6. Blood Quota

  Panic took hold of him.

  Both hands flew to his head, pressing hard.

  "This is wrong... very wrong!"

  He remembered the torn nails. The pain. The blood falling onto the white sink.

  "If that happens again, I..."

  'No.'

  He breathed deeply, trying to think clearly.

  'None of this is real. It's just something my mind is generating. I can't forget that. All I have to do is breathe and close my eyes.'

  He shut his eyes tight and tried to control his breathing.

  'I can't let any of this overwhelm me or I'll lose my mind...'

  He opened them.

  The window was still there. Floating.

  It disturbed him deeply.

  "Damn it!" He hit his head with both hands. "All you have to do is make that stupid message disappear!"

  But nothing happened.

  "Shit!"

  In a burst of rage, he threw a punch directly at the message.

  His knuckles slammed into something hard. Something real.

  "Argh!"

  The pain was instant and brutal. He dropped to his knees.

  He looked up at the message. It was still there.

  And then it changed.

  [Hello, servant! It seems you didn't do so well on your first quota... Your master is very displeased. As a result, the unfulfilled quota from last time will be added to today's, and the available time will be cut in half. So hurry up.]

  → Servant's Blood Quota — 5000ml + 4000ml (incomplete): 0/9000ml

  → Calculated Time — 50min - 25min (Penalty): 25 minutes

  → Time Remaining — 23 minutes and 57 seconds

  [Reminder]

  → Each time the established quota is not met, Mor'khad will devour a part of your body, beginning with what is least essential for survival and advancing toward what is most vital.

  "Again..." he murmured, eyes fixed on the words. "It's exactly the same."

  Then he saw the quota. The amount.

  "What?! How am I supposed to complete that in that amount of time?!"

  He stepped closer to the window as though he could negotiate with it.

  But everything got worse when he read the reminder.

  Horror spread across his face.

  'Beginning with what is least essential... advancing toward what is most vital.'

  He remembered what that man had said in the rift.

  "Make it part of your stomach! Let it be the one that takes care of satisfying your ravenous hunger forever!"

  "It can't be... how did I not realize before... how could I have believed until now that it meant he would devour me to satisfy his appetite..."

  He slowly removed his gloves and stared at his bandaged fingers, unsettled.

  "I should have understood from the last warning... But I'm an idiot."

  He swallowed.

  "It was never a post-traumatic response from being eaten alive... It was those simple words that man said..."

  He clenched his fists.

  "I'm going to be the one responsible for feeding that monster's hunger for all eternity. Until I die. I'm cursed. He cursed me."

  He turned toward the system. The timer kept falling.

  "Fine... You win. I'm going to complete the quota. I'll do it. Forgive me. I'm sorry if you were offended because I did nothing last time. But I'm an idiot, okay?! I couldn't understand what it meant right away!"

  Desperate, he pleaded.

  "Just tell me how to get the blood, please. That's all I need and I'll do it, I swear."

  No response. Only the time decreasing.

  "Do I have to cut myself or something?!"

  No. That would be suicide. The body doesn't have that many liters of blood.

  "Then what?! People?! You want me to kill people?! I don't want to! Not again! It was horrible... The thing with Darius... It was horrible. I have to pretend none of that happened just to cope with the guilt."

  He could barely breathe.

  "But I can get you monsters! Yeah?! That's the only option! Please accept it! I just need more time, okay?! I don't know how long it'll take to find a rift or whether I'll even be able to get into one and kill them. Give me more time and I promise I'll bring you monsters!"

  There was no response at all.

  "PLEASE, MOR'KHAD, HELP ME! JUST THIS ONCE! I'M BEGGING YOU!"

  He started frantically hitting the message with his fingers, again and again.

  "ANSWER ME! I DON'T WANT IT TO END LIKE LAST TIME!"

  Nothing.

  → Time Remaining — 21 minutes and 52 seconds

  And the counter kept falling.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  But then another message overlaid the first.

  [Do you wish to use Mor'khad's Boss Rift Core to enter a safe instance?]

  [Yes] / [No]

  'I have no idea what this is... But I don't have another choice. Maybe it's my only chance to complete the quota.'

