Painful death might not be the worst thing in the world; that was Rue’s conclusion after everything.

  His breath fanned around the glass tube casing around his mouth. The whirring machinery was still going; he had grown sick of it. But those were not the worst. The blaring headlight of the evening and the nurses and doctors who smiled as they carted him away to the research lab were even more sickening as always.

  Still, Rue smiled—a bitter one.

  Nothing he could do. And he had long accepted it.

  As they pushed him through the hospital’s corridor, a new line of people cheering him with applause was ready again. New faces every time. Rue closed his eyes, wishing they would stop doing this. He tried to tell the doctor and nurse to cart faster, but all that came out of his mouth was incoherent mumbling. A sliver of a gap opened between his lips, and a puffed blue orb swayed up. A gasp escaped the crowd. Cries. Silent mumbling. Prayers.

  “Rue? You wanted something?” Doctor Perez asked. The bald man held his arm up and stopped the bed. The doctor peered at him, trying to read his face.

  Great.

  “Fast, please—”

  “Rue Hazard!” A squeaky voice cried out. A child reached up, trying to put his arm around Rue’s bandaged arm. The moment he was about to touch him, another hand shot up and pushed the kid away into the crowd, into the boy's mother.

  “The patient here cannot be touched as his sickness is still being researched,” a security guard said, then his eyes narrowed on the boy’s mother. “As briefed.”

  Rue ignored the mother’s apology; the boy was insistent on seeing him.

  “Fast, please,” Rue croaked. “I don’t need to see them… I get it already, Perez.”

  Doctor Perez’s eyes widened, and a flash of sympathy colored the man's creased face. But he was a doctor, a man of science, and would prioritize extracting the cure from the few thousand survivors left.

  “Yes,” Perez's lips grew thin. “Continue!”

  The bed wheeled forward. Cries of adoration went through the crowd as Perez led the nurses away beyond security lines.

  “My Father died from the illness!” The kid from earlier screamed. “I think you’re a hero! The thousands of you! You are.”

  The kid's voice disappeared behind him, consumed by the crowd trying to follow Rue to his destination, a heavy gate that opened with all the slowness of the world the moment Perez inserted his keycard.

  “If they are so thankful, then the least they can do is be quiet,” Rue mumbled to himself as they were out of his earshot.

  One of the nurses—a young man who probably just graduated from a university where the boy had spent a sweet part of his life… running around, studying, and well… living, his eyes wide open as if they were about to fall out.

  “What did you say…”

  “What? Do you think I want to be here?” Rue asked.

  “But, you volunteer, right?”

  “Volunteer!” Rue exclaimed. He coughed; it was meant to be a cackle, but of course, his body did not cooperate. Another nurse calmed him by raising his neck. “There are only thousands of us, the survivors of this mysterious sickness, where millions died. Do you really think we've been given the option to volunteer?”

  The boy did not watch where he walked, almost tripping against a pipe that ran along the wall into the research room through an upper window, which reflected the intense bleach light of the research center.

  “But, sir. I heard you are willing to—”

  “Sir? Tell me, how old are you?”

  “I’m 26.”

  “Well, sir,” Rue raised his bandaged arm, a piece of the white cloth loosened, revealing his wizening skin like a white acrid burn. “I’m younger than you by six years.”

  “You are? Wait, you’re forced to be here?” The boy looked around, holding the doctor, nurses, and the security guard. All who held this impassive look. He glanced at the adoring crowd behind, those fools, if he had the choice, if he had legs. He would run. Far, far away.

  The boy was about to ask something again. His blonde hair swayed like a wagging dog tail. But before he could voice anything, Perez cut him off.

  “That is enough,” the doctor said. “Bring him in.”

  The next ten minutes or so were a routine Rue was so familiar with.

  The metallic gate screeched closed. Small tubes were inserted into various parts of his body. Legs, hands, stomach… Rue blanked his mind. As they were done, the question began.

  “Is there any new letter?”

  The same question. Rue craned open his eyes to see the prompt. The blue letters that always hung in his vision.

