Revelation and Reflection

Alan felt like he had solved the problem at hand very easily, but his newfound confidence fell when he saw that Alexander did not change.

"You said it yourself, they have people who can track better than you can. If they want to find out what happened here, who will they track first?" Alexander pointed out the flaw in Alan's idea with a simple sigh.

Alan looked as if thunder had struck him on the head. He froze for a few seconds before awkwardly laughing in despair, realizing that he really might not be able to escape death.

"I… You can't do this… It's wrong… I really won't tell!" Alan mustered his final desperate plea.

However, the forced stoic expression on Alexander's face dashed the last of his hopes on the wall. Immediately, Alan felt a surge of fury enter him as he glared at Alexander with bloodshot eyes.

"Why?! Why do I have to die just to keep your secret! I tried to help you! I tried to help you!!" he roared out his indignation.

Alexander closed his eyes sadly and squeezed them. This was the exact conundrum he was stuck in and why he hadn't resolved this problem yet. The struggle was extremely intense for him, who had been a normal, morally sensible youth just three days ago, to kill not only an innocent but an innocent who aided him.

"No, I don't want to die! Let me go!" Alan roared as he scrambled to his feet and tried to run away.

Unfortunately, he was easily captured by one of the freer death clones and brought back before Alexander. The Death clone raised its head and made eye contact with Alexander, almost as if it was telling him to get this over with.

After all, they were motionless beings that considered things from a purely logical perspective and did not share the same dilemma as he did.

Alexander envied them.

He glanced at the struggling Alan and sighed deeply. That sigh seemed to decide everything as Alexander lifted up the shotgun and aimed it at Alan's head.

"No! No!! You motherfucker, I helped you! I hate you! I hate you-"

BANG!

The roars came to an end as Alan's head was turned into a broken mess, his body slowly slumping as all life functions ceased one by one. The death clone that held the body slowly let it drop and glanced at Alexander.

The young man's face was thoroughly numb and devoid of life. Looking at that body that was leaking blood and body juices from the stump of his neck, there was not a single coherent thought in Alexander's mind at the moment.

Rather, he simply turned around after a minute or two and glanced at the destroyed car that definitely could not move anymore. He sat on the ground as one of the death clones rushed back to the police station and fetched another pickup.

The death clones energetically carted the goods from one car to another, and Alexander entered the backseat silently as he was driven home by one of the death clones.

Eventually, they reached his driveway, in which the car pulled up. Alexander got down and entered the house after glancing at the load that was being taken down and brought in by the death clones who were hard at work.

Alexander went upstairs to the bathroom to first wash his face and then entered his bedroom. He placed the shotgun down beside his computer and then lay on the bed, feeling his rapidly moving thoughts slow down as he began to fall into the embrace of sleep.

Meanwhile, his death clones still worked hard to bring everything and make sure the home security was up to par. The three of them then checked on the sleeping Alexander before sharing looks.

Death clone 3 seemed to be the loser as if went downstairs and began preparing a meal while death clones 1 and 2, the original dynamic duo, armed themselves with shotguns and pistols before rushing out to hunt.

When Alexander woke up, he blinked his groggy eyes and sat up. He had not dreamed of anything, just a typical black void of sleep. Now that he was up, he felt much better, as if the events that happened a few hours ago happened years ago.

He cricked his neck and stood up, walking to the bathroom to take a shower since he noticed that it was slightly bright out, meaning that it should now be dawn of the 3rd day since the apocalypse began.

After taking a long and silent shower, Alexander returned to his room to see that death clone 3 had come upstairs with a full serving of basic dishes. Steamed rice, tomato stew, boiled sausages, and peas adorned the tray, and Alexander nodded in thanks to the death clone.

He ate in silence as he glanced at the notifications from the Omega System overnight about the hard work of clone 1 and clone 2.

29 F- kills, 20 F kills, 17 F+ kills, 23 E- kills, 30 E kills, 29 E+ kills, 12 D- kills, and 4 D rank kills!

What an illustrious lineup!

Truly, having good weapons made all the difference. What assault rifles and pistols could not do, you could be damn well sure a pump action was willing to do. It was one of the best 'basic' guns for penetrating armor and breaking defenses so even the tougher D rank monsters could not survive.

The total amount of soul points gained overnight was a whopping 32,600!

[Participant Name: Alexander Bane

World: Gaia

Talent: Death Clones (A Grade - 2 Clones)

Potency: 4.8

Vitality: 3.6

Acuity: 4.5

Available Points: 17

Soul Points: 2,200/2,800.]

