It all started after his human form died of hunger.
[HUMAN HOST IS DEAD]
...
[BEAST HOST IS AWOKEN]
[BEAST RAGE MODE ACTIVATED]
[Your Hunger Has Made You A Monster]
[A Crazed Beast Desperately In Search Of Mana]
[...Or Blood]
Immediately, the notifications stopped displaying, Eric's physical form started a wild and painful transformation. With a sudden jerk, he sprang up from his dead position, breaking a part of the bed's frame as he rose forcefully. His eyes had turned deep red, fierce-looking and with a deadly focus befitting a crazed beast, just as the system had announced.
His bones and muscles started readjusting themselves to almost twice their normal size, in a process that sent stabs of pain all over him. He gave a deep, bone-curdling growl as he struggled desperately to keep the pain in check. It might have been easier to endure if that were all, but the pain in his belly had become so unendurable it felt like his stomach had begun eating itself to survive.
[YOUR HUNGER GROWS]
With all sense of human reasoning gone, Eric had only one thing on his mind.
"Ma...na."
*Raaaaarh!*
A monstrous yell escaped his mouth, one filled with a ravenous hunger for whatever was available to ease the pain in his belly.
Baring his teeth and lowering into a crouch, Eric jumped and lunged at the door from where he stood, clearing the distance with a dashing speed that rivaled the skill, Killer Dash.
The locked door gave way instantly, breaking apart at the hinge. With one final blow, it went flying down the passageway, with Eric chasing after.
His beastly instincts kicked in as he sniffed the air, searching for potential food. Alone, he sniffed all the rooms in the building without having to open the doors. For some reason, he just knew no one was behind those doors, as if it were a part of him, like something he had been doing since birth.
With another loud roar, he rushed out of the residential building and into the streets. He pounced about, searching the empty roads for any sign of a living being, but even his wild beast senses found it strange that all was empty. Just then, his ears picked up faint sounds coming from the southern end of the colony. Faint as they were, Eric knew they came from humans—and there were lots and lots of them.
Like the beast he had become, he rushed toward the direction of the noise, yearning to get there faster. After a while, he dropped to all fours, gaining extra speed and balance.
The noise grew deafening by the time Eric arrived. He growled, taking a brief look at the chaos before him in disbelief, as even his beast senses could not fully comprehend the scene. It didn't take him long before he joined the madness.
A man whose eyes had just been forcefully removed rushed blindly in Eric's direction, carrying one of somebody else's lower limbs and yelling with all his might.
"Ma…na…" Eric growled as he saw his first chance to finally get himself involved in the purge—and at the same time, satisfy his hunger. As soon as the blind man staggered a few feet past him, Eric pivoted on his feet to face his target and, with a powerful jump, landed on the man's shoulder.
Eric's crushing weight bore down on the man's shoulder, toppling him to the ground, and Eric went down with him still on top. He snarled hungrily as the man struggled to free himself, raising his arms, trying to find Eric's face.
Eric grabbed the man's thick arms and forced them down with ease before snapping them in the opposite direction at the elbow. For a moment, the man's yell of acute pain rose above every other sound, almost deafening Eric's sensitive ears.
"Raaaaarh!" Eric moved swiftly and immediately sank his teeth into the man's neck. Everything that followed came naturally to him. He drove his longer-than-usual canine teeth deep into the man's flesh and, with his tongue, began drawing the rushing blood into his mouth. The sweet taste of thick red liquid coated his tongue and sent a troubling sensation to his stomach.
As soon as the man stopped struggling and released a final breath, Eric disengaged his teeth from the man's neck and rose with renewed energy, glaring at his handiwork. His human senses were still locked away in some thick enclosure, completely out of reach for now, but it seemed a tiny bit of that enclosure had been torn open. He knew he was supposed to do something with this dead human, but he saw no option for it now.
Suddenly, the system messages popped before his face:
[Beast Host Has Successfully Consumed First Mana]
[Beast Host Can Only Draw Mana By Sucking Victim's Blood]
[Your Hunger Remains]
[Consume More Mana]
Thrilled, Eric dashed away from the dead man with a gust of speed. Even though he did not fully understand the system's messages, he knew there was a reason he was feeling this hungry. He knew he was doing this to release something else within him. Something calm and normal, something that wouldn't dig its teeth into a human to suck their blood. Yes, he knew that was what he was releasing from where it was locked away.
