"Modric! Modric! Modric!"
Modric floated at the edge of the pool, a few people circling him in the water while the rest leaned in from the deck, forming a loose ring around him.
His new friends cheered as he lifted a bowl of soup to his lips. A small golden bug wriggled on the surface, still alive. It was tiny, but still disgusting.
He tipped the bowl back and swallowed.
It was a bet, and as everyone knew, Modric never backed down from a bet. Especially if it was a bet he found favourable.
"Alright, brave man, here's my contact." A gorgeous brunette in a bikini giggled as she spoke, calling his number from her phone.
When she crouched to hand him a glass of blue lagoon, Modric got a generous view, and didn't bother hiding his appreciation.
"Lucky shit," Ulyr said lightly, leaning against a wall nearby. His jaw tightened for a fraction of a second before he looked away. He hadn't expected Modric to secure the girl before he could.
I was here first.
He was going to make her his, how could she so easily gravitate towards a new guy?
Ulyr had met Modric online, and invited him to join their group at the swimming pool. Now, he was regretting it.
A strange sensation crept through Modric's body after he finished the soup. He frowned, grabbed his blue lagoon, and took a long sip to wash away the lingering taste, hoping the drink would drown out the odd feeling as well.
Maybe it was because it was his first time eating a bug.
Jeez, this country sure is strange. How can people eat these things?
Then again, if it gets me a pretty girl's number, I'd do it again.
As he gazed up at the sky, reveling in the moment, reality fractured.
Two massive cracks split the ground in the distance, carving through concrete and soil alike, dividing the land into three separate sections.
A humongous eye appeared in the sky, and monsters began manifesting everywhere. Shapes crawled out of thin air. Limbs unfolded where there had been nothing.
There was just one thing they all had in common. Every monster was purple.
Screams and shrieks filled the air as the three landmasses rose, and began floating away from one another.
The instinct to survive surged through Modric like a rising tide. As a one eyed purple wolf lunged at him, he swung his glass and smashed it straight into its eye.
Since he was in the pool, he couldn't run away as quickly. The same was true for the others trapped in the water.
From the corner of his vision, he caught glimpses of how others were doing while the purple wolf thrashed wildly.
"Holy fuck, what is this thing?" Ulyr yelled, lashing out blindly. His heel connected with something soft and the creature toppled backward into the pool with a heavy splash.
As the monster struggled to climb out of the turbulent water, Ulyr's eyes lit up. "Push them in! Use the pool!"
Seizing the advantage, he yelled for the rest of their group to do the same.
These fuckers might get me killed with all the extra monsters they are kicking in the pool, I have to get out of here.
Adrenaline surged through Modric's veins as he disregarded the pain in his hand due to the monster's corrosive liquid splashing on it.
He drove the glass further into the eye, straight to the brain, killing the wolf.
The corpse of the monster dissolved in front of him, leaving only a crystallized eye.
When he touched it, pieces of information streamed into his brain. One of them was about the crystallized eye in his hand.
//Predator Eye - Tracks fast motion.//
The information he received made it such that he understood things at an instinctive level.
He just had to channel Mana, the energy he had gained from killing the monster, into the Predator Eye, and it would merge into one of his eyes.
He climbed out of the pool and slipped the crystallized eye into his pocket. In this kind of chaotic and dangerous situation, he wanted both hands free.
Making his way toward a table, his disoriented mind barely holding together as reality crumbled around him, he grabbed his car keys and phone with his left hand. With his right, he lifted the table and slammed it down on another incoming monster.
As the creature struggled to get up, he took the opportunity to sprint towards the parking lot.
A sudden sensation of being watched made him turn his head. In the distance stood a portal, and in front of it was a middle aged man with gray hair.
The most eye-catching thing was a red badge on his chest. From the distance, he couldn't see what was imprinted on it though. Judging from his folded arms, he seemed to have no intention of moving.
Almost immediately, a vial filled with red liquid manifested in Modric's hands, along with a voice inside his mind.
[Good combat instincts. That's a healing potion for you. Join the Crimson Empire for more such benefits.]
No fucking way I am joining anything before I know what's going on.
I've never heard of this Crimson Empire. Could it be a foreign power? So life did indeed exist beyond Earth.
