Chapter Four: The Man
Previously on The Devious System
"I'm... numb to your bullshit." he uttered in a venomous tone, "I doubt... you know anything about horror, but here's the thing about it... the more you are exposed to it, the less effect it has."
"I am sick of your 'hunger', I am sick of your twisted, sadistic tricks and bullshit..."
He spoke fiercely, his eyes filled with misery, and... lament.
"I am sick of you."
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"What is this...?"
Muttering, Y/N curiously looked at the floating, reddish ball in the air. It had a weird, large eye in the middle part of it, which caused Y/N to let out a hum.
Next to him, lied the body of the horrifically disfigured Beowolf, its eye are both popped out, its lower jaw ripped off, its stomach ripped open, and its anus terribly torn in two, as if it was cut by a chainsaw. Y/N turned his gaze towards it, shrugged, and turned back to the floating ball.
He carefully poked it with his finger, and felt a sudden warmth all over his body, but his headache worsened a bit.
Tilting his head a bit, he closed his eyes and began thinking. After a few moments, that same darn, light-blue holographic window appeared. He opened one eye, and a small smile began creeping its way to his face.
There was something written inside of it, which caused Y/N to get closer to it, and read out aloud.
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Beowolf (Essence)
"Only a fool could be caught by this pitiful excuse for a hunter.
Unfortunately, this world seems to have no shortage of those."
Consume this item to gain 5% Increased movement speed, 5% increased jump height, 5% increased, 5% increased smelling strength, 5% hearing strength, 5% increased physical damage.
Consuming this item will gain 5 sanity, and turn this item into ~Remnants of the true beowolf~
Gain another 10 of these in order to increase the additional stats to 10%, and turn them into ~True essence of a Beowolf~
Sacrificing this item will grant 10 liens, and 5 sanity
---
Y/N lazily discarded the holographic window with a wave of his hand, and immediately grabbed the floating ball. He grabbed it with a firm grip, and the ball slowly, but surely, began cracking. Y/N's body heat keeps increasing with each second that passes, but he didn't care. He just wanted the effects already.
A few moments later, the ball lets out a pop, and shatters into a myriad of pieces. As if magic, Y/N felt his body became slightly swifter, and stronger. He carefully stood up, and took a fresh breath of air from his nose.
"Ah... it feels... great." He muttered, his face clearly seemed to indicate he was in bliss. However, that feeling would soon vanish when the window suddenly appears, and lets out a deafening ring. Y/N winced and let out a curse, before looking at the holographic.
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Warning! Warning!
Due to your low amount of Sanity, a creature from the true world has appeared. In order for it to disappear, you either need to defeat it, or bring your SAN above 65.
The creature's name:
The Casual Man
Estimated power level: Universal (A mere laugh from it can destroy an entire universe)
Estimated speed level: Human level
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...What? Y/N confusingly looked at the holographic, before panicky looking around him. 'Universe level?' He thought, 'You are not telling me there are beings who can destroy the universe, right?'
He quickly took a stance, his gaze focusing on the forest. 'Where is it?' He thought, 'Where the fuck is it?!'
He broke into a cold sweat. Anxiety rapidly killing him from the inside. Suddenly, the world around him disappeared, and he appeared in a city.
Not just any city.
New York.
His eyes widened, and he gulped nervously. He immediately brought out the holographic window, and tried to sacrifice all of his Oblivion souls in order to retain his sanity to normal levels. However, he suddenly stopped when he heard a chuckle coming from his left. He slowly looked to his left, and saw... A towering man, with black eyes and skin of ghostly black. Despite its abnormal height and skin, its features were... human. He just stood there, a couple of meters away from Y/N, menacingly staring at him.
"Ah, so it was you." It muttered, his voice lacking any tone.
Feeling his abnormal and powerful aura, Y/N hurriedly tried to sacrifice his oblivion souls, but something strange happened.
The system... Froze. He pressed multiple buttons, but it didn't seem to work. No sound was coming out of it.
"Now now, it's been forever since I've seen a person. No need to be afraid." With a mere wave from his hand, the world around Y/N has changed, and instead, he is sitting on a chair. New york now gone, Y/N was instead sitting on a chair inside of a rather dark room. Its floor was made of food, and there was a calm fireplace near him. But Y/N quickly dismissed that, and focused his attention on the tall man infront him. The man's expression slowly turned into one of satisfaction, and he had a small smile on his face.
