Chương 1: Nothing

Ch. 1 - Nothing +1 Life Force +1 Life Force +1 Life Force +1 Life Force +1 Life Force +1 Life Force The words faded slowly into existence, though they held no meaning. It took longer for that to happen. At first, they were just a different shade of darkness from the oblivion that surrounded it. They were dark gray on the black void, but slowly they kindled into something more substantial and reintroduced color to the world. Well, one color at least: red. +1 Life Force Eventually, it figured out something else, too.

If the words existed, and the energy paired with them surged through it with each new announcement, then it had to exist too, didn't it? Who am I, though, it wondered. Unfortunately, there were no easy answers to that question, and groping around in the dark accomplished nothing. +1 Life Force +1 Life Force The messages prodded it incessantly, preventing it from going back to sleep.

That was annoying, but it was only when it had that thought that it understood that there was a state of existence called sleep in the first place. +1 Life Force The state of being unaware and insensible to your surroundings. Huh. I think I much preferred that to whatever this is. +1 Life Force It didn't know what this was, though, or even what it was. Its mind felt half asleep still, and only the insistent jolts forced it to slowly come awake against its will.

+1 Life Force All it knew was that every few seconds, it impacted something. It was a distant sensation that it had to concentrate to feel beneath the rush of energy because the two were almost always in sync. +1 Life Force +1 Life Force Sometimes, that something was hard and unyielding, and sometimes, it was warmer and softer. It was only on those second impacts that the annoying message reappeared.

+1 Life Force Each message was now accompanied by a faint jolt of feeling that it could barely feel through whatever it was that it was encased within. But what was it, and where was it? Those were good questions, but they had no ready answers. It reached out to that feeling of impact, but there was nothing else there. It was either being struck or it wasn't, and when it wasn't, there was nothing at all. No, not nothing at all. It slowly dawned on it that it was being held.

Not where it was being struck, but at the other end. +1 Life Force +1 Life Force +1 Life Force For a time, it just existed, enjoying the feeling of warmth as it slowly thawed out and it tried to tease out this mystery. What was struck on one end but held on the other? It asked itself. +1 Life Force +1 Life Force Life Force Full Life Force Full Life Force Full Then, just like that, it was gone. That thin trickle of joy stopped as suddenly as it had started.

Instead, it was replaced with a different sort of message, but this one was empty, and without that thrill of energy it had grown used to. It was being warned that it was full? What did that even mean? As it asked that question, a window appeared, floating in the ether. Life Force: 20/20 Twenty? Twenty what? It asked itself. Is that a little or a lot? It answered itself almost immediately. It had to be a lot because it was full, which meant that it was all there was. But what was it for?

As if in response to its question, a second window appeared. It was larger than the first. Repair Soul: 500 Life Force Empower Blade: 250 Life Force Share Senses: 80 Life Force Improved Siphon 1: 50 Life Force Increase Reserves: 20 Life Force While it considered what these strange words might mean, the warning message continued to pester it. However, it wasn't quite sure what to do about that.

It took longer than it should have to realize that only one of the options even seemed to be possible based on the current numbers as it understood them. As soon as it selected Increase Reserves, it instantly saw its Life Force shift from 20/20 to 0/40. For a moment, it panicked as a chill of lost power washed over it, leaving only emptiness behind.

However, no sooner had it started to worry that it had made some sort of terrible mistake than the steady pulse of warmth returned as that pesky warning message stopped. +1 Life Force +1 Life Force +1 Life Force This time, it didn't take nearly as long to figure out the link between the messages and the numbers. Something was feeding it a trickle of irregular energy, and when it reached its maximum, that energy stopped for reasons it did not fully understand. This time it was ready, though.

Despite the fact that Increase Reserves 2 had increased to 30 Life Force, it was still going to get it, because it was all there was to do. This time, as soon as it reached 30, it triggered it so that it wouldn't get that warning again and miss out on this delicious flow. All of its energy vanished in an instant, but it was rewarded once more with an increased maximum.

Life Force 0/80 +1 Life Force +1 Life Force There was no way of knowing whether the small jolts of Life Force would be seconds or minutes apart, but it was determined not to waste anymore by being too full ever again. It wasn't quite greed that drove it. It was a need. It needed this power, though it did not know why. The need that it felt was too bad to ask why. Each time its Life Force total dipped back towards zero, it could feel a terrible hunger welling up inside of it once more.

Hunger - the need or desire to be fed, flitted through its mind. That felt about right, though it had another association with feeding… for a moment, memories of a table laden with dishes and something called food flickered before it, but they were gone again, even as it reached out to it. +1 Life Force Still, despite an almost compulsive need to watch the number rise and feel that warmth build, it forced itself to look at the other menu. It had already made the best use of its Life Force.

