In the middle of deep space, there was a man floating along with the stars. Around him was nothing but distant planets and stars. In front of him was a recording screen of Will.
"Tsk! He's slow." Said the man with an annoyed look on his face. "I expected at this point he would be used to dying, and would exploit the respawning ability of his to get stronger materials. But at least he's growing but not nearly fast enough…"
"Well, now that I remember I never really had any hope for him to begin with." He sighs to himself.
This man was none other than the crafting system himself.
The users before Will all are given the same abilities, but they have to figure out themselves how to use and find out their own abilities.
At this point many users had already surpassed Will in everything, be it in crafting, building, fighting, stealing, smarts. Out of all the users he's seen, Will is the slowest one.
He waved his hand and the recording screen disappeared.
He started recounting something that happened 2 years ago.
2 years ago he was on Earth enjoying a small vacation, as he is eating Earth's delicious food, also while trying to find someone who is gonna inherit his system abilities again.
Along with him is a familiar man accompanying him, an old friend, who is none other than Satan.
Despite being in the middle of a busy street outside of a busy restaurant, no one could see or hear them. They could shout and prance around naked right now and nobody would know.
"And so, no sooner than when he realizes he got isekai'd, the idiot decides to first form a 'harem' of the most powerful female anime girls he could think of. And the first one he decides to recruit to his harem is Esdeath, from the anime Akame Ga Kill." Satan says annoyed as he angrily drinks a cold coke.
"So?" The crafting system has seen that anime, but didn't see what was wrong with that.
"And no later than 2 HOURS AFTER HE GOT ISEKAI'D SHE KILLS HIM! Waste of my time. I swear next time I pick someone, I will threaten him should he ever think of making a harem."
In reality though Satan didn't care if his user made a harem, but if that affected his/her growth for the worst, like what happened with the other users, he'll indeed put a stop to it.
Satan waited a few years for this system user to inherit the system's powers. He seemed like a bright man, strong willed, smart, and most importantly he has experience in killing people. He only waited a few years because that's when he would die, and only then could he give him his powers.
The man was an ex military soldier who was discharged after an accident that left his lower body paralyzed. He also loved fiction in order to escape from reality.
But for some reason after being isekai'd he thought he had plot armor like a typical MC would and died, making it feel like he waited for nothing.
"2 hours? That's gotta be a new record. Wait, now that I remember where's blue?"
Blue is the real system, just like him. Satan is not a system but an ex system user. Satan sometimes gets bored and takes it upon himself to find and recruit suitable system users.
"I lost a bet with her and now I have to look for another system user. Anyways, what about your last guy? How did he die?" Satan wanted to know.
Satan knows that the crafting system gives his user many abilities, one is the 'respawn' ability or 'reincarnation' as some people call it. The only way to kill his system users is by destroying his/her soul.
"He accidentally stumbled across some type of animal that absorbs souls of the ones it kills. It was very bad luck on his part. Shame. And I had high hopes for him."
The crafting system looks for people who are smart, brave, and adventerous. Each system looks for people who are suited to them.
Both of these beings stumbled around each other by chance. They hadn't seen or talked to each other in a long time. They were just catching up.
"Really though. We've been doing this for countless years, and yet every single one of them is a failure."
"It's very annoying. Why don't we just… fuck it! You know! Pick out someone randomly." The crafting system was just tired of always wasting his time looking for suitable people and dying.
"Right here, right now? There's 300 years left and you wanna… actually you know what let's do it. Why not? If we can't find any suitable users by then we'll all be dead anyways." Satan asked. In truth it's not the first time they've picked out someone randomly. But they are being a little more picky because of time.
Satan and the crafting system both notice something.
They sense a huge truck not slowing down despite there being a red light. The truck driver was feeling drowsy and falling asleep.
They also see a young boy, running and not paying attention to his surroundings as he bought a new video game, Bloodborne. This kid is obviously Will.
"Let's bet on the boy. If he dies right now he's with you. If he survives he's with me." The crafting system said for no real good reason other than the fact that they're bored and tired of trying.
Systems abided by a few rules: Rule number 1, they cannot interfere with the lives of anyone on Earth. If they break this law… nothing would happen to them. But for many reasons they do not interfere.
Rule number 2: They can only give their powers to people after they have fulfilled their time on Earth. They cannot give people their powers before as it is not possible.
"Deal." Satan agreed. They don't usually give their powers to humans under 25, as they're not mature enough or smart enough to handle such power. They've done a few tests and people over 25 seemed to survive longer than most people under 25.