  He pressed [Yes].

  And was absorbed into the message.

  He appeared somewhere completely different.

  He was inside a rift — he realized it instantly.

  "It brought me to the underworld?!" he exclaimed, spinning around. "But how?! I've never entered one before!"

  He turned around. The system was there, radiating waves like a portal.

  'Maybe that's what sends me back...'

  He reached out to touch it.

  It vanished at the slightest contact.

  "What?! What happened?!"

  "I don't want to be trapped here!"

  He started hitting the system with his fingers again, but nothing happened. Then, by accident, he swiped to the right.

  New information appeared.

  [Profile]

  → Name: Blake Grimswell

  → Race: Human

  → Role: Servant

  → Class: None

  → Level: 1

  → Title: None

  → Experience: 0/100

  [Statistics]

  → Strength (STR): 3

  → Dexterity (DEX): 4

  → Defense (DEF): 6

  → Speed (SPD): 2

  → Intelligence (INT): 5

  → Wisdom (WIS): 2

  → Charisma (CHA): 9

  → Perception (PER): 8

  → Health Points (HP): 24

  → Energy / Stamina (EP): 14

  → Blood (BLD): 4.4 liters

  'It's too surreal. Almost like a... video game. I don't think anyone has ever read such a detailed description of themselves.'

  He fixated on level 1.

  'That means there are higher levels?'

  Then he heard several voices chattering among themselves. Strange sounds. Guttural.

  "Grrak... krrk."

  "Skraa... grik-grik."

  Shadows advanced toward him.

  Goblins.

  He had to hide. Fast.

  He looked around and crouched behind a large rock beside a path to the right.

  The goblins drew closer, chattering, passing just a few meters away without detecting him.

  Then, accidentally, he knocked a small stone with his foot.

  One of the goblins stopped. It turned its head.

  And began to approach.

  Blake covered his mouth and nose to make as little noise as possible. He went completely still.

  'It's going to see me. It's going to know I'm here. And the moment it does, it'll kill me easily because I don't have a weapon on me.'

  'That's right. I don't have any weapon. How am I even supposed to collect blood for Mor'khad like this?!'

  The goblin waited a few seconds, watching.

  "Krrk?"

  One of its companions made a sound calling it back. That brought it back to the group.

  After a few seconds Blake peered out to observe them.

  And then he saw a message floating above the goblins.

  [Warrior Goblin — Threat Level: Minor]

  'Threat level...'

  'That's new too.'

  It kept feeling more and more like a video game.

  'If I told anyone about this, they'd think I'd completely lost my mind.'

  "Either way..." he murmured. "Calling a goblin a minor threat makes no sense — it could kill me easily..."

  He breathed deeply.

  'But none of that matters now. The only thing I need to focus on is completing what I'm being forced to do and making sure nothing like what happened with my nails ever happens again.'

  He stood up and moved forward through the cavernous tunnel, staying alert, making sure nothing crept up behind him.

  Gradually, the presence of water and plants became more noticeable throughout the space.

  Something clearly unusual.

  He finally understood where he was headed. Rising before him was what appeared to be a goblin settlement.

  Terrified of being spotted, he hid inside a bush.

  [Housewife Goblin — Threat Level: None]

  [Child Goblin — Threat Level: None]

  [Elder Goblin — Threat Level: None]

  He observed the goblin population he could make out. Only women, children, and elderly. All with threat level: none.

  'Being able to see information about them just by focusing on part of a goblin's body is incredible... Whatever this strange interface I've discovered is, it's an enormous advantage.'

  All he had to do was concentrate on the smallest part of a goblin's body and he could already see its threat level.

  'But I don't see a single male goblin. Maybe they were all part of the group I saw before...'

  He stopped and analyzed the situation.

  'That could work in my favor... assuming what Mor'khad means by blood is that I have to kill someone.'

  He paused.

  'But can I actually do it...? Even against a threat level of none, maybe I'm not capable.'

  He then turned his attention to their way of life. They almost seemed to have genuine reasoning. A real society. Their own way of living together.

  'I never thought monsters lived in any way... like us.'

