Sometimes it's lonely at the top.
***
"U-um... d-do you want to go out with me?"
Her voice accelerated like a racecar as she sped through her sentence. It was a chaste yet self-indulgent confession, determined to get a response from the boy she liked.
She tried to hide her emotions, but her face was red and she struggled to make eye contact with anyone, especially the recipient. Her message cut through the air like a knife, attempting to strike the boy in the heart.
However, figuratively, the boy caught the knife in mid-air, completely immune to her attack. He was a young boy, decently-tall, decently-attractive—at least, that was his impression of himself. In truth, he was irresistible in the eyes of his young, impressionable female peers.
Girls would often find themselves looking at him like he was a celebrity entering the school. For some reason, his light brown hair, fair build and deep, sapphire-blue eyes were a magnet to any teenage girl nearby.
In a deep, calming voice, the boy replied.
"Sorry, you're just not... interesting enough."
The girl's heart sank like an anchor in the ocean. She felt as if she'd die, of embarrassment but mostly because of her broken heart. The boy she had feelings for all this time had just shown his complete disinterest.
It wasn't like she was unattractive. At this school, she was considered one of the most popular and prettiest girls. She had long blonde hair, slender rose-beige legs and a cute, heart-warming smile. Similarly to the boy, she also often found herself at the receiving end of confessions, turning all of them down.
A few moments later, the crowd dispersed and the boy made his way to a quiet area, taking a seat on the scarce, uneven grass. Beside him, his friend Noah showed a very shocked expression.
"What is it?"
"Will! I can't believe you'd turn down Josephine!"
"What, she's not my type."
"If she's not your type then who is?!"
William stretched his arms up.
"I guess that's not exactly true."
"What do you mean?"
"I guess, it just doesn't feel right, it feels as if I've already got someone."
"Are you going crazy?"
"Honestly, I might be."
William leaned up against the rough bark of the tree. He looked up at the endless leaves hanging from various diverging branches. Noah sat down beside him, breathing in before letting out a big sigh. The tree provided some shade from the bright summer sun.
"Why won't girls ask me out?" complained Noah.
"You can always go and ask one out yourself."
"But I don't want to! Why can't I be like you?"
Without a suitable answer, William decided to take his phone out of his pocket. Upon opening Snapchat, he was met with a bright, colourful advertisement.
"Ah, that's been everywhere recently," Noah commented.
William swiped it off of his screen.
"Have you tried it?" he asked.
"Not yet, I'm planning on getting it in a few days, after exams, you know," Noah replied.
"I guess so."
"I have to actually study for exams you know! I'm not a lucky genetic prodigy like you!"
"I mean... I worked pretty hard."
"You literally learn anything in minutes, and on top of that, you're a stud. Your life is literally perfect, I'd do anything to be you!"
"Eh..."
It was the truth. Despite being a part of an intensive schooling system, William Hunter never struggled to stay at the top. Unlike his friend Noah, William never really studied, nor did he even listen in class. Whilst he sits in class to show attendance, he never needs to listen to what the teacher is saying.
He's learnt it all before.
???
***
(From here, the story is told in first person.)
A crowd of boys laughed at me as I walked past them to reach my locker. It was a hot summer afternoon and the sun had been glaring down at me for the past twenty minutes as I walked to school. The school building wasn't much of a consolation, however, as it wasn't much cooler inside than it was outside. My clothes were a hot, stinky mess from all of my sweat, I just wanted to relax and get away from everything.
As I went to touch the handle of my dirty, vandalised locker, I was greeted by the sensation of a viscous, honey-like liquid covering my hands. As I pulled open my locker, I was met by the sight of ink all over all of my belongings.
Suddenly, I heard someone behind me burst out laughing.
"Haha! Look at that, your shit's a bit wrecked isn't it?"
A dribble of deep black ink came out of the bottom of my locker.
"How are you going to class now? Idiot."
"Eh... That's not very nice."
"Huh?! Are you talking back to us now?"
"Am I your new target now? Aren't there better targets for you, like some of the bookworms?"
"Haha!"
Louis was looking down at me with a despicable grin on his face.Â
Suddenly, he dashed at me. Holding his hand into a fist, he punched me, right in the face. His fist hit my cheek with a thump. There was a slight stinging sensation, but it didn't hurt as much as I expected. As I looked back up, it seemed that he wasn't finished.
What a hassle...
This would be the first time I'd properly fight in a while~
***
???
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[Auto-recovery failed... reason: manual override]
[Unloading package: 77777]
[Transferring data... 0%]
[Transferring data... 7%]
[Transferring data... 54%]
[Transferring data... 99%]
Suddenly, everything went white. I couldn't see anything. What was going on?
[You are now being transported to The Apocalypse]
~~~
Suddenly, I felt the sensation of dirt on my hands. I looked around and all I could see were thick pine trees and numerous bushes. The area was quite dark from all the light being blocked by the trees. It was also quite cold, very cold; the sudden change in temperature was quite confronting for my senses.
My head was a little dizzy but slowly, I pulled myself up off the ground and looked around.
I'm in a forest?
