It was a powerful dizziness, forcing him to open his eyes and put his hand on the ground to stabilize himself.

Skill unlocked: (Uncommon) Mind-Cleansing Meditation 1

Skill unlocked: (Common) Qi Sense 1

Skill unlocked: (Common) Qi Control 1

He ignored the notifications, too distracted by the spinning world. He noticed his previously white qi gauge was flashing yellow though.

Looking around, he detected no danger. He also didn't find the cause for the vertigo.

It took a few minutes to subside and was followed by the worst headache of his life. He was confident it would hurt less if someone got inside his head and smashed his skull with a hammer.

How he regretted having lost his medicine! He would kill for some painkillers. Literally.

His meditation now impossible, and with nothing else to do, he took a deep breath and forced himself to read the new system windows.

Interactive Tutorial: The Basics of Qi

Congratulations! You've discovered qi, the underlying energy of the Omniverse!

Qi Sense and Qi Control are some of the most basic yet most useful Skills in the Omniverse. It's highly recommended you focus on leveling them up.

But beware: moving the qi inside your body without expertise on what you're doing can bring terrible and permanent consequences!

That explained the dizziness and the pain. He wished the system had warned him before he felt like shit.

Crucible of Valor: First Qi Skill

Congratulations! You've developed your first qi-related skill!

For doing so while undergoing the Species Directive: Crucible of Valor, you've been given a Warning Upgrade for your Qi Gauge.

Qi Gauge: Warning Upgrade

Whenever you're using your qi in potentially harmful ways, the gauge will blink yellow. The faster and brighter it blinks, the closer to being harmed you are.

Whenever you're using your qi in unquestionably lethal ways, the gauge will blink red. The faster and brighter it blinks, the closer to certain death you are.

This will not trigger if you're using qi in a novel way unknown to the system.

He didn't think he could use qi in a way no one in a thing called Omniverse ever had, so it was a useful upgrade. It would allow him to experiment with qi without dying. He was all for that.

Once again, he was almost tempted to consider the system not terrible. It did look like it was helping sometimes. However, he always came back to the fact that it was helping him cope with issues he wouldn't have if it wasn't for the system.

There were no system windows left. He had meditated for a long time and it was already four PM. The sky was blue, the sun was making life under his alligator hide hell, and his headache was turning his life miserable.

Yet another day in the apocalypse, he guessed.

He did his best to keep ignoring the pain and take the next step in his new life, observe his surroundings.

That's when he realized the streets were strangely empty and quiet.

Too empty.

Too quiet.

His new Hunter instincts screamed that something was wrong.

No place should be that silent!

His logical mind screamed at him to go back to his shelter and make no noise whatsoever.

Right now!

There was so much urgency in it that even his stubborn part that didn't want to be pushed around decided it was better to do it first and think about it later.

Ricardo threw his hide in the shelter, jumped into it, and closed the entrance with the metal board. He couldn't use debris to keep it in place from the inside, so he had to leave it slightly tilted on the "door" frame. It left a small opening at the bottom. He used the hide to cover it.

Then he got as far from the entrance as he could, five feet away. He sat with his back to the wall of the bridge and pulled his legs close.

He had barely done so when he felt it.

And it wasn't something he could explain.

Wrongness, darkness, death, destruction, bloodthirstiness, craving.

Evilness.

A warp of everything good.

Cold, goosebumps, windy.

Ice, creeping, swiftness.

The shadows danced, alive in the shelter, laughing at his pitifulness.

"I see you," a whisper came from behind him.

He jumped in fright. His head hit the ceiling, and he fell to the ground. Looking back, he saw nothing but the bridge wall.

"I'm here," the whisper said, again from behind.

And yet again, when he turned, he saw nothing but the... bridge wall?! Shouldn't it be on the opposite side he was looking at?

Ricardo turned his head repeatedly, seeing nothing but the bridge wall.

He was imprisoned.

How? When had he been taken? What was going on?

"You can't hide from me," said the whisper, and this time, it sounded seductive. "Be brave. Come and face me outside." He didn't have to turn his head this time. The bridge wall in front of him turned into the shelter door. "I see you."

He sat to think, but instead, he found himself standing in his high school's bathroom, looking at his young self in the mirror. Droplets of water ran through his pale face.

He was scared as hell. Both because of the fight that he was about to face and because of what his dad would say when the principal inevitably called him later.

But he would do it.

"Be brave," he told himself in a whisper that sounded like it came from behind him. "Man up."

He was brave!

He was the bravest!

Everyone knew it; he had made sure of showing it when he came to this rich people's school. He had shown them he wouldn't be intimidated into silence; he wouldn't submit; he would push back the more they tried to push him.

Today, they had pushed too much.

They had called his mother a Latina monkey whore, and his father a monkey fornicator. So he pushed back, hard, physically. He shoved the richest and most powerful boy in the school into a trash can.

