34 Painful Benefit

Pain.

That was the first word that came to Ryo's mind a few seconds after he drank the liquid. He clenched his teeth and tensed his muscles to avoid screaming, as he was sure the girls were still outside the door, waiting for a reaction. He didn't want to worry them.

It truly was unbearable. At first it was just a few sudden shifts in temperature, accompanied by a weird muscular pain. It felt as he had overexerted his mucles way beyond what he should've. He remembered that time he tore his deltoid. It was a very similar pain.

"UGH!" he growled between his teeth, doing his best not to thrash in the chair he was tied to. The last thing he wanted was to fall and add more pain to the already existing one.

When his muscles began contracting and relaxing on their own, as if they were being shocked with multiple tasers at the same time. As this was happening, his body temperature lowered beyond what should've been humanly possible.

He could feel his heartbeat actively slowing down with the temperature, but he did his best to push through it without loosing consciousness. He felt like doing that would only worsen things. His teeth chattered quickly, his face trying to regain any possible warmth.

Then, when he was actually beginning to lose consciousness because of how slowly his blood was pumping, the temperature went up. The first few seconds Ryo felt relief, but soon after he began sweating like a pig. Just as it had lowered, it had gone beyond the possible limits a human being should be able to take.

'So this is what being in an oven feels like?' Ryo thought sardonically. He was beginning to feel his skin scorching, the same way it felt to accidentally touch the tailpipe of a bike, but without being able to let go.

As if that wasn't enough, the contractions of his muscles became one big cramp in his entire body. He had a hard time breathing, feeling like his body had shut itself out from the world. The pain was becoming unbearable and his brain was lacking oxigen by the second. He held what little breath he could take as best as he could.

Once again, his consciousness was fading. He understood what was happening. The virus was trying to take over his consiousness by shutting down his body. He did his best to stay awake, and it paid off. Even being able to breath -unluckily he thought, the only thing that followed after the pain, was even more pain.

At first it was just one. One needle, as small as it can be, pushing straight to the bone and pressing against it. He felt like thrashing around so bad, but his muscles were still cramping and he couldn't move quite properly. Then, one by one, the needles increased.

"AAAGGHHHH!" he screamed, yet again clenching his teeth to avoid being heard. He didn't know how long it had been since Shouko closed the door and, if he was honest, he didn't want to know. To him it felt like an eternity, but perhaps it had been just a minute or even a few seconds.

His entire left arm felt as if every pore in it had been pierced by a needle. He felt like taking a bullet to the brain was better than the pain, but still clenched his teeth and grunted it all away. The "needles" began spreading through his head, and the pain became almost unbearable when it reached his ears. It felt as if the cartilage in it was melting, slowly turning into lava.

As they expanded into his right arm, Ryo could feel a stream of something liquid falling from his nose, then his eyes and then his ears. Looking down, he began seeing everything red. Apparently he was bleeding from every orifice on his face, bar his mouth. The worst part was that, by that point, even if he wanted to scream he couldn't. His every muscle was tightly locked in place, as if gravity had grounded him tight on the spot... or they swelled to the point moving was impossible.

When the needles reched his lower back and pushed against his vetebrae, Ryo lost all feeling from his hips down, only for it to return a second later in a rush of pain. His mind was losing control of his senses and his consciousness was slowly but surely drifting away, being kept awake when he was about to drift away by nothing but the pain.

*

He didn't know for how long that feeling continued. Whenever his eyes would close, before his consciousness could completely fade, a jolt of pain would bring it back. He was feeling tired, exhausted even. His brain didn't want to keep working and his pain receptors were certainly going haywire.

And still he willed himself to push through. Every increase in pain, every second that passed, was a moment closer to being with them again. To telling them that he was alive. He'd rather suffer through five times the pain he was in than to surrender.

He remembered his last conversation with his family, and their last words. It hadn't been so long ago, barely a week and a half. His emotions were in disarray at the moment, but he remembered what he had promised. And he planned to do good on his promise.

'I will live my life to the fullest...' he thought as he willed his muscles to grit his teeth. 'There is no way this stupid virus will kill me!'

And so he continued to fight against the pain and suffering he was going through. All was to be stronger and have an upper hand to whatever was coming in the future. He would be ready, and he would overcome everything in his way. He wouldn't allow his loved ones to suffer, nor would he lose anyone.

'Come on! Try all you want, it'll never be enough!' he thought, as if he was yelling at the virus.

Then everything was still. The last thing Ryo felt was how his body finally relaxed and how the virus stopped torturing his body. The exhaustion accumulated in the time he was suffering came over him all of a sudden, as a wave of tiredness that made him drowsy. Still, he tried to stay awake. Only when the System gave him a message did Ryo finally sleep.

