Chapter 79: Dark Servant
Chapter 79: Dark Servant
In the city of New York; the mist of dark clouds benighted the surface with an almost endless reign of shade and darkness. Rain constantly showered down on the earth with not an iota of mercy. This was, unfortunately, dawn.
A dawn the people of this world lived like another dusk. The happy could not see brightness and beautiful colors. The beauty of aurora was shrouded in darkness. All was grim. And lurking in the shadows, were a myriad of monsters to beware of.
And monsters soon to be born, like none other than Jin Pierce; who will become the God of Mischief.
***
Jin had just finished his daily task and had even gone out of his way again to do some extra reps. It was, after all, pushing out result. Sylvia was still at his house—he had not a clue why, but he didn’t yet drive her out.
Jin shook his head upon the thought of her presence within his house, alongside his friends. He wasn’t sure if to trust her or not. He was tempted to take her out for a few points, but he saw innocence in her silver eyes.
He wished he hadn’t he seen this at all. He slowly stood; and a system screen manifested in front of his eyes.
He opened his stats.
[Stats]
[Strength: 40]
[Health: 30]
[Speed: 18]
[Skill: 30]
[Available UP points: 15]
He, brows furrowed, glared ferociously at the screen. “Not enough, not enough at all. I’m not satisfied with this kind of progress,” he said to what seemed like the system screen.
He knew well enough that the system wasn’t about to just bestow thousands of points upon him and make his strength akin to that of a god because of his quarreling. No, he had to do it on his own.
He had not clue when it came to the limits of the system. How much he could achieve? How strong he could get? Surely, it must have some limits like everything else, right? There was only one way to find out.
Jin’s been assiduously trying to figure this out; committing deeds he hadn’t done before in his life. A life that was forever changed once the system was bestowed upon him.
He had been beating up and killing strangers for no reason. This infamous “masked murderer” appeared on television again last night. Which in turn doubled his friends’ worries for him.
He peered down the system screen, acknowledging the fifteen upgrade points he had stored. Accumulating them was the one thing he struggled with. Spending was far too tempting. He was beginning to not see the point in saving them since they would, obviously, he spent at some point either way.
So, ultimately, he was about to spent his fifteen points.
“These were from the recent murders I’ve committed. God, I can’t believe I’m saying it like it’s a normal thing now. Grandma wouldn’t be proud. I just hope she understands why I’m doing it.”
He didn’t believe in heaven or hell—and this made him curious about death when he was little. When he was little, he never thought he would take another person’s life.
He hated the fact that he was killing people for system points. These people were selected well before he had them slaughtered. He would mainly murder those he deemed murderers themselves. But having done it for over a week, he was starting to get unfair with his selections; choosing to kill for reasons like stealing.
It was all for system points. ‘I guess I’m getting Narcissistic. From self-less to Narcissistic. What’s happening to me nowadays?’ he thought.
Since the beginning, he feared that this day would come. A day where he would slaughter people for very little reason. He was the God of Mischief, after all. A fairly infamous and inherently evil being.
Luckily, he hadn’t gone out of control yet. Composure thankfully held its ground well against the pit of overwhelming narcissism that is Jin’s new heart.
He had spent the entirety of his upgrade points on the Skill criterion—the category that had costed him his dog, Benjamin, and his dear Grandma, Pearl Pierce.
He could not feel much, but it still bothered him to this very day that he had caused their deaths. How could he have done something like that? He blamed it all on himself. Barely blaming it on the system.
He knew that everything happened for some reason be it significant or not. But why did he have to loose his family. Punished with death for past sins in their lives, like his father who abused and cheated on his own wife.
Jin knew that Benjamin never hurt a soul. Same went for his grandma. She hurt no one, with the exception of her ex-husband, and the mailman for “handling her stuff carelessly”.
[Available UP points: 0]
[Skill: 45]
[Skill level 40 reached]
[New skill: Shadow Servants]
Jin paused. Enthusiasm obvious in his stare at the system screen. “Clones, and now this? How different could it possibly be?”
Curious as to what this skill was like in action; Jin began to trigger it—over and over again—with nothing but his mind. He was getting fairly good at activating his skills now.
However; he realized that he saw no difference upon the constant activation of this skill. He grew faintly puzzled.
“I take it that it’s a useless skill. After all, I’ve been a tad too lucky with the skills I’ve been given recently. So, I suppose it’s fair enough.”
He furrowed his brows. “No. Cut the crap. I won’t believe that. Last time I called a skill “useless”, it was the same skill to take two lives dear to me. So I believe that this must have some significance to it. Surely.”
A new system screen appeared; and Jin was startled a bit. He looked around, and breathed through his nostrils, pleased that no one saw him jump like a cat.
He had such an exaggerated reaction because he thought the malfunctioning skill had finally started to work. However, it was just another, irrelevant system screen.
[New Task: Defeat 5 Opponents]
[Reward: 10 Exp]
Jin closed the screen. “It just couldn’t give me something more insetting, could it?”
“Whatever,” he drawled. “I suppose that’s the way it’s gonna be from here on out.”
Ashton burst through the bedroom door. “Jin!” he shouted, terrified.
Other than Sylvia and Jin, Ashton was the only one home. Tristan and Dobby hadn’t come back to Jin’s place last night.
“What?” Jin asked, looking at him. “If it’s anything related to sounds you’ve been hearing—I told you already, it’s fine.”
“It’s not that,” Ashton said. “Upstairs. Did you not hear an extremely loud sound? It wasn’t from your room this time.”
‘I did hear a sound,’ Jin thought. “Alright, l’ll go check it out.”
***
Jin was on the second floor alongside Ashton and the unbidden Sylvia. They were looking at the empty room in which Benjamin was kept before it had died.
Sylvia looked at him and said, “I think someone’s in the room.”
“Yeah, that sound was pretty loud. How’d you not hear it, Jin?” Ashton cowered behind him.
Sylvia looked at the door. “Got someone else living here?”
Jin glimpsed at her. “There’s just one person. A person who shouldn’t be here. Who needs to leave right now.”
“Really? And who might that be?” Sylvia looked at him, quizzically.
“The girl who’s looking at me right now,” Jin replied, opening the door.
Sylvia averted her eyes, and quelled herself silent. She and Ashton watched as Jin walked into the room. But for some reason, he paused when the door was opened. Then, he quickly turned around and closed the door shut.
Then they heard a loud clicking sound as if the door was being locked. Jin was in the room alone. As to why he had locked himself in there lingers in unbeknown for Ashton and Sylvia.
***
Jin was in the dark room alone. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He was looking at an animal on four legs. It was pitch black with green, glowing eyes. It possessed the shape of a dog, but it was freakishly tall—taller than any dog Jin’s landed eyes upon. He was looking at a creature.
The creature growled like a beast as it approached him; brimming with discernible malice in its sly, looming approach.
Jin took a step back. He closed that door because he sensed trouble. He saw trouble from the time he looked eyes at the beast that lurked in the shadows of the room.
The creature pounced toward Jin; a green contrail escaping its eyes, and its mouth opened, alluding its already apparent bloodlust. Jin’s hands were at his side. He closed his right hand, and suddenly a dagger appeared in it.
Jin slashed the weapon as the dog swiftly lunged. Suddenly the dog disappeared, and Jin ended up slashing at thin air. From the corners of his eyes, he made out the dog no more than five meters away from him.
He knotted his brows as his eyes began to glow. He glared at the creature, and asked, “What are you?”