“I never should have trusted you. I never should have gone along with this stupid plan,” a portly man shouted, clutching his stomach. Dark red blood spilled out between his fingers.

Dr. White flinched; this was all his fault. He knelt down next to the injured man, stopping his hurried walk. Sunny couldn’t remember the portly man’s name – a small detail forgotten in a storm of chaos. No one expected him to remember, but the small things mattered. Even though he was running out of time, Dr. White knelt down and activated [Healing Touch], staunching the bleeding.

He couldn’t just stand by and watch as someone died when he could do something about it – it wasn’t in his nature.

Congratulations! Healing Touch has reached Level 7.

The Skill ended, stabilizing his condition. The doctor received no thanks, only a hateful look. “We’re all going to die,” the man said with glassy eyes.

Screams and the sound of battle echoed outside. Dr. White glanced out the window from the third floor of the hospital. Bone rats swarmed the barricades – barely kept at bay by an assortment of weapons.

There wasn’t much time left; he had to do something.

“I’ll be back; I’ll get help.” Dr. White rushed down the hallway, leaving the man alone. “Everything is going to be okay.”

He glanced outside again. Everything wasn’t okay; this was a disaster. It had all started out so well - quickly and efficiently, they had managed clear away the rubble outside the building. Then, without a single hiccup, they transported half of the trapped hospital patients and workers back to the factory.

Even the guards patrolling outside the hospital weren’t harassed by any monsters. A surprise, but a welcome one. As a matter of fact, they hadn’t needed to fight too many monsters while clearing a path over here. Nothing more than the occasional isolated monster. During the day, the mutated animals were perfectly content to ignore them as long as they didn’t come too close.

Up until a couple minutes ago, things had gone flawlessly, but predictably shit hit the fan at the worst moment possible. Ron, the idiot, had entered an abandoned building filled with sleeping Bone Rats. Driven by the prospect of easy Levels, he attacked the monsters while they were defenseless.

He resisted the urge to rub his forehead – raising his arm that high hurt.

Provoked by the surprise attack, the Bone Rats retailed in force, swarming the streets – whatever restrictions the System had placed upon them lifted. Less than a minute later, more misfortune struck. A contingent of Bone Rats infiltrated the third floor of the hospital. Luckily, they were able to block off the monster’s entry point before too many got in. But it was only a matter of time before their makeshift barrier fell. Miguels’s small group couldn’t keep them out of the third floor forever.

That’s why he was in such a desperate rush: he needed to bring reinforcements back before it was too late.

He gasped for air as he ran – beyond exhausted already.

Ultimately, Sunny had no one to blame other than himself. If he had made a better plan or used [Persuasion of the Cursed Forest] more effectively, they wouldn’t be in this position. Though, all of that was secondary. Deep down, he knew that if he had kept his mouth shut, none of this would have happened. His naïve dream of a better future had led to this.

He turned a corner and then ran down the stairs, taking them two at a time. After almost tripping on the last step, he entered the second floor – just as bland and white as the last.

Pushing his aching body to move faster, Dr. White sprinted forward, using his enhanced Stats to their full effect. Within five seconds, he was already halfway down the hall. He skidded to a stop as he heard drywall tearing to his left.

Concerned, he took a moment to investigate. Following a faint chittering and squeaking sound that he wouldn’t have been able to hear before the System, he opened a door.

Inside, five seriously sick and injured hospital patients slept, blissfully unaware of the danger encroaching on them from all sides. Normally, it would be impossible to sleep through a situation like this, but last night the hospital staff had sedated them, so they could more easily avoid the notice of monsters. Screams of pain weren’t very incognito.

Morally, he didn’t agree with the decision, but he recognized that there wasn’t an abundance of good options.

Medical equipment beeped, masking the sound of the monster tunneling through the wall.

His eyes widened as he saw a Bone Rat push its head out of the wall in a puff of dust. Suppressing his fear, he acted while the monster’s movements were limited. Doctor White swung his knife at its neck and activated [Cut]. The blade glowed red as it sliced into the weak monster’s flesh. With another two activations of the Skill, he decapitated the bone monster, and his SP hit 0.

