After swimming with all his might, Will finally reached a rocky beach.
The moment his feet stepped on the dirty brown wet sand, another ding resounded in his head, along with the purplish floating screen in front of him.
[Congratulations!]
[Quest no. 1 completed!]
[Reward 1 granted.]
[Please choose your reward.]
Then, two white boxes appeared on the screen without any description. Will clicked his tongue, staring in distaste at the so-called reward.
"I find a land not because of this senseless quest!" he spat, then looked up at the vast blue sky above him. "Are you laughing now?"
No one answered except for the mechanical voice that once again reverberated inside his head.
[Please choose your reward.]
Still looking up, Will cursed, "I don't know if you're really there, eh, God?! Do you like it when I go mad and make all of this up? Where am I?"
[You are currently in Falrane Shore, south of the Tashlym region of Louven Kingdom.]
[Please choose your reward.]
Will swore and slammed his fist on the rocky beach's brown sand. "Didn't I die?"
[You have been chosen at random to receive a 1 month's free trial of the System.]
[You may use this second chance at life to your benefit.]
Will clenched his teeth and once again balled his fists on the sandy beach. Some sharp pebble grazed his palm. The slight sting further made all of this feel real. "And I saw him."
His mind went back to Naomi's murderer, Erik. Either Will indeed went insane and made all of this bullshit up, or he was stuck in a distorted kind of limbo to be God's plaything.
Both probabilities sounded appealing. He preferred to die.
However, even if he had indeed gone bonker, the fact that Erik was here only made him furious.
"He can't live," he told no one. "But if he's here," he chuckled as his expression became darker, "I just have to kill him again, right?"
With that thought, Will's chuckle turned into a full-blown laugh, shaking his shoulders until he was bent over on the dirty brown sandy beach.
[Please choose your reward.]
Will glared at the incessant purplish screen floating in front of him. "System, you say?"
[The System will help you throughout your life in this universe.]
"Help me?" Will cackled darkly, not believing how absurd it sounded to his ears. "My entire life, I was the victim of unfair systems. You say that a system will help me?"
[The System is fair. The System will help you throughout your life in this universe.]
The mechanical voice repeated in an even tone, dismissing his anger.
"That's the joke, isn't it?!" Will glared at the open sky again. "All my life, I endured injustice and had no other choice to accept any wrongness the system threw at me. You expect me to believe that a system will help me now?!"
[The System is fair.]
"How is it fair?"
[The System is fair.]
Will whacked the floating screen away, having no patience to deal with this ridiculous and insane conversation again. "Fuck the system!"
The purplish screen glitched before it disappeared completely. Sadly only for a moment. Several seconds later, it flickered back to its purple color. Floating in a perfect rectangle in front of his eyes.
Instead of asking him to choose the reward again, Will saw one white box open without his permission.
[Congratulations!]
[You receive a power-up item – 1 Stone Fang Dagger.]
[Status Update]
[Physical Attack: 130 (115 + 15)]
On the purple floating screen, an icon of a simple dagger was shown. It didn't manifest at first, but as the System read his mind, the air crackled in front of him into a glitch. Then, a red handle appeared.
Will merely looked at it, having no intention of grabbing it. However, the red handle then fell from the glitch, revealing a sharp stone blade connected there. Its soft thud was swallowed by the waves washing on the shore.
Only then that Will tentatively reach the stone dagger. The red handle fitted his palm perfectly, and the weight felt comforting, somehow. As if he was less vulnerable with it than before.
He didn't dislike the idea, but he didn't rejoice at it either.
All of these things, this situation, none of it felt right. And yet, everything grew more real with the seconds. As if he was accepting a dream to be his new reality.
It was daunting.
[Reward 2 granted.]
[You may choose your avatar from three random choices.]
Will frowned, "Avatar?"
[By choosing an avatar, you will integrate fully with the person for the remainder of your life.]
[To put it simply, your soul will transmigrate into the avatar of your choosing.]
The purplish screen showed him three choices.
[Remus Emberlance – the boy king of Etroviel Kingdom.]
[Jin Tarkin – secret immortal and new recruit of Midnight Hive Bandits.]
[Fenry Cassidy – Alpha werewolf of Living Myth Graveyard.]
[Please choose your avatar now.]
"I am my own person," Will snarled, slashing the floating purplish screen with the stone dagger in his hand.
[Please choose your–]
[Error.]
The glitch came back and the air crackled, rendering the simple letters to flicker and change a moment later.
[Failed to choose an avatar.]
[The System is sorry for this inconvenience.]
[The System is fair. As consolidation, you may create your own avatar.]
[However, using your previous name is forbidden. Please state your new name.]
Will clicked his tongue, almost slashing the floating screen again despite how useless it actually was. A second thought crossed his mind. If he was stuck here and Erik was still alive, he shouldn't use his name. That would be obvious, as his main goal was to kill his girlfriend's murderer again.
He must think of a new name. Words that wouldn't be easy to trace back to him.
"Liel Stark," he muttered absentmindedly as he pushed himself up from the rocky beach. Will patted his wet pants, trying to get the dirty brown sand away from his person.
[Registering a new username.]
Will looked around to his left and right. The waves washed over, shyly touching his soaking wet white snickers.
[Error.]
[Failed to register Liel Stark as the new username.]
[Registering a new username.]
It didn't take long for the System to give its typical ding.
[New username registered.]
[Status Update.]
[Name: Liel Leinster.]
Will scowled. "Useless."