He snapped his fingers, and a teapot and tea cups suddenly appeared. He waved his hands around it, questioning if Y/N wants some.
But Y/N didn't answer. The tall man was much closer now, and due to this, his aura is much more powerful. It felt like needles picking all over him.
His body seemed as if it were about to disintegrate, his bones about to shatter and disappear into dust. He felt a massive pressure trying to crush him flat. His body shook, but he gritted his teeth and stood there, ignoring the pain in his bones.
The man rose his eyebrows in confusion and leaned towards Y/N. "Hmm? Are you okay?"
Being closer now, an exceptionally dark look filled his eyes, and he clenched his fists. His fingernails dug deep into the flesh of his palms, causing drips of blood to come out.
A feeling of dread filled the entirety of his heart, as if the world itself were about to desert him. It was as if this man's aura alone had pushed him over the edge of existence. That a single move from him would cause Y/N to shatter into a myriad of pieces. Because of the power the man exerted, Y/N's fingernails snapped, embedded in his flesh. Blood dripped like a waterfall.
"W-What... do you want?" Despite his menacing aura, Y/N uttered a question.
"Isn't it obvious? I want to talk." He said with a soft smile, his expression the complete opposite of his aura.
Y/N didn't speak, the pressure simply became too strong for him. As he tried to speak, he let out a cough of blood, which caused the man to widen his eyes in surprise.
"Oh my me, I'm sorry! I forgot." The man quickly apologized, before his aura suddenly disappeared. Y/N let out a sigh of relief, and quickly grasped his chest in pain. However, the moment he grasped his chest, his hands burned painfully, as if the skin had been stripped off of them. Gasping huskily, he gulped and narrowed his gaze at the man.
"I weakened my aura to an infinitesimal amount, and yet you almost die. I'm sorry, I didn't know." The man seemed to be truly sorry, quickly bowing several times.
"Anyways..." After bowing a few times, the man stood straight, and brought up the teacup near Y/N's face, "Would you be interested in a cup of tea?"
Having no other option, Y/N hesitantly nodded, his body crying in pain with every move he does.
In an instant, the man was suddenly sitting in the chair, the table being the only thing separating them. A cup of tea appeared in front of both of them.
"That's good to hear!" The man clapped his hands cheerfully, "So, how should we do this? Should I ask about your life, or should you ask about mine?"
Y/N tried to speak, but it hurt him like hell. He let out a few coughs, before grabbing the tea cup. Normally, he'd assume the tea was poisoned due to the malicious aura this guy has, but considering the power difference, it'd be silly to assume he tried to poison him when he could just end Y/N with a mere sigh.
After taking a sip, Y/N's eyes widened.
They were tasty, really tasty. The tea was filled with flavor, it almost seemed like he was drinking some holy drink.
"These are... delicious." He muttered under his breath, to which caused the man to let out a chuckle.
"They are made from the blood of the innocents."
Y/N spat his drink instantly in response, causing the man to let out a loud laughter.
"I'm just joking. I simply mixed every tea type in existence, and changed some of its properties with my powers so that it could taste better."
Y/N gave the man an irritated look, before taking another sip from it. After taking a heafty amount of it, Y/N finally talked.
"I don't really have any other option, do I? Who are you?"
The man let out a hum, "I have many names, but most people call me The Casual Man."
"I know that much. I assume they call you that because you are..."
"Easy to talk to?"
Y/N nodded, his eyes filled with curiosity. While the man's aura was extremely threatening, Y/N felt... at ease, surprisingly, once the man ceased his aura. He was feeling at the edge of death just a moment ago, and yet here he feels as if this person is not a danger, but rather a safety.
It's... weird.
"No, not really."
"Hmm? Why do they call you that then?"
"Oh, it's nothing. I just transcend cause and effect."
"Oh, that's... cool." Y/N said before taking another sip, only for him to spit it out once he realized what the man just said.
"Yeah, I expected that."
Y/N cleaned his mouth, and stared at the man in astonishment.
"A-And... h-how does it work?"
"Hit me."
"What?"
"Hit me. Go ahead." The man stood up, and opened his arms.
