They Called Me Dead Weight,Then I Woke Up as Their God

1: 1

When the horrors came, I became the team's good-luck charm.

All because I'd awakened a charm talent. I only had to stand where I was, and the horrors would shrink back and keep their distance.

Everyone thought of me as the team's mascot, the lucky star that kept them safe.

Until the squads merged, and an S-rank captain arrived, a woman.

She resented the way I spent the team's survival points on fine clothes and good food.

More than that, she kept shouting that a world overrun by horrors had no room to feed dead weight, and she came at me from every angle.

When the horrors swarmed by the hundreds, everyone was busy calling on their own abilities.

While they fought to buy the squad one thread of survival, I sat off to the side eating a little strawberry cake I'd redeemed with points.

The captain smashed the cake into my face, dragged me by the hair, and shoved me to the very edge of the defensive circle.

"Those points cost lives, and they're not yours to throw away! Every point you've burned on this team, you're going to pay it all back!"

I was thrown down into bloody water, filth all over me, and I couldn't help but beg through my tears.

"Violet Perry, I'll die out there. My ability isn't for attacking, and the surge is almost here. If I can't recover enough strength, all of us are going to"

"Shut up. That's just your excuse because you're a coward clinging to life. Dead weight deserves to die!"

Before I could finish, a boot slammed into me and kicked me clear out of the protective circle.

I screamed, and the next second I hit hard, landing in a heap of blood and filth.

The rotten, foul water soaked through my dress, and a jagged rock tore open my hand.

Everything swam in front of my eyes, and on instinct I snatched up the half a cake still on the ground.

Every time I used my ability, it drained a huge amount of mental energy, and I needed enough sugar to replace it.

But the next second, a heavy Martin boot came down on the cake and ground it flat.

"Still eating, are you? I've had it with the sight of you for a long time. You're a woman, same as Violet, and you're nothing like her. A world of horrors doesn't need a soft little parasite like you."

Ralph Dickerson, standing beside her, hauled me up by the collar, and the fabric cinching tight around my throat left me struggling to breathe.

"Take a good look, you hear me? This is a dungeon full of horrors, where people die at the drop of a hat. It isn't your ivory tower!"

I looked at that pack of horrors. They were creeping closer and closer to the barrier.

Cedric had told me my ability could charm the horrors.

As long as I stayed in a good mood and kept my mental energy full, the horrors wouldn't hurt any of us.

This was the last dungeon now. Get through it, and everyone could clear the run and claim the final reward.

But right now I was covered head to toe in rotting flesh and blood, and the dress on my body was torn.

The horrors caught the smell of fresh blood on me, and in an instant they went wild.

Their shrieks were sharp enough to pierce a person's eardrums.

I couldn't stop shaking. "Violet... I really can't face these things head-on. Captain Harding told you, my ability is a support charm, it can only hold the horrors for a short while"

"And I have to be completely clean, with my strength full, before I can even call up the ability"

"Right now I'm covered in blood and filth. There's no way I can use the charm at all!"

I screamed it in despair, tears welling up in my eyes.

But that only enraged Violet's vice-captain, Ralph. He slapped me across the face, and I tasted the warm, coppery sweetness rising in my throat.

"Enough. Quit using Cedric as your shield. I've seen plenty of cheap little women like you."

"Charming the horrors, my ass. More like seducing men."

"You've got a bit of a pretty face, so you cling to men and live off them like a parasite."

"We claw through the dirt with these horrors day after day, and you're too precious to get a little dirty? Where'd you get this princess act? The points our members buy with their lives aren't there so a coward like you can live in comfort!"

"Today I'm going to make you understand that the brothers' points don't come free! Look, these horrors showed up right on time. Go kill a few and earn some points back for me and the boys!"

Violet stepped forward with a smile, but there was something twisted and cold in it.

She kicked me straight into that mass of horrors.

Their eyes locked onto me at once, and in despair I closed my eyes.

2: 2

The tearing pain I braced for never came.

