He was extremely angry. But his bloodshot eyes were so unfocused because of a different reason. His task was rather simple. All he had to do was to capture the girl and steal souls for his Lord. Not only had he failed to do the former, but he failed in the latter and even lost tens of puppets -his strongest one included-, and all the souls they carried inside.

His eyes weren't bloodshot because of his anger -directed towards the one responsible for his failure-, but because of a deep, well founded fear. After all, his Lord wasn't forgiving. He still remembered the last person that had failed him and how her eyes turned lifeless as his Lord consumed her soul.

"The smell of blood... it was so enticing~" - he moaned in delight at the memories. His thoughts quickly shifted back to the source of his annoyance, his face twisted and his eyes tainted with madness. And he screamed. He screamed in madness. - "You... I'll kill you! I'll find who you are... and you'll die! Everyone will die!"

Any trace of sanity had abandoned him long ago. All that was left in him was the desire to fulfill his Lord's orders. And that he would do. He would follow them till the end of his life. But to do that, he had to first survive the Priest.

"Such an annoying man... if he wasn't faithful to the Lord, I would've gotten rid of him" - he said while he walked away from his room, thinking of ways to convince his Lord to forgive him.

*

Achievement Unlocked: Pork, beef or human?

Requirements: Slay the Butcher

Rewards:

- 100 XP

- Jagged Edge

"I have to read so many of these..." - Kyoku groaned as he approached the driver's compartment slowly. Thankfully, his new INT Stat allowed him to read things faster and with relative ease.

Jagged Edge (Lv. 1): Passive

Increases all damage done by bladed weapons by 10%. This damage increases by 1% per Skill Level.

Adaptation (Lv. 1): Passive

Upon receiving damage, increases resistance against that kind of damage by 10% for 1 minute. Can only be applied once every 5 minutes per damage type. Resistance increases by 1% per Skill Level.

"Adaptation aside, Jagged Edge is extremely good" - Kyoku said, leaning on the door as he studied the skills. - "Now, Adaptation is overkill if I receive damage, but... for some reason I don't want to grind this skill"

Soulreaving Cleaver (Uncommon):

Level required: Lv. 13

A cleaver that sucks the soul out of the enemies it slays. Increases XP aquired by 5%.

Damage: 18-25 + (AGI / DMG)

Crit. Chance: 10% (+0.15)

Crit. Damage: 1.25x

Status Effect: 10% chance to inflict Reave (steals 10 MP from the enemy target) Mist Boots (Epic):

Locked below Level 20

Locked below AGI 60

Locked below Level 50

Locked below Level 100

These boots belong to a different dimension and their powers are locked until the owner is strong enough to use them properly. Stats:

AGI +15

{Locked}

{Locked}

{Locked}

"Now how the fuck did that get here?" - Kyoku said as his eyes opened wide. The Mist Boots looked like the typical item you got either at the beginning of the game and never let go of, or you got it while clearing endgame content. - "Just... what the fuck?"

"Are you done talking to yourself?" - The girl in the driver's compartment said. He had unknowingly stood there without moving, muttering things to himself -a bad habit he needed to work on-.

Lifting his head up, he began apologizing by reflex. - "Oh, sorry, it's a bad ha... bit..."

The girl had waist length purple hair. She was a bit taller than the average, a few inches below Kyoku himself. Her face had an air of royalty to it, complemented by her graceful, well proportioned figure. Her blue eyes seemed to somehow pierce through Kyoku's own, as if she was trying to gaze at his soul and learn who he truly was. How a girl no older than him could put such pressure on someone with just a stare was something he would forever wonder, but at that moment he knew something. She wasn't a run-of-the-mill teenage girl.

"And now what? Too engrossed staring at me?" - she said snarkily. Even if Kyoku didn't like how she spoke, he knew that it was all just a screen, a false image of herself that she used to protect herself.

'It's what everyone does when their life is shit' - Kyoku thought, not caring enough to answer her question. He looked at her some more before finally opening his mouth. - "The name's Izumi Kyoku. I act like you didn't beg for help, you act like my weird habits don't exist. Deal?"

