What the hell is this [Monster Hunter System]? And where did my other three unique skills go? Looks like they were all replaced by these four skills, but the former sounded so strange…
I further investigated upon it only to be dumped by a large amount of information that blinded me as multiple windows popped open on display.
[Monster Hunter System]
User is now officially an agent of the dungeon's system, fighting on the side of humanity. This does not exempt you from your duties as a hunter, but you are expected to train the future earth's S-rank Hunters, so that you may prevent the prophesied calamity from becoming true.
Hunter Roster: [0/4]
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The first two windows caught my attention and I read the introductory at least three times before my mind was finally accepting this reality as the truth. There were theories that elaborated how the dungeon break was nothing more but a gaming modification added to our lives, meaning reality was nothing more but a highly advance simulation. The idea that real life was nothing more but a farce is complete bullshit. However, the dungeon break being a gaming module may have more merits, considering the first text mentioned 'dungeon system'.
Did that mean the dungeon break was some sort of virtual construct enforced upon our world? How frightening… I feel like I shouldn't be knowing this, or else whoever is behind this might actually send monsters to kill me.
Regardless, it seemed to have given me a skill that is specifically used to train hunters.
That is… isn't that a little ludicrous?
For one thing, once a hunter has awakened into their respective class, with F being the lowest and S as the highest, no one can change that outcome. There are rare occurrences when a hunter reawakens a second time and their rank is upgraded, but that only ever happens once. Just once. However, it wasn't possible to earn a rank promotion, no matter how many monsters one had slain.
This unique skill… did that mean that I can promote hunters into higher ranks?
If that's so, then in the future, there wouldn't be just 100 S-ranks in the world, but instead, I could potentially create an army of demigods as many as I'm capable of training.
Though currently, the hunter roster is showing a limitation of 4 spots available for me to add. I wonder if I needed to fulfill a requirement for the limit to raise. So far, I haven't seen any further instructions upon the matter. Best revisit this later.
For now, something else caught my attention…
[MHS Shops]
►Starlight Coin Shop
►Hunters' Metal Works
►The Potions Pantry
Are these vendor names? How do they work exactly?
Needing a more relaxing place to delve into this further, I retreated to my bedroom, locking the door. I got out a notebook and pen, and started taking notes on this.
[Starlight Coin Shop]
A special interdimensional store that sells otherworldly items of fantastical abilities. Starlight Coin Currency only. (1 Starlight Coin = $1,000)
==Featured Items of the Week==
►Astriage Labyrinth - 50,000 ⍟
→A magical semi-sentient estate that provides the user a livable manor, servant house, extensive courtyards, and barracks that would suit the needs of the new owner. This powerful sentient construct will be the most gracious host to the owner and their guests, but a languish nightmare to any enemy as they will be forever lost in the dark crevices of the labyrinth.
→ Required: 20 acres of land purchased by user
►Changeling's Finger - 200 ⍟
→Become half of a magical creature known as skin-walkers, or changelings, to gain the ability to alter self-appearance into any person, excluding clothing. Height and weight change can be changed but limited to a 25% difference of the original user. Disguise must also be limited to a creature with the number of limbs as the user. Certain copied physical traits such as gills, elf-ears, or an extra-mouth are non-functional.
→Must swallow entirety of finger to gain this ability
►Mysterious Dragon Egg - 5,500 ⍟
→Taken from an S-rank dragon of metallic origins, this egg is ready to hatch once it is upon the user's hands. First impression is key to for the hatchling to imprint on the user, and once imprinted, it cannot be reversed.
…What the actual fuck? What the hell am I reading?
I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this!
And these were just the featured items! There's a whole listing of 100 items with 700 pages of these, and one item after another is some form of ridiculous, unbelievable artifact which costs thousands, if not millions, of dollars. The
I was ready to gag.
This Starlight Coin Shop didn't provide any weapons, or armor, at least none that I could see on the first page, sorted out by 'trending'. Seriously? This was trending?
Wait…Does that mean there were other people browsing and purchasing these items? Am I not the only one who can use this? That's…concerning. If so, why haven't they used this before my regression? Did they also have to regress before they become an agent of this [Monster Hunting System]?
…No. The regression was due to [Bear Final Witness]. Instead, it was the [Last Hope For Earth] that allowed me to have this crazy unique skill of promoting hunters.
Still, why me?
Sighing, I said to myself, "There's no point in me worrying about these things right now…"
Right now, I had to be the only awakened being on this planet. In the original timeline, hunters weren't discovered until two weeks later, when the US military decided to head inside these gates. The soldiers involved became awakened beings guided by the dungeon's system. However, they were criticized for not acting out sooner. Apparently, some people had already figured out that part, and they've tried to spread awareness of it, but the US government shut them down by claiming those were false rumors created by fanatics.
Tomorrow, there will be a dungeon break at my neighbor's backyard. Should I buy a GoPro camera and record the event? I wouldn't be able to upload the video until a day or two, but by then, there will be so many videos, what if mine will be buried? Then no one will be able to learn about becoming a hunter.
Ding!
…Hm?
I still had the Starlight Coin Shop open when it made a sound, and the page scrolled then changed to a certain item on display.
►ArkanStreamCam - 10 ⍟
→Vlog and stream your experience anywhere and everywhere with zero latency from across dimensions. Just synchronize the compatible streaming websites with your account, and you're ready to go! Additional mods: you can setup to view chat, start voting polls, and other functions available on the third party website!
