I woke up, grinning, feeling like a devil. Yesterday had been… cathartic. I’d finally found like I’d found my stride, my path forward. I now understood perfectly well why people worked out all the time at a gym or became cultivation obsessed in those stories I skimmed. The feeling of power over yourself and your situation was just intoxicating. Even now, I felt… good. Really good. Better than I ever had. 

You know that moment, when you’ve been inside all day or week or month, and then you get out and feel the warm sun and can practically feel your skin, your body, soaking up the rays and light, becoming healthier by the moment? 

That is exactly how I felt. I could feel the Heavens beaming down on me, Qi swirling through me, Magic coursing through me, Darkness flowing into my body, all nourishing me. And that was ignoring just how sharp and powerful my mind and body felt, how in tune it was with me, and how I could feel my very foundation resonate with me with every step I took, every motion I made, ever forward, ever onward, towards the end. 

I’d not rested for a single second yesterday, cutting through zombies and Black Skeletons like wheat. Scants and Shoggoths only were slightly more difficult. And the results showed. Before checking on that though, I stretched and looked around. 

My location was the damn hospital again. It had a bed and I was 99% sure it was safe from everything except nurses. The worst part was the constant fear I’d end up with one of those horrible needles in my neck. Another nurse had tried to stab me last night and I’d almost missed it, tired as I was. Worse, Shisho had recognized the ‘energy’ on sight somehow. 

‘A soul anesthetic? Dangerous.’ 

Luckily a few swings of my blade made her back away. I should really spend the time to find an actual base of operations but… I was going to continue my plan from yesterday. I’d gotten into a kinda… zone. And well… 

[Achievements unlocked!] 

[Insects Galore: You killed a Scant! Half scorpion, half ant, all horrifying! +1 Endurance]

[Vine Whip: You’ve murdered some poor innocent deadly vines. They just wanted to kill you! +1 Speed] 

[Baby’s First Eldritch: Shoggoth, sometimes a horrible blob monster, sometimes a sexy sexy lady. Sadly, you got the first one this time and then killed it. Oh well! +1 Magic] 

After that… well… I’d made a mistake. I’d thought I’d gotten the [Centennial] and [Millenial] achievements for killing 100 and 1000 zombies… not creatures in general. So, there’d been no achievements for murdering all those zombies and skeletons and etc. But it hadn’t been a total loss. Luckily, there’d been other ones that had appeared. 

[Diverse: 5 different creatures have fallen to your power. Going for a real hat trick huh? +1 Strength] 

[The Nonstopping: You fought, killed, and most importantly just simply moved for 12 hours straight with no breaks or rest! Wow! +2 Endurance] 

That was it. A whole day spent on murder and that was it. Five achievements and six stat points. But… that was more than a level up. And it was by far not the only gain I’d gathered yesterday. I stared down at my katana with a smile, and slashed. 

‘Sloppy!’ Came Shisho’s voice in my head. 

Despite the words though, I knew, I could tell… I’d improved a lot. Everything felt so much smoother, so much easier. It felt like I had been both drunk and high before, with my wrists slit, trying to swing around a pool noodle in comparison to how I felt now. Because now I felt like… well, like at least my pool noodle had become a rubber band. Being… infused? Possessed? By Shisho was both amazing and horrifying. I didn’t lose autonomy no, but it was like being shown how to masterfully do something and being shown at the exact same time that you were worse than a baby at that thing. 

In this case, fighting and swordplay. I’d not just gotten a glimpse of the mountain, it was like I’d seen mount everest rise from the ground, only to keep rising, until a planet, and then a solar system and then a galaxy had stood between me and what Shisho could do. I had no idea who he was but after I mentioned just how far away I felt from his level… 

‘Huh?! An arrogant whelp like you is comparing yourself to me, This Great Shisho?! Ridiculous! Immediately, give your poor arrogance a break, before it cries itself to sleep like a baby. I’ve trained with the blade for thousands of years! And you think you can stand anywhere near me?! Ha! Not even in ten thousand years could you match a single one of my hairs!’ 

Shisho… had definitely been a cultivator. Thousands of years… sheesh. 

I stretched, getting ready for the day. Any time now there would be a- 

“Ah, there it is.” 

I turned, as a care package manifested. I smiled, wondering what it would be today. It would be nice to get something to help me find more diverse enemies. Maybe something to simply help me find challenges. I had checked both the police station and city hall, among a few more stores even, and not a single Challenge I could find. At least none when I’d touched their doors. 

I went to open it and- 

“Stop.” Shisho’s voice came out and I froze. What? But Shisho came out, staring at the box, sounding deadly serious. 

“You should open that outside.” Shisho said, and then flew back into the necklace. Before I could even ask him anything, I felt that same link between of us, being infused with his martial knowledge and muscle memory. 