Upon hearing his words, the girl looked at him with the same impassive face he had seen in her the entire time. After a few seconds of staring at each other, she answered.

"Senjougahara Hitagi, but it's Senjougahara-san for you" - the now named Hitagi said, just as snarkily as before. Still, she seemed to agree with him. - "And you have a deal"

At that moment, a pop-up screen appeared in front of Kyoku. And it happened to be exactly what he needed.

Barrier ownership switched

to The Gamer, Kyoku Izumi.

Wondering if that was enough or not, Kyoku put a hand on Hitagi's shoulder, just in case something went wrong with what he was going to do. Before she could ask what he was doing, he casted Delete ID.

*

"Dude, Emma Watson is a total babe" - Kyoku heard a guy say. Looking around, he spotted two guys around his age talking.

The one who answered the claim about Emma Watson was wearing a green hoodie that had a time printed in it. It read 17:25. - "Yeah, but Emma Stone is the better Emma"

Suddenly, they were no longer in the fleshy, gory and disgusting driver's compartment. They were back in the regular train, more specifically in Kyoku's seat. He immediately grabbed his phone, wanting to check two different things. First of all, he checked his reflection. Somehow, they didn't look dirty at all. Kyoku's clothes, which had been a bit bloody and dusty, were squeaky clean -and the same applied to Hitagi-. The next one was the time.

"17:25, what a fucking weird coincidence" - he said out loud, not caring about people hearing him or not.

Hitagi, who was by his side, took his lack of attention as a good sign to just leave the place. - "It wasn't a pleasure meeting you, and I hope I never have to see you again, but goodbye and... thank you"

If her face hadn't been impassive through the entire sentence, and if she hadn't laced such a simple thing as saying 'thank you' with so many insults, Kyoku would've dared to call Hitagi cute. Alas, she was a snarky Kuudere, in his eyes. But he had promised something and Kyoku did good on his promises.

"I did promise to help you, didn't I?" - he said, looking at her with a look that said 'I'm not taking your shit'. Seeing how she just stared at him, he continued. - "And I know that you still need help"

Hitagi didn't want to admit it, but he was right. She usually kept people away from herself because of all the things that happened around her. The last thing she wanted was to get people involved in her own personal shit. As such, she did what she was the best at.

"Why would I need the help of a..." - Kyoku had turned her off. He wasn't in the mood to deal with someone who ran away from reality.

'No... it frustrates me because it makes me feel like I've been bitching about life when I went through nothing' - he thought, being sincere with himself. Looking at Hitagi, who was still ranting about why he was useless and couldn't help her, he almost smirked. - 'She is cute though'

Deciding that he would definitely help her out, since she was someone who had been robbed of her dreams and of her freedom, Kyoku decided to violate her privacy for a short while.

Name: Hitagi Senjougahara

Alias: The Cursed

Level: 2

Guild: -

Guild Rank: -

General Information:

A teenager girl who closed her heart because of all the traumas that haunt her. An illness almost took her life, which made her mother turn to a cult for relief, destroying her family. She has also been affected by the Heavy Stone Crab, which robbed her of her weight. HP: 100/100

MP: 70/70

MP Regen: 3.2/m Stats:

STR: 8

VIT: 9

AGI: 10

INT: 25

WIS: 15

CHA: 16 Equipment:

Head: -

Chest: Purple Dress

L. Hand: -

R. Hand: -

Legs: Black Stockings

Feet: Black Dress Shoes XP:100

XP to next Level: 150

Stat Points: 0

Skill Points: 0

Instant regret was what Kyoku felt the moment his eyes finished reading Hitagi's Status Board. Her Alias and her General Information were just plainly ominous. Sighing, Kyoku could only silently complain.

'And she had to behave like that on top of it all...'

"To all passengers, the train has arrived at its destination. Please leave the tra..." - Kyoku heard the message from the train. Looking outside, towards the station, he saw the time once again. Apparently, Hitagi's insults and checking her status board hadn't taken even a minute. The digital clock in Tokyo's train station still read 17:25.