Both of these beings are gods and can see anyone's lifespan, what they're gonna do with their lives to pick out suitable system users. But they're not using any such abilities right now because this is a lot more fun.
As Will notices the truck too late, someone else pulls him out of the way, it's none other than Alex.
"Looks like he's with me then." The crafting system said, pretty bored. This is not the first time they've seen someone save another person like that. Many of their users have done this before.
"Then I'll pick the other kid." Satan looked at Alex. He took out a small handbook from his pocket. It might look like a small handbook but the pages it contained were infinite. It contained the lives of everyone on Earth.
"Really? Well that makes things interesting. Say how about another bet? Loser has to do the winner's job for a century."
"Deal. But don't do my job half ass." Satan said, as if he had already won.
"Okay. After they've received our powers whoever's user dies first loses."
"Yeah, sure." Satan agreed nonchalantly. Luckily for both of them they didn't expect that in less than 6 years both would have already died despite being young.
Back to the present...
Not long after everyone in the kingdom and the Empire finally knew of Will Connor, the 100th hero. People of course were happy to hear, but they weren't happy that Will didn't bother to show his face to the public.
Only Jeff, the hero with his amazing memory ability, could give them details of Will's facial features. What they did not know is that the Will that Jeff remembered back in school is entirely different from the person he is right now.
Bruce could help but he never really bothered as he saw no point in helping them. And he didn't want to think about Will right now as he is Sandra's boyfriend, and it just brought painful memories whenever he thought of her.
The next day Will kept his promise and returned the weapon to the Princess. It was easy. He just flew to the window of her room at night, teleported in her room, and just placed the gun on her table. His magical item might have a short teleporting distance, but it's convenient for breaking and entering.
Will really thought that they had better security especially after the Princess had been kidnapped not too long ago, but he guesses that they expect the Great Sage this time to take action should anything like this happen again? Will didn't really know and didn't really care.
Now that he knows how to make magical weapons it made him work extra hard for this mana ores. He has realized that mana ores are far more important than he originally thought.
In short he needs a lot of mana ores, and a lot of powerful bodies of monsters. He thought of making a monster spawner, but this wasn't minecraft…
"This is gonna take longer than I expected." Will said to himself.
He had 5 weird looking golems in front of him, all were made out of gold.
Out of all his golems that were destroyed by the giant scorpions, only two golem cores survived. If their cores are destroyed it's game over for them. Not even Will can restore the golem cores.
The extra 3 golem cores were made by him after the Empress gave him 36 low-tier mana ores. He needs 10 low-tier mana ores to create 1 single low-tier golem core.
Will was worried that these golems were gonna awaken another nest of scorpions so he had to keep an eye on them. Until he can get his hands on 2 more pieces and another material of anti-hero metal he won't be able to make better golems.
You see, he needs this item that will REALLY help him with building better stuff, not just golems.
{Hologram platform: Able to plan, build, and craft what the system cannot. The only limit is your imagination, which isn't much}
{Crafting recipes: 100 blueprints, 8-anti-hero metals, 1 advanced mana ore}
Will knew that whoever gave him this system was fucking with him. The description definitely changed the last time he saw it.
Apart from the 8 anti hero metals, the advanced mana ore is gonna give him trouble.
He surprisingly did the math, which took him longer to calculate than one needed to, and he figured out that he needed 100 low-tier mana ores to make 1 advanced mana ore. If it was a high-tier mana ore he would need 1000 low-tier mana ores to make one.
So he decided to take a huge risk and decided to go all out on the golems once more. But this time he'll be there to protect them.
"You guys can do it. I believe in you." Will said to motivate his golems, but they didn't really need to be motivated.
"MaStEr!" The golems said in unison in a raspy and hoarse voice.
Obviously he gave him the best enchanted pickaxes he could make. He also had with him a shotgun with normal bullets. Using explosives underground would be stupid.
{Battery-shotgun}
{Enchantment: Infinity}
He knew that scorpions weren't tough but were poisonous, huge, and large in numbers. Using shotguns was never his style, but he knew that using this weapon is very effective at close range, probably.
Meanwhile…
"Woohoo! That's awesome." Josh said as he released an arrow at a tree. It's the first time he's shot an arrow.
"Really good, hero Josh." Felicia and Naveah said in a seductive tone. They're trying something new to get into his pants. Naveah wants to solidify her status and bear his child to live a better life. Felicia didn't want to fall behind so she is copying Naveah.
