The guard’s screams had seemed haunting, yet inside the church, they were nothing more than a lone brick in a wall built from suffering. For these walls screamed -- wails and pleas crept into every corridor. Some led to the entrances of silent living quarters Tenner turned away from upon reaching. Some smacked his nose with dead-ends. One brought him to a half-open door.

Preaches echoed out of it, followed by murmurs and faint lights. Tenner leaned in. A full plaza-worth of Realm 224s lowest living inhabitants were packed into a large room. An old-school projector buzzed, giving a divine background to a preacher atop a stage. The man ranted like having lost a Stardestructor match, waving around a withered book, slapping listeners and ripping CHEKs from their faces. Weird as fuck, but doesn’t seem like a “Holy Glow” to me. The door creaked. Heart dropping, Tenner huddled away.

He wished one of his punches could collapse the walls. Or set them on fire. This church deserved to be burned to the ground, each and every centimeter. Yet it filled him with determination. Inside he could see the dirt he hunted to clean.

Up ahead, from the right turn of a T-shaped intersection, footsteps echoed. A pair of lights appeared. Tenner froze and kept still. His thoughts had distracted him and he couldn’t do anything. If the guards kept walking, they’d live, ignorant of Tenner’s being here. If they turned, they’d find out, but wouldn’t ever tell anyone.

They got to live another day.

Tenner walked out into the junction. Left or right, he thought. After the guards or to where they came from? The left seemed to attract him -- he turned there.

Another intersection, another pair of guards, this time leading someone after themselves.

“I-- I can feel it coming on to me,” a woman--with ragged hair, baggy clothes and a frail voice--spoke. “And it-- it’s already so overwhelming… Am I gonna survive?”

“The lord is with you,” the guard on the left said.

“Nothing bad happens when he is watching over,” the one on the right added.

“Ah, thank you. Really.” The woman nodded. “But where are you taking me?”

“To the Glow.”

Tenner looked down at the bloodsoaked front of his jacket. It’d cause quite a few questions. At least he was alive and his health -- stable. He fixed the jacket to better hide his axe and approached the guards from behind.

“Aren’t you the ones supposed to take me to the Holy Glow?”

The guards stopped, turning to face Tenner. Slowly, the pair’s eyes crept down to his abdomen then back up to his eyes.

“Who are you?” one said.

“Are you alright?” the other followed.

“Yes, I’m fine. Just… times are rough, as you see, even too rough for new clothes,” Tenner spoke. “Kristus said you’d help me get through this… rejection. Told me to find you, but I got quite lost.”

“Okay, come here, I’ll give you a hand--”

“I don’t know about any such thing,” guard one interrupted. “We’ll have to double-check with Kristus.”

Shit.

Ames and the gang hadn’t let Tenner use his “talking myself out of awful situations” skill he’d picked up from endless confrontations in Realm 349. Here was the opportunity he’d needed. It’d certainly work.

“No, you don’t,” after a long pause, he said. ”Why do you think Kristus didn’t bring me to you himself? He’s never been busier.”

“How is he busy?” Guard one laughed.

“Something about an intruder, he said.”

The guard’s eyes narrowed. “Alright, keep up.”

Guard two huddled over to Tenner and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Tenner pretended to be grateful.

“What’s your name?”

“Ten… shot.”

“That’s not your real name, right?”

Tenner shook his head.

“I too am ashamed of mine. I did so many things under it, instructed by the words of the moon. I found salvation and you’re on the path to it right now. It’ll hurt, but I’m proud of you.”

Tenner grinned. “Thanks.” He hid the smile a moment later. “I’m on the journey, but I can’t seem to see my destination. Mind explaining what it is? What is this Glow?”

“The Holy Glow is a place and a process, a way to get through rejection. It occurs every night, in the main chamber and everyone who desires can be a part of it. The rest you will learn farther down the path.”

“The Glow,” Tenner murmured as he closed his eyes and drilled deeper into the role. “I’m scared… I’ve only heard bad things about it… What is it?”

“You’ll find out yourself, but… you saw those windows covered by metal, on the way here?”

Saved my ass. Tenner nodded.

