Aki could only stare into the setting sun as he waited for the system clock to reach zero. There was simply no good thing for him to do with remaining time but to clutch his giant back pack to his chest. It pressed against his improved bullet vest, his loose shirt and pants comfortable, but not really offering the same protection. There'd simply been no special equipment of the like, so he could only focus on bettering his skills instead of his equipment.
The backpack he held was so heavy he could not in fact move much with it however. It had three charged rocket launchers cramed inside, two machine guns, two belts with five hand grenades each, two hand guns, and all the ammo he could fit in the rest of the space. His sniper rifle, one he'd obtained through cleaning camps and could ignore armour up to a certain point, was slung against his back and pressing down on the back seat. It really didn't much boter him at this point.
Through these twelve days, he ended up cleaning around twenty one bandit camp, the most recent even having the help of a military squad to back him up since it had so fucking many hostiles it'd even triggered a new side quest.
Gone was the boy waiting for his next chance of entering medicine university, now there was only a blood thirsty man with a sadistic glean trying to overwhelm his rationality.
His fat was mostly gone, his muscles slim and more defined, a small black stubble on his jaw. Then suddenly, his eyes relaxed. He'd be seeing his little sister soon enough, no way he'd let the four year old see him look ready for murder.
He'd befriended and even saved the life of several soldiers on his short stay, allowing for what he thought of as a high completion rate of his mission. His skills had come up nicely, though new common skills did not provide any more stats at this point.
No more skill books had dropped besides the first, which had been only mildly useful in combat, but that made sense considering the ease with which he obtained skills around here. No chance this would be the normal rate of improvement though.
Meditation had done wonders for him already, somehow, because he was simply thinking if he'd be able to buy some cake or ice cream in the airport before his father arrived to get him.
His vision went dark again, his body floated, then he and his backpack came down on the ground. The weight was pressing on his chest as he hit the ground, but he sucessfully rolled the thing to the side and focused on his notification.
{Newbie dungeon: Desolated city of dissorder
Difficulty: Newbie
Main mission: Survive for a week (100% complete, F rating awarded)
Secondary mission (Optional): The bandit lord (100% complete, E rating awarded)
Secondary mission (Optional): Hunting canibals (100% complete, D rating awarded)
Secondary mission (Optional): The fort of greed (100% complete, B rating awarded)
Hidden mission (Optional): Help civilians (200% complete, S rating awarded)
Battle performance: Very active ( SS rating awarded)
Exploration performance: Active (Not enough for SSS rating)
Special rating 1: Lowest atribute at E- (SSS rating awarded)
Special rating 2: Awakened a rare skill by himself (Z rating awarded)
Special rating 3: Killed more than a hundred bandits in one dungeon dive (+1 Rep)
Special event rating: Help the military (200% complete, ZZZ rating awarded)
Newbie dungeon benefit: +1 to rating
Final rating: V
Final reward are:
65.000 points, 35 Special points, 10 golden points, Special dungeon: The Major's call
Special dungeon: The Major's call - Your performance on the battle field and the soldiers' likeness to you has greatly impressed the cunning Major Pzarto. You have been called back, this time towards a more stable city because of some troubling events that caught the suspicion of those above your pay grade.
Main mission: Starts after entering the dungeon.
Note: This dungeon happens in the same world as the newbie dungeon.
Note: This dungeon will not be counted towards your total dungeon limit.
Note: The dungeon difficulty will be the same as the player's level.
Note: The dungeon will initiate after the player has completed a single player or team dungeon and the cooldown has been reset.
Remark: Because of special circunstances, this special dungeon can only be played on single player mode.
Note: If the player fails the main mission, they will pay a penalty like they had failed a dungeon of their current level.}
Reading through the whole thing, Aki was extremely surprised for several reasons. To begin with because these ratings seemed to completly ignore any way of grading he knew and simply flipped of S rank, which likely ment that was also not the limit to attributes, nevermind whatever else could appear as 'hidden'. Second, it seemed like he could complete more than 100% of a mission, which was pretty broken. Third, there was a reputation system related to the dungeons. Fourth, what the fuck were those points, nevermind the ones he'd received the most of, he'd expected some form of currency, but those two weeks were 2.5 times more valuable to the system them his whole life, seriously, even if he understood that on a logical level, it was still irritating on a lot more levels.
Sighing, Aki could only leave for now and go towards a more normal location, which was pretty easy to do since it only took a mental comand.
There he was again, at the alley where there were supposed to be two corpses. Only he stood there though, not even blood on his clothes or hands to prove the exchange that led to all of that happened. He didn't need any though.
Taking out his phone, he saw that roughly only an hour had passed, which was pretty consistent with the cliches of such games, and he wouldn't be complaining about it. The seven missed calls from his father were much more worrying however. He was the flippant kind of man that would leave him behind if he simply ignored him for too long, so he imediatly called.
