Modern Awakening - A cultivation, LitRPG, apocalyptic novel

Alicia wasn't moving at all; she stood frozen like everyone around Shen. The system had said it would do that, so it didn't worry him.

He had been ordered and counseled to get trustworthy allies, so he wondered about who else he could team up with. Mark Williams was definitely not joining his group. Shen didn't remember most people he had helped in the first stage, so he didn't know if they would be trustworthy. That left him only with Bob, whom Shen found a nice person. Bob had warned Shen about the danger the Void posed even if the latter hadn't believed the former.

"Bob Timothy Junior," Shen said.

No one appeared. A few instants later, a white number one in a black circle appeared in the middle of his vision. It turned transparent when he focused on Alicia and returned when he stopped.

Soon one person was requesting him, a number that quickly increased. He reckoned they were the people he had helped in the first stage. He had introduced himself to some, and he guessed others had gotten his name using the Inspect skill.

Alicia called nobody else, or maybe they were not calling her back, because no one came.

Time passed as he waited.

Bob considered for a moment whether he should say the name of the guy who had saved his ass on the end of the first stage.

If he had been working alone, he might've done that. However, he was part of a group and their leader to boot. He couldn't just abandon them for his own benefit.

So instead, he considered who he should call first. They would undoubtedly be calling each other already. This part of the "final boss"—why the hell didn't the system call it final challenge instead?—also tested quick decision making.

In front of him, the request counter was rapidly increasing.

Bob decided to start with the weakest of the group. Considering his people had survived until now, they weren't so weak. Ideally, the weakest and strongest would team up together, and they would end up with balanced teams that could all move forth.

"Joe Carlson," he said and wasn't surprised when he was teleported to the side of the man and his girlfriend.

Then he said the name of the second weakest, and so on until five of them joined another group with eight. They ended up with thirteen people.

Mark called Feng Shen as soon as possible, but nothing happened. That was disappointing but expected.

So he started calling the names of every single person he remembered, starting with those in his group before he left for the final boss.

They had banded together out of appreciation for each other's skills, so they had no loyalty to speak of. It suited Mark just fine. That meant they were good enough to help him get to the next stage.

Alicia didn't trust anyone but Shen, so he was the only one she called.

She was glad when the ten minutes reached the end, and no one else came.

Bob never came, but such was life. Things might've been different if Shen hadn't been so self-centered back then.

When the ten minutes ended, he and Alicia were teleported back to the row—if it could still be called that. He was beside her, but there were about fifty yards of distance between them and the nearest people to both sides.

Tutorial - 2nd Stage

If any team member dies, their quota will still need to be filled.

If any team member of your team lands a single hit on any final boss that dies, it will count as a kill for the entire team. However, if two or more teams attack the same final boss, none of the teams will be awarded the kill.

A counter of how many kills your team needs will be added to your vision. As soon as your team gets the necessary kills, you'll be immediately teleported to the next stage.

You have 1 minute to plan before the battle starts.

A number four appeared on the top right corner of Shen's vision—two for each team member.

Unfortunately, he would be instantly teleported after killing his share; he had hoped to gain the AP to rank up there. Alas, that wasn't to be.

"Thank you," Alicia said when she realized she could talk. She was tearing up. "Thank you so much for not leaving me behind."

"Rather than accepting your gratitude, I owe you apologies," Shen said while cupping his hands in front of himself and bowing to her. "I have not treated you with respect. I will remedy that in the next stage if you will let me."

She widened her eyes in surprise. "What?"

He straightened. "As much as I would like to explain everything to you now, we are short on time. For now, I just wish for you to know I regret acting cold and indifferent towards you. Speaking of indifference..."

He took off his backpack, which had magically appeared with him, and offered it to her.

"...please, feel free to use anything in there if you need it."

It was a testament to his egocentricity that he hadn't considered sharing his equipment with her for even a single instant. And it was a show of her politeness that she had never asked for it. Shen always quickly pointed out when she was disrespectful because of cultural differences, yet he hadn't acknowledged her honor where he could.

"What the fuck is going on?" Alicia said, crossed her arms defensively, and stepped back.

"I died once and almost died again later," Shen explained. "It gave me time to think and some perspective. Like I said, we can talk later, but the time grows short."

She looked suspiciously at the backpack, then back at him. "We can talk about it in the next stage," she decided.

Shen acknowledged her decision and just left the backpack on the ground. Then he grasped his spear and turned to the row of bosses on the other side of the grassland.

He and Alicia had no need for planning. They had fought together a lot and knew their role in battle well. Instead, the bosses themselves talked to each other and positioned themselves differently. Some that looked beefier took the lead while others moved back.

Still, Shen noticed the bosses were spaced enough that he and Alicia faced only ten of them. That would prove challenging, but as long as none were as fast as the wolves who had killed him, they could do it. Probably.

The ten bosses were five crows as tall as Shen, three strange floating transparent balls as wide as he, a tall orc, and a cat half his height.

