COSMO’s cold voice sounded in his ears. “Vital signs lost. Rebuilding user in 10…9…”

An intense pain swept over his torso, arm, and head. 75% realism Sphinx had said as a matter of fact. It felt pretty terrible—dying that is.

“Survival duration: 5 minutes and 14 seconds.

SIM reports user has gained several achievements: First Death, Sacrificial Lamb, and Perseverance of Wills.”

“Barely unlocked that last one.”

The second voice jolted Lark’s brain awake. Sphinx.

He got up, not knowing how he returned to his living room couch. The damn demon was nowhere to be seen. It appeared that their voices resounded from an unknown speaker in the sky.

“So? How was it, your first taste of death that is?”

Immediately, Lark’s left arm swerved, patting up and down his right side. Breaking a few bones here and there was one thing, but it was the first time he had experienced losing an entire arm. A shadow from under the curtain flickered. His heart thumped as he looked up. Just a branch.

He took quick peeks around the room, checking to see if he was alone. Although the battle was over, it didn’t feel that way.

An appalling hunger settled in the back of his throat. He hurried to the kitchen sink. Brushing his lips under the rushing faucet, he ballooned his cheeks with tap water and gulped incessantly. But it was not enough, not even when he thought his stomach would burst.

His head pooled to one side of the counter, intently listening to the sound of draining water. Gurgling pipes concentrated deep into his psyche, but the memories were inescapable even when his eyes were wide open. He couldn’t believe what had just happened. In the solace of his home, all he can see, hear, and feel, were the transpiration of the last five minutes. All the events turning in motion. Vivid. From the exact moment, he summoned the slime, it was a chain reaction of non-stop horror. Bits of cold gelatin pelted into his mouth, and although he hadn’t meant to, his tongue had instinctively licked it. The astringent taste sprinkled across his tongue, then it laddered down the sides until it completely coated his mouth in its flavor.

Lark’s hands ran up the sides of his head.

Water was still running.

There was a knock at the door, and then another.

Sphinx. His eyes narrowed as he grabbed a kitchen knife.

It was then, Lark realized something was wrong with him. His hands were no longer trembling as they were in previous fights, nor did he feel any trepidation. It was a feeling that this action was necessary. To kill.

Once that piece of understanding locked into place naturally with the order of things, the tightness in his throat cleared. He forgot how he answered the door. Was it natural? Did his face show any anger? How did he act…?

He might’ve forgotten himself, but his lookalike greeted him with all-smiles as if he knew Lark would react in this manner. That justified the reward, Lark supposed. A life for a life.

“SIM alert: User has killed an administrator.”

“SIM reports user has gained an achievement: First kill.”

“Please check inbox for rewards and status screen for skill updates.”

“Survival duration: 3 minutes and 10 seconds.

“World reset in 10…9…”

Lark laid on his back and stared at the ceiling, then to T.V. in his living room. The news from the previous day was replaying. Benny’s voice, mixed with both solemn and playful tones with each segment. “Seriously, what’s going on?”

“See it’s fun, treating everything like a game!” Sphinx had taken Wangshi’s chair and said, “So how was it? Killing me?”

Talking to Sphinx and trying to understand him as best as Lark could put it, was like taking one of the thousands of various sized gears in a machine and spinning it. The other pieces would simply be forced to move by physics. Although he might’ve thought there was any semblance of understanding before, he was quite wrong. These other 999 pieces, he still needed to figure out.

He blinked and returned to facing the ceiling. “Uneventful.”

“Seriously?” Sphinx sounded disappointed. He was unpredictable like that.

“Your body is weak.” A sudden turn in his demeanor told Lark they were moving onto the next phase. An apple materialized in Sphinx’s hand. He rubbed the apple’s skin against his white robe. “I died easily because your hoo-mun body is squishy.” Taking a large bite into the apple, Sphinx's mouth covered with juice and flaky yellow meat. Lark closed his eyes at the nauseating sound.

It’s only been a (very long) day since Lark learned of Sphinx’s existence, yet all his idiosyncrasies very much annoyed him. It was worse that Sphinx even looked like him.

“An apple, really? Isn’t that kind of cliche, even for you Sphinx?” Lark retorted, not even bothering to glance at him.

“Oh, finally talking back. I thought puberty was almost over for you. I guess not.” A second fruit materialized in his hand. A fleshy tomato, which was bustlingly ripe “A single stab and twist.”

Sphinx played with the tomato in his palm like a strange hackey-sack till the green stem suddenly popped out. Lark’s eyes widened. Did the tomato just pulsate?

