Nightmare System

Awaiting Death

"Now, how should I use these grenades?" Hell murmured to himself. It took 4 seconds for a grenade to explode after the pin was pulled and he was certainly dextrous, but he wouldn't be able to efficiently use all of them at the same time no matter how fast he was. He had but 2 hands after all.

The adrenaline made him feel he could keep pushing forever but he knew better than that after the first punch he endured by one of those giant creatures. Although there was no more blood, the pain was constant and surging.

"I have been enduring nightmares for as long as I remember. You gotta up your game," Hell said, looking up into the sky from the large cracks in the abandoned building he was in.

He wondered what happened to this place. There seemed to be no one left except these soldiers and many, many goblins. He figured this was a dire apocalypse scenario, seeing only 40-50 soldiers were deployed against such a threat.

And they'd probably die soon as well. Which meant this was a mission impossible. Was this the last worthless attempt of humans to eliminate this threat? He was but a Private and was still here, after all. It didn't make any sense. They were probably sent here to be eliminated.

It didn't matter, however, this was just a random scenario that would probably be erased as soon as he “woke up” from this nightmare.

"Right," he said, turning to the commander. "Please support me from behind as best as you can.” He gave up his rifle, trading it with a shotgun-like weapon from one of the soldiers.

Although the soldier protested at first, saying he wouldn't be able to properly use it, it didn't matter as the commander shut him up. The commander also knew this superhuman of a private was their only chance of perhaps taking a few of those bastards along themselves.

The buildings around shook as they prepared. And even though there was some distance between the soldiers and the giants at first, not only were they close now, they would also be found out soon. Giants were the main force while the smaller goblins investigated the buildings.

But it was enough, Hell just needed a breath, and he had used some healing liquid from the commander. It had actually restored quite a bit of his HP now, finally taking effect.

"Great timing," Hell said with a smile. "So what if this is real for me? I died thousands of times and won even more of those dreams. You make it so that I can't control the world?” he added. Although this was a vivid enough dream, he couldn’t control it as he normally could.

“Doesn't matter, I'll beat it with your rules." His HP was now raised to 70/100.

*Player is resolute, spin the Wheel of Gains and Misfortune?*

"Spin the fucker," Hell said in his mind. The system would pick up his intentions. "I can't win if I am a nice little soldier, right? I'll go all the way, just like before. I'll use everything,” Hell stated, determined.

He almost heard a slight giggle from the system for a moment, but then figured he misheard and waited. The soldiers had just started firing outside. One of the giants probably saw them now, Hell was thinking.

*Player chose to spin the Wheel of Gains and Misfortune.*

The black wheel from before appeared. It got bigger than Hell after a moment or two, and was spun. This one had writings on both sides. One side was “Gains”, and the other was “Misfortunes”.

So he was guaranteed to have something? That was pretty neat. He spun the wheel and waited. He was gazing at the “Gains”, seeing there were abilities such as "flying" or "telekinesis" there. He really wanted one of them.

The wheel slowed down more and more, finally stopping. "Devourer" was what it stopped on. The voice was heard again.

*Player was awarded, “Devourer”. The player will be able to plunder the special abilities of his targets. A portion of the target's mana and skills count as the special abilities*

*Player receives misfortune* The system also began saying so he turned around to see what the misfortune was, he would be fine with anything, he thought, as long as he could continue fighting properly. But blood was drawn off his face after he saw what the misfortune was.

His breathing became uneven and rushed. He knew now that he would be fine physically, but that was not the issue here.

*The Greatest Fear is chosen. A pseudo-curse of the player will be transferred to a person the player deeply cares about*

*There is only one person the player cares deeply about. "Devlin" will now be converted into a pseudo-player*

"No, no, no!" Hell said. "Take the gain back, I'll do anything! Take an arm or an eye if you wish so, don't touch my brother, he is just an 18-year-old boy!"

The system was, however, silent. He was stupid. He knew the system wasn't there to help him. It was there to put him in ordeals until he died.

There was suddenly a bright light in the room momentarily, and he really did see his brother, wearing his tracksuit. He was probably just jogging, he loved jogging during night-time. Possibly a habit he got from his big brother, even though Hell no longer did so.

"What is happening?"

"Hi, Devlin," Hell said.

"Who the hell are you?" Devlin said as he looked around and saw it was a completely different place to where he was moments ago, it was shocking.

Hell took off his helmet and his face was revealed. “Well, you aren’t wrong.”

"Brother? What is… going on?" Devlin asked again. Hell got closer to him and put his hand on his brother's shoulder. "I want you to listen to me very carefully, I don't want any questions, understood?"

"I… understand. But-" Devlin wanted to ask something as he was silenced by the loud noise of the battle outside.

"Believe it or not, this is absolutely real and you can die here. I will explain everything later, now do everything I say. First, stay here. I will send two soldiers in here after a moment," Hell said and handed him his shotgun he was really looking forward to use.

