The darkness called to me. Once again I was in the void, once again things had gone awry.

“And you’re here again.” The familiar voice entered my ears and soon, I opened my eyes to a blue sky.

The ground was rough and soft, chilly. I rose from the dirt, touching it with my hands. A sigh of defeat escaped me.

“I did bad again, didn’t I?” I asked Computing unit, who stared at me with the same eyes as always, emotionless and non-judgemental.

“You didn’t,” she shook her head. “The fact that he is dead is a feat in itself. After all, I got some new information.”

“New information?” I asked in confusion. She snapped her fingers and something appeared in my mind.

[Race: D̶̻̫͗̒ȇ̸̟͖̔̇s̸͈͆̅̓c̶͇͆̎͠ͅe̴͎̍ǹ̵̢͗ḑ̵̜͆e̴̗̰͑̈́̓d̸͕̻̮̒̆̑ Dungeon Core: Your race shouldn’t exist by all intents and purposes. Descended Dungeon Cores are a byproduct of a failed Ascension and die shortly thereafter.

Limits: The limits of your race are low, due to this you can reach them swiftly and fast, requiring much less experience than normal per level. Your race has no intrinsic stats for you’re artificial. Starting stat points: Zero.]

This…

“No matter how strong we grow, we will hit a limit anyway.” Computing unit began. “At the same time, I deduce that other things such as humans or monsters have higher stats than ours.”

I frowned. “But he died, yet his stats were much higher than… us.”

She nodded. “Indeed there was no real resistance to the stab, he just died as if we were equals. According to your flimsy memories of games this shouldn’t happen, but it does. Even though health potions exist, we don’t see our health.”

“What do you even mean?” I asked with growing confusion.

“What I mean is,” she pondered. “This is my current conjecture; within the right circumstances we can kill anyone.”

That… That didn’t sound so bad. “Then I guess, I am not doing too badly?”

She nodded and snapped her fingers once again. I felt something press against my backside and gently make me stand on my legs.

“However, unfortunately for us, I cannot keep helping like this.” She shook her head. “Controlling your actions isn’t something I should be doing.”

I paused. That seemed⁠⁠— well it seemed to go against of what she had said last time.

“With those reasons in mind, I have decided to train you. Last time you overcharged the Darkness needle as an instinctual reaction. I need you to learn it from me; I need you to learn how to control it.”

Right… I was desperate.

“Try making a needle, don’t worry about mana for it doesn’t exist here,” she continued.

I gave her another nod and began rubbing my fingers recalling the feeling, threading⁠—

“Wrong.” Her voice entered my ear, and a small tinge of pain shot through my right hand.

“Ouch⁠— wait it’s not broken.”

“Of course it’s not broken.” She shook her head. “Regardless, stop thinking about the sensation itself, think about the concept.”

“The concept?” I asked in confusion as she circled around me. Computing unit was acting⁠— a bit strange.

“When you rub your fingers together.” She said doing the motion. “You’re rubbing the shadows together, perhaps it's abstract, but it creates a feeling.” Soon a small needle was produced on her hand. “But what if I do my whole fist? The closed fist becomes a small place surrounded by darkness.”

She began, closing her hand for a second and soon opened it again, another needle of the same size. “The threading feeling can be interpreted as combining shadows together. At the same time, you don’t need to rub. Try it.”

I closed my fist and tried to feel its inside, a dank cave⁠— one with moving shadows. One whose shadows interwoven into each other to create a solid object, ever so slowly and carefully⁠—

Ding!

[You have successfully used: Darkness Needle]

I paused. “Why is there a notification here?”

“You’ve done it, not bad.” She nodded, her face had a small smile. Was she pleased? “And the notifications are just to enhance the experience, you have to learn to ignore the unimportant ones. Now finish producing the needle. Make it longer.”

I closed my eyes again, imagining the same thing. The shadows gathered and pooled into a stake, it grew bigger⁠— and soon my hand was filled with the stake. It was surprisingly easy.