The eerie shrieking all around me cut off in the same instant.

I forced my eyes open and looked at the horrors. They had stopped where they stood. The split-mouth woman in red, the closest one to me, only stared blankly, no lunge left in her.

I could feel it. The ability inside me had triggered.

But I was in no shape to hold it, and it would only last a little while.

The others were whispering. "You don't think she was telling the truth, do you? Can Ivy's ability really hold the horrors off?"

A few of them wavered, half moving to drag me back. Then, in the next breath, Violet stepped forward.

She brought her blade down across the split-mouth woman's neck. "Everyone saw that, right? These horrors aren't strong. Not much danger to them at all."

Then she hauled me back with a look of disgust.

"And even a horror this weak, Ivy didn't dare kill."

"What can you do besides play helpless? These things are absurdly weak. What use are you, apart from crying?"

Sprawled on the ground, I struggled anyway. "That's not it. It's my ability holding them, that's why they froze. Let go of me. I need to clean up and change and recover my energy, or there's no way we can hold off this many horrors."

That split-mouth woman in red just now was a B-rank horror at least, and pinning her had burned through most of my mental strength.

Now I was too weak to even stand.

"Clean up? Even now, still thinking about seducing men!" Ralph's face darkened as he charged over and dragged me into the building.

The squad members crowded in behind him, the women especially, jealousy plain on their faces as they looked at me.

"Good-luck charm, my foot. It's all a lie! Those horrors didn't even react to her just now!"

"It's just Violet being strong, that's all. If you ask me, she had us all fooled. She's got no ability at all!"

"I knew all along she was using us. She had Captain Harding wrapped around her finger! Someone like her, burning through our points, is nothing but a bloodsucker!"

The words dropped into the crowd like water flicked into hot oil.

The whole group boiled over at once.

"That's what I said, I've got no ability either, but even I could've gotten in a couple of swings on those horrors just now!"

"She had us all fooled! She's got no ability, she's a parasite! Freeloading off our squad!"

"Damn it, and I actually believed it. Last time, when we were trapped in the Hell Apartments, I traded points for perfume so she could pull off some charm skill, and I didn't dare trade for anything to save my own life. Cost me a finger!"

3: 3

"No... it isn't like that..." I fought to explain, but my throat felt like I'd swallowed a razor, and no words would come.

"Still lying?" Ralph's eyes went cold and vicious beside me, and then he traded a look with Violet.

"Every bit of that beauty, all that easy life, you bought with your teammates' flesh and blood. Time you paid it back to everyone."

"You want to stay on this team, you drop the princess act!"

"Don't..." I was shaking, but Ralph grabbed a fistful of my hair and shaved it down to the scalp with a blade.

In no time my long hair was hacked away in patches, bald in a dozen places, like something a dog had chewed.

Then Violet's gaze dropped to the finely made dress on me. Even soiled and filthy, it couldn't hide how exquisite and expensive it was.

Why should a dress like this be worn by this piece of garbage?

Only someone like her, someone who actually contributed to the team, deserved a dress like this.

Jealousy and spite flooded her eyes as she took Ralph's dagger and slashed my dress open with a rip.

In moments the dress was torn away, leaving me in nothing but a plain camisole and undershorts, barely enough to cover the private parts of me.

Several of the men watched me with ugly intent, some of them even whistling at me. The humiliation was unbearable.

Satisfaction flickered through Violet's eyes, and then, in a great show of mercy, she threw a blanket at me.

"Wrap up. Conditions are hard here. From today on, no points, no contribution, don't even think about getting supplies."

I looked at that blanket. It was the one they'd used yesterday to wrap a teammate's corpse.

It was streaked with blood and filth, carrying the reek of rot.

People killed by an anomaly leave dark energy behind in the body.

And once that dark energy seeps into a talent-holder, the ability slowly fades away.

"No, I can't wear this... please, I need clean clothes and enough food."