Now, it needed to make the best use of its waiting time. Repair Soul: 500 Life Force Empower Blade: 250 Life Force Share Senses: 80 Life Force Improved Siphon 1: 50 Life Force Increase Reserves 3: 40 Life Force +1 Life Force +1 Life Force At the moment, it only had 6/80 Life Force, but that number would rise inevitably, and it would need to be ready when it reached the next critical number. What would that be, though?

Three of its choices were still out of reach, but this time, there were two choices instead of just one. Would it choose the ability for 40 or the other ability for 50? Was there a difference? There had to be if they were named differently. So, which one was better? The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. +1 Life Force It flicked its attention to Improve Siphon since it hadn't tried to select it before, and instantly, a small explanatory message appeared as if by magic.

Improved Siphon 1: Your hunger increases. Each blow now drains from 1 to 3 Life Force. Triple the Life Force? It thought, practically trembling at the thought as it wondered what getting three Life Force at once would even feel like. That had to be the winner, of course. Still, it checked on Increase Reserves 3, just in case. Increase Reserves 3: Though you can never truly be sated, you can contain more. You can always contain more. Increase maximum Life Force to 150.

+1 Life Force +1 Life Force It was slightly disappointed to see that. It had expected the number to be 160 and somehow felt cheated that it was smaller than expected. This only doubled its certainty that Improved Siphon 1 was the way to go. +1 Life Force +1 Life Force +1 Life Force +1 Life Force +1 Life Force This time, it felt like it had to wait longer. Not just because 50 was a larger number, either. Whatever it was that was randomly rewarding it with this energy seemed to be slowing down.

It had only taken a handful of minutes to achieve the first two levels of reserves, but it felt like more than twice that long to get the 50 it needed for the next step. +1 Life Force +1 Life Force +1 Life Force Then, suddenly, just when it worried it might be stuck at 49 forever, the Life Force gauge rolled over to 50. It instantly selected the option it had been waiting for.

Suddenly, it felt cold and empty, and just as suddenly, it had a new ability, and the menu had been populated with Improved Siphon 2: 75 Life Force. While it contemplated all of that it was stopped in its tracks by a blast of energy that was twice as powerful as any that came before it. +2 Life Force It had just enough time to wonder why it had only received 2 energy instead of 3 when it was hit by more jolts. +3 Life Force +1 Life Force From 1 to 3, it thought, remembering the wording on the ability.

So, it's not triple… it's random. Random was another new word for it, but it filled the concept away as it focused on the more immediate issue. On average, the new power would double the amount of energy it had been getting, not triple it as it had first though, it realized, not quite sure how it had come to that conclusion. Still, it kept its thoughts simple, bracing itself for more energy. Only, that's not what happened. Instead, suddenly, something pulled away all six of the energy it had stored up.

Then, it sat there at zero for some interminable length of time. No, sitting at zero wasn't right. Energy was coming to it; it could feel it, but even as it had barely registered it, it was immediately siphoned away somewhere else without even showing up as an alert. It was incredibly frustrating, and for several long minutes, it was certain that it was being toyed with, even if it still wasn't precisely certain who or what it was, or why it was alone in the dark.

Such a statement raised several uncomfortable questions, though. Who was it to be toyed with, and who might be the one doing the tormenting? Hells, even more important than the question of who was how? It still felt the impacts. Hard. Soft. Soft. Hard. Soft. Something was still happening, but the chain of causality that it had come to expect and rely upon was broken. It floated there in the void stewing and wondering what it was that determined what it was and was not allowed to get.

Had something noticed that it had grown too powerful and decided to stop it? Something deep inside it began to boil with anger at the very thought that anyone would ever stand in its way. I will never bow to the will of another, it raged, surprised by the strength of the emotion. It tried to dig deeper into that, sure there must be a reason that it had felt this way, but it didn't find any memories to explain the impulse. It was just one more mystery to add to the pile. This continued a little while longer.

Then the blows stopped altogether. After that, it was left alone in the void with only the menus for company. It reviewed the other options it could not yet afford and found that all of them raised some interesting questions, but it was hard to care about those questions too much when its whole world was slowly grinding to a halt as it froze solid without any Life Force feeding it. Share Senses: The world is a large place, and you are but a single part.

See the world that you are feeding off of to better understand the struggle. Empower Blade: You are more than just steel. All you need to do is manifest your true nature. (one of several options will be chosen upon selection) Repair Soul: Do you even know who you are? This option will attempt to repair your broken soul. If you are successful, you may finally let yourself understand why all of this is happening.

