Besides having great security, the hotel had a great view of the town. And so while he was training inside of his room, he saw William meet up with the group from before. Judging from his actions, he probably knew a few of them in real life.

Markus swung downwards with the sharp blade of the hoe. They were pretty weak, weak enough that just a few strikes were enough to finish each one off. He hid behind trees or in the bushes with mud smeared all over his clothes and hacked their heads off as they walked by.

Of course, it didn't take too long for the wolves to notice that their number was dwindling rapidly. But by then, at least half their number was dead, either from fighting Markus or that group of dead humans. It was just Markus, around 3-4 wolves, and several corpses.

And now, it was just Markus with a shit ton of blue windows.

Acquired 75 EXP! Acquired 75 EXP! Acquired 75 EXP! You have become Lvl 4! Acquired 50 EXP! Acquired 50 EXP! Acquired 33 EXP! Learned Sharp Weapon Mastery Lvl 1! Sharp Weapon Mastery and Blunt Weapon Mastery have fused to form Weapon Mastery Lvl 1! Acquired 44 EXP! Acquired 25 EXP! Acquired 20 EXP! Acquired 25 EXP! Acquired 10 EXP! Acquired 10 EXP!

Damn, I only went up 1 level.

He sat down and took a breather, waiting for his stamina to replenish. Markus then opened up the shop, bought the "sell" function for 500 Credits, and started hacking up corpses.

Unlocked Sanity! Acquired Wolf Meat x 15 Learned Dismantling Lvl 1! Acquired Rusty Cleaver Acquired Cotton Shirt x 8 Acquired Cotton Pants x 8 Acquired Rubber Shoes x 8 Acquired Human Meat x 8 Acquired Wolf Skeleton x 15 Acquired Human Skeleton x 15 Acquired Birch Stick x 7

In the pockets of some of the men, he found a few human-looking fingers, one almost half the size of the other. And hidden in the shirt of one of them he found a rusty metal cleaver that for some reason they did not use. Maybe they just died too quickly or something.

He put the cleaver in his bag and then sold the rest of the crap he just got, earning him 252 Credits.

He then thought about his new plan while he checked his status.

Some of them probably got away, so their leader or whatever should know by now. I'll have to make sure I have enough SP in case they try another surprise attack, so it looks like I won't be getting to Lvl 5 yet.

He then got back up, did an attempt at hiding the remains of the battle, and got on his way.

A man ran through the woods, out of breath. His stamina was close to hitting rock bottom but he kept going out of sheer desperation. Behind him were a few wolves, which were suddenly and swiftly struck by arrows.

He stumbled before breathing heavily. He waited for any other noises to emerge from behind him but none came.

Fuck, this is really bad. Am I the only one that made it out alive? I gotta tell Aaron-- Wait no, if I go back I'll be eaten next. What the hell am I supposed to do now?

"Chris! What the fuck happened? Did you guys get him?"

Shit shit what the fuck do I do I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die

Travis looked down at Chris. Chris's eyes were wide open and crazy as drool slipped out of his mouth. His shirt and pants were drenched in sweat and a horrible smell was coming from the stain on his pants. He seemed to be muttering something over and over again but Travis was too far away to hear him.

"Chris! Can you hear me? What the hell's wrong with you, man?"

Chris looked up and stopped muttering. Deep in his eyes, Travis could see that something was wrong. His eyes had turned completely black as the whites of his eyes disappeared. Travis took a step backward, as Chris stepped towards him.

"What the--"

Chris screamed into Travis's face, his features turning monster-like. He spit into Travis's eyes, blinding him. Travis's hands instinctively went up to protect his face, but Chris grabbed his neck and squeezed, before taking a bite. Chris's teeth had grown unnaturally long, almost like fangs but still short enough to fit in his mouth. His body exuded a black aura as his nails and teeth started to turn the same color as his eyes. He munched down on Travis's neck, ignoring his screams, before continuing to gnaw at his face, sucking out his eyes and biting down on his nose. By this point, Travis was just barely alive, unable to speak but still screeching out some unintelligible speech, due to Chris gulping down his vocal cords. His body trembled as he was being eaten, spasming in all the wrong spots, until he finally bled out.

