Chapter 2: 2: I Am Back From Hell

[SYSTEM REBOOT... 40 % ... 80% ... 95% ... 100%]

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[SYSTEM WELCOMES YOU BACK, HOST SUE TERIN! CONGRATULATIONS ON COMING BACK FROM THE WORLD OF THE ORIGINAL FUTURE!]

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[INITIATION PACKAGE UNLOCKS! SYSTEM REVEALS •PLUNDER SKILL YELLOW LEVEL• !]

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[SYSTEM UNLOCKS WORLD VIEW SKILL YELLOW LEVEL! HOST SUE TERIN, YOU CAN NOW START YOUR COMEBACK IN 3... 2... 1!]

Sue Terin gasped sharply. Her chest hurt upon the sudden influx of air as her phoenix eyes darted to and fro around her as if she was finding something or making sure of something.

Dark. It was the first thing that Sue thought after scanning her surroundings. While her aching body was chained to the rough floor of the cage, her muddled mind failed to see the semblance of the cell she was in right now to the cage she was locked in before she was sold in the Vampire City's auction house.

'Where am I? Who is with me? I feel a presence besides mine.' Sue Terin tried earnestly to open her mouth but realized that her throat was bruised from the collar around her neck. She could only ask this question at the back of her muddled mind.

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[SYSTEM ACTIVATES WORLD VIEW SKILL!]

Sue jolted upon seeing a blue-colored window appearing above her lying body. A child-like voice of a boy rang inside her mind.

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[SYSTEM SCANNING...]

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[SYSTEM INITIATES CONVERSATION WITH THE HOST: YOU ARE IN THE TESSERA AUCTION HOUSE AT THE CENTER OF THE VAMPIRE CITY. ]

'Have I gone crazy?'

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[SYSTEM SCOFFS AT THE HOST. SYSTEM REPLYING TO THE HOST: YOUR MIND IS STILL TAKING TIME TO DOWNLOAD ALL YOUR MEMORIES FROM THE ORIGINAL WORLD'S FUTURE.]

'Original world's future?' Sue's heart pounded upon hearing these three words. On cue, a surge of memories wracked her mind. Her heart could not keep up with the torrential wheel of emotions that filled her all at once.

But for Sue, there was one thing that was sure of her: she just climbed back from hell for one purpose and that was to exact her revenge.

'I do not know why I have this weird voice and vision. I do not know who you are. But I want to ask one thing. Are you my enemy, System? Or are you the avenging being that the heavens have gifted me to compensate for my hellish life?' Sue narrowed her eyes as she eyed the window.

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[SYSTEM INITIATES A CONVERSATION WITH THE HOST: THIS SYSTEM IS HERE TO HELP THE HOST SUE TERIN, TO GRANT HER WISH. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE WARY OF THIS SYSTEM. THE ONE YOU SHOULD BE WARY ABOUT IS THE KITTEN IN THIS CAGE.]

'Kitten?'

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[SCANNING COMPLETED!

A window popped beside the gigantic leopard as it stood up, ears twitching.

Her slight movement caught the attention of her prison guard, who primarily functioned as her torturer.

A low growl vibrated the stale air around the golden cage, drawing Sue's attention. "Hmmm... So the lowly human is finally awake. Good thing. I was planning to bite off your silly limb piece by piece."

A transformed leopard beastman stalked around the lying Sue. Its animal transformation almost occupied the golden cage. Now, it hovered over Sue's battered and chained body like a predator toying its prey.

Leon the beastman growled once more when he saw the calmness beneath the gem-like eyes of the human before him. This is not the reaction he wanted! He longed to see the human woman's desperate expression!

Sue knew her strength well. It was because of her weakness that she died pathetically on that cliff. But she would rather die trying than become a pushover once more! What was the point of turning back time if she could not change the course of her life and the human race?

'System, it is time to show me what you got. Impress me and help me kill that son of a bitch!' The calm gaze of Sue Terin to the beastman rippled for a fraction of a minute.

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[SYSTEM RECOGNIZES LEON AS A VALID TARGET! SYSTEM ACTIVATES PLUNDER SKILL!]

'Plunder skill? Like stealing?'

A frown painted on Sue's calm face, not minding that the beastman misunderstood it that she was too stunned to show any expression amid her impending demise — or so he thought. The beastman Leon did not see the change in Sue's eye color.

From black obsidian-like eyes, Sue's eyes turned changed to deep violet color. Like the World View Skill, she saw a new window beside the grinning yet clueless beastman.

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[SYSTEM DEMANDS THE HOST TO TOUCH THE TARGET, LEON, TO INITIATE PLUNDER SKILL! TARGET SKILL KILLER SLASH.]

Without asking for more, she inched her shackled foot with the last bit of her strength. The movement was quick and precise as she aimed for Leon's tail since he was focused on taunting her with a mocking gaze.

