The Altered Reality
A digital notification display emerged before Samara's jet-black eyes, with a plain ring resonating throughout her mind. Upon seeing it with her perception, Samara furrowed her eyebrows as she didn't know if she should have felt relief or despair with the revelation of the notification display.
A chaotic feeling swirled through her heart, making her sight to herself.
"A notification display emerged after I killed the creep. It acts precisely like the leveling system I played in RPG games. *Sigh...* Unfortunately, this is becoming creepier by the second." Samara expressed with a worried tone as she looked around the decimated cafeteria.
Tables could be seen split apart by the claws of the creep. Blood was splattered throughout the walls, ceiling, and floor. Finally, there was a pale monstrous body coldly lying on the ground. Samara stood tall upon such disgusting and bloody scenery, seemingly unmoved by it.
"A powerful glass cannon. I was fortunate to have thrown the first strike." Samara sighed in relief as she calmed her heart down. But upon doing it, she felt a tightening in her chest, which resonated throughout her body. She thus accidentally dropped the knife tightly held on her fingers and fell to her knees.
"URGH!!!" Samara was having difficulty breathing, as if someone or something was choking her neck. She didn't know what was happening to her body and wondered why it had to be her to feel such pain.
After a while, the tightening calmed down though Samara wasn't in a good state. She was awfully tired as her body couldn't move a single muscle. She was still on her knees as she only held her body through her frozen arms, holding onto the ground.
'W-What happen?' Samara thought to herself, pondering on what the hell had happened. Her body had lost strength almost immediately, and her mind was becoming apparent and broader instead of having a linear path. With this in mind, Samara realized and had an idea of what had happened.
"Don't tell me... Is this the result of calming myself after concluding the grave circumstances?" What Samara was trying to utter to herself was simple. During the fight against the creep... she was filled with adrenaline and only had one thought. And that was to kill the pale abomination.
She willed her body to do so, and after accomplishing it, her linear line of thought returned to its original state, forcing her normal brain to feel the things she would have generally felt throughout the battle. Fear, despair, tensed muscles, tightening of the chest, and dizziness.
There might be more though Samara thought of these examples as the main problematic ones.
'If this was what really happened, then I guess I'm back to my old self.' Samara sadly smiled, not knowing if she wanted to smile happily or be disappointed by her return to normal. Her arms then started shaking like before, and a sick feeling raged on her stomach, just like always when she was met with a dangerous situation.
"I feel bad..." Samara quietly mumbled as she remembered the things she had gone through in the fight. The feeling of stabbing through something or someone. The soft eyeball pierced like mellow bread, followed by the hot blood splattering throughout her body.
Samara felt disgusted upon remembering the things she had done to the creep. She wanted to puke, but no matter what, none wanted to escape her stomach. The only thing she could have done was eat away her disgust and leave with it at the moment.
Anyhow, while Samara was having the time of her life, another digital notification emerged, followed by a ring. Samara instantly noticed it and realized this wasn't the time to mop around like an idiot. She still wasn't safe from the creeps, so acting like this would get her killed.
'I didn't level up from killing the creep and only gained 2 experience points. I don't know what the 2 experience points are worth, but it is better than nothing.' Samara thought about the first notification of gaining experience points through killing the creep.
"From the looks of it, I have to go through this by grinding the creeps and leveling up." Samara couldn't help but chuckle to herself as she couldn't imagine her grinding the creeps like some weak mob in the RPG games. As the reality was far from different compared to some RPG games.
There were many variables, and despite being a glass cannon, they were still a cannon. One hit from their claws can immediately chop Samara in half, making her rushing actions before as dumb as a toddler's mind. What if the bastard had attacked her during the charge? Wouldn't she die as a result?
"I shouldn't have done that. I got swept by the circumstances." Samara shook her head as she decided not to think about it anymore. Begrudging herself of the things that had already happened wouldn't bring any more to the table other than severe complications.
And that was something Samara would rather avoid than face.
'At any rate, I wonder what the notification is.' Samara thoughtfully inquired as she looked at the notification display and began reading what was written on its screen. Upon reading it, Samara raised an eyebrow as it seemed she had gained something from the battle against the pale monstrous abomination.
"This isn't something I expected, yet it is a great possibility that seems to not contradict anything." Samara furrowed her eyebrows as she continued reading through the digital notification display. The reason why she was acting like this was because of the notification's implication.
―<●>―
[Congratulations, User Samara Grimes had concluded the hidden unique attribute within the personal quest(Survival without Power).]
[Due to the user reaching this conclusion, a reward will be awarded.]
―<●>―
From the words of the notification display, Samara had completed a hidden and unknown quest within Survival without Power. Such features were expected in RPG Games when a player reached an undisclosed requirement, resulting in a special reward.
Though, Samara didn't really expect this, making her surprised about it.
"A hidden quest that gives a special reward... The current circumstances regarding this subject have a lot of unknowns. Even if it being real is something I extremely doubted. Yet, I still wonder how much of an RPG Game is it?" Samara silently muttered as thoughts passed through her mind.
