CHAPTER EIGHT
The Visceral Deflects
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
Abo's eyes opened slowly, his eyelids felt heavy and stiff. His hand twitched involuntarily as a sharp jolt of pain flared through his ribs.
"Fuck," he groaned, voice hoarse. "Why the hell did it hurt so much?"
He looked down at his mangled body, bruised skin, and fractured bones were slowly coming back together, piece by piece. Then he saw how: thin green threads squirmed under his skin, like worms. They wriggled through his muscle, pulling tissue and bone back into place.
His skin crawled. "Holy shit! I never prayed to the Gods in my past life, but I'm about to call every single one of them," Abo snarled through gritted teeth, but it came out as a high-pitched gurgle, half growl, half baby whine. "Nope. Nope. Fuck this. Shit-fucking-worms, get them off me!"
He tried to claw them off, fingers digging into his arm, but only managed to tear his skin open. "AAAGH—fuck!" he screamed. "WHY DOES THAT HURT?! I'M SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!"
A faint chime echoed inside his skull.
System: Apologies for the silence.
Abo blinked, dazed. "You," he muttered. "Where the hell have you been?"
SYSTEM ANALYSIS
• Active connections: 8,192,431,774 (global saturation: 99.8%)
• Tutorial deployment: Phase 3 completion
• Reality anomaly processing:
• Dungeon rift detection: 97.3% coverage
• Integration protocol: Active (parsing event data into quantifiable mechanics)
• Stabilization subroutines: Running
Note: Think of this as... patching reality's kernel. The rifts exist independently, but I'm translating their chaos into something your mortal brain can process as 'game mechanics.'
System: Apologies for latency. Multithreading billions of consciousness interfaces is... non-trivial.
The words passed clean through Abo's skull. Then, almost as an afterthought:
System: Also… you may be experiencing pain due to a minor side-effect. I might have reconnected your somatosensory pathways.
Abo stared blankly. "…The what?"
System: Touch receptors. Tactile input. You weren't supposed to feel anything, but… I re-enabled them earlier.
FLASHBACK — visual only, silent.
A corpse, limp and pale, held in trembling arms.
A heartbeat not its own.
A warmth it shouldn't have felt.
A moment of peace in his mother's embrace... before it twisted into terror.
Cut. Return.
System: Anyway.
✓ NOTIFICATION
Progression Framework: ACTIVATED
Resurrection Status: COMPLETE
Host classification updated — Corpse → Undead
Note: Artificial resurrection. This revival bypassed all known natural or magical methods. Host was not raised by necromancer, virus, divine will, or curse. Instead, the System forcibly reconstituted body and soul through external command logic. This form of undeath is unrecognized by established RPG lore and may be unstable or unverified. Subclass designation is pending, resurrection origin is synthetic, not mythic.
Higher Review: FINALIZED
✦
A translucent blue rectangle blinked into existence before Abo, floating in the still air.
◆ STATUS WINDOW ◆
NAME: Grey
LEVEL: 1
RACE: Undead (Unknown)
AGE: 3 Days
AFFINITY: Dark
CLASS: Unavailable (Locked until Level 10)
◈ COMBAT STATISTICS ◈
POW: 0
SPD: 0
DEF: 0
Perception: 42
INT: 27
Willpower: 20
CHAR: -2
Luck: -999
Health: 7 / 100
Mana: 0
Stamina: 0
Unallocated Points: 0
◈ PASSIVE SKILLS ◈
- Heightened Senses (C)
+35% sensory acuity (sight, hearing, smell). Time slows slightly (0.5s) upon nearby aggression. Detect moving enemies within 15m. Detect large enemy groups within 500m if they're noisy or moving in formation.
- Stealth Mastery (F)
-10% sound, +5% concealment.
Battle Instinct (E)
+30% POW/SPD when HP < 20%.
- Regeneration (Unique)
5 HP/min (10 HP/min when immobile) Certain substances may accelerate tissue restoration. Analysis inconclusive.
- Blind Reaper (Title)
Passive fear aura (-10% enemy perception)
◈ ACTIVE SKILLS ◈
- Shadow Step (F)
Instantly teleport up to 3m behind a visible enemy.
