pulsed through his neck. His body ached, and his head throbbed like a war drum. His vision was blurry, distorted shapes dancing across the edge of his sight. How long had he been out?
A quick glance at the pale, sickly lighting above told him it had been a while. But the blinking prompt on the edge of his vision confirmed it: Unconscious: 12 hours.
He sat up slowly, bones creaking, muscles stiff. His breathing was shallow, but stable. Then he saw them.
Grotesque creatures. Dozens of them.
Some skittered on malformed limbs, their bodies riddled with mismatched parts. Others slithered, twitching, gnawing on bones or chunks of rotting meat. One of them—a hulking chimera ant with three mandibles and bulging eyes—noticed him stirring.
Its shriek was wet and raw. It lunged.
Lucien's instincts kicked in.
He twisted his body, pain shooting through his spine, and smashed his fist into the creature's face mid-air. Bone cracked. The thing slammed into a wall with a squelch. Lucien dropped into a low stance, arms up, ready for retaliation. But the other creatures only stared—hungry, twitching, silent. Observing.
They weren't his captors. They were prisoners too. Or worse... test subjects.
He didn't want to alert whoever had thrown him into this pit of nightmares. He forced himself to breathe slowly, calmly, eyes scanning the space.
Rusted metal walls. Crates in the corners. Faint humming in the ceiling—some kind of surveillance drone maybe. The stink of decay soaked everything.
Lucien's hands moved over his body. His heart raced until—
There.
His satchel. The neurocores were still with him. Untouched.
He grinned. A rare, feral grin.
"Amateurs," he whispered to himself.
He pulled out a glowing core, its energy pulsing like a heartbeat in the dark. He didn't hesitate. He consumed it.
And then another.
And another.
Ten in total.
A white-hot rush surged through his veins like fire meeting gasoline. His muscles tightened, bones reinforced, skin tingled with new layers of vitality. It was intoxicating.
But then—
°~[STATS LIMIT REACHED]~°
°~[Reach Level 10 to continue increasing stats]~°
°~[Neurocore energy detected]~°
°~[Converting excess energy....]~°
°~[10 Free Attribute Points Received]~°
He clenched his jaw.
"Tch. So that's the limit," he muttered. "Level 10, huh? I need to break through... fast."
Frustrated but focused, he kept absorbing more neurocores, watching them convert into attribute points instead of boosting his base stats. It was inefficient, but still better than wasting them.
He summoned his status screen, breath steady now. He needed to know exactly how far he'd come.
•∆ STATUS ∆•
°~[Name: Lucien Morningstar]~°
°~[Level: 8]~°
°~[Title: The One Who Overcame Adversity]~°
°~[Job: N/A]~°
°~[HP: 100]~°
°~[MP: 100]~°
°~[STR: 50]~°
°~[AGI: 50]~°
°~[PER: 50]~°
°~[VIT: 50]~°
°~[INT: 100]~°
°~[Fatigue:0]~°
°~[Free Attribute Points: 60]~°
°~[Aether Sight]~°
°~[Category: Insight / Appraisal]~°
°~[Description: This skill lets you see hidden things in reality. You can check a target's stats, strengths, and weaknesses. Look past what's outside and see what they really are.]~°
°~[Regeneration]~°
°~[Category: Survival / Recovery]~°
°~[Description: Grants the user the ability to rapidly heal wounds, regenerate lost tissue, and recover from injuries that would otherwise be fatal. At higher levels, regeneration can restore limbs, purge poisons, and even revive the user from near-death states. (30 MP for full body recovery).]~°
°~[IMMUNITY]~°
°~[Passive]~°
°~[Description: For a brief period, the user becomes entirely immune to negative status effects, including poison, paralysis, madness, dark magic, and curses. Completely nullifying the threat.]~°
Sixty points to distribute. And still stuck at Level 8. He needed two more levels. Two more bloody, brutal climbs to reach the next threshold.
And then he'd truly evolve.
He clenched his fists, eyes burning.
"No more games," he whispered.
The creatures stared from the shadows, as if sensing the change. As if they knew the devil in the flesh had just woken up.
E999 slowly turned his head toward the monsters surrounding him. Something cold flickered in his eyes—like he had stopped seeing them as living things. One of the creatures—barely intelligent—tensed under his gaze, fear pulsing in its wide, mutated eyes. It opened its mouth to scream.
He didn't let it.
E999, surged forward and smashed its head into the ground with such force that the skull shattered like thin glass. Blood splattered in a sharp arc. Its limbs twitched once, then went still.
°~[Level 18 Chimera Ant Killed]~°
°~[+30 EXP gained]~°
The system message blinked, but E999 barely noticed.
Boom.
A low thud echoed through the tunnels.
Boom.
Another. Then silence.
Far away, in a deeper part of the structure, a group of vampires were setting up an altar, preparing for the night's strange ritual. They froze. The sound reached them—a noise that didn't belong here. A kill.
