“Open Status.”

 

The Status screen was not inherently absolute. It wasn’t like a video game. There were no health, stamina, or mana bars. There were no perfect skills. For example, a person didn’t just shout the name of an ability and the effect would magically happen.  

Instead, one’s Status was in a way the manifestation of one’s identity. In particular, it connected a person to the System that governed a world. The System would then compare a User to the records and karma that already existed in the universe and translate that information in accordance to the laws that governed that specific world. 

For example, Stephen could use energy to reinforce his body. This wasn’t a skill that the System gave him, but the System nonetheless recorded that information and gave it a rating. If Stephen wanted to reinforce his body then the effect of that ability was dependent on his own utilization and understanding.

Nonetheless, the relationship between a User and their System was important. While a lot of the information contained in the Status page was independent of the System, there were a lot of aspects that were bolstered by it.

For example, Stephen’s stats represented a numerical value assigned to the state of his body. The numbers would go up naturally if Stephen grew stronger. However, Stephen could also directly level up his strength by using points allocated by the System. 

In other words, the System would reward Users in various ways and that reward would then be added to the preexisting information. Titles, blessings, gifts, and the like were all kinds of things that the world might give to Users. 

The Awakened Ability was an example of this. 

Stephen read over his Status page multiple items. The first thing that Stephen noticed was that his Status had indeed reset. His level, abilities, titles, stats were all missing or lower than they used to be. In particular, many of his previous titles were archived, meaning he could view them for historical purposes but that was it. 

The missing abilities were to be expected. Stephen was a martial practitioner who used the State’s Cultivation Method to increase his internal energy. His old abilities required a certain level of cultivation. It was similar to how magicians created magic circles inside their body. 

Then there was his class. It was the core identity that the System had given him. All buffs that the System gave would take that identity into consideration.

Considering Stephen had already obtained the knight class at a low level, the outlook of his class seemed better than it had been in the past. There was simply more room for improvement. 

There was one other thing that caught Stephen’s attention. “Oracle” was missing. 

‘My Awakened Ability changed?’

“Open Awakened Ability’s description.”

Voice of a Demon [Passive]: Oracle has transformed into the ability ‘Voice of a Demon.’ The ability is not registered in the System’s database so no further information can be provided. As the User’s understanding increases the information displayed will be improved.

‘Hmm. Strange… I’ll worry about this later…’

Stephen couldn’t pull up any information about the contract that was listed in his Status, but he assumed it was the deathsworn contract that he held with Mel the Princess. He wasn’t sure why it was hidden when it was shown before though.

‘This title… Participant in Tutorial (Hell Difficulty)... let’s pull it up.’

 

The recording ended with a childlike scream. 

Stephen scratched the back of his neck. He heard a young girl’s voice. She was the ‘boss.’ The other two voices were her subordinates he guessed. 

A groan escaped Stephen’s lips.

“Something wrong d-dar-darling?” Sophia asked.

“Ah, no.”

‘I think I understand.’

Stephen didn’t understand, but thinking about it was pointless. If he wanted to waste time thinking about such things, then he could do so when they escaped. 

Stephen turned towards the other four members of the party. They were all equipped with better gear. They all had the same black uniform, a handgun and knife on their waist, and a larger weapon held in their hand. 

Alex got the automatic rifle, while Mel got the burstfire rifle. 

They weren’t using everything, so the stuff they weren’t carrying was put away inside the pocket dimension. The extra monster cores were included.

Furthermore, everyone’s Status was now unlocked. The four magicians all had access to their Awakened Abilities and more importantly their mana. 

“Fuck it.” Alex began to climb up a ladder that would lead to the surface. Stephen pulled him back down.

‘He is too anxious. Is it because of Gawain?’ 

Without saying anything, Stephen took his place.

The thing that blocked the exit was basically, at least when it came to intent and purposes, a manhole covering. After entering a code, he cracked open the cover slightly.  

There was still no sun to be seen — unless the orb of pulsing black that hung in the sky was to be considered as such. Whatever the case, the object offered no light, making the world appear as if it was still night. 

That said, for better or worse, Bastion was not cloaked in darkness. With the emergency protocols still in effect, the campus was completely lit up with bright lights saturating everything on the island. 

A dozen figures could be seen sniffing the air. Occasionally, their throats would vibrate as they looked at each other. Unlike the loud shrieks used by the monster’s on the first floor, the action was similar to the higher leveled enemies found in the third floor of the dungeon. 

Various loud sounds echoed out from somewhere faraway. All the creatures turned and sprinted off towards that direction. 

‘That is towards the faculty offices, no?’

“Let’s go,” Stephen motioned everyone forward.  

