08:34:12 remaining

  Though he could not feel, could not hear, could not see. John never stopped fighting. The entire time he was a prisoner inside his own mind, he fought. As the Berserker rampaged and unleashed untold hell upon the battle zone, John fought to stop him. And eventually, the throaty, hissing voice subsided.

  Still numb, John could feel only warmth surrounding him. It was an odd feeling, like being in a bathtub whilst under the effects of anaesthesia. He’d never actually experienced that before, but he had been to the dentist after his dad had knocked his tooth out when he was a teenager. They’d numbed his face, sticking a large needle into his gum, and though he could feel tools drilling and scraping at him, it was numb. That was what this feeling was like. Numbness.

  His eyelids felt heavy, large iron doors which he simply wasn’t strong enough to push against. He heard voices somewhere in the distance, familiar voices.

  “He’s been out for a while. Is he still alive?”

  “Looks like it.”

  “Of course he is! He’s Boss, nothing can keep him down for long.”

  He felt the skin around his mouth tighten, was he smiling? He couldn’t tell.

  Suddenly his interface flipped back on and a plethora of notifications plagued his vision, dancing in the darkness.

  Quest Completed:

  Berserker’s Curse

  Objectives:

  Resist the curse 1/1

  Or

  Give into the curse 0/1

  Reward:

  You have successfully managed to resist the curse; the following reward has been issued.

  Card unlocked:

  Berserker’s Curse: having successfully resisted the Berserker, you can now level up through experience gained by completing quests or killing mobs and other contestants. This negates the use of levelling stones.

  If his eyes had been open John would have had to blink multiple times. He couldn’t believe what he was reading. This card was incredible. Truffle had only reached E rank with the help of a levelling stone which Kesh the orc had helped him to acquire.

  No one could level up without them, no one.

  No one, apart from John.

  He’d need to talk to Buck about this to truly understand how much of a boon it was, if it was a boon at all. It was still possible that it was a bad thing. It was possible that levelling this way was much harder than simply using a stone. He couldn’t know for sure, but he had a feeling that it was a good thing.

  It turned out that the Berserker had lied to him. It had told him that the resist reward would be of no use to him and that only through giving into the curse would he truly unlock its power. It seemed he’d made the right choice.

  The notifications kept coming.

  Soul Card Unlocked:

  You have now met the requirements to unlock your fifth and final card. This is your soul card, a card unique to you. Congratulations.

  The Pragmatists Guide To Surviving The Apocalypse: This card allows you to level skills and gives you access to non-system generated notifications.

  John reread the notification multiple times. Holy shit, he thought. His skills had helped him out a bunch of times throughout the first round of Battle Royale Earth. Now he could level them. The implications of that were not lost on him. He wasn’t sure what the other part meant. What was a non-system generated notification? Would Buck know? Either way, he now had access to untapped, raw power. Everything was within his grasp. He needed to get to work.

  As he was about to open the final notification in his interface something shook him. Though he was still numb, he felt his body move. Was he laying down? Gingerly, and with great effort, he opened his eyes.

  Blood. He was surrounded by, covered in, blood. The purple throb of the torii gate stood regally behind his head as he laid in the gory remains of… everything. He couldn’t move his body but turning his head he saw a lake of scarlet. Blood, guts, viscera, body parts, scattered around him, dying his duster and his skin. His vision was crimson, blood covered his eyes, face and all exposed skin. His hair was slick with it and he could taste iron on his tongue.

  He laid in front of the torii gate. A town square of sorts. It was covered in the dismembered remains of mobs. The giant shrimp was the biggest one, it actually smelled rather nice. Had he cooked it with a dragon’s breath shell? Goblins, koalas, kangaroos, stone creatures he didn’t recognise, a wyvern, gnolls. They all surrounded him, corpses piled high. There were hundreds of them, maybe more.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Scattered more sparsely were parts that looked human: a leg, a few arms, someone’s head. Had he done all this?

  This is the Berserker’s power, he thought and gulped, struggling to make his Adam’s apple move through his sandpaper throat. What would have happened if I’d have given into it?

  “Boss!” Truffle squealed, pressing his snout onto John’s face. His eyes lost focus for a moment, but he felt the warmth of his friend’s touch. “It is you right? You’re back?”

  “It’s me,” he croaked out. “What happened? Where is everyone else?”

  “They’re here, hold on.” Using his E rank strength, Truffle nuzzled his way under John’s back and pushed his torso upright. He couldn’t move on his own. Standing before him was The Captain, he held Agnes tightly in his arms. He was still wearing the juggernaut suit, though it was dyed red now. Cowering behind his thickly armoured legs were the remaining kids. They were all there, all except Lilia.

  “Oh thank god,” John said, “when I saw this carnage I thought…”

  “They’re alive,” The Captain said icily. “You tried to kill them at first, but we ran into a group of contestants fighting mobs and you got distracted.”

  “I tried…” John began, “It wasn’t me; it was the-”

  The Captain held up his hand, his helmet disappeared as if he’d willed it to do so. His face was a mess. Tear stained, dirty, and hardened. He looked at John with a mix of fear and repulsion.

  “I know it wasn’t you,” he said stoically. “It wasn’t your voice, at least not all the time. Sometimes it was, those were the moments where we managed to get further away. It sounded like you were fighting for control of your own body. We were worried you were losing. Though it looks like you won in the end.” He paused to take a breath, then shuddered, eyes widening as he stared at John. “You have won right?”

  John nodded with great effort.

