Chapter 4 – AoE that should not exist

Pack of wolves slowly stalked through the forest sniffing the ground all over the place. They've been going in circles for a few hours now, but could not pinpoint their prey's location no matter what they did.

The smell trace was very audible, yet when they followed it they found only empty space. After some time they separated and went into different locations to surround the area and try to trace the target from different directions. But still the smell trace led them to the same empty location.

Disappointed and a bit upset with their pack leader for his ineptitude to catch this delicious smelling prey for them, the pack has turned and walked away. However, when they already gave up and traveled for quite some distance a new portion of scent was brought to their noses by the wind. Under their pack leader's guide they rushed toward their prey's location once again.

********

"So you are saying my system is so unique there is no guide for its development and I have to study under the guidance of these people chatting in this CS?"

*Exactly*

"Who are these people?" Asked Noah baffled but this turn of events.

*Regarding that inquiry, system has no access to the needed information to answer*

"Sight." Breathed out Noah, with disappointment. "Alright. Let's check the skill folder." Were voiced Noah's thoughts aloud.

/Open skill list folder/ willed Noah.

White screen appeared out of the yellow folder and took over the entire desktop screen area. Inside the folder already were several things that looked like a picture with a name written under it.

"Are these my skills? How do I check their information?"

*Answer: user can touch each picture once to open detailed information. Imagine it as if you touch it with your hand.*

Noah "touched" one of the pictures as system explained and a small window appeared over that picture with description of the skill.

//Skill: Nothing gets forgotten//

//Gives back any memory that person struggles to forget//

"Is this a joke? What's the use of that? Why would you want to return that memory if they wish to forget it? To torture them?" Asked Noah with confusion.

*However, you did use the skill on yourself* Answered system.

"....."

Noah wanted to say something to counter this but could not found any words to say.

"Fuck it. Next skill." He said with frustration.

//Ugly bastard transformation//

//Transform user into horrendous being for a short amount of time//

Read the text that he opened on the next skill.

"System?" Asked Noah with a plain voice.

*Yes?* Answered system unperturbed.

"What is this bullshit?"  Asked Noah feeling an illusory eye twitch.

*Answering: User has been born within an elite family with possession of superior genes making the user very comely in appearance, which does not align with best performance of the gifted system UGLY BASTARD. Transformation will grant an increase in stats as well as raise the level of skill while in this form.*

"NEXT!" Said Noah filling anger pushing out frustration out of him.

//Cure poison with poison//

//Creates a portion of malign energy within user to erase the influence of external energy//

Read the words describing the third skill he opened.

"This is the one you used to cure me? I have bad memories regarding it. Next!" Said Noah skipping this skill as he experienced its effect first hand.

//Please look at this white light//

//Erases part of the memory//

Read an explanation of the next skill in line.

"Hold on. So that's how I lost my memory in the first place?" Said Noah with surprise realization of the reason to his memory loss dawning on him.

"System, where did you get these skills?" Asked Noah unable to even explain what he felt from seeing his system possessing such skills. Frustration? Confusion? Anger? Most likely all of them at once.

*Answer: system is monitoring comment section 24/7. Any information mentioned in the CS is being analyzed for the alignment with the UGLY BASTARD systems capability. If conditions requiring for the creation of skill are met, system saves the skill into the library*

"I see." Said Noah, sighing once more. "So the people from CS are the main culprits." He rationalized puting the blame for this strangeness of his system upon the people that influenced it.

"Next." Sounded his thouds aloud.

//Kyaan damee//

"STOP! STOP RIGHT THERE!!! WHAT THE HELL?! WHY DO I FEEL LIKE TRASH LOWLIFE COMMITTING CRIME SIMPLY FROM TOUCHING THAT SKILL?" Asked Noah with another wave of frustration just from reading the description of the skill.

*........* The system voice was strangely silent, offering no answer as if sensing Noah's agitation.

"EXIT THE SKILL LIST! I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS BULLSHIT!" Said Noah losing his composure from seeing not a single skill without some strange effect. What kind of system did he get?

When the skill list folder closed it took a few minutes for Noah to calm down.