→Note: your videos cannot be taken down, blocked, or hidden, without your permission. Donations and proceeds will be transferred into your inventory as your world's currency.
This…This can work inside the dungeons?
Dungeons were theorized to be another alternate dimension, thus there would be no such thing as cellphone service, let alone radio frequencies to reach through the gate. But! This device allows me to stream my dungeon-diving online with zero delay of broadcast between me and the viewers, and will also accept monetary donations and transfer the proceeds to my inventory…?! That's amazing! And it's only 10 Starlight coins!
…Wait a second, 10 starlight coins would equal to $10,000, right? I don't actually have that kind of…money…
Available proceeds: 5,000 ⍟
"…Huh…"
Since when did I get 5,000 starlight coins? Maybe it came with the system? I wish there was some sort of customer service entity that could answer all my questions related to the system, but I guess I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
Ding!
I pressed the [buy] button and automatically a kite-shaped, green shard appeared before me at 5 inches in length and 2 inches wide. A separate window appeared next to it, showing tab names: Video, Channels, Settings, and Payment. I was currently on the video tab and a holographic widescreen appeared above the shard-camera, showing a footage of my bedroom. It had the buttons: record, stop, & picture icon.
Curiously, I clicked the record button, but it didn't go through.
[Error! No Channels available!]
Channels?
I checked the Channels tab and surely, there were a number of streaming services available for me to link-up with: Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, SteamTV, Goodgame, NaverTV, NimoTV, and OpenRecTV.
Those are a lot of channels… Hmm?
[Create a new multi-streaming ArkanProfile?]
Ohhh, this makes it more convenient. With this, I won't have to make anonymous channels individually. It would do it all for me.
Interesting… I'll have to shelf this ArkanStreamCam for later.
For the remaining morning, I explored the rest of what the [MHS] had in stored for me.
Other than the Starlight Coin Shop, there was the Hunters' Metalworks, which is a weapon, armor, and gear shop that catered to hunters. It used dollars as currency, and it wasn't as pricey as I thought it would be. In the original timeline, when items recovered from dungeon diving became hot commodities, a steel dagger would be worth $800 to $1500 depending if it had any special effects on it. Otherwise, the $800 is because it was better steel than some ordinary blade crafted here on Earth. I ended up purchasing one, but after dungeon diving just twice, the dagger broke against the ax of an f-rank kobold. The money I spent on that $950 dagger went down the drain. However, according to this shop, that very same steel dagger was only $125, and it had 25% sharpness to it. Maybe I could exploit this system in the future by auctioning special items?
The second shop was The Potions Pantry, and it was like browsing through the wares sold by some wizard from Harry Potter. There were more than a hundred thousand items listed on here. It was like looking at an Etsy website, because every potion was created by a different alchemist. Even if the item had similar effects from another, the bottle designs were different. It's definitely like looking inside a pantry. Thankfully, they also use dollars for currency, and the prices seemed cheaper than my original timeline.
Once I was done with the [MHS Shops], there were a few more modules to the system that I regretted spending so much time window-shopping, but I didn't regret purchasing that ArkanStreamCam.
There were two more modules to cover, such as [Hunter Summoner] and [Official MHS Agent].
Suddenly, my phone rang, snapping me out from my thoughts.
Glancing over my phone, I saw the name Anton and cringed. It was my boss at Tasty-Valley Burger Joint, an alternate choice from McDonald's, with shakes being their selling point even though they sold burgers…which is in the name. Not the best working environment, but it was the only place that would hire me without asking if I was student or not—not that it mattered anymore since I graduated high school in early June.
Otherwise, I would never have picked this job.
To my reluctance, I picked up the phone and answered it.
"Hey, boss."
"Noah. I need you to pick up tonight's shift."
At that moment, I realized that he was mostly the reason why I wasn't able to protect my family on the day of the dungeon break incident. It was because I picked up at that night shift from 6:00 to 12:00, and was supposed to clock out from there, but Anton and Marco, another co-worker but Anton's younger cousin, never showed up for their graveyard shift. I tried calling them, and when I finally got through to Anton at 2:00 am, he asked me to finish the rest of the shift and that he'd be at the restaurant at 5:00 am on the dot.
Reasoning myself that it will get me more money on my day off, I stayed for the graveyard shift. Anton and Marco didn't show up until 7:00 am. Two hours later from the promised time. The worst part is that they've always done this before, even though I was still in high school.
Because of that graveyard shift, I stayed inside the house and slept most of Independence Day. Then when the incident happened, I was buried under all the rubble. Some say I was lucky, but a deeper part of me wished desperately that I had died with my family that day.
"Sorry, no can do, Anton. Today is my day off," I reasoned with him as I started changing clothes, getting ready to head out. I still need to go and buy a new lock for my brother's door that I broke this morning.
"Why not? It will just be from 6:00 pm to 12:00 pm. Marco and I will be there at 11:00, so you can leave earlier than that—"
"Sorry. Like I said, Anton, I have plans."
Sarcasm dipped a bit in his tone. "Oh, I guess you really don't want to work and earn money, huh? What happened to the kid that never disappointed me?"
Before I would have been apprehensive over his statement since I used to be such a people pleaser, but over the years, I grew a bit wiser and learned not to care about other people but myself and those close to me.
Besides, Anton fired me in my previous life because I never showed up for work, even though I had a good excuse. I was preparing the funerals of my mother and my brother.
"Well then, I quit, Anton."
"W-what?"
"I said I quit! Send me my last paycheck by next week, will you? Bye!"
Then, I hung up.