Richard's talons sank into soft soil as another human burst into glowing particles beneath him.
He watched the scattering light drift upward and fade, then turned his attention to the faint crimson road glowing in his mind.
Another flickering danger point vanished from the path only he could see.
"Good," he muttered, chest swelling in approval. "Next."
He fluffed his feathers, turned, and trotted on with a calm, almost casual confidence.
Between the four main points he'd assigned to his subordinates, countless thin strands of crimson light crisscrossed through his mind's eye, minor gaps, hidden trails, and little cracks between the defenses.
His job was simple.
He hunted the ones that slipped through.
He moved like a patrolling general: stride steady, eyes sharp, killing any unlucky otherworlder who happened to appear on his path. Some screamed, some tried to run, some froze like stunned rabbits.
None of them survived a single hit.
His claws blurred again.
STAB.
A faint panel flickered before him.
[You have killed Early Stage Common Creature: Human ×1]
[Your Life Energy has increased.]
He spared the notification only a brief glance. Life Energy was nice, but nowhere near as satisfying as watching tiny danger points vanish from the crimson route in his mind.
He hopped over a fallen log and let out a pleased cluck.
"This talent really is convenient," he thought, preening slightly as he walked. "Showing me the best route to keep these otherworlders in check… As expected of my talent."
The Path glimmered within his mind. a thread of red weaving neatly between glowing danger points and stable safe zones. Every time he eliminated a stray player, the route shifted, reorganized, optimizing itself like a living map.
As long as he followed it, his territory would be safe.
His subjects would be safe.
Everything would go according to plan.
He nodded to himself, immensely pleased, and continued his rounds, one step at a time, one kill at a time, trotting lightly as though enjoying an evening stroll instead of patrolling a battlefield.
Eventually, he stopped, closed his eyes, and focused on the crimson road once more.
All the small gaps were gone.
No more flickering little points between the four major nodes.
No more tiny leaks.
The Path between the major points was clear and smooth.
"Hmmm…" he hummed, tilting his head.
"So… where to go now"
The greatest danger pulsed in the direction of the lizard's zone. Officially the most dangerous point, yet the least concerning in Richard's mind. He trusted the lizard deeply. Lazy sometimes, yes, but when it mattered, that creature was fierce, strong, and reliable.
Richard's attention drifted to the last point on the path.
The stream.
The snake.
That point had always felt… uneasy.
His talent insisted it was the least dangerous in terms of numbers, but the mark burned just as intensely as the others. The snake had talent and leadership but lacked experience. Not yet hardened like the lizard.
Decision made, he clucked, "Fine. I'll go to the stream."
He turned and started in that direction, stride still relaxed, feathers rustling with the breeze but then froze.
His Path flared.
Not the crimson thread of his talent… but the golden network connected to the heartbeats of his subordinates.
Richard went rigid.
The golden web trembled, a faint presence collapsing inward.
The connection he had with every life under his protection, every heartbeat in his territory wavered.
Most of the time, it was background noise: a distant, comforting rhythm at the edge of his awareness. But now, like a string snapping in an orchestra…one of them went out.
His chest clenched.
"…Huh?"
He stood in place, feathers bristling, tiny chicken brain suddenly working overtime.
'Maybe… malfunction? Yes, surely just a malfunction.
Maybe his Path's heartbeat-sense turned off when they fell asleep?
Yes. Yes, surely that was it. Maybe some irresponsible little rabbit just decided to nap during battle'
"It must be that," he told himself.
But even as he spoke, his legs were already moving.
He sprinted.
Claws dug into the dirt, flinging leaves behind him. Trees blurred into streaks of green. His heart slammed against his ribs as he raced toward the stream.
Because no matter what excuses he whispered to himself…
His instincts already knew.
One of his subordinates had died.
The closer he got, the louder the chaos became, panicked clucks, furious hisses, sharp squeaks… distress, rage, and sorrow.
His feathers rose, a cold fury building inside him like a gathering storm.
He burst through a line of bushes and saw it.
A human.
Running.
Charging through the shallow water, soaked and staggering, chased by a swarm of enraged creatures. Chickens, rabbits, snakes, all his subjects, leaping and lunging, rocks flying from branches above, though their attacks no longer had the same perfect rhythm. Their coordination was gone.
Richard's eyes narrowed, tracing the human's movement… then drifting to the side.
Near the base of a tree, a snake stared down in sorrow and guilt at a stone resting quietly on the ground, still splattered with blood.
Richard's pupils shrank.
His mind went utterly silent for a heartbeat as he immediately connected the dots.
Then something inside him snapped.
"PAPAAAAAAK!!!"
His roar tore through the forest like a blade.
Every creature in the vicinity flinched. The fleeing human looked back, eyes widening, as the earth trembled beneath Richard's steps.
To the otherworlder, he must've looked like a red comet.
To Richard, this was the murderer of his subordinate.
His claws dug in, accelerating him forward, stream water exploding behind him with each stride. Rage drowned out everything: the rustling leaves, the cries of his subjects.
Only one thought remained.
KILL
The distance vanished.
He surged forward, body low, muscles coiled, and with a furious screech he swung his talons.
The human barely reacted in time.
His body twisted, instincts honed by countless battles letting him turn just enough to avoid instant death, but not the impact.
The blow hit like a wagon.