Modric inwardly rejected and continued to make his run, hoping that the middle aged man wouldn't pursue him.
Is this one of those situations where major powers dispatch advance representatives to establish vanguard bases, recruit or subjugate the locals, and strip the newly discovered land for resources?
Anyway, good thing he isn't hell bent on recruiting me.
He had no goddamn desire to be chased by someone who could manifest objects and speak into people's minds.
After slipping the vial into his pocket, he ran through the screaming crowd, past overturned chairs and the things crawling out of the cracks in reality.
The crystallized eye in his pocket felt strangely warm, pulsing faintly against his thigh.
A purple creature burst through a nearby window, holding a skull in its hand. After a closer look, Modric realised it resembled a monkey, and its attention had already locked onto him.
The creature lunged.
Modric barely dodged sideways, the wind from its claws tearing past his face.
Just one exchange and he knew the creature outclassed him in physical parameters.
He reached into his pocket, touching the crystallized eye as he channeled mana. Even with the knowledge already in his mind, the process still felt awkward and unfamiliar.
While dodging the purple monkey's relentless attacks, he eventually misstepped once, earning a claw shaped gash across his thigh.
Finally, the crystallized eye dissolved.
A searing pain erupted in his right eye, followed by a vicious spike of agony drilling straight through his skull.
Fortunately, just as Modric was thinking he had shot himself in the foot, the pain in his eyes subsided, replaced with a startling clarity of the movements of the creature.
Even though the headache remained, he could now see the tightening of its legs before it leapt, the arc of its claws mid swing, the subtle shift in balance when it landed slightly off center.
That one eyed purple wolf likely can't fight in water. No way I could've killed it so easily otherwise if it had this power.
Having roughly figured out the movements of the creature, he ducked slightly, letting its arm extend over his head before he punched under the chin, knocking it cold.
When Modric twisted its head, the creature dissolved just like the one eyed purple wolf, but it didn't leave behind any crystallized organ.
So the drop rates are random huh?
Now that the immediate threat to his life was over, Modric was beginning to think the constant fucking headache, like someone was drilling into his skull, wasn't worth the power of the Predator Eye.
If anything, the headache felt even worse now.
Just then, as he resumed his run towards the parking lot, his vision suddenly flashed.
A golden bug filled his entire sight. Not in front of him. Not around him.
It felt more like it was inside his vision. Like something had crawled behind his eyes.
This golden bug…?
The thought barely had time to form before his vision began flickering rapidly between reality and the golden bug, which was quickly swelling and rounding out into a sphere.
By the time he reached his car, it was a golden sphere.
At that point, the flickering stopped, no more flashes of the golden bug.
Instead, as if the transformation into a sphere had activated something, words appeared in his mind.
[Predator eye — Corruption: 91.89%]
[Predator eye — Principle: Hunt]
Modric's eyes narrowed as he slid into the driver's seat.
That golden bug was a cheat?
Corruption...? Is that what's causing the headache? If it crosses 100, will I lose my mind and turn into some kind of aberration?
Then how the hell do I reduce it?
Pieces connected even as his head fiercely throbbed in pain.
Could it be related to this principle thing? Hunt?
His mind flashed to his fight with the creature after he had incorporated the Predator Eye. His headache had worsened after that.
While absentmindedly trying to start the car, he realized something else.
That fight had been a desperate struggle for survival, not something that really matched the idea of a 'hunt'.
So to lessen the corruption of the organ I need to align my actions with its principle when using it?
He was about to continue that train of thought when more words manifested in his brain, accompanied by a flood of information.
[Function 1: Override and Overdrive.]
After absorbing the details of the function, Modric grinned.
As he tried starting the car again, he spotted Ulyr approaching from the corner of his eye.
"Let me hop in! Wait for me!"
He wasn't in any mood to entertain the guy, but he watched as Ulyr's face gradually morphed from urgency to shock, then outright excitement.
*****
A few minutes ago as everyone was busy fighting the monsters or trying to escape them, Ulyr accidentally killed one while running.
He watched as that weird shaped monster dissolved into nothingness, leaving behind a crystallized brain.
Unknown to the residents of Earth, which had now fractured into three nascent floating islands, what had accidentally been killed was an Infant Void Sovereign.
A void monster that only manifested when a life bearing planet split into nascent floating islands.
