Chapter 36: Aftermath

My stomach was aching badly. I was starving and I felt like I could eat a whole sack of rice. When I woke up, my vision was blurry at first. I saw a woman sleeping with her head on the side of my bed. I looked around and I was in a hospital or something. I tried to move around and I found that my body was heavy.

“Miguel? Do you remember me?” The woman put her face closer to mine. It took me a while to recover my eyesight, but it was my sister, Dianne. Well, half-sister. “Guys! Miguel is awake!”

“Dianne?”

When I muttered her name, her teary eyes widened and her lips turned into a frown. She cried on my chest and hugged me tightly. So tight that I felt like she was crushing me. I didn’t know how Dianne got her STR, but I was taken aback by her strong arm. As soon as Dianne shouted, the others came rushing towards me. There was also a man in a black suit and tie. He stood by the end of the bed and watched us.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Miguel remembered me!” Dianne declared as she ignored me.

“Miguel!” Eric also gave me a tight hug. “Holy shit! I’m glad you’re okay! Do you remember me?”

“Well, duh?” I shrugged.

“Okay, if you really remember me, what’s my name?” Eric asked excitedly as if it was even a hard question.

“How about me? Do you remember me, man?” Richard pointed at himself.

“And me?”

Why were they asking the same thing? What the hell happened? They all looked at me with puppy eyes and it was annoying. I decided to mess with them a little.

“Hmmm…” I pretended to think about it and blurted out a random name. “Justin? No. no. I think it’s Bobby. Shit. I can’t remember.”

Suddenly, all of them stopped with their joyful attitude. The atmosphere around me suddenly became gloomy.

“You remember us, right?” Dianne frowned.

“Of course.” I rolled my eyes as I sighed. I pointed them one by one and told them their names. “Dianne, Melissa, Mark, Beth, Richard and Eric.”

As soon as these clowns heard it, they cheered loudly and all of them gave me a tight hug. I was still puzzled why they were doing it and the last thing I remembered was that I had sex with Claire. I remembered that I forcefully kissed her and everything went black after that. Is it why I was in a hospital? Did Claire beat the shit out of me after we had sex?

“Guys… You’re… Crushing… Me…” I couldn’t breathe well and these idiots were crying like babies as they gave me a group bear hug. Finally, they let go of me.

“What happened? Where am I?” I asked. “Where’s Claire?”

“Claire’s okay. She’s just taking a rest.” Dianne answered. “We’re in Taytay.”

“Taytay, Rizal!?” I blurted out. “Why are we here? Aren’t we in Camp Aguinaldo? Wait, did we actually leave Camp Aguinaldo?”

“You don’t remember?” Eric gave me a puzzled look.

“I think it’s because Claire didn’t know what happened to him after he left.” Richard said. He turned his head to me. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“W-well, I remembered that... Ermmm... I was with Claire. That’s all.” I answered.

“And before that?”

“I was in a hospital. Doing something... I can’t remember that part actually. I can’t remember what I was doing there. But before that, I was angry at my dad because he wouldn’t help me. And I learned that Dianne is my sister.”

“So that’s it?”

“Yeah, that’s all I remember.” I nodded. “So what happened?”

The rest of them stared at me and frowned. They looked at me with pity in their eyes. Why the hell were they staring at me? When I tried to scratch my head, I noticed that my left hand was missing and there was only a stump on it instead of a hand. Not only that, but I also noticed that my arms were very thin.

“What the fuck!” I removed the bedsheet covering my entire body. “Fuck!”

My whole body was as thin as a skeleton. I was literally skin and bones that I could see my ribcage showing. Actually, I could see all of my bones. I gasped for air as I noticed that my vision was darker on the left side. I touched my left eye and felt a stinging pain.

“Give me a mirror!” I yelled.

Dianne took out her bag and gave me a mirror as she looked down. At first, I hesitated looking at the mirror because I was afraid of what I will see. I gathered all the fibers of courage in me and put the mirror in the front of my face.

I was shocked to say the least. I was blind in my left eye and only an empty socket remained. My face was disfigured with a scaly scar covering the left side of my face. It was only the upper left side at least and not the entire half. My face was still covered with a thick beard, so nothing changed there. I opened my Character Screen to check my status.