Richard felt bones give under his claws as the human's body flew, crashing through roots and into a tree trunk with a heavy crack.
The otherworlder coughed blood, sagging to one knee, but he did not stay down.
The human pushed himself up with shaking arms. His eyes sharpened, black and focused. His stance lowered, angles tightening.
Richard's comb trembled with fury.
He charged again.
The human moved forward this time, meeting him halfway, fists tightening.
Talons descended.
The human braced, arms raised, slipping sideways, trying to redirect the force.
For a split second, Richard felt resistance then tore straight through it.
CRUNCH.
The blocked strike still smashed into the human's ribs, flinging him aside like a broken doll. Richard didn't even bother slowing. He pivoted, claws skidding through dirt, and lunged again.
The human barely rolled away, gasping, clutching his side.
Richard's eyes burned red.
His vision tunneled.
The world narrowed to a single point.
He dashed, talons cutting arcs in the air. The human ducked, lips pulled back in a grimace, and stepped in with a straight punch.
The fist crashed into Richard's chest.
Perfect form.
Weight behind it.
Will behind it.
But it did nothing.
He felt the contact, acknowledged it, then dismissed it. His feathers didn't even ruffle.
"…"
His talon answered.
Down, like a guillotine.
The human managed to raise his arm, but his guard folded instantly.
SNAP.
Richard felt bones break beneath his claws, hurling the man sideways. The human hit the ground hard, rolled, and lay sprawled in the mud.
His subjects hissed in the distance, but held back. No one dared approach.
The human trembled, eyes flickering. For a second, Richard felt something strange,
a weird tremor not in the ground, but in the air around the human a subtle disturbance.
Then it vanished.
The otherworlder groaned and, stubbornly, tried to rise once more.
Richard's fury spiked.
He leapt, every muscle in his body snapping into motion. His shadow swallowed the human completely, a crimson eclipse over battered flesh.
The otherworlder looked up at him.
There was no fear in those eyes.
Just frustration, regret, a flicker of admiration and even... excitement?
Then Richard's claws came down.
Crunch
The human's body shattered into radiant fragments, carried away like dust in the wind.
Silence followed.
No cheering.
No victory cries.
Only the soft sound of the stream and the harsh beating of Richard's own heart.
A small notification flickered somewhere at the edge of his vision.
[You have killed Early Stage Common Creature: Human ×1]
[Your Life Energy has increased.]
He ignored it.
His eyes were locked on the small stone near the tree.
He checked the golden network again.
One of the tiny heartbeats…the one that always wobbled in exhaustion during training, the one that tried to do more push-ups than it could, the one he'd dragged out of its burrow and ordered to do push-ups.
That heartbeat was gone, no longer connected to his Path.
Richard stepped closer.
Then another step.
Something twisted painfully inside him.
'This isn't… how it's supposed to go,' he thought numbly.
He lifted his head and glared at the crimson road in his mind.
"Why?" he crowed hoarsely. "Is my talent not supposed to show the best road to keep players in check? The best way to protect everyone?"
His voice grew louder, cracking with emotion.
"Then why… did one of mine still die?"
He threw his head back.
"KUUUUU-KA-KIEAAA!!"
His cry tore at the sky, raw, grieving, enraged.
His subjects lowered themselves around him. The creepy snake bowed its head, its coils pressed low to the ground. Rabbits trembled. Chickens and lizards hung their heads, eyes glimmering with confusion and sorrow. None dared move. None dared speak.
Their boss wasn't just angry.
He was grieving.
The air felt heavy, thick with sorrow and rage.
Then.
His panel pulsed.
[Large emotional fluctuation detected.]
[Mind: E → E+]
[Your Path resonates with your emotions.]
[Ability: "The Ruler's Condemnation" has awakened.]
[The Ruler's Condemnation]
[Description: A curse born from a ruler's grief. The condemned feel their strength falter and their will decay beneath the weight of your fury.]
New power flowed into him, unnoticed beneath the weight of his anguish.
He only kept crowing, pouring his anger into the canopy, into the watching sky, as if demanding an answer from the world itself.
'Why wasn't it enough?
'Why... if this was the "best route," did his people still suffer?'
His voice grew hoarse.
Only when heavy footsteps shook the undergrowth did he fall silent.
He turned his head.
A massive shadow pushed through the trees.
The black lizard stepped into the clearing, larger than before, muscles swelling beneath deepened scales, eyes glowing with a strange abyssal gold. Even the trees seemed to lean away from it.
It was… bigger.
Much bigger.
Richard blinked, momentarily yanked out of his grief.
The lizard was nearly his height now.
For a heartbeat, they simply stared at each other. As if trying to give him time, the Lizard didn't speak, it simply waited. It already knows what had happened.
It knew this pain.
It had lived it.
Richard exhaled, feathers slowly settling. He shook his head, forcing clarity back into his mind.
This was not the time to wallow.
His subjects were watching.
The threat of otherworlders still loomed.
"…You got bigger," he said softly, eyes narrowing with renewed determination.
The lizard lowered its head in respect.
"Boss...I..." it growled but stayed silent.
Richard glanced one last time at the lone rock in the bloodstained dirt.
His grief didn't vanish. It settled instead, like a weight in his chest.
A ruler's burden.
He turned his gaze toward the forest, where the crimson path continued to pulse in the distance.
"Good," he said softly. "You came at the right time. It's time to gather everyone"