The sky was ominous, filled with dark clouds as far as the eyes could see.

  Light rain drizzled to the ground, wetting the hot gravel and releasing a powerful earthly smell. Just like the smell of the first rain after a long summer draught.

  But the smell in the surroundings wasn't just that.

  The scent of death lingered all over the place.

  Corpses littered the ground, stretching for a good few hundred meters.

  Human corpses, and some small, green, monstrous creatures together, lying on the ground, unmoving... Dead.

  "Ugh..."

  But among the corpses, a single figure moved.

  A man, squirming out of a pile of bodies, struggling to escape.

  His right hand extended, groping around as if looking for anything to grab on. Thankfully, he grabbed someone's arm and pulled, slowly but surely extracting himself from the pile.

  "Haaa... Haa...!"

  He took deep breaths, gasping for air while on all fours. His limbs trembled from the cold, light rain hitting his body, slowly washing away the dirt, blood, and grime covering his face.

  His red eyes trembled, his mind slowly catching up with the situation.

  However...

  "What... is this place?"

  The man felt confused instead. His memories weren't complete, as if a jigsaw puzzle that was thrown around, leaving only a few pieces on top of the table.

  His head pulsed with a profound pain, almost as if he was wounded from within.

  Seconds passed, turning to minutes.

  Just as he was starting to calm down, a noise reached his ears. Not one worthy of celebration, no. But one that presented him with a deadly situation.

  Something like low growls, or cheerful noises. Two sources. Both sounding high pitched, neither humanlike, nor beastlike.

  His eyes scanned around, and quickly landed on a mysterious figure, or figures, lying around with the human corpses.

  As he found them, green skin, small enough to be half of his height, and possessing sharp fangs and ears, a name popped in his head, one he seemed extremely familiar with.

  'Goblins...'

  'What are goblins? How do I know what they are called?' Such questions lingered in his mind.

  However, he pushed them all away, prioritizing one important thing: his survival.

  His body moved almost by instinct, leaning against the pile of corpses as he slowed his breathing.

  Wet footsteps approached him from behind, to his left side, along with the creatures' chatter sounding clearer by the second.

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  They weren't speaking, per se.

  Rather, they seemed to only be grunting and growling, as if emulating the process called "communication." Their sounds didn't possess any meaning at all; at least, to the man's ears, they were nothing but irritating, high-pitched noise.

  Soon, the two goblins walked past him.

  They were, as he expected, the same as those green creatures lying down on the ground dead. Roughly a meter tall, sickly green complexion, and backs hunched as they walked forward while cackling.

  Their actions seemed as if they were ridiculing their dead comrades, as if they were laughing at their deaths.

  "..."

  As the two monsters passed, the man moved.

  He took a quiet step forward, stealthily following the two.

  His steps were timed to match the goblins, hiding the sound of his approach under the sound of their own steps.

  One stride, two. He closed the distance gradually.

  The two goblins continued laughing, not noticing the person coming from behind them.

  The distance closed, leaving only five meters between them. A distance that, no matter how stealthy he tried to be, he'd get discovered.

  But he didn't feel pressured. As if such a situation was normal to him.

  Both hands hung down as he crouched lightly. Then, with a powerful leap, he moved forward and reached the two goblins instantly.

  His hand moved fast, grabbing the first goblin's head.

  He pushed using his left, while pulling using his right, twisting the head in his grasp as fast as he could.

  A clear snap echoed as the goblin's head changed angles, now facing backward. It's expression locked into a sneer.

  "Keek?!"

  The second goblin saw this happen and flinched. However, it was already too late for it to move.

  The man had already moved to the back of the second goblin before it could even raise its voice. And just like on the first one, he twisted the monster's head until it was facing backwards.

  Their small size made it look like an easy feat.

  But twisting a head until it's facing the opposite direction wasn't easy at all. If not for his timing, waiting for the neck muscles relax, and doing a small "trick" to reduce the resistance, it would be impossible to do in one try.

  Both goblins died just like that. Their bodies flopping down the muddy ground.

  The man glanced at the two corpses, confirming their demise. Then, he looked around warily, looking for signs of more goblins. This lasted for a while, before he whispered lightly.

  "Clear..."

  He took deep, long breaths, as if calming himself down. However, there wasn't a need to do so.

  Although he took lives of monsters, weird creatures, he didn't feel anything at all. Neither excitement nor fear. Not even guilt.

  The act of taking lives felt natural to him, as if he was born to do it.

  "Right..." He muttered, his jumbled memories reviving. "This place... Apocalypse..." He added, mouthing words that he himself wasn't sure about.

  However, his newly revived memories were vivid, as if telling him to do something.

  He stretched his arm forward, as if signaling someone to stop. Then, he opened his palm, and thought of a single thing: wanting to know about himself. Slowly, his lips parted, moving by themselves, and shouting two short words.

  "System open!"

  As he did, something weird happened.

  Before his eyes, windows appeared. One was a blue window, showing a simple summary of his details, with a grid to the right and some buttons below.

  He didn't pay much attention to the grid, which only had three slots with logo on it: bread, bottle of water, and a pair of daggers.

  Instead, he turned to the summary of his information, and carefully read through it.

  ---

  [ Name: Lucian Ashford ]

  Class: None

  Lifespan: 10 days, 23 hours, 48 minutes, 21 seconds.

  ---

  "Lucian..." The man read the name, his own name. "I... Am Lucian..."

  But more than the name, a certain section caught his attention. Lifespan. On it was a countdown timer, having a little under 11 days left.

  "What is this...?"

  Of course, he was clueless about it.

  A part of his memory did return, but not all of it. He was still filled with questions that need answers.

  He tilted his head, facing the dark clouds up in the sky, hiding the midday sun. Then, slowly lowered his gaze, facing the forest the goblins were heading toward.

  Lucian moved with purpose.

  He walked past the mountain of corpses, and slowly entered the forest.

  He need to find shelter from the rain, slowly sapping his body heat away, and fast.