2025-10-18 00:45:34Devon stared at the golden panel hanging in the air, the text glowing black. A flush of excitement warmed him, the idea of gaining Anubis's power, but something about the text bothered him.
'Why is the damn status so long?'
He focused, reading the lengthy text from the top, his eyes scanning every line.
[STATUS WINDOW]
[Name: Devon Adams Lambert] [Title: Heir of Anubis] [Rank: C — Adept Absorber] [Level: 1] [Health: 220/220] [Mortuary Essence (ME): 100/100]He blinked at the initial bars. 'You've gotta be kidding me," he whispered, careful not to wake Raline. "This is… this is like a real LitRPG."
He let out a short, nervous laugh, a mix of disbelief and gallows humor. "I read so many of these novels, they always talk about power systems. And now I actually get one?"
His eyes slid to the next section.
[Statistics:]
- [Strength (STR): 14] - [Agility (AGI): 13] - [Vitality (VIT): 15] - [Intelligence (INT): 16] - [Wisdom (WIS): 17] - [Charisma (CHA): 10] - [Defense (DEF): 13] - [Luck (LCK): 11]"Fourteen Strength?"
Devon paused. He remembered the stat blocks from his comic reading. Normal humans usually maxed out at five or six. Maybe an elite soldier hit eight.
"So I'm… superhuman now?"
He looked down at his hands, then clenched a fist. Something did feel different. A subtle density in his muscles and a lightness in his lungs. Curious, he reached for the backpack he had packed earlier. He lifted it easily with one hand.
"Holy shit."
His mind, conditioned by endless hours of fiction, immediately began to analyze the panel. "C Rank… so I'm not starting from scratch. Systems usually begin at E or F."
As he scrolled down, a cold dread replaced the excitement. The list of skills was unsettling.
[Skills:]
- [Death Sight] - [Essence Siphon] - [Minor Life Drain] - [Spectral Hand] - [Ephemeral Shift]"All of these… they're about death."
A shiver ran down his spine. He swallowed hard, trying to regain his composure. "Death Sight… means I can see auras? Essence Siphon… drawing out death energy? And Life Drain… sucking the actual life out of people?"
Devon inhaled deeply, letting the breath out slowly. It was shaky. "So… I'm some kind of Necromancer. But, like, the Anubis edition."
He continued reading, and the final line made the hairs on his arms stand up.
[Corruption Gauge: 0%]
"Corruption…" he murmured. So, the warning Anubis gave him, the one about not becoming like the demons—it had an actual indicator.
"Oh, fuck." He realized the crucial difference between this and typical Necromancy. "A regular Necromancer just controls dead bodies. But this system… it's like I'm becoming part of death itself."
He stared at his palms with rising horror. "Every time I siphon a soul, I get stronger. But there's a risk of going mad… it's way riskier than boring ass Necromancy."
"Devon…?"
Raline's voice, rough and weak, cut through his thoughts.
He started, and the golden panel instantly vanished. As he turned toward her, a second shock hit him.
The huge, empty, dark mini mart was completely visible to him, just as if all the overhead lights were on. But the power was still dead.
'Is this the Death Sight doing its thing?'
"Devon… why is it so dark?" Raline's voice came again. He could see her clearly as she tried to sit up. He rushed to help steady her.
"Why are you up?" Devon asked, grabbing a bottle of water for his sister. She took it, gulping down two mouthfuls.
"I've slept too much," Raline replied, glancing around, though all she saw was pitch black. The candle Devon had lit earlier had burned out. "We're still here, huh?" she said, sounding unsure.
Devon sighed. "Yeah. Don't know how long we'll stay, but we're safe for now."
She nodded. He asked her, "Are you hungry?"
Raline turned her head towards the sound of her brother's voice, which she couldn't see in the dark. She answered, "No. Besides, we can't see anything. How would you even find it…"
Devon bit back the urge to say 'I can see everything, though.' Instead, he simply reached for the snacks he'd gathered earlier from the overturned racks. "I organized stuff this afternoon. Makes it easier when it's this dark," he said, setting a few packets next to Raline.
Her face brightened, even though he was the only one who could see the expression. She instantly grabbed a packet she recognized as her favorite chocolate bar. She ripped it open and ate with obvious pleasure.
He watched her, considering his options. Should he tell her about the system, about his vision, which he knew wasn't a dream—of Anubis?
As she enjoyed her chocolate and Devon debated, a quiet but distinct scraping sound echoed in the dead silence of the night. The sounds seemed to come from the ground, from places where asphalt and cement didn't cover the earth.
Devon tensed. The sound wasn't in one place. It was in several, simultaneously. "What the hell is that…" he whispered, his voice catching in his throat.
He stood up immediately. Raline, who had also heard the noises, didn't move. She knew getting up would only increase the risk of her stumbling and making a noise that could attract any nearby skeletons.
Through a small gap in the boarded up third floor window, he peered out. Even without streetlights, he could see everything clearly. The patches of earth, especially beneath the trees between the buildings, were moving, as if something was pushing its way up from below. Almost every patch of exposed dirt was disturbed.
From the moving ground, Devon saw a faint glow of dark black light streaked with thin, golden threads. He squinted, recalling the description of his new passive skill.
[Death Sight (Passive): Detects the presence, movement, and residual aura of souls, both living and dead, within 200 meters. The clarity of vision depends on spiritual resistance and environment.]