[Rewards for surviving the virus in its liquid state.

All Stats +10 - <Perfect Host> - <??? (Locked until crystalized consumption)>]

As his eyes closed, Ryo was able to smile in relief.

*

The following day, Ryo woke up when he heard the sound of the door being opened. The weird thing wasn't the sound in itself, but how strong it was compared to before. The first thing he did was check on who had entered the room. Not to his surprise, all of the girls were there.

"I told you to trust me, didn't I?" he said with a big smile on his face. The first thing he felt was a strong slap, propered by none other than Hiratsuka. But right after that, they all jumped on him, sobbing slightly. "*sigh*... I'm sorry. But I'm okay, and I'm stronger than before"

When they released him from the chain and asked exactly how he felt.

"Well, I feel healthier overall..." he then preoceeded to explain what the process felt like and how the virus kept trying to shut his brain down. He wanted to avoid telling them about the pain that was involved in the process, but realized that it was a stupid thought, considering how they might want to do the same later on.

The next thing he had to say was about how his hearing was better and how he felt like he could see farther if he focused. Saya was the one who reached an overall conclusion and summarized everything that had been said.

"So basically, the virus attacks you mind through torture to take over your body" she said while looking at how Ryo looked the same but had a different feeling to himself. "and if you manage to remain awake, it will strengthen your overall body"

"Yup, that is pretty much it" Ryo said nonchalantly. He didn't go into detail about how painful it was, but he made sure to let them know it felt like dying over and over in different ways. Yuriko sighed when she heard his words. "*sigh*... why did our man have to be such a perfect idiot..."

"Yuriko... that hurt you know" he said with mck sadness in his voice. Everyone smiled wryly. They wanted to be angry at him, but they also understood why he did it. It made them feel giddy, how much he wanted to protect them at all costs.

Once they gave him his clothes, since he had been wearing only his pants for the experiment, Ryo decided to check his stats. This time he didn't hide how his eyes shined, saying that it was just him focusing his sight as an excuse.

[Name: Hashimoto Ryo

Level: 3

Strength: 28

Agility: 29

Intelligence: 27

Dexterity: 28

Charisma: 31

Skills: <Essence Reading> <Immesureable Talent> <Perfect Host> <Cooking (Beginner)> <CQC (Expert)> <Spearmanship (Experienced)> <Mechanic (Expert)> <Driving (Expert)> <???>]

He didn't bother reading about the mysterious skills that was locked, since the System had already told him that it would be locked until he consumed the crystalized virus. But he did check <Perfect Host>, since it sounded both important and interesting.

[Perfect Host: Like most illnesses, the zombie virus can be adapted to. As the User has takend a small dose of it and survived the take over process, he has become a "Perfect Host" for the virus, taking over it rather than the virus taking over its host. Future adaptations to the virus will be easier and less lengthy, but will still give the same results they would've if the Host wasn't already infected.]

Ryo couldn't help but feel amazed at how amazing of a boon the Skill was. It literally increased his resistance to the virus, which meant he would be able to consume a bigger amount the next time. He might even be able to consume two instead of one crystals!

*growl*

"Hehehe... I guess I'm a bit too hungry" Ryo said as he grabbed his stomach. He wasn't really embarrassed, since he understood the reason why he was hungry. "My body might consume more energy, so I probably need a higher consumption of calories"

"Well, it doesn't really matter" Shizuka said while skipping like a little child. Ryo didn't understand how an adult woman could look so cute. He then felt someone grabbing his sleeve.

Shouko was looking at him with a happy expression and quickly began signing something to him. The girls couldn't understand Shouko yet, so she could only talk to Ryo and Rei's parents, but the latter were usually busy looking over the Main Gate.

"Ryo... I... I want to be strong too! I don't want others to always protect me!" she signed agitatedly with a determined face. Since Ryo was signing all the time as he explained what he had been through, she knew of the pain it implied. But she still wanted to go through with it.

Ryo explained to the rest what Shouko had said, but they didn't seem surprised. In fact, they were looking at him with a face that told him it was to be expected. And it was.

"What did you expect? That we wouldn't want to do it?" Hiratsuka said with a mocking tone in her voice. "You have to trust us too, you know?"

Ryo just sighed helplessly. It pained him but he was already expecting it. He could only trust them and hope they would all survive it.

----------------------------------

So, I'm just saying this so I don't have people saying I delete reviews later on. There are four one star reviews in my fic currently. None of them are founded, since one is just someone being stupid and the other three are toxic. Apparently, people (More like children) didn't like Kouta getting Niki and Asami. Well, I don't give a shit. But I won't just take one star because of someone being childish, probably over alt accounts. Now that I've ranted, I will leave the reviews there until I post the last chapter for today. Just so you can go and see just how oh so childishly stupid they are.