CHAPTER 56: CHAPTER 55: JUDGE

Zaen opened his eyes and realized he was in an unfamiliar-familiar place. He looked around, not registering it at first, but then it hit him.

"...I can see?"

Before he knew, tears welled up in his eyes. Even though it wasn’t a place he wanted to see again, the fact that he could see overwhelmed his sensible mind.

Slowly, he realized what the place was. It was his home, as it was in the first game. Zaen immediately tried summoning his weapons, but couldn’t. It was the same when he tried accessing the system.

Nothing was responding to him like they hadn’t been there in the first place.

"Could this be a dream?"

A normal person would’ve thought what happened to them before was a nightmare, but Zaen thought the opposite. The things he had been through weren’t something he could just dream about.

"This isn’t a dream, and what happened before wasn’t a dream either," he mumbled, rubbing the place he had just pinched himself.

With no other place to go to, he opened the metal doors and walked inside. That’s when another shock hit him. Instead of the ruined halls and crumbling rooms like before, he came across cells. Proper prison cells.

"What is this...?"

Mumbling, he walked up to the nearest cell and saw strange engravings on the metal bars. While he wasn’t well-versed in ancient languages, there were some symbols he knew about.

"Vedic symbols? What are they doing here?"

He reached out to touch them when something rushed at him from the other side. The creature hit the bars and was flung back inside.

"What the hell was that?"

The bars weren’t there just for show, they were capable of keeping whatever that was inside, inside. Zaen inched closer and grabbed the metal bar to peek inside, but when he saw what was inside, his eyes contracted.

He saw a burly figure squatting in the corner of that cell, rubbing its head. However, it turned towards the gates as soon as it heard Zaen’s footsteps.

"...the chef?"

Hell’s Chef... was inside the prison.

It wasn’t just him. There were four more cells, each holding a prisoner. To be precise, they were the anomalies Zaen had killed.

Two camouflaged ones, the restaurant’s attendant, and a miniature bus. All five creatures he had killed and ’stored’ within the stick were there.

[Anomalies stored: 5/5]

[Please select an anomaly to sentence:]

[1. Hell’s Chef]

[2. Hell’s Attendant]

[3. Bus 357]

[4. Camouflaged Anomaly#1]

[5. Camouflaged Anomaly#2]

"The system is back?" Zaen mumbled and tried fetching the status page, but again it didn’t work. "It seems this is something different from the system I possess."

He selected the last option, and another screen appeared before him.

[Prisoner: Camouflaged Anomaly#2]

[Sentence: ???]

[Please punish the sinner with one of the choices.]

[1. Death Sentence: Will give a certain skill possessed by the sinner to the Judge. (Up to three uses.)]

[2. Life Sentence: Increase Loyalty or Fear of the creature to tame it. Once tamed, it can be summoned as a soldier to do the Judge’s bidding.]

"Judge? I’m the judge, jury and the executioner here?"

Zaen calmly read and re-read the words. He could tame them or execute them on a whim? Moreover, could he get their skills?

"Isn’t this... system too broken?"

He got lost in his thoughts, wondering about the possibilities. The first thought that emerged in his head was, what if he killed an anomaly with visual skills? Would he get his eyes back?

That thought made his mind and heart both race.

"Grr!"

The sudden grumbling of Camouflaged Anomaly#2 brought Zaen back to his senses. He looked at the human-shaped anomaly. The latter seemed like it wanted to bite Zaen’s head off, probably because of low loyalty and fear, but then eased up a bit.

Despite being a low-ranked anomaly, it knew that its life and death depended on the human before him. It didn’t want to vanish from the world, so it chose to surrender.

"Wise choice," Zaen smiled, then without any hesitation, he selected the first option.

"GRRR!"

The anomaly lunged at him. Sadly for it, Zaen was the absolute being there. He was the judge, and his sentence was final. The anomaly had to die. Just like that, the anomaly crumbled to dust, erased from existence.

[Execution complete.]

[Current prison occupancy: 4/5]

[Hell’s Chef’s fear index: 5/100]

[Hell’s Attendant’s fear index: 7/100]

[3. Bus 357’s fear index: 3/100]

[4. Camouflaged Anomaly#1’s fear index: 11/100]

"So that’s how you increase fear," Zaen mumbled. "Makes sense. Who wouldn’t be scared after seeing their cellmate turn to dust?"

[Selecting a random skill from the executed anomaly...]

[Selection complete.]

—x—

[Item: Skill Stone]

[Type: Consumable / Skill Book]

[Rarity: Common]

[Uses: 3/3]

Effects:

— Grants the user Camouflage skill.

Skill:

— Camouflage: Upon use, lowers the player’s presence to 0.01.

[Duration: 10 minutes.]

[Cooldown: 1 hour(s).]

—x—

***

Sometime later, back in the real world.

"I can’t believe it was the stick’s awakening skill," Zaen mumbled. "This little thing is getting more and more useful every second."

After capturing five souls, the stick awakened, giving him the [Judge] skill. The skill description was simple. It gave Zaen the right to judge all captured anomalies, and the rest became clear after he used the skill once.

"Now I need to capture twenty more anomalies for the next upgrade," he said, entering the shower.

Taking a shower after working out was not less than bliss for Zaen, and yes, he did work out even after losing his eyes. Especially ever since he started fighting these weird monsters.

Not to mention, showering made his mind focused, helping him to come up with his next move.

Previously, he used this time to come up with strategies to outsmart his superiors during the training, but now it was being used by him to focus on anomalies, both those he had killed and those stored within the stick.

"I can’t take my physique for granted anymore..." he mumbled, "I’d better start training seriously once again. Who knows what kind of creature this artifact would make me fight next time?"

He continued, "Then there are also those weird cult fucks I need to beware of. At this point, they are more troublesome than the ghouls."

He turned the knob, and warm water rushed out of the showerhead to hug his body, momentarily taking his worries away from him.

After spending a good time inside the shower, he finally stepped out as the water droplets gently flowed down through his hair, tracing his muscles.

After drying himself and wearing a fresh set of clothes, he headed towards the bed, only to see someone already lying there.

"What are you doing here?" Zaen asked, tossing the sheets away.

He merely saw Ann’s silhouette and wanted to chase her away. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see the tears running down her face.

"T-They... are all dead..."