And what better way to awaken this normal being than through an act so abnormal? To stop himself from becoming a serial blood-sucking monster, he had to be a serial blood-sucking monster. He had to rip limbs, smash skulls, litter the streets with blood. His beastly carnage would be his fuel. He must consume mana.
"Consume… mana."
He had to consume as much blood as possible before this coerced innocence disappeared and was replaced by the real Eric's guilty conscience. A faint voice at the back of his mind hinted that he was not doing this only to fill himself and silence his hunger. He was doing this to become more powerful. He had to consume as much mana as possible. He had to grow stronger, to farm, to cultivate… And the southern end seemed to be his farmland. The purge had served him this opportunity on a bloody platter.
So…
[Consume More Mana]
He couldn't waste time.
Eric dashed into the center of chaos with renewed vigor. Starting with the already dead purgers, he knelt over, biting them in the neck and drawing as little blood as possible before moving on to the next dead victim.
No longer needing to fill his tank with blood, Eric soon realized he was hungrier for mana than for blood. So, he sucked only a little, then the mana from his victims would waft toward him, after which he opened his mouth to consume it.
Soon enough, he was done with the dead humans and turned to the raging living. He leapt and moved with overwhelming speed and agility, sinking his teeth into their necks and leaving them to die in their pools of blood. Since he had taken just a little of their blood before they died, their mana always ended up flowing toward him after their last breath.
The more he killed and consumed mana, the closer he came to regaining his human senses—and the more his dulling emotions began to bother him. A few corpses ago, he had hesitated before biting into a victim, and another time, he had thrown someone aside instead of snapping his neck outright.
After what felt like an hour stretched into a year of rampage, the thousands of humans who lived on the southern end had dwindled down to a pitiful few. Eric opened his eyes after consuming another batch of hovering life force and was about to continue his killings when he saw that the remaining humans—about a hundred of them—suddenly collapsed as if shot in their vitals all at once.
The moment he realized they had become easy targets, he dashed toward one who was still breathing weakly. His thirst for power made him bare his teeth, ready to dig in, but his beast instincts pulled him back. As a beast, he was designed to attack humans who posed a threat. Mass killings like this were not the work of a beast. As long as he was filled, he had no business preying on vulnerable humans. Also, Eric's true senses were beginning to kick in. His confusion had been all but smashed.
"Please… spare me," the girl he was about to bite begged, with all the breath she could muster. The other humans who had collapsed groaned in pain, clutching their heads. The girl under Eric gazed up at him weakly as he opened his mouth and consumed the remaining mana hovering around him. She saw the young boy in bloodied clothes struggling to keep himself together. He thrashed about, grabbing his hair in fury and pain as Eric's human senses began to push back over the beast's.
Softly, the woman shifted her left hand and placed it over Eric's bloody hand.
"You don't have to be hard on yourself," she coughed weakly. "We all feel the same way. They have done something to our brains. That's why we all acted that way. It's not your fault. You couldn't have fought it. No one could."
As soon as she finished speaking, Eric's beastly senses gave way and were replaced by his normal, system-infused humanity. He looked around to see a sea of bodies covering the streets of Southern End. A wave of deep anguish washed over him and a tear dropped from his right eye. He started whimpering.
"It's really not your fault. They have control of our brains…" the girl, covered in blood whispered.
"No, you can't get it," Eric said through tears. "This one is really my fault."
She opened her mouth again to calm him, but was interrupted by hurried footsteps coming from a corner near the end of the street. Eric glanced up and immediately made out the silhouettes of military men running straight toward them, rifles and other arms glinting.
Eric turned to her. "Hurry. Let's go before they get here."
"No. I don't think they mean to kill us anymore. They must be here to pack the rest of us still living," the woman said.
Adamantly, Eric stood and helped the woman to her feet with surprising ease. Despite the slight slowdown from her weight, he navigated the littered road, vaulting over dead and living bodies alike.
Gunshots followed them as they fled toward the opposite end of the street.
* * * * * * * * * * *
"Go! Go now! Get that little monster! Now!" Glick barked, shouting commands to the soldiers on the Motherbase. The amount of sweat he had shed today could have lasted three people a lifetime. He flicked more beads of sweat off his forehead as he watched the soldiers depart.
