Chapter 2 – A Statue's Life
With the beginning of the age of magic, humans had set out from Earth to many places in the universe. Mars, Jupiter, Pluto, all of these planets had become the settlement of humans.
As time passed, humans went further and further. Humans had found out a lot of other solar systems and decided to give a number to all the solar systems they found. Humans did not use names as it would be confusing and decided to use the easy to remember number.
As the origin of humans, the solar system where Earth was located was called the 1st solar system. After 1000 years had passed, humans had found out about 174 solar systems in the universe and each of the solar systems, there would be many planets there.
The largest solar system ever found was the 85th solar system which had 342 planets orbiting the sun. The smallest solar system was the 23rd solar system with the smallest sun and only had five planets orbiting it.
23rd Solar System. 4th Planet, Planet Mykon. 3rd day, Month 3, Summer, Year 3020.
Planet Mykon was a slightly bigger planet than Earth with approximately fifteen thousand kilometers. When humans first landed on Mykon, the planet was not in a good condition to live.
However, with magic and technology, humans terraformed the planet to make it habitable. Not only Mykon, many other planets went through the same situation so that humans could live there. Nowadays, it was common for humans to terraform a planet to make it habitable.
Mykon had approximately five billion people living there with 258 cities ranging from grade A city to grade E city. The same as the solar system, humans made it easier without naming the city but grading them based on the size of the city.
For a grade A city, there would be a population of at least one billion people while the smallest city was grade E city with a population of at least ten thousand people.
A small magic book shop located in city E-47 currently having its door closed. Outside the shop, many people were walking around visiting other shops in the area. Inside the small magic book shop, a man with black hair sat on a chair looking at the ceiling of the shop while whistling leisurely.
Suddenly, someone knocked on the side door of the shop. The black-haired man stood up and walked towards the door. He opened the door and saw a blonde woman around mid-40s standing there. On the woman's hand was a food container.
"Aunt Claudia, you are here," said the black-haired man. He was Kyle and he continued, "Is this the chicken curry you said yesterday?" Kyle asked while staring at the food container.
"Not only chicken curry, but I also made you some soup," said Aunt Claudia and she handed out the food container to Kyle. Kyle accepted it with both of his arms.
"Thank you, Aunt Claudia. I will make sure to finish all of this," said Kyle while smiling. Claudia looked at Kyle's face and she smiled.
'It looks like he is fine. I guess I will visit him again tomorrow to check on him,' thought Claudia. The real reason she made that curry was to make an excuse to check on Kyle. She was quite closed to Kyle's parents and she knew that Kyle had no other family other than his parents.
She was worried that Kyle would have many problems because he had no one else he could rely on. She had been coming every day for the past few days sending food for Kyle to check on him. The day before, she made some pudding, and two days before, she made Kyle lamb chop.
"I plan to make a mango cake tomorrow. I will bring some for you," said Aunt Claudia while smiling again.
"Oh, you don't need to give me any. You have given me a lot of food for the past few days and I don't want to trouble you anymore," said Kyle.
"It is not a problem at all. It is my pleasure to give food to you. Besides, you are not the only one I give my food to. Uncle Kitto, that lass Ducine and others around here all got my food," said Claudia while smiling.
"Well, if you insist, I will wait tomorrow," said Kyle.
"Hoho, that's more like it. I will come back tomorrow with the mango cake," said Claudia and she left the shop. Kyle looked at Claudia's figure until she was gone from his sight. Kyle walked back inside the shop and closed the side door.
After that, with the chicken curry and soup on his hand, he walked towards the shop basement. Walking down the stairs, he could see a white statue in the middle of the room. The white statue had the same shape as Kyle. Kyle walked straight towards the white statue.
"Master, Aunt Claudia gave you the chicken curry she promised yesterday. She also made some soup for you," said Kyle towards the white statue. The Kyle that was walking around normally was not the real Kyle. The white statue was the real Kyle.
"I will put this in the refrigerator and you can eat it once the system fully integrates with you," said the fake Kyle.
'Ugh! Whatever, just do whatever you want,' thought Kyle. He was really mad and annoyed at what was happening. He had no idea what the dojo system was and how he was chosen to get the system. Looking at how powerful the dojo system was, he did not know if the system would be good or not to him.
"Well then, I will put this in the refrigerator," said fake Kyle.
'By the way, can you at least tell me how long will I be in this situation?' Kyle asked fake Kyle. He knew that fake Kyle could hear his thoughts. Though he was pissed at what happened earlier, he felt like he could trust fake Kyle because he did not feel pain or tired from being a statue.