“What? You sense something wrong with the care package?” 

Shisho didn’t answer and I felt my nerves shoot up, staring at the unassuming box. I guess… it was time then. There were evil gods, or at least asshole gods, and I’d seen a few options in ties that seemed deadly. Something I was nearly positive would have killed me, a chocolate flood, general negative areas of space, stuff like that. But they were always in ties. Which meant… that the good to the bad of gods was about equal. And I’d always, more or less, come up lucky. Sooner or later… that luck had to run out. 

Breathing deeply one final time, preparing myself to run or for a fight or a flood, I carried the box down and outside the hospital. And then even further away, incase it was a meteor or something. Finally a good distance away, I stared down. I’d set the orange and grey tote box down onto the asphalt of a road, just staring at it. The sky was dark and I couldn’t see any monsters around. I knew something was up with that. I’d seen more monsters before and despite scouring what felt like half the town, there seemed to be… less. And the ones I’d only seen one or two of, that I hadn’t been able to really make out, were nowhere to be found. Something I’d hopefully find the answer to today. 

Or at least that was the plan. The damn tote box practically stared back up at me. For a brief moment, I considered just not opening it. I was growing stronger, I didn’t feel like I needed more help besides in levels. But I knew. Patrons were apart of this whole… thing. They were included in likes. I, wait. How many patrons were there? 

[70] 

Came a brief box. 70… nearly a whole level from them alone. If I suddenly stopped opening care packages, that number would drop. That wouldn’t just hurt me, it’d hurt the show and I felt it would be a capital Bad Idea if I did that. They’d already done all this for entertainment, no reason to piss off their and my own sponsors. I just had to take the good with the bad. 

Blade by my side… I opened the damn box. 

My eyes watched, ready, as a piece of paper flickered out. But it was a piece of paper I recognized, from yesterday. 

‘Meta Change: Top 3 options from the poll!’ 

It read and my mind blanked. I was getting three things today? Or at least three things were happening. That… explained a lot actually. If the good and bad were so closely tied then… well it was momentarily better than I feared. 

Unlike with ties, there was no dice or coin or box that appeared above, and there were no miniature spheres that gave me a moment to figure out what was what. Instead, the box simply started to shake and soon- 

I felt it. The second the shaking stopped, I knew exactly what had changed. All of a sudden there was like I had… information in my brain. It was like a… I swiveled my head around quickly, noticing markers that seemed to go through buildings, pointing to different locations. 

Challenges. I could see where the challenges were. That was an amazing benefit. A single challenge had granted me 10 Qi Points. I could see dozens of challenges. If I could mark where they were at… and then try to get as many done as possible… 

My blood began pumping. But it wasn’t over yet. The box began to shake once more and… 

I blinked, as a ray of pink light stabbed me in the eye. And then again and again. Everything seemed to be in a light hue of pink. My mind practically ground to halt. What… the fuck? Pink as far as the eye could see but it wasn’t like things were painted or anything. It was more like…

Mechanically, confused and uncertain, I looked up at the sky. Up at the completely cloudly sky that covered seemingly the whole world. The previous black, now completely bubblegum pink, sky. 

“Ah. I get it.” I said, after realizing it a moment later. “Three options, three groups of gods. Good, bad, and fun.” 

I’d not forgotten the chocolate rain or the demon tail that was swaying behind me. No, no I’d definitely not forgotten. Three options gave room for every faction or group of gods to get what they wanted for once. The ones that truly cared about me and wanted to help me. The ones that wanted to have fun or interesting things happened and saw me as nothing more than entertainment. And… 

The bad ones. 

I stared at the box, watching it rumble, readying my black blade. No matter what happened, I was going to be ready. 

At least I thought I would be. 

It was only ghost enhanced instincts that saved my life, as a black blade nearly took my head off. I could feel my own eyes growing wide as I raised my black, feeling like a truck had just slammed into my arm. Worse, I nearly went stumbling back, before the blade disengaged and swung again, nearly tearing my throat out as it seemed to try to slide around my katana. I blocked again, but over and over, attacks reigned down with no hesitation and worse… they were… familiar. 

Qi Blade met Qi Blade and a small shockwave ensued. The ground seemed to leave my feet, only coming back seconds later, as I stumbled backwards from where I’d been thrown in the air. I could feel my own heart beating a mile a minute. I hadn’t met anything so terrifying since the first Black Skeleton and this was… much more dangerous. 

My eyes finally focused, pulling away from the tunnel vision on the black blade, a black katana and- 

“WHAT?!” I cried out. 

“Don’t act so surprised.” My voice said. 