Chris kept gnawing at his bones, his body slowly turning back to normal. The whites of his eyes returned and his nails and teeth retracted. As soon as the color came back to his face, it vanished just as quickly and he vomited.

Unlocked Unique Skill: Capricious Lvl 1! Acquired 50 EXP!

Something had gone very wrong.

None of the members of the ambush team had come back yet except for Chris, except that wasn't Chris. It was some kind of monster that just looked like Chris and ate Travis. No way he was getting involved in that shit.

What the hell had happened in there? The plan was simple: stalk the guy from behind until some monsters show up, then make some noise when some monsters come into view and get the fuck out. It should have only taken at the most half an hour, yet it had already been over an hour. Aaron had the sinking suspicion that everyone that had gone into that forest was dead. The problem with that was the fact that their top 5 members were in that squad. This was bad not only because of the loss of manpower but also because it would be harder to keep his position as leader.

He didn't have time to worry about that now, however. It was time for lunch, after all.

A player walked through the woods, into the middle of a clearing. They suddenly stopped, picked up a rock, and threw it at a tree. The rock sailed through the middle of the tree, displaying a hidden hole, and landed inside with a thunk. The ground then rumbled and shifted, exposing a set of stairs leading downwards.

You are the first to find this temple. Rewards: 1000 Credits, Treasure Box I.

The rewards appeared in a flash of light, just like the achievement rewards. The difference, however, was that the Treasure Box happened to be around twice the size of the achievement boxes and had little symbols engraved into its sides. No locks or openings could be seen on it.

Unlocked Achievement: Explorer I Be one of the first 10 to find one of the four basic elemental temples. Rewards: Weapon Box I, Tool Box I, Skill Box I, Item Box I, 5000 Credits

So there's no armor box this time, meaning that the rewards vary depending on which achievement you unlock. I guess an Item Box will give me a potion or something?

After opening each of the boxes and examining the prizes, he acquired:

Spiked Iron Shoes: +7 STR, + 10 AGI, + 3 DEX, + 3 DEF. Shoes crafted using iron ingots with spikes on the front and bottom to help deal damage and keep balance. They look like really dangerous soccer cleats. Rope: +4 STR. A shit ton of rope for who knows what. If used for certain purposes such as non-combat practices with another being sanity may decrease. Disarm Trap Skill Tome: Teaches the user the skill Disarm Trap. It should be obvious what this skill does, right? Speed Potion: + 10% AGI for 10 minutes. Totally not drugs.

The fuck are these descriptions...is it only for objects so far? Whatever, I've accomplished what I came here to do.

He reached into the tree and pulled out the rock. The ground shifted back into place as Markus picked up the Treasure Box, stuffed it into his sack, and began moving back towards the city.

When he got to the outskirts of the city, he took out the Treasure Box and began examining it. Treasure boxes were basically just puzzles, which was what the engravings were for. To open it, you had to trace the engravings in a certain order. The problem with them, however, was that the prize depended on how many tries it took you to open it. Plus, depending on the number of tries, you could end up getting poisoned if you failed too many times. They were pretty common to find in his past life since they were one of the rewards that could be gained from clearing a dungeon.

This one, however, was fairly easy. Markus pressed a button, which made the engravings light up in a certain order. He traced the order backward and the box clicked open.

He opened the box to find a rock. It was brown, with blue and gray streaks fusing to form a spiral.

After examining it, it turned out it was an ore. What kind of ore, he didn't know. This is what the screen said:

??? Ore

At the moment, it was more or less useless. You needed at least 3 ores to make an ingot, and since his Examine skill couldn't figure what it was, it didn't look like he was getting any more of it anytime soon.

On the outskirts of the city, however, he noticed something odd. There were traces of a battle, as well as a mutilated corpse, but it didn't look like it was the work of the cannibals or a monster's. The corpse's head was missing, and gashes along the forearms and torso could be seen. Beside it, a stinking pool of vomit, as well as bloody footprints leading away from the city, could be seen.

Looks like someone just lost it and went berserk. Definitely, a unique skill though, considering that Rage shouldn't be a skill anyone will have until at least Lvl 20.