From that, he could conclude that fake Kyle had no intention of harming him. Maybe fake Kyle annoyed him with the way everything was executed, especially the part when the white liquid entered from his back but since he felt normal, he thought that fake Kyle might not be a bad… person?
Kyle had no idea what being was fake Kyle. Human? Possibly but humans would not easily call someone they had just met once, master. Humans had their pride and they would not lower themselves to call others masters unless that was their job or they were forced to or maybe their fetish.
Monster? Kyle had no experience with monsters. He did read and saw the news about monsters but to him, they were basically a stronger version of animals. Monsters were indeed the stronger version of animals because most of them mutated from normal animals. Some did not look like an animal and that type would usually be monsters from another dimension.
Kyle also knew that monsters were usually mindless. There were intelligent monsters but they were usually super strong monsters, monsters of high rank. Could fake Kyle be a high-rank monster? Kyle had no idea because from his knowledge, monsters were dangerous and they would attack others without much thought.
Fake Kyle looked civilized and calm and he did not look like someone that would attack others. 'Hmph! Don't you dare use my face to attack others,' thought Kyle.
As for other intelligent races? Possible, because after the start of space travel and dimension travel, humans had found out a lot of other intelligent, civilization races. Humans were not the only ones with intelligence, creativity, and technology.
There were countless other civilizations scattered throughout the space and dimensions. There were also confirmed to be alien though people nowadays did not call them alien since their race had their names. There were also elves, dwarves, and beastmen that could be found in the other dimensions when they were a fantasy told from storybooks before the age of magic.
There was an intelligent race called the Mimician. Mimician could shapeshift to other things they wanted. Humans, monsters, table, chair, anything they saw with their eyes, they could shapeshift into them, perfectly. There were a few others shapeshifter intelligent race but their ability was limited, unlike the Mimician.
Kyle thought that fake Kyle could be a Mimician but although the species could shapeshift, they were known to be weak and unable to use strong magic like humans and other species. Fake Kyle however was able to hold Kyle easily using some kind of unknown magic.
"It will take at least three days for the dojo system to finish," said Fake Kyle and he continued, "I know that master is thinking. To confirm what you are thinking, I am not a human, monsters, or other races. As for what is the dojo system, master needs to wait. There is a rule saying I cannot reveal it until the system fully belongs to you," said fake Kyle.
'Three days… that will take a while and he said 'at least' meaning it can be longer,' thought Kyle. 'Since you are not any of those, what are you?' Kyle asked and he continued, 'What do you mean that the system fully belongs to me?'
"I will answer the first question after the dojo system is fully integrated with master. As for the second question, what master is undergoing right now is the process to make master become the owner of the system," said fake Kyle.
Kyle was staring at fake Kyle and he asked, 'Are you the dojo system? Or are you the white book?'
Fake Kyle was smiling without giving any answer to Kyle. Kyle pursed his lips… he could not purse his lips but imagine doing it in his mind. 'I don't want you to answer anymore. I already know you are both the white book and the dojo system. I am not that stupid. I am just asking to see if you might be an enemy.'
Kyle continued, 'I know you will not answer me but are the dojo system the same as those systems told in the novels? Is it something like the cheat system?' Fake Kyle was staring at Kyle.
'No, no, no, don't answer me. I will think of this by myself,' said Kyle and fake Kyle as if getting his cue left Kyle by himself with the food container in tow.
(」°ロ°)」'How can you leave just like that? I thought I was your master!' Kyle was a bit annoyed that fake Kyle left like that. He grumbled for a few minutes with dissatisfaction towards fake Kyle. He was stressed that he was a statue and he was bored but fake Kyle left him just like that.
'I wonder if it is okay for me to sleep?' Kyle thought. Since he had nothing better to do, he thought that sleeping was better. Without anything else to do, Kyle tried to close his eyes… he imagined shutting his eyes and went to sleep.
10th day, Month 3, Summer, Year 3020
Seven days had passed since Kyle became a statue and during the past seven days, many people came to visit him including his friends from college. However, the ones they met were not Kyle but fake Kyle.
Kyle was still a statue and there was no sign for the statue to break. He complained to fake Kyle a lot as he got more and more stressed as the days went by. He could control his emotion before but after three days passed, he became more impatient and he always shouted and released his anger at fake Kyle.
Kyle was not that kind of person but, he was too stressed that he ended up being emotional. He had yet to fully cope with the passing of his parents and then, he was stuck as a statue. His emotions were getting worse and worse as the days went by.
