Chapter 7: Escape

"...please check your status to be sure which deity chose you. Sometimes people get confused and get it wrong just by remembering the dream," Hunger said.

"Status," Bo whispered.

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Name: Unreadable

Cultivation Stage: Novice (Pure)

Attributes: [Legacy of the Unreadable], [Memory of The Dead]

Legacy: Bitter Obedience - First Stage

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'Huh, attributes?' Bo thought.

"Well," Hunger said, "what deity chose you?"

"Acceptance."

"Great! I'll come back tomorrow to take you. Be ready."

Hunger and the Creator left, walking back through the corridor.

Bo looked at them until they vanished out of his sight, and closed the door.

He sat down in the living room.

'What now?' he thought.

First, he checked his Status.

He got an attribute category, which means that he had finally awakened his attributes.

Attributes were what heroes got their powers from. Some were innate to each person and were unique, and some were gifted to the hero from their deity.

The problem was that there was no deity that was supporting him, at least he thought that there wasn't.

'I do have a Legacy, a thing I know nothing about... Maybe that is where I got these attributes from. Also, why does everything that gets added to my status become unreadable?!'

It was as if he were in a bugged game.

Suddenly, a description popped up on each attribute.

[Legacy of the Unreadable - Killed, Unreadable couldn't take being defeated and, with the powers of Vengeance, left his Legacy as revenge.]

Looking at the word Vengeance gave him an ominous feeling, and it looked like a black mist came out of that word.

'Life... Is a Deity looking at me?'

With his improved memory, he now remembers everything clearly, which didn't help.

The huge door, surrounded by black mist, looked like a door that was used as a weapon to skewer somebody.

It gave him the chills.

'Why is everything buggy again?' he thought, trying to distract himself from these dark thoughts.

[Memory of The Dead - As the living die, they get the gift of Memory, having their life flash before their eyes. Unfortunately, most of the time they die anyway, leaving the land of the living full of sorrow and regret.]

'So that's why I can remember everything much more clearly. That makes sense,' he thought.

The word Memory didn't give him any feeling at all. He didn't know what it really meant, but he was glad that another deity didn't influence his life.

'What am I talking about? With my luck, every Deity is probably looking at me right now.'

Closing his status window, he put his hand on his head and started thinking.

'Tomorrow I'll get led to the headquarters...'

Remembering the whole ordeal while wearing that weird bucket mask made his heart start pounding.

'I can't go through that again,' he thought.

He decided running away was the best option.

As he decided that, Abi came out of her room, her school bag ready, walking hurriedly.

"Bo… We are late!" she said.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked her seriously.

"Yeah."

"Great, let's go," he took her hand and left their apartment in a run.

"What. Are. You. Doing!" Abi screamed at him.

"You're late. We need to get you to school quickly," he said, dragging Abi through the door, his eyes full of determination.

Unbeknownst to him, reading those descriptions had drawn to him some unwanted attention.

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As heroes appeared and the Organization formed, the world went through a huge change.

Whatever the Organization is fighting made all governments fall. Now there was only one government, which wasn't really respected. The Organization was like an army of the people, as the heroes were just normal people who gained powers.

The Government was only responsible for law and order, making the masses hate it.
Also, many voices of minority groups were going unheard, as they were too small to make a change. Which leads to Clans.

Clans are groups of Heroes, most of the time families, that are in unofficial control of certain areas.

He didn't want to have anything to do with heroes, as after what Hunger had done to him, his faith in the Organization was null.

After a number of hours, he finally decided where to go, going into a zone that isn't controlled by any clan or the Organization.

It was in a big forest which was near his city.

People don't usually go there as it is untamed, and so it was hard to camp or travel there.

The perfect place to hide, or at least that's what he thought.

He didn't even get ready, only taking his brother's greatsword, some water, and canned food, and leaving in a hurry.

He first got onto a bus that was stopping in the forest.

He tried to hide the sword from the other passengers, but it was impossible, getting him weird looks throughout most of the ride.

When the bus finally got to the stop in the forest, he got off.

Looking around, he got a sense of peace.

The forest was colored dark green, and the ground was lush and full of plants.

Yet, after not hearing any birds, the feeling that it gave changed into a somber and foreboding one.

There weren't many hills, so he couldn't look how far the forest went, but he knew that it was huge. If he got lost in this ancient forest, he'll probably never be found.

The bus stop itself was only made of one sign that symbolized the stop for the bus drivers.

On the column that held the sign were glued flyers of missing people, stating that they went missing in this area and that if you find something connected to them, you should call the number below.

'And here's the proof... I'll be lost forever!' he thought cynically.

He entered the forest.

His goal was to get as far into the forest as he could.

He didn't want to get lost, but dying was the worst option in his opinion.

'Even if I get looped again, I don't want to die again...'

So he went as deep as he could, trying to remember the path backwards.

The walk was long and hard. There weren't any walking trails, which meant that it would be harder to find him, but also that it was hard to travel.

He kept an eye out for animals but hadn't found any, just bugs here and there.

After some time had passed, his feet and his muscles in his legs started to hurt. It was getting hard for him to breathe, and shuffling the sword between his hands didn't help him much, but his determination to survive made him get into a rhythm of walking.

With each step, the pain got a bit quieter until he just walked without thinking, switching the hand that was holding the sword every time it hurt enough for him to notice.

By this point, he had almost sprained his ankle, fallen down, and gotten cut by a tree an uncountable number of times.

He started regretting choosing to go and hide here, but he continued on.

His original plan was simple. Get as far away as he could, hide, maybe find some source of water and food, and if he succeeded, think about the consequences afterwards.

He knew that it was rash and stupid, but after seeing Abi hurt and imagining her seeing his body sliced in two and getting hurt herself, he couldn't risk that happening again, even if he would just loop back as if it hadn't happened.

Imagining it made it happen in his mind and affected him, and he didn't know how this time loop worked.

Maybe those were other realities, or maybe it already happened, and he was just some lunatic living through a post-traumatic event.

But those thoughts didn't surface now, because if they did, he would remind himself of the pain he's experiencing.

It wasn't anything near what Hunger made him experience, but he hadn't gotten used to pain.

As night got near, he stopped walking and, after a short rest, began to search for a place to sleep.

Not knowing much about survival skills, he decided to make a grave like pit to sleep in, protecting him from the wind and making the ground more comfortable.

It was hard digging the pit. He had to dig it with his own hands, and when he got tired, he tried using the sword, but realized that it was too big and flat to use as a shovel.

After finishing, his stomach gurgled.

He hadn't eaten since morning, so he ate whatever he shoved into his bag.

He was hungry, tired, and it was starting to get cold. His water supply was getting low.

'Shit, why didn't I take with me some warm clothes or something...'

It was becoming dark, and there was no artificial light in the forest, making the area pitch black.

He entered the pit, shaking, covering himself with dirt as if it was going to warm him up.

After wrestling with himself for long hours, he finally managed to fall asleep, waking up every time he got too cold, getting himself warm by moving around, and falling back to sleep.

This whole ordeal made him unperceptive towards his surroundings, as he was doing all that in a half sleeping state.

As midnight approached, two red dots started staring at him from the darkness.