He had already possessed 2 points in waiting after killing his way to the police station and had filled up his bar when he killed the guard dog. He did not gain any points from killing fellow humans, as that did not seem to be a feature of the Omega System.

Through the night activity, another 15 points came on top, which were a godsend. With them, Alexander could truly take himself beyond the limits of mortality and be ready for the revenge of the high school students who had gone mad with power.

Looking at his current layout, Alexander pondered and did what he thought was wise. He first allocated 1 point of Potency, one point to Acuity, and two points to Vitality. He wanted to break through what he thought was the superhuman threshold in all his stats at once so that none were lacking.

Immediately, he felt a searing heat in his body that came from his brain, his abdomen, and his limbs. However, Alexander's face soon changed to horror as he fell limp on the ground while twitching, frothing from the mouth as the intensity of the sensation soared past levels he could bear.

Spontaneously, his body exploded into blood mist, his bones and innards splattering all over the room in a gory manner.

10 seconds later, Alexander came back to life with a pale face, looking at the now messy room which was marked by all his body parts in truly mind-numbing ways. If he hadn't already gotten used to gore somewhat, he would have burst out vomiting.

Before that, though, his mind was taken by how much better he felt. No, he did not feel better; he felt entirely different compared to before as if the him 10 seconds ago and the him now were two different beings altogether.

Alexander was confused by the responses and sensations from his body but was soon given an answer by the Omega System.

<Congratulations, 5 you have broken past the human genetic limit in Potency at points (rated average across universe) and become a first-level Aura Warrior!>

[Aura Warrior: A special breed of being that can manifest the surging power in their bodies into a semi-corporeal matter that can be used offensively, defensively, or even miscellaneously to achieve various tasks. Aura Color is based on innate elemental affinity.]

<Congratulations, 5 you have broken past the human genetic limit in Vitality at points (rated poor across universe) and become a first-level Bastion!>

[Bastion: A special breed of being that can converge the titanic vitality and toughness in their bodies into a special ward that blocks external influences stably while also enhancing regeneration.]

<Congratulations, 5 you have broken past the human genetic limit in Acuity at points (rated exemplary across universe) and become a first-level Soul Master!>

[Soul Master: A special breed of being that can manipulate the ebbs and flows of the world around them using their will and thought, yielding unknown abilities that can only be explored in depth by the user themselves.]

Alexander's mind buzzed as he took in this short information and seemed to understand. Across the universe, each species must also have its 'base form' and 'super form', with a certain amount of points from their base (1 point in all fields) as a threshold.

Some species might be gigantic, so their Potency was innately high and allowed them to unlock Aura earlier, while some races had fiendish vitality and could unlock their Bastion state earlier.

Humans had average potency, poor vitality but exemplary acuity… it sort of lined up. After all, if one were to look at humanity's 'tech tree' of evolution, more points had been invested in intelligence and the soul overall compared to the body or lifespan.

Alexander pushed himself up from the floor and summoned 5 death clones. One thing Alexander immediately noticed was that his death clones were more corporeal than before and seemed much more solid as well as defined.

Then he remembered that his talent not only halved his stats for them but they gained all his current abilities as well. This meant that even though the death clones had less than 3 points in all fields, they could use Aura, Bastion, and Soul now.

Alexander was now beginning to see the full extent of an A rank talent and just how game-changing it was. He was extremely thankful he drew this ability and could not help but wonder what others who had similar A rank or even S rank abilities were like if his was already so good.

He also glanced at the ruined room and had his death clones begin to clean up. Since he had resurrected, he was currently spotless, but he couldn't help but be silent.

Alexander realized his foolishness. Because he saw 'system' and 'stats, he couldn't help but think of things with video games in mind. A balanced build was definitely the best way to go unless classes were involved, but there was no such thing with this system.

However, every single point upgrade was taking his body and mind to higher heights. To upgrade multiple at once was suicide, especially when undergoing a 'breakthrough' like this.

Alexander couldn't help but guess that most people in the world, no in the universe, min-maxed according to their race's special trait as well as their talents. Since humans were exemplary in Acuity, it was likely that all those who reached here would focus on that path.

Strengths and weaknesses.

Only a fool would spread their points out evenly when this was a race to the death. If Alexander had 5 points in all 3 fields but another person had 15 potency, 1 vitality, and 1 acuity, he could punch Alexander's head open and completely ignore his vitality and acuity due to power suppression.

There were definitely others who probably allocated like Alexander had, thinking it was the right way to go. Unless they had resurrection talents like Alexander, then it was very likely that despite their excellence in coming this far, they had left this world.

Thinking like that, Alexander couldn't help but glance at his computer and walk over to check on the government forum to see if anyone else had reached this point and realized this problem.