Chapter XXIII: First Death

Zack was in the white room, browsing through his system menu. he saw the armors, the stats, the skills, all of it. "Man. I wish I could do something right now. For now at least..." Zack trailed off because of looking at the black areas on his arms. "That's the least of my worries". Zack summoned his axe and dropped on the black area of some kind of "Corruption" on his arm. The axe fell through his hand and didn't come out. He continued browsing on his system after that because he couldn't be surprised anymore. Before he was a regular, book loving nerd. Now he could use fire magic, had a magical system and a guy that looks like death inside of him.

His browsing led him to wanting to know how to get stronger. The browsing began for a while, mostly staying in the stats section, but he found a help screen inside the main menu. The screen just showed a circle and said speak. Zack asked how to get stronger.

[Kill to gain soul points. Do quest for artificial soul points]

"Soul Points!?" Zack exclaimed. This system was outright telling him to kill people. How could he do that when he wants to be a hero? Zack calmed down and finally asked. "What are Soul Points?"

[Soul points are universally used in the system. Use them to level up skills or yourself and evolve]

"What's the difference of artificial soul points and regular ones?"

[Soul Points or SP for short, is used for most of everything. Artificial SP or ASP for short, is used to get things but you can't use them forever]

Zack closed the screen and sighed. He opened it once more and saw two new tabs opened up. One said training, the other showed progress. He tapped progress and what he saw horrified him

[1/10000 SP collected until evolution]

"Ten Thousand...?" Zack went to training immediately because the thought. Ten Thousand souls to collect. He shaked it off and checked the screen. It showed combat training and soul collecting. Zack just hit combat training and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was in a edo period village.

"What the hell is thi-" Zack was cut off by a fist hitting him into the dirt. he got punched away by meters and had his face in the dirt. Zack spat out the dirt in his mouth and was angry at the person who thought that was funny. He looked at him and it was a entirely black figure with white eyes, emanating a red glow. He had a Greatbow on his back and metal spears in a quilt. "Those can't be spears. It wouldn't work from the amount of weight they have. No human can do that" Zack thought. the person proves him wrong by firing a spear and almost killing Zack.

"I take it all back!!!" Zack states. He runs but gets caught by the person. "Get off of me!" Zack says but the person responds by stabbing him in the hands and legs with spears. "AGGGHHHH!" Zack howls in pain. the person looks at him and holds his forehead. A green aura seeps out of Zack. *!*

[A Very Large Portion Of Your Soul And Souls You Have Collected Are Being Taken. Get Out of There Now]

"My Soul?!?!" Zack thought. He used Demonic Kick.

[System Malfunction. Cannot use skill "Demonic Kick" on entity due to its species]

He used Demonic Fist

[System Malfunction. Cannot use skill "Demonic Fist" on entity due to its species]

He Used Skyfire Axe

[System Malfunction. Cannot use skill "Skyfire Axe" on entity due to its species]

He used Steal

[System Malfunction. Cannot use skill "Steal" on entity due to its species]

He called for Echo

[Not even your echoes can hear you]

"Someone. Help... Me..." Zack cries out as his vision fades to black.

"𝚈𝚘." A voice says. Zack gets up to see the void and a person sitting on a throne laying down on it. "Who are you?" Zack asked. "𝙸'𝚟𝚎 𝙶𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚋𝚢 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚢 𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚜. 𝙼𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍, 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚋𝚊𝚍. 𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚎 𝙸'𝚖 𝚖𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚋𝚢 𝚒𝚜 𝙶𝚘𝚍. 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝙸'𝚖 𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝚘𝚗𝚎. 𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚎𝚌𝚑𝚗𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚑𝚒𝚖." God says. "God? Why am I here?" Zack asked. "Looks like someone hasn't been studying huh? This is the void. All dead souls come here. So if you're here, take a wild guess what you are" God says while looking at Zack.

"Im… Dead?" Zack says in disbelief. "𝙱𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚘. 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚒𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔. 𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎'𝚜 𝚊 𝚌𝚘𝚜𝚝" God says. Zack is still in shock, kneeling down while holding his hands on his head. He got up with his head down asking "What is the price?" Zack asked. "The normalcy in your life. If you come back, you will lose everything you had that was normal. You start from scratch as what I pick" God says as he gets off the throne. "Why are you helping me and not someone stronger?" Zack said. God chuckled. "Y'know, You could ask me all the questions you want when you'll permanently be dead or you can consider your timed for 30 seconds right about now" God says. Zack panics badly. "Yes!" Zack said without thinking too much. God snaps his fingers and Zack wakes up again in a field.

He gets up and looks at his skin. He looked different. He had black skin and red eyes. He checked the system for a explanation. *!*

[???]

[Race: Void Demon]

[Strength: 1]

[Speed: 1]

[Agility: 1]

[Stamina: Infinite]

[Skills]

[Soul Eater]

[Fracture LV.1]

"Demon. Guess it's a up from human" Zack thought as he looked around. Zack also noticed his name was no longer displayed and only showed question marks. "New Life, New Name" Zack thought. He thought for a bit and used the name he felt was good.

[ II ]

[ Do you want "II" as your name ]

[Yes / No]

[Yes]