“Where is she?” Alex asked the doctor while taking a step back.

  “Resting, but don’t you have more exciting questions to ask?” the doctor took a look around and hinted.

  “What games are you playing?” Alex brought out his kitchen knife.

  “Can’t you see the zombie corpses on the ground? You possibly cannot be anything but curious.” The Doctor used the tip of his shoe to kick a zombie close to him.

  “Would finding out how it happened change the fact that it has passed?” Alex spat back.

  “No, but it does make your despair taste all the more better.” The Doctor chuckled.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll give you something to chew on real soon.” Alex rushed forward.

  His arms bulging as he slashed furiously at the Doctor.

  Yet his knife met with air as the figure of the doctor vanished right before his eyes.

  Alex steadied his stance hastily and stood vigilantly.

  “You’re not surprised, intriguing.” The Doctor’s voice echoed at another location.

  Alex whipped his head over in the direction of the sound, but his eyes caught only corpses and wreckage.

  “It’s a bit too late to be surprised by just this trick,” Alex sneered.

  After all, he was currently trapped in a game instance by an evil entity.

  Added with the day he spent with Shae Harris before coming here, he wasn’t exactly someone new to the mysteries of this world.

  Most importantly, it isn’t the real world, so just about anything could be accepted.

  “I guess a slight vanishing before one’s eyes wouldn’t be enough to surprise you,” The Doctor said as if he was thinking of how to impress Alex.

  “So why don’t you drop the games and face me head on?” Alex snorted.

  “No, no, I haven’t broken you yet.” The Doctor admonished him playfully.

  “Do you have something to do with the thing that has trapped me here?” Alex’s face darkened.

  “It’s rude to try to accuse someone without any evidence,” the doctor rebuked him.

  “Isn’t me being here proof enough already?” Alex clenched the kitchen knife tightly.

  “Do you really think that you’re that important? Merely an ant waiting to be crushed.” The Doctor’s voice was dripping with disdain.

  Alex burst into crazy laughter the next second.

  His face contorted into a ferocious expression, yet the sound of laughter echoed across from him.

  Something snapped in Alex that even he wasn’t sure of what it was.

  But it could be vaguely understood as the rope that held him together.

  And those dark thoughts that he kept locked up bubbled forth.

  His mind immersed itself in all the suffering he had to endure.

  From the first time he entered the instance to the first death.

  The terror, sorrow, and horrors that came during that process.

  To the misery that came with finding himself back here.

  To the despair of never seeing his parents.

  To the aching in his heart for home.

  To the longing of his old life.

  To the stench and warmth of blood as he struggled to survive.

  To the disgust.

  The depression that plagued him every moment until he was begging for a release.

  To the anger that was the fuel he used to keep his life burning.

  To more struggles, more fighting, and watching everyone he knows die.

  To the way his former acquaintance looked at him once he regressed.

  To the heartache of realizing that he would always be alone.

  To Paul’s death.

  Now you’re saying that everything was just a game to you.

  And that I shouldn’t think so highly of myself.

  I’m just a weak ant that could be crushed at any moment.

  “Then why haven’t you done it yet?” Alex roared at him.

  Why haven’t you let me out of my misery after such a long time?

  Why do you still keep playing these games with me?

  “I think your brain might have been damaged after playing for so long. Why would I care about you specifically?

  Tsk, tsk.

  Don’t get ahead of yourself.” The Doctor’s tone had a strong hint of eye-rolling.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  Huh… huh.

  Ah, I shouldn’t get ahead of myself.

  My brain must have been damaged from playing for so long.

  …playing… huh.

  The words echoed in Alex’s mind as his mental defenses crumbled in the face of the absurdity of it all.

  Leaving only a black hole of emptiness.

  And a constant dull ache in his chest along with a pounding heartbeat.

  What broke Alex wasn’t the fact that the person who had tormented him for so long was disdainful of him.

  No, it was the casualness and the denial.

  It was the way this entire harrowing experience for Alex was just a game.

  A means of amusement like how one would casually tease a cat.

  That kind of casualness destroyed his life over and over again.

  For years.

  After the first death, he struggled to survive for at least five years.

  Eventually he grew more proficient in surviving, and the years grew with each regression.

  So he had struggled for more than a hundred years.

  That is a normal human’s entire lifespan.

  He spent it all fighting day in and day out.

  Only for it to be dismissed as a game.

  One that he wasn’t even deemed worthy enough to be considered a player.

  He was merely… merely a what?

  A joke? A toy?

  Hah.

  Then even after all of that, he wasn’t even worthy of letting it bear responsibility.

  It had blatantly denied tormenting him.

  So what… I was just collateral damage?

  After all I went through, I was just an ant that got dragged into it.

  Hah.

  “Well, let’s hear it all out there. Tell me exactly what this is all about,” Alex said with bloodshot eyes in a flat tone.

  He was past the point of screaming and raging.

  Long past that point.

  Right now, he wasn’t even looking for answers.

  The truth was worthless to him without acknowledgment.

  So what Alex was doing right now had no reason nor motive.

  It was out of pure emotion that he wanted to know.

  Know what exactly was going on.

  Not because he cares, but due to the fact that he needs a reason.

  His mind is on the brink of falling over the edge, and he needs something to anchor it.

  Desperately, or he’ll self-destruct.

  And he can’t do that right now before killing the bastard in front of him.

  So Alex hopes that he spits out as much vile, putrid sins as he can.

  “Really too pitiful of a complete fool. I’m tempted to almost feel bad for you.

