The moment Lex activated the escape scroll, the air around him twisted like a fabric being squeezed out.
[Item"Escape Scroll" Activated.]
[Rift Escape Successful!]
A second later, he was somewhere else. It was similar to the"pulling" sensations he had when he used Better Yesterday.
Cold.
The first thing Lex noticed was the temperature shift. The Titan's Rift had been warm, almost suffocating with its moist heat. Now, a crisp chill nipped at his skin.
His whole body was smoking, steam rising off his bare skin as the cold air hit him.
Lex barely reacted. He just glanced at the scroll in his hands as it slowly faded into nothing.
As the name suggests, the escape scroll was used to escape rifts and dungeons, such as dungeon 0-1, which connected floor 0, Earth, and floor 1.
Although its activation had multiple conditions, it was mostly a lifesaving necessity for all players. No matter what, a player needed one in case of an emergency.
There was even a saying among players, "Forget food. Forget water. Hell, forget your weapons. But if you forget an Escape Scroll, you're already half dead."
Pushing aside his thoughts, Lex took in his surroundings. 'Home sweet home.'
He was in what used to be a city center, though it looked nothing like one now. The streets were cracked, bits of debris scattered everywhere. Storefronts had shattered glass, and some buildings had scorch marks.
Multiple cars crashed into each other, and their windows broke. A few had even flipped over.
It was a scene of destruction, of chaos.
But there weren't any bodies. Just old, dried blood smeared on the pavement and walls, like someone had tried cleaning up but gave up halfway.
This place had been hit by the first attack wave composed mostly of artificially created bipedal bunnies. As for why there wasn't any corpse, who said bunnies couldn't eat meat?
"It's funny how even cattle can reduce a Pre-Game civilization to such a state," Lex muttered, his gaze flicking to a distant skyscraper that was missing its top half.
Bipedal bunnies weren't infamous for their deadliness—far from it. On deeper floors, they were famous for something else entirely.
They were delicious.
Tender, easy to farm, and explosively fertile, they were the chickens of the Game. A delicacy. Yet here, they'd brought an entire world to its knees.
Embarrassing? Maybe. But inevitable.
Starless weapon-like guns or bombs wouldn't even scratch a Game entity. Not even a simple bipedal bunny. What good were armies, training, or technology when the enemy was untouchable?
Lex's eyes flicked to a supermarket, and he wasn't surprised that it was stripped clean. People had raided it a while ago.
He just wasn't quite sure about the exact timing. 'How much time has passed since the end of the first attack wave?'
Then, movement.
"Hello there!" A voice cut through the silence, way too cheerful for the setting.
Lex turned his head slowly, already sighing. 'Ah yes. The aspectless. I almost forgot about them.'
A group of men stood across the cracked street. They looked like they raided a thrift store themed around "cheap medieval fantasy."
Chainmail over hoodies. Rusty axes. One of them wore what looked suspiciously like a saucepan for a helmet. However one of them had surprisingly a nice sword.
Then his stench hit them.
One guy gagged, nearly doubling over. Another flinched, blinking fast, trying not to cry.
"Hell—what the hell is that smell?"
"I think it's him."
Lex sniffed casually and looked down at himself. Still soaked in blood and whatever else the Titan's intestines had decided to share with him. He was glistening in the worst possible way.
The smell was enough to make most people puke. He didn't notice anymore.
The smell alone would almost make one forget that he was naked. His pale skin was stark against the filth coating him. He must've looked like some newborn monster crawling out of a nightmare.
The man shifted uncomfortably, his eyes darting between Lex's filth-covered body and the half-shattered dagger in his grip. It was obvious they had never come across something like this before.
The leader, a bulky guy pushing his late 40s, cleared his throat and covered his nose with one hand. "Uh… friend, how'd you end up like that? We've got a working shower. You should, uh… use it."
Lex barely looked at him. Instead, he asked, voice flat, "How long since the bunnies?"
The leader blinked. "Huh?"
"The invasion," Lex clarified, still uninterested.
"Oh. Uh…" The man hesitated, clearly wondering if this guy had been living under a rock. "A little over a month, I think?" His gaze flicked to Lex's ruined dagger, like he was trying to make sense of him.
Lex then went silent.
'One month... It felt like hours.'
Because of Die to begin, his sense of time was extremely distorted. Years could feel like days, and days could feel like years.
Seeing Lex ignore them, one of the men snorted. "Hey, do you think he's deaf? Maybe he was so scared of the bunnies he didn't even dare to bathe."
"Boss, I don't think he's worth even tricking. Look at him." Another jabbed a finger at Lex's half-shattered knife. "Dude's got nothing. Bet he's got, like, two coins to his name."
"And he's naked," someone else added.
That got the boss's attention and his seemingly kind mask dropped. "You're right. He's probably got nothing. Let's take him to the back and have some fun. It's been a while."
"I call dibs on his ass."
Lex barely acknowledged them, still staring at their weapons. Star items. That meant they could hurt him—but could and would were two very different things.
One of the men noticed his gaze and puffed out his chest. "What? You eyeing my weapon, you fucking beggar?" He smirked, holding out his sword. "This bad boy cost me fifty coins from a merchant. But don't worry I will show you another more private sword soon."
Lex sighed. "Thanks for the donation," he said as he dropped his old short dagger. It was pointless now.
He moved.
Bare feet slapped against the pavement. In an instant, he was on the guy. Before the man could react, Lex drove a kick straight into his stomach.
"Gah!"
The force sent him flying. His body crumpled against a car with a sickening crunch, the windshield shattering as metal fragments stabbed into him. A gurgling breath, then stillness.
Lex didn't even glance at him. He just bent down, picked up the sword, and turned it in his grip, testing the weight.
"It—he's got blessings!"
"Shit! Run!"
"I told you he was dangerous, boss!"
"Fuck you, you coward!"
The rest of the group panicked, bolting in different directions.
Lex watched them go, then turned and walked the other way. He had no real reason to chase any of them. Even if he could hunt them all down, it would be a huge waste of time and effort for some "aspectless."
Although he would have indeed hunted them before
As for what he meant by "aspectless"...
In the game, there is only one way to obtain an aspect. It is through aspect selection in the tutorial. However, since the number of aspects is limited, does that mean the Game will create new aspects for everyone?
No.
Those with a weaker soul or not enough potential will not have the chance to participate in the aspect selection and will not be teleported.
They would stay on Earth while the rest of the worthy people would be transported.
These people are called aspectless.
And in this world, where a single individual can become an absolute existence simply because of their aspect, the aspectless are barely considered.
They are destined to be trampled upon.
They are destined to be prey.