Virus: Origin of Blood

Just like his first trip from Earth to the Battleworld, this flight through the endless darkness was far from instantaneous. And honestly? Isaac was glad for it. The move he had just pulled off to kill that strange, overgrown insect? It took a lot more out of him than he wanted to admit.

One thing was certain, he would have to be careful once he arrived on Reprizem. He still had enough strength to fight, sure, but depending on where exactly he landed, things could get ugly real fast.

Here it comes, he thought, finally spotting a distant light in the void. Thinking fast, he braced himself. After all, his entrance into the Warp Portal wasn't exactly smooth or graceful.

It was the right call.

The moment he touched the light, the void spat him out, hurling him through open skies. Isaac tried to right himself, to stop his descent with his wings, but he was moving way too fast. The constant spinning also didn't help.

In a matter of seconds, he crashed into something hard.

The world dimmed as his head spun from the impact. Worse still, even with his forward momentum halted, he was still falling. And based on the blur of tree branches whipping past him, it wasn't going to be a gentle landing.

Ouch. Ouch. Shit! Note to self: Don't enter the portals while flying fast!

After hitting what felt like a thousandth branch, his descent stopped.

Isaac let out a pained breath. That… was not fun. He definitely heard a bone or two of his crack on the way down. At least he could already sense his regeneration reaching toward all his fresh injuries.

Now, he had two choices. Remain lying flat on what felt like grass, or open his eyes and move.

Unfortunately, the former wasn't even an option. He was in a hostile territory. Hell, on a hostile planet. There was no rest for the wicked here, not yet.

Isaac's eyes snapped open.

Huh…

Even though he had seen plenty of thick, dark branches on his way down, all other details of this place had escaped him. But now, with the blurriness fading from his sight and the world no longer spinning, he could finally see.

To put it bluntly, he was inside a forest. Not an ordinary one, though.

Every single tree here was thicker than at least ten humans put together. And their height? Isaac couldn't be sure. With so many branches filled with colorful leaves blocking his sight, they could as well be endless. Not that he believed that, even if his fall took quite long.

He winced at the memory before pushing it out of his mind. Time to focus.

He reached for his Legacy and forced his transformation back into a human. He ignored the flaring pain in his chest and stood up.

"Empty…" he muttered, scanning the forest floor.

Aside from knee-high dark blue grass and some mushroom-like plants here and there, the area felt completely abandoned. Not that he could see far with all the massive trees surrounding him. He had a feeling that getting lost here was quite easy.

Isaac shrugged. He didn't know where he was to begin with—being lost was the default.

Let's get moving…

The Root in his hand, he picked a random direction and started walking. Flying could wait until his cracked ribs healed and he got out of this claustrophobic territory. Besides, even if he didn't trust this place to be completely empty, he could use this moment of peace to check all the notifications waiting for him.

Go on, Interface.

You have leveled up! You are now level 24. Distribution of Ascension Power has failed to advance any of your attributes. No further changes detected.

Disappointing, but unsurprising. Next.

The following skills have advanced tiers:
Cursed Draw (IV->V)
Crimson Death (VI->VII)
Harden (IV->Max)

Pain Resistance (X->XI)

Now that was quite the list. The first two? Expected after he had been using them for the entire trip. Pain Resistance, in contrast, was a pleasant surprise, as was Harden maxing out. That it could still evolve into a higher grade made it even better.

Something to work on once I get back to Earth, Isaac decided, dismissing the notifications. The more important ones were still waiting.

Isaac Walker, you have successfully invaded the planet Reprizem. Your current location has been revealed to all hostile Hosts within a 500-mile radius. Happy hunting.

Extraction in: <11h:58m:42s> | Location reveal in: <3h:58m:52s>

The moment Isaac read it, his steady walk turned into a quick jog. Harden also activated instinctively, just in case.

But that wasn't the end of it. One more message remained, longer than any of the others.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Infamy System unlocked. Current rank: F (Multiplier: 2x)

Want more adrenaline pumping through your veins? Think invading and slaughtering your opponents isn't enough? No worries, the Infamy System is here to help.

Kill. Earn points. And when extraction time comes… refuse it! Doing so will increase your Infamy Rank. Extraction timers may become longer, and your location will be revealed more frequently. Dance on the edge to unlock incredible benefits.

With each new rank, your point multiplier upon extraction will increase. Additionally, depending on your performance, you just may receive some special sweet bonuses.

Good luck, invader. Become the name your enemies fear.

Isaac's face didn't so much as twitch when he finished reading. Maybe he should have been surprised, or even disgusted, that such a system existed. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to care much.

This was just another messed-up thing to add to a very long list. Overreacting wasn't the way to deal with this.

Still…

Isaac could freely admit that this message didn't read like a normal notification from the Interface. No, it sounded too personal. Wild. Unrestrained. Definitely the work of the Overlords. For a moment, he even considered whether it might be something Rakin had created to mess with him, but he dismissed that idea.