Unique skills were just skills that there could only be 1 copy of in the game. Any player could unlock a unique skill, but the skill they got depended on their character as well as their class. After all, it wouldn't make sense for a rogue to get a mage type skill, would it?

They could be gained by evolving skills, which was usually the majority of them (since the number of players kept decreasing). The only other way that Markus knew to get one was to get stuck in some kind of situation.

In his case, of course, it was dying.

Unique skills were usually strong enough to call overpowered, but they either had side effects or in the case of some skills like Mathemagic, a huge weakness.

He didn't give it too much thought before entering the city and heading for the training hall. The killer most likely would have already left the area, meaning that they wouldn't make contact shortly. For now, though, he had to get used to his improved stats and think of better tactics that wouldn't waste too much SP.

1 hour later...

The timer rang as Markus stretched his back and got up. He headed for the door before remembering that he forgot to take the daily quest earlier...

He sighed and shook his head. He seemed to be forgetting things more often than usual...

Markus went outside anyway to join the fight. Just because he didn't accept the quest didn't mean he couldn't participate. It just meant that he would lose out on contribution rewards.

Outside, a large crowd of players could be seen. It appeared to be about all of the players in Ganbara City, though he did see a few new faces here and there. While the majority of players were inside of cities, some were still trying to find safe havens.

A few players, looking a bit desperate, surrounded him as soon as he stepped outside. They opened their mouths but Markus brushed past them without even a single word. He could feel their gazes on him as they looked at his brand-new armor and weaponry before they suddenly stopped on his bag...

A man tapped on the ground, signaling them to move. Each of them had their hands stretched outward, attempting to pull him down. Markus simply kicked outwards, and with a single stroke from his hoe, knocked back all three of them.

In the meantime, however, the hunt had started. Due to a large number of players, no guards had joined the fight. As such, none of the players made a move, afraid of getting hurt. A few monsters moved towards the headless corpse, while the rest searched for the scent of fear and prey.

Markus moved towards the gate and stepped outside. He had just finished testing his limits and getting ready and was now going to use his new tactics.

None of the monsters made a move. They knew that there was prey nearby and that this wasn't it. Suddenly, a stronger looking fox barked, sending the rest of them into a frenzy.

Markus swung upwards with the hoe at the ones closest to him, smashing them into each other. He stepped on their muzzles, keeping their teeth closed while also crushing their necks. Then, just as it looked like he was looking for another opponent, he ran back into the city, closing the gate behind him.

The monsters looked puzzled, then outraged. They ran at the gate, attacking the now startled and frightened players in the frontline.

"W-Wait wait wait no no no--"

"Oh fuck help help help"

"You crazy mother-"

Markus sat down in the town square. He restored his SP by eating, enjoying the screams and growls. After he finished his meal, he got back into the fight.

The looks on their faces...I should forget things more often.

Because of how he had "interfered" in the quest, he had stolen most of the contribution. Thus, the players received meager rewards compared to what they had to go through. Many were distraught, and cries of anger began to spread throughout the square.

Markus just barely concealed the grin on his face, covering it with his hand. Even though he hadn't taken the quest, he had still reaped pretty good rewards from the fight anyway.

Unlocked Leaderboards! You are rank #10 on the leaderboards.

The leaderboards would help him keep track of the timeline, as well as figure out which players were still alive.

Unlocked Achievement: Strong I Become one of the first 10 people to unlock the leaderboards. Rewards: 5000 Credits, Weapon Box I, Armor Box I, Item Box I, Tool Box I

"Leaderboards."

Rank Name Level 1 Chosen One 10 2 Growth Weapon 8 3 Elisa Smith 8 4 Mathemagic 8 5 Foodie 7 6 Devin Cora 6 7 Spirit of Bacchus 6 8 Raheem Kumar 5 9 Zaid Irava 5 10 Markus Zhang 5

When someone unlocked their unique skill, they could substitute their skill name for their real name on the leaderboards. If they had more than one, they could use any of the skill names.

This is weird...Foodie and Spirit of Bacchus shouldn't have activated their abilities yet, and Raheem and Zaid were numbers 5 and 6 back then...

Attention All Players! Moratulis is now undergoing an update!

What? This didn't happen back then... does it have to do with the leaderboard?