"Thank you." Josh really, really wanted to bang them. But, one thing he has learned from reading stories about the main character is that they all stay as virgins until the very end, even if they have a harem of 100 beautiful women they stay virgins. He surprisingly had good self control.
'Is this the torture most main characters go through? It's worse than I thought.'
The only way main characters lose their v-card is when they finish their long journey, get married, and have a kid or kids who will continue that journey for the viewers.
Josh thought that this was something like a wizard, that virgins turn to wizards if they turn 30 years old. Josh didn't plan to wait that long but rather until his journey ended. When does his journey end? He wasn't too sure, but he thinks that he first needs to fight and kill the antagonist of this story, whoever it may be.
'Naruto did it, so I don't see why I can't do this either.' Josh thought.
"You guys think this might pierce and kill a dragon?" Josh asked his thirsty harem.
"Without a doubt!"
In truth, they really had no idea what Josh would bother to use a bow. Guns are far more useful. Bows are more for hunting and killing weaker monsters like goblins.
And what made less sense is that Josh has the second strongest offensive power, the first being the Great Sage. His power has been proven to kill multiple dragons with ease. A mere bow won't do crap even if he is a hero!
"OH CRAP! I almost forgot. I special ordered these a few days ago when I found my way back to the kingdom." Josh took out 2 skimpy swimsuits from his storage ring. He got another one from the king.
"Oh… what is that?" Naveah asked.
Both were swimsuits that barely covered much and exposed so much skin. It was made from a highly resistant rubber material, and was enchanted. One was red, and the other one was blue. They are both a plain but skimpy design.
Josh also had a smaller, cuter, swimsuit that was for Maid. But Josh thinks she has died so he cannot give it to her.
"This is… very powerful and special armor! From my homeworld." Josh smiled coyly. He knew exactly what he was doing.
Naveah took out an enchanted magnifying glass and inspected the 'armor' both had the exact same enchantments.
{Enchantment: Fire resistant II}
{Protection: II}
{Damage resistant: I}
"Armor? But it doesn't cover much, or anything at all." Naveah asked.
In her mind armor is meant to cover and protect you. The parts that don't cover up their skin are not protected in the slightest.
If her 'armor' had a high level fire resistance and if she were to be engulfed in flames it wouldn't do crap for the exposed skin.
Both did not like to reveal too much skin, one was shy and the other was used to wearing long robes. And both felt like if they wore such 'armor' they were afraid it would slip and tear easily even if they had to walk.
"I know. It's supposed to provide you with more flexibility." Josh used the most overused lie of all time.
"Do… Do sorcerers like me require more flexibility?" Naveah never really thought of that. The robes she and every sorcerer wears have some sort of enchantment embedded on it.
"Of course! Your robe actually slows you down when you wear it. Like when you fly you fly slower because of air resistance! If you wear this, you'll be flexible, but you'll also be faster because you won't be held back by air resistance. I mean just look at Harry Potter. I bet you when they fly around in their brooms with their robes they don't account for wind resistance."
"Hm… you make a good point, I think." Naveah had absolutely no idea what the hell he meant by 'Harry Potter.'
'Does he though?' Felicia, the most loyal one to Josh, questioned him. If it's that good why doesn't he wear one? Or why can't he special order another armor that not only protects your whole body but is also flexible?
In the end both of them tried on the swimsuits.
"You both look beautiful." Said Josh, complimenting them.
"Thanks." Both said at the same time.
They were too embarrassed wearing such skimpy clothing. And the worst part is that the swimsuits aren't that flexible, and are tight. It was hard to move around while wearing it.
"..." Josh.
'This is now how the script is supposed to go.'
In his mind, when he complimented and gave them their 'armor' they were supposed to react like this,
'Oh my god he called me beautiful! Maybe if I wear this swimsuit long enough he'll start to notice me AND THEN WE'LL START DATING! AND THEN GET MARRIED AND GET A BUNCH OF KIDS AND THEN KYAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!'
But instead he got the most lame ass response he could think of: 'Thanks.'
"Let's slay some monsters! Onwards!"
Meanwhile…
While Will was busy keeping a close eye on his golems, something grabbed his foot and coiled around it.
"SNAKE!" Will jumped away out of shock. He's not afraid of snakes, but if something were to suddenly crap your foot like that, most people would react the same way.
But it was one of Adaline's vines that grabbed his foot.
"Adaline, we gotta do something about that. Golems, stop." It's not the first time this has happened, and he's not getting used to it. He commanded his golems to stop. The fact that Adaline grabbed his foot means that she needs him for something.
