[Ding! Title Unlocked: Hundred Rat Slayer.]
[Hundred Rat Slayer: When equipped, intimidates rodent creatures.]
[Ding! Experience bar full. Level increased to Lv2. Current experience: 0/200.]
[Gained 1 attribute point.]
After slaughtering a hundred rats, Riku finally leveled up as he'd hoped, even snagging a "Hundred Rat Slayer" title in the process.
To get those hundred rats, he'd practically turned the area upside down, spending an entire night on the hunt.
But looking at his rewards after leveling up, Riku fell silent.
"…"
"That's it? That's all? Isn't something missing?"
One attribute point? Fine, no issue there. But where were the skill point and the skill optimization point?! Did the system just eat them?!
"Chill, is there some special way to get them? Or maybe you don't get one every level?"
Riku quickly accepted reality. The [Limit System] didn't exactly come with a customer service hotline, so complaining was pointless.
Besides, he was already exploiting a system bug. He didn't have the guts to complain—what if they patched the bug because of him?
"Keep at it. It's just 200 more rats, right? No big deal."
Back in the cave, Riku rallied himself. Things were moving in a good direction, so he had no real reason to gripe.
While hunting rats, Riku had also tried targeting smaller creatures, like a nest of ants.
Sadly, his attempt to game the system failed. The [Limit System] didn't count insects like ants for experience.
"System, add the point."
Without much hesitation, Riku dumped the attribute point into Constitution, bringing it to 13+6 (Demonization).
As a result, his regeneration-based "undying state" now lasted 38 hours, just 5 points shy of the 48-hour mark.
Riku's plan was simple: boost Constitution until his undying state could last a full 48 hours. No fancy reason—just pure survival instinct.
He'd confirmed that his transmigration ability had a roughly two-day, 48-hour cooldown.
If his undying state could last 48 hours, even if he landed in a new world and immediately faced a life-or-death crisis, he could hold out until he could transmigrate again.
After that one time he got turned into a demon right after transmigrating, Riku was playing it extra cautious. Who knew what kind of mess he'd land in next?
"Time to keep training."
Sure, yesterday's workout didn't show up in his stats, but Riku wasn't giving up. His body felt the difference, and he trusted that training was paying off.
The day passed quickly with exercise, punctuated by a short break and some food.
As night fell, Riku returned to yesterday's "hunting ground."
Leveling from Lv2 to Lv3 required 200 experience points—just 200 rats, in theory.
But after his rat massacre yesterday, the local rodent population was basically extinct. This easy leveling method was no longer an option.
So, Riku set his sights on another group he'd stumbled across yesterday, one Tanjiro Kamado had mentioned: monkeys.
These monkeys weren't nocturnal. They slept in the trees at night. Yesterday, Riku had accidentally woken one but didn't make a move.
As a guy from Modern era, Riku had a weird, hard-to-explain sentiment about monkeys. After all, he grew up playing Black Myth Wukong.
But monkeys weren't exactly the cuddly creatures people imagined. They could be downright nasty.
In groups, monkeys were terrifying. They'd raid farms near human settlements, wreck crops, and steal food.
Tanjiro knew about these monkeys because they'd once invaded the village, chasing each other, scaring villagers, and snatching food from their hands.
It sounded like something out of a fantasy novel, like goblins or something, but this was one reason monkeys were hunted to near extinction.
Of course, monkeys only raided human farms and villages because humans had overexpanded, taking over their habitats. This was just their counterattack.
As creatures with strong territorial instincts, monkeys weren't exactly thrilled about these "hairless monkeys" invading their turf.
But that's how the world worked: survival of the fittest. The strong called the shots, claiming most of the resources and maybe tossing the losers a "wildlife preserve" if they felt generous.
To level up, to become strong enough to have a say, to avoid being someone's prey, Riku didn't hold back. If he couldn't kill animals, was he supposed to start killing people?
"Screech!!!"
Riku's approach woke the monkey troop. They snapped awake, shrieking warnings at the intruder.
The air filled with their sharp, angry cries. This was a massive troop, nearly 100 strong, which was why Riku hadn't acted yesterday.
It wasn't fear—these monkeys couldn't kill him. In the dark, against natural creatures, he was basically invincible.
It was just his first time facing such a "big scene," and anyone would feel a bit frazzled.
Picture it: in the dead of night, nearly a hundred monkeys staring you down from the trees, ready to attack at any moment. That'd put pressure on anyone. It's just biology.
Riku hadn't fully adjusted to his new role. His mindset hadn't completely shifted to that of an undying predator.
"Huff~~~"
Riku climbed a tree. He was already decent at climbing, and with his boosted Constitution, scaling wild trees was a breeze.
His move, though, pissed off the troop. A monkey leaped at him, launching the first attack.
"Thwack!"
Riku freed one hand and swiped, his claws sending the monkey flying, slicing its throat in one clean motion.
Killing 100 rats hadn't done much for his combat skills, but it had at least gotten him used to the feeling of claws tearing through flesh.
What's that saying? Every action has meaning. And killing 100 rats wasn't just about leveling up.
[Ding! Experience +1.]
But the feedback from killing one monkey sent Riku's mood crashing.
