A whiff of cold air tinted with dust reached Viscus's nose. He found himself lying down on an unfamiliar ground in a room barely lit by moonlight. The room was empty save for a few wooden crates and boxes randomly placed throughout the room. Viscus shook his head and relished in feeling control of his own body before pushing himself off the ground and standing up to take a better look at the place. Before he could do so, however, something suddenly lit up in his vision : a blue screen.

[Main Quest : Awakened In Remnant (Tutorial) : You have been thrust into Remnant in the middle of a bandit hideout.

-Objective(s) : Kill Bandits (0/3)

-Reward(s) : 20 XP, Unlocking of ?, Continuation of Main Quest

-Failure : Death]

Viscus froze at the content of the screen, nearly shouting out in shock. Kill bandits? That was his first objective after entering this Remnant? "Wait, Remnant?" he started recognizing this word where it was being used in that context - the world of a show called RWBY. If he was truly thrust into that world, then this situation would be ten times worse. Remnant was rampant with all sorts of trouble, even including the possible end of the world. Viscus nearly tripped over himself, feeling dizzy at the information at hand.

[For using limited information and deducing the correct answer, you have been awarded 1 WIS]

Viscus had a hunch he was being mocked, not even feeling a little better at this +1 WIS. Quite the contrary, it caused him increasing anxiety as it proved what he could have only hoped was incorrect. "What do I do…" Viscus repeatedly asked himself out loud as if he was a broken record, but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something that caused him to instantly go silent. A door that was previously hidden by the darkness of the room suddenly emitting a light from the opening below. Remembering the contents of the screen, Viscus quickly took a breath and hid behind a large crate as footsteps sounded closer and closer to the room.

With a click, the door opened, revealing a man holding a flashlight. Viscus shook in his place, cold sweat falling down his back. The man walked to the middle of the room and Viscus hurriedly stuck his head behind cover, trying his best to imitate a soccer ball to hide as best as he could. The light scanned over the room, glossing over the crate that Viscus was cowering behind, and a voice was heard afterward.

"Nothing in this room." The man spoke after what Viscus imagined was minutes but were only seconds to who he thought were the two remaining bandits, and finally started calming down once the light disappeared from the room with footsteps sounding further rather than closer. Viscus let out a breath that he didn't realize he was holding, and attempted to rationalize the situation he was in.

"Okay so, I'm in Remnant, in the middle of a bandit hideout, only in my pyjamas, and am expected to kill them?" his heartbeat quickened as he listed, and then he noticed he forgot something. "Wait, I'm a Gamer, and I just gained a point in WIS. That means.." he immediately thought in his brain 'Status', and a tall screen popped up.

[Character Screen :

-Name : Viscus Lime

-Level : 1 (0/50 EXP)

-HP : 20/20 (0.1/sec)

-MP : 20/20 (0.11/sec)

-Stats :

-STR : 10

-END : 10

-VIT : 10

-DEX : 10

-AGI : 10

-INT : 10

-WIS : 11

-LUK : 10

-Stat Points : 0]

"Are you serious?" whisper shouting, Viscus felt betrayed at the stats in front of him. How come he was average on every stat despite hitting the gym frequently for months before coming to Remnant. A sigh escaped his lips, his mood worsening by the minute. Knowing that there should be more to this System than was shown, he thought in his mind 'Inventory'. Another blue screen came to be, yet it was gridded unlike the screens of before and surprisingly had two items rather than the zero he expected.

Viscus grit his teeth, becoming increasingly angrier. What the 'Inventory' contained was a mask and a stiletto dagger, and only that. He got a weapon that he desperately needed, but that solidified what he had to do even further. He thrust his two hands into the screen and pulled out with the two items in his hands. He clenched them tightly, and put on the mask. It was like a mannequin's face, white and blank with only holes for the eyes, nose and mouth. Unexpectedly, the mask did not hinder his vision, nor did he feel as if he had worn something on his face. He then looked at the dagger and stared at it for a few seconds until a screen popped up.

[-Extremely Low Grade Dagger (Unnamed) :

-Extremely Low Damage

-40/40 Durability]

Under the mask, Viscus's face crumpled. "This bastard System not even providing me with a decent weapon to.." his face crumpled further, still unaccepting of what he will be attempting to do. To murder another human, the idea was revolting, but Viscus did not have a choice. If the System was to be trusted, then he was in a kill or be killed situation. Viscus shook his head and thought of one more screen, 'Skills'.

