UNLOCK: I CAN SEE MY STATS

chapter 22 : the system origin!

He was instantly stunned as he looked up.

There was a fiery hole blazing in the ship’s lower deck ceiling, and the moonlight reflected in Marcus’s wide, shocked eyes.

His astonishment didn’t last long. A strange sound snapped him out of it. He lowered his head and looked down.

A strange capsule rolled across the floor, making a metallic clinking sound. It hit the bars of his cage, then slowly opened, releasing a white mist.

At the center of the capsule was an ethereal bracelet glowing blue and green, pulsing as if it were alive.

Marcus stared at it, mind clouded, then almost unconsciously reached out a cautious hand.

The moment he touched it, it latched onto his wrist like a parasite.

He felt a sudden heat , and then sharp pinpricks like tiny needles drilling into his bones. A shiver shot through his entire body. He snapped out of his daze and screamed in fear:

“W-What is this…?!”

He shook his hand, frantically trying to tear it off, but it began to coil tighter around his wrist as if it had found its rightful place.

Outside, deep in the sea, because the front of the ship had been destroyed, enormous eyes opened and looked up.

The colossal Deep Sea King smelled blood. Its snake-like body drew closer to the ship, electric roars reverberating through the water.

BOOM!!

Because of its immense size , over 100 meters it pierced through the bottom of the ship, which had already lost much of its protective deep-sea stone plating meant to keep such monsters away.

Inside, Marcus, who was still desperately trying to rip off the ethereal bracelet, was suddenly flung backward and slammed into the wall of the cell.

“Argh!!…” He let out a groan of pain.

“Damn it! What the hell is happening here!!…”

He screamed in panic as he braced himself, the ship beginning to tilt forward.

As if to answer his question, the Deep Sea King with its hard purple scales pierced the ship again, tearing away a huge section, finally allowing it to see what was causing all this chaos.

“M-M-Monster… A Deep Sea King!!!…” Marcus screamed in terror, crawling backward.

ROAR!!

The giant creature’s roar echoed, making Marcus clamp his hands over his ears instinctively.

Without realizing it, the ethereal bracelet on his wrist flashed an invisible blue light that scanned the Deep Sea King as it rammed through the bottom of the ship.

[Unknown lifeform detected…]

[Scanning genetic structure…]

“Haah!! Who’s there?!”

Marcus looked around dumbly, thinking for a moment he’d heard someone , some mechanical voice, but he ignored it because of the massive beast tearing through the ship.

He clutched the cage bars, praying silently that the terrifying creature wouldn’t notice him. Luckily, the Deep Sea King was too busy devouring Duke Zenmar’s guards who were trying to fight it off.

[Scan complete…]

[Genetic material successfully acquired…]

“There it is again!! That voice…”

“Am I seriously hallucinating!?” Marcus wondered with a grimace, looking around, trying to find the source of the voice—besides the screams of the other imprisoned slaves and the monster’s roars, there was nothing.

“No one!! That voice is way too clear it’s like it’s echoing inside my head direc....”

Before he could finish, the mechanical voice returned:

[Transformation unlocked…]

“Hey!! Who are you!? Where are you!?… What does ‘transformation unlocked’ even mean?!” Marcus shouted, but got no reply.

“Damn it!! What the hell is happ...!?”

Because of the darkness, he suddenly noticed from the corner of his eye that the bracelet he’d forgotten was now glowing with a faint green light.

Curious, he lifted his right hand and stared in astonishment at the bracelet, which now displayed an image that looked exactly like the Deep Sea King descending deeper into the water.

As it sank, its eyes met Marcus’s terrified gaze.

Marcus could see bits of human remains between the Deep Sea King’s teeth as it opened its giant mouth and lunged straight at him.

Hands trembling, mind numb, Marcus felt like it was all over.

Instinctively, without even realizing it, he raised his right hand and pressed the glowing image.

Bzzz!!

It felt as if time froze for an instant. The first thing he felt was a slight pain, then his skin began to turn purple and form hard scales. His face twisted, reshaping into something like the snake-headed Deep Sea King. His body quickly swelled to a monstrous size.

In the blink of an eye, a massive body emerged. Its dark purple shiny skin glistened under the firelight and moonlight. The thick purple scales covered it entirely. Two yellow eyes burned like twin suns beneath the water. A forked tongue flicked from a mouth full of long, jagged fangs.

ROAR!!

Marcus, now magically transformed into an exact replica of the Deep Sea King, even the beast itself showed a startled, almost human-like expression. It hadn’t expected its prey to turn into another version of itself.

Moving on instinct, Marcus’s giant snake-like body coiled easily around the Deep Sea King. Then, purely by instinct, he unleashed high-voltage charges , sparks of electricity burst in every direction.

BZZZT!!

ROAR!!

The Deep Sea King howled in agony, thrashing wildly to throw Marcus off. Together, they shattered large sections of the ship. Unfortunately, many of the slaves were caught in the chaos, crushed into bloody pulp.

ROAR!!

Marcus opened his massive, fang-filled jaws and without hesitation bit into the unprotected neck of the enormous serpent.

BZZZT!!

His body discharged even more electricity, overwhelming the Deep Sea King’s resistance. Ignoring its tough purple scales, Marcus ripped out a huge chunk of flesh from its neck.

He stared with regained awareness at the dying monster, then let it slip into the blood-dyed sea, now littered with organs, guts, and severed limbs.

Lifting his head high, Marcus let out a roar that shook the ocean itself, as if venting all his pent-up rage.

“I don’t know how I became like this… or what’s happening to me… but…”

His massive snake body twisted, shooting straight up toward what was left of the ship’s surface.

“I hope that stupid Deep Sea King didn’t eat that Promised bastard…”

Marcus thought grimly as he surged upward.

When he finally reached the remaining deck, he stopped, staring down silently. The only sounds were cracking timbers and the ship sinking.

His huge yellow eyes looked on in sorrow. Near him lay Rain’s ruined body. Marcus could see the bullet hole in his forehead , clearly dead.

“What a shame…” Marcus thought sadly, then turned his giant snake head toward Duke Zenmar, who was lying unconscious, probably from sheer terror. A sadistic smile formed on the monstrous face.

“Lucky me…” he thought happily, then frowned.

“Hmm! How am I supposed to turn back to normal? Wait—don’t tell me I’m stuck like this forever…”

Panic struck immediately at the horror of that idea.

But it seemed he worried for nothing. It was simple, just thinking of returning to human form made it happen. In an instant, his body shrank back to normal.

He collapsed right onto the ruined deck, supporting himself with both hands, panting heavily.

“I feel… so weak…”

He muttered drowsily, then took a deep breath, gathered his strength, and stood. He slowly made his way toward Duke Zenmar, pausing for a moment beside Rain.

He sighed and thought bitterly,

“Well… I’m grateful my father died in that bombardment. It was kinder than this hell… Rest in peace, Dad…”

“And you too, Rain…”

He closed Rain’s wide-open eyes, then continued on to his goal.

“He… heheheheh…”

He looked down at Duke Zenmar and let out a chilling laugh.

BOOM!!

SLAP!!

He smacked Zenmar across the face so hard it left a handprint.

“Wake up, you pig…”

“Waaah…” Zenmar’s eyes snapped open and he screamed in terror, looking around frantically until his gaze settled on Marcus, whose red eyes burned with fury.

“Hello! Motherfucker…”