"What the hell is this system? Why did I pick it? Why couldn't I be born with something normal?" Muttered Noah watching at the screens in front of him.

"System explain the functions of this conversation canvas?"

*The white canvas with conversations is called the comment section screen. People on this screen have conversations on different topics of their choice. Every person making new topics is posting a comment. All people who list under him are giving "reply". You can see replies and post buttons on the screen. You can join their conversations using these buttons. At the head of every post or reply you can see the name of a person that made this comment. On the left side is a picture that helps identify this person called avatar or profile picture also shortened to pfp.*

"How do I write text there?"

*User is connected to the comment section screen directly through his soul. The dimension you are in now is within your own mind. You can comment by thinking of "touching" text space and simply saying the word you want to comment.*

"I see. The control is quite intuitive. Hmm? Wait, what's going on?"

He moved closer to the comment section screen with an enquiring face.

"These people… What are they up to? They look overly active all of a sudden." Said Noah seeing new lines of text suddenly starting to appear at a much quicker pace than before.

*You can read their previous conversation by touching text and swiping it upward*

"Hmm? Like that? Oh it worked, text went up showing what's beneath. Nice." Said Noah, successfully swiping the screen.

"Let's see… Mhhm….Oh WOW. Where did they get the pictures of these beauties? Khe-khem...I mean, yes I understand now what's going on." Said Noah scrolling the text back to the top, feeling blood surge to his face making him flush from seeing some of the pictures that people posted in CS.

"So the people were discussing the beauty of these celestial maidens and arguing which one of them is superior, when this fellow named Ichigo barged into their conversation, claiming they do not know the true beauty of the world. Beauty is Gae? What is he talking about?" Said Noah aloud trying to make sense of the situatiin.

"Oh is it about the works of Gaen the heart stealer? They say his paintings are so beautiful people can't see beauty in other things after witnessing his masterpieces. Did this Ichigo guy see his works? No hold on, Gaen lived in our world. According to the system these people are from some other world. There is no way they know it. What is it then? Hmmm?" Thought Noah while reading the conversation of people in the comment section.

Gae is art. You shall know the beauty of Gae with this gae wave!  Commented the guy named Ichigo.

NO! Don't do it! Replied some other commenter.

I am doing it!  Said Ichigo unperturbed.

NO! Stop! Quickly replied someone else.

Somebody stop this madman! Wrote a third person.

I am definitely doing it! Said Ichigo keen on doing whatever it was he decided to do no matter what others told him.

DO IT! SHOW THEM THE TRUE MIGHT OF THE DARK SIDE!

Encouraged someone with a picture of some evil looking old man in the cape.

Staaaaahppp! Screamed someone with a text.

Short sentences started rapidly appearing on the CS screen. This was the moment when Noah noticed something strange going on. So he almost caught up with the conversation of these people

The big wave is coming!

Said one of the people attaching a picture of a colossal wave swiping an enormous city and a face of a screaming man watching into the screen as if he looked straight at Noah. With huge words "it's coming!" written right bellow the man

"Huh? What's coming?" Asked Noah in confusion

Everyone, run! Wrote someone as if in panic.

There's nowhere to run! All we have left is to face the tide. Answered someone in resignation adding a picture of a man standing in the rain with spread out hands as if waiting for death to come for him.

"What are they talking about?" wondered Noah.

Then it began.

One after another pictures started to appear. All of them were thrown there by the same person with the name Ichigo and an avatar picture of a turtle.

"Huh what's this? Are these men doing what I think they do?!" Asked Noah with confusion at first but his change quickly changing to disgust as realization dawned at him.

"NO! God get this away from me! Stop! No, I don't want to see that!" Screamed Noah with disgust.

Picture after picture of man in all kinds of state of undress doing "THAT" to each other started to appear on the screen.

"No! That's disgusting! Why do you do this? System, how do I close my eyes here?"