Y/N hesitated, before letting out a sigh and standing up. He focused his gaze, and readied to send a full powered punch, only to feel a burning pain in his entire body. That incident with the man's aura still left him injured.
Despite that, he still managed to throw a punch, albeit a weak one.
What he felt was... an indescribable feeling. Y/N looked strangely at his hand. It didn't feel like hitting someone, it didn't feel like anything. It didn't even felt like punching the air.
"That felt... weird."
"Mhm. As I said, I'm above cause and effect." The man folded his arms, "Absolutely nothing would be able to affect me. Of course, I can still manipulate it, so I could be able to do ordinary things." He said, before grabbing his cup of tea and taking a sip out of it, "like drinking tea."
"Does that mean you are immune to all damages?"
"Hmm, it depends. Anything you do won't be able to affect me, regardless of what that power is. Whether it was time manipulating powers, mind manipulation, and pretty much everything else."
"Then what do you mean by 'It depends'?"
"Well, from your perspective, I appear as an omnipotent being. Whilst I'm immune to all your damage, there are other beings who could affect beings like me. It's uncommon, but it exists, or it doesn't, I guess."
"...?"
Noticing Y/N's confused expression, the man lets out a dry chuckle.
"Your SAN level reached below 65, correct? Due to that, I've been able to sense you. You do know what will happen if you reach below 30, right?"
Y/N let's out an "Uhh..." before nervously scratching his neck.
"Something something, the world shows it colors, something."
The man nodded in response, his smile slowly growing.
"I'll just give you this one advise," his expression suddenly darkened, "do not ever go below 30."
His aura started leaking a little bit, which caused Y/N to be pushed back into the chair due to the sheer power difference.
"The beings that will appear, are far beyond even my powers. They are the ones that are able to affect. They are also... Well, nonexistent."
Despite the aura almost crushing his bones, Y/N slowly raised his eyebrows in pain and confusion.
"Not as in, they are nonexistent as in extinct, but they are literally nonexistent. They transcend both existence and nonexistence, completely lacking any sort of concept, and yet they are there. They are contradiction. No matter what you do, no matter how dire the situation is, never go below it. Not until you can affect them, which I doubt you'll ever be able to."
Fighting through the pain, Y/N slowly nodded. The aura suddenly disappeared, and a cheerful smile appeared on the man's face.
"Great!"
The man sat down, and took a sip of the tea, oblivious to the panting Y/N.
"Y-You... really didn't need to show your aura..."
"Hmm? Oh, did I show it by accident?" The man asked, confused. But Y/N didn't answer, and simply shook his head.
"Nevermind. T-Those beings... are stronger than you?"
The man simply nodded before taking another sip. He didn't talk anymore, he simply sipped more tea.
"Jesus." Y/N ran through his hair, only to feel a throbbing headache.
"Compared to them, you are like an... hmm..."
"Insect?"
"No, that's too generous. You are less an insect in terms of power, compared to me. And I'm not even an insect compared to them. You are like... a character."
"What?"
"A character... No, an ant."
"...But you just said--"
The man slightly rose his finger and put it near Y/N's mouth, his freaklishly tall arm scaring Y/N a bit.
"An ant, on the shoe of harry potter, read about by Samuel L Jackson, in a play seen by Will Smith, on a tv to a child. Except there are much more deviations between them. There's simply no contest. You are merely an idea, of a thought, of a concept, ad infinitum."
Y/N simply didn't talk, and looked at the man as if he was a weirdo. The man noticed his look, and nodded in response.
"That's simply how it is. You are fiction-- no, you are less than fiction. I don't think there is a word for it."
"Less... than fiction?"
"Mhm."
"B-But-- UGH?!" Y/N immediately grabbed his head in pain, his headache getting worse by the second, and his vision starting to get blurry.
"Oh my, would you look at that. I forgot about the whole side effect of having low SAN.", the man playfully said, "Well, until next time. Let me get your SAN back to normal."
"Y-You'd think with so many abilties... Y-You'd have the ability to heal me..."
"Oh, I can heal your wounds. I just can't heal that." He pointed at Y/N's head, "You are having an headache due to the knowledge of far greater beings affecting your mind. That's kinda what happens when you have low SAN. Anyways, healing that is beyond my powers. Sorry, I suppose."
"W-Why didn't you heal my other wounds in the beginning then?!" Y/N angrly asked, his vision now completely blurred.
