Well-Deserved Rest.

A young man could be seen panting heavily as he staggered his way through the wastelands. The dry air, sandstorm and blocked out sunlight only made things worse for him.

"System… How much longer?" He questioned.

<Error: Due to lack of information, unable to formulate response. Probability of this changing->

"-If the adaptation skills levels up… Yeah, I know." Asper muttered, interrupting the system in the process.

<…>

*Vrroom!*

Occasionally, he'd hear vehicles pass by and reflect on just how useful they would be. Unfortunately, for now he would have to stick to not getting any. Not just because of their overbearing price, but because it'll draw more attention to him.

The only reason he had been attacked in the ruins in the first place was due to the fact that he was drawing attention to himself.

"Fuck… Why can't everyone just mind their own business…?" Asper questioned.

-

Just as he said so, his leg bumped into a rock which he had failed to see causing him to trip.

After landing on his face, he grasped the sand, picking up a nearby rock as he did so, before getting up and throwing it as far as he could.

Surprisingly, it ended up going pretty far due to the speed and flexibility of his arms but he paid no attention to it.

"How many times did I nearly die today…?" He wondered as he padded his clothes.

They were mostly torn but thankfully not that revealing.

As he made his way towards the city in an awful mood, he reflected back on what had happened today.

He had gotten attacked by a group of rollers, then after nearly breaking his back and getting buried alive beneath it's corpse he was attacked by a whole horde of Wolgur's. Thankfully hunters were there to grab their attention so he could escape but it was still a painful experience dealing with just four of them on his own.

And that wasn't the worst part. On his way home, while injured he was nearly sniped by a group of hunters.

"Fuck! Shit! Damn it! ARGH…! I'm so pissed!" Asper expressed himself.

The reason being even after having killed them, he wasn't able to loot them at all. He had overheard one of them having an automatic shield which deployed upon danger but his body was buried inside of the rubble when the third floor crashed down.

The only thing he got was a rifle from the guy who he had shot at the end and his monocle.

"I got the monocle so I guess it was kind of worth it…" Asper muttered as he placed the monocle on.

He looked at the ground and could see his footsteps highlighted in a strange yellowish red color, and if he looked at his reflection with the monocle he could see his body highlighted in the same color. This was incredibly useful for noticing and avoiding the sight of monsters on his way back.

If it wasn't for this, he would have had some incredibly close calls and probably died since he was in no position to fight.

Despite all of it's good comings however, it was just too big for Asper's head. He'd need to have it adjusted to become a good fit, otherwise he'd have to have one of his arms occupied with holding it.

"Should I go get it adjusted at an oculist…?" Asper questioned as he continued to walk

***

*Step* *Step*

The sounds of footsteps resounding could be heard in the dimly lit stairway. It wasn't just Asper's footsteps but others. He could hear hunters talking amongst each other too.

"Yo~ You got any orbs today, Pedra?" A guy asked

"A few, Daniel. You?" The female voice replied

'Daniel, Pedra? They sound young.' Asper wondered.

"Of course, I shot down four flying ones." Daniel replied

"Well if even you killed them, they were probably weak and worth nothing." Said Pedra

"Oi."

Asper was the type to ignore his surroundings but he was out of it for today, all the conversations around him were going into his head.

"Newcomer, did you park the car where I told you?" An older male voice asked

"Y-Yes, boss!" A younger male voice replied.

As Asper continued to walk he realized that at the end of the day, hunters were also people. They each Had their lives.

***

*Clunk*

Asper unlocked the door to his room before heading inside. The first thing he did was close and lock the door behind him before taking off his clothes and loot and jumping into the shower.

The water was cold but it distracted him and that's what he liked about it.

*Sshhhhhhhhh*

Asper began washing away the blood on him as he looked at the wounds on his body. His leg was bandaged by a torn piece of his clothes after he removed the bullet in an attempt to slow-down the blood-loss from the wound. He would losing countless health points every few seconds after he had removed the bullet.

After bandaging it up though, the system seemed to have also done something as there was barely any blood flowing out now. It still hurt like hell however.

"I Should probably go to a doctor…" He muttered. After remembering how much they charged however, he shook his head. "Never mind, I'll just let the system deal with it."

***

Once the shower was finished, Asper walked over to his bed before falling over it. It wasn't that comfortable but it was a much better alternative than the floor.

His whole body was sore, it had long reached it's limit. Which is why, once he had finally reached a point which he considered safe. It shutdown.

'I can't move a muscle." He thought to himself as he rolled over and stared at the ceiling.

There were never any lights since he couldn't afford electricity. Only the light from outside would light up his room. The city of Zalpha had no sky only magic stones in the ceiling of the cave which would act as light and activate whenever it was the morning.

These lights would slip in through gaps of Asper's roof. However, just like night time, they would dim down to conserve energy.

Asper began thinking of these things in an attempt to distract his mind but he could no longer do it. He looked over at his hand before pointing it at the ceiling in the form of a gun.

"Bam." He muttered as he flicked his hand back.

He then rolled over to the side before muttering.

"I really killed them, huh…"

<Affirmative>

"If I hadn't they would have kept going after me, but I still did it..." Asper muttered before curling up into a ball due to how cold it was. His adaptation to temperature change had ended. "Guess I'm just like them... A monster."

<Negative. possessor / Holder / Owner / Master is human. Biologically, mentally and spiritually. System Confirmed.>

Upon hearing this, Asper's eyes widened before a small smile formed on his face. In that position and with that smile, he dozed off.

***

Shortly after he started to snore, he began to sleep talk.

"Thanks..."

<...>