“At night, they block the view into the main chamber,” the guard whispered. “Because inside is the brightest place in the whole Realm. Yes, even Via Light doesn’t compare. Because if it’s so bright your eyes burn, you can’t fall asleep, and if you can’t fall asleep, you can’t die from rejection -- only suffer from its torture, until the moon gives up.”

“That doesn’t sound pleasant.” Goosebumps covered Tenner’s skin. He was as glad as ever of having picked a class.

“Indeed.”

The guard ahead put his arm around the escorted classless. It crawled to her chest as the other hand went to her back. She tried getting out, but the guard’s grip tightened. Tenner gritted his teeth. His fists clenched. Then the slimy lunarist ahead stopped.

“Alright, we’ve arrived,” he said, nodding at a door.

It stood at least three meters tall. Fancy metal ornaments covered the mahogany wood and the ring-shaped handle.

Guard one put on a pair of sunglasses. “Brace yourselves for twelve hours of nothing but pain.”

Guard two let go of Tenner and pulled on the handle, opening a tiny gap.

The light that shined through was like a white laser.

***

Tenner scanned the hall as the smell of decaying humans and burned things he refused to imagine entered his nose. What an awful belief. Back to back steel beds covered the floors. The church had spared even mattresses, leaving hard bars to hold hundreds of shivering backs.

None of these classless had to do any of this. Maybe they didn’t even choose this. Maybe the preacher and Kristus filled their minds with lies that could never fly with Tenner -- he couldn’t ever believe delusions. Nonetheless, he wouldn’t save these people. I made it through the desolation, they’ll make it through this. I gotta make some sacrifices… A group of odd creatures caught Tenner’s attention: birds--similar to the dafas--but wingless and fat.

A quick inspection cured Tenner’s confusion -- it was a group of... Dafpigs. Dafas… dafpigs… Once he thought about it, the name made sense.

As its chubby body flopped with every step, one of the dafpigs passed in between Tenner’s legs. It joined a group of three who all split up in different directions, blabbering something in bird tongue while their CHEKs translated with a robotic voice: “how are you feeling”, “do you need any help”, “would you like to pray”...

Tenner bumped into the leading guard, knocking the square sunglasses onto the end of his nose. A few tiny rays got through the gap, burning his eyes. His hand whacked the glasses back into place.

“You didn’t need to do that,” the guard said, turning around. “Because we’re arrived at your bed.”

Tenner’s eyebrow rose.

“You’re gonna have to hand those glasses back to me now, else coming here will be pointless.”

Tenner stepped back, keeping the pair in place with a finger.

“Hand. Them. Over!”

“No, I’ll go blind.”

“Me and my stupid bretherin made it through fine.” The guard snatched the pair off Tenner’s face. “You will be too.”

Tenner stumbled, blindly grabbed things before reaching a corner of his bed, sat on the uncomfortable metal, rolled on his side and nodded.

“If that’s how the lord wishes, that’s how it’ll be.”

“Indeed. Hope the lord keeps by your side in these troubling times.”

Tenner laid for a while. The non-stop barrage of screams, prayers and pleas from all directions kept his face in an “I was happier when I didn’t know anything as awful as this existed” expression. It cooked a breakfast of bullets inside him. The world couldn’t stay like this. No, not as long as he lived. And he wouldn’t die until it was bent to his will.

Tenner focused, trying to hear sadistic laughter or any other noise the guard could make.Evil of this scale can’t have an attention span that long -- he’s certainly out, committing other atrocities. He snapped back to life.

A similar amount of people passed through Via Light as those who suffered in the Glow. Tenner had made it through one without the use of his eyes by letting the crowd drag him. In the other, that wasn’t an option. Tenner was the only one standing. Not even the guards dared roam this hell, though they certainly must’ve waited outside the entrance, giggling to themselves like the goons they were.

At least It all added up into amazing cover, which allowed Tenner to move freely, cause as much noise and chaos as he wanted. He used it more than a vending machine full of free Sugary Death as he stumbled through the rows of beds, bumping into each he passed. Inspect! he thought, pointing his index finger down. 90% of the time he missed everybody, while the other 10% of inspect messages popped up, filled with nothing, but useless information.

Chubby dafpigs shuffled past his legs, asked him the same few questions and tended to other people.