Name: Miguel Arevalo Race: Human Level: 37 HP: 144/144 MP: 1752/1752 SP: 60/60 EXP: 0.04% STR: 4 WIS: 80 AGI: 6 INT: 100 VIT: 10 LUK: 13 DEX: 3 CHA: 21 Satiety: Starving Status Flesh Waste: -80% STR, AGI, VIT, DEX Undistributed Attribute Points: 10 Title(s): Masochist: +10% Pain Tolerance and HP Perk(s): Leadership: +10 Charisma and increased follower loyalty Tactician: Tactics and Strategies have higher chance of success Mana Affinity II: Increase in Mana Control and +20% MP

I was surprised that my level was much higher than I remembered. I closed my eyes and controlled my breathing as I used [Meditate]. I tried hard to remember what happened, but nothing ever came to my mind. I calmed down as I opened my eyes once again.

“What happened?”

All of them seemed to be hesitating. Finally, Dianne stepped forward and talked. “We don’t know exactly what happened, but what we know is that you left Camp Aguinaldo ten days ago.”

“Ten days?” I asked. “I was out for that long?”

“W-well, no… You were out for two days.”

“But why can’t I remember anything?”

The man in black suit stepped forward and talked. “You were under the influence of the Dark Lord…”

I didn’t know who he was, but I assumed that he was an intelligence officer in Camp Aguinaldo because of his suit. Well, normally, intelligence officers wore fatigue or their military dress uniforms, but he was a white guy, so I assumed he was a foreign spy like CIA or something.

“Okay...” I furrowed my eyebrows as I heard the word ‘Dark Lord’. “Dark Lord as in Voldemort?”

“No, not Voldemort.“ The man continued. “This Dark Lord is the god of falsehoods and lies. You have gained his attention when you cured Claire of the Necrotic Curse and has plagued you ever since.”

I didn’t know what this ‘necrotic curse’ he was talking about, but I assumed it was the dark mana infection that you could get from the zombie bite. “Who are you, by the way?

“I’m Schmidt. Admin Schmidt.” The man said as he extended his hands for a handshake.

Special NPC: Admin Schmidt

Race: Administrator

Level: ???

Title(s): Punisher

Faction: SYSTEM Admin Team

Party: Ban Hammer

I used my [Observe] on him and I was shocked to find that he was actually the GM of this real-life RPG. I smiled at him nervously as I shook his hand. “Are you God?”

“No.” Schmidt shook his head. “I’m just one of the SYSTEM Administrators.”

I sighed in relief. “I heard a gibberish whisper when I cured Claire. Was that the Dark Lord?”

“That was the Dark Lord’s mana signature. What you heard was the voice of countless of damned souls. The Dark Lord is something else. No one knows his real name or what he looks like. Not even God.”

“But why can’t I remember anything then?”

Schmidt sat on the bed as he explained everything to me. “God has been trying to contact you for days since you met the Dark Lord, but he somehow found a way to interrupt with your connection to God. One of his minions led you into an undead dungeon and she performed a ritual on you to convert you into a lich. To become his servant. Your flesh wasted away as a result of the ritual and your memory loss was an unexpected complication. The Dark Lord erased all of your memory for unknown reason, but Claire found a way to restore some of your memories.”

That explains it then. When I woke up, I had a strange feeling that my memories were fresh like I experienced them again all at once.

“So is this why I’m skin and bones? I’m an undead?”

“Fortunately, your friends found you in time before the ritual could be completed. They tried to save you, but they were no match for the Dark Lord’s servant and that’s when I came. God has instructed me to save you and to remove your curse. I was successful, but your connection to God was permanently severed, so you won’t be able to talk to Him using the SYSTEM.”

“That doesn’t sound like God. Why would he want to help me?”

“I don’t know, but God said that when you completely recovered, you and Him will be in touch.” Schmidt said as he stood up. “You are keeping a journal, right? I suggest that you read it and perhaps you will learn something. I have to leave now and I must report to God about your condition.”

“Alright.” I nodded. “Thank you and good luck.”

Schmidt shook my hand and said his goodbyes to everybody. He was especially attached to Dianne as he rubbed her head before he faded into pixels of light and disappeared. I felt an itch on my bottom and that’s when I realized that…

“Wait. Am I wearing a diaper?” I asked.

