Nightmare System 5 The Fores

"Cool, I guess" h.e.l.l mumbled to himself. "Let's see how much damage I can deal with these weapons." He said and left the apartment after trying to put his weapons in a guitar case and failing miserably, he left Imp Needle at his house as it could be summoned, it would also be great to see if he could summon it through great distances. He would travel kilometres away from it, after all. He wrapped rest of the weapons in cloth and carried them out.

The weather was great, considering it was still March. It was warm with a slight bit of wind. He tried to find a place where people wouldn't hear nor see him. He travelled for almost half an hour into the forest. There would only ever be wild animals here so it was almost guaranteed he wouldn't see anyone. He quickly unwrapped his glaive like a child opening his birthday gifts. There it was. He gripped it tight and raised it into the air. He thought it was great, holding such an unearthly weapon. Well, at least it was not from this earth, as far as he knew. He then started giggling to himself, looking at the weapon. He barely could get the words out as he said "This weapon…" he took a deep breath and finished his words. "I took from the corpse of Hans the Undying. That is just too funny." He couldn't control his laughter for a few more seconds until he finally became serious and hit one of the trees with all his speed. The glaive was stuck more than half-way into the tree, and he accidentally launched himself around 5 meters ahead.

"f.u.c.k!" He yelled. He didn't have the strength to go through a tree, obviously. His hands hurt. "d.a.m.n it." He used all his strength to take the weapon out, but it was a wasted effort. "This can't be the reason as to I invest points into strength!" He exclaimed. He took out the bow and one of the arrows, wanting to shoot at that tree, he was unable to pull the bow properly. It was nigh-impossible for a normal person to pull it, so he let it go. "I can't believe I killed giants and their all-powerful leader, only to be defeated by this s.h.i.tty tree."

"Imp Needle." He said as it was suddenly materialized in his hands. "Great." He said as he tried to nudge the glaive out by attacking at the stuck part. He attacked. This magic weapon was always a perfect fit to his arm and it always distributed the stress pa.s.sed onto the weapon. It didn't hurt him even when hitting a solid object. He managed to pierce the tree, but the weapon stopped as it hit the glaive.

"Alright. f.u.c.k this." h.e.l.l said as he opened his character page, investing all his stat points into strength.

*Strength=65*

"Let's see how much of a difference this made." He said, wrapping his hand in a few layers of cloth and punched the tree from its smooth side. The tree slightly shook. "I guess it would be a bit comical to expect anything more than this. But I do feel my strength has increased. Let's try that thing. I think it was called "Rapid Move." He thought, careful to not use it. He held onto the glaive and just as he was pulling, he tried to activate the spell with his mind. The spell activated and he did manage to get it out in but a moment. He was holding the glaive the next second.

"Open Menu."

Player: Man of Cursed Spirit

Age: 21

Occupation: Cursed Hunter

Level: 23

HP : 100/100

Mana : 81/220

Stats

----------

Strength : 65

Defence : 10

Dexterity : 166

Mana : 220

Vitality : 10

Stamina : 10

Unused Stat Points: 0

h.e.l.l kept watching his mana. It seemed 10 seconds was enough to recover 1 mana. To recover it completely he would need to wait slightly more than 23 minutes. It would be impossible in a fight, he didn't have enough stamina. Maybe if he raised his stamina to 100, he would get some advanced skill to help him endure more. He could keep going then, even tire his enemies out. But it was a pipe dream for now. He wouldn't want to raise his stamina when he hadn't even raised his HP and Def. He thought it would be best if he raised his strength to 100 and then focused on HP for a while. Then again, there was no guarantee he would survive that much. Raising his stats in-nightmare, he managed to throw the system off by dumb luck. The only thing his enemies couldn't match up was speed. Not only that, but his brother would have died also.

"Now that I have enough strength, let's try the bow and arrow again." h.e.l.l nocked an arrow to the bow and released it to the first tree he attacked with his glaive. He was around 30 meters away, he thought this distance would be enough to exert its full damage. He, surprising to him, missed the tree and it hit another behind that one. There was a loud boom and the untouched tree was blown away in its middle and started falling onto h.e.l.l. Although he was surprised to see this happen, he nimbly dodged out of the way and was not harmed.

"Alright, that's… quite damaging." h.e.l.l thought to himself. One shot and the imp king would probably die, he was thinking. "Well, unless he had any spells to protect him from ranged attacks, or unless he had one that teleported him… I guess I'll never know. But this was incredibly beneficial." He talked to himself.

