Chapter 5

More information came spilling onto my screen after the line about the red orb.

You claimed your first human soul and triggered the DMC system. Think 'Status' to review your parameters, skills, and abilities.

I stared at the floating screen, confused, half wondering if this was all an elaborate prank.

But the world was still frozen, so what the hell.

"Status," I said, and a second screen spilled out.

Name: Axel Warren

Species: Nephilim

Class:

HP: 400 (Health Point)

SP: 350 (Stamina Point)

AE: 200 (Angelic Energy)

DE: 200 (Demonic Energy)

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 20

Vitality: 40

Endurance: 35

Angelic Energy: 20

Demonic Energy: 20

Abilities

Skills (empty)

Devil Arms

Shop (Locked)

XXXXX

"This is certainly different from any DMC game I've played." I waited for more information about each attribute, but nothing came up, so I moved on to the next section.

Abilities

(Racial) Angel Regeneration: Bounce back from grievous wounds by invoking divine energy to remake your body.

Demon hunter weapon mastery: Gain unnatural mastery of every weapon you use. Basic mastery is unlocked after the first use. Adept, Master, and Grandmaster skill mastery are unlocked four times as fast.

Devil Trigger (locked): Tap into your demonic heritage and unleash your inner power. 500% health regeneration, 3x speed and 3x strength.

I whistled.

Shin was not kidding around.

It had everything I'd expected it to have and more.

I hadn't expected the Class Function. If every RPG I'd ever played was any indication, that meant that I could level up and gain stats.

But I needed a class first.

However, the ability that caught my attention the most was Angelic Regeneration.

It explained how I was able to rapidly heal my wounded fist earlier.

Demon hunter weapon mastery was why I could use the baseball bat like I'd been fighting with it my entire life.

Speaking of weapons, I opened the Devil's Arms tabs and reviewed it.

Rebellion (Bonded) Grade 1, First evolution (0/500 red orbs)

Arbiter (locked.) Unlock for 100 red orbs

Osiris (locked) Unlock for 250 red orbs

Aquila (locked) Unlock for 500 red orbs

Eryx (locked) Unlock for 500 red orbs

Ophion (locked) Unlock for 200 red orbs

Ebony & Ivory (Lost)

'Looks about right.'

I worked my neck. With everything laid out before me, the goal of stealing multiple infinity stones and a fragment of the phoenix seemed less suicidal.

I'd have to kill a shit ton of people and hunt down every bad guy I could get my hands on if I ever wanted to harvest enough red orbs to go toe to toe with Thanos or any of the more dangerous elements in the marvel universe.

Maybe hunting the Chitauri would get me there quicker. After all, Yondu from Guardians of the Galaxy did call them Paper People.

Aside from them, there were dozens of other faceless bad-guy armies I could take on.

Before it comes to that, though, I'd have to exhaust the bad guy population of Earth, all without becoming infamous for being a terrorist or serial killer.

Either way, I'd be killing a lot, and these fools standing before me would be the first of many.

The last line of my status still remained a mystery, and I had a feeling it would be that way for months to come.

Perhaps Shin wanted to give me some new power-up or something else from the series. I was genuinely curious, but I had enough on my plate.

Congratulations: You've unlocked Blunt Weapon Mastery: Basic

Congratulations: You've unlocked Gun Mastery: Basic

Uh.

My Demon Hunter Weapon Mastery Skill was already working.

The world resumed the moment I decided I was ready, and I threw my bat at the largest of the three, knocking him clean out, while I pulled up Lorenzo's dead body to shield me.

They opened fire before I could get him up, sending bolts of pain up my arms and chest. Once he was up, I backed into the hallway, tossed him to the side, and peeped in, taking shots at the two men left standing. 

A lanky guy advanced, unloading into the wall, and was a few steps away from the doorway.

It made it all too easy to shoot him in the chest. As he crumbled to the floor, I fired two shots into his body to make sure he wasn't getting up again, and then I scanned the room for the last guy. He'd slipped into the bedroom to hide.

You've earned 2 Red Orbs.

I shunted the message to the back of my mind while I focused on the last guy.

I made no sound as I stepped into the apartment and stood in the middle of the room for a moment, listening. His rough breathing carried through the walls, alerting me to his location, and I fired multiple shots. I heard his body crumple, but I fired two more bullets through the drywall just to be sure.

When I did not receive a notification, I knew he survived somehow.

With my gun in front of me, I entered the room.

When his eyes met mine, he cracked a crazy smile. Something rolled to the floor, and I recognized it a second too late.

It was a mother fucking grenade!

I dove backward but not far away enough.

The shockwave carried me, throwing me out of my apartment window onto the roof of the second house.

My skin was on fire, my muscles screamed, and it felt like I'd broken more than a few things.

"Fuck my life." I wheezed. There went all of my shit. I had no clothes or money, and I was sure all of Los Angeles just heard the explosion. The night just kept getting better and better.

On the bright side, I got away free and clear. A second later, I felt 8 more souls enter my body. The night was not a total loss.

I focused on channeling Angel Regeneration. There was nothing but pain for the longest moment until there was a sudden release.

Energy bathed my aching and battered body, and the mark on my back lit up, shining through my thread-bare shirt.

In seconds, I was completely healed, left to face the fallout of what had happened.