They bolted toward the source, their speed blurring them like shadows against the torch-lit stone. When they arrived at the prison cell, they stopped dead in their tracks. Blood covered the floor. The creature's corpse was mangled beyond recognition. And in the middle of it all stood E999, his body glowing faintly, his eyes blank.
He didn't look like prey anymore.
He looked like a monster.
But E999 wasn't paying them any mind. He stood there, head lowered, staring at the blue screen floating in front of his eyes.
°~[LEVELED UP: Level 9]~°
He smiled.
"One more," he whispered. Just one more level.
The villagers—pale, ancient beings twisted by years of dark worship—gathered quickly after hearing what had happened. Fear mixed with excitement as the news reached the village chief. Something had changed in their prison.
When the chief heard the full report, he let out a long, slow sigh. His voice was deep, raspy.
"It's time," he said. "Prepare the ritual. First, we shall take his blood. Then, once the offering is complete... we'll behead him and use his body to celebrate our victory."
Cheers erupted among the villagers. They didn't know the truth. They didn't realize the boy they planned to sacrifice was the one their God had chosen.
Their true successor.
E999, despite his new level, was still no match for the vampires.
They moved like ghosts—silent, quick, powerful. Even with his stats enhanced, their raw strength and dark energy overwhelmed him. They chained his wrists and ankles in heavy silver, dragging him through the stone tunnels. His resistance didn't last long. He couldn't even scratch them.
They threw him onto the altar like a piece of meat, chains rattling.
The village chief—old, pale, robed in animal skin and bone jewelry—stepped forward. He knelt beside the altar and began drawing intricate sigils and patterns on the floor using a thick, oily mixture.
When the lines were done, he brought out a ceremonial dagger. With a practiced motion, he cut open his own palm, letting his blood drip into a shallow bowl made of dried grass. Then he moved to E999, slicing his palms open as well. Blood flowed into the bowl, mixing.
Dark red swirled with light crimson. The old chief whispered ancient words under his breath as he dipped his fingers in the blood and spread it along the sigils.
The ritual was starting.
He turned and called for six children—teenagers, barely older than fourteen—to step forward. They walked in slowly, their faces solemn but hungry for power. The chief handed them the bowl.
"Chant," he said.
The children nodded, lifting the bowl together. They drank, one by one, and their voices began to chant in unison.
"I for one, am of soul and loyalty to the God.
I for one, am of soul and loyalty to the God..."
The air around them shifted. Cold wind swept into the tunnel from nowhere. The flames on the torches flickered wildly.
Then—the mist came.
It burst from the sigils with a hiss, a deep red fog that moved with purpose. It wrapped around the children, thick and fast. Within seconds, the six were screaming—painful, high-pitched cries as the mist bored into their skin, melting and reshaping their bodies. Holes opened in their flesh, then sealed shut. Their bones cracked as they grew taller, stronger. It went on for thirteen long, agonizing minutes.
Then, silence.
The mist faded.
The six teenagers collapsed, unconscious. Their skin was now pale, their lips blood-red. Their hair had turned pure white, as soft and cold-looking as snow. Their bodies were more defined, stronger, perfect. They had become something else.
The chief smiled, pleased. "Carry them to their quarters," he ordered.
The villagers obeyed quickly, lifting the transformed youths with reverence. Soon, only E999 and the chief remained in the altar chamber.
The chief turned toward the chained boy, his eyes filled with a strange mix of pity and cruelty.
"So, boy," he said. "How do you want to die? By my hands… or by the hands of your own creation?"
E999 didn't answer at first.
Then, a voice whispered in his mind—his conscience, dark and twisted.
"So this is how we die."
And E999—laughed.
At first, a chuckle. Then louder. Until it echoed off the walls, a sharp and mocking sound.
"Well," he said between laughs, "it was fun while it lasted."
The chief frowned, disturbed by the lack of fear. He had seen many sacrifices—screaming, begging, crying—but never laughter. This one was strange.
But before he could say more—a sound boomed outside.
BOOM.
The tunnel shook.
The air trembled. And then—another boom. Closer this time.
The villagers outside the altar chamber started shouting. Then, silence again.
CRASH!
A massive figure slammed into the ground, causing a crater to form just outside the chamber's entrance. Dust filled the air.
The chief's eyes widened. He knew that presence.
Alugard.
A true monster. The enforcer of their Tunnel he was the zombie king of this part of the tunnels. And he had arrived early too early he thought.
The chief suddenly looked worried. He hadn't paid his offerings,he was two days late.
Sweat formed on his brow. "Release the prisoner!" he barked. "Take him to the transformed youths' quarters. Now!"
"But chief—!"
"I said now! Move!"
They obeyed, rushing to unchain E999 and carry him away from the altar. The chief turned and moved to the frontlines himself, joining the guards to delay Alugard.
He didn't know it yet—but releasing E999 had perhaps sealed their fate,Who knows.