“Too easy! And I get easily fatigued in this body!”

A soft sigh floated up to Lark’s ears.

“It’s no good if we keep playing like this.”

White as snow nails dug freely through the red, tomato skin. Each finger carved out raw tissue and seeds till his entire palm drenched in the tomato’s carcass.

“I’m not cleaning up that shit.”

Sphinx’s silvery irises shook, but the usual Chesire smile overlapped his expression.

“I think… three more rounds should do it…”

COSMO’s voice reentered the room. “World reset in 3…2…1!”

Lark’s eyebrows lowered. “Bring it on.”

Normally, there should be consequences for killing people just as there should be equal consequences for dying, however, SIM looked at these conditions as achievements. Not that he had time to ponder over why that was, but Lark found himself in the middle of his high school, where he automatically thought about the philosophy behind his so-called training.

Lark gritted his teeth, already tightening his hold on the revolver. Although he could make several guesses as to why Sphinx was torturing him like so, it’d be helluva a lot easier just knowing. One, was he really getting stronger? And second, was Sphinx really trustworthy?

“You know Lark,” Sphinx’s timely voice sent a cold sweat behind his ears, “when you’re confronted with that option to fight or flee, I definitely don’t want you to freeze. People are clumsy, more so when they’re in a panic. They slip on shit, fall down awkwardly, sprain limbs, and get tired quickly. A build-up of mental fatigue so to speak can happen in a snap. These exercises are to prevent that.”

Above Lark’s racing heart COSMO’s voice entered from the school’s speakers:

“Survival countdown 1 hour.”

Lark cocked a brow. “I have to run around for an hour this time?”

“Just try to.” A crackled laugh dispersed as the speakers cut out. Lark hurried to find a place to duck into. This time he was familiar with the terrain, after all, he only attended this school for the last four years. He cut over the lunch tables when a hail of spears launched at the deck in front of him. “Holy shit—”

Lark swerved his gun to the closest Redcap and fired three times. The psionic bullets quickly decimated its face, killing it. With his free hand, he summoned Gushi behind him. Meanwhile, he heard COSMO’s voice with a new announcement: First monster kill.

“Gushi! Boiling Body! Propel!”

“First party kill.” A second goblin fell.

“Damn right,” Lark said, squeezing the trigger in front of the third target. The psionic bullet spun a spiral of flames, which pronounced a large flaming hole on the Redcap’s shabby shield. It chucked the shield onto the goblin next to it as soon as its arm caught on fire.

“Not very smart, are they?” he muttered under his breath, and then he directed his gaze upon his slime. After using Boiling Body, Gushi’s strength was on par with a Redcap.

“Gushi, eat up, but save some of the pointy stuff,” he quickly ordered. The slime bounded on top of a dead goblin, and then another till the lunch deck was cleared out of dead goblins.

“SIM reports user has unlocked Sharpshooter Mastery skill.”

Lark tilted his head. He can unlock skills inside his Mind Space? Did they translate to real-world skills or like Gushi, did he need to relearn them?

“Live through this round, before you ask so many questions.”

Gushi’s antenna flashed a red beam. Lark didn’t have time to sigh at Sphinx’s interference nor check his updated status because an army of slime bats arrived. More than forty minions surrounded them.

“Don’t bother talking, if you’re not gonna answer.”

Instead of using the revolver right away, Lark opened his storage ring and pulled out a kitchen knife.

“Gushi, shrink back to normal first, then fire back at them,” Lark said as he jumped onto a table to gain higher ground. In a second, Gushi transformed back to his usual size and rolled forward like a ball before bouncing. The slime’s body slammed against three bats in a row, then ricocheted off a wall and continued propelling back and forth between monsters.

“Nice,” Lark cheered. He threw the knife into the most condensed population. The slime bats screeched horrendously, having their wings sheered. He pulled out a second knife immediately after and shot off another five rounds before any of them could get any closer.

Lark noticed his aim centered better than before. Compared to his first knife throw, the second one sailed through at least four bats and the knife held steady instead of wildly swinging like a boomerang. Even his psionic fire bullets had a more punch to them than before. The blast area effect had a wider burn range. It must be because of the new skill…

He let out a low whistle. “Gushi. Spear please.”

The slime quickly spat out a dull brown stick with a leaf-like blade at the top. Amusingly, the Redcaps might've been better off fighting with bare hands. The spear’s stats were lower than a tree branch.