The next wave of anomalies would only be stronger. Without a charm ability to disrupt them, the team wouldn't hold at all...

"Show you mercy and you spit on it, you ungrateful little bitch. Don't want to wear it, then don't."

Ralph spat on the ground beside me.

I struggled with everything I had, the rotten stench of the blanket turning my stomach.

But Violet only drew on her cigarette and watched as the women on the team forced me into the blanket.

The dark energy burrowed into my pores, and the last thread of ability inside my body finally vanished for good.

4: 4

Seeing that I'd stopped struggling, a flicker of satisfaction crossed Violet's eyes.

The air had gone strangely quiet. Outside, a red blood moon was climbing into the sky, and crows were coming toward us in great dark swarms.

My stomach dropped. Blood moon overhead, and the horrors return to their places.

I threw myself toward Ralph. "Run, warn everyone, find the evacuation point! Forget the rewards!"

"They're coming, they're already coming!"

Ralph only kicked me square in the chest and sneered at the window.

"Trying to trick us again? You've got no shame."

"It's just a bunch of crows. What's so frightening about that? Still think you're some delicate little princess? Nobody's going to coddle you now."

Then he turned to face what had once been my squad. "This is the good-luck charm you all talked about? A few birds and she falls apart. A useless coward too scared to die, worth nothing."

"That reminds me. Don't you love being clean? My squad doesn't feed dead weight. So from today, you handle the bodies. Strip the dead and clean up after them."

The few women in the squad who'd always hated the sight of me cheered him on.

Only one young man limped forward from the corner, unable to stand it.

I knew him. He was the college student Cedric and I had pulled out of the horde of horrors, Daniel Chavez.

His leg had been crushed, so he'd stayed with the group doing odd jobs.

"Vice-Captain Dickerson, you can't!" He dropped to his knees and grabbed hold of Ralph's shoe.

"Miss Fox is weak. Those bodies carry dark energy. It's too much for a normal person, and it's too much even for someone with talent!"

"If it really has to be done, let me. My leg's already broken and I never awakened any talent. I'm more suited to this than Miss Fox!"

"I swear I'll bring back everything our teammates left behind. And I'll give them a decent end."

Violet stepped up and kicked me again. "Filthy little slut, still hooking men even now."

Ralph looked at Daniel, something dark passing through his eyes, and spoke without warning.

"Since when does a piece of garbage like you get to tell anyone what to do?"

Then he looked at Daniel, a flash of cruelty in his eyes.

The next second, there was a crack as Ralph slammed his foot into Daniel's other leg.

His mouth curled into a cruel smile. "Garbage should just die."

"Throw him into the pile of horrors. Let him fend for himself."

"Daniel"

"No, you can't"

I tried to throw myself in front of Daniel, but Violet's foot came down on my face.

"A squad needs discipline! In times like these, you kill the bleeding hearts first!"

No one dared object again. Violet ground the toe of her shoe hard across my face.

"You see that? You got him killed! Our squad has no use for the useless!"

"Both his legs are ruined now. Alive, he's just a burden." At that, Ralph waved his hand, and several men hurled Daniel out.

"Ivy, you have to survive. I know it, only you can" He looked at me and gave me a despairing smile.

The next second, they threw him into that mass of horrors, and the horrors lunged at him at once.

"You got him killed, you know." Violet bent down, laughing, and murmured in my ear. "If he hadn't stuck his neck out for you, he could have gone on living."

I stared blankly as the horrors swallowed Daniel, and something in my mind gave way completely. The people around me were pointing and cursing, the wounds on my body still bleeding, and yet I couldn't seem to feel any of it.

As the dark energy in the air grew thicker, hatred spread through me.

None of them knew that outside the villa, the horrors seemed to have lost some restraint that had held them back. They were full of a bloodthirsty craving, the last of their humanity peeling away, and at the scent of the living they flung themselves like mad things at the barrier outside the villa.

In a corner no one could see, a small, unremarkable crack was spreading out from one edge of the barrier.