The world was not fair.
That was what I have said to myself, for a long few years.
When my father said it, at the funeral for my mother, it was a resolute, final statement. The love of his life is gone forever. As he cradled my little brother, crying gently over the grave, I took those words as truth. Gospel.
The world wasn't fair to take my mother during her second pregnancy.
It wasn't fair that, as we grew, my dad favored my little brother over me, since he looked more like our mom.
It wasn't fair that I wasn't as educationally minded as my little brother, that my creative efforts were never weighed as well.
It wasn't fair that I had to give up my part time job to fly with my little brother to prospective, abroad colleges, since dad had to work full time.
It wasn't fair that the plane crashed.
And it wasn't fair that I had lived, and he had died.
The crash was a few weeks ago, but modern technology should have had information about it the same day. We were still here, which meant there was some manner of issue.
They didn't know, or they couldn't get to us. I, and some 6 other survivors, were left on the mountainside, desperate for survival.
One of them had been able to make a fire, using spare clothes as tinder to try and keep it alight all the time. Water was easily made from the surrounding snow.
Food was already basically gone. Anything edible on the plane was already combed through.
The only thing left was corpses.
The discussion had come up about a week in, and we had admonished them. There had been plenty of food then.
But the supplies dwindled. None of us knew how to try and signal for people. One of us spelt out S.O.S with luggage, another tried to use a torn sheet of metal from the plane as a means to use smoke signals.
It didn't work. We were still up here, praying, hoping. The cold kept the corpses less rotten than they would have usually been.
It wasn't fair he was the first corpse. My little brother, chosen once we all felt the distinct pang of hunger. I wanted to protest, to have them pick another, but I didn't.
I loved him, and I hated him. The closest visage of my mother, the facet of my father's love. The well which took everything, the smaller sun that shined brighter.
One of us cut the body, prepared it, so when it was cooked it was…more humane. It smelled like BBQ, a delicious pork scent that made my mouth water and stomach clench.
We were each given a palm sized hock, and when I bit into it I cried.
Nearly a month of eating the bare minimum, and to finally have a bite of something like this, I could feel the tears welling and crawling down my cheeks.
I was overcome, I tell you, with such a filthy amount of joy and sadness at eating the flesh of my little brother, I didn't see the apparition in front of me at first. It was only when I had swallowed my first bite, did I notice the amber colored window in front of me, translucent.
[Achievements Unlocked!]
[Taste human flesh for the first time: 1 roll gained]
[Taste the flesh of a sibling: 2 rolls gained]
I stared at that little window for a decent amount of time. Finally, I had gone crazy, I thought. That tasting, enjoying, my little brothers cooked flesh, had sent me over the deep end.
[Time limit passed, enabling auto-roll]
The window blinked out, before a graphic of a small wheel came into view and began spinning quickly, the soft sound of electric beeps clicking into my ears and becoming more pronounced as it slowed down.
[Congrats! You rolled Iori Hazenoki's Cursed Technique "Explosive Flesh"!]
[Congrats! You rolled Charles Bernard's Cursed Tool "G-Warstaff"!]
[Congrats! You rolled Panda's cursed energy reserves!]
[Disabling auto-roll]
My eyes clenched shut as I curled onto myself, trying as hard as possible to process the information that flooded my head. It made my skull ache, my teeth squeak as I clenched them. I remember the group noticing and rushing over to make sure I was okay. The pain was centered in the right side of my head, my forehead burning hot and heavy like the worst migraine imaginable.
My gut coiled, like something was trying to bridge the gap between it and my head. I could feel something traveling from my brain down my spine at the same time that something came up my throat from my stomach. They met each other in my heart, and my spine straightened when I felt the full weight of the knowledge. I knew who Panda was. I knew what G-Warstaff could do, should I get that cursed technique. I knew my body was, essentially, a bomb.
I passed out. The first time around, it was just too much. My body hadn't been ready. Maybe if I hadn't been half starved, it would have been different. When I awoke, the others had moved me to where we slept and had pointedly put a few extra layers over me. I was…refreshed, though. Energetic. I sat up, rubbing my eyes, and found a new, translucent, amber window in front of my eyes.