Lark picked it up nonetheless and swung it over his shoulder. He imitated the throw like how’d he had seen the track and field guys do it. The spear flew faster than he had expected and it lobbed a messy hole through another set of bats. “Speed is nice,” Lark said to himself until he saw what remained. The spear tip splintered off as soon as it collided with the locker. Then he shrugged. “As I thought, it’d be better to just dice’em up.”

Gushi had put over twenty slime bats to rest, while Lark dealt with the remaining three using the last of his kitchen knives.

“COSMO how much time remaining?”

“Forty-four minutes and fifteen seconds…” the robotic voice reported from his smartwatch.

Lark stretched his hands. They were beginning to stiffen. He’d underestimated how unreliable his stamina was in a prolonged fight. Gushi noticed and bounded up to him, extending his antenna over his hands.

He titled his head in surprise as a black box notification popped up. “Y-you’ve figured out how to use Perception in this way?”

It read off Gushi’s updated use of Perception extended to pinpointing weaknesses of creatures. In its owner’s case, Gushi examined Lark’s hands to note where the damage had occurred, be it overuse of his strength or torn muscles.

Quickly, Gushi swallowed Lark’s hands inside its body. Lark didn’t squirm as much as he did before the first time Gushi had done that, but this time a bubbly, viscous fluid coated the webbed space between his pointer finger and thumb. A mix of soapiness and medicinal ointment tickled his nerves. What was this feeling close to, he wondered, a sponge bath?

“Thanks,” Lark said after Gushi released him. His treated hands felt fresh out of a spa. The slime saluted him with its antenna. For the time being, the antenna remained a neutral color, meaning no enemies were withing 200 feet of them. Before facing off with a new potential threat though, Lark checked his status.

“Lark Rune [Trickster]

[Survivor][Beginner Beast Tamer][Familiar*]

*Happiness Level: 30%

STR: 18

DEX: 20 (+5)

INT: 18 (+5)

MG: 15 (+10)

SP: 200

*LUK: 35 (-0)

Happiness level has a direct relationship with LUK.

Remember: Happiness has little to do with luck, but luck comes to those with happiness.”

Lark grumbled at the message noted at the bottom of the screen. Another five percent immediately deducted from his happiness level screen.

“Fortune cookie nonsense,” he said. There was no one to argue with though, so looked at the skills he obtained next.

“??? - Innate Skill - User can understand the cursed/undead creatures for reasons unknown.

Alchemy - Life Skill - Rank F - User can craft simple potions, salves, and tonics.

Effects: As the user discovers and crafts more products, this skill will help produce more potent effects. As DEX increases so will the user’s flexibility in handling craft materials.”

Sharpshooter Mastery - Life Skill - Rank G - Training this skill will lead to more sharpshooter related focuses.

It was mildly interesting to learn he now possessed three skills. One of which SIM couldn’t identify, yet marked as an innate skill. Lark couldn’t help but assume there might be a strong possibility, this condition was related to his failing eyesight. It wasn’t that far-reaching that both coincidences could be linked since both had unknown causes and failed to be determined by SIM’s scanning abilities. However, this lack of information also revealed SIM wasn’t omnipotent, it was assessing him and his surroundings constantly before delivering information.

Lark put the thought temporarily behind him as he examined the Sharpshooter Mastery skill box.

When he tapped it, the skill transferred him to an outlined shape of an octagon. A picture of a target centered inside of it. Attached to the left side of the octagon was a line trailing to circle with a palm print inside it.

“[Steady Hand] - Increases precision and accuracy.”

Although it was a strange-looking flowchart, Lark immediately thought of Runesteam and the game he played with the twins. In the beginning, Teddy only knew how to use fireball, but after he killed a few minions with fire magic, his character learned how to use firebolt, which was an evolved form of fireball with a faster hit rate and increase in critical damage.

“It’s a skill tree…”

Upon closer examination of this branching skill, he noticed something odd. “Where did the rank go?”

His questions would have to wait. Suddenly, Gushi jumped onto his head, entire body shivering. The shared Perception skill activated. Approaching from behind the school’s cafeteria was the disfigured humanoid. All traces of its previous human container gone, fully blood-red eyes and gooey black skin with brownish, popped out veins, no visible green hair nor any semblance of human conscious.

Lark inhaled through his nose, faintly recalling the smell of seared flesh when Silvina’s attack blew across the battlefield. He tapped the top of Gushi’s slime coat.

“I won’t let you die again,” he promised. “I have an idea.”