They followed him when he left the mess hall. He tried to lose them, to run to the class, but there were more waiting on the way. All he did, in the end, was lock himself in the bathroom.

"Come here, monkey, monkey," a guy yelled from the outside. "We know you're in there. Not so brave now that your betters came for you, are you? Don't worry, we aren't monkey fornicators like your dad. Your ass is safe. Maybe you should call your mommy and tell her to bring the zoo to help you?"

He clenched his fists

They were so stupid they didn't even know how to shit-talk, but they knew how to get their point across. He had to go there and show them. He would lose, he knew it. He couldn't win against five boys alone in a fair fight.

But he had to go.

When he turned to the door, he frowned. Something had been nagging him. A distant thought that insisted he pay attention to it. He shook his head and stepped ahead. In a single step, he covered half of the twenty feet to the door. He didn't think it was any weird.

Another step and he was standing before it. He touched the handle. He was about to push, but that distant thought came back.

It was a simple question, really: why fight fair?

His frown deepened. He had to fight fair, hadn't he? He was brave! That's what bravery was all about. He had to show them who he was!

He had to show himself how brave he was!

"Why fight fair?" the thought insisted.

Because he would get expelled if he didn't. Because it was one thing to punch a guy and go to the principal's office, but another thing altogether to use... He looked around and saw a piece of concrete on the sinks. It was another thing altogether to bash a boy's head open and go to jail. He was fairly sure a black boy killing a rich white guy in a prestigious school would end up with him in a trial as an adult.

"Why fight fair?" the thought insisted even more.

Because he had to!

He didn't want to destroy his life altogether! He had already lost today. His social school life would be hell whether he lost or won the fight just because he had run in the first place! Because he had locked himself in the bathroom, like a coward!

Fighting back would give him a measure of respect, which would allow him to man up the rest of the year. But killing anyone would just make him a murderer. It would destroy not only his social life but his family's life too. He might even get a death sentence, maybe.

He couldn't do it to those he cared about.

"WHY FIGHT FAIR?!" the thought yelled in his mind and he almost screamed back at it.

A minor part of him knew a Hunter hunted, and hunts weren't fair. But he wasn't hunting anyone, he was just trying to survive high school. No, he didn't need to hunt his social enemies down.

He just needed to intimidate them.

He went for the piece of concrete- No, the bowling ball. A boy from the bowling team was in one of the stalls, taking a very stinky shit, and he had brought a ball. Most of them carried their balls all around the school. It was only natural.

He took the bowling ball and went to the door.

"Why a piece of concrete?" he thought suddenly, stopping himself.

His frown deepened even more as he looked at the bowling... ball? Brick? Concrete? Why... why was he holding a piece of concrete? Maybe... yes... yes, that's it...

The bowling team was training with concrete now. It was harder to make them roll, so they had to push harder, and it helped build muscle. It made the bowling balls feel lighter so they could control their throws better.

Yes, he remembered.

It made sense.

"Don't," came a last thought.

A disconnected word, more distant than ever. There was a sense of finality in it, as if it was the last thought he would have against himself.

Yes, against himself.

Why was he sabotaging himself? Why didn't he just go outside and show his courage to the bastards? Or rather, challenged them to show him their bravery against his piece of concrete? He doubted they would fight him.

But maybe... maybe the thought wasn't all bad.

Why not wait for them to come for him?

He could spin the tale around, tell people he hadn't run away, but merely lured them to a place where no teacher would see the fight. The teachers had their own bathroom. It would take a big commotion for them to even hear something inside, much less come investigate.

Actually... That thought felt remarkably familiar. As if it had been his plan all along?

No, no.

No!

That was wrong.

He had run from the strong like a cowardly rat. But he was done running and hiding. He would show them his courage.

He was brave!

"Come outside, coward! Show me your bravery! I know you're there!" Mark Williams whispered behind him, right from outside the bathroom.

He was a great whisperer, Mark Williams was.

He hated being called a coward almost as much as he hated when they talked about his family. It was time to show Mark Williams and his suckers the error of their ways.

Ricardo pushed his shelter's door with his stump, not even registering the pain he felt. The metal board fell on the asphalt floor with a loud... No, he couldn't hear anything. He couldn't feel anything. There was no need though. What did it matter?

He could already see his target, and only this mattered.

Mark Williams was coiled around itself on the floor in the middle of the bridge.

His- No her. How could he never have realized Mark Williams was a female? Her white snake body was lithe and almost twenty feet long, shining with an ethereal light that made the absolute darkness beyond the bridge look even darker. She had no features, looking like a scaled tentacle that had been separated from its main body.

One of her extremities was standing pointedly at Ricard, almost as if looking at him.

He rested his wrench at his shoulder and stuffed his chest, trying to look menacing.

"Wassup, beast?" he told her. Mark Williams was a female beast. It was so obvious he felt ashamed for never realizing it before. "Think you can beat me alone?"

