Chapter 1: Sinners! Repent!

Risal System is a university in the Rising City, a junior college belonging to the 4th region of the country.

In a room in the boys' dormitory at the Risal System University, Aiden Richards is checking his sporty outfit on the mirror to see if everything looks great.

Aiden finished with some final touches on his hair and quietly thought: "Looks good! Those bastards shouldn't have anything to say to me after this day. Just one final touch and I think everything's good."

He grabs a black cap on the next bed and wore it as he heads out for the door.

Today is Sunday; in the dorm room, there are six metal frame beds but only Aiden was there. His roommates invited him out to have fun on the weekend and he agreed since he had nothing better to do.

Well, the main reason was because his best friend Daniel convinced him that making connections before they graduate college is a good investment at a low cost. If one of their 'friends' lucked out in life and became successful, they can shamelessly hug a powerful thigh and have a better future.

Aiden and Daniel came from a farming village far away from the city. Their family was neighbors allowing them to become playmates and they became best of friends since childhood.

For better opportunities, their families sent them to the city.

Aiden's family owned a mango farm while Daniel's family owned the only supermarket in the village. It could be said that they were already the richest people in the village but that was nothing compared to the people in the city.

"You mortals that has forgotten your true selves, it is time to be punished! You never try to remember and only focus on living a quiet and stable life. From now on, you are Sinners! Repent! Repent and live a harsh life until you achieve salvation. That is your only path to survive. Otherwise, you will die!"

"Performing Judgement check... passed!"

"Countdown… 5…"

A strange sound suddenly appeared in Aiden's mind; as the sound appeared, his body froze and he had a strange feeling like time has stopped. The entire surrounding become extremely slow. He could only glance around as the sound continued in his head.

"Interface generated… 4…"

"Cultivation generated… 3…"

"Talent generated… 2…"

"Skills generated… 1…"

"Repent and be saved!"

Aiden advanced forward due to momentum when time resumed and idly stood in place.

"What was that?"

On the inside, Aiden was filled with astonishment. Before he could process what the message meant, he felt a hard round object in his hand; a small rock with a strange white engraved rune seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

"Rune of Steal(Reproduction) – Consume 1 energy to steal anything from a five meter radius. The user needs line of sight to the target and needs to know the targets information. Absorbing a reproduction rune has a very low probability of becoming a skill. Can only be used once."

"Aiden Richards: Male"

"Level: 1"

"Energy: 10"

"Cultivation: None"

"Strength: 8, Agility: 10, Intelligence: 6, Vitality: 9, Stamina:7, Spirit: 10, Endurance: 9"

"Talent(s): Steal (Master)"

"Skill(s): Acrobatics (Senior), Sprint (Junior), Stealth (Novice), Lie (Novice)"

Aiden's mind was amazed and angry at the same time.

Don't bullshit me! What kind of skillset is this?! Everything about this screams that I'm a bad guy! Are you trying to say I'm a bad guy?

Aiden thought back to his past for a few seconds and remembered the things he did in his childhood; how he stole mangoes that they were selling and got chased by his father until he can barely breathe anymore. There were also times that people he doesn't like makes bulk orders from him and he secretly steals a piece or two. He also… as he continued to think of the past, he became quiet.

"Alright, I'm not good. I'm petty but not exactly a bad guy."

Glancing at the rune on his hand, a foreboding sense welled up in his mind. He rushed towards the door and immediately locked it.

He quickly dashed towards the window and looked outside.

Since it was around two or three in the afternoon, the students that did not go out were sleeping in their dorm rooms. Only a sparse number of people can be seen walking around.

"Someone help me!" a shrill scream rang out on the street.

Aiden looked towards the direction of the scream and saw a scene of horror.

He saw a girl wearing a loose white t-shirt got surrounded by three girls wearing the same matching outfit. They're probably from the same class walking around together when the strange phenomenon happened.

Aiden watched as the three girls pinned the screaming girl to the ground and crowded on her.

He immediately took his phone out and zoomed in to record. If this was bullying, he needs to gather evidence, but based on the images on the screen, he could only feel the chills on his back.

The three girls were biting chunks of fleshes from the pinned girl. Together with the bitten off flesh, white mist leaked from the bitten parts and got sucked towards the attackers.

When the pinned girl seemingly passed out, one of the attackers kissed her. But what really happened was far scarier than he could imagine. The same white mist escaped the girl's mouth and got absorbed into the attackers mouth.

The attacking girl hunched back and howled happily as more white mist streamed into her body.

Aiden finally had the chance to get a proper look of the 'assaulter.'

The girl had spiritless gray eyes like they were beasts who got freed from the shackles of their body. Her skin was pale like vitality has escaped from its cells and black nerves riddled their already showing skin with a huge possibility that it was all over the whole body. With the brief glance, he noticed that the most corrupted portion was the sides of her eyes.

When the pure white mist being sucked out thinned out and started to gray out, the pinned girl abruptly struggled and screamed without a voice. Sadly, she wasn't able to break free from their grasp.