(CD: 12s | Cost: 10)
- Assassinate (F)
Attack from stealth ignores 40% of target's DEF.
(CD: 35s | Cost: 20)
- Tactical Command (F)
Exert command presence. Allies within 15 meters gain +10% Speed and +5% Perception for 8 seconds. Scales with Charisma or Presence. Ineffective on hostile units.
(CD: 30s | Cost: 20)
- Possession (???)
Allows the player's soul to enter or exit their bound vessel at will.
Note: Possession of other entities is not permitted.
(CD: 0 | Cost: 0)
◈ PROGRESSION ◈
Current EXP: 0 / 16
Quests Available: None
"What in the... uh, System? What the hell is this?" Abo muttered, squinting at the floating screen. He pointed at the green worms squirming under his skin, then back at the glowing blue box. "Am I supposed to be okay with either of these?"
The characters shimmered in angular lines and strange loops, unlike Baybayin. "This… isn't even my alphabet," he whispered. "What is this? Chicken scratch?"
System: Detecting suboptimal elemental affinity. (Translation: Your elemental affinity sucks.)
Abo squinted at the strange symbols hovering in front of him. He opened his mouth to speak, but—It hit him. A surge of uninvited comprehension exploded in his skull. It wasn't like learning, it wasn't like remembering. It was like being force-fed understanding through the eyes, ears, tongue, and marrow.
◉ KNOWLEDGE INFUSION SEQUENCE
• INFUSING: Comprehensive Language Module
• INFUSING: Abstract Logic Processing
• INFUSING: Syntax Tree Construction
• INFUSING: Fundamentals of… Computer Programming?
Abo reeled, clutching his skull. "What the fuck is this nightmare?" he gasped. "Design, Analysis, and Algorithms hurts. Physically."
Binary trees, sorting algorithms, and memory pointers flooded his mind like a secondhand fever dream. None of it made sense. All of it did.
Linked Lists?
Time Complexity?
Recursion??
"Oh gods," he croaked, voice trembling. "My brain's stuck in an infinite loop... and the stack keeps growing." He staggered, clutching his head like it might split open and spill big O notation onto the dirt. Somewhere in the void, a compiler probably screamed.
✓ NOTIFICATION
[INT +10]
Achievement Unlocked: Woke Up With a CS Degree
Your ability to understand esoteric human logic structures has increased. Unfortunately, so has your suffering
System: …Oops. Wrong knowledge module uploaded. Total accident. Definitely not intentional. My apologies.
◉ KNOWLEDGE INFUSION SEQUENCE
• INFUSING: Basic Mathematics and Probability
• INFUSING: General RPG System Knowledge
The pain stopped for a breath, then a new wave hit. It was faster, simpler. Swords. Stats. Skill trees. Cooldowns. Passive effects. Rare drops. Aggro mechanics. Like chisels to his soul, these new terms stamped themselves into him.
System: Rectification complete.
RPG terminology successfully embedded in host psyche.
"Much better," he deadpanned. "Nothing like replacing brain damage with… whatever the hell this is."
Abo stared at the stat screen, narrowing his eyes. His eyes drifted over the numbers. Zero Pow. What even is pow? Zero Speed. Zero Def. Zero Mana. Zero Stamina. "…Is this a joke?"
System: No.
"How the hell am I supposed to survive with these stats? I have the physical prowess of a damp leaf."
System: A particularly bruised damp leaf.
"Okay, I get it, I'm basically an infant. But what I don't get—"
He jabbed a shaky finger at the green worms squirming in his wounds. He stared hard, like the System had a face, but there was only air. "—This. What the hell is this?!"
System: Your Regeneration skill, triggered upon system upgrade. If you took five seconds to read the log instead of panicking, you'd know that.
It is also worth noting: most of your combat skills were carried over from your prior incarnation.
"That's horrifyingly convenient."
He shuddered as he glanced at one of the worms. "But can you just fix the... the visual... uh... the screen-making... no wait, that's not right." Abo squinted, struggling to recall the exact term the System jammed into his skull moments ago.