He saw some people coming his way so he wrapped the weapons in those clothes again and wanted to return home. He left Imp Needle where it was. He wanted to get his arrow back as well but couldn't find it. "I really didn't want to lose one of the arrows." He whined to himself, he let it go and was headed back home as he met the group of men he saw in the distance a few minutes ago.

"Did you hear that sound?" One of the men asked.

"Me?" h.e.l.l asked.

"Yeah, we are talking to you, idiot." Another man said.

"I didn't hear anything. I wouldn't know." h.e.l.l said.

"Well, that's a lie." A third man crossed his path and added: "Whatcha got there?"

"Just some camping stuff."

"Let us see." The man replied, still blocking his path. There were 6 of them around.

h.e.l.l was excited. He would be justified in killing all these a.s.sholes. At least in his mind. That's all he needed to take a life, justification according to his own rules, tenets, principles, whatever one may call them.

"Make me." h.e.l.l said with a grin.

One of the men laughed uproariously. "We have got ourselves a twink, guys!" And tried to slap h.e.l.l, but was very surprised to have missed him. The man seemed confused for a moment so he tried again. He still missed him.

"Are you trying to scare him? Just hit him." One of the men with a bulkier build approached h.e.l.l and took a swing. He also seemingly missed, not understanding why.

"Alright, mates. Where do you wanna get buried?" h.e.l.l said, casually with a slight smirk on his face.

"f.u.c.king arrogant p.r.i.c.k." The man who hit him first wanted to grapple him as he couldn't hit him for some reason unknown to himself. He lunged at him and h.e.l.l seemed to have flickered for a moment. He was using all his speed to confuse them as much as he could, playing with them. He punched the man's throat and stood still again. The man's throat seemed to collapse inwards and he was unable to breathe. His friends were suddenly enraged, confused and slightly scared. They didn't know what was happening other than the fact that their friend was unable to breathe on the floor.

"Otto, get up!" One of the men that stayed in the back suddenly rushed at the side of his friend. "What the f.u.c.k did you do to him you freak b.a.s.t.a.r.d?!" The man yelled. "Did you poison him?"

"You know, I was actually joking around. I'm not really gonna bother burying you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, the smell of your blood should draw enough wild animals here to take care of the corpses." h.e.l.l said. He hated men such as them.

He remembered he hadn't killed anyone for years. He wanted to be a good person, he really did. But there was one point last year when his little bro was getting bullied by this one kid. This forest was a great place to bury both bodies and evidence. h.e.l.l remembered the kid's parents crying and depressed. He had a good family, it seemed. Shame he was such an a.s.shole.

h.e.l.l hated the fact that he enjoyed negative emotions. It wasn't that he didn't feel anything when he killed the kid, which was also the time he learned no matter how easy people could die from small accidents, it would still take a lot of hits before you crushed someone's skull, even with a durable, heavy and blunt object. It was that he loved all emotions. He especially found joy in feelings like sadness and fury. He was also a helpful person, he helped people whenever an opportunity presented itself, he also enjoyed the feeling of helping someone in need. He was probably insane in the worst way possible.

"Oh well." He said. "You are all dying here."

"Jack, shoot the b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Shoot him!" said the man holding Otto's now pa.s.sed out, about to die body.

"Imp Needle." h.e.l.l faintly said as he turned to the man taking his gun out. "Short Distance Warping." He mentally tried to use the other skill he had and appeared in front of Jack.

"You are way too slow, mate." h.e.l.l said as he pierced the man's throat with Imp Needle. The man's eyes were full of regret. His gla.s.ses fell down, but he was unable to move his head. Probably because of the extreme pain, h.e.l.l was thinking. He was the same the first time he got his throat cut. It was not a pleasant experience. Of course, that was just a dream. He realized the pain was worse when he was fully conscious in his dreams. The man collapsed and Imp Needle left the man's throat by itself. Jack was bleeding out on the floor, the blood was gurgling.

"Come on, do kill me." h.e.l.l said. "You have knives and stuff, right? Stab me to death."

Three of the remaining four stood motionless, one of them started talking: "I don't even really know these guys, I'm just-" the man was saying as his words got cut short as h.e.l.l threw the needle at him. It went through his liver. "We'll leave!" The other two said.

"I don't really care what you want to do." h.e.l.l said. "I don't like the fact that I like killing, so I am a bit upset because of you guys. But it's interesting, right? I am moving in unhuman speeds and I can also do things like this." h.e.l.l said as he called the name of Imp Needle again. The weapon suddenly left a gaping hole in that man's body and reappeared in the hands of h.e.l.l. The men were all terrified and the first man was still holding onto what he referred to as "Otto." which was but a corpse right now. He started wailing and crying. It was odd, seeing such a large, strong looking man cry like that.

h.e.l.l looked at that man, and he felt his heart ache. "Was he… your brother?" He asked the man. There was no response, so he turned the other two and asked again. "Is Otto or whatever, his brother?"