"Before the auction host calls for you, I will break your legs first." Leon placed one of his paws on Sue's skinny leg, a threatening gesture from the beastman. He was busy imagining the torture he would give her that he failed to sense the graze of Sue's left foot's toe against his swinging tail. "Hmmm... You don't want to break your legs? Then what about your ribs?"

Sue muted the beastman Leon's nonsensical words. If it was Sue from the past, she knew she would have shed tears at his words. But she was the Sue who had climbed back from hell. Empty words that were meant to scare her were not worth her attention at all.

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[KILLER SLASH SKILL SUCCESSFULLY PLUNDERED! SYSTEM CONGRATULATES HOST, SUE TERIN, FOR YOUR FIRST STEAL!]

Sue felt the surge of knowledge related to the Killer Slash Skill in her mind. The influx of information almost made her groan from being dizzy. It was an information overload since the downloading intel was about the origins of the Killer Slash Skill, how to use Killer Slash Skill, how to improve Killer Slash Skill, and the different stages of Killer Slash Skill!

Apparently, the Killer Slash Skill of Leon was still a Yellow Rank skill which meant it was still in the basic foundation or the beginner's level.

Before Sue used the Killer Slash on the rumbling beastman above her, a new window notification popped above her.

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[SYSTEM GIFTS YOU THE SECOND-GRADE PILL HEALING BOOSTER PILL! CLAIM OR STORE?]

'Healing? And a second-grade pill at that? Wow. The System is sure indulgent with its host.'

Sue could not help but think so since a second-grade pill like the Healing Booster Pill was something easy to have! Even before she was betrayed by the Lupine Clan, she could count on one hand the number of times the patriarch used this kind of pill! After all, the Warlock City mages were haughty and picky even with their distinguished customers.

'Claim! I will claim the Healing Booster Pill!'

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[HEALING BOOSTER PILL CLAIMED! ALL YOUR SUSTAINED INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL INJURIES ARE HEALING AT A RAPID PACE!]

Indeed, Sue could feel the warmth spreading from her spiritual core to her meridians. The torn muscles were reattached. The broken tendons and bones healed. And her supposedly dry spiritual core at the center of her abdomen expanded and was now brimming with spiritual energy!

"Th-This! What is happening?" Leon saw the visible bruises healing back to their former unblemished snow-like skin. His eyes widened as he took a step back.

Leon, in leopard form, almost stumbled back with his tail tucked between his legs when his trembling gaze met a pair of eerily calm violet ones.

"Wh-Who are you?" Leon did not recognize the smiling woman before him since she was now showing signs of spiritual energy, something the human trash he knew was incapable of.

With one swing of her right hand, a pressurize wind in a shape of a claw slashed the chains around her body.

"Who am I? What a funny question." Sue, who was not used to standing after being chained for weeks, used the support of the golden cage's bars to stand up before the shivering beastman. Not minding the collar still attached to her neck and the shackles around her ankles, Sue smiled sweetly at the beastman. "I am someone from hell."

"Aa — " Leon was not given a chance to scream his last. His leopard head reverted to a human one as it rolled to the corner of the golden cage.

The scarlet veil of the golden cage hid the splash of blood.

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[SYSTEM INITIATES CONVERSATION TO THE HOST: YOU SHOULD EXTRACT HIS BEAST CORE. IF YOU ABSORB HIS BEAST CORE, YOUR STRENGTH WILL GROW.]

The beast core was the heart of every beast and beastman. Other races collected it for the same reason the System had said, to absorb the spiritual energy that would improve one's skill.

"Alright." Sue used the Killer Slash Skill to open the beastman's chest.

"...AND NOW LET us proceed to the last event of the evening! Tessera Auction House proudly presents the last good for the main event!"

On cue, the entire lavish auction house filled with masked patronage turned dark after the lights went off, aside from the single light on the stage that focused on the host of the auction event.

A satisfied grin stretched on the plump vampire host, showing off his fangs. After a moment of build-up for the main event, he continued. "Let me present you, the world's last human, Subject S!"

The moment the host announced the name of the goods, a golden cage was carted onto the stage. The light focused on the golden cage, which was veiled with a deep red silk cloth to add suspense to the roaring bidders.

The word 'human' was enough to make the crowd frenzy in front of the stage. The VVIP guests in the private rooms also sucked a breath upon the word, almost considered a taboo and an aphrodisiac for the supernatural entities ever since the human race had gone extinct fifty years ago. And now, the last human was being auctioned like a piece of golden apple in front of them. Who would not go crazy?

At this moment, the vampire auction host pulled the scarlet veil. "Behold! The last human, Subject S! The bid starts with 500,000 gold bars!"

But instead of roaring bids, the auction hall was engulfed with silence as all the gazes of the patronage were now fixated on the standing woman inside the open cage.

"Good evening. Won't someone bid for me?"