23 - The Feeling of Dying

'Ozzie? Will everything reset if Rean dies?'

Ozzie does not answer.

I feel that there is a connection somehow with the mission to protect Natalie. The adrenaline hade made me forgot about it completely and I don't even know whether I've finished that mission or not. But one thing I'm sure at the moment, is that there 'is' a connection between the two. I just can't figure out what it is yet and I don't have the time to think about it now.

I'll take it for granted for now. I'll help Rean, the main protagonist.

"Miss, I'll have to ask you to hide somewhere close by." I told the young woman.

"Oh… Are you going to help him?" She asked. Her fearful expression lessens.

I smile nervously at her. "Yeah. But you'll be unattended for a while, so please hide."

"It's okay! I entrust my safety to you!" She said with tearful eyes.

I stare at her flatly. "But you'll be alone though…"

I take the knife I dropped on the floor and we approach the lobby carefully. She points to the door on the right wall and asks me to check the room inside. It's not locked, so I push it inside and take a look. It's a small office room that connects to the receptionist counter. I can see Rean fighting the enemies from behind the glass here. But my attention soon moves to the things inside the room.

There are two bodies lying around here, workers. They aren't moving and there are blood splatters on the floor and across the wall near them.

It's somehow eerie to see dead bodies for the first time. I haven't seen them lying around in the tower, so it's a new scene for me.

I kneel down and touch the wrist of the one closest to me. But of course, there's no pulse. 'What am I doing?'

This worker's obviously dead. I don't even know why I did that. Probably I wanted to confirm that I just encountered death. A clear and real reminder that this could happen to me anytime if I'm not careful.

"Heey… Is it safe…?" I hear the woman's voice from the door. The woman then gasps. "A-Are they dead…?"

I stare at the other dead body for a second before walking to the door. "Careful, miss. Don't touch anything."

The young woman looked hesitant. The fearful expression returns to her face and she reluctantly closes the door. "I'll just… H-hide in the hallway…"

I understand her decision. It's never easy to see people's dead bodies in front of you.

"Alright. Don't get too far but don't show yourself to the enemies." I told her as I pull my bag off and keep a handful of zip ties in my pocket.

The woman doesn't answer. I glance at her briefly, she's hugging herself and leans away from the door. She then meets my gaze, and I told her in reflex. "Relax. Hide. I'll come back."

She gulps and nods hesitantly.

I look away and sigh through my nose. 'Crybaby flatty.'

I ignore her for a while and hold my bat tightly. Then enter the lobby with a cry. "HOREYAH!!"

I swing the bat and hit one enemy right on the side of his head, throwing him to the ground from the impact.

Rean looks surprised. "Terrence!"

I grin at him while rubbing my nose. "Hey there, Tomato!"

The redhead looked flustered. "Tomato?"

"Look out!" I point behind him.

He immediately dodges to the side, barely missing the skull destroyer as it swoops in and makes a dent on the marble floor.

"Listen, Terrence. Look for an opening and attack them with one stunning hit. Then just strangle them until they pass out." Rean tries to give me battle tips as he dodges a clutch from the big guy. "They're not very bright and they just attack anything that moves. You'll be able to handle them if you stay calm and observe their movements."

As expected of the main protagonist. He is very sharp in deducing these things. It's a means of survival after all and he's been to many battles before this. If I have no knowledge about this world, I would've just become dead meat like those corpses in the reception room.

Then I notice two more worker's corpses on the right side of the lobby, which I believe weren't there when I went passed Rean before.

'What…? Why are there more corpses?' I frown.

"Focus, Terrence!" Rean shouts.

I instinctively glance to my left where a shadow is moving, but I couldn't react in time. Blood splatters into the air as the man slashed my left chest.

"Terrence!" Rean shouts loudly.

I let myself fall backwards as I grab my chest.

'Hurts!'

'It hurts! It hurts! It freaking hurts!'

I repeat it over and over in my head. It's very painful and my breath becomes erratic as my brain is constantly jabbed by the stinging sensation on my chest.

