When the room finally descended into total silence, I stepped away from the small corpses on the floor and staggered toward the door. As my purple skin slowly faded back to its normal color, a stinging sensation—like thousands of needles piercing every inch of my body—began. As the skin softened, the bruises left by the bite marks throbbed even harder.

  "Take a breath..." I said, leaning on my spear. "Let's breathe for a moment."

  Elara was wiping the blood from her knife onto a scrap of curtain. She was covered in black blood, but that earlier fit of hysterical laughter seemed to have given her a strange energy. "You're okay, right? I mean... now that the skin thing is over?"

  "It hurts," I said honestly. "But my bones are intact. Alright, we'll keep going like this. This is the fastest way. To the next classroom."

  We moved through the dark corridor. The sign on the next door read "Little Bunnies Class." I stood before it, took a deep breath, and focused my mind on that chaotic wheel again. Please, I thought, please let it be the skin again, or claws... give me something useful!

  [GENETIC ROULETTE ACTIVATED.] [TRAIT ACQUIRED: MUTANT BALDNESS (LOW TIER)]

  Suddenly, I felt a strange coolness on my head. An itch, as if thousands of ants were marching across my scalp simultaneously, followed by a peculiar sensation of lightness... Black tufts began to fall to the floor before my eyes, one by one, like leaves in autumn.

  "Alex?" Elara’s voice rose, this time not with fear, but with pure astonishment.

  Reflexively, I reached for my head. The thick hair I expected to feel beneath my fingers was gone. Instead, all I felt was a scalp as smooth as marble, shining and slippery.

  "M-my hair!" I shouted, my voice echoing in the corridor. I rubbed my head in disbelief, trying to find even a single strand of hair, but it was in vain. My head was shining like a billiard ball.

  Elara froze for a second. Her eyes darted between the pile of hair on the floor and my gleaming head. Then, all the stress, fear, and exhaustion she had been holding back erupted into a massive explosion.

  "HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

  Elara doubled over, slapping her knees as she burst into peals of laughter. She was laughing so hard that tears streamed from her eyes. "That’s... that’s such a useful skill, Alex! Really! The monsters... the monsters are probably going to slip right off your head! HAHAHA!"

  "Shut up, Elara!" I roared, my face turning crimson with rage. "Damn skill! Aaaaarrrggh! Give me my hair back!"

  I slammed my spear into the ground in frustration. "Genetic Roulette... To hell with the justice of a system like you!" I shouted into the void. "Am I supposed to face babies as a bald man now?!"

  Elara still couldn't speak from laughing, she kept pointing her finger at my shining head. "Great... great plan, Alex! You'll blind them with your charisma!"

  "ENOUGH!" I shouted, though I was at a breaking point from my own frustration. "Stop laughing and open this door. At least the only ones who will see me like this are the monsters!"

  Elara wiped her teary eyes, slowly straightened up, and took a deep breath. As her gaze drifted to the bruises and bite marks visible on Alex’s arms and through the tears in his jacket, the expression on her face suddenly turned serious.

  "Okay, okay... I've stopped laughing," Elara said, slowly approaching Alex. "But those wounds don't look good at all. Come here, let’s fix them up a bit."

  Alex tried to straighten up, leaning on his spear, while still feeling his smooth scalp with one hand. "No need, I'm fine," he said in a sharp tone. "Don't waste your mana on small things like this; we're just at the beginning. Save it for emergencies."

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Elara rolled her eyes and stepped decisively toward Alex. "I have more mana than you, Alex; thanks to the system, the tank fills up as we level up. Stop being stubborn and come here."

  Before Alex could respond, Elara suddenly grabbed his arm—the one with the most bite marks.

  "Ah! Take it easy!" Alex winced at the sudden sting of the pressure and let out a groan through his teeth.

  Elara smiled victoriously. "Did you just say 'I'm fine'? Your voice didn't quite sound like it."

  Elara placed her hands over Alex’s bruised and battered arm. She closed her eyes slightly. Soon, a soft, white light seeping from her fingertips began to envelop Alex’s skin. The needle-like sting was replaced by a cooling and soothing sensation. The bite marks closed as if they had never existed, and the bruises faded rapidly.

