Chaos erupted across the field as people ran in every possible direction.
Men in suits tripped over their own dress shoes, and teenagers dropped their phones into the lake while trying to run away from the little white nightmares.
The peaceful morning was completely shattered by the sounds of screaming bystanders and the weird, terrifying snarls of the mutated bunnies.
Gene did not run away with the crowd.
He gripped the handle of his axe and sprinted right into the middle of the mess.
Almost immediately, one of the fluffy white monsters spotted him running toward the open gate.
Its green eyes locked onto him, and it pushed off its powerful legs, launching itself right at his throat with its jaws wide open.
Gene planted his legs on the grass, weaved his upper body to the side to avoid the teeth, and swung his axe in a wide arc.
The blade slashed right through the rabbit in mid-air, sending it crashing into the dirt.
➢ [Player Gene Riven: 1/5]
'Okay, my arms already feel tired,' Gene thought, shaking the tension out of his wrist.
'This is definitely not as easy as I thought it would be. I really need to get my stats up before I try anything crazy.'
He did not have time to complain about his weak muscles because a loud cry caught his attention.
A young kid was frozen in panic near a wooden park bench, and another bloodthirsty bunny was already hopping fast across the ground toward him.
Gene bolted forward, jumping right in front of the kid just as the rabbit lunged.
He swung the axe downward in a tight chop, taking the creature out before it could even get near the boy's sneakers.
➢ [Player Gene Riven: 2/5]
"Run to your mom!" Gene yelled at the kid, not even looking back to see if he listened.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a third rabbit tearing apart a picnic basket and looking around for a fresh target.
Gene did not even bother closing the distance this time. He just pulled his arm back and hurled the camping axe across the grass like a heavy throwing knife.
The axe spun end over end and nailed the bunny right in the head, pinning it flat against the ground.
'Yeah, still got it.'
➢ [Player Gene Riven: 3/5]
Before he could even celebrate the lucky throw, a sharp pain came up in his pant leg.
A fourth rabbit had sneaked up from behind and clamped its teeth onto the cloth of his jeans, trying to chew its way through to his ankle.
"Ah fuck off."
Gene swore loudly, kicking his leg hard to shake the awful thing off.
The bunny tumbled onto the path, and Gene immediately stepped forward to stomp heavily on its body with the heel of his boot.
He expected the monster to just flatten out like a pancake, but his current body was simply not strong enough to do damage yet.
The rabbit just screeched and tried to bite his shoe.
So Gene had to stomp on it again and again. He kept stomping his heavy boot down on the creature in a rapid, messy rhythm until he was completely out of breath and the rabbit's head was nothing more than a smudge on the ground.
➢ [Player Gene Riven: 4/5]
Gene stood there panting, resting his hands on his knees while trying to catch his breath.
He looked around the park area to find his last target, but the place was practically empty of monsters now.
The remaining rabbits had completely spread out, chasing the fleeing crowds into the nearby streets and alleyways.
All he could hear were the distant sounds of car alarms and people screaming blocks away.
'I need to find one more before someone else does it,' Gene thought, feeling a sudden rush of anxiety.
'The First Blood bonus is the only way I am going to survive the higher levels, and I cannot afford to lose it to some random lucky guy in another city.'
He walked over to where he had thrown his weapon and took the axe out of the dead rabbit.
Then he ran straight for his motorcycle parked by the edge of the grass.
He raced down the path, keeping his eyes alert for anything small and white.
A couple of blocks down, he spotted his final target.
A terrified guy in a business suit was trapped on the roof of a parked sedan, while a fluffy white bunny sat on the hood of the car, screeching loudly and preparing to jump up at him.
Gene twisted the throttle and aimed his motorcycle right at the side of the car. As he got close, he leaned his entire body way down low off the side of the moving bike, reaching his bare hand out toward the hood.
Timing it perfectly, he grabbed the rabbit tightly by its long ears as he sped past the car.
He didn't bother using his axe and just held onto the ears as he dragged the rabbit directly along the rough, uneven ground at top speed.
The friction was brutal, and he held it down until there was practically nothing left in his hand but a pair of torn white ears.
He tossed the remains onto the sidewalk and hit the brakes, his chest filled with exhaustion.
Ding!
[Congratulations!]
[Player Gene Riven has completed the Trial of Judgement]
'Fucking finally.'
He had done it.
He survived the first step and was pretty sure he was the fastest one to clear the trial in the entire world.
But then a completely different message popped up, and it made his blood run completely cold.
➢ [Player Elena has completed the Trial of Judgement]
Gene stared at the floating text, feeling totally shocked.
'What?' he thought, his mind racing a million miles an hour.
'Elena? How is that even possible?'
Elena was the exact person he had spent the last year mourning.
She was the one he lost to the demoness in his past life, the one whose death finally broke him completely.
Was it just a coincidence? Was there another Elena out there who just happened to be incredibly good at killing monsters? Or did she somehow come back to the past with him?
Before he could even process the crazy implications of that message, the system chimed again.
➢ [You are being transported to Genesis]
Gene's physical body disappeared from the street, dissolving into tiny particles of blue light.
The city buildings vanished in a blink, and the very next thing he knew, the wind was roaring in his ears.
He was falling completely out of the sky.
[STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Gene Riven
Age: 18
Race: Human
Level: 10
[STATS]
➢ Strength: 12
➢ Agility: 14
➢ Stamina: 11
➢ Durability: 10
➢ Qi: 0
Skill Points: 0
[Welcome to the world of Re: Genesis, Player Gene]