Posted by Yuto struggled to walk as he was led back to his cell by the guard. It wasn’t just the gash in his leg that was slowing down his steps but also the blood that had dried his pants to his legs. Every step he took was excruciating as he limped along slowly following the guard.
The guard who was leading Yuto back couldn’t help but notice the blood flowing from this young boy. At first he was scared for the boy. He was struggling to understand what an 8-9 year old boy could possibly do that would get them thrown in the pit. He watched from behind the gate as Yuto fought and he cried out when he thought the boy was done for.
Up until the last moment when he thought he was done for the pity and sympathy in his eyes reflected his care and compassion. These were deadly traits for a guard like him and normally nothing like this could ever happen but it was totally different when saw this boy.
But now leading this child even younger than his own son he found himself questioning every feeling and thought he had before. Although this boy was limping along slowly, and as the blood oozed out all over his body the boy had a mocking smile on his face. The guard couldn’t help but notice and be a little scared by the boy who just struggled to live. His little body beat, bruised and bleeding however a sinister smile hung on the corner of his mouth and a slightly chilling laugh leaked from his mouth as he walked back to his prison cell.
It took them several times longer to get back to the cell as it did to walk out to The Pit due to Yuto’s injuries. As he walked with each step just a little bit of blood dripped to the ground leaving a trail from The Pit back to Yuto’s cell. As the blood hit the ground it mixed with the blood that already littered the ground but somehow managed to stand out as it was still wet.
The guard stood in front of the cell with the door open inviting Yuto back to his new home. When Yuto left the cell just a few minutes ago he had no inclination of the monumental life changing event that was going to unfold.
Yuto slowly walked into the cell and sat on the cold stone. He failed to notice how cold the floor was due to his injuries making his mind numb. As he sat with his back to the wall a faint laugh left his mouth over and over. For those people more than a few breadths away would never hear it, Yuto could not prevent himself from chuckling to himself picturing the face of the people who had done this to him.
Yuto’s mind struggled with accepting and processing his situation. While his mind was capable of finding reason when his life was at stake, now that he was alone and hurt in his cell the motivation he found earlier was disappearing leaving only fear and trepidation.
Still struggling for every breadth Yuto put his hand on his leg to try and stop the bleeding. Yuto struggled to keep his eyes open and found himself struggling to stay up even sitting and leaning against a wall. While his vision and thoughts were going in and out he lifted his hand and stared at the ring tattooed on his little pinkie.
Hate. At this moment Yuto felt hate for the tattoo on his hand. Even at his young age he understood from listening into the conversations in the lab that the tattoo was to blame for everything.
As he stared at the tattoo a graphic popped into Yuto’s view. Graphic is completely the wrong way to express it, it looked more like the first person shooter games everyone plays that his mom never let him play. He would sneak over to Jin’s house who was a few years older and watch him play. In the game they had a Heads Up Display (HUD) that would give them information. In the game the information they had would show them maps with friendly and enemies, health, stats, skills and more.
Yuto surprised by the HUD suddenly showing up in front of his eyes was scared and instinctively turned his head looking the other direction. The HUD moved along with the motion of his head staying in his view however not interfering with what he was seeing.
Not understanding what he was looking at Yuto was turning his head left and right trying to lose the image he was seeing. The sudden appearance of this HUD was enough for him to even forget about the blood and pain.
After shaking his head around a few dozen times Yuto gave up due to exhaustion, despite the fact that he had temporarily forgotten about his injuries it did not mean his body could accommodate his sudden outburst of energy.
Now feeling more tired and beat than several minutes ago Yuto slowly slid on to the ground laying on his side head on the cold stone. Due to the blood that was still seeping on the floor it was not an exaggeration to say he was laying in a puddle of his own blood. Eyes now only half open a peculiar change occurred in Yuto’s eyes.
The the top left corner of Yuto’s eyes the word LEVEL appeared with the number 0 beside it. Underneath it was EXPERIENCE with the number 0 beside it.
In the top right corner of Yuto’s eyes the word SKILL appeared but it was a dark grey color as compared to the black colored LEVEL and EXPERIENCE.
Suddenly the number 0 next to EXPERIENCE changed itself to1 and then without stopping went to 2.3.4.5.6 and kept repeating up in number. Around the number a box appeared and as the number kept climbing the box was being filled up.
Rather than call it a box perhaps a rectangle or bar would be more appropriate. The bar was being filled in with red as it approached 40 the color filling the bar changed from red to yellow. The number now inside the bar was 57 and continuing to climb.
As the number inside the bar hit 80 the color filling the bar went from yellow to green. Within a few seconds the bar was completely filled with green and reached 100.
Upon hitting 100 the bar lost all color as if though it was never present. There currently was no number inside the bar counting up.
The LEVEL above EXPERIENCE then changed from 0 to 1. The SKILL in the top right corner went from grey to black and beside the word SKILL a p1 was shown.
Following the change to the the LEVEL and SKILL the EXPERIENCE then began counting again. Starting from 1 then 2, 3, 4, 5 the numbers started to climb.
The bar began to again fill with red. the bar approached 40 and Yuto watched for it to turn yellow. However this time the bar remained red as crossed the 40 threshold and continued on to 50, 60, 70 and 80.
Once the number crossed 80 the bar turned from red to yellow and continued climbing. The number went past100 but unlike last time there was no change to the LEVEL and the EXPERIENCE points and bar just continued to climb.
The EXPERIENCE continued to climb and after crossing 160 the color changed from yellow to green. Again as the bar reached 200 the bar lost all color and numbers.
The LEVEL then proceeded to increase from 1 to 2 and next to the SKILL the p1 changed to p3.
Following the changes to LEVEL and the p1 to p3 the EXPERIENCE number then began counting up again. The bar once again turned red. Finally the EXPERIENCE stopped at 111 with the bar remaining red.
While it felt like a long drawn out process as Yuto was watching this happen in reality the entire process occurred in less than a couple of seconds.
Still lying in a puddle of his own blood on a cold stone floor while suffering alone in pain Yuto was blankly staring at the odd and unexplained event happening to him.
Perhaps this was the byproduct of losing so much blood and being in so much pain. Maybe his mind snapped and he was no longer able to deal with what just happened?
It would be crazy if he a boy could accept that he was kidnapped, experimented on, thrown into a prison cell, forced to fight a life and death battle and then left for dead without suffering any kind of mental or emotional strain.
That would be normal right? Its not hat he is going crazy and losing his mind it’s that he is normal and his mind is trying to find some way of dealing with what he is going through.
As Yuto was having these thoughts and was consumed with what was happening in front of his eyes he was failing to notice that the tattoo on his pinkie was gently glowing. While glowing the tattoo started to expand and if prior to expanding the tattoo on his hand was the width 3 millimeters it was now almost double that at 6 millimeters.
After the tattoo finished expanding under the SKILL five words appeared one on top of the other. Starting at the top was vitality, under vitality was comprehension followed by agility, strength and finally mana.
The five new words were greyed out and did not look like they were active. Not understanding what they were Yuto read aloud “Vitality, comprehension, agility, strength and mana…what is that? What does this mean?”
Suddenly the p3 next to SKILL turned to p0 and the previously greyed out vitality, comprehension and agility were no longer greyed out but were now black. Next to vitality, comprehension and agility there was a 1 next to them. Strength and mana were still greyed out.
Following the 1 appearing next to the skill Yuto felt an incredible fatigue wash over him. Already laying on the ice cold floor in a puddle of his own blood Yuto’s eye’s that were previously half closed finished the job and Yuto drifted into unconsciousness.