Luck tapped the bat against his shoulder and sighed.
"Look, I'll give you a chance," he said. "Run now. No one has to bury you next."
"You saw what happened. One's bled to death, and the other's knocked cold."
Luck pointed toward the path behind him. "There's the exit. Go. Live. Rethink your life. I won't chase."
Green's jaw clenched. He glanced at Red's body, then growled, "You'll regret this."
Luck shrugged. "That's a future me problem. Right now, you've got a choice."
Wind stirred dust between them as silence stretched.
Green raised his weapon in defiance.
Luck exhaled. "Alright then. Guess we're doing this."
Green tightened his grip and rushed with a roar. "DIE!!!"
Luck jumped over the pickaxe's swing. Mid-air, he twisted and drove his right foot into the dwarf's head, knocking him to the ground.
Landing light, Luck bent his knees and touched the ground with one hand.
Green groaned, struggling to sit after the fall.
"Should've taken the offer,"
The dwarf staggered to his feet, dazed but not done. He grabbed the pickaxe and tried another swing—sloppy this time.
Luck leaned away, let it pass, then cracked the bat across the forehead.
The dwarf dropped like a sack of bricks.
"Stubborn little bastard," he muttered. "Don't you know I've got the reach advantage? Your short arms won't even get close."
Green groaned, pushing up with shaky elbows. He reached for his weapon one last time, but before his fingers touched the handle, Luck stepped in and brought the bat down hard.
This time, the dwarf stayed down.
Luck looked around. Just him, three bodies, and tools half-buried in the dirt.
His eyes lingered on the weapons.
'I don't want to kill them if possible...'
But the system didn't hand out decent rewards for mercy. Dead targets paid better. That was the rule.
Worse, more enemies could appear. If that happened—and these two stood up—things would get messy fast.
Luck sighed, picked up an pickaxe, and aimed it at the dwarf closest to waking.
"One, two...," he counted under his breath. "THREE!"
He swung hard, aiming for the skull.
But halfway through, he pulled back and shook his head.
'What am I thinking? I'm not a savage animal.'
Luck crouched low, grabbed Blue under the arms, and hoisted him onto his back. He started moving toward the back of the motel, careful not to make a sound.
When he reached a secluded corner, he paused.
Without warning, CRACK—one sharp hit to the head.
This was what he meant when he said he wasn't a savage animal.
He wasn't avoiding the kill—just didn't want to do it out in the open.
Luck repeated the process with the last one.
Bodies dropped silently, piled neatly in the shadows behind the motel.
He stepped back, staring at the pile of corpses.
'This counts as serial killing, right? Or do dwarves fall under animal kills since they're a whole different organism?'
Before he could contemplate and reflect more on himself, a bright notification flashed in his vision.
The system didn't care for feelings. Just results.
'Guess that's that,' he muttered.
The notification blinked again.
[Reward: Silver Box – Exclusive.]
Luck raised an eyebrow. 'Exclusive?'
A sleek silver box appeared in front of Luck.
This one had a different design than usual—patterns of leaves and mountains etched into its surface.
Excited, he opened it right away.
But instead of an item appearing, it vanished into a swirl of orange gas. It drifted toward him and seeped into his body.
Almost immediately, pain exploded through his muscles—like he had been working out nonstop for hours.
He clenched his teeth against the pain.
Opening it outside was a mistake. But it was too late now.
Sweat dripped down his forehead. He clenched his jaw, pushing through the sensation.
Every muscle burned like fire, but he forced himself to lie back on the ground. He needed better access to air, to keep his breathing steady.
After what felt like a very long time, the pain became more manageable.
[Congratulations, Host. You just endured the Dwarf God's Curse and stole one of the blessings of the Dwarf race for yourself.]
[Dwarf Blessing – 1%.]
The message continued:
[Once you reach 100%, you will gain a strong body that can even withstand high caliber bullets.]
'A curse... that turned into a blessing? Well, that explained the pain.'
Clenching his fist, he couldn't tell if anything changed.
"System... how can I increase this blessing?" he asked, still staring at his hand.
[Because the owner's blessing was stolen, you can only earn more by killing and absorbing more dwarves. Please touch the corpses.]
"So you want me to be a mass murderer?" Luck glanced at the pile of dead dwarves, then back at the message.
The chance to gain superpowers was the dream of every otaku—right up there with being reincarnated into another world.
He hesitated, fingers hovering over the nearest body.
But that craving for power pulled him forward.
The second his palm touched one of the bodies, it began to dissolve.
Orange particles lifted from the skin, breaking the body down piece by piece until only the clothes remained.
[Dwarf Blessing -3%.]
"Just two percent?" he muttered, eyes narrowing.
"So I have to kill fifty of them to reach a hundred?"
He almost cursed out loud at how low the gain was.
But then again... those three weren't that strong to begin with.
Maybe the rate depended on the target's strength—like those video games that gave different experience points based on difficulty.
If weak ones gave barely anything, then hunting tougher dwarves might speed things up.
Still, the thought of needing dozens more made his shoulders sag.
Though he was fine with killing a few—treating them like NPCs for the sake of convenience—there was a danger on this type of thinking.
If things kept going this way, he would eventually numb himself to the line between survival and cruelty.
Killing not out of necessity, but out of habit.