[Objective 2 Completion Rate: 1,927/10,000]

What I had thought to be a fairly easy mission was proven the opposite. Everything in these lands was absurdly powerful and tenacious. My arm and leg had recovered from their major injuries, but it was impossible for me to simply regrow my limbs back, making my hunting experience a lot harder. Life at the bottom of the food chain felt odd to me. Aren't I the so-called perfect specimen? Then why am I eating bugs crawling along the ground... These bugs weren't to be looked down upon though. The bottle I stabbed with my claws was relatively fine.

『They're stronger than steel.』

I said, stabbing my talons within the gaps of its armor. The beetle looked similar to an African Black Beetle Except for the spikes that covered its carapace like a hedgehog hence the name I had given them; Land Urchins. In my time belonging to the bottom of the food chain only above insects, I discovered and learned new things. The area I was 'hunting' in was only apart of the outer layer of this enormous forest. Most of the plant-life here was either poisonous or carnivorous and many had nearly claimed my life if it hadn't been for my special blood. I wondered why there wasn't anything remotely resistant to my acidic blood.

[The Nature of the hosts' blood is to destroy and damage by chemical reaction. The Chaos Energy within these lands is similar in nature, causing the two to create a positive bond and enhancing your already very corrosive blood.]

『Huh? Something like that can happen?』

[This will only happen when your Corruption levels are low enough for your body to fight back. Any more Chaos Energy will disturb the balance within your body, ultimately starting a vicious battle between the two forces until you've fallen apart from the inside out.]

『What the fuck?!』

[This almost explains the reason why creatures here have a low resistance to acidic properties as well as there being no creatures already with acidic properties. Though this is only limited by what we know so far.]

Picking off the carapace of the dead bug in my palms, I ate it with my inner jaw and proceeded to search for more bugs and insects, pondering over what I've just heard from the System. The System sounds a lot more informative I noted as I caught a camouflaged insect. It looked no different to a tree leaf, but these things are in no way as delicate as one. They were crimson in color and looked like leaves, so I simply named them Blood Leaves.

By winding up their legs, they coil it until it's compressed like a spring and wait for nearing prey. Once close enough, they released the tension in their legs, propelling their bodies into the flesh of its prey. The blade-turned Blood Leaf can cut through the thick skin of the beasts around, then they would burrow their legs inside and spread through the flesh like tree roots, unable to rip them off due to the smooth flat-like surface of their bodies. Then, the Blood Leaf would continue to suck on your blood and lay eggs inside your veins, spreading them throughout your body until finally, you were eaten inside out by the rapidly growing blood leaves. The sight of a dead beast exploding into a bloody mist from thousands of leaves was certainly something I wouldn't want to experience myself.

The same thing was happening to me at the time causing me to panic slightly. The exploding leaves didn't happen to me but only a dead blood leaf fell from my shoulder with everything underneath it melted away. I thought about taking pieces of flesh that laid about to reduce the Chaos Energy inside me but decided not to after glancing at the fluttering blood leaves. They're not a big threat to me by themselves but as a horde, I'd surely be shredded to pieces.

Crawling away on all threes, I avoided a pile of dead animals lying in the middle of a clearing. I had fallen for this trap not because I was stupid... but because I had to suppress the chaos energy. Yeah, that was it. The dead animals were hollowed out on the inside and filled with purple tentacles that belonged to a plant hidden in the ground. By using the dead animals as bait, the tentacles inside the dead animals spring out and wrap around the unsuspecting prey, pulling them underground. The tentacles would invade the animals' insides and rip them out from the mouths slowly until they were empty inside but retained their outer appearance. I don't want to explain what happened to me inside that thing so let's just move on.

A new discovery that made me ecstatic was the Dragonfinch! These little guys were small birds but with an extra pair of wings with small dragon characteristics such as vertical eyes and a curved beak. They were mostly harmless despite their appearance, only eating yellow striped worms covered in hairy tentacles. Disgusting.

[Objective 2 Completion Rate: 6,021/10,000]

My diet in the past days consisted of Blood Leaves, Land Urchins, Dragonfinche's, and all types of plant life. My favorites were surprisingly a type of plant that looked like an eyeball. They hung from a strange, twisted, pulsating tree that stood several hundreds of meters high and was mostly eaten by strange bird-like creatures. The eyeballs were filled with pink slime that tastes like a strawberry milkshake. What the pink slime was made of was unknown.

Running down the twisted tree from the angry flying creatures, I came to a stop before a green cliff. Crawling on the walls of the cliff, I felt the surface below be curving ever so slightly and realized it wasn't a cliff at all, but a very large tree root. I followed along in the left direction and was bewildered by the sheer length and size of it. A thought came to my mind naturally at my discovery.

『World Tree.』

The root I was sitting atop belonged to the World Tree that existed in fantasy. I sighed while looking into the distance to where I assumed to be the World Tree.

