Atlas smiled as he read the rewards portion of the quest. In all the games he's played, gaining the favor of an NPC always led to greater rewards in the future. He stopped himself just short of salivating over what someone who encourages murder could give him.
As for the actual quest content, he was surprised that the system wanted him to kill someone else. That's it. He was only surprised. But of course he would do it. In fact, he would have done it even if the system hadn't told him to. This was because Mrs. Rudolph was actually friends with his late parents, to the point where they actually left her some of their inheritance. She levied this in court to legally acquire the rest of it, leaving him with nothing but mandatory government aid. Of course he cut all ties with her after that. But he'd be surprised if she still remembered him, since this all happened almost 15 years ago.
What confused him was that while the option of gaining favor was grayed out, the option for the Black Skill Ticket was black, meaning he could click it. So of course, he did.
[ Item: Black Skill Ticket ]
[ A pitch black ticket radiating an aura of hatred and malice. Can be used once to acquire any single skill from The One Who Punishes Hubris. The user must be Rank 2 or lower to use. ]
Atlas wondered what this 'Rank' was, but in all games, the full features were always unlocked after completing the first portion of the story. So his first course of action was to, of course, make his merry way over to the lovely residence of Mrs. Rudolph. But he also needed some tools, and since he couldn't buy a gun since it would leave too many clues, he needed a different one. Knives were also off the table since his apartment's washer and dryer cost too much. He decided to try his luck and opened his system.
"Hey so uh, I need a weapon. You got something for me or uh, do I just have to stab the bitch?"
...
...
...
'I didn't expect anything, but why am I still irritated that I'm being ignored? Maybe its just that there's no one on the other side', he thought, as he prepared to come down from the roof.
[ The Embodiment of Discord understands your wish ]
[ The Embodiment of Discord has added an item to your Inventory ]
After this message, he immediately heard a piercing noise and thought he was dying. Feeling the blood running from his ears, he hunched down with his hands pressing down hard on his ears as if to stop what he thought was his melted brains from spilling out. Looking up slightly, he was his system had opened, which meant he had in fact, received something.
[ A higher being has forcibly added an item to your Inventory without a quest. This feature does not unlock until Rank 2. A penalty has been administered. ]
Upon seeing this, multiple questions and profanities ran through his head. 'A higher being? Like a god? Is this shitty system run by a god? What is this penalty? So Ranks do unlock more features? It says without a quest, so couldn't this asshole just have given me an easy quest for the item? Dumb bitch'
Opening his inventory, he saw a golden apple.
'The fuck is this, Fruit Ninja? Minecraft? I needed a weapon and I got an apple. Typical.' Clicking on the apple, he quickly changed his mind.
[ ****'s Apple of Discord ]
[ An apple with a golden exterior and a pitch black, bitter, and rotten interior. Eating this apple will immediately absorb nearby Life Energy and convert it into DP. The conversion is 500 Life Energy to 1 DP. ]
[ Penalty: Eating this apple will reduce the user's HP by 1 every hour until it reaches 0. ]
'So lemme get this straight. I have to eat a rotten apple to suck this Life Energy out of the target, then I die in... wait how much HP do I even have?' Remembering he closed his Status Window early last time, he quickly picked up where he left off in reading it.
...
[ HP: 10/10 ]
[ DP: 1/5 ]
'So I die ten hours after I eat this, and I don't have any of this DP left since I used it for the skills. Nice'
As he thought this, he felt a warmth rise up against his back. The sun had risen. He had stayed there for almost a whole day. Upset that he missed his daily quests in League, his sadness was quickly overturned by a new notification he received.
[ The Cooldown of Sky Walk has been reset. Remaining time: 1800s/1800s ]
'Nice. Now let's get to killing the bitch.'