"OUCH!"

Ishiki gasped as picked up the cup filled with water from the table besides him and took a sip.

He was sitting in the balcony of a rather expensive villa, on a wooden chair as he looked at the Crimson Moon that shone brightly in the dark sky, painting the world in streaks of red light.

He sat alone with cloth bandages around his torso, he was somehow alive and almost healed too at that. It was thanks to the fact that Filch had presumably rescued him from the three mysterious figures that approached later.

'heh, Filch sure is very strong.' he commented inwardly and then took another sip from the cup.

How low had life fallen, water had turned into a beverage. 'To be honest, there is nothing better than water.'

He let out a foul breath and continued to think with a gloomy expression. The recent incident had left a great impression on him... and most of it was not so good.

The gates to the outer ring had been sealed completely for the better, that place was filled with various beasts that had made the broken buildings their home.

'sigh... we are actually fucked up.'

Good thing was... that there were still resources within the secondary ring. Though scarce, they would sustain them for some time, but the inevitable end was still waiting for them.

The gates would not hold for long and eventually break, that was a certainty and the only thing they could do about it was to somehow open the gates to the inner ring and fled there.

That was the only way to complete the scenario too. They had to kill the Emperor who resided within the castle, in the inner ring.

The inner rings door had closed shut and the players outside had failed to even move them an inch.

'Though... the people inside should be able to do something before we even make it inside.' Ishiki couldn't help but get weary after thinking that.

Kenji and Yuki's brother Renji, along with another player were trapped inside the Inner ring as of now. Kenji had made it to the inner ring and it was actually a miracle.

And it even made Ishiki suspicious. Kenji was the weakest among them as far as he can remember... he had no actual fighting skill. Still, how the hell did he made it to the only three players who could reach the most secure place here.

'He is sure, hiding something. Either he lied to us back then, or there is something bigger in play.'

The other thing he thought during the last few days, when his thoughts were gong wild was that if all the people of Aethelburg were nothing but mere memories of the original people ho used to live here.

And they were not connected to the Emperor, but the heart of the angle than was there even an Emperor anymore?

'And who the hell had the wild idea of destroying the heart.'

Ishiki sipped the last of water from the cup and then narrowed his eyes. There were only three people who could have done that.. and for some reason, Ishiki suspected that the person that day was none other than Yuki's brother.

That bastard was either not sane or he knew it all. He killed his family members, his own mother and father. Well, according to what Yuki told him about her brother, Renji had no real connection with them.

But it could all come down to the thing that he knew, of all this for some reason, but he even attacked his own sister.

That made Ishiki grit his teeth unknowingly. Yuki was trapped inside some kind of dream and hadn't woken up yet.

'Come to think of it, his skill is related to illusions and mind control.' At that moment Ishiki was sure that the second possibility was correct.

And that rose another question actually. Why the hell did he catch Ishiki back then and put him in that jail? if he knew that these people weren't real then why didn't he do anything for so long?

As he thought about it... his thoughts became a mess inside his head.

He felt grief, sorrow and confusion. His feelings were all over worst still, he was wounded and couldn't do anything much right now.

After sitting purposelessly for almost an hour and thinking of this and that, Ishiki finally decided to find answer to some questions.

What was the angel's heart really? If it was the angel's heart to start with.

And some history of Aethelburg... that was the only way for him to learn more about this whole place and he even believed that he will find some clues about the emperor.

With a small sigh, he summoned the scenario details.

========================

⌜Scenario Details⌟

Total Participants - 564

Objective - Kill the Emperor of Aethelburg

Rewards - 40,000 Data Fragments, 100,000 NC, New Skill Card.

========================

Every time he looked at this window, it left a bad taste in his mouth. Out of two thousand... only 564 remained. Almost 300 players died on the day of the fall.

It was a very unfortunate disaster that lead them more closer, no that was an understatement.

That disaster pushed them away from their comfortable lives and reminded that they were in a world where everything was just about killing them.

If they wanted to return back... they needed to fight and complete the Scenario.

With a sad mood, he then summoned his system screen.

The familiar platinum hued, transparent screen appeared in front of him, showcasing his status.

========= Player : ????? ========

Name : Ishiki

Age : 18

Title : [Memory Reaper]

Rank - [Mythical]

Exclusive Skill - [Soul Archive]

Skill Description - [Allows the bearer to chain the very consciousness of the Slain in an eternal collection. The new master can reap the memories within.]

Exclusive Corruption - [Phantom Voice]

Corruption Description - [Listen closely When the Reaper speaks, You may hear the whisper Of everyone they've reaped.]

Synth Reactor Tier - Innate

Level - 16/50

Data Fragments - 370/8,000

Basic Abilities :

Strength : 27/100

Agility : 27/100

Endurance : 27/100

Charisma : 25/100

Protocols : [Recursive Anomaly (Unknown)], [Curse of the Forgotten (Exclusive)]

Attribute : [Half Royalty (Epic)], [Minor Regeneration (Epic)]

Skill Cards : [Ghost Blade (Epic)]

==============================

{Vestiges}

{Relics}

{Shop}

===============================

Ishiki studied it from top to bottom with narrowed eyes. He had advanced to level 16 after killing the demon.

Now his stats were almost very close to 30.

'Wait a sec.' Ishiki blinked a couple of times as he did some simple mathematics.

Wasn't the system's values wrong as opposed to the maximum cap levels? When he would be level 17 his stats would reach 29, and not 30.

Looking at it this way, they might very well never reach 100, he would very well only reach 99 and never beyond.

Actually wait, the Shinobi's stats are above 100 and his level was 78 too... so that meant that these maximum caps were temporary.

'Will they be lifted when I complete this scenario?'

Or will they increase when his Synth Reactor Tier levels up... They upgraded he was sure of it.

He had proof of it actually. Just like everything else, Synth Reactor too had progressions.

The Shinobi's Synth Reactor Tier was Elite, while his was only Innate. He didn't know how much difference there was between both of them, and nor did he know how to advance to next tier.

The system itself was such a mystery on its own and it never gave any hints whatsoever. It was as if they should have had the knowledge beforehand.

'Whatever...'

Ishiki focused on the vestige section and a new window flickered into reality before his eyes.

Vestiges - [Aether Blade (Legendary)], [Hard Nub (Common)], [Berserkers Effigy (Rare)], [Eye of Ruin (Epic)], [Winds Embrace (Epic)]

Ishiki read the list with a seemingly calm expression, he didn't show much emotions.

'An Epic Vestige'

In the past he would have been excited to see a new vestige, not to be taken that wrongly. He was still very much excited... but his emotional and mental state was in ruins.

'Winds Embrace... sounds cool.' He had great expectations for this vestige as he had gotten it after killing the demon that had almost ended his life.

He only won because he used his resourcefulness in the right way.

With a sigh he focused on the new name and another platinum hued window, containing the information of the vestige [Winds Embrace] materialized in front of him.

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