[-Skills :

-Gamer's Body LvMAX

-Gamer's Mind LvMAX

-Stealth Lv1 (80%)]

He only had three skills, but 'Stealth' was surprisingly nearly at level 2. He thought that he should attribute that to his 'Desperation' trait, but he decided to thank it later. Viscus wanted to know more about the skill, so he touched its location on the screen with his finger, and another screen took its place.

[-Stealth Lv1 (80%) : Passive/Active

1% Less noise produced

1% Camouflage]

For only a moment, Viscus's inner mind thought about how quickly he had gained experience for the skill, and thought about using his current situation to level it up further. The idea instantly disappeared, since he was not safe enough to even attempt to do such a thing. With a weapon in his hand and a mask on his face, Viscus tightened his grip on the dagger and stood up. Thankfully, the bandit had left the door open, so Viscus was able to exit the room safely. Slowly, Viscus stuck his head out the door and saw a dark corridor that was not as lit as the room he was in due to the lack of moonlight, or any light for that matter. Unfortunately, Viscus was unable to see if the bandit had any guns on him since the light was practically shining into Viscus's eyes, so he had to assume he did. Carefully, he tiptoed in the corridor, his hand on a wall until he was greeted with stairs at the end of the corridor going downward.

It was only due to a light shining downstairs that he did not fall into his death. Taking a deep breath, he stepped down the stairs while being thankful for not hearing any creaking. The last thing he wanted was to alert the bandits of his existence and location. After all, his only current advantage was that they didn't know about him, and he had to make use of it to the best of his abilities. Step by step, he reached what he thought was the ground floor and was able to spot a man sitting on a stool with his back facing Viscus and smoke drifting from in front of him, which the blond imagined was cigarette smoke due the man's hand's position, along with small campfire in the middle of the room. From what Viscus could see, they actually were on the ground floor, and this building should have been a shop of some kind due to the windows taking the place of walls and a glass door right in between them. Gulping, Viscus glued himself to a wall and started circling around the man. The smell of the cigarette soon hit Viscus's nose, proving his hypothesis.

Once Viscus was at the point where he was sure the bandit wouldn't see him, he crouched and separated himself from the wall and moved toward the man. Viscus's heart beat faster the closer he crept to until he was directly behind the unsuspecting bandit. Adrenaline filled Viscus's circulation and he grit his teeth. 'I have to do it.. I have to..' he repeated this line in his mind as if it were a mantra and held his dagger high, then struck.

The bandit's exposed neck became a prime target for Viscus as he stabbed at it, the dagger sliding effortlessly into the muscles and briefly touching bone, then he pulled it back out. The only response the bandit gave was a "Wha-" before Viscus yanked the bandit's head backward till he was parallel to the ground when Viscus stabbed at his throat. The gurgling blood from the man's throat did not slow down Viscus's vicious assault. The bandit didn't stand a chance as Viscus did not stop until the man's neck was a pincushion, his blood staining the blond's hands and pants.

The now bloodied young man stood above a corpse, panting as if he had run a marathon. Adrenaline was quickly flushed out of his brain as he realized what he had just committed, the smell of rust and iron now filling the room in place of smoke. Viscus felt nauseous - he wanted to puke. The reality of what he had just done was clear : he became a murderer, a monster in the flesh. A killer.

His breath quickened even more, the dagger fell from his hand as he gripped the mask with his bloodied hands, shaking in place. Clang of the dagger on the ground was of no importance to him as he backed away from the crime scene, blood still oozing out of the bandit's neck, his eyes hollow and mouth wide open.

[+12 XP]

The sudden screen froze Viscus in place, and that is when he realized. "It is all a game to this System.." he muttered with a shaky voice. "B-but… he was a living person.." Reality felt cruel to Viscus. He wanted someone, anyone to comfort him. "They are.. Bandits.. They must have been horrible people.." he tried to rationalize it, until an unexpected thought came in his mind. "But does it really matter?" and he stopped shaking.

"They are men of a different world. Aliens." The idea sounded revolutionary, "so what if they look like humans? We are not the same.." he let go of his mask, letting his hands lie beside his legs. "I don't want to be here." under the mask, his shaky gaze began to harden and clear. "I don't have the freedom to think about some aliens, I need to go home." his swimming vision paused at the dead bandit's body - at his hips. A gun stuck out, and Viscus immediately knew what he had to do. With shaky yet determined steps, he hovered back toward the bandit, his bare feet stepping in the blood, then he pulled out the gun from the holster.