"You seem deeply engrossed in this," Styl said from behind. "See, I know that boy is your lab experiment. A successful one. I'm sure you have plans to make more of that monster. You plan to invade other colonies with your creations, isn't that right? Quit trying to impress me. The more you do, the less impressed I am."
"For the last time, Styl, I don't know anything about that kid. If he were our experiment, why would I let him take part in the Purge? Even though we plan to cut the population in half, haven't you seen that he's wiped out the entire colony? If colony invasion was the goal, wouldn't I need those casualties? Styl?!"
"Hmm. Good point. But I'm still not impressed," Styl said, turning to walk away.
Once the dark old man was out of sight and earshot, Glick turned to Petyr.
"Before he leaves, send the best mechanic from the base to get some work done on his helicopter. We can't afford to let this get to the U.C. Styl must die… by accident, of course. Now, go."
* * * * *
Practically every building in the colony was empty now. Even the Motherbase has only a few personnels manning their posts and majorly overseeing The Purge. So, Eric was a little relieved that he was safe from being sighted by the soldiers for now. He had carried the woman delicately in his arms and with his sharp senses, navigated the dark streets till he found Laxalt's Tower. As soon as he got to the top, he dropped the woman gently and rushed to the opening behind the giant clock to scout for the soldiers after him. As far as he could see, there were no soldiers near where they are.
He returned back to the girl and slid to the floor beside her, looking calm but at the same time, dejected. A million thoughts ravaged his mind, and from the look of things, he doesn't have the answers to them. Even the system doesn't seem likely to see him through this.
'Speaking of the system...are you there?'
[Welcome Back, Host]
[Warning... I'm About To Blind You With Notifications]
"I'll sit this one out. Is there no way to send them without them showing before my face? I'll check them later," said Eric.
[You Have 24 New Notifications]
[Just Kidding...You Have More Than A Hundred New Notifications]
"Ugh."
The girl lying by Eric's side stirred. "Who are you talking to?" she asked.
"No one," Eric replied. "Are you okay?"
"Yes, I am. It was a bad headache at first, but my head is clear now. It must be the consequences of whatever they did to our brains. I always knew they have all of us under control, but not in this way."
"Huhhh... But why do you think there's something like The Purge? And why did nobody else have an idea of this before?" Eric asked, less concerned but just wanting to say something to that effect.
"Population reduction, I think," she replied bitterly, her gaze distant and unfocused. "And I think they erase the memories of the purge from everyone's brain, so the survivors forget about it and do not get traumatized by the event. It must have happened when you were little too, but you've forgotten because it's been erased. They all have our brains in their hold."
"Interesting," Eric said simply. "Is that why the soldiers are coming then? To grab us and erase our memories while everyone's weak?"
"Most likely," she replied.
"Then, I shouldn't have escaped with you," Eric mumbled under his breath. "I thought you were in danger."
"Are you always full of regrets?"
"Oh, I didn't know you heard that."
The woman crawled to a puddle of water in a corner to wash her face while Eric laid back against the tower wall and closed his eyes.
To the system, he said, "send them now."
[Human Host Successfully Restored]
[You Have A Reward For Unlocking The Beast Form]
'To think I'd be rewarded for starving myself to death.'
[Skill: Blood Rage]
[Description: Blood Rage temporarily unlocks your beast form and you go into a killing frenzy. Most useful when you're up against a large number of enemies]
"Ha. I'm sure that's not all. I'm sure it has a bad side, right?"
[Accurate. Blood Rage uses up all your Energy Point (EP) and can't be stopped until the EP is totally used up]
"So, I end up weak as hell after using Blood Rage?"
[Accurate. And the more you upgrade your EP through the general Stat Point upgrade, the longer you stay in your beast form when using Blood Rage]
[Also, There's A Way To Stop The Blood Rage Before Using Your EP Up]
[You Need To Upgrade Your Willpower Stat To A Sufficient Level]
[The More Willpower Pts You Have, The More You're Able To Control Yourself And Also Deal With The Consequences Of Your Actions As A Whole]
"Tch. I'm no fool. I think that you mean to say is, the more willpower I have, the more I'm able to kill without feeling remorseful. Don't twist words to make them sound better."
