Veritas crouched in the bushes next to a huge tree, watching a wolf glaring at a bear though his mind felt clouded...
The whispers, though didn't grow stronger or louder, were still there.
It disturbed him from his sleep and hearing out for any sounds, which was vital.
But he did manage to get through it... and had been slowly trying to figure out how to sleep better.
Though, not much progress was in for the sound, which might as well be making him 'deaf'.
Veritas silenced his thoughts, focusing his attention on the wolf as it rushed towards the bear.
The bear growled, rocks formed from where it stood, shooting towards the wolf.
But the wolf was agile and flexible, it dodged the line of rocks that aimed towards it before running to the side and then propelled itself towards the bear.
Veritas watched as the wolf moved with insane speed, blurring towards the bear and biting onto the neck.
But, the bear already expected such attack as it covered its neck with rocks, protecting it from the bite of the wolf.
The wolf's teeth dug into the rocks, shattering them as it latched onto the bear with its claws.
The bear roared in pain before shaking the wolf off as rocks shot out towards the wolf.
The wolf quickly dodged away, in a manner of levitation.
No, if what Veritas had deduced over the past few days, it wasn't simple levitation.
Veritas watched as the wolf landed on the ground before propelling itself once again towards the enemy.
The bear roared, sending rocks as the wolf charged head on.
The rocks shattered, sending pieces apart flying to the ground as the wolf opened its maws wide to the ribs, only for it to suddenly change its trajectory towards the knee.
Spurt!
Blood squirts out as the bear roared in pain, the knee was bitten and a chunk of its knee was yanked out.
Then, the shattered rocks suddenly flew as it shot towards the bear, leaving bullet wounds on the bear as it roared.
The wolf had used telekinesis to shoot the fragmented rocks, and it had used it on itself to change its trajectory or bring its body away when its body didn't have the capability to react but its mind did.
That? That was something that Veritas wanted to get.
So he watched as the bear shot out more rocks towards the wolf, but it easily moved away.
The bear swung its fist down onto the wolf, and the wolf quickly moved away, dodging it by a hair's breath.
The ground trembled as the fist landed, and the wolf quickly took the chance to leap towards the arm and jumped towards the bear's head before biting onto it.
Unfortunately for the wolf.
As its fangs came down to bit onto the flesh, what happened instead was a rock, sharp as needle, protrude from the head of the bear.
The wolf reacted quickly, but it was too late.
The jagged rock stabbed right inside the mouth of the wolf and protrude out of the wolf's eye.
The wolf whimpered, roaring in pain before pulling itself away by telekinesis as its head slipped away from the stab wound.
The bear tried to reach out but failed as the wolf was already levitating away fast.
Just like that... the fight ended.
Veritas crouched, maintaining his stealth, the bear was still here.
The wolf, while it was weakened, was still powerful enough to fight back with its telekinesis.
Veritas wasn't that much of a daredevil to try and hunt it down. If he were to do it, he would try to do it when it is absolutely weakened.
After all, this was the first time he was going to hunt a Corrupted.
Worse of all, there was no System to tell him about the level of Corruption, which was vital information.
But still, judging from the way Veritas could still vaguely watch as the wolf propelled itself using telekinesis, he assumed it was still a Kilo Corrupted.
Now as for the bear...
It was smart, big, and durable. There was nothing remarkable about it, only that it was smart to bait the wolf to lunge at its head.
Which resulted into one of the most fatal injury it could give the wolf.
Now, Veritas' chances of killing the wolf was easier.
But here was the problem... how would he absorb the lifeforce? He wasn't given any instructions on how to use his [Consume], he only knew that it had the ability to absorb lifeforce...
He did learn about how the Agents operated, how they could Corrupt something or someone and the very next second, be able to use their powers.
Did he need to use his Authority...? Or could he just kill the wolf, grab its Core and then absorb it?
If it was the latter, that would definitely be great. But if it was the earlier...
Veritas ruffled his hair, sighing before turning back towards where he had made a camp.
It wasn't really a camp per se, it was him simply using a small empty cave as a hiding place.
Veritas rested on the walls of the cave before submerging into his conscience.
Reopening his eyes, he was greeted by the sight of the tainted sea as Veritas looked at the ever staying red spikes.
The source of his whispers, which was currently following him to his conscience.
Sighing, he let the whispers ramble, driving slight prickling pain to his head.
He had figure a few things out by the days he spent outside.
First,
'Agents are like some kind of... computer thingy, with 0 and 1s... Every constructs it made or powers it used as its main power, the authority always had that property...'
He saw the spikes up close and could see how it was what he had thought, this led to him thinking that... Maybe the earth is getting attacked by some virus? Or maybe some experiment went wrong?
The government across cities told people that... the Agents were aliens, trying to take over Earth.
It did sound plausible, seeing that as far as he knew, there were no conspiracies that civilians or other people made that placed suspicion on the government if it were lies.
No other information were given regarding the Agents by the government. They simply said to stay away from the Agents and contact the nearest Guardian Agency.
The people were only told that one could identify an Agent by the fact that they were faceless and the red lines.
Veritas didn't know why the government didn't tell them about the 0 and 1s. But he knew that people knew about those 0 and 1s.
So when he thought he was the only one that could see it, that thought was instantly crossed away.
But still... the more he thought about the Agents and System, the more he felt it odd.
The government said that Systems appeared when the Agents came... granting them powers.
He thought about how the Agents were like virus... and the people with Systems were later called Guardians.
It oddly felt like the System were anti virus weaponized for the humans to fight back against the Agents' corruption.
These were his hypothesize though.
Shaking his head, he looked back at the red glimmering spike of 0 and 1s.
'No use thinking of those scenarios when I can't do anything about it.'
Veritas closed his eyes once more and reopened them to see the walls with the shadow covering him.
The whispers once again followed him into the real world.
Veritas sighed before running his hand through his hair as he grumbled.
'Just think of them as a lullaby.'
Veritas laid on the dirty uneven ground, trying his best to tune out the whispers as he flinched, a sudden pain igniting in his head.
He wanted to rest, his body was already sluggishly moving around like a worm.
But the incoherent voice kept on assaulting him.
Seeing that he wasn't bound to get some sleep in, Veritas simply opted to exhaust himself.
How?
Well, it was time to go around looking for other Kilo Corrupted.