Ishiki looked up to the full length of the wall and grimaced, It looked like a golden titan of polished metal that stretched two hundred meters into twilight.

From where Ishiki stood at its base, hidden in the darkest fold of an alley's shadow, he was nothing more than an insect.

He sighed heavily and closed his eyes... letting the [Ghost Blade]'s perception paint a monochrome picture. Color was violently stripped away, replaced by a high-contrast realm of greys, blacks, and blinding whites in a sphere of influence reaching out five hundred meters in every direction.

Ishiki saw a group of three guards walking towards him from the right and a family from behind.

He had to make sure no one witnessed him while he climbed up the wall and it must be done fast enough so that no would notice.

Ishiki slightly moved back and leaned against the wall of a house and waited. Soon... the family and the group of guards both walked by without even knowing that he was just besides them.

'Ghost blade is one scary skill for sure.' He smiled. It was the ultimate tool for a coward, or a survivor based on perspective.

It was an almost allrounder skill, it increased his perception and let him see the world from a different perspective, all while ghosting his presence and giving boost to weapons. The shinobi sure was dangerous.

...But at the end he had let his guard down around a cowardly bastard and ended up dead. How pitiful he would have felt in the afterlife. If he had gone there that is, and if there existed an afterlife.

Now he was forever trapped within Ishiki's soul.

'Better not think about it...' He shook his head, physically dispelling the morbidity. That way lay madness.

Ishiki sighed and walked towards the wall, stopping just meters from it.

The young boy looked up at the full length of the wall, it was approximately 200 meters tall and he looked like a baby ant standing at its bay.

He stood there for a long moment, unblinking, visualizing the path. Then, he clenched his jaw until his teeth groaned under the pressure.

It began deep in his chest—a sensation like swallowing a ball of molten lead. A strange, ethereal blue aura erupted from his skin, rising like steam from a boiling kettle. But, it wasn't heat; it was the spiritual pressure, the raw essence of a dead soul flooding his body.

His muscles twitched and bulged, fibers tearing and knitting back together instantly as they were flooded with alien strength. He felt lighter, yet infinitely more powerful.. Ishiki felt a strong urge to puke and a very sharp pain in his head.

...and then a platinum hued window appeared in front of him.

[Soul Chain - 00:30 Seconds]

[Soul Chain - 00:29 Seconds]

Ishiki narrowed his eyes and crouched low, compressing his body like a high-tension spring. He channeled the explosive power of the Shinobi into his legs, feeling the pavement beneath his boots groan under the strain.

A spiderweb of cracks exploded outward as Ishiki launched himself into the air.

Ishiki flew like a bullet, cutting through air that was still somewhat hot and tears welling up in his eyes. 'Holy Shit...'

He flew towards the golden wall, the rooftops of the mansions, the spires of the clock towers, the gas lamps—they all blurred into streaks of light below him.... he almost reached half of the wall.

His momentum began to die. He stalled in the air, roughly a hundred and twenty meters up.

And then he was falling.

He slammed into one of the massive protruding pillars of the wall with bone-jarring force.

Ishiki gritted his teeth, a feral snarl escaping his throat. He drove his fingers into the solid golden surface... creating space to catch himself.

SCREEECH!

That whole process hardly took him mere seconds and as soon as he stabilized, hanging to the wall. Ishiki threw his body upwards as fast as he could. The jump took him about another 30 meters.

He repeated the process again and again... moving upwards like a certain animal. He was ascending faster than the eye could track. To anyone watching from below, he would have been nothing more than a blur.

[Soul Chain - 00:20 Seconds]

Within 10 seconds he almost climbed the two hundred meter tall wall made up completely of gold.

He scrambled over the wide, flat lip and collapsed onto the stone walkway that ran the length of the perimeter.

He lay there, face pressed against the cool stone, gasping for air.

Blue steam and white sweat poured off him, mixing together in a haze that obscured his vision. His heart hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird, beating so fast it hurt. He was covered in sweat from top to bottom.

Soon, as his heart beat stabilized, Ishiki turned to the side and emptied his stomach. Using Soul Chain was a torture of its own.

Ishiki was on the verge of loosing his consciousness, but he didn't close his eyes.

'Not yet. Don't pass out yet.'

He pushed himself up into a sitting position, wiping the sweat from his eyes. He did it... He actually climbed up the golden wall.

[Soul Chain - 00:10 Seconds]

The timer still ticked in front of his eyes... it took him approximately 15 seconds to climb this high, and unnoticed. The second part was because of Ghost Blade, really.

But the thing that made this possible was his exclusive skill, and the fact that he had killed the Shinobi during his trial.

Ishiki immediately summoned his system window.

========= Player : ????? ========

Name : Ishiki

Age : 17

Title : [Memory Reaper]

Rank - [Mythical]

Exclusive Skill - [Soul Archive]

Skill Description - [Allows the bearer to chain the very consciousness of the Slain in an eternal collection. The new master can reap the memories within.]

Exclusive Corruption - [Phantom Voice]

Corruption Description - [Listen closely When the Reaper speaks, You may hear the whisper Of everyone they've reaped.]

Synth Reactor Tier - Innate

Level - 15/50 (+78)

Data Fragments - 1,720/7,500

Basic Abilities :

Strength : 25/100 (+140)

Agility : 25/100 (+140)

Endurance : 25/100 (+140)

Charisma : 23/100

Protocols : [Recursive Anomaly (Unknown)], [Curse of the Forgotten (Exclusive)]

Attribute : [Half Royalty (Epic)], [Minor Regeneration (Epic)]

Skill Cards : [Ghost Blade (Epic)]

==============================

{Vestiges}

{Relics}

{Shop}

===============================

Ishiki studied the window with a satisfied grin on his face. Soon as the timer tickled to 0, the blue steam rising from his body stopped.

"AHHHH! MY HANDS! GODDAMN IT!"

Ishiki screamed, falling back onto the stone. His body convulsed violently, arching off the ground as a white-hot agony shredded his nervous system.

It felt as if his muscles were being stripped from his bones with rusty pliers. His arms, which had just held the strength of a superman, now felt like they were going to shatter.

He writhed on the top of the wall, gasping, tears streaming down his face.

His human body, was not a vessel meant to hold the soul of such a monster. Every time he used [Soul Chain], he tore himself apart a little more.

It took a full minute for the spasms to subside into a dull, throbbing ache. Ishiki lay there, trembling, unable to lift his arms.

It provided him with the stats of one of the souls that he had captured in his soul space... he could use the strength of anyone he had killed, for a short amount of time and then his body had to take on the pain of being used more than it is capable of.

Ishiki hadn't been just siting around for the past six months... he had progressed a lot, but not much. He could now use [Soul Chain] to infuse himself with the Shinobi's stats for thirty seconds.

His body should have broken by now... if not for the fact that he had gained a reliably useful... no actually a life saving attribute, without it he would be in pieces.

Laying there helplessly, Ishiki decided to summoned his system screen once again.

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