The crows were of different colors, black, white, red, and two blue. They all wore leather armor with metal plates that left their wings free to fly. They took to the air and would either attack from there or approach to hit Alicia and him.

| Kakar (E) — 170 / 170

| Ekar (E) — 150 / 150

| Ukar (E) — 147 / 147

| Kuisskar (E) — 100 / 100

| Saukar (E) — 110 / 100

The orc had red skin like Uk'Gaar and wore metal plate armor from head to toe. He also held a tower shield on each hand. He would be their defender then.

| Shaar'Tuok (E) — 240 / 240

The cat was pure black with entirely light blue eyes that seemed to hold spinning galaxies. They just laid on the ground and started licking their paws, uninterested in whatever was going on.

| Purrrkrrrr (E) — 7 / 9

Finally, the balls were the strangest enemies. They looked like big floating glass balls without any feature at all. Shen had mistaken them for magic tools until he inspected all bosses.

| Shuuhs (E) — 900 / 900

| Shuuhs (E) — 1,200 / 1,200

| Shuuhs (E) — 1,100 / 1,100

They had the same names and a lot of health points, yet they positioned themselves even further away from their front line than the crows. Only Shaar'Tuok was sent to defend the others.

Shen wondered about the prisoners' thing. If they were actual living beings that would die for good if killed, was it right of him to kill them to keep climbing the tutorial? Definitely not. He didn't even have to think too much about it; his morals wouldn't let him trample over innocents to grow more powerful.

They might be prisoners, but that was the thing about imprisoning people rather than killing them: it meant they would pay their due and then be given a new chance to return to society. If their offense was too great for them to be given that chance, they should just be executed instead. To use them as toys didn't sit right with Shen.

So while the one minute was still going, he stepped ahead and used the Lion's Roar technique to talk to them.

"Hello," he said, and his qi-enhanced voice was heard on a wide range. The bosses turned to look at him, except maybe the Shuuhs trio, who didn't seem to move at all. "I am Feng Shen." He cupped his hands in front of him to give them a martial greeting. "I do not seek to kill innocent people for my own advancement. Would you care to enlighten me about whether you are real living beings and, if so, if your death would be final?"

They didn't reply. Instead, the orc roared and started approaching.

The one minute was up.

Shen had to make a quick decision then. He didn't want to kill innocents, but they attacked him first. The issue was, what if they were being forced to attack? What if they were told to kill him, or they would get killed? Shen would be expelled from the tutorial if killed, so they weren't actually putting their life before his. They would be putting their lives against an annoyance to him.

So he turned to Alicia and said, "I'm sorry."

For all he liked the tutorial and the power it gave him, he would rather leave if he had to kill innocents to stay. That was not the honorable cultivator Path.

He was ready to lower his spear when he got a new notification.

| 2nd Stage Overseer: They are living beings, death row prisoners who all pleaded guilty. Their deaths will be final, except for Purrrkrrrr's, who will lose one of her remaining seven lives and revive later. They chose to come to postpone their deaths. They will remain alive unless killed by a trainee or old age.

Shen read it and decided it changed nothing. He refused to be an executor for people he didn't know or trust. Who knows whether those prisoners' judgment had been fair? What if they had been forced to plead guilty?

It seemed that his inaction prompted the Overseer to send him a new message.

| 2nd Stage Overseer: Shaar'Tuok pleaded guilty to raping thirty-five elves who he said were asking for it. They were bathing in an ancestral river during a holy ceremony of theirs. The swirling crows pleaded guilty to raising hundreds of sapient beings as livestock to eat because they were inferior beings. The Shuuhs pleaded guilty to consuming the lifeforce of hundreds of thousands of mortals to increase their health points. And Purrrkrrrr pleaded guilty for toppling a planet off orbit and killing millions due to environmental changes because she "felt like it." We have undeniable proof about all of that.

Shen took a few moments to assimilate what he was reading. Those crimes were repugnant. His skin crawled as he thought of all the lives lost or broken because of those ten beings.

He didn't doubt the Alliance. It hadn't lied to him before that he knew of, and the Immortal Emperor also hadn't warned him about it. It was one thing to wonder about their judicial system being corrupt, but outright lies was something else.

What bothered him about the Alliance was that they let those things live because they assisted in Tutorials.

Not in his watch.

"I'm sorry again," he said to Alicia. "I was planning on giving up, but I just got a message—"

Alicia's mouth was hanging open. She focused on Shen when he started talking, then interrupted him. "Let's kill him." She said with seething rage. "Let's kill that rapist fuck. I want him to suffer." It seemed she had gotten the notifications too.

Shen was taken back by her emotions. She had never seen her angry before. He would not make anyone suffer needlessly as that might change him instead, but killing him was in the plans.

"Not him, it," he corrected her. The orc had lost the right to be addressed as anything more than a rabid animal when it behaved like one. No, that was also wrong. Rabid animals were infected against their will, while the orc had chosen his actions. That thing was worth less than a random pebble on the street. "I'll kill it and the cat no matter what." Sending an entire planet on a spiral of doom because it felt like it...

Shen couldn't wait to put his spear through the cat's body.

He turned to the bosses, filled his body with Boundless Qi, and rushed at them.