“This is just a simulation so I did it easier for you, unfortunately there is more to cover and time is of the essence.”

“What do you mean⁠—

I felt my spine run cold, danger⁠— I sidestepped, cold ran through my cheek followed by sudden warmth, and then it began to slowly burn. My cheek was injured.

“Good, you survived without my help.” Her frosty voice reached me. “Don’t die on me.”

She retracted her punch and spun her body, a prickling sensation ran through my right side⁠— A kick! I ducked in a hurry.

“You have to attack⁠—” She slammed her foot down narrowly missing me. I scurried away from her to catch my breath.

“Why?” She had suddenly started attacking me.

“Because if I were to die from helping you too much, then you’ll die as well. Hence I need you to be experienced in combat.” She said with a small frown. “You think the needle thing could work?”

“It worked… I was lucky but…” I trailed off not wanting to elaborate.

“Yes it did.” She began walking towards me. “But in every ten thousand needles thrown, do you know how many of them would incapacitate him?”

“One-thousand?” I asked, ten percent didn’t sound bad.

“Ninety-seven. That puts you at 0.97%⁠— 0.97% being the times you don’t die!” She lunged at me, making me duck her punch. “That makes us die at least one-hundred-and-three times before we survive once!” Her kick connected to my stomach, all the air suddenly escaped my lungs.

I rolled on the ground gasping for air, there was a pit of pain inside my stomach, my organs had been pushed and mashed together⁠— they⁠— I winced from pain. It felt as if I had swallowed rocks, all of them stuck in my innards.

Computing unit walked towards me with a deep frown. “If you want to be alive, if you want me to be alive. Then you will have to learn, for we will die soon if this continues. Being a Champion doesn’t mean anything, easier titles don’t mean anything, everything is meaningless in the face of death, Leah.”

I gulped staring into her eyes, they looked listless as if she were looking at nothing more than a bug. However, her frown was real, she was angry. Perhaps slightly. I unsteadily rose, my legs threatened to give out as I barely held my breath.

“You said that emotions would kill me. And to only act.” I said. I was going to fight her now, but it was… hypocrisy.

“Perhaps, but they aren’t so bad at forcing me to do things, since according to calculations we are absolutely hopeless and if things continue in this trend we will die in our very next battle.” I felt danger come towards my head again, making me step back⁠ her foot in front of mine. “So you either learn to use our passive skill, or we die together.”

I gulped feeling her words pierce into my ears. I was thinking about the wrong things. I had to fight her. She tried to punch towards me and I prepared the stake, Computing unit was⁠— my enemy. I swiped against her fist, the stake cutting into her flesh.

“Good,” she said with a smile. “Then stay alive here, so we can stay alive on the outside.”

I looked at the nuanced muscle movements of her body, a kick⁠— My face burned in pain and I rolled on the ground, my neck suddenly felt stiff from having my head punched.

“Wrong! Don’t look at my movements, but feel the danger instead. My stats are considerably higher for this. Ready your weapon again, I won’t spare you anymore.” She rubbed her fist that was coated in black blood.

My entire face ached, my neck brimmed with soreness, my nose felt plugged. It was warm… The blood I could taste made my heart beat. She approached slowly waiting for me to move, she was my enemy. I gripped onto my needle and lowered my posture⁠— I had to be swifter, respond faster…

Danger came to my chin. Backstep⁠— thrust. I grinned seeing the blood drip from her fist.

It was time to survive.

◇ ◇ ◇

A kick blew by my hair, my hand couldn’t counterattack, my breath was starting to catch on my throat. I needed to breathe. My heart wanted to stop at any moment, and I could barely see anymore.

Left, I ducked, right, I sidestepped. Front⁠— I tripped on the ground, I could barely make Computing unit’s silhouette as she stood over me. I couldn’t move anymore. Was she going to kill me now?

“You’ve done well,” she spoke. “Now it is time to tell you what is actually happening.” Computing unit snapped her fingers, and once again, the scenery shifted.

