A message

I dismissed all the System messages that had appeared an hastly asked Assistant out loud.

-How do we get him?-

[So you do not want to faint anymore, huh?] She asked sarcastically.

I looked at my left arm, it was true, a few seconds ago I was tired and in horrible pain... I guess devourer got my energy back again.

-I'm fine, let's continue-

[I'm designing a roadmap to predict where can we wait for him, I'll show it to you when I'm finished, by now just continue walking]

-Alright-

I continued running in the direction I was already going, there was no need to run but I wanted to, I felt full of energy and ready to continue fighting.

I already survived my first encounter with a Dark Zones creature, I already know how strong can I except them to be, so I don't need to be that afraid.

However I should be more careful from now on when taking fights with unknown creatures, even if I won against that monster, I can't just keep going head on against anything I see.

-By the way, Assistant, what exactly was that thing?- I asked out loud, just to make some small talk

[The monster you just killed?]

-Yeah-

[I think it was just a human that couldn't handle Dark Zone's air]

I felt confused, I stuttered a bit before asking again.

-A... human?-

[Yes, a civilian from White Zones. Didn't you notice how different the air was here?]

-Well... yeah, it burned, but I didn't think it could do that to someone-

[Don't worry. You are already strong enough to not die by it]

She has to be kidding, that was a human? a... civilian? How exactly did they end like that? The air could have done that to me...?

I interrumpted my own thoughts when I noticed I was running into a group of humanoid figures.

They all turned their heads to look at me. Shit, i got careless again.

Let's see there are one, two, three...

Five creatures, they all had the same skin color and looked equally in pain as the one before, but these... They had adventurer's gear on.

They lacked different parts of the body and had another parts inflamated, but they were definetly the same thing as the first one...

Humans.

I wasn't so excited about being here anymore, I was afraid and dudative.

Can I kill humans...?

Well, they're diying so it's like doing them a favour, right?

And it's not like I haven't killed already...

I took a deep breath and looked at them... One of them pointed a sword against me, then the rest of them jumped at me at breakneck speed.

I used lighting step to make distance with them, not big deal, I was still faster than them, I continued jumping around them and tried to analyze the situation.

They had eyes, so the noise trick won't work on them. I can't approach them to fight because their acid is dangerous... However, their weapons

How could their weapons have lasted so long here...?

-Assistant, are weapons inmune to their acid?-

I got no answer. I tried again.

-Assistant?-

Well this is a problem.

I have no guarantee that using their weapons against them will work, but it's my best guess... And they're slowly closing the distance between us, I need to act now.

I grabbed a rock from the floor and threw it to the face of one who was closer to me, it didn't hurt him but at least i had a little window of opportunity to steal his weapon, a greataxe, from him.

However they friends were already over me the moment we stopped, I instinctively used the guy's body as meat shield.

The acid from his body splashed over me when he got pierced by his friends.

My body burned in pain, and in my head voices started screaming

"FEED US", "EAT", "CONSUME THEM!"

It all happened so fast, I did it, I took a good bite of the guy I used as a shield. For a moment I swear I could see how his soul got out of his body and I devoured it too.

I got disposed of the body just after, the remaining four backed off.

The white fluid emanated from my chest towards all the injuries, then I got it.

There's no reason for me to not fight head on.

I can slaughter them.

---

-

---

Dio had just beaten his first enemy when we saw one of the dragon kings pass just above us.

The whispers of devourer got a little bit loud in his soul, but they quickly shut up.

I opened the administration panel.

--

[User: Agent#005]

-

∆ [Open {Player: Dio} ]

∆ [Edit {Player: Dio} ]

∆ [Create Content ]

∆ [Log Out ]

--

I opened the [Create Content] option and started designing the roadmap based on the current location of the dragon king.

At the same time, I had a screen open so I could see what Dio was doing, we chatted a bit while he ran and I designed the map. It was a oddly comforting situation for me.

He's such a curious being, he does trust everything I say blindly, yet he does not look like no fool, he cries, is afraid and can't handle pain, yet he is still willing to continue. Maybe it was luck, but it's not usual for a Player to derail our {Plan}, we have had got nearly picture perfect predictions everytime before... He is certainly something I would like to watch closely.

That was what I was thinking when I received a new message from the headquarters. I opened it.

...

It was a short message.

["Log Out"]

I was certainly upsetted by such a straightforward and cold answer by them. It's unpleasant to think they want to dismiss such an unusual chance to see what happens when things doesn't go as planned.

I signed a request for a meeting in order to discuss it further. I immediately got a notification message back.

[Request accepted.]

Then, a button appeared in front of me.

-

> [Join Meeting]

-

I looked at the screen that allowed me to know what Dio was doing... There didn't seemed to be near threats, although he was distracted. If something attacks him while I'm in the meeting, he'll be on his own.

I looked at the deep darkness of his soul.

It's the kind of chance Devourer would like to use to take over him...

I'll have to trust it won't happen. I pressed to button.

And I temporarily left.