*Answer: You are connected to the CS directly through your soul. This place is your mind. There is no way to close your eyes or unsee these things as they're being transferred directly into your mind.*

"FUCK! I AM GOING TO VOMIT, SYSTEM! UGHB, FUCK! I AM VOMITING SYSTEM!!! DO SOMETHING OR I VOMIT INSIDE MY OWN MIND!" Screamed Noah with an agony.

Black fog started to exit out of the CS screen into the mind space of Noah which made him extremely nauseous.

*Detecting the source of strong malign energy.

*Trying to disconnect the source.

*Error: the source of malign energy within the system. Unable to disconnect the system.

*WARNING: MALIGN ENERGY IS DESTROYING THE USERS MIND.

*Searching for the appropriate way to solve the problem of malign energy source

*Conditions have been met.

*Creating a skill

"SYSTEM DO SOMETHING!" Screamed Noah.

*System has analysed the root problem. The source of the problem is users' own pent up malign thoughts influencing users own magic energy. Advising user to release the energy from within the body to lessen the influence on his health. Appropriate  skill has been created and added to the Skill List.

*Would you like to use the skill: Malign Aura?

"YES!" Screamed Noah not even reading what the skill did. If it could help to stop this deep disgust he gave his consent to use it.

******

Wolves surrounded the very same area that they searched thoroughly before and yet again there was no one there. They did indeed smell a fresh scent trace that occured just recently but the prey was gone and the trace did not lead anywhere else.

Suddenly black spot appeared out of nowhere. It was suspended in the air and did not appear to be held by anything.

The black spot started to rapidly grow until it became as big as a human. Within a mere moment a small black spot turned into a human being totally covered in blackness and exuding some kind of black smoke from its body.

That person suddenly inhaled deeply and turning his head to the sky, roaring so loud that wolves surrounding him were scared shitless.

Suddenly with the sound of his roar the black fog spread in the area as if propelled by the sound wave.

Everywhere the black fog touched started to rot and dissolve. Trees have started to blacken and wither. Grass directly turned into rotten stinking goo. Ground started to crack and turn ashen.

The black fog spread so fast that wolves did not even manage to react. The moment they noticed the fog, it already covered their bodies.

Then something very strange occured. When black fog touched their bodies, they shuddered for a moment but then fought it off and did not notice any harm. However black fog started to seep through their ears, eyes and muzzles.

A moment later they started to howl to the sky and rushed at…..their pack leader? They pounced at the Alpha wolf as if mad, pinning him to the ground.

After Noah roared out all black energy from within him he regained his sanity and looked around, startling from seeing large wolves surrounding him. But what happened next startled him again. Wolves of the pack pinned down their own Alpha and then…started to lick each other? And humped each other?

Oh God! What the hell? Are they? No, I don't want to see that! Thought Noah.

He closed his eyes, but still could hear the humps and whimpers of wolves with heavy paintings.

After a dozen minutes of enmaddened rampage, wolfs started to regain sanity. When they saw what they had done they were so shocked they could barely remember how to breathe. Then a sense of shame hit them. They didn't dare to even look each other in the eyes anymore.

A moment later they ran away in different directions to never see each other again. Just like that strongest pack in the Great Tree Labyrinth was disbanded. The only one left was a barely breathing pack leader whimpering on the ground.

Noah looked at the lone wolf lying on the ground in utter shock not knowing what to do. Then they met eyes.

In that moment Noah could see what was on the wolfs mind.

It asked to be killed.

Noah walked closer to the wolf and looked into it's eyes again.

"You tried to eat me. Don't blame me for it" He muttered.

System do I have any weapon with me? Asked Noah in his mind.

*All your things has been placed into "Very important stuff" folder*

Noah willed to open that folder and saw his knife that he had among his equipment when he came to the labyrinth with that fucker which he called as brother-in-law.

Noah took out the knife and looked at the wolf again

As if feeling Noah's resolve, the wolf closed his eyes awaiting death.

Noah did not hesitate. He slit the wolf's throat in a quick move, ending its suffering.

"System..." Called Noah inside his mind.

*Yes?* Answered the system voice.

"That skill…Put it in the homework folder. The world should never see this skill again. Hell. This skill should never have existed in the first place." Said Noah with the most serious face.