  […TUTORIA…]

  “Nothing,” Rue said. “Still the same.”

  Perez gave a nod, correcting his glasses while he was at it.

  “We will start extracting your blood, Rue.”

  “Stop asking permission when I couldn’t say no, Perez.”

  Perez didn’t answer. The doctor went into the small glass vial held by nurses, which had been filled with something he didn’t understand.

  Rue's blood mixed in, and soon his mind went cloudy.

  That was faster than usual.

  Something was wrong.

  “You’re taking more than usual?” Rue asked.

  Perez tensed. “My daughter… she got the illness.” The room went quiet. Rue's eyes raked across the working nurses and even the security guard.

  “Ah,” Rue smiled, tried to. “I see everyone is in on it. So this was not authorized?”

  “Did you not hear me?” Perez's voice grew tight, and anger seeped into it. “It was for my daughter!”

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “Yet, you take more and endanger my well-being… just so you have extra instead of asking to be part of the designated batch. Risking to kill me.”

  “I was refused. I—I should have got one.”

  “But, you didn’t,” Rue finished, and stilled with a sigh. The gnawing annoyance built inside of him. “Must be easy if it's for family, isn't it? Those words. Like a magic word. So full of convenient truth, yet so easily taken. Like your reason for carting me here every day, Perez.”

  “Shut up,” Perez's fist clenched. “I will burn the whole wide world if I have to—”

  [Last TUTORIAL COMMENCES]

  [Force of Darkling had endangered the Multiverses; as such, the Last Tutorial shall launch for every untested world]

  “Excuse me?” Rue blinked. The prompt. It was suddenly complete. His heartbeat rose, and the hazy cloud around his mind suddenly vanished, replaced by forced clarity.

  “You heard me!”

  “Heartbeat over the limit! Code Red!” Shouted a nurse. Alarm followed. Perez suddenly barked several orders, and the organized nurses talked over each other as Rue’s eyes focused on the words. They were not done yet.

  “Rue! Rue! Do not die! Do you hear me! I swear I will hunt your spirit—”

  Oh, screw you.

  [Last TUTORIAL COMMENCES]

  [Participant: 1 Trillion…]

  Name: Rue Hazard.

  Creation Point: 100… [Recalibrating]

  [Mana Sickness Detected…]

  [Rue Hazard had suffered Mana spillage triggered during Tutorial preparation. As such, Rue Hazard will be granted 1,000,000 Creation Points]

  [Rue Hazard will be sent for private creation with a [Librarian]]

  Name: Rue Hazard.

  Creation Point: 1,000,000

  “Perez!” Rue called. “The word…” He screamed, lurching up, but then a deep pain bloomed across his chest.

  Blood sprang from his nose. His eyes bulged wide. That was too much movement. Rue's body balked. The metallic taste of blood wafted into his mouth.

  “Rue? Rue!” Perez shouted, hesitantly taking his arm

  He needed to tell him… But his mind now truly drifted apart. Was he dying? Maybe he was. This was perhaps not bad. But what about the others?

  Rue could almost laugh. Others… the billions of souls waited for a successful cure, which hopefully would stop the spread of the mysterious blue illness.

  But why should he care about them? He was an experimental pig, and nothing more. Nothing.

  more… and yet, he opened his mouth, and managed to say.

  “Screw you for everything, but be careful. Good luck.”

  He could not hear Perez's last words to him.

  His ears went blank first. Then slowly his vision waned, darkness creeping around like a cloud.

  For a while, nothing happened, just a comfortable silence that took over his entire being. And it was very comfortable. Everything went away, worries, contempt, desire…

  This might not be too bad, to stay in this absolute void of nothing.

  Was this a death? Strange, why did people fear this?

  For Rue, the fact that he did not have to open his eyes and was subjected to various experiments was no longer…

  Freeing? No. Cold sweat touched the base of his neck. He tried not to think about it, tried to just accept…. This comfortable…

  I want to live.

  He wanted out. He would apologize to Perez if needed. He would give blood over and over. Not because others might need it, but because he just wanted to keep living. Why? He did not know why. It was just something, a realization that went through him like a jolt of electricity.