"Use this if you see any non-human creature, don't attack the ones in my armour."

Devlin nodded with a stupefied expression on his face, but he would listen to his big brother when he was serious like this. Devlin, deciding this was too much of a shock, stopped thinking.

"System, is misfortune only for this level?" Hell asked. There was no response. "f**k this," he said as he rushed out.

Hell saw two of the giants on the next street approaching his brother’s location. Another giant that had arrived a minute or two ago had already killed around 6 soldiers. It didn't matter how scattered the soldiers were, they could neither run nor properly fight against these giants. Truly a hopeless battle.

Hell sneaked around this time, the giants were as big as the buildings, he could sneak around amongst the rubble and broken-down buildings. This could be the perfect place to fight them.

One of the two giants behind soon fell on the ground with some help from Hell. Seeing this, the other giant guffawed at him, possibly thinking he tripped. However, he soon followed, as well, before even comprehending what was really going on.

Hell slit their throats with the glaive as fast as he could and continued toward the giant who was fighting the soldiers. He saw 5 more soldiers were missing now, likely to have died. He speedily proceeded to the giant's heel, slashing it down.

And as soon as he had done so, the giant yelled on top of his lungs. Perhaps he wanted to alert the other giants, or it maybe was just in enough pain to warrant the scream. Maybe it was scared. He was the one that saw how Hell killed the first two giants, it must have been horror.

The 5 giants remaining as well as all the goblins heard his distress call and began to furiously rush at the area from each and every direction. Luckily, there would be some time as their army was scattered around the ruins of the city. They at least got a minute or two. He slashed the giant's throat a few times as soon as he fell, and the giant was finally killed.

*You have levelled up*

The system informed him again, but before dealing with his stats, he went up to the commander and asked him he needed at least two soldiers to protect someone, as soon as possible. The commander didn't hesitate and called his best combatants for the job, all four of them then rushed to the abandoned building Devlin was in.

Hell moved at their speed for a while, but when they got closer, they heard the sound of a shotgun. Hell's heart clenched and he explosively moved forward toward the building, seeing 5 goblin corpses around as well as his bloodied brother, who collapsed as soon as he saw his big brother.

Hell let go of his weapon and rushed at his brother, trying to identify any wounds he may have received while he asked Devlin in a heart-wrenching look on his face.

"Injuries, wounds, do you have any? What happened? Tell me. I'm here now."

"It's nothing," Devlin faintly said. "The first of these creatures was a tad sneaky. He got me there." Devlin stopped holding his side, blood started pouring out again. “I never thought I’d go this way.”

Hell immediately applied pressure. "I'll kill everyone if you die, alright? Remember? You don't want all other people to die, too, right? Live for their safety. You won't die from this," Hell got the words out in speed, with an anxious demeanour, tears falling down his face.

"Save him." Hell turned to the soldiers who just arrived with flabbergasted minds and ordered them, pitiful he looked, but stern at the same time. Hell's grieving face revealed showed that there would be consequences if they didn't save him. All 3 of them felt a chill in their bones, this Private was not as he seemed. After all, he would become a demon when it suited him.

*You have levelled up*

*You have levelled up*

*You have levelled up*

*Upon reaching level 13, Player learned the command "Identify"*

The system informed him again. The other two giants must have died finally.

"Brother," Devlin said, his face pale. "Don't hurt other people, I don't know what is happening, but I wouldn't blame you, I wouldn't blame my brother anyway," he added passed out. One of the soldiers brought out something resembling a first aid kit and tried to close the wound.

"Identify," Hell commanded in his mind, wearing a blank face as if his world collapsed. He lived for himself, too, but he was going to protect his little brother. It was one of his tenets in life. Not even he himself was an exception from the tenets he decided upon. The most important of these tenets was: “I will always protect Devlin”.

*Dying brother of the Man of Cursed Spirit. Curse him to become a player?*

"No," Hell said.

His brother was an incomparably kind person, vastly differing to his older brother who only became kinder with the influence of his younger brother. After his parents, the only thing of value Hell had in life was his brother, and he was about to kill him with his stupid mistake.

He would die confused, not knowing why everything was happening. This was a crime Hell could not bear.

*Player rejected to save his brother* The system spoke again.

"Save, huh?" he sat there and watched his brother slowly fade away in his arms. "I can't… do this. I'll lose my mind," Hell said.

"Private, this is war. I am sorry if he was an important person to you but we have to fight!" The Commander said promptly. He had arrived to see the man to be protected. He was trying to urge Hell to fight, they could already feel the ground shaking right after one of the other giants' shrieks of death.

"I'll kill you if you say one more word to me," Hell said with no emotions, blankly looking at his brother. This man was killing giants with utmost ease, at least compared to themselves, but he was broken right now.

The Commander wanted him to leave his brother with those guards and join the fray to fight the goblins outside, but he didn't want to die here, either. The commander thus stayed silent and the soldier applying first aid suddenly spoke up.

