Waking up I can feel my body aching in every corner. The pain reminded me of the battle I had last night.
Slightly panicking I look around the room only to see there's no body to be found. I was relieved as I wasn't sure I could deal with a dead body with the state that I'm in both physically or mentally. However I soon started panicking again, after all where could a body go?
Knowing there's no use to keep asking questions here, I bolted upstairs where my only source of information, the phone, was. Upon entering, the gory scene I saw last night was no more, this body was gone too.
Suppressing my fear, I checked the phone and was greeted with a notification. After skimming through it a sigh of relief left my mouth as my worries were uncalled for. Cleaning up huh... it's certainly a useful feature.
It seems like I was partially healed too as all my serious wounds were no where to be found. My body still feels like hell though. Before I continued checking the rewards, I searched through the bed to find my normal phone and quickly called Lucien.
Even if it's as a joke, Lucien will still do the minimum to follow through that's why I have asked him to do research about Venar street yesterday. Now I only hope he was lazy and didn't do any probing. If I were the one to exposed my friends to danger like this I would never be able to live the rest my life in peace.
"Hm? Dummy? What you doing calling so late?" [Lucien]
Late?
"Say have you done the research about Venar street like I asked you to?"
"What street? Ah that! No I haven't, you want me do it now?" [Lucien]
"Nope. Turns out I got the wrong street yesterday. The street is Veran street not Venar street like I thought. Similar name so I got confused you know."
"Oh sure, going to work on it tomorrow. If that's all then cya, in a test tomorrow so got to sleep early." [Lucien]
"Cya."
Beep.
Giving the phone a quick glance I was surprised to see the time. It was 9:34 pm.
Did I sleep through the whole day? Perhaps the fight yesterday was too intense for me.
Only then did I realize my stomach is protesting. Normally I would just eat some cup noddles from my kitchen but I just don't really feel like it today so I grabbed my phone and went out to get some food. I'll check the rewards at the restaurant later.
* * * * * * * *
"Your friend called?" [?]
"Yeah, he said it's the wrong street. What do you think?" [Lucien]
"Whether it's a coincidence or not we'll soon know. However what's important is that place now. Someone's definitely tampering with something there." [?]
"What should we do?" [Lucien]
"Sigh. Times like these is when I wished I haven't chosen this job. You call reinforcements, those elite guys. I'll keep an eye out for them." [?]
"Well... Stay safe I guess." [Lucien]
"Don't worry, this old man ain't that fragile." [?]
* * * * * * * *
I quickly devoured a bowl of chicken and fries while gulping down my soda. It might not be very clean but I was too hungry to think about that.
Strange, I shouldn't be this hungry even if I slept through the day. Content with my meal I started looking through my rewards.
[Reward available, take it?]
Yes.
[Due to interferences from creator, rewards for both task has been change.
Connecting with creator.]
Connecting? Does it means that plushie is coming?
What I didn't expect was a chat interface to appear.
[Creator: Heya, you slept good?]
[Owner: you never told me I can just chat with you]
[Creator: whatever, it's not like I would reply to you most of the time anyway so why bother! Wait something it's bothering me... there!]
[Idiot(dummy): ??]
[Idiot(dummy): .... Very funny]
It's a shame to say this but I chuckled a bit. Dealing with online chatting and offline is always a different experience for me.
[Cute plushie: oh yes your rewards. I'll give you a piece of information about the mission and a free advice section! How is that?]
Actually that doesn't sound too bad. Advice is really valuable considering how much I need to know currently and how it takes half a year to reset.
It does makes me curious though if the reduced rewards are like this how good were the original rewards?
Curiosity got the best of me and I could help but ask.
[Dummy: say if this is the reduced rewards then what's the original?]
[Plush: it's very spicy you know? The life saving amulet literally gives you an extra life! And the hidden task rewards are a [Rank 7 ability creation card] and 5k points. It's literally impossible to do without help though so don't mind them.]
Rank 7... I just lost a rank 7 creation card...?! Even if it's something impossible I still want it!! Give me my cheats dammit!
Well enough raging. I would say my rewards are already super good considering this was something I brought upon myself. If use correctly, an advice section can gives more benefit than all of those combined! That's what I hope.
[Dummy: can you tell me the information first?]
[Plush: great choice! Here's the information: 'the mission tells you to go at the 21st but the incident started at the 20th.']
It started at the 20th? Suddenly I felt a bad premonition in my heart. The mission told me to 'be involved in a supernatural incident with a member of any official organization' meaning that there will be someone from these organizations present at the 21st. But if the incident started at the 20th... does that means it'll take a whole day for ANY 'official organization' to appear?
I could feel a chill on my back. Just considering how strong those sent to take care of me, someone who could be considered a normal person, then what about the people who sent them?
If whatever they are planning to cause takes a whole day just for anyone to response to then how bad will the situation be?
... it's not something I can care about right now. I have nothing to prevent it and if I do anything the most likely outcome is for me to die.
I'll think about it later...
[Dummy: about the advice section I'll use it right now]
[Plush: k. Btw no asking about the mission, too much have been revealed already.]
[Dummy: I won't. What I want to ask is the growth option of my ability [King of luck], how do I improve it?]
[Plush: ahhh that's a problem, you don't have enough relevant information related to it. If you want to know then I'll have to make your other advice section on cooldown too ya know?]
[Dummy: then don't. If not then... what should I do for now?]
