Chapter 5: The Braggart

Aiden remained in position and waited for the soul eaters to come. Loud shrieks can be heard outside together with footsteps scrambling back and forth.

There were around five to six soul eaters outside. If he got caught here, he had to fight to the death.

"I'm so handsome!"

Aiden frowned upon hearing the strange shout outside. For a moment, everything became quiet like the world became empty.

Then the shrieks came again, followed by that same ridiculous bragging.

"I'm do handsome!"

Aiden didn't know what to do. At the moment, he seems to have the option to sneak around to fight out what's happening.

If he ever got caught in a fight, he had two combat styles to rely on: he could choose to fight wildly, like all muscles with less brawns or use the only effective killing combo he knows, steal the target's eye and stab through the eyesocket to shut the brain down.

Aiden glanced at the weapon on his hand and realized something.

"I can't stab them with a meat cleaver. I need something longer and thinner."

He quickly looked around and searched for things that matched his requirements.

Being in the kitchen easily helped find numerous items that fit the description, but he only chose the best ones since he only had limited space in the bag and on himself.

He looted several kitchen knives and butter knives. The meat cleaver could be a good weapon but it doesn't really fit his killing methods so had to swap it out. With a knife as a main weapon, he could easily use it to stab and would require less energy to use.

While looting the knives, he caught sight of the dozens of spoons and forks on the utensil bin.

Using them to stab through the eye can be done but would take a lot of effort and has a lot of risks. He could easily get swamped after a failed stabbing attempt.

"Though I can use it as throwables, they're not really effective. Even if I sharpen them and turn them into throwing blades. I'm sure I can't throw them like weapons and need more practice."

Upon further consideration, he had to give up looting the utensils since he wasn't skilled enough to craft or use it as a throwing blades.

Once Aiden came to that decision, he finally remembered that he looted a new runestone. He excitedly took the runestone from his pocket and smiled upon seeing it's golden runes. He was in a rush to pick it up and wasn't sure if he saw things correctly.

[Rune of Calisthenics (Origin) --- Absorbing the origin stone allows you to learn the Calisthenics Skill. Can increase strength, stamina and endurance for every session. Runestone production will be unlocked after mastering the skill.]

"What's this? Is this a growth rune? This can be a huge help to me survive!"'

A rune that can permanently increase stats!

As he rejoiced for getting a new rune, a notification brought him chills.

"Stealth deactivated."

He was discovered!

Aiden quickly turned around and saw a buff man standing at the entrance of the kitchen, staring at him like he was dinner.

"Hey, what's up? Were you stuck here or something?"

Aiden ignored him and secretly pocketed the origin stone.

"I see you're already shopping. I hope you didn't take all the food because I'm really hungry right now. By the way, I'm Leonard."

Leonard walked forward to the table and picked the meat cleaver I swapped out.

"I'm Aiden. I'm just hiding here, waiting for things to settle down outside."

As Leonard walked towards the refrigerator, Aiden circled on the other side.

Leonard opened the refrigerator to get some food but found nothing inside.

"Well, that's disappointing." Leonard stood back up and faced him. "You didn't take all the food, right?"

Aiden stopped on his tracks, feeling the intense glare from the other person.

'Is he really that hungry?'

"...I only took some knives. I think the grocer aunty was supposed to restock today, but who knows where she is right now."

Leonard continued to stare at him for a couple of seconds before letting the matter go.

"That's true. Right. By the way, I saw some 'leftovers' on the way here. Did you do that?"

"Leftovers?"

"I mean the clothes, the blood on the floor, the sand, you know, the only thing that remained after the Sinners truly die."

"Sinners?"

"Yeah, those Sinners who failed the judgement of the Gods and become like what they deserve."

Aiden thought back and recalled the keywords. He agreed that calling them Sinners fit the situation.

The more he tried to figure things out, the more confused he becomes. In the end, he chose to set it aside for the moment and focused on what's in front of him.

"...yeah. I guess I was just lucky that time. He was not looking and I managed to land a sneak attack from behind."

"Oh?" Leonard's interest was piqued. "You managed to sneak attack a Sinner?"

Aiden stopped himself from answering and decided it was time to leave. "I'm going now. Nice to meet you."

After taking a few steps, he heard Leonard's voice from behind.

"I think I remember now, you're that guy stuck outside your window. That's funny, I'm sure you we're going to die, but here you are alive and kicking. Can you tell me how you got out of that situation?"

Aiden looked back and had confused expression. As far as he could recall, he didn't see or meet anyone this whole time. This should be his first encounter with another survivor.

He tried his best to recall if he ever met anyone and realized their was one instance earlier.

After he killed his next door neighbor, he heard footsteps on the hallway and decided to hide.

"You're the one getting chased in the hallway earlier!"

Leonard smirked. "Remember me now? Hahaha. Well, you didn't help me, so I didn't help you when I saw your room got breached. To be fair, I think no one will risk their lives to help anyone at this time . Also, I thought you'd surely die at the time, you know."

Leonard casually shrugged and stared him down for a few seconds before glancing at his bag. "Do you have some food? I don't know why but I'm feeling really hungry right now."

Aiden felt something strange about Leonard but couldn't accurately pinpoint what it is until he saw dark blood trickle down his sleeves.

Leonard followed his gaze and saw the single droplet of blood.

"Oh this? It's just a bite, it's nothing. I was fighting a bunch of them out there but I already killed them all."

Aiden nodded his head. "I don't have any food with me. I'll get moving now. I still need to save my friend."

"Hey, hey, HEY! I'm still talking to you! Don't turn your back on me!"

Instead of stopping, Aiden increased his speed and jogged to get away as quickly as possible.

"This punk kept on ignoring me! I already cleared the surrounding, so what's the hurry!? Rushing off to save your friend? I'm your benefactor! If you're not gonna give me food, I'll take it by force!"

Leonard ran and chased after him. "Stop and admire my handsome face!"

Aiden frowned hearing the same strange claims but was surprised when he saw the notifications that appeared in front of him.

"You were affected by Brag. Performing judgement... You resisted... Bragging failed. You ignore him."

"That's also a skill? WAIT, THAT DUDE JUST USED A SKILL ON ME! HEY, ARE YOU SURE YOU WANNA FIGHT ME?!"

"Hahaha! You're a funny one skinny bag!"

Aiden felt a bit offended after he got called a skinny man. He doesn't get to eat a lot when he was a child so that became one of his nicknames. Hearing such a familiar term caused his temper to explode.

"So be it, stomach head."

Aiden stopped running and turned around. Leonard was only a few meters away from him but he had enough time to cast one of his skills.

"Steal!"

Aiden felt the energy drain from his body and inwardly pitied the man a little.

"Sorry but you need to learn a lesson!"

A second passed but nothing happened.

Leonard tackled him to the ground with a grin on his face. "Steal, huh? That's interesting. Now, I'm more curious how you escaped that death trap room of yours!"

Leonard happily positioned himself better and laughed. "And thanks for the new stone, brother. Hahaha. I saw you trying to hide it, but you were so obvious!"

Aiden allowed the man to talk, so he could start figuring things out.

Why did the skill fail? Very simple, Leonard resisted Steal just like how he resisted Brag.

Stealth was deactivated meaning Leonard was discovered him but didn't take action for five seconds. Why?

Most possibly, Leonard just fought a battle outside and is trying to regain some stamina.