Everything around me suddenly becomes black and white. My ears numb, my sight blurs, and my senses dull.

I can't think of anything. I'm too afraid to move.

As I thought, it's just a dream for me to make it to the end. I've tried to be so positive about it because I just don't want to be disappointed. Because I know I'm that weak! Even this body I'm in is weak!

'Why can't you just send me to the main protagonist's body?! To Rean's body?! He has better reflexes than this kid who's just a flat character! A nobody! Why do I have to be inside this nobody?! WHY?!!'

The System doesn't reply.

Of course, it won't reply. A thief wouldn't turn in himself if it means for his survival. But I still cannot accept this for as long as my soul exists.

'I can't even remember what happened to me before coming here… But why… Why do I have to die this soon? And this easily too…'

I can't help but lament my own life. I have yet to know what happened to me in my previous life, and they don't even give me chance in this life too.

'Hey God? Do you hate me somehow? Why did you make my life miserable like this…?'

[God does not hate you, Robin. Wake up.]

It's the System.

'What do you know? You don't even want to help me…'

[I cannot help you at the moment because the resource download has not been completed.]

'What even the hell is that?'

[Resource download is…]

'I don't care! If you're going not going to help me, just shut up!'

The System then becomes quiet.

The audacity of this so-called System. It's among the suspect of my existence in this world yet it dares to interrupt my final moments.

I breathe shallowly, enjoying the feeling of air flowing in and out of my lung.

'Just… Let me die like this then… It's not that painful anymore anyway…'

My chest doesn't hurt that much compared to before. Though it still stings, it's getting number very fast.

Maybe this is what death feels like? Everything becomes numb and eventually I'll just… Phew.

But what is this mixed sensation in my chest? It's warm, but there is this cold and refreshing sensation at the same time. It's like stream water flowing on my chest, washing all the pain away.

Maybe I'm closer to death than I thought. I heard that people will feel cold before they die, because they lose all their senses and eventually feel nothing at all.

Well, it's not a bad farewell. At least it's pleasant.

Then, color gradually returns to my sight. I was surprised by the returning colors and I blink my eyes in respond. I was thinking whether this is my time to fly to the light, but then my hearing also comes back and I can hear voices.

"Terrence?"

"Hey, junior?"

I look up, and I see Rean and Jake right above me. Redhead and brunette. Sparkling blues and shiny onyxes looking at me in concern.

I blink and smile at them warmly. I look at Rean. "Goodbye, Rean. Thank you for paying attention to me." Then at Jake. "Sorry, Jake. I threw a smoke bomb at you."

Then I look up and grin. "God, you can take me—OWW!!"

Rean had just slapped me across the cheek.

I get up instantly and yell at him. "What the hell, Rean?! Why'd you slap me?!"

Rean looks at me with slightly narrow eyes. "That's for recklessly entering the battlefield."

I look at him dumbfounded. Then I realize something more bewildering. They can see and touch me… Which means…

I rub my left chest and feel it stings a bit, but it doesn't hurt 'that' painful like before. I look down at my chest, to the slashed part of the clothes where the wound should've been, and see that the wounds have been reduced to a thin cut.

"Huh? It's healed. I'm not dead?" I wonder out loud. "How?!"

"We healed you, junior." Jake sways a bottle of blue liquid, a High Potion.

I blink owlishly. "Oh… So… I'm… Alive?"

The two nod.

Realization suddenly comes to me and I gasp at the fact that I'm not dead yet. I'm still alive!

"YEAAHH!! I'M ALIVE!!" I throw my fists above me in joy and excitement.

Suddenly, another hit lands on my other cheek. This time it's Jake.

"What was that one for?!" I yell at him.

"It's Senior Jake to you. If you're going to apologize, adhere to the norm. I'm still older and more experienced than you." Jake smugly said.

My mouth widens. I try to make a grin, but I'm feeling so annoyed at the same time. "S-Senior Jake."

Jake laughs. "You look like you're having stroke."

'What did he just say?!' I look at Rean, expressing my annoyance openly.

But Rean just hums and smiles. "Welcome back, Terrence."