Mirel opened the door and cautiously looked down the hallway. Behind her, where Elena stood waiting to leave, Alvin grabbed her arm and pulled her toward him. She looked at him with confused eyes, then lowered her gaze to his hand below. There were two black daggers with red edges.
She looked into his amber eyes once more in silence, then took the daggers from his hand. Alvin let go of her arm and stepped back, staring at her long black hair from behind. As for Elena, she turned back to Mirel, waiting for her approval to leave.
"The hallway is safe," Mirel said calmly as she stepped out. Elena followed her, and they saw the hallway completely empty, with some scattered furniture and the smell of blood lingering in the air.
"The monsters are definitely in the main tunnel," Mirel said again as they walked toward the main tunnel, where the train usually passes. Elena nodded while walking beside her, her heart racing at the thought of facing the monsters… and attempting to kill them.
As they approached, all three of them heard some noises coming from the end of the hallway… screams and calls for help. Elena stopped when she spotted a torn body on the ground, its intestines spilling out beside it. "This…" she whispered.
"You'll have to get used to these sights," Mirel said encouragingly. She grabbed Elena by the shoulders and added, "Now, we need to move forward and kill as many monsters as we can to earn coins and experience points."
"I'd rather go back home… and die there," Elena said, her voice trembling with fear.
Mirel fell silent for a moment, staring into Elena's fearful eyes, then said, "That option… is no longer available. You have to fight, or you'll die."
— "You don't understand, Mirel… I've never killed anyone before."
Mirel couldn't focus entirely on Elena, because Alvin was bringing some strands of Elena's hair close to his nose and inhaling her scent. She sighed lightly and said, "I do understand, I'm just like you. But Elena, things are different now. You have to kill to survive."
Elena wanted to say something, but Alvin interrupted her by pushing her forward in silence. Suddenly, and without any mental preparation, Elena found herself in the main tunnel… surrounded by dozens of monsters, all of them raising their heads to her, gazing at her with hungry eyes.
Before she could blink, a monster with no eyes stood in front of her face. Elena felt her heart stop, her body frozen and refusing to move. Alvin drove his sword into the monster's stomach and dropped it to the ground. Elena looked in stunned disbelief at the kneeling monster at her feet, clutching its wound.
With a swift motion, Alvin severed the monster's head and lifted it over Elena's head, letting its sticky blood fall on her. The blood trickled down, staining Elena's shocked face, turning the whites of her eyes red, just like her hair.
Alvin said nothing, even after tossing the monster's head away, seeing Elena's body stiff and unmoving. He simply gazed into her wide eyes and noticed her obvious trembling before going off to kill several other monsters. He returned to her with several severed heads, causing blood to pour over her until she was drenched from head to toe.
He threw the last head away, fought a nearby monster, and inflicted a deep wound. He dragged it toward Elena, who was breathing rapidly, pulled a dagger from its sheath, and placed it in her hand. With his right hand, he lifted the monster's head to face Elena, while with his left hand, he gripped hers and forced her to drive the dagger into the monster's eye.
{One coin earned.}
A notification appeared on Elena's digital screen… she had killed a monster!
Beside them, Mirel watched in fear, not from the monsters, but from Alvin… this young man… was more terrifying than she had imagined. However, it seemed he was concerned about Elena and keen on her safety, so she left them there and decided to kill some monsters to earn some experience points and level up.
[Kill the injured monsters.]
A message appeared in the chat. Mirel glanced at it for a moment, then began looking for injured monsters around her. There were a few by the railway tracks, and some others, despite their injuries, were feeding on the flesh of dead hunters. They were pulling out their intestines and eating them.
Mirel felt disgusted and wanted to vomit, but time was not on her side, so she quickly drew her sword from her "inventory" and plunged it forcefully into their heads, one by one, until she had finished off five monsters. She gave herself a minute to breathe and, at the same time, glanced at Elena.
Elena was still standing, with injured monsters in front of her, gathered by Alvin and thrown there for her to kill herself. It seemed to Mirel that Alvin, with his actions, was trying to make Elena get used to killing more than he was trying to have her gather some points. And that was another reason why she was afraid of him...
[Focus on the monsters.]
sent another message. Mirel nodded and then turned her head toward the dead hunters, quickly counting the number of monsters before tightening her grip on her sword and running toward them.
Fortunately for her, and unfortunately for the hunters, most of them were dead, and the injured monsters were busy eating them. As for the healthy monsters, Alvin didn't give them a chance to breathe; he would strike them, then drag them toward Elena for her to kill.
"Mirel is right... I must kill before I am killed." Elena thought as she watched the monster with severed limbs trying to rise, a deep wound in its chest bleeding profusely. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she clutched the dagger in her hand. "I must kill it..." she spoke to herself, but… she remained in place.
Alvin returned with another monster, tossing it carelessly onto the pile of other monsters, then forced Elena to kneel. He took her hand and plunged the dagger into them, one after another… killing them with her hands mercilessly. Elena didn't resist and didn't pull her hand from his large grip.
She knew she needed this… she needed Alvin to help her kill them.
With every heart that stopped beating, Elena realized she was no longer the same… she had changed, and her hands were stained with blood.
While Elena was suffering mentally with all the changes, Mirel was suffering physically. Even the injured monsters were stronger than her, to the point where she had to run several times to survive their attacks. She breathed deeply as she aimed the muzzle of her weapon at a monster staring at the head of a fallen hunter near one of the pillars, and fired an electric shot at its head.
But… the monster dodged it in the blink of an eye, and suddenly she felt something hard strike her stomach, sending her flying away. She groaned in pain as she held her stomach, her eyes welling up with tears. The monster grabbed her hand and lifted her through it, staring at her silently, its foul breath spreading in the air.
[Requesting assistance.]
Mirel read the message with her eyes half-closed from the pain. Help from whom? Elena could barely help herself, and Alvin... didn't care about her life. "I wish I were stronger," she said to herself, her tears wetting her face.
The moment she thought she was going to die, her eyes widened in shock as she saw Alvin's sword pierce the monster's head, splitting it in half. "Don't think your life matters. I helped you because my planet wanted it," he said, then immediately withdrew to where Elena was sitting, staring at the monsters she had killed, her heart pounding rapidly.
Mirel looked at his back with sad eyes as he walked away, then entered her planet's chat to read the last message he had sent.
[There is a green orb in the store, in the elixir section. It's called 'Silexa.' It causes the monsters to lose consciousness for a limited time.]
[Then kill them quickly before they wake up.]
Mirel went to the store as instructed by Elyor, typed the elixir's name into the search bar, and the product appeared at the top of the search results.
"How do I use it?" she asked, turning the green orb between her fingers and examining it.
[Go to the seventh corridor on your left. There are more than 30 monsters there, eating women and children they've caught.]
[They take a few seconds to inspect their prey before attacking. Use that moment to smash the orb on the ground.]
The seventh corridor on the left… it was four corridors beyond Elena and Alvin. Mirel took a slow breath, then stood up and started running toward where Elyor had instructed her. As soon as she entered the dimly lit corridor, she saw it… women and children torn apart, their body parts scattered everywhere.
And the monsters… they stared at her with faces covered in blood. Some of them had human intestines hanging from their mouths...
Mirel grabbed the
orb and, with all her strength, slammed it onto the ground… but it didn't break!