"You didn't ask, so I thought you enjoyed it."
"W-What?!"
"Anyways! Time for goodbyes! Don't forget to come back later!"
With a simple wave, the world around Y/N suddenly turned black, and his body felt... weird. Y/N's headache disappeared, and his wounds heal. Not only that, but the man was nowhere to be seen.
A blinding light appeared, causing Y/N to cover his eyes in irritation. Slowly opening them up again, he let out an "Huh?". He was back in the forest. A confused expression appeared on his face, and it stayed like that for a few moments, before he let out a tired sigh and sat down.
"The hell was that all about." He said to himself, before running his hand through his hair once again. He was irritated, angered, hurt, and confused. Everything was simply happening too fast. From the system, to this weirdo telling him about this whole SAN stuff, despite not gaining anything in return. Not to mention, that said weirdo can simply kill Y/N with a cough.
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"Now what..." Y/N muttered, before snapping his fingers, and bringing up the holographic window from before. It seems to be working properly now, which was a relief.
His SAN level seems to have been brought back to 100, which explains why his headache suddenly disappeared. He does feel quite a lot weaker, though. He scratched his neck confusingly, before noticing a weird bell in the top right corner of the window. It had the number 4 in a red color above it.
In curiosity, he pressed it.
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Congratulations!
You have leveled up!
Current level: 2
Experience needed to reach level 3: 4750
Please, choose either of these 3 abilities, as a reward due to leveling up.
The system will load 3 random abilities in a few seconds, please be patient.
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Y/N read the text, and immediately, his mood blossomed, the antsy feeling that had filled his heart recently began to dissipate. He laid his back on a tree, and began thinking about the possible abilities he might get while the system loads. It was as if everything that happened with the weird man suddenly disappeared from his memory, and all of his focus turned towards the system.
'3 abilities, huh?' He thought, a smirk forming on his face, 'I wonder what they will be... Maybe the ability to manipulate fire? That seems to be common in most MMORPGs that I have played. Water or Ice manipulation sounds cool, too.'
As his excitement grew by the second, the system finally loaded, but Y/N was still thinking about the abilities he might possibly get.
'Oh! What about flying? That'd be really useful. I always dreamed about flying high in the sky, not giving a goddman fuck about the world below me.' He let out a small chuckle, before finally noticing the system. His eyes gleamed, and he instantly stood up and began reading the abilities, his smirk turning into a full-blown grin.
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1: Fire Manipulation
As the name suggests, you'll be granted the ability to manipulate fire at will. You can summon beings of fire, completely abiding to your will.
Weakness: For anything you damage with this ability, you'd feel the same amount of pain it inflicted on anything. That includes, but not limited to: living beings, dead beings, air, trees and plants, dirt, etc...
Objects and beings that lack the sense of pain will instead act as if you injured a normal person with it, and make you feel the pain of that, albeit reduced greatly.
However, you won't suffer any wounds, and would only feel the pain for a few seconds
Upgrading this ability will grant it Durability negating properties, and will remove its weakness.
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Just as he expected, it was indeed fire manipulation. However, while it might be extremely useful, its weakness heavily outweighs its strength. Upgrading it will definitely make it much better, but the risk isn't worth it. Even normally using it on no target will still cause him pain. Y/N let out a groan before letting out another sigh.
'Just as I expected. But jesus fuck, what is this weakness?'
Shaking his head, he went to the other ability. Currently, this ability had an extremely low chance of Y/N picking it up, simply due to its pain-inflicting weakness.
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2: Water manipulation [★]
As the name suggests, you'll be granted the ability to manipulate water at will. You cannot summon beings of water, yet.
Special active: With a cooldown of 3 hours, you'd be able to flood any being's body with water, and eventually exploding them.
Special passive: You gain underwater breathing, and water attacks are 50% as effective against you.
Weakness: Your basic attacks are half as effective.
Upgrade this ability in order to gain summoning, and remove its weakness.
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With its special active alone, this ability is already much more useful than its fire counterpart. While its weakness is a bit crippling, he'd have to mostly attack with only this ability. What interested Y/N though, is the star near the ability's name. Perhaps it was indicating rarity, which is why its weakness wasn't as bad as the fire manipulating one.