Again, too much effort just to manipulate a single Host.

Could be a game-changer, though, Isaac mused, rereading the last few lines of the message. There was only so much he could accomplish in twelve hours. But if they were offering more points for staying longer…

Well, who was he to refuse?

His path was already set, after all.

For better or worse.

Isaac's left hand shot forward, grabbing a two-headed brown snake mid-air. The creature hissed, its long body twisting as it tried to wrap around his arm and body.

He didn't let it, and with a quick swing of the Root, the beast stopped its struggles.

[Lesser Pinehead (LVL. 14) slain.]

[2 Invader Points awarded.]

Isaac dropped the corpse and continued onward. Even if the area had been peaceful when he arrived, once the first monster attacked him, they just kept coming. This forest was full of snakes. Some had one head, others, three. Some came from the ground, trying to bite his feet, while others dropped from the trees like some kind of scaly parachute squad.

A bit annoying, but they were also weak, so he didn't let them bother him too much.

At the very least, their low levels gave him a rough estimate of just how far a potential Safe Zone of Zerians might be. The occasional points he gained were also nice, even if the Interface decided on counting them separately from those he had earned earlier. He could see why, though.

Overall, now that over twenty minutes had passed since his arrival, Isaac felt a bit more confident about his chances here. His injuries had already healed, and his Viron reserves returned to a manageable level. If the Zerians found him now, he wouldn't have to run.

Not that he expected anyone to find him out here.

For one, the location his enemies had received was already outdated. And two, this forest was a goddamn maze. Everything looked similar. Isaac could swear he had passed the same patch of mushrooms at least three times.

And he was only going forward!

No way I'm gonna be stuck here until my first extraction, right?

The world answered him with two more snakes falling down on his head.

Isaac stifled a growl. So maybe, just maybe, this forest and its monsters were starting to get to him.

Ten more minutes. Otherwise, I'm punching my way out of here…

Isaac was a man of his word.

After the self-imposed ten-minute timer ran out, he shifted into his Legacy form and looked up at the tangled, thick branches of nearby trees. There were so many that he couldn't even see what lay beyond them. They formed a ceiling—a ceiling he needed to break through to escape this godforsaken forest.

This better work.

Just like he had done against that mutated insect, Isaac drew on his blood and Mana. Cursed Draw ignited across his body, and he leapt into the air, building as much speed as he could in this limited space.

The first layer of branches shattered under the power of his skill. So did the next and the next. In the back of his mind, he also felt the notifications from the few snakes he had killed on the way.

Yet, not all was good.

With his already limited speed, and every destroyed branch slowing him down bit by bit, he couldn't go like this forever. Cursed Draw didn't have infinite power either.

Time to switch things up.

Just when the power of Cursed Draw almost ran out, Isaac grabbed all that remained of it and shaped it into a different skill. Another chunk of his Viron was also sacrificed.

Obliteration.

A burst of blood erupted from his beak, tearing through all the branches in his path. In the next second, he transformed—there just wasn't enough space here for him to flap his wings—and grabbed the nearest handhold before climbing through the hole he had just created.

That of course wasn't the end of his troubles.

Aside from the occasional snake jumping at him, there were still plenty of branches for him to get through. Thankfully, at this point, they became thinner, and the gaps between them allowed him to slip through with enough twisting and wriggling.

Uncomfortable, but at least he was making progress.

After another minute or two, he even caught his first glimpse of Reprizem's night sky.

And what a sight it was.

While the shining stars painted all over the darkness weren't anything new, the two moons definitely were. They glowed much brighter than Earth's own moon, bathing this planet in enough light that Isaac's night vision was almost useless.

Yet, they looked so tiny, so distant.

"Beautiful," he muttered once the trees no longer blocked his sight.

For a moment, he even felt a bit bad about his plans for this planet. Then he crushed the feeling. A pretty night sky wasn't going to change his mind.

Back to work.

With nothing blocking him anymore, Isaac transformed and spread his wings. In seconds, he was back in the skies, where he belonged in this form.

Goodbye, freaky forest. I won't miss you.

So clueless… Isaac thought to himself as he circled high, high above a camp full of living, thinking aliens. Zerians, the same creatures Rakin had shown him.

About twenty of them sat around a few campfires just at the edge of a tiny forest. A couple more stood watch nearby, keeping a lookout for any threats to their group.

And yet, none of them reacted to his presence.

After all, why would they?

It was still nighttime, and even if they had night vision and bothered to look up, he would be nothing more than a tiny speck among the stars. There was a reason why Isaac had chosen to fly so high that the tips of his feathers began to freeze.

I'm sorry… It's nothing personal.

A dozen blood-enhanced Crimson Deaths manifested around him.

Isaac dove.