BXBX NOVEL Chapter 87 87: A Different Corey
(A few hours after the death of Luke)
Corey's eyes opened with a flutter and a confused expression appeared on his face for an instant as he looked at the unfamiliar ceiling on top of his head, but a second later, memories rushed into his mind and he laid on the bed and stared at the ceiling with a blank expression.
At first no thought went through Corey's mind since the fact that he had lost everything that he truly cared for felt surreal to him.
His dad was gone.
His mom was gone.
And his sister's status was unknown.
He had lost everything dear to him and the only thing that was barely keeping him from running insane was that the probability of his sister been alive was high but the probability of her undergoing immense suffering was also high.
Just the thought of it made him to subconsciously tighten his fists.
He had to save Anna no matter what.
And he must also have his revenge no matter what.
The Pope, The Temple of Flames, he would kill and destroy them both.
Caw
Just as he was lost in thoughts, the sound of a bird caw resounded in the room causing Corey to turn his head.
"Rhea."
Corey muttered as he saw a black crow-like bird standing on the bedside table, then with a soft grunt he sat up on the bed.
"Hmm?"
A frown crept up his face when he realized something different as he looked around.
His eyesight was slightly blurry and when he tried to read the contents of a particular torn poster that was on the wall beside the door of the room, he couldn't read it.
Normally, he would have been able to read the contents of the poster easily since his eyesight became much better after multiple leveling up and increase in stats.
But now?
His eyesight was now slightly worse than the normal eyesight he had when he was still a normal human.
He spent a few seconds trying to adjust to his new eyesight, then he looked at his body, but when he did, an extremely stunned expression appeared on his face.
"What the hell?"
Corey mumbled as he looked at his body which had become noticeably skinnier. His physique which was already lean and small was now much leaner and smaller.
"I'm guessing this should be the side-effect the Pope was talking about."
Corey sighed then placed his fingers on his forehead.
"How did I even get into that state?"
Corey mumbled then he remembered that during his fight with the Right Guardian, numerous notifications from the Universal System popped up in front of him so he pulled up his status window.
[WARNING: MANA AND STAMINA IS AT 0%]
[WARNING: TALENT SKILL, FOCUS IS STILL ACTIVE]
[WARNING: TALENT SKILL, FOCUS IS ABSORBING THE HEALTH OF THE USER]
[WARNING: TALENT SKILL, FOCUS HAS TEMPORARILY ACTIVATED THE SKILL, ****]
[WARNING: USER HAS NOT MET THE REQUIREMENTS TO ACTIVATE THE SKILL, ****]
[WARNING: THERE WOULD BE NEGATIVE SIDE-EFFECTS]
[WARNING: MENTAL STATE OF THE USER HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY ALTERED]
[WARNING: AIRFLOW INTO THE USER'S BODY HAS BEEN STOPPED]
"So it was because of Focus."
Corey spoke calmly as he read the contents of the notifications given to him by the Universal System.
"Though I wonder what that skill the Universal System blurred is?"
Corey spoke once again before he sighed then stood and stretched.
Flap Flap
Just as he finished stretching, Rhea flapped her wings and flew towards Corey's left shoulder.
Seeing Rhea on his shoulder, he could not help but chuckle softly.
"What made you to stop staying on my head?"
After speaking, he moved his hand towards Rhea, wanting to rub her head but Rhea slapped his hand away softly with her right wing.
Corey didn't say anything nor try to rub her head again, but instead, he chuckled softly once more, and just as he did, the door to his room opened.
"Oh, you're finally awake. I was worried you'll sleep for a longer period of time."
Corey looked up and saw Ashley standing at the door while wearing a red long sleeved t-shirt and a black trouser.
"Thank you for everything you've done for me."
Corey bowed as he spoke.
He was not surprised seeing Ashley since ever since he woke up in an environment that was safe, he guessed it must have been her or her group that brought him here.
The only group he had good relations with was Ashley's group and he didn't believe that a random person would choose to take him to a safe place after seeing him unconscious for no reason, unless the person was truly a saint.
"Don't thank me for something so trivial, we're friends."
Ashley waved her hands and spoke nonchalantly.