“About time!” 

“Quietly… the bus depot is a couple streets down.”

At that moment, Stephen almost regretted the fact that Alex recovered. At the very least, Stephen had told them the route ahead of time and Alex was sticking to it. They moved through the smaller alleys and side streets. It wasn't a direct path. It was slower but also safer. 

There was a mix of zombie types. The bipedal zombies looked like walking corpses while the  quadrupedal zombies were so distorted that their resemblance to humanity was for the most part gone. 

‘Was the quadrupedal type an advanced variant?’ Stephen wondered about the physiology of the undead creatures. He recorded such random tidbits of information and stored it at the back of his mind to analyze in the future. 

After the large group had been drawn away, the party only encountered one to three at a time. That could quickly turn to hundreds if they made too much noise though. 

Alex and Ravenna rushed forward and smashed everything in their path, while everyone else gave them ranged support with their new weapons. Although they only had six uses in total, they used all the upgrade materials to enchant their weapons with low level silence spells. 

The main thing was making sure that none of the zombies got time to call for reinforcements. 

“Oi, this one has a tail.” Alex kicked it. 

“Keep going.” Stephen glanced down at the corpse. The dark red blood, almost black, continued to pool out of it, meaning it was presumably a former student instead of a dungeon mob. 

The group climbed a fence after making sure there were no enemies in the area. They quickly crept to one of the buses that was sitting in the parking lot.  

“You sure we don’t need a key or anything?” Ravenna asked

Mel raised her thumb and smiled. Although Stephen had given up his badge, which would have allowed them to use the buses, Mel had reassured them previously that she had a way to operate the school vehicles. 

Mel approached the yellow door and placed her hand on it. A small light appeared and the door opened. It was similar to how she handled the armory door — well, less violently.

“Damn.” Ravenna stared off into the distance and gave a light whistle.

“Hey, is that…?” Alex muttered. 

“Son of a bitch.” Ravenna whistled again.

Stephen turned towards where the two were looking. In the distance, a familiar looking blond man approached the group. 

“Alright, everyone inside.” Although it was suspicious, they had to get moving. Furthermore, Stephen somewhat predicted Gawain’s appearance. Answers would once again have to wait though.  

Mel sat in the driver's seat. She moved her hand towards the ignition. Once again a soft light escaped her fingers. The engine roared to life and the bright headlights flared out.

“Hmph. Told you.” Mel gave a smug smile towards Ravenna.

“Alright. Alright.” Ravenna wore a sly look and sipped some of her wine, “So, can I drive?”

“Negative.” 

“No.”

“Haha. No.”

“Not a chance.”

“Yeesh! It was a joke… you didn’t all have to say it at once,” she mumbled. A sour look colored her face as she took a seat towards the center of the bus. 

“I can open this, right?” 

Stephen nodded and for some reason Ravenna stuck her head out the window. Meanwhile, Alex made his way to the back of the bus.

“Should we sit down…” Sophia twiddled with her thumbs.   

“Oii. There is someone back here,” Alex shouted from the back of the bus.

“Haha. You don’t have to kick him.”

At the same time, Mel was pulling the bus out of the parking lot. She drove the bus at a moderate pace. 

An older man, who apparently was laying in the back seat, shot completely straight up. His eyes were slightly glossy as he scanned the bus.

“Fuck.” Alex stumbled backwards.

Suddenly, the man’s eyes cleared up and a sharp voice escaped his lips. “What do you think you are doing!” 

The older man had a scruffy beard, which fully covered his face unlike Alex’s facial hair that was still developing. His hair was just as raggedy as Alex’s as well. It ended past his shoulders. However, it was a light brown instead of a dark blue. 

Stephen, who was still standing in the aisle, was lightly pushed to the side as the man made his way to the front. He was wearing an open lab coat with a black undershirt. The man paired it up with some jeans. 

“Grrr…” Sophia growled.

“Quiet mutt!” 

“W-what… I’m purebred!” 

“And I’m not some random homeless old man living in a bus!”

“...”

“I simply sleep where I please and happen to look older than I look.”

“No one said anything… old man,” Ravenna said. 

“Yeah, but you were all thinking it wasn't ya? Just going to steal my home too, huh?”

The man finally made it to the front of the bus and he pointed to Mel.

“And what do you think you are doing, miss?”

Mel pointed to herself. The most innocent, slightly offended, expression appeared on her face. Nonetheless, she continued to drive. 

Thud.

“You’re running them over, huh?” He leaned his upper body onto the back of the driver’s seat. 

Thud. Thud. It felt like the bus went over two large bumps. 