  Let me out of here!

  Weak crimson light touched his eyes.

  Flickering flame prattled around the dusky, round chamber’s walls, coloring the circle of water that surrounded the stone platform upon which he lay. He took in a sharp breath.

  Before panic crept in, relief won out. Rue let out a huge breath of life. He tried to stand, but his body did not respond as always. This was quite uncomfortable; the stone beneath him was so coarse that Rue could feel it through his bandaged body.

  He tried to find anything inside this torch-lit chamber. And found people in bandages just like him. Shimmering bluish lines ran along the opening of their bandages; it was the sickness, they had it too.

  According to the news, there were only a thousand of them, and around him, there were at least ten people.

  “Hello?” Rue croaked, trying to get a response.

  “Hi!” A voice chirped. Young, a girl’s voice. Rue strained his eyes to find her. But he could not see her. “What are—”

  “What is this?” A voice cut her off. “Another damn experiment?” Another asked.

  Soon, others began to talk, panic about to ensue. It was clear that Rue would not get his answer.

  “Silence”

  Every voice was cut off. As if replacing the sound, a figure now stood among them. Rue just realized they were positioned in a circle, and there was a woman.

  No, not a woman. Her skin was red, and she was completely naked with a tail that ended as a thin spearhead, swaying behind her. Horns protruded above her orange eyes, and a third eye blinked on her forehead.

  She was beautiful, but not in a normal way. She was an arcane, a being different from their own.

  Rue's breath quickened, her eyes locked onto his.

  “I will start with you,” the red demoness said.

  She smiled and elegantly knelt on both knees. Her face went toward him, and Rue could smell blood exuding from the creature’s skin.

  He began to shuffle, trying to run, to roll, but to no avail.

  The demon opened her mouth and bit into his neck.

  His eyes stretched open, and aching agony shot through his entire body. He tried to scream, but no voice came, so instead, Rue bit his bandage and screamed out internally. Suddenly wishing the darkness to be better than this.

  [Curse Applied] [Sruka Marking]

  The demon wiped blood from her teeth, licking it, and smirked down at him.

  “So much Mana.” She cooed, caressing Rue’s cheek and wiping his tears. “Ah, I do feel bad. All of you will be so mighty were it not for this… But no worries…” She stood and went around the room.

  It took Rue everything not to fall asleep. He had just a feeling that if he let his mind go blank, then he would die.

  So, he watched as the demon went around the room, her tail slanted, dragging across the floor. She bent down for each of them and bit them across their necks. Everyone raked their body over in useless defiance. When she was done with the last one, she opened her arm wide and proclaimed…

  “Now, I suppose I owe all of you some explanation,” She licked her lips with a snake-like, long tongue, and smeared blood across her already red-tinted cheek. “Long story short. Your world is being destroyed as we speak. And you, my dear arch candidate, will be the key to their survival.”

  A thin smile etched across her face as her dark hair cascaded around her arm.

  “But! I don’t give a crap about the trillions of miserable wretches who are all shoved into one planet by the System. What I care about is… which of you is willing to go back there and start a cult for me? The system will soon offer—ah, here it's come.”

  Blue prompt invaded Rue’s vision, and he grunted from the sudden blaring light.

  [Class Selection:

  Warrior, Ranger, Mage, Fighter, Archer, Hunter, Rogue, Scout, Monk, Druid, Wizard, Spearman, Herbalist, Duelist, Blade Master, Warlock…

  ]

  The list went on and on. Rue’s eyes scrolled to the very bottom of the list and saw another word.

  Apply Arch Core? [Cost 500,000 CP]

  “Yes, yes, very confusing,” the Demoness said, shaking her head, and she sighed. Then, she clapped her hands, smiling broadly, making sure all attention was on her. “I shall make this simple. The arch core will give you great power over any class you choose. Now, the important part: I will kill anyone who refuses to become an Arch Warlock…”

  Her proclamation was met with silence aside from dripping water and flickering flame.

  “That, and if you did not choose yours truly as your Patron.”