[Again, You're Correct. The Less Remorse You Feel About Your Future Killings, But Note, That's Not The Limit To What A High Willpower Stat Is Capable Of]
"Alright, that's a good skill by the way. Remind me not to ever use it. Thanks. Also, I remember I unlocked a skill when I killed those three hunters. What is it?"
[It's A Minor Skill, Just Like The Killer Dash]
[Skill: Partial Invisibility]
"What?! That's craaa-zy! I can turn invisible?"
[Partially, Host. Partially]
[Skill Description: Partial Invisibility Is A Renowned Skill, My Best One Yet, To Be Honest. Once Activated, You Stay Invisible For As Long As You Wish...]
[But It Only Works When Nobody Is Looking. The Invisibility Wears Off As Soon As A Being Looks At You]
[Cool down Period: 0 s]
[Cost: 0 MP]
"That's pretty much useless. Quit winding me up. Everyone's invisible when no one is looking. Are you going through a glitch or something?"
"The fact that it has a cool-down period of 0 seconds, and doesn't even cost a single MP speaks a lot on its uselessness."
[You Hurt Me. That Was The Best Skill In My Book]
[Displaying Rewards For Kill Combo...]
[Reward For 100 combo Kill: +5 AGI]
[Reward For 200 Combo Kill: +5 STR]
[Reward For 300 Combo kill: +5 EP]
[Reward For 500 Combo Kill: +10 WILL]
[Reward For 1000 Combo Kill: +10 WILL]
[Reward For 2000 Combo Kill: +10 EDR & +10 MP]
"Ugh, now I'm depressed. How many people did I kill exactly?"
[AGI: 50]
[STR: 25]
[EP: 15/23]
[WILL: 32]
[EDR: 15]
[MP: 25]
"I can see what game you're playing. Randomly awarding points like that, that's not a proper protocol anywhere. You're only preparing me to be a monster. Else, why did you award 20 points to Willpower?"
[It's Not To Create A Monster Of You]
[You Have To Be Able To Deal With Your Actions Henceforth. Your Path Is A Bloody One, And Inevitable At That. The System Distributes Points As It Fits The Host's Well-being.]
"Why should I bother arguing? It's all in your hold, isn't it? Do as you wish."
More notifications popped up.
[DISPLAYING STATS]
NAME: Eric Abyss
RACE: Human
RANK: Mana Slave
TIER: 2 — (Mana Unit Consumed: 3/15)
AWAKENING: None — (Mana Unit Consumed: 6/100)
HP: 10/10
EP: 15/23
MP: 25/25
STR: 25
AGI: 50
EDR: 15
DEX: 10
WILL: 32
LUCK: 100
MAGIC: (LOCKED)
EQUIPMENT: NONE
SKILLS:
Killer Dash (Rank E)
Partial Invisibility
[HUNGER LEVEL: 0%]
"It's good to see that my hunger level is on zero. I've consumed so much mana I feel like 'purging'. Wait... Uh-oh."
[I See What You Did There...And I Must Say, It's Dark]
"But something doesn't feel right. I should have increased my tier to at least 20, and from my calculations, I should have awakened six or seven times. Why are the bars still scanty for mana consumed when I killed more than 2000 people?"
[Sorry, Host, But Mana Consumed For Tier Upgrades And Awakenings Have To Come From Your Rational HUMAN Self]
[You Were A Beast Earlier During The Purge, So Your Mana Consumption Cannot Count For Tier Upgrades And Awakenings]
"That's some bad news. I thought I was gonna get overpowered with mad awakenings that come with God tier skills and weapons, after all that bloody business."
[But Here's Something For The Hardwork...]
[REWARD GRANTED: MANA BANK]
[Description: Mana Bank Stores Excess Mana After Host Consumes More Mana When He's Filled And Not Hungry]
[MANA BANK GAUGE: 2,015 Mana Unit]
[With That Much Mana Unit, You Are Not Likely To Go Hungry Any Time Soon]
[You Are Welcome]
"Pause, pause... I asked you something earlier. How many people did I kill?"
[You Wiped Out A Colony, Simply Put. But Most Importantly, You Consumed Every Single Mana From Every Dead Being]
"And I'm supposed to be happy about that?"
[It Is Not In My Power To Determine What Makes You Happy, Host]
Something stirred beside Eric at that moment, and immediately, he felt a hurried tap on his laps, followed by hushed tones full of worry.
"Hey, wake up. The soldiers are near!"