'Don't tell me what I'm seeing now is the aura of a bunch of undead…'
His hope was immediately dashed. From the disturbed soil, skeletal hands, their white bones contrasting sharply with the dark aura surrounding them, clawed their way out of the ground.
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Chapter 19. Raline’s Feelings
Everything instantly went dull and grey. The pillow, which had been flying toward his face, now moved in extreme slow motion. Devon’s body felt weightless, insubstantial, like he was made of smoke.He tried to step aside, but the movement felt strange. He glided rather than walked. The pillow passed through where his body had been.Then, abruptly, the world slammed back. Colors returned, sounds rushed in. Devon stumbled, nearly falling over.[Ephemeral Shift ended][Duration: 2 seconds][Mortuary Essence consumed: -25 ME][Cooldown: 60 seconds]“Whoa…” Devon gasped, his heart pounding fast. “That was… intense.”Raline rushed over. “Are you okay? You looked like you actually disappeared for a second!”“Yeah, that skill is insane. Devon sank onto the mattress. “For two seconds, I was basically untouchable. But it’s disorienting as hell…”“Could you fight while using it?”“Maybe? It was hard to move normally, I was floating. But if I’m about to get hit by something I can’t dodge…” He sho
Chapter 18. Testing the Powers
Devon just stared at the list of abilities in his Status Window, realizing he had been relying purely on his physical combat and Death Sight. The other skills remained untouched.‘Essence Siphon, Minor Life Drain, Spectral Hand, and Ephemeral Shift… I haven’t even tried them once.’He sat up slowly, wincing slightly. His whole body still ached from the corruption purge, but the pain was manageable now, he could actually move. Raline was humming softly, busy cooking something that smelled ridiculously good, considering they were in a store hiding from the undead.The sight made him smile. At least one of them was keeping things normal in this disaster.“Sis, I’m gonna test something. Stay back a bit, okay?” he called out.Raline turned from the camping stove, holding a pot of instant ramen she had apparently enhanced with a can of peas and carrots. “Try what?”“My skills. I’ve only been using one of them this whole time.”She nodded eagerly, setting the pot down on the folding table sh
Chapter 17. Death Corruption
BANGGGG!! BANGGG!!!The rolling door suddenly vibrated with a deafening noise, making Raline jump in surprise, and the flashlight she was holding clattered to the floor. She instantly ran toward her brother, who was walking between the fallen shelves.But seeing her brother not care, she also calmed down. He wasn't scared, so she didn't have to be, either.Ignoring the commotions, he lifted several shelves, pushing them aside to form a crude partition around their spot. After that, he found some foam mattresses, stacking a few to create two sleeping areas for himself and Raline.The sound of the undead hammering on the rolling door echoed a few more times, but after a few minutes, the banging stopped. Devon could still see the auras of the Zombies outside the rolling door, moving back and forth, up and down, a restless patrol."Dev, why won't they just leave already?" Raline, who could also hear the low growls coming from behind the door, asked. She was busy unfolding blankets and pil
Chapter 16. Death Corruption
BANGGGG!! BANGGG!!!The rolling door suddenly vibrated with a deafening noise, making Raline jump in surprise, and the flashlight she was holding clattered to the floor. She instantly ran toward her brother, who was walking between the fallen shelves.But seeing her brother not care, she also calmed down. He wasn't scared, so she didn't have to be, either.Ignoring the commotions, he lifted several shelves, pushing them aside to form a crude partition around their spot. After that, he found some foam mattresses, stacking a few to create two sleeping areas for himself and Raline.The sound of the undead hammering on the rolling door echoed a few more times, but after a few minutes, the banging stopped. Devon could still see the auras of the Zombies outside the rolling door, moving back and forth, up and down, a restless patrol."Dev, why won't they just leave already?" Raline, who could also hear the low growls coming from behind the door, asked. She was busy unfolding blankets and pil
Chapter 15. The New City
Around fifty meters from the city limits, Devon spoke to his sister. "I'm gonna test out my strength, okay? Bony, you walk slowly and catch up with her, got it?"But without waiting for Raline's reply, he sprinted forward with impossible speed toward the city boundary, then leaped over the two-meter-high border, landing silently inside the city limits.Thirteen Zombies were shambling nearby. They instantly turned, sniffing the air, having caught the scent of human life. Devon gave a cynical smirk as he watched them begin to stagger toward him.He drew his sword, Caldemor, and charged toward the first zombie. With fluid, lethal grace, he swung the blade at the first one, aiming straight for its neck.He repeated the move with the next one. His movements were a blur of attacks and evasions, executed at a speed far exceeding that of a normal human.In no time at all, he had severed the heads of all the zombies.'Heh... those were too easy to kill,' he thought, wiping his blade clean wit
Chapter 14. Leaving the Mountains
The bodies lay sprawled inside the cave, clustered around the remains of the campfire that was now nothing but cold charcoal. Three small children and five teenagers were scattered among the adult corpses.They had all died violently, in various ways. Some bodies were burned to a crisp, charred and blackened. Others lay with their heads nearly severed, dangling grotesquely.Raline let out a sharp gasp, then bolted out of the cave. Devon remained for a moment, his gaze sweeping the interior.The Revenants hadn't spared the children, not even the smallest ones, and the reality of that made him feel a cold twist in his stomach. He swallowed down the nausea, forcing it back, and walked out.He had no desire to take any useful items they might have left behind—though he doubted there would be any. All that was in his mind was the image of the gods he had seen rolling dice.Was this what they were playing with? A game where human lives were the chips?Feeling strangely weak, he walked towar
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