"The graphics... rendering... eye-candy... manipulation... thingy? You know, the digital... optical... illusion... generation... system? The fake-stuff-maker... visual... enhancement... computer... magic... interface? The pixel... shader... particle... texture... mesh... polygon... rendering... pipeline... buffer... processing... unit... console... dashboard... control... panel... thing?! The... the... cinema... movie... film... special... effects... visual... manifestation... creation... simulation... fabrication... apparatus?!"
Every fresh word that surfaced only scrambled his brain more, his thoughts were fighting each other for exit.
"Oh for crying out loud! The electronic vision bamboozlement computational sight-bending algorithmic reality-warping digital eye-foolery spectacle-generating optical confusion machinery?! The make-things-look-pretty-on-the-screen... uh... contraption?! You KNOW what I'm talking about! The thing that makes the explosions look explody and the magic look... magicky! The visual... visual... VISUAL WHATEVER-THE-HELL-YOU-CALL-IT!"
System: You mean the Visual Effects.
"Yeah, that. The visible defects. Whatever! I don't care! Just change it! I still have an orc to kill!"
He added, knowing the System couldn't ignore it if framed that way, "Our life depends on this!"
System: Fine. I'll override the display.
Thankfully, it wasn't hard-coded by the Gods.
Pray they don't override my override.
Abo threw his arms up. "Oh Mighty Magwayen, Ynaguinid, whoever's bored enough to listen! I'm begging here! I just want this regeneration bullshit to not look like I'm infested with maggots!"
A single tear slid down his cheek, he didn't even try to hide it. There was a pause, then the air grew thick, and a faint shimmer passed over the interface.
System: ...One of them gave you a pass.
They said there will be a price.
They also called it "trivial," which I highly doubt.
"That's fine with me," Abo muttered, glancing at his wounds. The worms were gone, replaced by neat, glowing stitches. "As long as the visual facelift panel is fixed."
System: It's Visual Eff—
…You know what? Forget it.
Abo's eyes flicked down to the -10 Charisma like it was mocking him personally. Then his gaze landed on the -999 Luck, glaring like a curse branded onto his soul. He stared at it for a while.
That… actually explained a lot. He remembered all the times he'd tried to die. Letting himself burn in the southeastern marshes, only to wake up alive, dragged out by allies who thought they were saving him. Standing on a mountaintop, daring the gods to strike him down. Every bolt missed. One nicked his already blind eyes and left a scar. Just a scar. Like the heavens heard him, then changed their mind halfway through just to mess with him
And the first time, when he was just a kid, he was too stupid and scared to drown in seawater, said it'd be too fast, and the thought of choking on salt made him gag. So he picked the swamp instead, it was closer, but it dried up. He waited for the rains, starving, yet they never came. He probably started the drought just by wanting to die.
Maybe those old crones were right.
Maybe we really were cursed, me and my sister.
At this point, he wouldn't be surprised if his blood offended water. He closed the status screen with a wave, surprised when the glyphs obeyed. With a soft crackle of fading light, the display flickered out. That's when he noticed it. Something was… different. His fingers flexed, there was no resistance, and no stiffness.
He placed a hand over his chest. There was a heartbeat: steady, slow, and wrong. "…What the hell?" he whispered.
His skin was still pale, but not the lifeless blue of before. It had warmed slightly, just enough to register as "barely alive" instead of "freshly drowned." He could feel his blood moving. His muscles twitched without protest. He shifted his chubby infant body on the mud. It no longer felt stiff or unresponsive.
"Why do I feel… normal?"
System: You don't. You feel better.
System: Upon activation of the Progression Framework, your racial classification evolved from [Corpse] to [Undead]. You are no longer a cadaver.
"You're saying I'm a monster now."
System: Technically, yes. A low-tier RPG monster. A grotesque little thing with hidden potential.
Abo stared at his small, pale fingers.
System: On the bright side, you now possess stable locomotion, regenerative healing, and the ability to pretend you're alive without people vomiting on sight.
"Great," Abo muttered. "Now I'm a cursed toddler with a kill count and a skill tree." He lay back, eyes closed for a beat too long. Then: "Hey… does this mean I can evolve again?"
System: Correct. Next milestone: Class Selection at Level 10.
Abo cracked a grin. "I'm gonna become the world's most dangerous baby."
System: Correction. You already are.
✦ ✦ ✦
End of Chapter