Chapter 1: Pause (2/2)
XP Required For Level Up: 0/100
HP: 10/10
Strength: 5
Agility: 5
Stamina: 5
Sense: 5
Points Available To Distribute: 0]
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For a moment, his eyes seemed to light up as he stared at the screen before he snorted.
”A game? Really?”
At the top of the screen were other tabs. Gray could easily switch between them just by thinking.
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[Skills]
Pause [Level 1]
Effect [Level1]: Pieces of the user's body or objects can be momentarily paused. Target's body can be paused. Limitations are based on the size of the object or body part.
Requirements: Contact with target's body, visual lock on object.
Users' stamina is depleted every second.
Time limit: five seconds
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Skill Points Available: 0
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Gray's eyes widened. An ability which allowed him to pause things? It had a level beside it, which meant that it would most likely evolve and have other effects.
As Gray considered all the ways he could use this skill, his eyes slowly began to light up. As soon as he recalled a memory, the light faded once more.
He instinctively shifted his focus to the quest tab as soon as his eyes fell upon it.
[Daily Quest:
Pause Training:
Pause 100 Objects: 0/100
100 Push ups: 0/100
100 Sit Ups: 0/100
100 Squats: 0/100
10 KM Run: 0/10
Reward: 2 Stat points.]
”Only two for all of that? What a scam.” He complained as he continued to descend.
[You are approaching the first floor of the labyrinth.]
Gray suddenly felt a change in the air and temperature around him. It had grown darker and colder.
[New Quest Received]
A tab appeared in front of his eyes.
[Quest: Clear Labyrinth's First Floor
First Floor: Uncleared
Reward: 5 Stat points.
XP Reward: 100]
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10:49 on December 2nd, 2022.
In a factory, a grown man can be seen working. The man was focusing on his tasks and had been working non-stop for the past hour.
Once he had screwed in the final piece, he decided to take a break. The other members of his team were probably also finished with their shift.
While sitting on a nearby chair, he got a beer from their refrigerator. His tank top was drenched with sweat from all the steam. The frozen cold beer was already warming up in his hand. As a result, he rushed to finish it.
He downed almost half of the beer in one go before taking a deep breath.
”That hits the spot.” He muttered to himself.
During his break, he decided to practice. Taking a look at his palm, he slowly clenched and opened it before closing his eyes and focusing.
As a piece of dirt formed and hardened over his palm, a strange brown aura began to radiate from his body.
”I wonder if they'll even find this useful.” He muttered to himself.
He had been practicing his earth manipulation ability since he had gotten it, which was yesterday night.
A piece of dirt that he had created was picked up and examined with great curiosity, still doubting that it was his creation. Then he heard a strange sound coming from near one of the steam engines.
Because there were many steam engines blocking his view, he wasn't sure what exactly it was, but he went over to see what it was.
”Something probably fell.” He muttered after wiping off the beer remnants from his lips. ”You guys okay?” He questioned as he got closer.
Once again, there was no reply. Just the sound of the engines.
Starting to get annoyed, he thought they were playing a joke on him.
As he approached the corner, however-
His eyes widened. All of the beer and food he had eaten earlier felt as if they were about to rise again. While staring at the scene, he could barely hold back his vomit as he gulped down.
There was a pool of blood on the floor. It came from the corpse of one of his team members.
A second member of his team was lying on top of the corpse. His skin was pale. Seeing only his back, he did not know what expression he was making. Still, he could clearly see what he was doing.
He was eating him.
'What...?'
As it bit into the corpse of his colleague, the ripping and crunching sounds of skin seemed to resound in his soul.
His heart sank. With widened eyes, he took a step back, his entire body shaking.
But in that instant.
The cannibal suddenly lunged at him. Biting into his arm as it did so.
”GARGH!!” He groaned out it pain.
The adrenaline-charged movement of his body caused a hook to land on the side of the cannibal's face, causing the latter to slide to the side, ripping off a chunk of flesh as it did so.
The man then ran as hard as he could out of the factory.
”What the hell was that!?” He questioned, his hand pressing down on the wound trying to stop it from bleeding.