“See, how bloodthirsty? You’re enjoying it?” The man laughed slightly, “You are, aren’t ya.  Absolutely crazy!” 

“This fucking old man,” Alex shouted from the back of the buss, “Doesn’t understand a fucking thing.”

“Move it.” While Alex was still making his way to the front, the man gently pulled Mel out of the driver’s seat. The bus swerved slightly as he sat down and took hold of the steering wheel. Alex crashed into a side seat.

Before he could get up and confront the man, Stephen grabbed Alex. 

“It’s fine.”

Alex raised his brow. Suddenly, a loud cackle could be heard in front of the bus.

“HAHAHAHA. One. Two. Three. Four. HAHAHAHAHA.” The man leaned forward, his foot hard on the accelerator. 

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. The bus swerved back and forth and ran into every single one. 

“Mr. Lee, can you head to the nearest bridge?” Stephen smiled politely. 

Lee turned his head back, rotating his entire back. He looked at Stephen with his head upside down. “Oh, Stephen? What is your cheap ass doing on my bus?” 

“Things happened.” Stephen shrugged.

“So, what are they like zombies or something?” Lee asked.

‘Was he enjoying running them over even though he wasn’t completely sure if they were students or zombies?’ Stephen didn’t really blame him though. 

“Something like that,” Stephen answered. 

“Fuck. Just like the movies! HAHAHAHA.” His loud laugh filled the bus, “I dreamed about this you know!” 

Stephen threw him a large gem, which elicited a response from the man. 

“It really is the end of the world. HAHAHAHA.” 

“See for yourself. It should allow you to awaken your ability.”

“HAHAHA.” The bus moved even faster as the large core melted into Mr. Lee’s body. 

Stephen didn’t give up the mid level boss’s core for nothing. The man’s abilities were top notch. If he was driving the bus. Maybe, just maybe, they would survive to see tomorrow. At the very least, the bus wouldn’t break down or tip over. 

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Ravenna rushed to the window she previously opened. 

Mel awkwardly sat down behind the bus driver. She seemed unsure of what to do with herself now. Occasionally, she looked at Stephen. Even if she wanted to say something, Stephen just moved to the back of the bus and looked out the back window. 

Alex sat directly in front of where Stephen was. He placed his knees into the seat in front of his own.

“So, you know this old fart?” 

“He is, well was, one of the head scientists for the Academy’s experimental research department.”

“Huh. Why is he driving a bus?”

At first Stephen was going to blow the question off, but when he thought about how this was the first time they casually spoke in years, Stephen answered back thoughtfully.

“I think he was too extreme, too ‘experimental.’ If you asked Mr. Lee, he would tell you it was early retirement. I just don’t buy it.”

Alex scoffed lightly and then the conversation ended. 

‘Well, fuck you too bitch.’ Stephen turned his attention away from the moody delinquent and to the scenery out the back of the bus. 

“How romantic.” Sophia, who naturally sat next to Stephen, whispered.

Stephen gave an awkward laugh. He could see streaks of blood like skid marks on the asphalt. Corpses were strewn about here and there. All of them were in gory states. Chunks of flesh were missing or parts of their bodies were caved in. 

Screams, shrieks, loud banging, the sounds of gunfire could be heard occasionally from random locations all around them. There were tens of thousands of students alone on the island. It was more or less a warzone. 

But, Stephen wasn’t really looking at any of that. He was searching for the ‘monster’ that he saw on the security footage from before. Taking a bus was risky because it might draw her attention. Yet, they couldn’t go on foot either.

The sounds that Stephen heard gave him confidence. If that ‘monster’ directly got involved then there would only be silence, yet people were still fighting back even though Stephen originally estimated that most people would be dead within a few hours of the System reset. Plus, didn’t that ‘monster’ also help Stephen and his party? Or were they two different entities?  

‘Two minutes. Just two minutes.’ He clenched his fist. The sounds of the world deafened and only his heart beat remained. 

However, looking was a mistake. He only realized that when his eyes happened to catch a figure on the rooftops.

‘Dancing?’ 

Someone, a young girl with silvery hair, was twirling about on the rooftop of one of the buildings in the distance. It was far away.

‘It’s in the central subdivision. It’s fine…’

Right as he felt reassured, his stomach churned. The dancing figure stopped and leaned off the roof’s railing. 

He didn’t know how he could see that far. It was several kilometers away. Everything was blurry except for that figure. Against all logic, he could make out that she was waving.

“Hi!” A childish, innocent voice echoed in his mind. His mind spun.

‘Am I bleeding.’ Stephen touched his eyes, nose, and ears. It all felt wet.  

‘Ah.’ Stephen blacked out. ‘Maybe, I won’t make it out, after all.’