With tons of possibilities, theorizing would be a heavy workload to do. Moreover, it wasn't something Samara could afford to do, especially in this grave state. So with this in mind, she decided to continue through the notifications given to her by the digital display.
―<●>―
[Combat without Power]
●[Hidden Quest(Hard)]
●[User Samara Grimes must have the personal quest(Survival without Power) to conclude this. For the completion of the hidden quest, under the conditions of the personal quest, User Samara Grimes must face the assailants under her current state and win against them.]
➤[Quest Reward: Random Special Title]
―<●>―
The information regarding the hidden quest had revealed itself, and in simpler terms, Samara must have the Survival without Power quest and face her assailants, which were the creeps. She must win a battle against them under her current weak state with little to no power.
'I see... So this is the hidden attribute of my personal quest. The reward is a unique title, but I wonder what those do. Do they give additional and passive buffs? Or are there here for nothing but aesthetic purposes?' Samara thoughtfully questioned herself.
The features of a title will never be known unless Samara opens its descriptions. Anyway, the notification didn't end there and kept continuing. Samara couldn't help but smile as she knew of the result, which was nothing more than awarding her long-awaited reward.
―<●>―
[Combat without Power]
●[Status: Completed]
●[Awarding Quest Rewards...]
➤[Rewards Awarded: Random Special Title]
―<●>―
Samara had gotten her reward, the Random Special Title. From the looks of it, it was a randomization of exceptional titles that might be useful to her. With this thought in mind, Samara couldn't help but smile within herself as she wondered what she would get.
―<●>―
●[Random Special Title will be activated]
●[Titles randomizing...]
―<●>―
The notification stopped, and there was nothing more beyond it. Samara wondered why it was taking long. But Samara knew impatience wouldn't lead to good things, so she calmed herself down and decided to stop thinking about the quest.
'I should take care of myself.' Samara felt her knees cramped as she had been kneeling for too long. She stood up and stretched every part of her body. Fortunately, the debuffs she had felt long ago disappeared, which was a good thing. After all, Samara didn't want to feel such sick and disgusting things anymore.
While stretching her limbs, Samara noticed her clothes were bloodied beyond relief. At least her skin could be rinsed, but her uniform was stained beyond what was considered normal. Walking around with a bloodstained uniform wasn't a good feeling, so Samara decided to take off her uniform instead of having to smell blood.
'Taking them off should do the job for me.'
Samara thought to herself as she took off her uniform and placed them beside a broken table. There was no use of it. And what was left behind covering her body was the white shirt, which was fortunately clean. It was a miracle that blood didn't go through the uniform and instead stained her white shirt.
After placing the bloodstained uniform beside the table, Samara turned her gaze towards her skirt. She immediately took it off after noticing the stains, as she disliked blood dripping to her legs. Luckily, Samara wore black shorts under her short skirt. So there was no need to be worried about her pantyhose revealing itself.
"I should find some clothing in the locker room. Walking around under my shorts doesn't feel good on my legs." Samara quietly mumbled as she didn't have a hint of embarrassment on her face. In the face of disaster, shame wasn't typically felt as people had their priorities on their survival.
A short while later, Samara concluded after removing everything that got stained. She looked around the cafeteria and quickly noticed the aprons in the kitchen. Without delay, she ran towards it and wore a black apron to cover her white shirt enclosing her chest.
"Wearing an apron was much more pleasant than she had expected." Samara faintly remarked as she chose another knife from the kitchen. She picked the sharpest ones as the knife she had previously used might have been dulled to some state.
Samara didn't have that much power, so she had to rely on the knife's sharpness for penetration. It being dull wouldn't do her any favor.
―<●>―
●[Randomizing of titles had concluded.]
➤[You have received the title, (Bloodthirst)]
●[For further information, open the status display.]
―<●>―
Another digital notification display emerged before Samara, followed by a plain and ordinary ring. Samara raised an eyebrow and intently gazed at the title she had gained. It was called Bloodthirst. The name was evidently speaking for its description, but Samara wanted to know more about it.
She then noticed the message below it implying a status display.
'A status display? How does one open it? Is there something hidden button somewhere?' Samara had a couple of questions trapped within her mind wondering what she was supposed to do to open the status display. But then, she remembered the novels she had read on the internet.
"Don't tell me..." Samara sighed as she didn't know if she wanted to utter such words. However, she had no choice but to let such words escape her mouth. "I have no choice but to do this." Samara took a deep breath and stated the magic words.
"Status..."
Thus a digital display emerged before her perception.
―――<●>―――
「Samara Grimes」
●[Energy: 100]
●[Level 0]
●[Experience: (2/10)]
●[Title(s): (Operator), (Bloodthirst)]
●[Attribute Assessment]
➤[Physique(0.7)]➤[Intellect(1)]➤[Spirit(1)]
●[Module Index]
➤[No Modules Acquired]
―――<●>―――
It was the status display.