Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game

Chapter 42: Ch40. Young man with a scythe

Sarissa stood there, catatonic, unable to process what had just transpired before her, while her mom, dad, and siblings voiced their last, agonizing screeches, before falling silent, forever.

She died right after that, with the Goblins swarming over her and eating her alive. However, she did not feel any pain this time, completely numb to anything around her.

The girl woke up in her bed, screaming her heart out, but no one came to her rescue, since the rest of her family was out that night.

"Ah... Ah... Ah... It can't be... It just can't..." She whispered to herself. "IT CAN'T BE!" She lashed out at her room.

For the first time in, not even the gods knew how long, Sarissa broke down and cried.

She cried so much that her nose bled and her head rang with an everlasting migraine, and she only stopped crying when there was nothing more left to cry. When she had fully accepted that, after having lost track of how many turns she had lived, her family's death was a fixed point, a canon event in history.

Something that even she could not change, no matter how powerful she became.

When day broke, she left home and prepared for what was to come. She analyzed her meager inventory, and found a remote dumpster where she could train her [Mad Fire], finding out, later on that day, that she could only control the skill when she had emptied her heart of each and every emotion that could bewilder her flame.

Sarissa ate, drank and slept in that dumpster, patiently waiting for when the countdown to the new year would reach zero, and the system window that announced the end of the world as she knew it appeared in the sky.

'Level twenty... Let's see what I can do with what I gathered up until now...' She thought to herself as she approached the square.

"FIVE... FOUR... THREE... TWO... ONE... HAPPY NEW-"

The crowd's chanting was immediately silenced when the system window appeared, but Sarissa was ready. The screams were muffled to her ears, and the red that painted the streets felt familiar, almost comfortable as the girl dominated the monsters around her, stealing each and every kill she could.

This time, however, it did not matter if she was earning double the experience points per kill due to her [Achievement], she did not seem to be anywhere near leveling up, and so, she kept on killing and killing, numb to anything around her that had not to do with the monsters.

[Skill – Mad Fire – in use]

She burned a group of Goblins to a crisp while the young man behind her simply screamed, scared witless of everything around him.

He was neither painted red, nor was he dead, which drew Sarissa's attention ever so slightly.

'Weak.' She glared at him in dejection for the briefest of moments, before turning her back to him and running towards the square's edge, indifferent to the boy's screams as he was probably swarmed by a bunch of Goblins, just like she had in her last turn.

"Serves you right..." She mumbled, slaying everything that looked the slightest like a monster in front of her.

This turn, however, she made the mistake of leaving the city, and then she learned what the true horrors of the game were at that time.

Her regressions became less and less frequent, but as time went by, she noticed that her skill would not level up anymore, having already reached level 10, while all others had already surpassed level 20, turning her into the deadliest player that The Glitch had ever seen.

However, one time, it's nothing. Two times, it's a coincidence. Three times, maybe it's just her head playing tricks on her.

But when Sarissa met that young man for the fourth turn, she began questioning if fate was not trying to play its gambit on her one more time. So, she followed him – soon after saving him for the umpteenth time – to a dark alley where he hid from the [Tutorial Goblins].

'Why can't I see his face properly?' She rubbed her eyes to try and focus her glance at his face, but no matter how hard she tried, his features kept blurred, like his face was made of static.

She did not make a sound, waiting to see what his next movement would be, and soon she discovered it.

To her complete bafflement, the young man got up, looking at something right above a garbage container, as though he was seeing something, but there was nothing there to be seen, and Sarissa was not even moving, so she doubted he could see or even hear her.

However, he left the alley not long after, running towards an apartment building.

She kept an eye on him for the next few days, and the days soon became weeks, until he vanished completely. No matter where she looked or where she walked after him, he was nowhere to be seen.

For the first few days, she kept searching, quietly amused at the fact that a weak player like him was still alive and kicking. However, after a few more days, she started to ignore it.

Maybe, he was just another fixed point that she could not change. But why was his face like that? Why couldn't she see it?

She kept playing. Killing and leveling up.

Leveling up and killing.

Two months went by in the blink of an eye. It was then when the young man reappeared from the shadows, whatever sewer he had hid himself. The only thing was that, no matter how Sarissa looked at him, although his features were still unrecognizable...

He was different.

He had leveled up, and become powerful enough to exude a presence that could crush even her.

Carrying a black scythe that looked like something that came straight out of a nightmare, he walked straight, holding himself with poise, wearing a black top hat and an exquisite suit in mismatched shades of red, a bowtie, trousers, and a creepy mask that made him look like a character straight out of an adult, dark cartoon.

However, something felt off about him.

It was not only his presence, but something more subtle and eerie. Something in the way he walked and did not seem to pay attention to anywhere in particular, the mask's glowing eyes scanning everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

'Why am I so certain that it's even him?' She frowned ever so slightly, paying close attention to him from her distance, squinting her eyes in a hint of annoyance.

He stopped in the middle of the street, bustling with players coming and going and, completely out of the blue, raised his scythe. Immediately after, some kind of portal appeared in front of him. @@novelbin@@

And all hell broke loose.