"Son! Where are you!? I've been worried!" Exclaimed the man on the other side, who'd only caught up the call at the third ring.
"Sitting near a phone tower that is compatible with my charger. Had to ask another traveler for help till i finally found one. Which entrance are you at?" Aki asked, noting exitedly that his body was much stronger and faster, not just his mind clearer despite reaching the real world. The game was very real, though his phisical capabilities were much reduced from that of what he got used to in these last days. The was a limiter, though he could not say if it was the game system or the world itself that made him unable to use his higher stats. At E rank he should be nearing what professional atlethes and mercenaries reached in their peak after all.
How hard would he be able to punch after SSS+ then? How much power would he be able to manifest in the real world?
He didn't know, but overall, he was more than happy enough to figure it out. The game itself, however, did not simply dissapear because he left the lobby, and several notifications made themselves present on his vision, informing him of the general functions of the game world. He'd read them at the car his father promised to rent to pic him up.
Turns out, the tall and portly man was supper stingy with receiving his son, who he'd not personally met in over ten years, and had taken the cheapest car that would still take then back and forth. Aki, however, heavily approved of that since it was a one time thing, he'd only have complained if he'd intended to walk or take the subway with someone that had just passed through a flight of several hours.
They were mostly silent after Aki was told that everyone else would likely be asleep, but they'd go out to have a family dinner tommorow, the young man expressing happiness despite his fate to sleep at the couch. He'd just spent two weeks sleeping on stone, of course he was happy with a couch. On the way, he even used the chance to read the game functions more than once, making sure he understood it all.
And so they went, reaching the apartment complex late into the night, both his younger siblings asleep as well as their mother. A couple of quick photos to send back to his own home later, and he went to sleep, his own father simply collapsing after tucking himself in his bed.
Staring at the unremarkable ceiling though, Aki was unable to sleep.
A death game invite that allowed to learn actual magic! His cute baby siblings in the flesh! He would be too excited to sleep even if his body had not been reinvigorated by the system. Instead, he turned on his left side and closed his eyes, logging into the game again. He'd not be delving again, just checking the forums and general store. Maybe also his own lobby too since he'd not actually seen much of the place.
He could try and leave the room too, but he was still too fucking weak, not even able to dodge a sniper bullet or detect someone trying to kill him front a distance for that matter! His ticket was from killing a player, not being invited or chosen by the system, meaning he just didn't know enough about shit, and there wasn't much he could do about such without more time.
Actually taking in his surroundings, Aki started looking through the suburban home with white walls and bare appliances. It had bathrooms, a bedroom with a big bed, a table with four chairs in the kitchen, which was also fully furnished with functional apparels similar to the ones in his home, not that he knew how to cook anything other than rice and eggs.
From what he gathered, there was a whole session of the forum and store about decorating and changing the player lobby, but he rather liked the way things were. There were a few items that actually gave bonuses after continued stay on the lobby, like filling it with certain tipes of energy or helping with alleviating mental fatigue, nevermind several stations for specific craftings or storage containers for certain tipes of materials.
While he could see the value in it however, Aki was not a crafter, nevermind how expensive these things generally were. He'd preffer to pilfer and procure his things when possible, and maybe befriend some crafters if he could, learn a bit of enchanting or the like to reinforce his own things further down the road.
Before anything though, he needed to get rid of his two extra rocket launchers, because while they were his best weapon as of now, he simply didn't have a way to carry around such cumbersome things if he wanted to run around, nevermind bring back stuff from the dungeons he would be diving. He'd even need to get rid of his remaining launcher were he to not be able to find a good enough magical bag.
After searching the shop for over an hour he was beggining to panic a bit, but he just needed to start typing his search on the forums and he easily found an uncommon bag a meter and a half over, like those you'd put your gym stuff at, which contained twice that amount of space inside and slightly reduced the weight of each item put inside. He imediatly bought it despite it costing just as much as the model of rocket launcher he had, some six thousand points, which only took a moment since simple exchanges between players were quite simple to arrange and the link for the bag had the contact of the guy doing them.
A quick and dry conversation later, he could carry around the stuff he'd actually use without a problem. Namely the sniper, rocket launcher, some food, water and bandages from the shop. The rest could come with him on his tool belt, pockets or body.
Selling the weapons was just as easy though, because there were always guilds getting ready for a war, nevermind players that could use a weapon to instantly kill or damage various beings. He didn't really try very hard, but after another hour, he'd made 12,600 points, five percent more than the market value, but he was still learning, and could also feel his bartering skill had come closer to leveling up in proficiency, though only a small amount.
"Well now, to figure out what i can use all of these points for." Aki mutered, seeing as how there was even an option to exchange points into special points and vice versa, at a rate of 3k to 1 in an obvious proportion.