'Still, it's weird. It's almost like the system read my mind, and gave me the list of abilities I expected the most. Well, either there aren't many low level abilities, or it read my mind, or it was simply chance.' Y/N thought for a few seconds, before strengthing his resolve.
'If its reading my mind, then the next ability should be' Y/N took a deep breath, "Flying!" he exclaimed out loud before reading the final ability...
Only for his prediction to be proven false.
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3: Paradoxical Adaptation [★★★]
"All life merely exists to approach death, but not you."
Every time you die, you gain double the amount of [Oblivion soul], and will adapt and gain limited resistances to the enemy that has killed you.
Getting killed 20 times by the same being will grant you a full resistance to the abilities of said being, and makes all of your attacks have limited durability negating property.
Please note, the death amount requirement may vary from monster to monster.
Weakness: Dying too many times might have some side effects on one's mental health, and will give you a limited effect of [Sociopath]
Sociopath is the ability to be rendered immune to all emotional connections, completely lacking any remorse or happiness, or any feeling in general.
The effect will last for 10 minutes.
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...
'What'
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↝↝↝✟↜↜↜
???
↝↝↝✟↜↜↜
Shit, she's nowhere to be found! I have been searching everywhere, and yet I can't even sense her aura. Just where the hell has she disappeared?!
"Wait, I'm sensing something strange." My father quickly said as he grabbed my shoulder. "Maybe it's her."
"What? I'm not sensing anything." I said before concentrating, and trying to find any signal of an aura nearby, only to leave empty-handed.
"That's because you haven't mastered your aura sensing yet." He answered, before turning his attention to his left. He brought up his hand and pointed there.
"No... that's not Ruby. That aura... it's... off. It's not like anything I have ever seen." He muttered to himself, before shaking his head and quickly running off into that direction.
What the fuck, dad?
"H-Hey, wait up!" I shouted as I began to follow him quickly. "Don't just run off like that!"
"Just follow me!"
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Sure enough, after a few minutes of running, we have come across a rather... gruesome scene.
In the ground were the bodies of many, many grimm. All of them were beowolfs, and they were horrifically disfigured and mangled.
A sense of dread has filled the air, as I took a few steps back. Just what could've done this? Ain't no way its Ruby, and I don't think even a trained huntsman can do this.
Darn, I don't think I have ever felt like this in a long time. What's this... dread? Fear? My body was telling me to run, but I couldn't just leave dad here.
Speaking of dad...
"What is this..." He muttured, before letting out a troubled sigh and inspecting the dead grimm. I tried to help him, but the bodies were just... I don't know how to say it, I really don't. It was as if someone enjoyed torturing them.
And is that... an anus ripped off? Holy shit!
"H-Hey, you don't think that Ruby..." I trailed off at the end. I really, really hope that Ruby didn't come across whatever monstrosity that has caused this. Please, Ruby, Please be safe!
"S-Still, we should hurry up and look for her before whatever that thing is finds her--"
Not even letting me continue, dad raised his hand, indicating me to shut up.
"I think... we already found who the culprit was." Gulping, dad slowly pointed right ahead.
Quickly, I turned my attention to whatever he was pointing at, only to see... a man?
A rather tall, grimm blood covered man. He wore some sort of a lab coat, and had a dull, really dull expression on his face. In his hands, were the body of a beowolf, or at least, what remained of it. Its chest was split open, with both of its arms and legs cut off.
The man threw the beowolf into the distance, and let out a hum.
"...Boring." He uttered, before narrowing his eyes and... looking straight at us!
"...Oh?"
As if staring at death itself, fear has quickly engulfed my entire body, and I felt as if my body stopped working. I tried to move, but I couldn't! Just what the hell is going on, and why... am I so afraid? Why do I feel like I'm on the edge of world, and this guy would be the person to push me off that edge?
"D-Dad..." I called out to dad with a weak voice, but he let out a "Shh". Dad, what the hell are you thinking?
"S-Sir..." Dad said, "W-Who... are you?" His voice really, really weak and filled with fear. Seems I wasn't the only one who was about to collapse. Please Ruby, please don't tell me you have crossed this guy's path, please!
The man tilted his head a bit, and opened his mouth. His voice... lacking any tone to it. He raised his arms and gave us a small wave.
"Sorry for this whole scene, I guess. Didn't really expect someone to come in. The name is..."
Y/N