'Friends huh?'
Corey thought and just as he had this thought, Ashley spoke once again.
"By the way, I'm sorry for your loss." She paused and with a slightly conflicted expression, she continued:
"Can you tell me what actually happened."
"When we got to the city, Becca guided us to your house and we were extremely shocked when we found your parents corpses inside your house.
We looked for you, thinking you would be nearby but it was not until we spent thirty minutes searching that we found you and let's just say, I was surprised by the damage that was done to the surroundings.
But just as we found you, Becca asked if we found Anna, your sister but no matter how hard we searched, we couldn't find her."
"Can you… tell me what happened Corey? A lot of things don't make sense."
She said and Corey with a calm expression just walked to the window of the room and looked outside, remaining completely silent for at least five seconds.
Ashley did not mind but instead waited.
Since Corey did not say he did not want to speak about what happened, that meant she could still stay.
"The pope of the temple of flames, ten people related to the temple of flames and somebody they call the Right Guardian of the temple of flames were the ones that attacked my family. They killed my parents and took my sister."
With a calm tone, Corey spoke and Ashley was stunned hearing the words Corey spoke.
"The temple of flames? Why would they attack your family? And why would they kidnap your sister?"
"I wish I knew… but it doesn't matter because no matter what, I'll destroy the temple of flames and kill the pope."
With a calm and indifferent tone, Corey spoke and Ashley felt a chill run down her spine when she heard the tone of his voice.
A few seconds of silence passed before Ashley fully recovered and when she did, she spoke:
"By the way, you have a problem."
"What?"
With a frown, Corey turned towards her.
"Do you know about you been on the temple of flames' hit list?"
She asked and the frown on Corey's face deepened.
"Looking at your expression, I can guess that you don't know about it."
Ashley said and Corey nodded.
"Just like the name says, you're on the temple of flames hit list and the reward for your head is… very mouth watering to a lot of people."
Hearing the words of Ashley, Corey had a confused expression.
"Please explain." Corey spoke.
"I'm guessing the pope or somebody from the temple of flames decided to put you on their hit list and the reward on your head is 1,000 gold coins, a legendary graded skill and a chance to join the temple of flames.
Normally only people related to the temple of flames should know about you been on their hit list, but everybody in the region controlled by the temple of flames got a notification telling us that you're on their hit list and the rewards mentioned would be given to anybody that can bring your head to the temple of flames or give your location to somebody related to the temple of flames.
Though if somebody only brings your location, their rewards would be drastically reduced."
Corey hearing the words spoken by Ashley was not stunned, afraid nor worried, he was just calm and indifferent about it.
"So basically, it means that lots of people in the region controlled by the temple of flames would come after my head."
He spoke with a calm and indifferent tone stunning Ashley slightly but she decided not to comment on Corey's calm and indifferent attitude towards the information.
"Yes, what you said is true. Lots of people will come for you."
She paused and a conflicted expression appeared on her face for a few seconds before she decided to speak:
"Luke wanted to give out your location to the merchant but Rhea warned me about it."
Corey turned to Rhea on his left shoulder who didn't bother looking back at him.
"What happened to Luke?"
He looked away from Rhea and asked with an indifferent tone and expression.
"He's dead, I killed him."
Ashley replied and Corey's brows furrowed slightly.
"What of Becca?"
He asked and a wisp of pity emerged in her eyes before it receded.
"She's still here but her mental state is definitely not good."
She said and without waiting for Corey to speak, she continued:
"Luke tried to rope her into betraying you with him but she didn't want to, and because she didn't want to, he slapped her twice and was about to hit her the more but fortunately, I got there on time before the situation could get worse."
Hearing Ashley's words, Corey looked down for a few seconds, his expression unseen to neither Ashley nor Rhea.
A few seconds later, he raised his head, looked at Ashley and spoke:
"Where exactly is she?"
"I can take you to where she is."
Ashley replied and when she did, Corey walked past her and started walking towards the door.
"Why do you want to meet her by the way?"
Out of curiosity, she asked as she walked towards Corey and just as Corey reached the door, he replied:
"I'm going to kill her."