Blindly, Tenner stepped atop an empty bed, announced himself and asked for attention. The classless responded by ignoring him. In fact, likely, only he heard his words. Tenner clenched his jaw as the gears turned in his head. Grunting, he hopped off the bed. Right as he landed, a robotic voice sounded from the right.

“Do you need any help?”

“Fuck off..."

The dafpig trotted away. The numerous layers of fat on its body released an ever so quiet flap with every step. Covered by the sounds of the surrounding misery, it was almost inaudible. Or maybe don’t fuck off. Tenner tried following the bird. It’d be really nice if I could hear it better!

First, the hum of the lights far above faded, then the screams of the people. Even his own breaths and footsteps were distant. What in the world is going on? It was as if he’d become a mouse while the world got bigger and everything in it -- thousands of miles farther away.

[Predator has succeeded! Manipulating being’s perception…]

So that was it. Some sort of secret ability from a perk. Exactly what he deserved. Pointing, inspecting, Tenner followed the bird’s pattern with precision. It trotted around the hall, asking the same questions. In a minute, Tenner sorted through at least fifty names.

The dafpig silenced for a moment. Then two robotic voices asked. And the new dafpig clung to Tenner’s leg. Were these birds like moronos? How wasn’t this room warm enough for them? Questions circled around Tenner’s mind, tearing away his focus, as he tried getting out of the dafpigs’ cozy embrace.

Another latched on. One dafpig made its rounds around the hall whilst two of its kind tried their hardest to stop Tenner, the behemoth. The church could train these birds and give them CHEKs, but they couldn’t drive natural instinct out. As he thought of that, another embraced Tenner. He smacked his legs. They crushed the bird in between them. Then, a heavy slap landed on the bird hugging his right calf and a slap to the one on his left.

They fell to the floor, rolling around in a daze. Tenner caught up to the one ahead and focused on its voice, continuing his inspection. The three dafpigs appeared behind him once more, this time following from a distance.

[Gerald Anthony

LVL: 2

HP: 47

Class: ---]

Who do we have here? Tenner grinned, groping the metal bed ahead. His iron patience--inspecting hundreds of names and fighting savage birds--paid off.

“I don’t need any help! I’m feeling just fine!” Gerald said in a broken voice. “Why are there so many birds here?!”

“The dafpigs didn’t come here on their own,” Tenner said. “They followed me around like I followed you.”

“Who--”

“The ‘corrupted one’ who you thought you could run from. You really believed these walls. These weak guards. And this phony priest could stop me?” Such disrespect.

“I can explain! I just got a job and a purpose--”

“You also have quite a big bounty on your head.”

“That was a mistake!” The target teared up. “I’m going in the way of the lord and I can atone for--”

I’m not falling for these pleas.

“Everyone says they made a mistake.” Tenner aimed right where the man’s voice came from. “I’m here to teach that those mistakes have consequences.” He grabbed Gerald’s neck and choked with all his strength. His hands could feel the throbbing veins in the man’s neck.

Gerald squirmed and banged on his bed.

Tenner’s axe--even though bought from the shadiness that was Gritty Thingy Row--dealt 15 damage, but he’d noticed, could go up to a 100 if well aimed. Along with that, the wound did an additional 2-3 a second. All in all, a quick death for a target with 47 health.

Yes, Tenner had vowed to give up simple pleasure in the climb for greatness. His goal was grander than amusement. But his will died once it came to punishing the vermin of the world. Gerald was struggling for a minute then went limp.

Tenner let go, As a realization kicked in, his hand suddenly grabbed the neck again, boosted by the fading wonders of [Predator]. The man jumped back to life, only a second late. He didn’t get the breath he needed and could only helplessly scratch Tenner’s arms.

[Warning! Damage: -1 to health]

[Congratulations! Minor private bounty claimed: delivered Gerald Anthony; Reward: +175C$]

[Congratulations! Upgraded perk: Predator I now Predator II ]

Tenner let go of the cold neck. His knuckles cracked and he celebrated, raising his fists and dancing.

He froze -- would Tenshot do anything as dumb as dancing? No... but Tenshot’s duty had been done -- Tenner was back. He returned to dancing.

The joy lasted, more or less, a minute. The chubby birds ran in one direction, their birdish voices blabbering while their robotic ones repeated a panic-inducing line.

“You’re in critical condition! I’m calling the guards!”