Those words floated there before its uncomprehending sight for several minutes, slowly losing their color before they finally disappeared entirely as the world went dark. After that, it ceased to be once more. It had no idea how much time had passed before it was awoken again. It simply ceased to exist until it slowly came to the surface once more, sometime later. Once again, it felt not just the blows but the Life Force that was supposed to accompany them again. That wasn't the indicator that haunted it, though.

That floated there, in midair before it, dominating its field of vision in a pale red that was slowly fading to a darker gray. Life Force: 0/80. Zero. It was the most important number in the world, and nothing it could do would change it. +2 Life Force +1 Life Force +3 Life Force +3 Life Force +2 Life Force It was less of a flow and more of a tide this time. In seconds, it went from oblivion to wide awake as it drank in the new flood of power.

It was stronger than before and more insistent, but it still wasn't enough. +2 Life Force +1 Life Force It waited for minutes, letting its total accumulate. It thought about trying to save some, and hold it in reserve to prevent whatever had just happened from happening again, but it couldn't. The risk that its power might be stolen away again was even worse than the risk that it might run out.

As soon as another +2 brought it to a grand total of 76, it used 75 points to bring it to bring its Improved Siphon ability to level 2. Just like that, instead of getting 1 to 3 Life Force in each jolt of power it received, it was getting 3 to 5. Its old maximum was now its new minimum, and it gloried in that. +3 Life Force +4 Life Force +4 Life Force +5 Life Force +3 Life Force Improved Siphon 3: your hunger increases. It is a palpable thing. Increase Life Force drained per blow from 5 to 7.

+5 Life Force Even after it spent 75 though, it was already back above twenty and rising. Now that it was gaining Life Force so quickly, it would need to wait less than a minute before it could afford Improved Siphon 3. +3 Life Force +4 Life Force +3 Life Force +5 Life Force At only eighty Life Force, it considered that a bargain and selected it as quickly as it could.

It was almost having trouble spending the points faster than they were coming in now, and items were selected on impulse instead of planning or deliberation. +6 Life Force Increase Reserves 3 was purchased almost instantly for 40 Life Force to increase its Life Force Maximum to 150. That ability was replaced in turn by Increase Reserves 4. In the space of a few minutes its Life Force reservoir was increased in size from 150 points to 300 points. Suddenly, it felt like it could contain all the power in the world.

Indeed, it was tempted to hoard as much as possible in case it ever stopped flowing again like it had so recently. As it had twice, it corrected itself. It had woken up the first time from a similar stupor. Arguably, for it to forget everything before that point, it had probably been asleep for quite some time. +6 Life Force How long would it take to forget who or what I am? It wondered. Have I already had to get these abilities before? If I have done all this before, then what's the point?

They were good questions, but the only clue it had to that were the words of the abilities that were still too expensive to select. It had a broken soul, and it seemed like it might be important to do something about that, though it would take a bit longer to reach that pinnacle. +5 Life Force +7 Life Force Its choices were getting simpler as its priorities became more straightforward, but they were growing more costly, too.

No matter how much it wanted to further increase the power flowing into it or grow its strength, it first had to understand what was happening to it. It could not continue to make intelligent decisions in a vacuum. Share Senses had to be the next objective. That was the only way it could figure out what was going on, and right now such knowledge was more valuable than even its precious Life Force.

Share Senses: 80 Life Force Increase Reserves 5: 150 Life Force Improved Siphon 4: 200 Life Force Empower Blade: 250 Life Force Repair Soul: 500 Life Force +5 Life Force +6 Life Force It no longer took much time to get to 80 Life Force. Even when the flow stopped for a time and very briefly reversed around 63, it stayed calm and waited patiently to reach its goal, and after several more minutes, it finally got there.

+5 Life Force The last few times it had selected a new power, it merely felt weakened or cold as it poured out all the energy that came into it. Nothing else had changed. This time, though, everything was different. This time, the darkness that had blinded it until now, limiting it to its own thoughts, fell away to reveal a wider world that it had only suspected the existence of until now. It was no longer a prisoner to the darkness.

Instead, it was completely overwhelmed by the moment as colors, shapes, and sounds sprang into existence. A moment ago there had been only its thoughts echoing through its lonely mind, a few barely changing menus, and the feeling of a distant impact that was usually accompanied by a burst of Life Force. Now, there were screams of dying men, battle cries, and the sound of steel ringing out against steel. It was overwhelmed by the sudden burst of sensations.