My Evil System

[BONUS]

Emi's POV

"Can we not run?" Sheryl whined.

At this point, I had lost count of how many times she had complained. "This red water thing on my face feels gross, but I'd rather not die of exhaustion. After all, we're already wet even if we don't run."

I betted my eyelids at her, but we did slow down our pace.

"Let's just hurry and quickly find shelter in the village," said Brago.

We'd been continuously running for almost an hour now, and my stamina was reaching its limit. Not to mention that my stomach was growling non-stop.

"We need food and rest, or our HP will drop," I reminded our leader. "Our stamina is already reaching its limit."

"That's why we need to hurry back into the village. There is an inn and food there," Brago retorted.

Megu's child was talking gibberish again, and the noise wasn't funny when paired with the splashing rain. The baby was all cooped up inside her mother's loving embrace in her robe, protected from the rain.

I took a deep breath.

"That's why we need to walk, so our stamina wouldn't suffer so much," Sheryl shouted at the back.

At least she and I agreed on something.

Even though Brago didn't like the idea, our progress still slowed compared to before, and not before long we finally reached the gates of Euclid Village.

Or what seemed like a village.

"Did they renovated or something?" Edgar asked, and no one paid him any mind. He might as well be invisible.

The once broken pieces of wooden gates were now made of strong lumber, and there were even towers every three meters or so.

"Hey, look! Is that an inhabitant?!"

We shifted our attention to the weird-looking creatures who were coming and going through the gates.

"What are they?" I squinted my eyes to take a better look but failed. They were still a little too far.

"Who cares?" Edgar growled. "Let's go inside the village. It's freezing here!"

Brago was quick on his feet, though. Before we knew it, he was already in front of the weird creature who was standing like a human but had dog ears and tails. It looked like a Halfling, like the previous inhabitants of this village.

Could they still be the same and just happened to renovate their village? But those lazy bunch didn't strike me as a hard-working citizen. What's more, I haven't seen this particular creature before.

"Hey, what happened here?" Brago asked.

The creature merely looked over at the Brago and said, "You're currently inside my Lord's territory. Go back."

Brago's eyebrow rose. "My Lord? Is that the new name of the mayor now?"

"How many days have we been gone that this place is suddenly inhabited by some lord?" I asked.

That would explain why the village looked new. Maybe some high-ranking official from another town went here and decided to renovate the place.

"Go back. This is your last warning," the creature said before going back to the forest.

"Hey, wait! I'm still talking to you!"

The creature wasn't bothered, and neither waited nor stopped at Brago's voice.

We didn't push the creature either, fearing that our relationship level with them would decrease to the point they could kill us on the spot.

Such occurrences were too often here.

"Now what?"

Everyone stared at the towering wooden gates before looking at each other, discussing our fate with silent stares.

"Let's go and enter." Brago stepped forwards towards the entrance.

"B-but what if the lord is a scary monster?" Stan stuttered.

And before anyone could reply, a loud shriek from Sheryl startled us.

"W-what is it?" Stan jumped to his toes.

"What is it now?!" I growled at her, but when I looked, what I saw had me dumbfounded.

There were suddenly all sizes of puss-filled warts all over Sheryl's youthful face. The exposed skin on her arms was also red, and there were tiny little rashes scattered across her limbs.

"W-what happened to you?!" I screamed at her.

"To me?! What happened to your face?!"

With our questions, the both of us quickly took a look at the nearest puddle we could find. The rain continued to pitter-patter, causing the puddle to ripple, but I still managed to see some bits of reflection of myself.

My eyes bulged out from their sockets when I saw acne all over my face! My skin had always been flawless, and I took pride that I never had one acne before.

But now . . . Acne in all sizes kept popping on my skin, and I shrieked the loudest.

Soon, the night was filled with our cries as all of us suffered some kind of skin disease in one way or another. Not to mention that these things were itchy as hell!

I bit my lip until it bled, trying to stop myself from scratching my skin. Stan and Edgar couldn't resist the temptation and scratched to their heart's content. Their skin peeled off, and blood quickly poured out, which did nothing but add to our hysteria.

"Calm down! Calm down, everyone!" Brago shouted and tried to pacify the situation.

"Stop!" I screamed at them. "We have to get out of here before we die!" This was probably the Blood Rain's doing.

A loud thwack on the mud, as if someone had just fallen down without warning, made us turn toward the source of that sound.

Stan was dead. He laid on his back, eyes closed and mouth open in a silent scream. His face had turned into a pale white mask with red veins popping all over it. His wrist looked like they had been devoured by wild little animals, but I knew that they were scratches.

Stan had scratched so deep into his wrist that he suffered blood loss and eventually died.

Another round of cries percolated in the air, but all I could think of was that the rest of us were not far behind him.

"Let's get out of here!" Brago and Ford pounded hard on the entrance, and I ran to them and did the same while shouting at the top of my lungs.

"Let us in!"

We must escape this rain! I had a feeling that this was the cause of all the skin diseases that we were having.

Megu joined as well while Sheryl was too shocked that she froze on her spot, still staring at Stan's corpse that was now turning into particles.

Edgar was losing it, and he repeatedly paced back and forth, eyes red and bulging and holding his head with an expression that looked like it was the end of the world.

I would be the same if we didn't get out of here soon. The itchiness was becoming more unbearable by the second.

( . . . continuation on NOTES)

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A/N (Doesn't consume coins)

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