He quickly ran all the way up, which again took quite a while.
Upon finally exiting his cave, Adaline and Sandra are side by side, worried about something.
"What… happened?" Will asked, out of breath.
"So, remember how everyone knows you're the 100th hero?" Sandra said, awkwardly.
"Yeah?"
"And remember the time, long ago, when people said that the '100th hero lives somewhere in the deserted lands?'"
"Yeah? So- oh crap." Will realized it was that time.
"And remember the bet we made?"
"Yeah. I lost." Will was not looking forward to this.
Right after leaving the kingdom, he told Sandra what happened. And she knew that people would want to meet and greet the 100th hero. Will also thought the same, but didn't think they'd know where he'd live, or would be able to find him this quick.
Both landed on top of the walls that they created. They saw the sight of not one, but hundreds of people.
"IT'S THE HERO!" Someone shouted.
"AND THE OTHER HERO IS THERE, TOO! THEY MUST BE A COUPLE!"
"AAAAAHHHHH!" People started screaming, some cried out of pure happiness, some got on their knees being able to finally see the 100th hero. People haven't been this happy ever since Sora finally appeared in Smash.
'Isn't this exaggerated?' Will thought. He knew that heroes are a big deal in this world, but was it really necessary to cry?
As if Sandra knew what Will was thinking, she said, "It was 100 times worse than this when we were summoned."
"Jesus. What do they want?" Will could not tell why people would ever bother to travel all the way out here.
"I think they just wanna talk to you, and meet you. They must have a lot of questions since you're the missing hero."
"It would have been better if my name was George. 'Cause then I would be known as GeorgeNotFound." Will smiled, and patted himself in the back for coming up with that joke.
"Hahaha! I understand." Sandra chuckled slightly.
"Anyways… should we shoot them?" Will whispered to her.
"Woah, easy there Technoblade?! There are children over there! Do you wanna make them orphans? And they just wanna talk to you, not rob you."
"Relax, just a joke. Good thing I came prepared." Will took out a golden ball from his inventory and hid inside his walls where no one could see him.
People then started protesting that they couldn't see the hero anymore.
"What are you doing?"
"I am gonna make it rain. Here, wear this first." Will placed a leather coat on top of her.
Using the device in his hand, the entire area got dark. Seconds thunder, lightning, and heavy rain fell everywhere.
There is no way he's gonna waste his time talking to people when he can just drive them away.
"Ha! Let's see how long they're gonna last out there." Will smiled. He really didn't want people to live in his castle/base/stone fortress. At this point he didn't know what to call it.
Inside his base lies his secrets that no one should know: The exotic flower and seed, the golems, the infinity enchantment, and others. The longer they stay here, the more likely it is they'll find out about this stuff.
"Looks like they also came prepared." Sandra pointed to the people.
"What do you mean?" Will look at the people. They all brought their own tents, food, and other necessary stuff to survive.
They were all surprised that it started to rain because these lands do not rain. It is always dry and hot.
"Well they're prepared, I'll give them that." Will wanted to make it snow at first, but seeing those kids there, he was afraid he'd hurt them or something by suddenly making the entire area cold.
He guessed that some of these people were sent by the King to talk to him. Otherwise why would they spend money on food and clothes to meet him?
"What do you want to do?" Sandra asked. Will didn't seem like he's gonna let them in, or drive them either.
"I don't know, what can we do? We can always shoot them."
"Wasn't funny the first time."
"You're right. Well we made the walls so high so it's not possibly for people to break in by climbing. And we reinforced the ground after part of the castle collapsed, so people can't dig their way inside. And Adaline is keeping guard, so it's not possible to break in. But if people try to force their way in, no one should blame us for using force. I'll be in my hole now. Good bye."
Will did not wish to kill innocent people, but hurting them was okay. It's like the time when he used to play video games, and when he chose a rude dialogue that he didn't know was rude, he would always feel bad about it. But killing people who deserved it was alright for him.
Some people might say he's overdramatic, and those people are correct.
The rain continued on for hours. And instead of it driving the people away, more people gathered. There were now enough people to surround the entire castle.
"ALRIGHT FINE I'LL TALK TO THEM! Holy crap they're more stubborn than I thought." Will was getting annoyed by these people surrounding his entire base. He could hear them chanting, calling out to him every hour. He couldn't eat, rest, or bathe properly.
"Yup." Sandra, and Adaline were just lazing about. Whenever there's rain they just feel like doing nothing but lie around all day.