"No." One of the men said. "They were lovers."

"Oh!" h.e.l.l replied. "This changes things, then. I'll help you guys." h.e.l.l said, looking at the couple and pierced the head of the wailing man. He was a corpse in a matter of seconds. "They can be together now." He was proud of himself. He wouldn't want to leave a man broken like that when his sin was only hara.s.sing himself. He could have left him as such if he was more insolent before. One of the men started crying at this point, he was bawling his eyes out. "Please." He said. "I don't want to die. I really don't want to die. Please let me go." This was the man that stayed slightly behind the others, didn't look like he was willing to hara.s.s him at first. h.e.l.l liked realizing the wishes of people. He was a horrific fairy G.o.dfather of his own.

"Alright." He said. "Kill that other man, then." h.e.l.l was surprised to find out that the crying man had not hesitated to attack the other man in a craze.

"System, what do I need to curse someone to the system?" He asked.

*Yes, Player needs consent to spread the curse of the Nightmare System. The player can choose to ask people if there isn't an immense trust between them. If they refuse and the system is exposed to the world this way, Player will be terminated*

"Is it fine if I kill the person who refused instead?"

*Terminating the person the system is exposed to is the optimal action.*

"Fantastic." h.e.l.l said as he saw the man had beaten into a pulp already by the one who asked forgiveness from h.e.l.l. "Is he dead yet?" h.e.l.l asked.

"I think so! I am killing him. Don't kill me!" The man, again, asked for mercy in fervour.

"What's your name?" h.e.l.l asked.

"Vaun." The man replied.

"What kind of weird name is that?"

"I don't know, I swear I don't know!" The man replied in the same manner again.

"I won't kill you, I promise." h.e.l.l said. "As long as you accept a small thing for me."

"Yes!" The man said, getting up with his blood covered fists. Vaun was scared beyond his wildest imaginations. He was always sensitive to people's auras. He knew there was something wrong with this man from the first time he laid his eyes upon him. When he started killing his newly acquired friends, he felt the man's aura didn't have much change aside from some feeling of joy creeping into it. He felt that the man would truly kill them all without a second thought. This man felt like a demon, not a human. He was sure after seeing him move in such speeds as well. No human could to that.

Vaun was a 30-year-old man who didn't have much in life. He wasn't the brightest in school and he mostly did odd jobs to survive. He soon became a jack of all trades, having worked in a plethora of jobs. With a computer under his hands, he could make a proper living. He was a man of black hair and a strong build. He looked like a hulking monster when he stood next to h.e.l.l. He didn't want to defy this monster. He wanted to get away. Run from him.

He suddenly saw a red-ish screen in front of his face. It read "Player has invited you to torturous lands as his subordinate. Do you accept?"

"Accept it." h.e.l.l said when Vaun looked at him.

"I…" Vaun hesitated. "This says subordinate, I…"

"Oh, it uses the word subordinate? Fantastic." h.e.l.l said. "Accept it, or gouge one of your eyes out. I won't ask again." h.e.l.l felt he was being slightly unreasonable here. He wouldn't kill the man as he liked to keep to his deals, he didn't want to break a deal at all, no matter how insignificant it was.

Vaun's heart started racing, he was scared. He didn't know how things had come to this. He had only wanted to drink some beer in the woods with these guys from the bar. They said they had a beautiful place they sat on and told stories to one another in the woods.

"I accept it." Vaun said.

*Congratulations* Vaun suddenly heard the voice in his head.

*You will enter the system along with the Player, following him. Refusing to do so is impossible*

*Sub-Player Vaun has been created*

"Did you… hear that?" Vaun said.

"Yeah, it's cool, isn't it?" h.e.l.l said.

"Open Menu." h.e.l.l opened the character menu again and saw a small tab for Vaun.

Player: Minion of the Cursed Hunter

Age: 30

Occupation: Minion

Level: 1

Stats

----------

Strength : 15

Defence : 12

Dexterity : 9

Mana : 0

Vitality : 13

Stamina : 15

Unused Stat Points: 0

Items: None

"d.a.m.n it, why are your starting stats better than mine?" h.e.l.l silently cursed. "Oh. So there is another way, too." h.e.l.l murmured to himself.