“So what do you want to eat?” Melissa asked me as she ignored the question. From her facial expressions, I can tell that she was the one who put it on me.

“I want ramen with pork belly!” Eric answered.

Melissa ignored Eric and smiled to me. “You want noodles?”

“Yeah, but I’m not sure…”

“Don’t worry, Miguel. Schmidt assured us that it’s safe for you to eat solid food.” Mark smiled as he patted my back.

I stared at him from up and down. He was acting chummy with me just because he joined the others to save me. I remembered that Claire was smiling when she told me about Mark and when I saw him the first time, I knew that he could snatch her from me in an instant. Actually, I was bitter that he was handsome and he was a threat to me and Claire. I made a mental note to myself to watch him closely. I gave him a slight smile and a nod.

“Okay, then. I want that ramen. Hurry up, I’m starv…”

Before I could finish my sentence, Melissa already had a bowl of steaming hot noodles and soup on her hands. She gave Beth a signal and in turn, placed a bed tray on my lap. I was surprised at them when they acted like my servants and I was like their king. I didn’t mind this special treatment and it actually made me feel good. Melissa even poured me a glass of cold orange juice. Whatever happened after I lost my memory seemed to make them more obedient.

“Thanks.”

They stared at me as I tried to up the spoon, but my hand was shaking and I couldn’t even take a sip of the fragrant soup without spilling it. I tried it again by gripping it tight, but it slipped on my shaky fingers and dropped it. Before I could try again, Dianne snatched away the bowl of noodles. She took the spoon and gently blew on the soup.

“Open your mouth.” Dianne opened her mouth as she aimed the spoon in my mouth. “Ahhh…”

I never would’ve thought that Dianne was this adorable when she tried to feed me. Other people would find it awkward to be fed as an adult, but me, I love it, no matter who feeds me. However, I was puzzled at why I forgave her that fast when in fact, she kept the truth from me that I was her brother. I had lots of questions on my mind, but I was starving, so I took her offer and let her feed me.

“Hmmm… Wow. That’s delicious.” I said. “Care to tell me what happened after I left Camp Aguinaldo?”

And thus, they began to tell me the story of what happened to their group after I left. I couldn’t remember how exactly I left, but I already had plans to leave when my father refused to lend me his men helping me find my family in Pasig.

“As soon as you leave, we went to Dad and asked him for help to find you.” Dianne said. “But he refused. He didn’t let us leave that day and he even ordered his men to make sure that we won’t leave. I was angry with you, you know. We all said that we’re with you and you just left us without a word.”

I knew that my father was a scumbag and I wasn’t surprised to hear that he refused to send his men to find me, but it really sounded like him.

“Sorry.” I said.

“Well, I forgive you.” Dianne smiled. “I don’t know about Claire though. She said she’ll punch you the next time she sees you. Don’t worry, I don’t think she’ll hurt you, especially in your condition.”

I scratched my head. I didn’t know what to say to Claire when she wakes up and I knew that she could easily lose her temper. “So what happened next?”

“Then there was a mutiny.”

“A mutiny? Again?”

“At least not in our party, but you know the Magdalo group, right? Well, there was a battle inside the base when they tried to take over and that’s when we decided to use that opportunity to leave. Melissa was held at knife point and we were captured. They put the four of us in jail along with Richard, Beth, Gerry and Mark.”

“And then?”

“They won and they killed a lot of people including civilians. Colonel Medina was one of the leaders of the rebel group, but he let us free.” Dianne continued.

“Colonel Medina? The HR guy?”

They nodded.

I only remembered that the colonel called us for a meeting and gave us jobs. He called me last, but I couldn’t remember our conversation. All I remembered was that I was in a hospital doing something and it was already midnight when Claire visited me while I was on the job and she kissed me. That was all my memories of Colonel Medina.

“Why did the colonel let you leave then?”

“He said that it’s to repay you for saving his wife and daughter from the outbreak.” Melissa replied. “But he took all of our money and most of our food and supplies in exchange for freedom. He said we won’t need it anyway. At least he gave us our weapons back.”

“How about Dad? Is he dead?”