And it was my voice. Standing across from me was a man that looked so alien to me at first. Gray skin, wearing black leather armor, over basic clothes. A black Katana held in one hand at the moment, with a demon tail swishing behind him. It was me, and the only difference was their eyes that were pure black but… I hadn’t seen a mirror in a while. My eyes might also look like that. 

It was… I’d never seen myself since I began and it was only now I realized just how much I had begun to change. My words, my thoughts, my instincts, my actions. It all hit me like a brick that I wasn’t the same Matt anymore and my heart clenched hard. But more than that… I saw the smile on the other me’s face. The one practically dripping with bloodlust and I knew for a fact, that I wasn’t that far gone yet. 

“Who…” 

“...are you? Really?” Other me said. 

I glared. Whoever this copy was, he had just tried and nearly succeeded in killing me. A brief chill went through me, imagining if I hadn’t listened to Shisho and opened it indoors. Those tight spaces would have been a nightmare. But it was brief, replaced by vigilance. 

“Why are you trying to kill me?!” It was me after all, why on earth would I want myself to die?! 

“Evil clone.” That… my…. What? 

“Wait, really?” 

“Yup.” 

“That’s…” I was at a loss for words. 

“Anything else left to say? Or can we get on with it?” My evil clone spoke, looking primed and ready to murder me. 

“What, does being evil also make you impatient?” 

“It makes me want to kill you. My entire moral compass is yours but flipped. Gotta say, it’s kinda weird. Murder, destruction, rape, it feels as normal to me as drinking water and I know that’s not natural. Not at all. Not that I want to do two out of three of those but killing? Well, we did just gain a thirst for bloodlust yesterday.” 

“...Yeah. I guess we did. But if you have all my memories then you should know you’re going to lose.” 

“Yeah, maybe. I could’ve acted all buddy buddy with you but it just… makes my skin crawl you know? I mean, think about it. Imagine you had to pretend to be evil to get along with a serial killer.” 

My skin did actually shiver at that. Even if it was probably the smart move… that would’ve been terrible. I took a deep breath, realizing I was going to have to fight and kill myself. I wasn’t going to be stupid though. It didn’t take more than a thought to open my status- 

Evil me was already barreling towards me and for the first time in my life, I began to have a sword fight. It was… my heart beat like a drum in my chest, adrenaline pumped through my body, and my grip on my sword tightened as I swung as fast and as hard as I could. Every strike, a black. Every incoming blade, blocked. Over and over again, constantly feeling like I was riding the edge of being killed. We were equal but being equal didn’t mean we were in sync. A stab got through and I had to hardly bat it aside, even as it cut through a line of my leather armor. Green aura infused both our blades, adding strength and sharpness but even more than that, we were moving so fast, so minutely, that it almost felt choreographed. It wasn’t just pure stats…. This was… 

It hit me like a bomb. I’d never fought a cultivator before. Fighting one felt like fighting part of the heavens I could feel. I didn’t move like a human. Worse, it seemed like the evil clone of me was improving just as fast as I was despite not having a ghost of his own to help him. Sparks lit up in the air and I decided to trade. 

A cut tore through my side but in exchange I got a moment to think, a single moment, and I didn’t waste it. All 30 stat points were slammed into speed. Before, my speed had been 23. Not it was 53. My blade moved so fast that it practically left after images as I felt my whole body seem to leave the bounds of what was human. The evil version of my practically seemed frozen in time as my blade came closer and closer to his neck. 

He stood unmoving until-

KLANG

I stared, mouth agape. My blade had been… blocked. The evil clone stared back at me, a wide smile on his face dripping with sweat. 

“Evil clone. That means… I get a system too. Speed huh? That was scary, I almost died.” 

Oh fuck. 

If before our fighting was just superhuman fast, now it became another level. Our blades barely had time to move through the air before they slammed into each other. It was so fast, so instant, that it felt more as if our blades were eternally locked together, dozens of clashes in only a matter of seconds. The rest of the world seemed to fall away, as swing after swing after swing met, each one feeling like a hammer blow to my arms, but I never wavered and neither did the other version of me. We both knew what was coming. Even if he hadn’t told me, I’d have figured out he had a system and that meant… 

We met with one final clash with our green Qi, flying back a few feet and we both did the exact same action at the exact same time. 

[A-

‘Yes’ 

A new skill bubbled up inside me but I had no time to even read it. The other me had done the same. I clashed again but now felt different. I had been tired before, stressed, worried. Angry and even afraid. This was a clone of me and it was a literal equal fight. I had no advantages, nothing that would see me come out on top. Now? Now I felt the same as if I was going for a stroll through the park. All I felt was determined to end this threat and to get on with my day. 

