"!!!" Ren's eyes sparkled with hope.
"This MUST be it!" Ren thought while celebrating in his mind.
"A system that will assist me! Just like those systems I've read in novels which will make the main character unfairly strong!"
Ren read the instructions in his mind. Loot box System: Ia, It had a list of instruction that could be executed when the user thought of it. There were various instructions like Scan, Merge, Salvage, Shop and many more.
Ren being an experienced gamer, already guessed what those instructions were for. It was already self-explanatory for him.
Without thinking, Ren thought-
"Ia! Help me!" Ren yelled in his mind.
*BOOOM!*
The whole front door was blasted open, scattering rocks all over the house. Once again, Ren miraculously avoided death. He was just inches away from the explosion. Rocks was not the only thing that the explosion brought. In the middle of the house, was a person wearing black robes. He was missing an arm and there was a huge cut on his chest. His rig cage could be seen as bones were protruding from his chest. The man reached out to Ren one last time and died.
Immediately Ren's mind went blank, fear took over. He imagined that he would end up exactly how the man did, but even worse.
"Merge! Enhance! Upgrade! Stats! Salvage! Shop!" Ren shouted everything he could find in the instruction list. He broke the first rule of survival, which was not to panic.
Just like how unlucky he has been recently, a monotonous voice answer to his calls saying-
"Restricted function: System level low."
"Restricted function: System level low."
"Insufficient upgrade material(s): Upgrade failed."
"Calculating stats: 3 minutes ETA. (System level low)"
"Restricted function: System level low."
"Restricted function: System level low."
"..." Ren was on the verge of tears once again.
"What kind of system is this?" Ren was ready to lose consciousness but that would mean death so he fought his urges to collapse. He went on and continued reading the instructions. To be honest, it wasn't like an instruction list at all, simply because there was no instructions just a list of one word commands.
"Scan! Inventory! Log!" Ren went on to complete the list.
"Scanning surrounding 100 meters: 1 minute ETA. 5 minutes cooldown."
"Opening inventory: 30 seconds ETA. 1 minute cooldown."
"Displaying event log: 1 minute cooldown."
-Event Log-
Host soul transfer: 100%
Healing Host's speaking and hearing disability complete.
Host received 80 damage from stray arrow.
Host assimilation: 100%
Host command(s) pending:
Stats: 2 minutes and 42 seconds
Scan: 55 seconds
Inventory: 26 seconds
After spamming commands, something finally happened. A list appeared in his mind showing his event log.
Ren's eyes once again flickered with hope, it was not over until he did everything possible. He was disappointed at his 'system' at first but seeing how it wasn't totally restricted turned his disappointment upside down. Right now, he was looking forward to see what's inside his inventory.
"If my inventory is empty, I'll stab myself with this arrow." Ren picked up the arrow that grazed his shoulder. He was half-joking but if it was really empty, an arrow through the chest would be tempting.
"Anyways, I need time." Ren finally found something to put his hopes on. He was finally thinking straight again. Ren went up to the dead person, he pulled him out of sight. Looking at the man, Ren felt like puking, but he swallowed it down.
"Please, don't haunt me for this." Ren rummaged through the man's robes, looking for things that might be useful. He didn't find anything useful inside his clothes.
Suddenly, Ren had an insane idea.
"I'll wash your clothes, okay?" Ren began taking of the clothes of the man. It was difficult because of the protruding rib cage. Ren had to yank it off him.
Soon, the man was naked. Ren changed his clothes quickly and draped his ragged clothes over the man and placed him at the side of the house.
"Opening inventory!" The system's genderless voice sounded in Ren's mind.
An inventory bag appeared within Ren's mind. There were different items and equipments inside it, filling his inventory to the brim. He scanned through it attentively. This inventory was the exact copy of the one he had in the game.
Ren was delighted, atleast with these, he wouldn't be so vulnerable.
"Curse potions, Black-iron long sword, archer gear... everything I had from those loot boxes I opened is here!" Ren checked the items. Each item he puts his mind on would reveal that item's description.
"What the... all my equipments.. ONLY HAVE 1 DURABILITY?!" Ren was pissed once again. He went and checked the consumables as well and their effects were significantly reduced. Ren focused on his health potion showing it's detail.
"Health elixir x60 (Uncommon-grade) - each elixir can restore 100HP per drop. Crafted by one of the best Alchemist in Gremia and placed in a beautiful tempered glass. Each bottles contain 5 drops capable of mending broken bones, closing deep wounds and rejoining limbs in minutes making it one of the most sought out elixir since ancient times. Sadly, very few were being produced due to the lack of skilled alchemist and materials.
Effects reduced from 1000HP per drop to 100HP per drop, due to it being from a different world." A brown paper appeared within Ren's mind.
"Withdraw Health elixir." Ren needed it badly right now. He got dealt 80 damage and he didn't know if that was substantial or not so it's best to stay in the safe spot.
The elixir appeared in his hands. He chugged it down, unafraid that he would finish it in one sitting. When he took hold of the elixir, he found out he could control the amount it would let him drink. He thought just a drop and that's what he got.
Ren felt rejuvenated once again, his bloody arm no longer bled and the wound disappeared like a ghost.
"Scanning surrounding 100 meters complete!
Danger detected! Host is in the middle of a war zone.
Danger detected! Gred of the Horned Serpent approaching Host's position. Scanning Gred's stats: 60 seconds.
'Detected High levels of life energy from Gred.
Scan level insufficient: System level low."
"..." Ren froze.
"Huh? Huh?! Gred? Who in the f*ck is Gred? Why is he heading this way?!" Ren started to panic again just how he did when he was told his strict history teacher that he forgot to do his project which was to write a song about world history and was asked to sing some bullsh*t history song on the spot.
Ren tried to calm himself down, he didn't want to repeat his previous mistake. Ren scanned over his inventory again and came up with a plan.
He would try to kill Gred when he comes.