Grim Reaper in the Apocalypse: Reaping Immortals

Atlan looked around but he couldn't find the source of that muttering. Everyone was either laughing or talking loudly about some gossip. He found it weird that he still heard that small whisper even with the rest of the party drowning out any sound that wasn't bellowed out.

"Humans…like…pain…"

It was coming from the side. He immediately looked at where the sound came from and saw a few people lounging on the couch with smiles plastered on their faces. They seemed very relaxed. Too relaxed, even.

And unlike the rest of the groups here, these people weren't talking with each other. They were all either looking at nothing but the air or had their eyes closed with a smile on their faces. They seemed extremely happy, but Atlan didn't know why.

He walked over towards them and saw strange black isopods attached to their hands. And as he got closer, Atlan noticed that these isopods were moving! They were wiggling around while firmly attached to the back of their hands.

There were also black veins rooting outwards from the 'infected' area where the isopod resided.

One of the guys saw Atlan approaching and immediately welcomed him with a smile on his face. Atlan noticed that the guy's eyes were red, as if he hadn't slept in two days.

"Yo! Welcome to the party, man. Want a hit?"

The guy took out an isopod from his pocket and gave it to Atlan. When he looked at the underside of the creature, he found it was still alive! It had about a hundred small legs and had a very hairy underbelly, with millions of small 'fur' spiking out.

Is this a Pseudo Canzer?

Now that he got a closer look, he was pretty sure that this was a Pseudo Canzer. It was a little bit different than the one he saw in the Training Hall, but he guessed that it was a different species. To test this out, Atlan took the isopod in his hands and crushed it with his bare hands.

KRUUKKKK

[You have killed a Venunum]

[You have reaped the death of a simple creature: Pseudo Canzers]

[Due to your Trait, you have multiplied your experience by 10]

[You have gained 50 experience]

Just like he thought, the isopod was a Pseudo Canzer. However, the guy was horrified to see Atlan waste such a perfectly good Venunum.

"Aw, man. Why'd you waste my hit?" Brought to you by m-vl_em|p,yr

Atlan was confused. "Am I not supposed to kill it?"

The man shook his head vehemently. "Are you kidding me? This thing's hard to catch. You don't kill it, you just put the Venunum on top of your hand and let those stingers sting you.

And once it latches onto you, it will pump poison into your veins."

Atlan was horrified. "What?! Why? If you get hit by that stinger, don't you lose your SoulTime because you get injured?"

The man smiled. "That's the point, my guy!"

He looked around and noticed that almost everybody in the party had at least one Venunum attached to the back of their hands. There were even some that had it on their chest and their backs. He was the only one who didn't have any.

And while they were being stung by those Pseudo Canzers, everyone had smiles on their faces. They were having fun!

But how could they like this? They're getting injured and losing their SoulTime!

"Why?"

"Because it feels so good! That feeling of having your veins burning gives me such a euphoric feeling. Ummm! It really gets me going, you know."

"Aren't you worried about your SoulTime?"

The man waved off Atlan's concern. He didn't seem to be bothered at all. "It's fine, man. We're just having fun. We're only spending the SoulTime that we got from our missions, so we aren't losing any SoulTime.

And SoulTime isn't that hard to get. You get a year minimum from completing just one mission, so sacrificing a few days for a little bit of fun for a few hours is a small price to pay."

Atlan still couldn't understand it. "What if your SoulTime runs out?"

"I'm only losing about a minute every second like most of the people here. But, some hardcore guys put so much Venunum on their bodies that they lose an hour every second, but I don't do that. They probably have a lot of SoulTime they inherited from their lineage, but I don't have that.

If I had a thousand years of SoulTime, I would put so much Venunum in my body that you won't even see my skin!"

Atlan was horrified once he learned that. Is he telling me that every single person in here is losing a minute of their SoulTime every second? That means they're losing two and a half days every hour!

And for those hardcore guys who are losing an hour every second, that means that they're losing about 150 days of SoulTime every hour! Almost half a year! Insane!

"Humans…like…pain…"

Then, he heard the isopod in the guy's arm suddenly talk! Atlan's eyes widened and he looked at the guy to see if he heard that. But it looked like he didn't. Atlan was the only one who heard the little isopod talking.

Wait a minute…that's not human language.

When he looked at the Venunum, he saw that its little mouth was moving and scratching against its mandibles, creating a squeaking sound. It wasn't any human language.

Yet somehow, Atlan was able to understand it.

I remember now! I obtained a mutation.

Atlan looked down on his Soul System.

[Mutation]

— (4-star) Canzer Mother Tongue

— (10-star) Gluttonous Soul

— (10-star) Lightspeed Angel Wings

And just as he remembered, he got a mutation when he defeated that Sapient Canzer. He didn't understand it back then, but now, it seemed that a tongue mutation meant that he would be able to understand the language of that species.

I can understand Canzers?

This meant that in every mission from here on out, Atlan would be able to hear what the Canzers were saying.