Self Tainting

Morning time has come and the veiled sun gradually rose. Citizens stirred awake from their dreams, some of them left for their jobs while others went to the outside of the city with their tags, weapons, and rations.

As for Ashy, he was quietly walking in the back streets in his original appearance but without the features that could attract attention. He was now a brown-haired and-eyed boy called 'Johny'.

Two days passed after he witnessed that disturbing sight. While waiting for the corpse to become undead, Ashy explored the house and got the necessary information to survive in this unfamiliar city.

It turned out that this deceased man didn't have a tag, like Jack, nor did he have any books or paper.

This finding made him think, 'Maybe only the ones who go out need a tag?'

This was both good and bad news.

The good thing is that he didn't need to impersonate anyone to live, with no anxiety that he might encounter someone who knows the original owner of the appearance, he could live smoothly. Plus, not everyone could be impersonated as easily as Jack.

The bad thing was, he needed a tag to go out. So, he still needed to impersonate someone else to go out.

However, all of this was just speculation.

Ordinary people had deeper shadows while Eclipsed Walkers had shallow shadows.

'Maybe all Eclipsed Walkers need a tag?'

Fortunately, it turned out to be the former. Through eavesdropping, he learned that there were two separate 'classes'. Eclipsed Walkers were the ones who were armed to fight against the Creatures of Darkness, while Eclipsed Ones were normal citizens who just wanted power to protect themselves while in need.

The surprising thing was that there were a shit ton of people who 'tainted' themselves with the darkness than not. The number was too much to give tags to each one of them.

Anyway, after a day and a half passed, the corpse of the man began to move. Ashy was waiting for this moment. He now had a close estimate for a corpse to transform into an undead.

"Two days or more, huh?"

He immediately severed the undead's limbs and head, then he carefully cut its chest to take out its heart.

When the dried black heart touched Ashy's palm, the undead crumbled into fine black ash.

This was a very convenient way to dispose a corpse. He just needed to sweep the ash under a rug or bury it under the dirt.

"Sigh…"

With a bad taste in his mouth, Ashy lifted the heart and thoroughly inspected it. This thing must be valuable enough for Eclipsed Walkers to carry, he just needed to find out why.

It didn't take too much time before he learned why.

Before he realized it, the heart in his hand turned into white ash, and a tiny amount of new power coursed through his body.

It was kind of ironic and strangely beautiful how a dried black heart turned into pure white ash.

The feeling of power in his body was a bonus.

Ashy's whole body felt a little bit stronger than before, not so much, but it was an amazing feeling.

'So, that is how Eclipsed Walkers "taint" themselves, huh.'

Understanding this, Ashy was both delighted and horrified. This meant that he could get stronger if he were to hunt the undead, although the power-up was minuscule, it was better than nothing.

Every drop counted. He just needed to collect these 'drops' enough to feel a substantial power-up.

However, this also meant that the Eclipsed Walkers could see him as walking and talking 'EXP'. Even the thought of it was horrifying.

'I am not going to be fucking EXP bag of some nobodies.'

That is why, Ashy in the form of Johny was searching for some bad guys to bring 'justice' to them.

'A few kids here and there… Some are also Eclipsed Ones. Maybe they won't be suspicious of me at all.'

"Hey, kid! Come with me!" 'Johny' called out to an Eclipsed One kid.

"Don't wanna." The kid refused and disappeared into a back street.

'Damn brat…' entering the same back street but couldn't finding the child, 'Johny' cursed before giving up the plan of taking a child's place. They were too cautious for him to make them faint.

'I guess I don't have any choice but to hunt Creatures of Darkness outside the city… well, it is better I suppose. After all, even if I kill bad guys here, there shouldn't be more than a hundred of them, right? Killing a hundred mindless undead should be easier than killing a hundred people and waiting for them to become undead before killing them again.'

Changing his objective, 'Johny' returned to 'his' house before the sunset and closed the door. behind him.

He had everything he needed to go outside of the city. He could use Jack's appearance and tag, acting as a crazy person was a little bit disturbing but it was better than nothing.

'It is not like I can dig a tunnel to the outside, it shouldn't be that easy.'

However, there was something he first needed to take care of. The bullet in his spine.

Although it wasn't painful, the bullet was limiting his mobility and causing him a hard time relaxing in bed. Plus, Ashy felt like there was a bug in his damned spine whenever he felt the presence of the bullet.

In short, the bullet's presence was both disturbing his rest and disgusting.

'Should I just cut that part of the spine out? I am not gonna die anyway I guess… it will just take some… time to heal…well, no. It will probably take more than an agonizing month.'

Ashy gave up this thought as well.

Just because he can't comfortably lay down, or jump, or crouch, he wasn't going to endure more hellish pain.

'Well, I can at least endure the discomfort and act according to—'

*Knock! Knock!*

'Who the heck—'

Bam!

'Why knock if you were just going to break the fucking door!?' Ashy inwardly muttered, frustration evident in his expression.