The other girls who were dining on the scraps finally noticed the situation and tried to fight for more resources. Despite their hunger for more, the other girl was much stronger than the two of them and easily swatted them away.

Moments passed, no one came to help her and the girl stopped fighting for life. She remained unmoving even after the three attackers left her.

Before Aiden could turn the recording off, the lifeless girl twitched sporadically before suddenly sitting up. Her eyes were gray and a slow web of black nerves crawled and spread out of her body. It only took a few seconds for her to get up and running following the howls and screams of other people getting caught by the chaos.

The scene was so strange that it made Aiden felt like everything was just a dream. Yet the stone on his right hand reminded him that everything was very real.

He steeled himself and continued to observe.

He searched for the previous group of three and found them ganging up on a new victim. Their previous 'friend' also joined in the fun and started biting flesh and absorbing the white mist contained inside it. As they absorbed the white mist, the black corruption on their bodies slightly lessened.

After sucking the target dry, they searched for new targets to hunt.

Since there's only a small number of people walking around, it didn't take long for the crazy mob to run out of prey.

Most of the crazies started to wander in different directions while the latest victims that got left behind, became active and remained idle on their spots.

Aiden noticed an obvious difference between the group. "The more white mist they absorb, the more powerful and faster they become! This is bad. Really bad. Are they zombies? Maybe zombie vampires? They don't suck the blood out of their victims though… But they do suck something out of their victims, turning anyone they sucked dry into one of them."

Aiden spent a moment to think what could be sucked out of humanity and immediately came up with two answers. He ignored the first thing that came to mind and mindlessly muttered the second one; "The soul? Are they absorbing the soul of their victims? They're zombies but instead of eating the flesh, they consume the soul? Soul eaters?"

As much as he didn't want to believe his own speculation, he couldn't think of any answer that was more sensible.

Aiden felt cold inside. If everything really was just as he thought, the campus could become a cage that protects and restricts him from the soul eaters. However, with no food in this room, it would be a miracle if he could survive for a few days without going out.

Bam! Bam!

Loud knocking suddenly came from the door.

"Soul eaters! They're here!"

Aiden immediately rushed to the door and pushed a wooden closet sidewards to block the door entrance.

At the same time that the closet fell, the thin wooden door was pierced at the middle; a pale bloody arm stretched and tried to grab him from the side.

Aiden panicked internally. "How did they find me here?! I didn't make any sound earlier!"

University dorms normally aren't made of quality materials but for average people to smash through the door without the help of tools shouldn't be possible. The strength of the soul suckers was out of his imagination.

As he watched the breach on the door widen, the mangled face of a short haired pale man squeezes through the hole. The man was named Alfred and lived next door. They were still chatting earlier before he went to wash up and now the man was already 'dead'.

More questions appeared in his mind like are they really dead, or are they still alive behind the crazy actions they were doing. After removing all unnecessary thoughts, one important question remained; should I kill?

Aiden laughed and felt desolate inside.

"I'm not even sure if I can survive for long. Maybe I'll be like you any time now."

He glanced at the Steal rune in his hand and wished that he had a more practical rune. A rune that kills in one punch would be better at a situation like this.

Instead of lamenting on the disadvantages, he dashed to his bed drawer and looked for anything sharp or pointed. He found two items that fit; a scissor and a pencil.

He grabbed the scissor and ran back to the door.

"I'm sorry, I still want to live!"

With perfect timing, Aiden stabbed the scissor through the eyes of the soul sucker. Unfortunately, he got scared and didn't push hard enough due to inexperience.

The soul eater grabbed him due to his mistake and opened its mouth, wanting to bite him.

Aiden gritted his teeth and forcefully used his other hand as a hammer to nail the scissor deeper into the man's head.

Ka-cha!

White mist flowed out of the man's body, a portion of the white mist entered his body but majority of it vanished into thin air.

As the white mist got absorbed by him, he felt a cool breeze flow inside him which disappeared after a single circulation.

The man's head slumped powerlessly and the hand grabbing him loosened up. As the body turned limp, its flesh turned into dust that fell on the floor like sand, leaving only the t-shirt that was left hanging on the broken door.

A small stone dropped inside the room. With a single glance, Aiden could tell that it was different from his first stone. The new stone has more characters engraved on it and all of them were gold in color.

Aiden hesitantly picked the runestone and a bunch of information entered his head.

"Rune of Throwing (Origin) --- Absorbing the origin stone allows you to learn the Throwing Skill. Can increase the accuracy and the lethality of thrown objects. Runestone production will be unlocked after mastering the skill."

Upon reading the description, Aiden immediately absorbed the Rune of Throwing. Though he didn't know much about runestones, he can see the positive effects it can give. It's an obvious upgrade with no glaring disadvantages so he didn't need to think for too long.

Aiden clenched the Origin Rune and felt the energy in his hand melting the runestone. Everything felt natural and he didn't need to spend time to figure out how to do it and what changes occurred.

"Throwing (Novice) – Consume 1 energy to increase the accuracy and lethality of thrown objects for 10 minutes. Cooldown: 1 hour. Junior Upgrade Requirement: Throw an item and hit a target 10,000 times.