Depraved Hero's Path

The black-haired college dropout fought off sleep, his head bobbing forward and backward with the plane's movements. He asked himself the familiar question he had been debating for a while now.

'I left but I still haven't found the answer.' He sighed. 'From today onwards, what should I call myself?'

It felt like the most important question, despite everything. 

Three years after the death of his parents, he had finally done what he had always wanted to do. 

Sell everything he owned, take a plane to the other side of the planet, and start a new life from scratch. 

'Currently, I'm hesitating between Klaus and Damon…' The reason why it was those two was rather embarrassing, and he would never ever speak about it to anyone. 'I also like Vlad or Vladimir. Sounds manly.'

He turned to the left and rubbed his eyes. 

"Hey, kid." He called out. 

The two seats to his left were filled by a mother and her seven-year-old daughter.

"Klaus or Damon? Which name sounds better?"

"Damon!" The child shouted. "It sounds like a Demon, which makes it super cool!"

"I know, right?"

"Could you not talk to my child, please?"

He stared at the mother for a bit.

"What about you? Which sounds cooler to you?"

The mother rolled her eyes with a sigh and turned towards the window.

'Fine.' He rolled his eyes back. 'Suit yourself.' 

"I think Elijah sounds better."

He nodded.

"Touché."

Following the mother's gaze, he stared at the clouds through the window. 

The other side of the earth. A new start. 

It was the closest thing to moving to a new and different world.

'Once we land…'

He made some plans, none of which would come to fruition. After all, the plane wasn't going to land.

***

It started with intense and mortifying turbulence, followed by red lightning bolts and the clouds turning, for just a moment, black completely. 

Both the passengers and the flight crew saw those phenomena as nothing more than proof of their tiredness.

There was no way to know that the beginning of the end was ahead of them. 

"Hey, Mommy! Mommy! What's that?" The daughter pulled on her mother's sweater, but the latter was fast asleep on the stranger's shoulder. 

He was woken up by the girl's shouts, but acted asleep until the mother took her head off his shoulder, obviously embarrassed. 

"What is it, dear?"

"This!" The daughter pointed right in front of her, seemingly at the air. 

"There isn't-"

The mother's words were interrupted as her hand was suddenly grabbed tightly. 

"What are you-"

"Do you see this?" He asked. "Or… More like… Do you see one in front of you?" 

[Your Representatives have failed you.]

[As such, the Apocalypse will now descend upon your World.]

[Tutorial Quest Timer: 31 seconds.]

One by one, the sleepy passengers were woken up. 

Confusion ruled every single person on the airplane. No one shouted, screamed, or stood up. 

The captain passed a message to avoid panic, and explained that those screens weren't something to be afraid of or panic over. He tried his best to make it seem "Normal" despite the shakiness of his voice.

No one truly believed what the captain said, but the passengers remained seated, staring at the countdown, hoping that his words meant anything.

'S… Status Window.'

[Name: X

Class: X

-Sub-class: X

Species: Human

-Sub-species: X

Stats:

-Strength: 8

-Agility: 11

-Perception: 13 

-Vitality: 7

-Endurance: 10 

-Mana: X

Skill(s): X

]

He stared for a couple of seconds before,

[Congratulations!

[Achievement: You are the first to check your Status Window in your Area.]

[Reward: 100 Points!]

His hand trembled. His breath caught in his throat.'A game-like apocalypse?'

Just when he was about to shout, to tell the other passengers to check their Status Window,

"H-HEY! SOMETHING IS COMING! 

"IS THAT A BIRD? IT'S HUGE! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!"

"THERE'S SOMETHING GOING TOWARDS THE-"

Boom!

The turbulence worsened. 

Just as the timer hit 0, they got into the jet engines. 

[Welcome to the Apocalypse, and to the Tutorial!]

"W-What the hell is happening?!"

"What's going on?!"

"Get the Captain!"

'And what's he gonna do?' The young man sighed internally, focusing solely on the floating words that appeared one after the other.

[Your Tutorial Quest starts now!]

[Number of Participants: 188.]

[Tutorial Quest: "Crash Landing!"]

[Difficulty: A.]

[Quest Clear Condition(s): Land safely.]

[Your Rewards will be calculated based on your Achievements!]

As he read the last two words,

[Good luck to all Participants!]

A dozen seats in front of him, the airplane ceiling came crashing down. 

The passengers screamed as the feathery creatures fell through the ceiling, landing right in between the rows of seats. 

The young man shivered as he made eye contact with one of the three feathery creatures.

[Corrupted Harpy: E-Rank Monster.]

The horrific creature stood up on its bird legs and, without breaking eye contact, started running towards him!

[Basic Tutorial Weapons will now be provided!]

The next second, a knife appeared in his hand. 

"Fuck." He cursed as he stood up, liberating his legs from the cramped airplane seats. "Everyone who's sitting towards the middle, get up!" He shouted as the Corrupted Harpy ran towards him. 

Gulp-

'Alright. Knife fights were one of the things I thought I would get into after getting there. Same thing. Same thing…' 

He frowned, staring at the horrible creature approaching. 

'Just imagine that it's a person coming closer…'

His eyes widened momentarily as he noticed the Corrupted Harpy's injuries. 

Its right leg as well as its elbows were broken.

"Alright. Reflexes, reflexes-" 

Just as he was about to move forward, his hand was grabbed by the terrified mother.

"W-What the hell are you doing?" She asked with a shaking voice as she held her child.

He clicked his tongue and swung his arm away, liberating himself from her grip.

The Corrupted Harpy had closed the distance in the meantime and, despite its broken elbow, swung its long and sharp talons at him. 

He quickly jumped back, dodging the attack. 

"M… Mommy…!" The child whimpered as the Corrupted Harpy made eye contact with her. 

Before the creature could move towards the child, a sharp knife pierced its neck, stopping it in its tracks.

He pulled the blade out, allowing purplish blood to start flowing out, but that wasn't enough to make the creature fall. 

'That's…!' He leapt away to dodge another swing of the Corrupted Harpy's talons. Leapt in the direction of the other two Corrupted Harpies, which hadn't started moving yet. They were screeching, turning left and right. 

As the injured Corrupted Harpy moved to attack, he quickly turned around, swinging an iron bar, which used to be part of the airplane's ceiling, at the attacker's head, making it stumble.

A vertical downward swing made its head bleed.

The particularly loud CRACK that echoed as the Corrupted Harpy's skull was split made the passengers shudder in fear.

Huff- Huff-

He breathed heavily, standing with his hands shaking. One holding a bloody knife, the other a bloody iron bar. 

The passengers froze, staring at his face, which was almost as scary as that of the two Corrupted Harpies.

"What the fuck…?" He whispered to himself, his whole body trembling, shaking, tingling. 

He gulped, thinking back on the last few seconds. 

'This was…'

[You have defeated 1 "Corrupted Harpy[E-Rank]".]

'The most fun thing I've ever done! What the fuck?!'

"Behind you!" The mother shouted.

He turned around and moved back as quickly as he could, but not fast enough. 

A long but shallow wound was drawn on his cheek by the Corrupted Harpy's talon. 

Blazing rage started emanating from the core of his being. But not because of the wound.

'Why didn't anyone get up when I told them to? Had they attacked while the two weren't moving, they could have dealt with them easily.' 

His eyes narrowed, and his grip over the two weapons tightened. 

Sigh-

"Why does no one ever fucking listen to me?"