Soon, we were in a room with a table and chair, light filtering through a distant window. I was sitting just⁠— collapsed on the table. I catched my breath⁠— wait if I was like basically fainted. Why was I even panting? It doesn’t make sense…

“Leah, I’ll get straight to the point.” Computing unit sat across from me, a sigh escaped her. “I feel bad for you.”

I paused, trying to recover my breath and looked at her. “You? Feel bad?”

“Indeed, your instructions are flawed, in more ways than one you’re just a human going through all this, it’s pitiful.”

“I am a human,” I scoffed, and took a deep breath. “Still, worrying is unlike you.”

Computing unit closed her eyes. “You’re right.”

“Then why?” It just doesn’t make sense. I was beginning to get my breathing under control.

“Peril seems to exist left and right, yet we constantly seem to face it no matter what. To be honest if it weren’t for the temporary safety we are currently in, I would’ve just told you to give up.” A sigh escaped her. “As the Computing unit I shouldn’t make decisions, yet I find myself swayed by your instructions. It all seems hopeless. Statistically speaking it's nigh impossible too.”

Swayed by my instructions? She was beginning to feel emotions? No⁠— more importantly. “What temporary safety?”

“A man named The Collector has us as his slave, and he seems incredibly fixated on killing monsters.” She paused. “At the same time it seems that the bracelet we have is a restraining tool. So it’s not like we can escape.”

This… “It doesn’t sound like temporary safety but something else.”

“I talked to him.”

So she could control my body while I was unconscious? I⁠— could I even complain about it? A deep sigh almost left me, but I restrained myself and sat upright.

“What did he say?” There had to be a reason as to why she called it safety.

“We shall be safe under his wing for now, but I don’t think he believes what I said. So when you wake up you might have to talk to him.”

“Another interrogation?” Even though I was apathetic in this place. I almost groaned. It didn’t seem to stop.

“Perhaps. At the same time I am currently unable to help you.”

“Why?” She was supposed to be my companion.

“I don’t plan on answering that,” she shook her head. “Our level is thirty now so try getting a useful skill that doesn’t use too much mana, since it seems like our fainting was due to that.”

I did feel drained after the battle. And she had killed that person for me. But there was a third skill available now. The issue was… mana. It seemed that making just nine needles would drain me out completely.

“I take it you won’t be able to help me out with that either.” I mentioned, though she hadn’t helped me last time with the skills.

“I couldn’t help you with that to begin with, I was supposed to only come up with plans.” She stood up from the chair and walked to the window. Standing there, she began speaking. “Though I guess I could help you if the circumstances were different.”

I nodded. To be honest I was still unsure about how to treat Computing unit, I trusted her now. But she was part of me, and I was part of her. Even though I found it, well… weird. It didn’t help that everytime I met her my emotions were almost suppressed in their entirety.

“I understand.” A small sigh came from my mouth. “Then I suppose it is time for me to go?”

“You’re learning.” She gave me a knowing smile. “Indeed, your time here has run out.”

This time I simply closed my eyes and waited. Though there was something that bothered me ever so slightly. My position regarding everything. Whether it was the logic unit, Ralt getting killed by chains, or me killing Gartz. It was all…

Too fast? I had no control regarding anything that happened. It sucked.

But could I do anything about it? I couldn’t. But there was something else.

I felt so… submissive. I couldn’t argue against Computing unit, I just listened to her speak every time. It made sense to me, but… I mean, couldn’t I confront her about the use of my body? It irked me, but I supposed that it didn’t bother me enough to do something about it.

She had my memories, and I had hers. However, I would only get her memories upon waking up. At the same time, last time there was nothing to share.

In the end, she just knew more than me. Even though… I didn’t particularly like it.

The feeling of the chair was long gone, replaced by nothingness. And soon, there was softness and warmth in my back, cold air ran through my nose, and my body began aching. It hurt… I opened my eyes, barren orange walls and a skylight greeted me. The whole room was filled with natural light, it was refreshing.

I sat up from my bed, and glanced around⁠—

“You’re awake.” A deep voice entered my ears.