[Extremely Low Quality Revolver (Unnamed) :

-7/7 .357 Dust Ammunition

-Extremely Low Damage

-100/100 Durability]

It was a magnum revolver, Viscus noted, and he found that the bandit had more ammunition on his body. The blond swiped the bullets and put them in the inventory, then stared at his hand that wasn't holding the revolver. "What did I just.." he realized something was wrong with him. He shouldn't be sifting through the bandit's body as if nothing had just happened. The panic that he was experiencing vanished in an instant, and he remembered one of his skills : 'Gamer's Mind'. If it truly affected his mind in such a way, then he should be afraid of something else completely. Before he could even start panicking again, he remembered that there were two bandits remaining.

"I'll think about it later.." he promised himself, "For now, deal with the bandits." That meant he would kill them, but he did not dare utter that word lest he start breaking down again. After completely looting the bandit's body, which had an extra 30 'Lien', a dagger, and a flashlight, he took a deep breath, uncaring about the stench of blood in the air, and stared up the stairway from where he came. At that moment, it was night time, so Viscus concluded that this bandit must have been on lookout while the two remaining were sleeping upstairs. He calmly crossed the room and climbed the stairs, his stiletto dagger and magnum revolver in his hands.

Unlike how he went downstairs, however, he left a trail as he climbed up. A trail of bloody footsteps, and he was sure they would renew once he found the remaining bandits. Slow breaths silently echoed through the corridor until he found a room lit by moonlight. This room was not the one he came from, however, but one where the bandits were fast asleep. The two bandits were right next to each other, so Viscus was not sure whether he would be able to deal with them quickly or not. Suddenly, one of the bandits opened his eyes. "Hey, it hasn't even been 20.." his words faded as he realized who was standing at the door, then he quickly scrambled to take out his gun. Before he could even pull it out, a loud gunshot woke up the second bandit with a startle, forcing him to notice his companion falling on top of him. "What the he-?" The bandit's eyes opened with a snap as he found his partner's skull pierced by a gunshot, so he smartly shot up while hurriedly pushing the body away. Another gunshot echoed through the building, landing at the spot the second bandit was sleeping on. A miss, and one that allowed him to react quickly while the young man was reeling from the recoil.

Without hesitation, he dashed at Viscus who flinched at the reaction and paid for that by getting tackled to the ground. The gun dropped from Viscus's hand and slid away into the corridor out of reach. Frozen from what had just occurred, Viscus felt his head being pummeled by the bandit. Continuous punches caused Viscus's vision to blur, but he still had a dagger in his hand. In retaliation, Viscus stuck the dagger into the side of the bandit in between the ribs, causing him to groan in pain and giving Viscus the chance to push him off and stand up. Unfortunately, he didn't pull the dagger out, so it remained in the bandit's body.

Viscus stepped back twice, trying to reorientate himself while he saw the bandit reacting in the same manner. The man glared at Viscus with bloodshot eyes and an angry roar then he rushed at the blond again, but this time his movements weren't as nimble. Viscus hurriedly took out the dagger he had just looted from the bandit below and poised himself, only to back off as he saw a punch fly toward his face. The man did not let go of the initiative and kept throwing hooks and punches at the amateurly dodging Viscus, only to swiftly change his pace by inserting a kick in the middle. Wide eyed, Viscus unwillingly took the kick and got knocked back until he was at the end of the corridor where a single, broken window was the only source of light.

The bandit stood still for a second then ran at Viscus, who realized what he was trying to do, and rushed at the bandit himself. He knew he couldn't let the bandit continue attacking him, otherwise he would have no chance of winning. The bandit tried to tackle Viscus, but was promptly countered with a dagger coming right in between his eyes. The bandit flinched and shifted his head away, and gave Viscus the chance to push on, giving a kick to the bandit's stomach, causing him to bow in pain, before promptly finishing off this bandit in the same way he did the first one. With the bandit's exposed nape in clear view, Viscus stabbed the dagger then kneed the bandit's face, followed by slice in the exposed face. Blood flew in the air, but Viscus wasn't done yet, as he grabbed the falling bandit's shoulder and threw him at the window. The bandit tripped and his forehead slammed right into the lower border of the window. Before he had a moment of respite, Viscus took hold of the bandit's head and slammed it back into the border. Once, twice, thrice, the bandit tried to push himself off the wall but Viscus used that opportunity to expose the bandit's throat and slicing it, causing blood to start pouring out of it.

The bandit trembled for a small moment before gaining sudden strength and pushing himself off the wall and recoiling at Viscus, which caused him to slip and fall on his back again. Viscus hurriedly scrambled back to his feet, only to find the bandit on his back on the ground, blood pooling out of his neck and disfigured face.

Viscus only had a moment of confusion before a screen popped up in front of him, leading him to start chuckling uncontrollably, with sobs filled in between.

Don't forget to check out maakl2001, the co-author of Project CEM!