Dianne shook her head. “I don’t know, but the Colonel said that the other colonels were still looking for Dad and they might put a bounty on him. He advised us not to go near Camp Aguinaldo because we might be wanted there.”

“So where’s Gerry and Mang Kaloy?”

“We don’t know.” Eric replied and shook his head. “Only eight of us were able to get out.”

“What happened then?”

“We tracked you down, of course.” Melissa said. “You were easy to track, you know. You left thousands of ashes along your way.”

Richard suddenly jumped into the conversation. “Yeah, and you managed to kill thousands of plague rats. How did you do it? Can you teach me?”

“I-I don’t remember.”

“Oh.” Richard looked down in disappointment. “But will you still teach me some of your tricks?”

“Uhmmm… Sure, why not?”

Richard clenched his fist and he looked like he was very excited to learn. “So in any case, we tracked you down and we actually had to fight a few monsters on the way. Melissa even got a pet dire wolf! You know, dire wolves?”

“No?” I shook my head.

“They’re as big as horses and you can even ride them if you want to.” Richard continued. “But Piper died two days ago… She died fighting Asharra.”

“Asharra?”

“She’s a homunculus.” Richard answered. “She was one of the Dark Lord’s servants and she was the one who kidnapped you and tried to convert you into a lich. We tried to fight her to save you, but she’s way out of our league and kicked our asses. That’s when Schmidt came and saved us all. He’s awesome and he fought Asharra without even breaking a sweat. He’s the one who removed your curse and he helped Claire to restore your memories.”

“By the way, you said there’s eight of you.” I pointed my finger and counted them one by one. “Dianne, Melissa, Eric, Richard, Beth, Mark and Claire’s sleeping. So who’s the other one?”

“…”

All of them looked down and they were speechless. They all looked sad, especially Beth. Her eyes were red and she lifted up her head trying to hold her tears. Mark rubbed her back as he tried to comfort her.

“It was Gerry.” Beth said as she wiped her eyes.

With their expressions, it was obvious that Gerry had died along the way. “What happened to him?”

“After we found Piper, we encountered a boss monster, a giant slime. It chased us and Richard saved us and dug a hole underground. And that’s when we stumbled into a slime dungeon.” Beth’s voice cracked and the tears she was trying to hold back finally flowed freely from her eyes. “We were stuck there for days. W-we were almost out when it happened. Gerry fell behind and… Gerry was…”

Beth sobbed on Mark’s chest. The rest of them were crying too, including Eric and Richard. I didn’t want to ask further because whatever happened to Gerry, it was already done and it hit them hard.

I remembered the time when I first met Gerry. He made quite a first impression to me. I thought he was just another twat with a mouth who would question all my decisions as a leader, but in the end, he proved me wrong. Not only he helped me save Claire, he was also fierce in defending me when their survivor group mutinied.

Gerry was also the one who always agreed with my decisions and he cheered for me when Claire and I had a bloody sparring when everybody else were cheering for Claire. I didn’t know what made him loyal to me and I wished that I could turn back time to appreciate him more. I could use a loyal friend like him and I would always miss his singing.

“Look.” Dianne wiped her eyes. “You- You need more rest. We’ll tell you more some other time. Okay?”

I’ve finished my meal and Melissa took away the bowl. It was surprising that I couldn’t eat much like before. I think I only ate a fourth of it before I was full. They all stood up and left me alone to rest.

I was blaming myself for Gerry’s death. If it wasn’t for me, he’ll probably be alive. I asked myself, why did I leave Camp Aguinaldo alone? And what was I thinking for not even asking them for help? If I only told them about this Dark Lord, then they might be able to help me.

But then, I remembered Schmidt’s advice about reading my journal. You see, ever since we were at the university, I began to write everything that happened to my day to day life. All the events, thoughts, everything I learned, all the monsters we’ve fought and all the conversations I had to the letter.

I opened my inventory screen and scanned my items.