Congratulations! Cut has reached Level 1.

Congratulations! Cut has reached Level 2.

Congratulations! Cut has reached Level 3.

Congratulations! You have defeated a Bone Rat – Lvl 1. +100 Exp.

Lifeless, its body fell to the ground, tearing a wide hole in the wall. Similarly, Sunny’s legs gave out on him, sending him crashing to the ground. The toll of draining all his resources while ignoring substantial injuries was too much for him to endure. His body was simply unable to continue pushing forward.

Sunny panted on the floor, trying to regain his breath as he eyed the hole. If one Bone Rat came this way, more were liable to follow.

How they had even gotten into the walls, he wasn’t sure, but it wasn’t important right now.

With how quickly monsters leveled, it would be a disaster if even a single monster got into this room. Doctor White's heart raced as he forced himself to his feet.

“Help! I need help! Someone come up here.” No one answered his call. His voice wasn’t loud enough to carry over the battle outside.

Dr. White took a wobbly step forward and wiped off his hands. He was disgusted by blood. Ironic for someone in his profession. With no help on the way, evacuating the patients from the room wasn’t an option. He couldn’t move all five of them at once, and if he left the room for more than a couple seconds, the others would be in substantial danger.

More Bone Rats would be coming. He had to act quickly. Straining his muscles to their limit, he maneuvered one of two metal supply closets in the room to in front of the hole in the wall. After he finished, he collapsed again. On the floor, he leaned his back against the supply closet and closed his eyes, taking a moment to recover.

…

He jolted awake as a Bone Rat pounded against the makeshift barrier from the other side of the wall, rattling the metal. Shit!

He hadn’t been asleep for more than a minute, but even still he had lost valuable time.

In his condition, there was no way he could beat a Bone Rat, but if he lost or ran away, all five of the patients in this room would die. Then, with its massive boost in power, the monster could freely devour the more than 100 people hiding from danger in the lobby below. To make matters even worse, if he lost and the monster was able to freely rampage through the first floor, it would then be able to flank the group fighting outside, which would lead to them dying as well.

What was the solution: try to be a hero again and get everyone killed? He was painfully aware of how his first attempt had gone.

He called out for help again. Like last time, no one answered. The metal storage closest rattled, banging against his back. A cold bead of sweat ran down his forehead. He’d have to solve this by himself.

As fast as he could, he clambered to his feet. From his elevated position, he could see what was going on outside. Things were going similarly terrible – a pillar of bone jutted out of the ground allowing the monsters to bypass the barricades.

There was only one way to stop the monster from gaining too much power: kill the hospital patients in this room while they slept. Sure, it would gain a substantial amount of strength by eating their bodies, but if the hundred or so people below banded together, they could pull through.

How cold have I grown to even consider this? The knife in his hand felt like ice. It wouldn’t budge. What other option do I have?

He stood over George, an old patient of his.

The storage closet shook violently, threatening to fall over. Logically, Sunny didn’t see any other way. As time rapidly ran out, he tried to reason with himself, throwing countless hollow justifications at the problem. They’re asleep; they won’t feel any pain. They have a low chance of surviving anyways; I’m just saving them from needless suffering.

His hand shook as he slowly lowered the knife towards the kindly old man’s throat. With a crash, the Bone Rat broke down the barrier. It was now or never.

He clenched his jaw, and the knife descended. This was the only way.

Sunny stopped as flashbacks of all the nice conversations he had with George came back to him. One particular memory stuck itself in the front of his mind. Not more than a week ago, the old man had shared that he wanted to build a tiny house for every bird in the neighborhood. It was such an odd and simple conversation, but it wouldn't leave him.

I can’t do it. I’m a doctor; I’m supposed to save lives, not take them.

Doctor White dropped the knife, tears falling from his eyes. The bone monster ravenously charged toward him, but he couldn’t bring himself to care overly much.

As his death neared, time slowed to a crawl. The knife fell through the air so slowly that it looked like it was suspended by wires.

