Chapter 2: [2] : Sector 4-Blight, +10 Chipped Cleaver

The void shattered. Declan felt gravity grab him and pull him down violently.

The cold sensation of reality crashed into him.

He opened his eyes.

Rain hit Declan’s face. It felt oily and cold.

He was lying on his back in the mud. He sat up slowly, groaning as his muscles protested. He was no longer wearing his orange prison jumpsuit. Instead, he had on rough burlap-like pants and a simple gray tunic.

He looked around.

He was sitting in an alleyway of a ruined decaying city. Tall gothic buildings loomed over him and their stone faces were crumbling and covered in dark moss. The sky above was a sickly bruised purple color.

Thick fog rolled through the streets.

There were other people around him. About fifty of them. They were all wearing the same cheap burlap clothes. Some were crying.

Some were looking at their hands in shock.

A loud booming voice echoed from the sky. It did not sound human. It sounded like grinding metal.

"Welcome to Sector 4-Blight," the voice announced.

Everyone looked up, terrified.

"The rules are simple. Survive. Hunt. Evolve.

There are no safe spaces outside this immediate spawn zone. Trust no one. The weak will be deleted. The strong will ascend."

The voice paused, then continued.

"Equipment falls into six tiers: Scavenged, Forged, Relic, Mythic, Ascendant, and Sovereign. Find gear. Kill beasts. Earn Origin Points. Survive the Purge."

The voice cut off.

Instantly, panic erupted in the alley. A man in a suit started screaming about suing whoever put him here. A woman sat in the mud rocking back and forth. A group of three tough-looking guys immediately started bullying a smaller guy to see if he had any starting items on him.

Declan did not really panic.

He had spent five years in a concrete box.

This place was dangerous, sure, but at least he was not locked in a cell.

He stood up and wiped the mud off his face.

"Okay. Survive, hunt, evolve. Simple enough."

He had an idea of what he was going to be facing.

He needed a weapon. The tutorial voice said Scavenged was the lowest tier. He looked around the alley. There was a massive pile of literal trash and debris piled up against a collapsed brick wall near the edge of the safe zone.

While the other players were busy arguing or crying, Declan walked over to the trash heap.

The smell was atrocious. It smelled like rotten meat and rusted iron. Declan did not care. He dropped to his knees and started digging through the pile with his bare hands.

He tossed aside broken bottles, pieces of rotting wood, and twisted metal pipes. A jagged piece of tin sliced his palm.

"Ouch. Dammit," he hissed.

He ignored the bleeding and kept digging.

Finally, his hand closed around something heavy and solid. A handle.

He pulled it free.

It was a cleaver. But calling it a weapon was a stretch. It looked like it had been sitting in a swamp for a decade. The blade was heavily rusted, blunt, and had a massive chip taken out of the center. The wooden handle was rotting and splintered.

A small prompt appeared over the weapon.

[Chipped Cleaver]

↳ Tier: Scavenged

↳ Damage: 1 to 2

↳ Durability: 5 / 10

↳ Description: A piece of literal garbage. You are more likely to give someone tetanus than actually cut them.

Declan laughed. "Perfect. I am armed with a glorified butter knife."

He opened his status screen again. He noticed a small counter at the bottom corner of his vision.

[System Resources]

↳ Origin Points: 10

"Looks like the system gives everyone ten points to start," Declan mumbled.

Ten points was not much. A normal player would save it. They might try to upgrade this trash cleaver to +1 or +2 to make it slightly less terrible but they would never risk pushing it to +5 and losing it entirely.

But Declan was not a normal player.

"Let us test this SSS-Rank talent," he said.

He held the rusty cleaver in his right hand. He mentally selected the enhancement option.

[Would you like to enhance Chipped Cleaver for 1 Origin Point?]

"Yes."

A brief flash of white light covered the blade.

[System Remark]

↳ Chipped Cleaver +1. Damage increased to 2 to 3.

He looked at the blade. A tiny flake of rust fell off. It did not look much better.

"Again," Declan commanded.

[System Remark]

↳ Chipped Cleaver +2.

↳ Chipped Cleaver +3.

↳ Chipped Cleaver +4.

↳ Chipped Cleaver +5.

The light flashed four more times. By +5, the cleaver actually looked usable. Most of the rust was gone and the edge had a dull gleam to it.

[System Remark]

↳ The item has reached the normal enhancement cap. Further enhancement has a 100 percent chance to shatter the item.

"Not for me," Declan grinned. "Keep going."

[System Remark]

↳ Talent Boundless Enhancement activated. Cap removed.

↳ Chipped Cleaver +6.

↳ Chipped Cleaver +7.

↳ Chipped Cleaver +8.

↳ Chipped Cleaver +9.

The cleaver was changing rapidly now. The rotting wooden handle smoothed out turning into dark polished oak. The metal of the blade lost all its chips and rust. It became completely smooth and terrifyingly sharp.

The heavy weight of it felt perfectly balanced in his grip.

He had one Origin Point left.

"Hit me with the +10," Declan said, his heart beating a little faster.

He spent his final point.

The cleaver did not flash white this time. It flashed a deep blood-red color. The metal groaned physically warping and mutating in his hand. The edge of the blade turned a dark jagged crimson.

[System Remark]

↳ Chipped Cleaver has reached +10.

↳ Triggering ConceptualUtation...

The red light faded. Declan looked at the new stats floating above the weapon.

[Chipped Cleaver +10]

↳ Tier: Scavenged Mutated

↳ Damage: 15 to 20

↳ Trait Unlocked: Hemorrhage

↳ Hemorrhage: 100 percent chance on hit to cause uncontrollable bleeding. Drains 50 HP per second for 10 seconds. Effect cannot be stopped by standard bandages or low-tier magic.

Declan stared at the text. He read it twice to make sure he was not hallucinating.

Fifty health points a second.

His own total HP was only 100. If he accidentally cut himself with this thing, he would bleed out and die in exactly two seconds.

"This is completely broken," Declan whispered, a wide predatory smile spreading across his face.

It did not matter that his base stats were terrible. It did not matter that he was Level 1.

If he could land a single scratch on something, they were dead.

He gripped the polished handle of his mutated cleaver. He turned his back on the crying panicking players in the alleyway.

It was time to go hunting.