Travelling Bag ‘Clothes’ Travelling Bag ‘Others’ Small Mana Stone X 1,864 Beastiary of Earthland by Finn Mertens Miguel’s Journal Folding Chair Pillow Comforter Box of canned foods Well-done Chimera steak X 3 Pack of Cigarette ‘Phillip Morgan’ X 4 Medium Mana Stone X 371 Smoking Pipe Cannabis X 21 Bag of Weed X 6 Coins: 22 GC 51 SC 36 CC

To say the least, my inventory was full and I had boat loads of mana stones and money. Last time I remembered, I only had like 30 small mana stones and at least 1 gold coin in total. Not only that, I had tons of marijuana and a smoking pipe in my inventory. Had I just smoke weed before I lost my memories? Shit. If my mom knew it, she’d kill me.

I took my diary and spent the whole day and night reading it. While I was reading my diary, Dianne brought me lunch and dinner and yes, she spoon-fed me like a baby. She kept asking me what I learned, but I told her that I wasn’t finished reading it. She and the others left me alone while I learned that Claire was still sleeping.

I skimmed the part that I remembered clearly. I giggled as I read reminisce some of the events like when we fought a troll and when we argued about the distribution of loot. As I flipped pages after pages of my journal, I hit a wall where my memories didn’t match with what I wrote.

I learned that I was given a quest by Col. Medina to help the hospital to find a cure for the outbreak. It seemed that I found a way and cured everyone and according to Dianne, I also cured his wife and daughter. I also learned that the reason why I forgave Dianne so easily was because I realized that it really wasn’t her fault.

She was afraid that I might hate her because she was blaming herself for causing my family problems. My mom kept it a secret from me to spite my dad. Also, I was too angry at my dad because he refused help me to find my Mom and my sister Jen. The reason why I left was because I wanted to save my family or at least confirm that they were already dead.

I learned more about the Dark Lord. Apparently, after I cured Claire of this ‘Necrotic Curse’ that Admin Schmidt was talking about, I had a dream where I was in an endless void and met the Dark Lord himself. I didn’t know what this endless void or the Dark Lord looked like, but judging from what I wrote, it sounded terrifying. I badmouthed the Devil himself, but I didn’t think that was the reason why he hunted me.

I had nightmares after that. The first nightmare that I had was that after the mutiny and after I killed Robert, I told the group to decide whether to stay with me or leave. Everyone abandoned me and the whispers became clearer and suggested me to do evil things.

One dream that bothered me was that, after a series of nightmares, I had, from what I wrote, the best dream ever’. In that dream, the apocalypse never happened and I got married to Claire. We had three children, Michael and the twins, Daniel and Danielle. I was living in my ideal life, a life of a family man and little by little, I could no longer distinguish reality and dreams anymore.

I even wished that I continue to live in that illusion. I considered the real life as a nightmare and the illusion as my real life. The dark whispers didn’t stop and apparently, I became somewhat insane. After every dream, I woke up with a burnt mark on the bedsheet as I accidentally cast my magic while sleeping. I also woke up with the Dark Lord’s mark on my left arm. I looked at my arm and I sighed in relief when I saw that it was already gone and probably, Schmidt has completely removed the curse.

I continued to read my journal and I learned that I lost my hand because I was attacked by a pack of dire wolves and lost my eye because of a slime acid spit that melted my eyeballs. I learned that I tried to restore my limb through a magic that I got from [Quick Learner], but I was unsuccessful because it was too painful and I was afraid that I might turn into an abomination. I also met Daria Swann, a celebrity singer and a cat girl, Asharra. At first, I suspected Daria Swann as the Dark Lord in disguise or one of his servants, but then, it was Asharra all along.

Even though almost all I wrote were bad things, there were still some good things that I learned. I learned that my mother and my sister were probably alive and they went east. I’ve been following red smiley faces that they’ve left as a trail. The last clue was near Home Depot where I was kidnapped.

As I reached near the last page, I noticed that it was already night and I felt quite exhausted from reading it. Although I remember what the dark whisper sounded like, I felt like I didn’t experience it like the Miguel in the journal. I didn’t hear any whispers that night. Only a peaceful silence and the chirping of crickets. If I didn’t lose my memories, then I would say that I missed the sound of the crickets.

As clear my mind and listened to the sounds, I dropped my journal from my hand. The pages flipped to the page I left unread. I instantly recognized my handwriting and it seemed that I wrote it in a hurry. I read the large letters on the page.

“Remember who your true enemy is.”

I closed the journal as I heard footsteps from the distance. I reminded myself that everything I wrote back then was just a nightmare.