The Place Where Everything Begins

*Bam*

*Bam*

"Argh... it hurts. Help, help me..." The man jolted up from his faint after being hit in the head continuously by a skeleton soldier's long bone.

Due to the concussion the man received from being hit in the head altogether with the painful sensation from his entire body, he could only use his two arms to protect himself.

*Bam*

"Ghak..."

*Bam*

"Aargh... Please... somebody..."

*Sob* *Sob*

With his consciousness faded away ever so slowly, he could only beg and sob weakly...

Suddenly...

"Stop! You boney mother fucker! Eat this!"

Following the said words, a muscular bald man with a military outfit suddenly jumped up high from the ground with a wooden sword that cost him 12 SP being gripped tightly in his right hand; he hacked the 'sword' down at the left shoulder of a skeleton soldier.

*Crunch*

Accompanying by the crunching noise of bones breaking, the entire left arm of the skeleton soldier dropped down to the ground.

"Guwahaha, how does it feel to be hit back, white lil' shit."

However, as if it didn't feel any pain, the skeleton soldier turned its head with a green fire burning eerily in its eye sockets to Eddie.

"Jesus' holy shit..."

Upon seeing the spine-chilling skeleton up-close, Eddie couldn't help but took two steps back.

Meanwhile, as if it had gotten raged from losing an arm, the skeleton soldier changed its target from the sobbing man to the daring Eddie instead, then it started to walk towards him slowly.

"Stop, stop there. Or else I'll shoot... wait... I don't have a gun." Eddie took each step back with each step taken by the skeleton soldier.

They remained the same distance for some seconds...

Until Eddie saw that two more skeleton soldiers were walking in the sobbing man's direction, he finally woke up.

At that moment, Eddie could only grit his teeth strongly with a conflict expression between good and evil.

However, that expression didn't stay on his face for long...

Having finally gathered all his resolves at once, with all his might, Eddie roared, "Ah, fuck it. DIEEE!!"

Eddie swung his sword horizontally as hard as he could at the approaching skeleton...

At the same time, as if realizing its imminent doom, the skeleton soldier brought forth its long boney weapon with its two boney hands to the front, intending to defend against the incoming strike from Eddie.

*Clatter*

The sound induced by the wooden sword and the long bone having crashed with one another echoed loudly...

However, with the difference in momentum and base strength of the two sides, the wooden sword ended up pushing the long bone all the way in until the sword finally connected with the skeleton's neck.

*Crunch*

With a crunching noise, the skeleton's neck and spinal cord were broken in half, while its head flew away from its body, and its body stopped moving altogether.

Afterward, with the green fire in the skeleton soldier's eye sockets extinguished, it finally dropped to the ground lifelessly...

That was if it had any life in the first place...

"Huh? It dies just like that?"

With a sudden realization that a skeleton soldier was only scary in appearance, but not strength...

Eddie promptly took a deep breath with newfound confidence within his two black eyes. Then he dashed forward at the incoming two skeleton soldiers intending to behead them as fast as possible.

*Crunch*

*Crunch*

With his monstrous force, he beheaded the two skeletons with one strike each at their neck regions, giving no time and room for those creatures to retaliate back at all.

After exterminating the three skeleton soldiers, Eddie hurriedly walked up to check the man's condition. Right now, he already fell unconscious from the pain and concussion he had received earlier.

When Eddie saw that the man was not dead yet, he stood up, took a deep breath, then shouted with all his might, "BEHEAD THEM!! THEY ONLY LOOK SCARY, BUT THEY ARE WEAK. DON'T BE AFRAID, JUST BEHEAD THEM!!!!"

With the size of around 50x50 meters in size, every single soul inside the chamber had heard Eddie's voice very clearly. Despite some of them reacting to his shout a bit later than others, they still heard it and could digest the information from the shout somehow.

Upon hearing those words, some scattered people with a weapon who were backing away in fear from the skeleton soldiers decided to give it a try...

One of those people also included Mitchell, who didn't know how to help the little girl from the two skeleton soldiers without giving himself a death sentence...

As for those people staying witlessly in the proximity of the Crystal, they regained some senses within them after hearing the shout. For them to know that there was still a way to fight with those undead skeletons...

Feeling a bit hurt in his throat after shouting that loudly, Eddie carried the unconscious man on his right shoulder, then started to run back to the Crystal's direction as fast as he could.

While on the way there, he had to avoid some scattering skeletons' attacks occasionally...

It was not that hard to dodge one or two attacks coming from those skeleton soldiers if they stay alone. After all, they were slower and weaker than ordinary adult men.

Not long after, Eddie was back at the Survival Crystal's vicinity. There were currently around 35 people clustering around here, with most of them having weapons in their hands.

Those people were standing and grouping together in fear of the approaching abominable skeletons that were now only 20 meters away from them.

However, right when they saw that the man who had been trying to convince them to buy the weapons, and also the one who had shouted crucial information a few seconds ago, was now with them again, they started to bombard him with questions.