He’d rather die than kill anyone. Still, doubt and turmoil filled his heart, setting it ablaze. It wasn’t only his life in the balance. He looked outside.

If he didn’t disregard his heart, hundreds of people would die.

Even if he did, there was no guarantee they would survive, the last good part of himself argued, unwilling to back down.

Leaves rustled, and his HP dropped.

It was a cold and simple calculation – were 5 lives and his morals worth more than 100 lives? The answer was obvious now. The world was now a cold place, and he’d have to adapt.

He snatched the knife out of midair. His heart felt like it would explode, but he acted anyway. His knife slashed forward, killing George and his dream of building birdhouses.

A part of him died.

The Bone Rat soared through the air with its claws extended, moments away from skewering Doctor White.

A moment crystalized in time with the thunderous sound of a titan-sized heart beating.

Shard Unlocked: Heartless (Low) +10 Mana, +10 Myth, +10 Magic

In stages of varying severity, stop your heart from functioning to temporarily gain access to powers.

Stage 1 (Sacrifice): Gain control over the blood of a recently slain enemy.

Sunny didn’t notice the blue screens, too busy tracing the patterns he could now see so clearly floating through the air and clinging to the dead body.

They called out to him, recognizing him. Doctor White answered. His heart stopped, and blood streamed out of George’s corpse, turning it pale. In a familiar motion, the red liquid swept away the Bone Rat, blasting it through the wall to the asphalt below.

The monster died on impact. Barely conscious, Sunny let the patterns guide him, tapping into something beyond himself. Blades of blood shot off the dead monster, stabbing those around it.

With each movement of the patterns, he felt something drain out of him, and his skin became colder. He ignored the painful sensation, intent on saving those that he could.

Streams flowed from one body to the next, forming a long chain.

Before he could detonate his attack, he fell face-first to the floor. On the verge of death, his heart began to slowly and weakly beat again. Before he lost consciousness, he was left with one thought: was it worth it?

…

A terrified set of eyes hidden within an untouched metal storage closet watched the doctor.

…

Clover observed with a mix of awe, confusion, and fear as tides of blood tore into the Bone Rats. He had approximately zero clues as to what was going on. One moment he was settling in for the hardest fight of his life, and the next… well, he wasn’t sure.

What he was sure of was that notifications were rapidly popping up, granting him partial kill credit.

Congratulations! You have defeated a Bone Rat – Lvl 2. +91 Exp.

Congratulations! You have defeated a Bone Rat – Lvl 2. +84 Exp.

Congratulations! You have defeated a Bone Rat – Lvl 3. +102 Exp.

…

Class: [Blank] has reached Level 8. +5 Stat Points.

He was happy about that, but he was a bit too out of it from violently snapping his golem tether to properly enjoy it.

As suddenly as it started, the attack stopped. It couldn’t have lasted for more than 15 seconds.

The blood-based assault didn’t finish off all the Bone Rats – most of the higher-Level ones survived as well as a fair amount of the weaker ones. Additionally, there was still a troupe of Deep Ants closing in. The fight was far from over.

Still, he sat behind the wall and did not immediately attack. Instead, he took the time to regroup himself, reloading his gun and retrieving Bob the Elephant's tusk. Moments later, to his surprise, instead of targeting the humans, the Deep Ants attacked the Bone Rats.

A monster brawl broke out. Pincers tore into flesh, and bone cracked chitin. The two forces were evenly matched and content to fight amongst themselves, so Clover sat on the sidelines, behind the safety of the walls. No need to bring unnecessary danger to himself – he had enough of that for today already.

After a couple minutes of carnage, a bell rang in the distance, and the monsters froze in place. His vision swam for a second, then returned to normal. Slowly, the Bone Rats and Deep Ants ambled about, returning to where they came from.

Clover watched on in confusion, unable to handle any more weirdness. He was dead tired – he needed to take a nap.

After the group from the factory regrouped, he took the first truck back to his bed at the other half of the hospital. He ignored everything on the way in and promptly fell asleep.

In the end, only 6 people died in the hospital rescue operation, whereas 327 were saved.