However, on the seventh day, Kyle realized something was wrong with him. 'Why am I getting so angry for the past few days? I know I am annoyed with fake Kyle but, I know he is not a bad person. He is polite to me all the time too but… Why am I getting angry so much?' Kyle wondered.
It was afternoon and fake Kyle came to visit Kyle again. However, once Kyle saw fake Kyle, he suddenly became angry and started lashing out at fake Kyle. Fake Kyle frowned.
"If it takes much longer, master might get some side effects," thought fake Kyle. He knew the reason why Kyle was agitated, so he was not offended with what Kyle said. Other than that, Kyle was his master and thus, he could not get angry at Kyle.
Even so, he was currently worried about Kyle's state. Fake Kyle wanted to help his master. However, he was helpless because he did not know how to help. He had no information about the ability of the dojo system other than knowing himself as the dojo system.
Fake Kyle was blocked from any information regarding his power until it fully integrated into Kyle. That was the only information he had about himself as well as the dojo system. This was the reason why he could not answer Kyle's question.
Be that as it may, he was now worried about the wellbeing of his master. Other than the information stated earlier, he also knew about the time taken for the integration as well as the side effects of it taking too long of a time.
"Is my power that great that it took too long to integrate," fake Kyle wondered. He had no idea if the integration took the scale of the system's power as a factor or not. He could only guess because normally, something harder or difficult took longer to finish.
"From the name of my power, it doesn't sound that impressive," thought fake Kyle and he sighed as Kyle's cussing and cursing got intense. "I hope master will be fine," mumbled fake Kyle.
Fake Kyle decided to leave because he realized that Kyle was agitated whenever he saw him. He decided to let him alone so as to not make Kyle angry. As fake Kyle trying to get out of the basement, he suddenly felt something.
Not only fake Kyle but Kyle too. 'Damn… I am tired of getting angry at him,' thought Kyle when he suddenly felt that something was changing in his body. 'Hah? What is this? Is it done?' Kyle felt that he could slightly move his body and assumed that the integration was finishing.
'Let's try again,' thought Kyle and he tried moving his finger and his finger jolted. Kyle was elated and tried doing the same thing again but with different fingers and they moved though not much but that was an improvement.
Kyle was happy and he tried to call fake Kyle with his mind but there was no answer from fake Kyle. 'Is he sulking?' thought Kyle and he tried moving other parts of his body. Bit by bit, more and more of his body could move.
His body was still covered with the white stuff but his body could already start moving. Without wasting any time, Kyle slowly tried to move his body. Slowly and steadily, he could move more and more. From his fingers to his arm. From his toes to his legs. From his eyes to his mouth. They all could slowly move.
An hour later, Kyle could finally move normally. "I did it!!" Kyle clenched his fist and he realized that fake Kyle had not come to the basement since he started trying to move. "I wonder where did he go?" Kyle thought and he wanted to go upstairs but suddenly, the white stuff covering his body shone brightly.
"What now?!" Kyle panicked. He was afraid that he would become a statue again. He felt like something was moving inside his body and, "Buek!!!" He felt like vomiting. He tried covering his mouth but he felt like some was coming out of his mouth.
Kyle did his best to cover his mouth but he failed when something burst out of his mouth. "Buek!!!!!!" That something was a small sphere of white light. When it came out of his body, all the white stuff on his body was absorbed by it.
"What is it now?" Kyle panicked again. Since he found the white book, everything went wrong. He felt like something wrong would happen again. He was right when the white light went fast towards him. The white light went for Kyle's chest.
Kyle extended his arm trying to block that white light but he was too slow and the white light hit his chest and entered his body. Kyle checked his chest but nothing happened. He checked all over his body and they were all back to normal.
His black hair, his light brown skin, all turned normal. They were not white anymore. All the white stuff was gone and there was no trace of them on his body. "Where did the white light go?" Kyle looked around him and there was no trace of that white light.
Then, he touched his chest, "Is it possible that it is inside my body?" thought Kyle. "Since the white light originates from my body, it must have been related to the white book. That guy must have known something," Kyle looked at the stairs towards the first floor and he ran towards it and went to the first floor to ask fake Kyle.
However, once he got to the shop, there was no one there. "Hmm? Where is he? Is he upstairs?" Kyle walked towards the second floor where his house was located. Be that as it may, it was empty and fake Kyle was nowhere to be seen.
"… Is he stressed because of me and ran away?" thought Kyle but he immediately shook his head as he remembered that the white book was fake Kyle… and something came to his mind. He wanted to confirm something but he was too late when he heard the familiar mechanical voice in his mind.
[Congratulations, Master! The dojo system which is me now belongs to you]