Whenever the red shadow opened its mouth, a voice resounded at the back of Jem's head. It seemed like someone was whispering from behind him.
It sent shivers on him.
"G-guardian system?"
Subconsciously, Jem repeated the shadow's words.
[Yes, do you require power?]
"What is that?"
"What is a guardian system?"
"Wait, is this my hallucinations?"
"Am I dead?"
"Could it be… This entity in front of me is the sovereign of the soul? The entity that governs all the departed soul that my grandpa used to tell me when I was a child?"
Without giving regards on his confusions, the words repeated in his head.
"P-power?" He suddenly noticed the word.
After hearing it, Jem felt an urge to shout that he needed it. He wanted to obtain power. He wanted to become stronger, even if it was a little.
"A-a contract?"
Jem had no idea what happened to him. He had no idea about his current situation. But he noticed a sinister smile appeared in the giant red shadow.
After that, the shadow that called as a guardian system or the trader started explaining to him his current situation. Or how the contract works and how the system works.
In the present, Jem was in the middle of hundreds of beasts swarming around him.
Sticky saliva was gushing out from their mouths, and their eyes were all red. The ground shook as they raced forward to gnaw the human in front of them.
However, the lying body of an unconscious human suddenly opened his eyes. The next second, an invisible force burst out from his body and pulverized the surrounding monsters around him.
Those white monsters with thick fur and two long fangs on their mouths were Rank B mutated beasts. But all of them died in the blink of an eye without letting them grief.
Not even those two Level 3 Recruit Ex-Human soldiers with them that time could handle those monsters. It was also the reason why Jem was in a dire situation recently.
Their plan was to hunt low-tier mutated beasts around the river. It was near the entrance of the Desolate Region.
But one of the party members, Desty's classmate, disobeyed the soldier's warning. He crossed the river, and something happened after that led him to this situation.
A scenario happened in which one of them must be the sacrifice to help the others escape; In the end, they chose him as the unfortunate sacrifice. No, he couldn't even choose. They decided it out of consent.
Jem could not remember how many minutes, hours, or days had it been. He lost count of the time after that. To escape from those beasts, he wandered around the Desolate Region to try to find a suitable place to hide.
However, it was futile; there was no safe place in the Desolate Region.
He could not remember how many times he spat the word revenge while running away from the beasts.
He reached a point in which hunger and thirst accumulated inside him. He had to eat and drink all that he thought was edible.
In the Desolate Region, you couldn't say if it was day or night. Around it was just a foggy place. Dangers were lurking everywhere.
Although Jem was able to survive a little longer, in the end, he found himself surrounded by those monsters.
Meanwhile, he was standing alone in the same place where he lost his consciousness, but a new determination was apparent on his face.
He glanced around and saw that it was empty. There was only him in this cave with green illumination coming from the mysterious crystals around it.
Jem was standing alone, but the other side of him was black, and the other side was himself.
For the contract to be effective and install the system on him, the guardian system asks him for something valuable to him that he could trade-off.
Jem, who had nothing valuable at that moment, decided to trade half of his soul.
Said the guardian system before the black half of Jem disappeared, revealing his real half after it.
According to the system, anything that was valuable to the system had a corresponding value.
He could trade-off to exchange them as T-points. Then, he could use the points to buy abilities. Though, it depends on the tier, the value of the skill he wished to obtain.
The system also said that he could upgrade his Exo points. But each value of it increases every time he promotes it.
At first, he was skeptical. But after seeing the unfathomable occurrence, the vanishing of hundreds of Rank-B beasts, in front of him, he could only hug the new reality.
"Status System," he whispered the word that the system told him a while ago. After saying it, a bluish holographic screen floated in front of him.
[STATUS SCREEN]
Host: Jem Hansen
Race: Human
Level: 0
Exo Points: 1/10
Ex-Energy: 50
Ascendance Points: 5/100
Trade Points: 0
Skill/s: Fortification
"!?"
Jem was surprised to see it. The voice told him that it was his status. After a couple of seconds of inspection, he could only sigh at his stats.
To level up, he needed to fill his Ascendance Points. But it wasn't easy to fill it as he had 1 Exo Point only. So his priority was to promote his Exo Points.
Before that, he needed valuables to exchange with T-points because he needed it if he wanted to promote his Exo points to quicken his ascendance.
He glanced around him. However, his eyes landed on the small amount of water beneath him. His figure reflected on it. He grimaced upon noticing his bloodied figure.
He also noticed his cut arm. At the moment, he only had one arm. The system clotted his wounds and helped him regain his stamina. But it did not regrow his cut arm.
He sighed.
The system helped him get rid of those beasts, but he was still in danger.
At the corner of his eyes, he noticed the broken saber lying beside the amount of water.
He picked it.
[You obtained a broken saber.]
A notification appeared in front of him, which caused him to blink his eyes.
He also noticed a floating [Tradable] text inside a rectangular box. "This weapon is useless now, but it's better than nothing," he whispered. He disregarded the text and glanced around him.
His eyes landed on the crystals. "Those crystals might be tradable also."
He walked beside the nearest wall and struck the stone using the broken saber to dislodge the crystal.
However, after a high-piercing noise, his hand trembled at the hardness of the stone.
"Tsk, the saber is too light for it," Jem Hansen whimpered.
"I needed something hard and heavy."
"Hmm…" He thought and scanned in his mind for solutions.
"Wait, a hatchet is what I need!"
Jem asked the system about the value of hatchet.
"Then how much is the value of this broken saber?"
<5 points.>
"Hehe," Jem showed a toothy grin, though he lacked some tooth in front. "Now, let's start the trade!"
"....."