"Really? I mean the thing you'd said."

"How did you know that?"

"But I'm afraid..."

"Please, protect me... I'll give you money."

"Liar bastard..."

Upon hearing the endless questions, begging, and some sarcastic words, Eddie's face twitched unsightly while gripping his wooden sword tightly.

"See, he keeps quiet. Maybe, he really lies to u..."

Before the man could finish his speech, Eddie interrupted him with a booming voice, "FUCK YOU! AGAIN? YOU WANNA DIE?"

Lifting his wooden sword up high with a threatening posture as if he was ready to strike the man anytime...

"Wahhh... No, help me!" With a shrieking voice and crying for help, the man scrambled away like a cowardly chicken spotted by a fearsome lion.

Unsurprisingly, the man in question was in his 30s with casual clothes. He was also the same man who had started the chaotic mess last two times.

Even in this time of crisis, the man still tried to pick a fight with Eddie...

'He is an attention seeker?' Eddie thought annoyingly.

Shaking his head lightly at the man whom maybe, had tried to relieve his accumulated stress on him, Eddie took a brief look around at the incoming skeleton soldiers.

After seeing that the people's eyes were on him whose mouths might open and bombarded him with questions again at any time.

Thus, Eddie decided to speak first, "They are coming closer and closer now. So, listen to me, will ya? The thing you guys have to do is, striking those damned things at their neck areas, then 'bam!', they drop dead."

"Understood?"

Speaking till here, Eddie started to walk in the direction of the skeleton soldiers at the right passageway.

"If you still don't believe in my words, then watch me fight them as an example. After that, it's up to you."

He only left those words behind without even waiting for those people's response at all...

Upon seeing that Eddie was walking further and further away from the group, Mitchell, who had just come back from killing the two skeleton soldiers earlier, hurriedly placed the little girl down near the unconscious man.

Afterward, Mitchell told the girl to stay there, and then he ran after Eddie quickly...

With the doubtful eyes of people around the Crystal's vicinity, staring in wonder at their backs, Eddie and Mitchell went away without turning their heads back even once.

*Bam*

*Crunch*

*Crunch*

*Thump*

Eddie and Mitchell started to fight bravely with the undead army...

Soon, after everyone else saw how Eddie and Mitchell dealt with those skeleton soldiers, their eyes started to reflect some hope from within...

The situation wasn't hopeless after all...

Just like that, the real slaughter began...

...

Almost half an hour later...

"We won!!"

"Finally! Those damned things..."

"We... we really survive..."

"Shit, it hurts like hell being hit by that bone thingy."

"Look, there is a transparent interface popping up."

"Right... I've got 26 SP from killing one skeleton soldier."

With the voice of people cheering, cursing, being amazed, and so on...

They actually won the fight...

However, it was actually accompanied by five deaths and more than ten injured people. As a result, there were only 43 of them remaining now.

Meanwhile...

*Huff*

*Huff*

"So... tire... tired..."

"I think I was gonna die. Damn bones!"

"Thanks for helping me. What's your name?"

"I'm Bob, yours?"

"Mine is Joshua; nice to meet you."

"My arm is broken..."

"No more, not anymore..."

The sounds of people making huffing and complaining noises while trying to catch their breaths echoed within the not so lively chamber. There were even people who had made new friends from this life-or-death fight.

Those people were the ones who had fought really hard like their lives were on the line a moment ago.

Parts of those such people were Eddie and Mitchell...

"Haaaa..."

Eddie exhaled a long breath from his mouth; it resulted from his heart thumping so loudly nonstop. He felt like the adrenaline rush's effects had just run out. As a result, he felt so out of breath.

Right now, he only wanted to take a short break, nothing more...

Even though he only needed one or two full force strikes to take down each one of them at most. However, It was still proved quite a hurdle for him to avoid, parry, deflect, then counterattack those skeleton soldiers when they assaulted him from every direction continuously without any sign of fatigue at all.

The one sitting on the floor beside Eddie was Mitchell, who had earlier saved Eddie more than once from being smacked in the head by those sneaky pieces of walking bones.

Whenever Eddie slipped up or fell into an unfavorable situation, Mitchell would either give a timely aid or come to help at the right time.

It could be said that if not for Mitchell, Eddie should have a bloody head by now.

So, Eddie felt immensely grateful for Mitchell's helping hand and timely save...

As for Mitchell, he chose Eddie as his buddy instead of any other people because Eddie looked more reliable than those guys.

At this moment, when most people didn't even know what other people were thinking within their questionable 'sane' minds, the things and activities that they had shown and done so far were the only indicators to specify their outer shells at the very least...

As a result, when Eddie showed his compassion to help others, together with his direct attitude towards most things around him, Mitchell felt that Eddie was more than reliable for their current situations.

That's why he decided to run after Eddie to fight with the skeleton soldiers alongside him...

Consequently, after going through a life-or-death situation together, they grew closer to one another...