Time: 3 weeks after the catastrophe.
Location: "Desert-Jungle" border (Tropical forest growing on sand dunes).
Kenji sat before a campfire. His mood was, to put it mildly, ruined.
It was hard to say exactly what was cooking in the fire. It could be the tail of a giant lizard caught from the "Jurassic Era" zone, or a two-headed rabbit from the "Mutants" zone.
Kenji tore off a piece of meat, put it in his mouth, and tried to chew.
"Ptui-ptui!" He spat out the meat. "Rubber! This isn't meat, this is a car tire!"
He complained to the sky:
"I understand, the world changed, creatures invaded, fine. But why is there no salt anywhere?! I've lived 21 days without salt! This is a human rights violation! If I had a single 'Big Mac' right now, I'd give my life..."
Kenji's stomach rumbled, and he forced himself to eat the meat.
His condition was pathetic. His clothes—a mixture of "Cyber-Armor" and samurai pants—had become filthy, and the armor's battery had died (now it just hung like heavy iron).
Worst of all—he was getting tired.
In the game, "Fatigue" (Stamina) was just a blue bar. If you stood still for a bit, it would refill.
But here... you had to sleep. And when you slept, you could get eaten. Kenji hadn't slept even 20 hours total in the last three weeks. His eyes were red; he'd become like a "zombie."
"Well then, Kenji," he said, continuing to talk to himself (this was the only way not to go mad from loneliness). "You have your sword, you have your pistol. But your strength... your strength is running out."
Yesterday when he fought a Stone Golem, his sword got stuck in the stone and he barely escaped. His level 99 strength seemed to be slowly fading. His body was exhausting itself, nutrition was insufficient.
"I need to get stronger. But how? Without a system, where does XP (experience) go?"
At that moment, a rustling sound came from the bushes.
Kenji immediately threw away the "rubber-meat" and jumped to his feet. He closed his eyes and imagined the "Dragon Fang" in his right hand.
Clang! The sword appeared.
Slowly, a huge, armored creature emerged from the bushes.
It was a Magma Tortoise.
Its size was comparable to a light car. Its shell was made of black stone, and red lava flowed between the cracks. It was very slow, but very dangerous.
"Oho," Kenji said, whistling. "A walking volcano. Can't cook you for sure—probably have coal instead of meat inside."
The tortoise opened its mouth and spat a fireball toward Kenji.
Kenji jumped left. The fireball instantly turned the tree behind him to ash.
"Hot!" Kenji rubbed his heated face. "Alright, I'll have to cool you down."
Kenji went on the attack. He tried to strike his sword at the tortoise's head.
Clang!
The sword hit the tortoise's hard shell and bounced back. Kenji's hands went numb.
"Hard, huh," Kenji said, gritting his teeth. "Have you played 'Dark Souls,' you bastard?"
The tortoise spewed fire again. This time Kenji dodged right, but was a bit late. The edge of the flame licked his shoulder.
"AHH!"
Kenji fell to the ground. His shoulder was burned. The pain was so intense that tears came to his eyes.
"Need a 'Healer'..." he groaned. "If Aira were here now, one 'Light of Healing' would fix it."
This thought gave him strength. Or anguish.
Aira was gone. No one was here. Only himself.
Kenji stood up. There was no more humor in his eyes now, only cold calculation.
"Your weak point..." Kenji stared at the tortoise.
The tortoise opened its mouth wider to spew the next fire, and its neck stretched out. The neck area! There was no armor there, only soft, fiery skin.
Kenji waited.
The tortoise opened its mouth and began gathering fire.
That moment!
Kenji lunged forward with all his might. He ran toward the fire.
"Plasma-X!" he shouted in his mind.
The pistol appeared in his left hand, and he fired into the tortoise's mouth—right where the fire was forming.
Explosion!
The fire exploded inside the tortoise's mouth. It threw its head back in pain, its neck fully exposed.
Kenji jumped into the air and gripped his sword with both hands.
"Die, tin can!"
SLASH!
The sword severed the tortoise's neck.
The huge carcass crashed to the ground with a thud. The lava flow stopped, and the tortoise began to darken, turning into ordinary stone.
Kenji sat on the ground, panting. His hands were trembling. His shoulder was throbbing with pain.
"I won..." he said hoarsely. "Is there loot?"
Usually in the game, when a Boss died, its body would disappear and gold and items would remain in its place.
But the tortoise didn't disappear. It lay there emitting a foul smell.
Kenji was about to get up, discouraged, when suddenly a strange phenomenon occurred.
A white-red mist rose from the tortoise's body. This mist swirled in the air and flowed directly toward Kenji, as if drawn by a magnet.
"What's this? Radiation?" Kenji tried to escape, but the mist was too fast.
The mist struck Kenji's chest and... entered inside.
Kenji took a deep breath. His eyes opened wide.
Heat. Pleasant, hot energy spread through his veins.
It felt like drinking an energy drink, but 100 times stronger.
And most importantly—the burn wound on his shoulder seemed to heal a bit, the pain seemed to lessen. The fatigue disappeared. His muscles tensed.
Kenji looked at his hands.
"This... this is XP!" he said in amazement. "Experience points!"
He understood now. Because there was no system, experience wasn't calculated automatically. It had to be physically absorbed.
The "Soul" or "Essence" of the killed opponent transferred directly to the victor.
Kenji looked at the tortoise's corpse and grinned predatorily.
"So the more I kill, the stronger I become. No level cap. No system limitation."
Even the hunger in his stomach had disappeared. Could this energy also replace food?
"Admins," Kenji said, looking at the sky, this time without sarcasm, in a serious tone. "Did you think you made the game harder? No. You freed me from my chains."
Kenji placed his sword on his shoulder and walked toward the horizon—toward the unknown, dangerous forests. Now he wouldn't run. Now he would hunt.