Echo of a Reflection of a Fleeing Mind Eater — G-1

The Power Rank of the beast made him chuckle. G-1, really? He had been afraid of such a weak Mark Williams?

He laughed loudly.

"Come, then," Ricardo said. "You can't hurt me even if you try." He opened his arms wide.

That felt right. He was what, G-8 or G-9 by now? He could even vaguely remember having leveled up to F-1. Giving the pathetic G-1 beast a shot before he killed it was an act of mercy.

That way, the principal couldn't blame him.

The beast slid on the floor toward him. When it was in front of him, it raised its extremity and touched his forehead.

"Give me the qi in your mind," Mark...

No, Ashley. Ashley was touching his forehead and whispering to him.

He nodded.

He would have resisted Mark Williams, but it was only natural for Ashley to ask him to give her his qi. He had banged her all night long, and she hadn't had the time to do her homework. He had done his when she was taking a bath with him... Not him him, the other him, who was taking a bath with her while he did his homework.

Now, the homework was naturally in his mind qi and he should reward her for the best night of his life. Losing her to a car crash in a few months would bring terrible, terrible pain.

It only made him want even more to do his best for her. His best for his first and best girl.

It was only natural. No one had been as perfect as her, and he was sure it wasn't just because she was a memory. No, he had talked about it with his shrink a few times, and even he agreed that Ashley had been the most perfect girl in the world.

It was natural to help her, he repeated it to himself.

That people died was natural too. That he felt so, so very lonely was natural. That he spent six months in the county jail for beating the shit out of the asshole who killed her in a hit and run was the most natural thing in the world. He wished he had killed him, but his dad had arrived at the last minute.

Ricardo smiled, remembering his dad. He had seen the old man cry only twice in his life, and one of them had been when Ashley died. She had been that amazing, a ray of true sunshine in a shitty world. It was for her that he had climbed the social ladder of the world, that he had amassed wealth. The wealth he had used to make the life of her murderer such hell he killed himself.

After he got his revenge, things became bleak. Empty. The murderer had paid, no matter how many strings the asshole's dad, an influential judge, had pulled to keep the spoiled son out of jail.

But Ashley was dead too.

Gone forever.

He was alone.

"Feed me," the Echo of a Reflection of a Fleeing Mind Eater ordered.

Ricardo smiled sadly.

How could he have forgotten that crushing loneliness? How could he have forgotten the most sacred memory of her? How could he have forgotten when they first met?

He had been sitting alone on the school's staircase, crying right after he had beaten the shit out of Mark Williams and his people. They had come two by two into the bathroom and he hadn't resisted using a baseball bat left outside the stall by a guy from the team to beat the shit out of them.

Only dumb luck had made him not kill them, and only a talented lawyer his father hired had made the jury agree he had acted in self-defense.

But that would be months in the future.

That day in the staircase, he had been crying for what he had done. It had been brutal. And he was crying for what would happen to him. He was sure he would go to jail, and he felt terrible for how it would make his mom feel.

That's when he had the first contact with her.

Ashley was a rich white girl in a rich white school with elevators. So, it was expected that some of them would be budding environmentalists who refused to use the energy-wasting elevator.

She was sweaty. She was late, had run from the mess hall to the stairs, and now was also climbing it in a rush. He heard and looked at her at the same moment she looked at him. His red and moist eyes looked straight at her beautiful and clear blue ones. It wasn't the first beautiful blue eyes he had seen, and he just ignored it as she ignored him.

He knew of her, the annoyingly merry girl.

He just knew she had to be full of bullshit. Nobody could be that happy naturally. Just another photo app attention beggar who pretended to live a perfect life. She was as much a fake white girl as they came.

Although he had to admit even her sweat looked sexy on her.

"Now," the Echo demanded.

Ricardo ignored it.

Ashley had kept rushing up, but a few steps above, she stopped. Then she stepped back down and stood beside him.

He tensed up, waiting for her accusations on his bloody clothes. Or her ridicule for his crying face now that they were alone, and no one would believe Miss Perfect would say mean things to him.

She sat beside him in silence.

She hugged him

She said, in a crying voice, "I'm sad too."

When the teachers found them, they were still crying in silence. He had hugged her back at some point.

So, now, when he looked at the Echo, he hated it with all his might.

He was mostly anesthetized. He couldn't care less if it had killed him any other way. Dying didn't matter at that moment, with his mind being affected by it.

But he cared that it had used her.

That it had dared to desecrate the memory of that sweet girl, that adorable person, that amazing woman.

He would never, ever, forgive the Echo for it, or the Mind Eater it was echoing.

So he swung his piece of concrete at it. It hit sideways in the extremity that was like a head.

At that moment, he found something to truly hate again. A hatred incomparable to what he felt for the system. A hatred he had only felt once before, for the man who had killed the light of his world.

"Not her," he said while raising the concrete piece above his head. "Never her." He swung the piece down.

Silver blood splashed all over him.