"…Why the hell is killing a monkey worth the same experience as killing a rat?! Is this even reasonable?!"
This outcome was way beyond his expectations. He'd figured monkeys might not give much experience, but this little? No way.
"Screech!!!"
One monkey down, and the rest got even angrier. More leaped at Riku, attacking in a frenzy.
Riku jumped down from the tree. Honestly, he wasn't in the mood to keep going. The payoff was just too pathetic.
One monkey for one experience point? It wasn't worth the effort. The cost-benefit ratio was garbage. Unlike rats, monkeys were harder to kill, especially in their home turf—the dense forest.
If a monkey gave 5 experience points, Riku would've wiped out the whole troop without blinking.
Of course, that kind of thinking wasn't great. If he'd slaughter a troop of monkeys for 5 points today, tomorrow he might be killing people for 10.
Moral lines get crossed step by step. Gaining strength through killing was the fastest way to twist someone's values.
Riku had already noticed this. When he finished off those 100 rats yesterday, he'd felt a tiny spark of enjoyment.
That was not normal. He was sure he hadn't been some animal-torturing psycho before.
So, Riku set a boundary for himself. Killing to get stronger? Fine, he needed that. But mindless slaughter? No way. He had to reject killing without reason.
No way he was turning into some deranged, family-murdering maniac.
"Thwack!"
Riku swiped his claws, taking out a few aggressive monkeys that lunged at him, clean and efficient.
In no time, over twenty monkeys lay dead by his claws. Fighting with claws, the two sides weren't even in the same league.
Monkeys were weaker than humans to begin with—not even in the same weight class. Bare-handed, they had no way to disable a human.
After losing over twenty of their own, fear gripped the troop. Classic opportunists, they bullied the weak and feared the strong. The monkeys scattered, fleeing in all directions.
"Man…"
Riku shook the blood off his claws, glancing at the 23 experience points he'd earned. He was bummed and a little speechless.
He didn't bother chasing them. In this forest, monkeys had the advantage when it came to running, and he wasn't exactly Tarzan.
"Why is the experience the same?"
If killing rats yesterday had only given 1 point, Riku would've thought that was normal. But monkeys giving just 1 point today? That was enough to make him suspicious.
"Maybe it's because these creatures are too weak for me?"
Riku, a seasoned gamer, made a guess. In some games, experience points were adjusted based on the player's strength.
A Lv1 newbie might level up killing a chicken, but a Lv100 player killing the same chicken might not even get 1 point.
"That makes sense."
To Riku, rats and monkeys were both too weak, unable to even scratch him.
"Is 1 point the minimum experience you can get?"
If so, he didn't have to worry about turning into a murderous psycho. Ordinary people were probably worth 1 point too.
He wasn't thrilled about killing monkeys for 1 point. Killing people for 1 point? He'd have to be straight-up insane.
Plus, based on his gaming experience, as his level rose, these weak creatures might stop giving any experience.
"Swish!"
As Riku cleaned the blood off his hands, a strange sound made him tense up.
"Who's there?!"
He whipped around toward the noise and froze.
Under the moonlight, a girl stood on a thin tree branch, quietly watching him. Her purple eyes seemed to glow faintly in the dark.
She had black hair with gradient purple bangs, styled in a yahoi roll—a blend of Western braids and Japanese buns popular decades ago. A butterfly hairpiece, mint green with deep purple edges, adorned the back. She wore a black outfit resembling a school uniform, layered with a haori patterned with butterfly wings.
"Why are you killing these monkeys?"
The girl spoke, her gaze sweeping over the monkey corpses, her eyes brimming with curiosity.
This was her first time seeing a demon hunt anything other than humans, and despite her disgust, she wanted to know what this demon was up to.
"Uh… because they attacked the village down the mountain. I'm doing a public service?"
Riku's back was sweating as he answered. That "school uniform" gave him a bad feeling of déjà vu.
Every time he got that feeling, it meant trouble. And in his memory, Tanjiro Kamado wore something like this later on.
A teenage girl, armed, standing calmly in the middle of the night surrounded by monkey corpses and a monster like him? No way she was just a "student."
Riku knew she was likely a Demon Slayer, a human who hunted creatures like him, just like the one Tanjiro had run into.
"Pfft~"
The girl covered her mouth, stifling a laugh, like she'd heard something hilarious.
"Are you joking?"
She squinted with amusement, but her hand was already on the hilt of her blade.
"Wait! Let me explain! I'm not the kind of demon you think! I haven't eaten anyone. I just turned into a demon two days ago. I can survive without eating people—look!"
Seeing her hand on the blade, Riku's words spilled out like a machine gun. Bro, I'm one of the good guys!
As he spoke, he performed his "arm-biting show" again, chomping a chunk out of his forearm and swallowing it.
"…"
The Demon Slayer girl froze. At just 16, she'd seen her fair share, having killed plenty of demons. But this? She'd never seen anything like it.
"You're… pretty interesting."
That was Shinobu Kocho's assessment of this demon's wild antics.
Then, without hesitation, she drew her blade and leaped from the branch. Her haori flared behind her in the moonlight, like a butterfly dancing toward the light.