[Achievement list]
[Consume the majority of a human body]
[Consume the majority of a sibling's body]
[Eat the flesh of two distinct bodies]
I couldn't really fathom the actions this thing was telling me to do, and it certainly didn't help that I understood what this was. A gacha system. Some mystical gamble system that I had gotten. That was fed by cannibalistic actions. I eat people, I work towards rolls. I was disgusted. A reward for our desperation. Yet, a thought crawled into my ear.
If I ate enough, I could get us off the mountain. Help wasn't coming, that was obvious, and while there were enough corpses to keep us fed, we couldn't reasonably descend without succumbing to the elements.
If I ate the bodies, fulfilled the gacha's wants, I might pull something that could get us off the mountain. That's what I used to justify my actions.
That's how I knew I was mad.
I stepped out into the cold, to where they had prepped my brother's body, to find it suitably half butchered. As I loomed over his pallid corpse, I couldn't help but notice just how hungry I was. Starving. The fire to my back, casting my shadow over my little brother's corpse, I couldn't help myself.
The fact no one woke up was a hidden blessing. I don't think I could have excused my gluttony. I willingly cooked the meat, then ate it, starting a chain of actions where I pulled it from the corpse while I ate, waiting for the next steak or chop to cook through enough. Take the cooked meat off, put the raw meat on, and while it cooked, I would continue to eat and cut another steak off.
Hours later, my labors were given merit.
[Consume the majority of a human body: 1 roll]
[Consume the majority of a sibling's body: 2 rolls]
I dropped the bit of long pork from my hands I had just cut free and swallowed what was left in my mouth. I wanted to roll, now. The window cleared, and the wheel returned, spinning fast as its little song and dance came about.
[Congrats! You gained Rin Amai's outfit!]
[Congrats! You gained Momo Nishimiya's Wind Scythe (1 time use)!]
Before, the information had been too much, an overwhelming tide of things needed to be known to use these powers fully. Now that the basics were well within my grasp, this following information simply slotted where it could fit.
There wasn't much information to give. The outfit was a tracksuit and sneakers, with what looked like a large kippah. It was almost useless, only worth being used to keep warm as clothing or as fuel for the fire.
The wind scythe was like a stored ability, from what I had figured. Like a bullet in a gun. Load, aim, fire. It had been about that time that I had remembered that I had been given a cursed tool. Stumbling back to where I had been sleeping, sure enough, buried under the layers they had given, was the pen like spear.
Picking it up, I stepped back to the corpse piles. I had new achievements.
[Achievement list]
[Eat the flesh of two distinct bodies]
[Eat the majority of two distinct bodies]
[Eat the flesh of three distinct bodies]
I stared at the achievements again, and then to the half-desiccated corpse of my little brother, before moving past him to grab a new body, this one a flight attendant from what I had remembered from when we were stripping the bodies.
The gacha seemed to make me hungry, so I had room to continue eating.
[Eat the flesh of two distinct bodies: 1 roll added]
[Eat the majority of two distinct bodies: 1 roll added]
[Eat the flesh of three distinct bodies: 1 roll added]
[Congrats, you got Remi's Cursed Technique "Scorpion Tail"!]
[Congrats, you got Reggie Star's Cursed energy reserves!]
[Congrats, you got Takuma Ino's Blunt Sword!]
I felt my reserves swell, like being able to breathe more, like my lungs themselves grew larger. The blunt sword appeared at my feet, and I felt my scalp itch. My hair was too short to truly manifest the new technique, but I felt it take hold.
I frowned, trying to get another few achievements when I heard movement from inside our shelter. I stopped and looked towards the group as they began waking up.
I couldn't explain the spear and blunt sword. Nor could I explain the two half eaten bodies. I walked to the shelter, and helped myself in.
No one would know, when I was done, that there had been seven survivors. When they came across me a week and a half later, they only found me. No corpses, no other survivors. Just bones and ash.