A girl awoke in a pool of her own blood. The blood was sticky, cold and stank rotten. The smell was hammering in her head unbearably; the girl instinctively attempted to lower it down and somehow wasn't surprised when it worked. Alice glanced around, groaned, feeling dizzy and beat, then slowly wormed her way out. Absolute weakness chained her body, a weakness born by hunger. Little by little, she propelled herself up with the help of a wall, the dungeon's entrance behind her back.

Leviathan...

In the dream, her space and time perception was screwed, so Alice couldn't really estimate the shrill absurdity of that thing.

It must eat star systems for breakfast.

The girl tried and failed to imagine the true size of the Leviathan. Yet, the mysterious connection between them– mysterious in a way, blood integration and whatnot, – barely shook her mind. The difference in scale was a bit overkill. Alice would have been spooked if the system had implanted her with a vampire or demon DNA, but that Leviathan? It was like a link between a Daison sphere and a solar cell of a pocket calculator. Or a statement 'we are all connected to the Universe'.

I doubt it... she will bother influencing my mind. 

Alice smiled wryly at her attempt to humanize the being. The thought itself was a balm that alleviated most of the stress the girl had been gathering from the 'hidden' part of her status all the while. Be it any fantasy monster, she would have been worried and even scared. Be it an antique god, say bloodthirsty Maya's, death's patron or a schizophrenic with two or more personalities, that would be a reason to never use those powers again. Alice wasn't a newbie to such plots, there was no way she'd allow some entity to backdoor in her mind and get all cozy.

A cosmological phenomenon? There wasn't even ground for a treaty between them, let alone resistance or choice.

As Alice was having fun being philosophic, she finally hobbled into her room and started to take off all her armor, clothes soaked in blood up to bottom. Immediately she saw her skin and bones hands, touched the emaciated face and her stomach growled. I am really, really hungry, getting rid of a choir of crawling to the notebook the girl asked directly,

"System shop!"

> The safe zone Node #8 was contaminated by impure blood energy. All inner functions are ceased.
> Do you wish to activate the energy recycle functions? 1,000 BP cost, Y/N

"Are you fucking with me, system?" For some reason, Alice wasn't even surprised, only deadly calm. She stared at the closed notebook aka the embodiment of all world's iniquity from a distance before ordering shortly, "Yes!"

A breeze playfully touched her skin. The girl shivered yet decisively stripped herself from wet underwear. 

"A towel!" Seeing the shop working again, Alice proceeded to wipe herself clean and then covered her birth suit with her old hunter jacket. That was all preparations she was capable of to become slightly less barbaric while her stomach was twisting in need and pain.

"Two... no, three basic meals and three bottles of water."

Alice wolfed the appeared food, disregarding the taste, only caring about making up for the lost nutrients and liquids. A while later, the girl unethically burped, kicked away empty plastic dishes and lay down, palming her belly with the cat's smile on her lips. Her other hand she lifted up, looking at the ceiling through thin fingers.

Thin was the one world that was perfectly describing her. Skin, bones, barely any meat in-between. Very visible ribs, cheek- and chin bones. Sharp elbows and knees. Adding Alice's natural proportions, it would have taken an exceptional pervert to lust over her almost naked body at that moment. Strangely, the girl didn't feel her actual specs to drop much, beyond the exhaustion anyway.

Oh, I almost forgot, I did kill those two fuckers... Status.

"Wow-wow-wow, stop! Just stop. What is it, my birthday?" Alice almost cried out when the flood of information covered her eyes. "The fuck is that? When did this happen? System log!"

A bunch of messages appeared, and as the girl read them, a chill grew in her chest. What is this? What the fuck is this? What are you taking us for?  The chill grew into boiling anger. Alice clenched her teeth and punched the floor, rolled to the notebook and flipped it open.

***Scarlet enters the chatroom***

PR3DAT0R_696: O_O
PR3DAT0R_696: Sca-a-ar (ಥ﹏ಥ)
MagentaFey: I feared my heart would stop.
Sage: The eighth? What timing you've chosen.
PR3DAT0R_696: (ಥ﹏ಥ) T_T (ಥ﹏ಥ)
MagentaFey: Do you know how long it's been since your last login?

Quest log. One record inside, one only timestamp Alice had access to.

Scarlet: Three days. I am sorry.

Three days. Normally it was nothing. People would go in and out of internet forums, chatrooms, comment sections and rarely anyone would care unless they had certain responsibilities or real friends there. But their situation was special. Alice easily imagined just how much she would have worried if someone in this chatroom – talked she with them once or zero – suddenly disappeared for a few days.