What just happened?
Where was everyone?
I could hear nothing except the distant clatter of insects and the scarce call of some birds in the sky. I was covered in dirt and mud which had stuck to the sweat on my clothes. I tried to wipe as much of it as I could off my body.
[You have been given the ???-Rank System, Minion Controller]
[You have received 1x Woodcutter Minion and 1x Warrior Minion]
[You can buy more minions in the shop]
What was this?
Suddenly, two small humanoid-shaped, robotic creatures appeared beside me. They were dressed in bland grey clothing and were very geometric in shape. Their faces appeared relatively friendly like little pets, which were just a bit shorter than me. One was holding an axe and the other was holding a short sword.
Huh?
Suddenly, a menu appeared in front of me.
-
[1x] Woodcutter Minion - STANDING BY
[1x] Warrior Minion - STANDING BY
-
Beside each other the minions, I saw a few choices.
-
< [Level 1] Woodcutter Minion {1}>
Experience: 1/10
[Health] 100%
[Stamina] 100%
Actions:
- {Scout}
- {Chop Wood}
- {Fight}
~
There was interesting information.
I still wasn't sure what was going on, however. I decided to begin walking around the shrubbery of the forest. The two minions followed behind me like dogs, following no matter where I went. I looked around for a little while and noticed that there wasn't anyone nearby and the forest was practically empty.
What the hell?
I opened up the Minion menu once again and looked at the actions for the Woodcutter Minion.
-
Actions:
- {Scout}
- {Chop Wood}
- {Fight}
~
I decided to just assign him to {Chop Wood} although I still wasn't sure what this place was and what I was doing here. Immediately, at my command, the Woodcutter Minion walked away from me, into the forest and began doing its task.
It had walked out of sight so I couldn't see what it was doing anymore.
The Warrior Minion was still standing behind me holding its short sword.
I decided to explore the area a little bit more to see what I was doing. Pushing aside some leaves and branches which blocked the way, I managed to make my way to a pretty large open grassy area.
In the middle, there was a very large sundial.
I made my way towards it and looked down to observe it. I noticed that it was split into two portions, the first portion was just a normal sundial with the time. However, the other portion had some message carved into it.
'Zombies will spawn.'
What?
Zombies?
Surely not...
I quickly glanced around the area as I heard the crackling of some plants. In the distance, I saw my Woodcutter Minion returning to me. As it reached me, I was shown another system message.
[Your Woodcutter Minion has collected: {12x} wood, {1x} apple, {25x} leaves]
[Your Woodcutter Minion has gained {9} experience since its last expedition]
[It is now slightly tired]
Suddenly, I was shown another screen.
-
{12x} wood
{1x} apple
{25x} leaves
-
I was now given the option to send it on another expedition. I chose {Chop Wood} once again and it made its way back into the forest.
Judging by the sundial, there were approximately two hours before sunset. It said something about zombies which worried me, however, I still had hardly any information. My best bet was to find some way to make it through the night.
I had no food or water or shelter, I was going to be needing that if I wanted to stay alive here.
I noticed that beside the Minion menu, there was another menu called 'Shop'.
-
{Woodcutter Minion Recipe} - 10 Tokens
{Spear Minion Recipe} - 7 Tokens
{Minion Speed Boost Potion} - 1 Token
-
Recipe?
So it looked like if I wanted more minions, I would have to first buy their recipe from the shop and then craft them. My main question was, how was I meant to get these 'Tokens'?
I scrolled down further and noticed that there was more—there was also a specific 'sell' section.
I looked at the price of the items in my inventory.
-
{1x} Wood = 0.01 Tokens
{1x} Leaf = 0.0001 Tokens
{1x} Apple = 0.02 Tokens
-
Yikes, I would have to gather one hundred wood before was able to even get a single token.
Oh man... I was looking forward to that fight...~
I was trying to comprehend this whole situation. It was like... a video game.
Maybe this new life of mine will be more interesting.
I can start at the bottom, for once.
***
A/N: I used to have different author's notes here, but I've decided to change them into one big one.
First of all, I'm not going to pretend as if this is a masterpiece. It ain't. I probably had two brain cells active when I was writing the beginning of this, and despite changing it over and over, I can't fix most of the issues without like rewriting the book... lol.
I was not expecting this book to get so popular, so I began by writing this mostly as a joke, as more of a parody of other system novels, but here we are.
For the WSA, I'll probably write another book with a much better thought-out summoning system where I'll try actually to make it good. In the meantime, feel free to read this or my other novel 'SSS-Rank Villain System: The Hero is a Yandere' (Which is 1000x better).
^^ By the way, the above book only has VERY LIGHT Yandere elements! ^^
(It's mostly got Yandere in the name for clickbait...)
Here's the link: https://www.webnovel.com/book/sss-rank-villain-system-the-hero-is-a-yandere_25050471206962605### (Or you can just look at my profile)
This can still be a nice read, but if you go into analysing everything, you're going to come out disappointed. I'm going to write a better summoning system book in the near future so be on the lookout for that.
Anyways, um... yeah...
Poof.