  Alex felt his arm heal completely, and even some of his fatigue seemed to drain away. "Thanks," he muttered, his voice softer this time. "But seriously, watch your mana."

  "Get out of here, chrome-dome," Elara teased with a wink. "We still have a lot of rooms to clear."

  After flexing and checking his healed arm, Alex gripped his spear firmly. With the strange lightness of his hairless head and the vigor provided by Elara’s healing power, he turned toward the door of the "Little Bunnies Class."

  "Get ready," Alex said as he reached for the door handle. "There might be more inside this time."

  Alex tightened his grip on the handle. As he visualized that damned wheel again, he felt the familiar knotting in his stomach. The shock and anger of losing his hair were still fresh.

  Just as he was about to focus, Elara smirked from the side. "Are you sure your eyebrows aren't going to fall off this time?" she asked mockingly. "You know, for that completely smooth look..."

  Alex paused. Frowning, he felt his marble-smooth scalp with one hand. The hardness in his voice was gone, replaced by genuine concern. "I don't know, Elara... Do you think I'm permanently bald? I mean, my hair will grow back once the skill expires, right? Or am I going to spend the rest of my life as a billiard ball?"

  Seeing his dejected state, Elara chuckled softly, but this time it was more consoling. "Okay, okay... I promise, if we make it out of this quest alive, I'll apply my healing skill to your hair every day. Maybe we can jumpstart the follicles. Though I don't know if it'll work; the system is no joke."

  Alex took a deep breath and turned back to the door. "I hope it works, or I'll have to dump my first level points into charisma."

  The wheel in his mind spun with great speed, spun, and stopped with a golden-yellow light.

  [GENETIC ROULETTE ACTIVATED.] [TRAIT ACQUIRED: MUTANT CLAWS (MID TIER)]

  A terrible itching and bone-aching began in Alex's hands. From his fingertips, jet-black, curved claws about ten centimeters long and razor-sharp erupted. His nail beds expanded, and his fingers became more knobby and powerful.

  Alex raised his hands and looked at those lethal weapons. When he rubbed the claws together, a metallic, shrill scraping sound rang out. His eyes gleamed.

  "This is it!" he said, his confidence returned. "Now it's truly time to hunt."

  He took his spear in his left hand and placed his clawed right hand on the door handle. He looked at Elara one last time; she gripped her knife tightly and nodded.

  "We're going in..." Alex said, his voice now entirely that of a hunter. "3... 2... 1!"

  He slammed the door open with a shoulder barge. The moment they burst into the "Little Bunnies Class," dozens of small shadows inside shrieked simultaneously and turned toward them. But this time, Alex was ready to be their nightmare with his bald head and glowing claws.

  When the door swung open with a bang, the familiar smell of sour milk and rotting meat hit our faces like a slap. But this time, the room wasn't as crowded as the others; instead, there was a far more grotesque sight inside.

  In the center of the classroom, among the overturned small tables, stood a creature that looked more like a giant heap of dough than a baby. It was at least three times larger than the others; its layered grey skin had swollen so much from the mutation that its legs could barely support the weight of its body. Its small, black eyes were buried between layers of fat, but its mouth, filled with razor-sharp teeth, was wide open.

  Around it, lined up like loyal guards, were three more "fatty" baby monsters, similarly bloated but slightly smaller. Despite their lumbering nature, they made a wet, wheezing sound from their throats the moment they saw us.

  Words escaped my mouth involuntarily. "I guess someone had a bit too much milk..."

  I scraped my claws together, creating a metallic sound. The largest one in the middle, with a sound resembling a pig's grunt, took its first wobbling step toward us. Its heavy body rippled with every movement, but one shouldn't be fooled by its lumbering nature; a bite from that mass could tear my arm off in one go.

  "Elara, stay behind me," I said, extending my claws forward. "These ones can't jump and run like the others, but once they catch you, they won't let go. Leave the big one to me!"

  The fattest creature, as if understanding my insult, suddenly accelerated. With unexpected momentum, it launched itself toward me like a massive heap of flesh. Feeling the sharp sting in my claws, I raised my mutant hands.

  Getting out of this room was going to be much bloodier than the others.