Doomsday Gluttony: I Level Up by Eating

Chapter 2

Ryatt’s POV

The scavenger’s weight was a mountain of leathery muscle crushing my hollow chest. Its needle-teeth snapped inches from my nose, ropes of black, foul-smelling saliva dripping onto my gown. I couldn't breathe. My ribs groaned, ready to snap like dry kindling.

"Get... off..." I wheezed, my voice a pathetic rasp.

My hand fumbled blindly across the bedside tray that had been knocked over in the struggle. My fingers brushed against cold, hard steel. A scalpel. It was a discarded tool from a dressing change earlier that morning, rusted at the hinge and dull from neglect. 

The monster shrieked, a sound like grinding metal, and lunged for my throat.

"Die!" I screamed, the word tearing through my raw throat.

I swung the scalpel with every ounce of pathetic strength I had left. The rusted blade didn't slice; it tore. I buried it into the creature's neck, but my arms were so weak they shook violently under the effort. The monster didn't go down. It thrashed, its talons raking across my shoulders, carving deep furrows into my pale, thin skin.

"Why won't you... just fall?" I gasped, my vision blurring as blood loss joined the cancer's toll.

I stabbed again. And again. Each blow was slower than the last. My muscles burned with a lethal fatigue, the lactic acid feeling like molten lead in my veins. The creature’s claws sank into my thigh, and I felt the bone pop. I let out a strangled cry, slamming the scalpel into the creature’s eye socket. 

With a final, wet gurgle, the scavenger slumped. Its weight nearly finished what the cancer started, pinning me to the blood-soaked mattress.

I shoved at the carcass, my breath coming in ragged, wet hitches. Hhh-koff. I leaned over the side of the bed, hacking violently. Thick, dark blood splattered against the linoleum. 

"Still dying," I whispered to the empty, screaming hospital. "Even now."

I looked down at the creature. A soft, rhythmic pulse caught my eye. Beneath its torn chest cavity, something was glowing. A faint, ethereal light throbbed within a fist-sized organ.

[Gluttony of the Void triggered.]

[Consume the essence to stabilize.]

The red text shimmered in my vision. My stomach didn't just growl; it roared. The hunger was a physical clawing in my gut, more painful than the gashes on my arms.

"Eat it?" I asked the empty air, my voice trembling. "You want me to eat that?"

[Consume.]

I didn't have the strength to argue. I reached into the cooling chest of the monster, my fingers squelching through Gore. I grabbed the glowing heart. It felt warm, vibrating with a frantic energy that set my nerves on fire. I didn't hesitate. I shoved the pulsating mass into my mouth.

It didn't taste like meat. It tasted like electricity and copper, a surge of pure, raw existence that slid down my throat and exploded in my chest. 

"Gah!" I fell back, my back arching off the bed.

[Essence Consumed.]

[Analyzing...]

[Reward: Lesser Healing Factor acquired.]

Then, the agony started. 

"What are you doing to me?" I screamed, but the sound was swallowed by the chaos in the halls.

My body began to heave. I rolled off the bed, hitting the floor with a dull thud. I could hear my bones. It wasn't the sound of them breaking, but the sound of them knitting. The snap of my thigh bone resetting was like a gunshot in the small room. My skin, once translucent and sickly, began to thicken. The sunken hollows of my cheeks pushed outward as muscle fibers wove themselves together out of thin air.

I gripped the legs of the bed, my knuckles turning white as the pale skin shifted to a healthy, tan hue. The exhaustion that had defined my life for years was being burned away by a localized sun in my solar plexus. 

"Stop... please," I groaned, though my voice was already losing its rasp. It was sounding deeper, fuller.

I looked at my hands. The tremors were gone. The thin, twig-like fingers were filling out, the grip strength returning with terrifying speed. The gashes from the scavenger’s claws were literally zipping shut, leaving behind nothing but faint, fading pink lines.

I stood up. I didn't stumble. I didn't need to catch my breath. For the first time in three years, my lungs felt clear.

"I'm... I'm okay?" I whispered, touching my chest. "Is it gone? Is the cancer gone?"

A red box flickered into existence, pulsing with a low, ominous light.

[Status Update.]

[Condition: Terminal Cancer — Mutated.]

My heart hammered against my newly formed ribs. "Mutated? What does that mean? Did you fix it or not?"

[The malignancy has integrated with the System interface.]

[Current State: Dormant/Starving.]

"Starving?" I demanded, pacing the small room. I felt a predatory grace in my steps that I didn't recognize. "Explain it to me! Am I still dying?"

[The mutation requires constant essence to remain in check.]

[Current Regression Level: 12%]

[Warning: If essence levels drop to zero, the mutated cancer will accelerate. Time to total organ failure: 72 hours.]

I stared at the words, the cold reality sinking in. The system hadn't cured me. It had turned my death into a leash.

"So I have to keep doing this," I said, looking at the dead scavenger on the floor. "I have to keep killing these things just to stay in this body?"

[Correct.]

[You must fill the gauge to regress the cancer.]

[Hunt. Consume. Evolve. Or expire.]