  [Time Updated!]

  → Time Remaining — 11 minutes and 42 seconds

  The alert appeared right in front of his face, startling him.

  "Shit... I've burned through more than half the time. I have to act fast..."

  He prepared to step out of the bush.

  He began moving quickly toward the settlement, keeping as silent as possible.

  'If I'm going to kill them... the first thing I need is a weapon.'

  He reached the settlement and started crouching behind whatever he could find to avoid being seen. His body trembled nonstop. He felt completely exposed. But he couldn't find where they kept their weapons.

  He ended up crouched behind a wooden crate. He had to peek out to get his bearings. There were goblins everywhere.

  "Damn it... What do I do now...?"

  He murmured, pressing his fist against the ground.

  "Huh...?"

  He felt something solid beneath it. Metallic.

  He dug it out — it was an old, rusted knife with nicks along the blade. It was in bad shape.

  He picked it up.

  The moment he did, details materialized in front of him.

  [Weapon Statistics]

  → Type: Dagger

  → Rarity: Common

  → Damage: 2–4

  → Speed: Fast

  → Durability: 5/20

  → Weight: Light

  → Condition: Broken / Rusted

  → Requirement: None

  → Disadvantage: -10% accuracy (broken condition)

  → Effect: 5% chance to inflict infection on enemy (due to rust)

  'This never stops surprising me... and at the same time sending ice through my veins.'

  He read everything and realized the dagger was every bit as bad as it looked. It was garbage, plainly.

  "Well..." he murmured, giving it one last look. "It's all I found. And I'm almost out of time. I'll have to use it no matter what..."

  He peered out again to see if he could move.

  And by some stroke of luck, there wasn't another goblin in sight.

  He could move.

  He headed toward a cabin and advanced pressed against the wall as much as possible.

  "Krrk?"

  "Grrr… k'k."

  Then he heard the voices of two female goblins conversing with each other. And at the same time he saw their shadows rounding the corner of the cabin, drawing closer.

  He panicked. There was nowhere to go. The only option he could think of was to go inside the cabin — its entrance covered by nothing but a cloth.

  Once inside, he watched the entrance and braced for the worst — for them to come in too.

  It didn't happen.

  He turned around. The room was dark. The only light came from a few lit torches at the far end. There was also a table with wooden baskets on top.

  [Baby Goblin — Threat Level: None]

  He moved closer to investigate.

  It was a row of baby goblins sleeping peacefully.

  'If someone told me some of them will grow up and try to kill humans one day, looking at them now I wouldn't believe it.'

  "Should I... kill them then? I wouldn't just be meeting the quota Mor'khad demands — I'd also be saving people in the long run..."

  [Baby Goblin — HP: 5/5]

  The moment he said it, green health bars appeared above each baby goblin's head.

  He understood immediately. Mor'khad agreed with what he had said. And wanted him to do it.

  "No! I didn't mean it! Obviously I'm not going to kill them! They're just babies! They haven't hurt anyone yet!"

  Then the system showed him a fictional scenario.

  His entire family. Dead.

  "Stop. I know what you're trying to do. I won't do it. Something like that couldn't really happen."

  He realized immediately that Mor'khad was playing with his head.

  "But they're monsters after all... If they could, they would..."

  He said it without meaning to, dissociated for a moment.

  "No! Stop! That's enough!"

  Then he felt in his fingers the exact same pain as when his nails had been completely torn out.

  "No... I already told you I won't do this... I'll complete the quota, I will, but not like this."

  [Do it]

  A message appeared inches from his face. It was different from the others. This one didn't seem automated.

  "No... I've already made my decision."

  Then it showed him a memory from years ago. A loss he still hadn't managed to make peace with — one he had only ever tried to bury.

  The tears came without warning.

  "Why are you showing me this...?" he barely managed to get the words out.

  [You know you want to]

  He gripped the dagger tightly as his breathing quickened and his eyes couldn't fix on any single point.

  'They're just monsters...'

  And he began to prepare himself to do something that would make him exactly one of them.

  "AHHHHH!"

  He raised the dagger.

  And kill the first one.