『I want to see it.』

I have a full 360 view of everything, yes, but I can't actually see anything beyond the range of my senses. Losing my sight did not impact my life up till now. But something within me wanted to see this marvelous creation by nature. A yearning to view these beautiful sceneries with someone.

『Jun...』

And that someone can only be the dearest person to me.

Shaking the idle thoughts in my head, I reconfirmed my desire to return to his side and create a hive to conquer the worlds. I can't scrape away on insects and small critters in this situation. Releasing the pent-up frustration and anger on the root below me, it shattered easily which surprised me. But that surprise turned into horror. The Tree Root was hollow and inside it was a nest of Ant-like creatures that covered the inside walls.

Thud

I fell directly in the middle of hundreds of thousands of ants. Angered by my rude intrusion, the ants showed a ferocious quality which even shocked me. They swarmed all over me, scratching and biting away at my exoskeleton. Their sharp assets tore through my defenses and died from the blood that sprayed them from the wounds. This didn't slow them down at all, instead, they became even more agitated and would dive right into my wounds, biting my insides while melting away.

I struggled under their oppression and desperately climbed my way up the walls while bleeding profusely all over my body. Escaping through the hole I fell through, I was still covered entirely by the ants that ruthlessly attacked me without relent. A ridiculous sight of a black mass that stretched on forever constructed my path. Where had they even come from? I questioned but forgot that Ant's were also a hive-type species to xenomorphs. Of course they would know where I am and swarm in on my location.

I ran away as fast as I could from the terrifying black mass of ants, each the size of my hand, and entered a rocky terrain. I had to rip off the ants that were still on my body or they will eventually close in on my position. Even during my desperate escape and struggle for life, I didn't forget to eat some of them when I could, almost completing Objective 2.

Nightfall

This was the true terror of this land. If the day could be called a nightmare, then the night could be considered a Nightmare in Hell. I entered through a crevice in a rocky cliff nearby when I was searching for a place to stay the night. When I finally reached the end of the tunnels and narrow spaces, my senses filled the cavern-like structure with a clear like at the end. The stalactites that hung on the ceiling were covered in glowing worms, lighting the cavern up in a blue hue.

Hours passed in my time underground and I completed my objective of catching sea creatures in the lake.

[Objective 2 Completion Rate: 10,000/10,000]

[New Objecti#q2. Err*R! U%[email protected] ent^ty has [email protected] th3 SYSTEM! T&*mporaril7 3nter**g stand)y mode.]

『System? What's going on!』

[. . .]

When the system shut down, the Chaos Energy that was calm and stable inside my body was released into its true, chaotic state. I had thought that it was only slightly painful but didn't know it was thanks to the system's intervention that the pain and energy were reduced to an almost negligible pain. This pain was exactly like the first time I and Jun absorbed energy.

No. This was much more terrible. Can someone even experience something like this without going insane...? Ah, so that's what that strange voice meant when I entered this world. I didn't know how I did it, but I somehow checked my Corruption Progress.

[Corruption of the Soul: 57%]

『I really will go insane at this rate...』

I cried silently and curled my body on the cold floor.

Crash!

Boom!

Brrrr!

"Brother, what's going on?!"

"I don't know... stay behind me!"

Explosions and gunfire were enshrouding their room. This was something that had never happened before, and an emotion they had thought to be long gone, returned to them when they looked into each other's eyes.

"Has someone come to save us..." She clutched onto my shirt behind me and though I couldn't see it, I could feel that she was crying on my back, shaking ever so slightly.

". . ." I wasn't able to say what was truly on my mind, and that the possibility of someone or some people saving us was far too low. I didn't want to crush what little hope she had. I also didn't want my expectations to rise anymore only for it to be swallowed by even deeper despair.

"I... think so" I said with a calm voice. Persuading both her and myself. 15 minutes later the noise died down to a stop and the sound of soft footsteps was faintly echoing in the hallway.

Step. Step. Step. Every footstep tugged at our heartstrings. Our heartbeats thumped faster and faster until our breathing, along with the persons' footsteps, stopped.

BZZZTT. Click.

The door opened slowly and revealed a child younger than us covered in blood, staring coldly with the murderous and dead eyes. I froze when I made eye contact with the child. That was not a child, that was a predator looking from above at its helpless prey, which I was.

"Reinforcements will arrive in 10 minutes."

He did not attack us, nor did he ask for help or to follow us. I simply told us in a roundabout way if we wanted to escape, now was our chance. I noticed his glance towards my sister that was hiding behind me, peaking at the boy that was outside our room. I could feel there was something in the boy's eyes when they looked at each other. Was it gratitude? It was something I didn't know and would ask my sister in the future.

We escaped the facility by following the bloody path of destruction left behind by that child. Looking back at the facility, the only thing we regretted not doing was taking our revenge on the inhuman people with our own fists.

Freedom.

Could this be considered freedom? I didn't think so. We were still hurt. The pain in our hearts was still there. And the psychological torment never faded.

This was not freedom.