[New mission received: Escape the Void]
Blaze's eyes open wide.
He's lying on the floor of his familiar living room. He is still inside his house.
The only weird thing is everything seems to be flipped right to left.
The sofa the pig liked to sit on is supposed to be on the left side of the living room, but it is now on the right. The TV also changed its direction.
The door, the windows, even the stairs leading up to Blaze's room are on the opposite side of where they should be.
Blaze stands up and carefully observes his environment.
At the corner of the wall, black rot eats into the brick, and roots burst out from tiny little black holes. Tiny little blood particles are floating aimlessly in the air, almost like there is no gravity at all.
In front of him, Kana turns her back to him. Her head lowers slightly, and her shoulder twitches.
"Mother?" Blaze whispers.
Kana's head perks up. She slowly turns toward Blaze. The place where her face should be is now hollowed with countless teeth on its fleshy rim.
Whatever it is. It is not Kana. And it lunges toward Blaze, hand reaching forward.
Blaze, without hesitation, immediately flicks his hand, the Destruction Wand appears. With one swift motion, the tip now points toward the monster.
Fire. Blaze thinks.
A deafening roar of thunder fills the room. A lightning bolt lights up from the tip of the wand and shoots straight through the monster.
Its chest is cracked into two and burns to a crisp. The split V-shaped corpse drops down to the ground, motionless.
[You have gained 10 experience points!]
"It rewards the same experience as an F-rank… Interesting."
The kitchen door is kicked open.
A figure resembling Blaze rushes out. It even wears the same clothes as him, the black shorts.
Fire. He thinks.
Another thunderous roar, and the entire room lights up. The monster flies backward, slamming itself on the wall and bursting into several pieces.
[You have gained 10 experience points!]
Blaze smiles. If the entire void only has these things, I will be an S-rank in no time.
There was Kana. There was Blaze. Logically, there should be a Phuc as well.
Blaze goes around the house but finds no other monster. Suddenly, an idea comes to Blaze, and he goes to the garden.
The sky outside is blood red, and the moon is black as a shadow. And there it is, the brand new mound of dirt.
"Hah. It is a pity I can't kill you any more."
And as if the Void hears Blaze, a rotten hand plunges out of the dirt.
Black cloak materializes and covers Blaze. He equipped the Tattered Cloak and once again became the shadow being.
Killing Phuc will be such a waste. He can use him to test out the limits of these monsters.
One with Shadow… Blaze speaks inside his head.
His entire body fuses with darkness, and his figure completely disappears from the world. What is left in his position is only emptiness.
The monster resembling Phuc emerges from the ground. It looks exactly like the pig with the protruding belly and bald head.
Only now, he is even more ugly with that hollow face.
The monster tilts his head around but cannot locate Blaze. It begins walking aimlessly in the garden.
Blaze is standing right in front of it, but it cannot see him.
Blaze then takes out the Lantern. The faint yellow light inside doesn't seem to neutralize the Cloak's power.
Soul Flare! Blaze shouts in his head.
The Lantern burns fiercely, and it produces a strong yellow light in the surrounding area. Blaze turns visible again.
The monster notices him. It groans and charges at Blaze.
The kid flicks his wrist to send the Lantern back to Inventory. He then takes a step back and then uses One with Shadow again.
The shadow figure fades into nothingness.
The monster is dumbfounded. It thrashes the surrounding plants and ground but cannot find Blaze.
Blaze observes everything with a smile.
Tattered Cloak is more useful than he thought. Its hidden power can be used repeatedly without restrictions.
Blaze points the Destruction Want at the monster. Its tip begins to gather black energy and forms a spherical ball of darkness.
The second power of the wand, Destruction Beam. Its charge-up is a big disadvantage, but Tattered Cloak helps minimize this weakness.
Each second passes, and the shadow ball becomes larger and larger. In the end, it has the size of an adult's palm.
From the tip, a straight black beam of darkness bolts through the chest of Phuc, leaving a wide bloody hole.
The monster drops to the ground and withers instantly like all the water in its body is vaporized, leaving a dark complexion on its skin.
[You have gained 25 experience points!]
Blaze's expression is hidden by the Tattered Cloak. But if it was visible, you can see his eyebrows shoot up in surprise.
The Destruction Beam didn't just kill the target, it sucked out every living energy left in the body.
Good. Now I can kill better.
The clock points to midnight.
[Please do not end your life when this icon appears to avoid the chance of corrupting your auto saves.]
A message from the system appears along with an hourglass icon.
"What is this?" Blaze mumbles.
This message stays around for twenty seconds then disappears like nothing happened.
Blaze is familiar with game concepts. He played a lot of them when he was younger.
'Auto save' is a feature to help players get back to their last checkpoint if they die in the game or fail their mission. But the actual application of the auto save of the System is unknown to Blaze.
"System. What is an auto save?"
In contrast to his previous questions, the System does not provide an answer now.
Blaze rolls his eyes and forgets about it. He has more serious matters to worry about.
Now that he has the time, Blaze clicks on the new mission he has received.
[Mission: Escape the Void.
Mission Detail: You have been dragged into the void. Find a way to escape.
1. Escape via the Voidgate
2. (Optional) Eliminate all the power sources of the Voidgate. Progress: 0%
Mission reward:
Main reward: Superpower Blindbox (E-Rank)
Sub reward: Equipment Blindbox (?-Rank).
The quality of your sub-reward will be determined by your optional progress.]
A white crescent moon appears on the face of the shadow creature. It is smiling.
This mission is different from the first. Blaze now has a choice to escape the voidgate or kill all the power sources.
Power sources are special monsters that fuel the connection between the worlds and create the voidgate.
They are stronger than normal void monsters and much more resilient. The government of Ranas categorizes them as Crisis, dangerous enough to cause mayhem within a small town.
This knowledge is taught worldwide. Blaze has dropped out of high school, but he at least knows this.
To kill a Crisis, a C-rank hero or more is needed.
F-rank Awakeners are completely useless.
E-rank can use their power for daily comfortability.
D-rank is when the power has some sort of production value.
C-rank is when the Awakened has actual combat prowess that supersedes normal human capabilities.
"For power, I will kill them all."
He has accumulated 45 experience points from killing the three monsters. Not that much left to upgrade Force Strike.
He goes out to the street of the Void.
His house is on the suburban side of the city of Akansa, one of the major cities of Ranas.
Akansa is located near a desert, the suburb is directly adjacent to it.
Blaze's house is literally on the borderline.
Standing in front of the house, looking to the right are the towers of glass and concrete of the busy city, while looking to the left is the vast nothingness of dirt and sand.
Blaze recalls the effective radius that he saw on TV. Usually the power sources will be in the middle of the radius, so he needs to go deeper into the circle.
"The center point of the voidgate should be in the city."
Blaze turns his back and goes in the city direction.
Suddenly, he hears talking from behind.
"Wait for me!" A young lady wearing a pink dress shouts out.