  Unfortunately, the despair you emit right now is just too delicious.” The Doctor stepped out of a corner and licked his lips.

  He had red vessels bulging on his body in random lines, and his eyes were a blood red.

  Alex still stood there with that dead look on his face.

  The Doctor paid no mind to his lack of response and patiently went on a long explanation as to what exactly happened.

  The process of the death of the entire base was summed up by the madman in front of him.

  He offered the people limited salvation at a very hidden place and made sure that they would not find it until the last moment.

  That moment being just as the corpses in the hospital morgue sprung from their slumber and feasted happily on human flesh.

  That moment where they all gathered in trepidation and their only hope believed to be hidden in that same morgue.

  The rest of the events were very easy to guess:

  The zombies attacked with a thirst for slaughter.

  People panicked and scrambled for the miracle drug that suddenly appeared.

  They fought one another for what they believed to be a chance to survive.

  Blood flowed throughout the base, sparing not a single person.

  “Which brings us back to this absolutely lovely sight.” The Doctor chuckled as if admiring the memory fondly.

  “You vile demon, what is your purpose?” Alex was once again disgusted.

  If human life is so worthless to you, then what exactly do you get from destroying it so?

  What do you get from tormenting me?

  “Do you remember what I said about the voices?” the doctor asked.

  Then he continued without waiting for a reply.

  At the beginning of the apocalypse, I heard it… that voice.

  It told me a great deal of many things about myself that no one knew.

  Ah, well except for the person who is sleeping in her ward.

  But that wasn’t all it told me. It told me of how sick this world was and what I could do to fix it.

  Nothing — because the problem could not be fixed but simply cut off.

  It guided me to develop this base, and together we hatched this beautiful artwork you see right in front of you.

  Why, you ask? Well simply because this was all for the ritual.

  The voice has yet to appear in its true form, and I am simply helping it to achieve its goals.

  I see it as more of a cooperation for the greater objective.

  “Wait, the evil entity has yet to descend?” Alex found that spark.

  “Unfortunately that is so.” The Doctor sighed in distraught.

  Alex felt like slapping himself.

  Of course the evil entity has yet to descend.

  It was just that the sight before him was so devilish that he did not expect it to be the work of a human.

  [ Final Task : Defeat the doctor ]

  The system prompt was like a drop of oil added to the spark, and his heart was set back to life once again.

  It’s not too late. I could still have my revenge.

  Yes, all I have to do is stop the evil entity from descending — then it wouldn’t matter whether it acknowledges me or not.

  After I stop its plan, then it certainly has to.

  Besides, I can’t let Paul’s sacrifice come to waste.

  “But what about your sister?” Yes, Alex still had a few questions to ask.

  Right now, it was important to see the whole picture and avoid any more surprises.

  “My sister is dead, so what exactly do you need her for?” The doctor had no change in expression.

  “Were all the things you told me a lie then?” Alex asked, looking at him straight in his bloodshot eyes.

  “On the contrary, I was ever so truthful because I found you quite pitiful.

  My sister died in these walls to the same illness ailing Shae Harris.

  And I was distraught at the time.

  I even came to despise her — and do you want to know why…?” the doctor went on a ramble, his voice a bit less calm and more erratic.

  He spoke of the hatred of watching his sister give up on herself as she wasted away without any struggle.

  He was out there constantly striving to heal her, yet she watched him with those same hopeless dead eyes, condemning herself to death already.

  He wanted her to at least fight, or at most believe in him, yet she argued with him.

  She called his aspiration childish and even begged him to stop trying to fight for her.

  Then one day he found her with her wrist slit and those eyes looking at him with pity and relief.

  He found her ever so selfish for that singular act and scattered her ash in the toilet not long after.

  With that experience, he strove mercilessly to become a doctor, hoping never again to meet that sight.

  Then like fate was playing a joke on him, he met Shae Harris.

  Unlike his sister, she had a sense of vibrancy that was mismatched for her condition.

  He thought that he had finally found a reliable partner.

  Yet she was just like his sister once more — someone who refused to struggle.

  She also claimed the pain was too much to bear just as his sister did, but did they ever stop to think of my own pain?

  My suffering wasn’t physical like theirs, yet it cut so much deeper because I couldn’t do anything.

  She got in the way of my hard work repeatedly, and I despised her for it.

  Why do they both always try to stop me from accomplishing my dream?

  My sister died, and Shae Harris fought against me desperately.

  “What exactly is this dream you speak of?” Alex felt that it wasn’t so simple.

  Though brief of an encounter, Shae Harris — who would willingly march to her death for her friends — did not seem like that kind of person.

  “I wanted to heal them of the illness that they couldn’t fight against…

  And then kill them with my own two hands just so that I could do something about it this time.” The doctor sounded as crazy as the second sentence spoken.

  “What?” Alex was dumbfounded.

  “Why should I watch them slip through my fingers slowly when I have a way to end the suffering all at once?

  And I can’t do it if they’re ill because it wasn’t truly by my own hands.

  I decided after my sister died that if you were always going to die, then it’s better for me to kill you at once.

  After all, I saved you from death’s hands, so it’s only right for me to allow nature to take its course.

  I just prefer it to be on my own terms and by my own hands.” The doctor raised his hands to cover his face, revealing a maniacal smile.

  “You’re a madman who should die,” was all Alex could say as he raised a blazing kitchen knife in determination to end his life.

  “At least I’m not a complete and utter fool.” The doctor laughed at him crazily.

  “And I’m not a dead man standing.” Alex wasted no more words after that as he rushed forward.