I would worry shitless. Alice was a normal girl in some aspects, so she was egoistical enough. Did she, he die? Who is next? Me? In shiver, she touched the keystrokes again.

MagentaFey: I am, was, your professor, not a school teacher, and it's not my place to act patronizing. I would like you still to message your current status regularly.
PR3DAT0R_696: wah *sob *sob*
Scarlet: Sorry. I fainted after returning from the dungeon.
Sage: So you have a dungeon, hah. Interesting.
MagentaFey: It must be hard on you.
Scarlet: Why the system is fucking with us?
Scarlet: Sorry teach.
Sage: What do you mean exactly? The change in status screens? The abundance of explanations? Or maybe lifting of the censor ban?
Scarlet: _everything_
MagentaFey: Any system is subject to changes during the test runs. Computer or not.
PR3DAT0R_696: i agree with Scar. kidnapped us and treats as labrats. i declare war. ψ(▼へ▼メ)～→
Sage: You assume the creator of this system is omnipotent and omniscient. Even if it is true, it doesn't mean he is a good designer. Nature as an entity is a good example, our very genes are filled with trash and ridiculous mistakes. Or better, take god.

Now I see why all warnings with Sage.

Sage: While I disagree with the 'labrats' remark, the seeming irresponsibility is infuriating even to me.

"Irresponsibility... System log."

> Attention! Perception limit breakthrough.
> Blood integration reaches 50%. System support is being turned off. All respective tools are being disabled. Full template support is installed.
> Absolute Body Control skill cost is compensated.

These three messages happened during her escape from the centipedes, along with rewards for killing two. The blood integration process most likely provoked the two consecutive dreams.

>Level up!
>Hunter lvl. 5 -> lvl. 6
>+5 Skill Points
>Attributes being adjusted…

This followed her fainting. Alice noticed that this time there was only one level up, despite the fact that her attributes increased by the same amount. Probably 'all tools' included a registering one.

> All users attention!
> After gathering the feedback, the system accumulated changes will go through a correction in 12 hours. The expected downtime is 10 hours.
> The downtime is in 1h. 30m. 10m. 5m.3m. 2m. 1m. 30s. 15s. 10s. 5s. 4s. 3s. 2s. 1s.
> Attention!
> The system correction is completed, all functions are ready.
> All information bans are lifted.

Scarlet: What irresponsibility? I'd like game companies to roll out so massive patches after every failed launch.
MagentaFey: I heard this analogy already.
PR3DAT0R_696: knight did it. i smell /s¹sarcasm
Sage: What I believe is that the creator conducted scientific research. Note 'information bans are lifted'. Plural. I may assume some groups of people were banned from sharing everything about the system, including guesses, some could share everything, and groups like ourselves were in the middle.
Sage: The system introduced quite a neat solution. Now, we may fear it's indeed irresponsible as much as it seems. But it certainly evolves for our sake, which contradicts the 'labrats' remark.
PR3DAT0R_696: drop it already T.T
Sage: The answer inevitably lies in the introduction. Training Grounds of Apocalypsis.
Sage: Now, any army has a training routine. But a rare army kills any significant number of its soldiers before the war even starts.
MagentaFey: Excellent, mister Sandoval. Why are you sharing your theory only now?

Alice practically smelled overt suavity from the professor's words.

Sage: Scarlet's status was unclear, not anymore. Everyone here is still alive. I personally killed two wolves as part of my training. It was hard. Almost died. Looking back soberly, I doubt there was only luck in play and no hidden help from the system. No one here has any military background, I presume?
Scarlet: I have martial training.
Sage: Maybe. Not questioning your actual prowess in a street fight, everyone's start is different. But did you truly prevail by your own efforts?

Alice closed her eyes and tried to remember. Indeed, she was yet to fight against overwhelming odds. Her first battles were ambushes. There was help from the 'hidden' part of her status plus a convenient Body Control skill from the start. The whole safe zone was very convenient. Her enemies were conveniently stupid or in either way handicapped. Not talking about the extremely convenient ambushes she had been able to pull off.

Yes. Looking back, Alice might indeed have achieved more than some effort, a little courage and average luck could cover for. The girl felt chill in the chest.

MagentaFey: I agree with mister Sandoval, but he forgot the crucial part.
MagentaFey: There is no merit in suicide soldiers.