Sadly, it seemed the evil clone of me had gotten the same skill and our fighting took on a whole new fervor. We both knew we’d win. We both thought this wasn’t that stressful and fought with everything we could. I had time to think now, and my mind spun. Equal, equal. He had all my memories, all my skills, my stats, and he was even improving at the same pace as me even without Shisho. If we continued like this, best case scenario is we both draw somehow. Worst case is we both die somehow. Too many wounds getting through probably, bleeding each other to death. 

I needed a way to win. 

My mind methodically thought through things. Options appearing and being discarded quickly. If this was me except evil… 

I used more Qi, pushing him away. For the first time, I had taken a disadvantage, but not a large one. He seemed surprised and I lowered my blade, a pause in the battle. 

“Rick. Jessica. Spot. What do you intend to do about them?” 

He blinked before seeming to think about it. It was so… unnerving to see my own thinking face, in a strange way. 

“Well…” He spoke. “I guess I’ll kill them? Now that you mention it… yeah. Rick’s a real good guy, best of the best, but… huh. It’s so… strange. I don’t really hate him or anything, it just feels like it’d be awesome to murder him? The idea of seeing his betrayed expression… wow. I should feel bad but I don’t. As for Jessica, oh I’ll definitely have some fun with her first, before killing her. Her face will be priceless! I might even do it right after we get done in bed, can you imagine? And Spot, oh man, I’ll make sure that one’s brutal. It’s… wow, I’m kinda fucked up… but I just… love the idea of killing my closest people?” He spoke, seeming confused more than anything. Like he understood he should feel differently and should feel bad and shouldn’t even like the idea, but did anyway. 

“Ah.” I said. 

And then I slammed into him like a freight train. 

“Wha-!” 

Die die die die. Over and over and over and over again I slammed my blade down, uncaring my body or my cuts or whatever else. He had to die, he had to die right now. Right fucking now. Now now now now. Equal? No differences? Bullshit, nonsense. I wasn’t this monster, this creature. Our motivations were different, entirely. He just wanted to have fun and enjoy killing. I wanted to protect the people I cared most about in the world. 

And I wanted it more than he wanted to kill. 

I was bleeding, I could feel that, but that didn’t matter. I was hurt, that didn’t matter. Only killing this absolute monster did. If we were equal, if we leveled up at the same rate, if Rick or Jessica got teleported to him- 

An inferno of pure rage burst in my chest, as I turned with my last hit, taking a cut across my entire face in exchange for punching the past so hard with my Qi enhanced fist I felt his nose break. Not enough. NOT ENOUGH! 

“DIE!” 

A change flooded through me but I didn’t care. My Qi sharpened, sped up, infused my blade with more of it. The evil clone was backing away, whittling me down, tearing me to pieces but so what? Even if I die, as long as I take you with me, that’s fine by me. 

My green aura surged and my arm was too fast. The monster failed to block in time and his flesh was hard like wood to my blade, but my Qi was unrelenting. An arm came off. 

“AH!” He screamed but neither of us stopped for a single moment. Grisly wounds and cuts and gouges of my flesh roared through my body, as his blood poured out onto the earth. Minutes passed and time seemed to slow down, as my rage and emotions and determination only grew. He was on the backfoot now, even as he continued to be calm. But he was losing and we both knew it. 

Eventually, the swords stopped swinging, bodies stopped moving, and we stood there, bleeding out, both dying. 

But his blood was coming out faster. 

“H-How?” He managed to say, though I had no idea how considering I’d nearly cut his fucking neck off. 

“I-” A lot of blood had to come out before I could speak. “I… would kill anyone… that harmed the people I care about.” My eyes practically blazed with fire, staring down at him. 

“Ah.” He said, eyes fluttering, as he fell to the ground. 

I limped forward, untrusting. It wasn’t over… till I was sure. I raised my blade and without hesitation, drove it through my own skull. I stared down before- 

Suddenly, my body felt like lead and then iron, rapidly progressing to the weight of steel and then like I’d become a mountain. I nearly suck to my knees. My body… it was a wounded mess. No, a dying mess. I had been right. We had killed each other. I’d just killed him faster. 

“So…. this…. is how it ends?” I asked up to the sky. 

“No.” Came a voice, Shisho appearing in front of me. “If you get to the hospital behind you, you’ll live.” 

I glanced over and despite what would have been a five minute walk, it looked as if it was on the other side of the earth. 

“I-” 

“If you die, they die. Are you really too weak to even cross such a small distance? You care about your people so little? Pathetic.” 

Shisho said, before disappearing. I grit my teeth, and moved. 

Time was a blur, pain and rage and force propelled me forward. The nurses could heal me, maybe. They were nurses. There was a chance. It felt like I walking my path, but that I was stumbling. Nearly falling. The exit was nowhere close and already I was going to lose. My vision began to go dark and I felt the cold feeling of tile against my face. 

I saw shoes, nurse shoes, and knew I’d done all I could.