"He lost too much blood. If you can find one of the healing liquids we treated you with, I believe he would have a chance," the soldier said. "But you would need to kill all those giants around just go get to our bunker in the middle of the battlefield.

"Is that so?" Hell said. Slowly laying Devlin down on the floor and finding some cloth nearby, he made something to rest his head on. "I'll do that, then," Hell added as his face wore a mask filled unbridled fury with tears still streaming down his face.

"Your lives will depend on whether he lives or not, take care of him, please," Hell said as he went out, taking the glaive with him.

"Open Menu," Hell commanded, using his new levels to raise his Dexterity. He needed more speed.

*Dexterity=116*

He rushed out, pulling the pins of the grenades as he went around throwing them to goblin concentrated areas near the giants. He wanted to disorient them and s***h their Achilles' heels right after. If he could do it, that would be the optimal way of killing them. These giants were strong, but stupid.

The giants fell down one after another. The more his dexterity was raised, everything became that much easier, the only problem was his sore arms, seemed he still needed more durability. He soon used up 10 of his grenades and had finished around 60 goblins along with the remaining 5 giants. Although Hell himself hadn't noticed yet, the fighting was easier than he was before. His moves were deadlier and stronger, his attacks graceful but fast.

*You have levelled up*

*You have levelled up*

*You have levelled up*

*You have levelled up*

*You have levelled up*

He heard the system’s messages as everything around him started dying. He wanted to be faster to get to his brother, he opened his menu again and invested the points all into Dexterity.

*Dexterity=166*

*As the Dexterity stat exceeded 165, Player gains the ability "Short Distance Warping"*

*Short Distance Warping: 50 Mana for each use, allows the player to warp itself in any direction for 15 meters at most each time*

He had 0 mana and couldn't use it, as unfortunate as it is. But Hell was currently feeling as light as a feather. He felt as if the glaive was heavier than his whole body. He left the glaive, stabbing it into one of the dead giants.

His hands were even faster now after losing the imbalance created by the weight of the glaive. He figured the glaive was around 5 kg, but it suddenly seemed much heavier compared to his body, even though his strength which remained the same as before.

He found a small dome ahead that had the same design on it as their insignia and the place was half-destroyed. He hoped he could find the healing liquid there as he frantically searched for it and left a trail of dead goblins behind.

He then saw a smaller goblin carrying one such liquid away from the dome, apparently just having left the place as it gazed on its spoils. Hell took out his pistol, didn't matter if it was ineffective against giants, it was enough against the puny goblins whose only strength was their sneak attacks and numbers. He saw the goblin was about to use it on another badly hurt goblin.

"Perhaps he is also trying to save his own brother," Hell thought as he fired at the dying goblin from point-blank range and immediately grabbed the liquid from the other one. The remaining goblin went into a craze after witnessing the scene, but was taken out with the following shot from the pistol. He had absolutely no pity to spare right now.

Hell started rushing back to the abandoned building they were in before. He was positive the remaining 15 soldiers or so would be able to hold the goblins in the bay at least. He really thought he would fail to save his brother before, depressed. But right now, he was joyful beyond belief as he kept running, as fast as he could.

After raising the stat to 166, the goblins couldn't even react to him, the world seemed so much slower than he was.

The exact building his brother laid was moments later in his sight. He arrived at the entrance and rushed in.

"I'm back!" he yelled. Met with the sullen commander and two soldiers looking at him. He went up to his brother and poured the liquid on his wound, which seemed to be infected with some green pus.

"Hellebore, the wound seems infected with the blood of goblins. It is quite toxic if it mixes with your blood, I don't think your brother has much time," the Commander said.

"No," Hell said. He couldn't accept that possibility, so he waited for his brother's breathing to stabilize. This would not be the end to his brother, he asked the system.

"I will accept any misfortune on myself if you restore my brother, system."

*Any restoration is only realized at the completion of the level*

The system informed him again. The system was ruthless, Hell even felt this system, this entity was enjoying what was happening to him. Hell then turned to the Commander and the soldiers and asked:

"How long do you reckon he has?"

"Hard to say, should be around 15 minutes," said the soldier who was trying to treat him.

"Is the lair we saw the base of their leader?"

"Yes," the Commander spoke up this time.

"Can any of you give me some string? More durable the better" Hell said and got some string from the soldier with the first aid kit, leaving in speed.

Hell started uncontrollably laughing on his way. "Everyone pays for it if my little brother... if something happens to him."

His mental status has been deteriorating with the current circumstances, it was not easy to be told that your little brother would die, that there was nothing to be done. He shot some goblins on the way, clearing a path for himself directly to the lair.

He didn't stop for any tougher looking enemies and finally reached the doors. He reckoned it would have been around 6 minutes now. He had little time left. "Everything will be fine." He said as he entered the place.