Talent System: I Instantly Master My Opponents Skills
Chapter 153: Caught (4)

Chapter 153: Caught (4)

...In The Cavern

A young man, at 17 years old, with brown hair that covered his eyes suddenly got up from the ground.

He glanced around, his eyes taking in the glances of the various people surrounding him. They all looked dead.

Some had already died while most would soon die, but there was something unmistakable that all of them shared with one another.

They all had that dead look in their eyes, as if they had gone through hell, surviving but knowing that they would end up there in the end.

This young man was only rank 4, he had already capped a long time and was among those who had fought in the civilian-clan war. Lucky for him though, he wasn’t on the front-lines in their brief clash.

It had only lasted a day and a half, with the civilians eventually retreating. But the amount of casualties the civilians had gotten where no joke.

The people gathered in this cave where people that the medics had deemed "Already dead", and had been abandoned even though they had done a great service to their cause.

Out of all the civilians, he was the only one that had come out unscathed...

Unscathed.

Not even a slight cut on his skin, he was perfectly fine.

The ironic part was that when the people were planning, he was the paranoid one. He was the one that claimed they were all going to die while the others were trying to be optimistic.

He was the one that had given up on hope as soon as he had joined the ranks while the others tried to look forward to a good future.

It was ironic that the optimistic ones were dead, yet he, the one that claimed that they were all doomed had survived.

It just wasn’t right that he was the one to survive.

It just wasn’t!

He gripped a weird device in his hand, looking at it as if it held the fate of the world.

He contemplated his next choice of action, he was unsure of what he was meant to do.

The Unknown Darkness.

The new Rogue Civilian.

The decision rested on him, he was the only one who could use his teleportation treasure.

But did he want to use it?

That question haunted him more than he wanted to admit.

For several moments he just glared at the object.

"Screw this."

He murmured to himself before inserting mana into it.

There was silence for a while before it was finally answered.

"What do you want? I thought you wanted to die like a dog."

The voice from the other end said as he answered, it was also gruff.

"The Unknown Darkness and that other Rogue Civilian are here."

He tried to be as short as possible, the mana consumption this thing took wasn’t a joke. And it was emptying his reserves quickly.

"Are you lying?"

The voice on the other side didn’t believe him.

"No. I saw them with my own two eyes, I swear on the name of all the members of the civilian council."

He said.

Tension came, the matter of swearing on the civilian council wasn’t a joke.

The worst part, he had sworn on all the members.

"I’ll tell the others."

He could sense that the call was about to be cut.

"Wait..."

He said hurriedly.

"What else?"

"The people here... all of them whom lost their lives. I know they’ll die like dogs... but they won’t die like normal dogs, they’ll die like beautiful dogs... Intelligent dogs..."

Without another word, he stopped the flow of mana on his end.

He fell onto the butt, landing on a pool of blood. But he didn’t mind it.

He focused on catching his breath.

’This people, they didn’t deserve this faith...’

He thought as he looked around at each and everyone of them.

Eventually, his eyes rested at a particular spot.

He furrowed his brows, seeing another person.

Realization, as well as recognition hit him at the same time.

And when it did his heart almost leapt out his chest in fear.

"This..."

The fear that manifested in him was real.

"...The Unknown Darkness..."

He could feel it, it was like a second body to him, hugging him closely.

"...That Rogue Civilian..."

He murmured.

The air suddenly turned cold.

The blue eyes of both of them seemed to have a bit of crimson on them, like blood had directly stained the eyebrows.

He saw murderous shadows jump out.

The person in front of him had such lethal killing intent, one that could only come from killing many people.

"...Now, the Unknown Hachiman..."

Life wasn’t fair.

To him and to the others.

He even doubted if it was fair to the strong people he had countered.

"...We’re screwed... Aren’t we?"

He let out a dry chuckle before his consciousness faded, slipping into an eternal darkness, one that promised sleep.

And that was what he desperately needed, after being awake.

But unfortunately for him, the sleep he needed...

That eternal sleep that wrapped one in its fold.

Life wasn’t going to be kind enough to give it to him.

At least, not yet.

...

When the young man he groggily rubbed his eyes.

"Brother."

He murmured to himself, he was thinking that he would see his brother sleeping with him on the bed next to his.

Slowly, the realization hit him.

He wasn’t in his room, he wasn’t in his home with his loving parents, he wasn’t in his district, he wasn’t in his settlement.

He was in a cave, one with many people whom would soon become dead.

And today was the most momentous day of his life, as he had seen The Unknown Darkness, a particular Rogue Civilian, and the mysterious Hachiman, as well as two other people who seemed to be connected to them.

If he were to die now, he could die knowing that he had seen most things life had to offer.

His hand went to his nose instinctively.

The smell here...

It was suffocating.

The smell of iron permeated the air.

A metallic stench.

For the first time since he had woken up, the young man actually glanced at another direction instead of just gazing at the ceiling of the cavern.

The sight that he saw horrified him.

Before, he had at least gone to sleep in a pool of blood that had gathered here, that could explain why his palms, hair and clothes were wet.

But now, the whole cave was painted with blood. It’s gray rocks were gone, replaced by rocks that were painted scarlet.

Now, there wasn’t any blood in the cavern, all of it had flown out when the blood had accumulated.

And how the blood had accumulated...?

Everyone died!

Every person he had seen on the battlefield, every wounded comrade, every friend, every bond, every person he had whom camaraderie had formed with.

All of them were dead.

But that wasn’t the worst part.

They hadn’t died from their wounds.

Somehow, all of them had gotten their heads cut off, there wasn’t a single person exempt from this...

That would have been true, unfortunately, he was alive.

From all the people that could have been spared it was him...

He was in disbelief as he crawled out of the suffocating cave.

When he was out, he looked up at the sky.

The night was illuminated by a half moon, he looked at it, his expression unreadable.

His blood stained clothes stuck to his body, making the metallic scent that he had ran away from stick to him.

But that wasn’t his concern.

He raised his head to the sky, droplets of tears falling from his face.

He ignored all the other stars that glittered in the night, instead, choosing to focus on the moon instead.

"Why?"

He asked.

His voice was unrestrained as he poured out literally everything he had kept bubbling inside him.

The anguish.

Everything.

"Why am I the only one that survived?"

He questioned the absurdity of it all.

Was fate pulling a nasty prank on him?!

"Tell me, why?!"

It was wrong.

He was the wimp, the coward, the weakling. Normally, those people were supposed to be the first to die.

Ironically, he had lived on. He had lived past the rank 3s, 2s, and even the few rank 1s that had seemed like powerhouses.

Even the ones weaker than him, his fellow rank 5s and rank 4s that had tried to be the optimistic ones.

They all had died.

Only for he, the crying mess, to survive.

"Why me? Why not the others?"

He asked the sky.

Unfortunately his questions were never answered, and he was left staring at the sky.

"Am I really that important?"

He questioned as he finally brought his gaze down.

’No, that doesn’t seem right.’

The thought didn’t settle with him, not only did it not seem right, but it also felt wrong.

Very wrong.

It was almost like a delusion, that seemed like a regular occurrence given his state of mind.

"Or do you just like playing with me?!"

He shouted, the weight of the moment pressing down on him.

Despite his rants there was nothing, not even a monster coming to kill him. It was as if the world itself was mocking him.

Mocking his ability to survive.

The droplets of tears came out from his eyes on no end as he stared at the half-moon in the sky.

He couldn’t do anything to change fate, not now, not ever.

All he could do was accept it.

"Ron..."

He murmured to himself, a sad smile forming upon his face.

"...That guy is living trash."

Yet, he was talking about himself.

He was Ron.