After breakfast, John left Uncle Wang and Eleanor at the house and went into town just walking around like normal.
Same people, same faces, what a boring town. John was bored. There was nowhere in Vagrant Town he hadn't explored except for the houses of the residents, of course, he didn't want to die.
He couldn't lie, part of him actually craved the danger of breaking and entering the house of powerful people.
But the danger involved in doing that was unimaginable to an ordinary mortal like him.
And the stupid Writing System that brought him to this MAX LEVEL DIFFICULTY the world, had been silent since that night.
Then the Writing System that had been silent and had been ignoring him for a long time now finally reacted.
As John was walking, a user interface manifested in front of him.
"What the f**k", John shouted, and used his hands to feel the interface, he couldn't feel it, his hand passed directly through the interface.
He looked around and found out that the residents were looking at him with the usual contemptuous looks in their eyes, but this time with extra spice.
John could feel his blood rush directly to his head, he hurriedly bowed his head and apologized. The contempt in their eyes was still there, but John didn't care since he had already apologized.
That was just how he was, he didn't feel like killing himself over making them like him was worth it, he felt they would still like him later.
'Besides, who needs the love and adoration of maniacal murderers, they may one day need to kill their friend to advance in their training technique, and they choose me or one of them may have an unclean fascination with my skin or my face and they may decide to carve my skin out, turn me into a puppet or turn me into a sex slave', thinking of all these, John broke out into cold sweat and swore on his fingernail to never go near the residents apart from the mortal residents and Uncle Wang and Eleanor.
'But I really fucked up, as a self-proclaimed avid reader of web novels, especially the system genre, I forgot the common knowledge, ... that almost every system has an interface or a status page where the system communicates with the host directly and where the host stats and cultivation techniques or skills are shown. Oh!, the shame, I feel so embarrassed', John thought, his hands on his red cheeks.
He turned around and started running back to the house excitedly, he wanted to check out the system interface without the prying of human eyes.
To the trainers among the residents, they felt the emotions of John greatly fluctuate from shock, joy, fear, and embarrassment respectively.
For the mortal residents, since they heard that the boy that the town head was taking care of had been healed from his illness, they naturally suspected that the news that they heard was a lie because his behaviour today still seemed like he was still ill, it even seemed like it had gotten worse.
Before he walked about with vacant eyes, now he was swinging his hands about in the air as if he was expecting to hit something.
They could only shake their heads in regret and speak among themselves, " What a pity! such a fine child".
If John was there, he would have gotten mad because when he was being bullied, these same residents saw him and they would just look away as if saying,
"Out of sight, out of mind".
*************
When John got home, he hurriedly ran up the stairs to go to his room, he heard Eleanor calling his name, but he signalled her that he would talk to her later.
As he got to his room, he locked the door and sat on his bed. He called out, " System".
The interface showed itself again with a message on it.
{Ding! If the host wants to do things like that he should first have his soul space unlocked}
"What is soul space?", asked John confused.
{Ding! The soul space is the powerhouse of the trainer. It's where the elemental dams, etc are}
John was amazed at this new information.
"So how do I unlock my soul space", asked John.
{Ding! The host has greatly disappointed the system. The system cannot help you all the time. The host has to gain information about this world alone, the system can't spoon feed you all the time}.
{Ding! Bye Bye John Stone}, a goodbye emoji appeared on the interface and the interface disappeared.
" Wait! Wait! Don't go yet, where are the gifts you promised me and it wasn't as if I didn't try to gain information, it just skipped my mind, Oh! Come on", said John as he tried to explain himself.
'Stupid Run-away System, first you bring me to this world without letting me enjoy the easily gotten fruit of my labour.
Then, you discard me for two weeks and more as if I was some bottom bitch you got tired of. Third, the worst is the fact that you promised me gifts and I haven't received them till now, Don't you know that those who don't keep promises are… are… are…, forget it, you have committed a great sin against me, that's all', ranted John in his head knowing fully well the system could hear.
{Ding! I didn't bring you away from any world, I only brought the host to his rightful world, where he truly belongs}, the interface appeared again with a reply with a system.
{Ding! I didn't discard you, I only left you for some time. Haven't you heard that saying that says "3 days soup/stew tastes the best?"
Warning Host!!! Don't liken the greatest creation of the Author with the dishonorable word "PIMP"}
{As for the promised gifts, the time you will receive the gift has not arrived. Now I hope that with these few points of mine, I have convinced you, not confused you that the System has reasons for everything. Thank you}, on the interface, the picture of a computer with a lawyer's wig on its head in front of a large clapping audience in a court appeared.
John was not amused, " Thank God, the Ding! And Host Stuff is not a must, I thought that it would be a permanent thing like those cliche systems in anime, where the protagonist will be like 'Um, System, I have a name, it's called Whatever, call me by my name, then the system will reply back, Ok Whatever', What do you mean by where I truly belong?"
{...}
{...}
{...}
"Come on, what's with the ellipsis? calm down, John. Calm down, Calm down, don't swear, who knows if the system is like those cliche systems in web novels that do not allow the hosts curse their system, don't let it get you", said John, taking deep calming breaths and eyeing the interface in front of him.
{WARNING!!! The host is not… DAMN, you got me}, was the reply followed by a dismayed look.
Maybe, it was finally getting one up over the system, John miraculously forgot about all his grievances and let the system off.
And as if she read his emotions, there was a knock on his room door, followed by
"John, it's dinner time", (just kidding!!!)
" Uncle Wang wants to speak to you", she said.