It didn't matter whether the planet split into two, three, five or even ten nascent floating islands. The void would only ever manifest a single monster of this type during such an event.
It was one of the main objectives behind the invasion launched by the two empires.
High tiered organs needed prior incorporation of support organs so that the body wouldn't collapse while using them.
For example, a Spatial Liver needed support organs like Spatial Nerve Cluster, and Elastic Tendons so that the body could withstand teleportation without tearing itself apart.
This meant one had to use 2 slots to support Spatial Liver.
However, a Void Sovereign had a 100 percent drop rate of a void organ, and the one it dropped was a high tiered one with no support organ needed.
Unfortunately, it had met its end in an extremely anticlimactic way before it could even grow up.
When Ulyr touched the crystallized brain, information regarding it rushed into his mind.
//Invasion Cortex - Can read others' memories.//
*****
Modric watched in confusion as Ulyr's expression slowly twisted into something manic.
Whatever was happening, it didn't feel right.
He didn't waste time trying to understand why his car wouldn't start. Maybe some tiny monster had chewed through the wiring. Hell if he knew.
Modric opened the door, and dodged the punch Ulyr had thrown.
As he rolled away on the ground to put some distance between them, he pushed mana into his Predator Eye, activating it.
He looked up just in time to witness Ulyr throwing a wedge at his head.
Even though using the Predator Eye, he easily dodged it, that attempt on his life made Modric snap.
"What the hell is wrong with you, idiot? Is this because I got the girl you were after? Goddamn loser! I'll even fuck your mum!"
To his utter confusion, Ulyr grinned and spoke the words which made everything fall into place.
"That golden bug? It turned out to be a system huh? Give it up, and I'll spare your life."
Mind reading? Fuck!
Horror gripped his heart as he understood the implications of Ulyr knowing about his system opportunity.
Just then, Modric's vision caught sight of a portal opening nearby. A young woman stepped out, a striking green badge pinned to her chest.
Green? Not red? Another empire?
Modric's brain operated furiously as it churned out a plan.
I can only hope that the two empires are hostile to each other.
He didn't believe Ulyr already had a high proficiency of mind reading, but he still had to act fast before the guy could sift through his thoughts!
Before the young woman could look this way, Modric channeled strength into his legs, and lunged.
Ulyr leaned to the side in an attempt to evade, but thanks to the Predator Eye, Modric tracked the movement perfectly and managed to hook his arm around Ulyr's neck.
Modric clamped down on his jaw, forcing it open, and shoved the vial of red healing potion from the Crimson Empire down his throat.
At the same time, he began crying at the top of his lungs, attracting the attention of the young woman with the green badge.
"ULYR! MY GOOD BROTHER!
"The Crimson Empire sent this personally! They couldn't afford to lose you!
"You're going to live! Please! Don't leave me!"
To an outsider, Ulyr's struggle to free himself looked like seizures that Modric was helping him contain.
Ulyr himself was completely confused by the sudden shift.
His arrogance from mind reading had made him overlook a simple truth. With both of them still inexperienced in using their void organs, the Predator Eye held the advantage in direct combat.
As the potion began healing some of his minor wounds, a thin line appeared across his neck.
The final words he heard before his consciousness slipped into eternal darkness finally made everything clear. Too bad it was useless now.
"The Crimson Empire can't be given such talent."
The young woman with the green badge stood nearby, quietly observing the scene. Her gaze settled at the young man sobbing over the body of his good brother.
He didn't even dare show a trace of defiance, not a hint of hatred toward her, the killer. She shook her head in disappointment.
"I killed your brother and you don't even have the guts to look at me?"
Modric ignored her, and continued his act of grieving over Ulyr's body when he heard her mutter before walking away.
"Jeez, I don't even feel like killing you. Recruiting a teammate will be tough if all the natives are like you."
Hearing the footsteps fade into distance, Modric's sobbing slowly turned into quiet chuckles.
Then the chuckles grew into full blown laughter.
A wide grin split apart on his tear streaked face as he looked down at Ulyr's corpse.
The pounding in his head had eased after Ulyr died, and as if confirming his suspicion, words manifested in his mind.
[Predator eye — Corruption: 88.12%]
[Predator eye — Principle: Hunt]
The Hunt…