  “Good. Listen, I stuck around this long because, despite all this,” he gestured to the carnage surrounding them, “I owe you my thanks. Whether it was on purpose or not, because of your killing spree I’ve managed to collect enough cards for all of the kids. They’re going to live because of you. That being said, for their sake I’m ending our alliance. You’re dangerous and I don’t want to lose anyone else.” His eyes glistened with the threat of further tears. “Agnes might not make it, Lilia’s dead and… and you killed Horatio right when he’d broken free of that bitch’s influence. You didn’t see his face. He was so shocked, so broken. He died screaming and you didn’t even seem to notice. It was-”

  “I was in the middle of battling for control of my own body,” John protested and The Captain held up his hand again.

  “I know,” he said in a low, shaky voice. “I know it wasn’t your fault. I have no idea what you had to do to beat that thing but whatever it was I’m sure it was hard and you did it anyway. I’m not blaming you. But the children can’t… I can’t be around you right now. Like I said, I just wanted to thank you for the cards.”

  Without another word, he stomped past John towards the gate, shaking. The children followed him, taking care to keep The Captain between them and John. He caught Charlie’s eye as he walked past.

  “Thank you,” he mouthed, and then they disappeared through the gate.

  Alliance: The Super Best Friends Murder Squad Alliance has been disbanded.

  “I thought we couldn’t disband alliances until the end of the round,” he said shakily.

  “The round ended nearly three hours ago,” Truffle said. “You killed everyone. Our alliance was all that was left. A.J did some flashy announcement and said that we were no longer in the final battle. It was over. In record time too, apparently. Our views are through the roof! We still have about eight hours until the gate closes, it says so on top of it.”

  John stared at nothing for a few moments. He felt oddly empty. Not sad, his skills wouldn’t let him feel that anymore. No, just empty. Like he’d lost something important. He wasn’t sure why he felt that way, he should have felt relieved. The burden of helping them was gone. It was a weight lifted off his shoulder. But that’s not how he actually felt, even though logically he knew that was how he should feel.

  “Don’t worry Boss,” Truffle said from behind him, his voice vibrating through John’s torso. “They’ll come around. It was pretty scary seeing you go all Super Saiyan like that. Your skin oozed this black and red mist. It was cool, you looked like an anime villain. I knew you’d be alright though. No one is as strong and capable as you are Boss.”

  “Thanks,” John sighed.

  He brought up his interface and saw that Truffle was correct. They still had just over eight hours left before they needed to go through the gate. They’d had twelve hours when they were first transported to the final battle zone.

  Not even four full hours had passed. The Berserker had only managed to keep control of his body for about ten minutes, maybe less. Yet it had caused so much destruction in that time. In such a short amount of time.

  Was it a glimpse of his future? Was that they kind of power he would one day command if he managed to survive and kept levelling up?

  He hoped so. With power like that he could really take it to the alien bastards who had done this to him. To all of them.

  Jo Ren sends his regards. The words reverberated through his mind, a mocking echo. That bastard was going to pay. Joanna was dead, but he was just as responsible for this. He was the real reason Lilia was dead. Jo Ren, Tanlan, all of them. John wondered if he’d been right all along. If he should have killed her with a bullet before. Keeping her alive didn’t give her anything, all it caused her was more pain.

  There is no hope in death, he’d said those words to Anne. Were they still true? He wasn’t sure anymore. You won’t take my humanity. It had become a kind of mantra for him, though the more he thought those words the more he felt himself slipping away.

  A haptic buzz reverberated inside his skull, breaking him from his reverie, and he felt himself spasm.

  “Oh my,” Truffle said, “Boss you’re leaking. Black stuff is getting all over me. It stinks!”

  The final notification blinked in his interface.

  Level up imminent:

  You have gained the required experience to level up. Due to your card Berserker’s Curse. The threshold has been met.

  “I’m levelling up,” John said. “Is this what happened to you?”

  “It sure is!,” Truffle replied proudly. “I had to shower like twelve times to get the stink out. It was really gross. Kesh bathed me, she wasn’t as gentle as Mistress Anne was. I hate baths, but you’re going to need one.”

  John smiled, at least he’d be entering the next round at E rank. Together with Truffle, he was certain he could survive. He had to. For Anne.

  Another notification blipped onto his interface and he opened it. It was a chat message from Buck.

  I didn’t know he could talk to us through that, John thought.

  Buck: guys you need to get through the gate right now! Jo Ren is furious. He’s been kicking up a fuss in the council chambers since you killed Joanna. Now you’re levelling up without a stone and he’s convinced you’re cheating. The council are about to vote on whether they’ll let you live or not.

  John: What the hell! I didn’t do anything; I’ve only just woken up. How will going through the portal help?

  Truffle: Hi Buck! Did you see John go all super saiyan? It was crazy.

  Buck: I did. A.J’s company have bought exclusive rights to interview you at the end of each round. If you go through the portal you’ll be transported straight to his studio. The council can’t terminate you there as you’ll technically be out of the game. There’s no time to explain properly. Go through the torii gate now! I’ll meet you before the show, just request your manager from the robot.

  “Fuck!” John screamed.

  Without being asked, Truffle gripped the back of John’s duster in his teeth and began dragging him towards the torii gate. When did he get so strong?

  Unable to move properly, John looked up at the sky as a black snail trail of gunk was left behind him as he was dragged across the ground.

  “Once I win this thing, I’m coming for you, you sadistic fucks! Mark my words. I’ll burn it down. I’ll burn it all down.”