[Plush: good question. Well if you want to get stronger faster then I would recommend going on the dawn of the 20th. A really good opportunity awaits there.]
Get stronger? Why would I want to get stronger anyway? At first I wanted to enter this world because it's more exciting but now? Not so much. It seems even worse than the real world.
However... recalling the feeling of being hunted yesterday, the dread I felt being hold by that guy... I want more strength. At least enough to not have to fear being hunted anymore.
[Dummy: and are you sure I won't just die if I blitz right in?]
[Plush: go in the north side when it's around dawn and you should be fine. After that it all depends on yourself but there's definitely more than 50% chance for you to live through everything. And if you do, you might find something even better than a rank 7 creation card ;)]
Something better? That's a rank 6 item and I can get something better?
The temptation is definitely there... but to seek death again so soon...
[Dummy: before you said I can go into debt in points. Does that mean I can get a loan?]
[Plush: you can. However you can't get a loan bigger than 500 points right now and the interest rate is 15% per month, still want it?]
[Dummy: interest rate? why the hell would you make that?]
[Plush: well it wouldn't be very fair if you took advantage of the loan early on to profit more points from it, would it? Complain more and I might up the interest rate.]
[Dummy: fine, loan me 500 points.]
With that said the chat room closed and a notification pops up.
[You've loan 500 points.]
Before I went on the shop, the [Special Tab] caught my attention. A red dot appeared next to it's name. Curious I clicked on it to see what's happened. Very quickly I noticed the change.
[Into debt. (1/1)] (Claim)
It seems like I got a free reward. I can only hope this is as good as the last one.
(Claimed a [Debt reduction coupon]. This can be used to reduce your debt by half, works only on shop.)
This is pretty good but not very useful right now. For my points, I'll spend it on some more abilities.
A rank 9 ability cost 500 points to get but I could get 4 basic ability instead. There's something I really wondered though, can I get growth type abilities in here?
'Hey plushie, you here? I still haven't finished with the advice section.'
Another chat screen appeared in front of me.
[Plush: yeah?]
[Dummy: can I get growth type abilities in shop?]
[Plush: this will take the rest of the advice section, you sure?]
[Dummy: yeah I'm sure]
[Plush: well you can! There's a 5% chance for you to get a growth type ability. You can also exchange 5 abilities for one growth type ability of the same rank once each rank. For each growth type you have the chance to get one significantly lower so remember that! And just because it's growth type doesn't mean it's effects are good. There's more than 2 ability type and they're all in the shop (except for one). Well that's all you have!]
And the chat room quickly disappeared. However I have earned plenty from it.
I decided to buy 2 basic rank abilities and 2 rank 10 abilities. The 2 basic abilities were [Easy breathing] and [Better hearing]. It's effects were the same as the name implies. [Easy breathing] makes me breath easier while [Better hearing] makes my hearing better, however I can't notice any change so they are mostly useless.
The 2 rank 10 abilities are a bit better.
[Nameless extra (Active): When use, hostile entity will mistakes you for someone else. Cooldown: 2 days. (Rank 10)
Requirements: there needs to be 10+ people in a radius of 1km around you. Won't work if the opponent is 3 rank higher than this. Time limit: 15 minutes.]
This has potential to save me but since the place for the mission is much more dangerous I don't think it could work.
[Non-equivalent exchange (Shop): Use on an item to exchange it to points. However all items price will be reduced by 40%. Can't sell item above rank 6 and can only sell what's yours. Touch an item and think about this ability to see their price.(Rank 10)]
Another way to earn points is great, however this price... I guess it's expected from a rank 10 ability?
Looking at the time it's already 11:44 pm. Tomorrow is the 19th... just one more day for me to prepare.
* * * * * * * *
On my way home, I tried to examine everything to see if I can sell them for points but it didn't work. I also check my clothes but it all gives 0 points.
At home I tried it on everything that I think it's valuable but only the shotgun has a positive value. In particular it's worth [900 points]. Of course I can't sell it since it's the only offensive option available for me.
Without much to do I decided to think back to the battle I had yesterday.
There's many problems with how I handled yesterday battle. Since I got overconfident with how the first person died, I let my guard down. I also should have expected that a place like the light switch is a supreme ambush spot. Since I haven't fought much, I can't react in time and let the opponent grabbed me.
While I was busy thinking, time quickly passed and the morning arrives. I drafted a rough plan for tomorrow.
I'll go to sleep around 5pm today and wake up at 11pm. Afterward I'll bring my shotgun and go to the spot. Since there's a possibility I'll be trapped there for more than a day, ration will be needed.
Sigh... that's all I have. I'll start by go looking for some ration. I'll also go train with my shotgun a little more. Luckily the surroundings area is empty or else my gun shot would be reported already.
* * * * * * * *
4:35 am, Venar street.
I stood at the far north side of the street. My backpack on me containing my shotgun, food and some survival tools.
Taking a deep breath to calm my shaking heart, I went hiding in a corner of some building, waiting for whatever the 'incident' is.
* * * * * * * *
6:00 am.
A loud screeching noise was heard. I could hear people screaming. I look at where everyone was screaming. They were all... screaming at the sky.
When I turned up, what greeted me was a huge crack.
...The sky was cracked open.
The crack was huge, covering almost the entire street.
And on the other side, a hand reaches out from the crack. It was terrifyingly big, almost half the size as the crack itself, and withered with flames burning on it.
At that moment, everything went blank.