Massacre
"Mum, wake up! Roomi, wake up! Boo hoo hooo." The girl was shaking their bodies and crying.
"System, give me one of the healing potions," he quickly ordered the system after performing CPR on both the woman and the baby, but he couldn't restart their stopped hearts.
Just after he ordered the system, a small vial of blue liquid appeared in his hand.
"Move," he pushed the little girl to the side and opened the baby's tiny mouth.
"Human, what are you doing?" Gaya was confused. As far as she was concerned, their hearts had stopped beating, and they were long dead. First, he was pumping their chests, and now he was pouring some liquid into the baby's mouth. She didn't understand why he was doing this.
However, her eyes went wide when she saw the color returning to the baby's body as the tiny human moved its legs. He was in no mood to rejoice. He needed to save this little girl's mother, or they would turn into orphans like him.
Without thinking about the preciousness of the healing potion, he poured every last drop of it into the woman's mouth and waited for her to wake up.
"COUGH!"
After a few seconds, the woman suddenly opened her eyes and coughed up a lot of blood.
"MUM!"
"CINDY!"
The girl jumped right into her mother's arms as the woman showered the little girl with kisses.
"Uwaaahhh!" The baby also began to cry and announced its presence to their mother.
"Roomi!"
Gaya and Michael stood silently on the sidelines, waiting for the three of them to finish crying.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for saving the people in need. The reward is 300 badass points and the Windblast skill.]
The system's voice appeared in his mind, but before he could check out the Windblast skill, the woman shouted.
"THE CHILDREN!"
Suddenly, the woman's eyes widened as she cried out loud.
"Young master, the children, Riyan."
She was pointing in the opposite direction of the village, specifically towards the riverside.
"What? There are survivors?"
"Yes, young master, please save them."
"Hey, system, do I get rewards for saving people too?"
[It depends on the people or person who need help, host.]
"What do you mean by that?"
[It means the system won't reward you if you get manipulated to help or the person who asks for help was using the host; in such a situation, if the host does help that person, the system will not reward the host but take away some points as a penalty.]
"Roger that, system."
He hadn't planned to become a hero or a savior, but when he saw that little girl crying for help, he couldn't stand by and do nothing. It was a simple act of humanity. While he might not be a saint, he wasn't so heartless that he could ignore a plea for help from a child.
"The cabin, please, young master," the woman stuttered and continued to point in the same direction as before.
"Stay with them," he told Gaya before dashing toward the river, leaving her with the mother and daughters.
"Does he think I'm his servant?" Gaya grumbled. She was a princess, and she was supposed to be the one giving orders to this human. Yet, she had to cooperate with him to get the pills she needed to repair her meridians.
Reaching the river and running along the shore for a few minutes, he finally picked up a blood trail. Seeing the amount of blood, he hoped it didn't belong to the children.
The blood trail led him into the woods, and after following it for some time, he spotted a wooden cabin in the distance.
As he got closer, he sighed in relief upon sensing life signs inside the cabin.
*Knock knock*
He knocked on the door after hearing the faint voices of frightened children from within.
"The demons, they came for us."
"Shhhhh."
"What do we do?"
"Booo hooo."
The children were sobbing and held each other tightly in fear.
"Kids, don't be afraid. I'm here to save you. Open the door. Hey, Riyan, are you inside?"
He couldn't open the door and realized that it was barred from the inside.
"Brother Riyan, wake up!"
"Wake up?"
Michael knew that Riyan must have died. He sighed, considering his options. He could easily use his new skill, Windblast, to destroy the wooden door, but there was a risk that debris might harm the kids inside. Searching for an alternative, he looked up and fired his grappling hook at a branch near the cabin's roof.
Thud
The children inside the cabin trembled at the sound on the roof, and some of the older kids hastily picked up stones and sticks from the floor to protect their younger siblings.
"Hey, kids, I'm coming in," Michael announced his presence as he entered the cabin by breaking through the roof.
The moment he landed in the cabin, he was greeted with stones to the face, but his shield protected him from the brave but frightened children.
On any other day, he might have laughed or playfully scolded the kids, but today was different. He couldn't help but feel a deep sense of sympathy for them, knowing that they would now be called orphans.
He understood the pain of being called an orphan all too well. He often wondered how different his life might have been if he had parents like most children. Even the body he now inhabited had experienced the same fate.
Observing the terrified children, he noticed that some had wet themselves in fear.
"Don't be afraid. Cindy's mother sent me," he reassured them.
Upon hearing the name Cindy, a sense of relief washed over their young faces.
"She's alive?" inquired one of the boys, brandishing a long stick as a makeshift weapon.
"Yes, and baby Roomi too. Now, go and wait outside. I'll bring you to them," he urged the hesitant children.
They exchanged glances but eventually followed the lead of the boy. As they left the cabin, he offered one final assurance, "If I wanted to hurt you, I would have done so already."
As the children departed, Michael heard the voice of a little girl from behind him. She was concerned about Riyan, who lay on the floor, clutching a wound on his stomach.
Riyan was barely a teenager, and as Michael crouched beside him, he couldn't help but feel a deep sadness. Riyan's face was obscured by blood, but Michael could sense that he had been a handsome youth with a bright future. Unfortunately, he had sacrificed his life to protect these children.
"You did well, kid," Michael whispered softly to Riyan, using the term with a sense of empathy.
On his torn robes, he noticed a badge on Riyan's chest. Wiping off the blood from it, he read the inscription: "Sunrise Sect."
"Rest in peace, kid. They will suffer for this, and this will be my payment."
Michael clutched the badge and whispered as he lifted Riyan's lifeless body, intending to give him a proper burial. Unfortunately, Riyan's condition was not suitable for transporting to his sect for a formal burial.
"He's gone, isn't he?" the boy asked quietly as Michael emerged from the cabin, carrying Riyan's body in his arms.
"Yes, he is. Now, follow me," Michael replied, leading the group of children back toward the village.
The children trailed behind him in silence, their expressions solemn and their steps heavy with grief.
"Brother... no... young master," the boy addressed him, stepping away from the group and approaching Michael.
"I'm not a young master, kid. You can call me brother," Michael suggested, feeling uncomfortable with the title coming from the boy's lips.
"Oh," the boy nodded in acknowledgment.
"Brother, what about the other kids in the village? Did you save them too?" the boy inquired with concern.
Michael's heart skipped a beat at the question, causing him to halt in his tracks. Before leaving the village, he had spent 50 badass points to scan for life signs throughout the area, but the system had not detected any beyond Cindy, her mother, and the baby.
If these twenty kids weren't the only ones from the village, it could mean only one thing: the others had been killed by the same perpetrators who had massacred the village or had perished in the flames.
Thinking about those heartless murderers, his anger surged, and his nails dug into his palms.
"Just wait until I get my hands on those bastards," he seethed through gritted teeth as he continued to walk.
"System, give me a paralyzing poison."