[10 hours have passed since the system was activated.]
[Please enter the system dungeon within 2 hours, or else the system will shut down.]
"..."
You want me to enter a dungeon... without any skills, strength no greater than an average man, and no experience in fighting anything.
"Wouldn't this be suicide if I go now?" After contemplating for a bit, he sighed.
"Let's give it a try! If I survive, then I'll live a great life, otherwise, dying isn't so bad either."
He took out his phone and opened the G-Store.
G isn't a name or anything, but a rank. G is for normal people, and from F onwards, it belongs to hunters who require a Hunter identity to purchase items from there.
In the G-Store, he navigated to the kitchen appliances section. He found various weapons.
"I don't think they will be useful against monsters."
He then exited the store. "Should I... visit the I-Site?"
I-Site refers to an illegal site where many kinds of hunter equipment can be bought illegally. If he is caught using such hunter equipment, he would be sentenced to prison for a very long time.
"Here goes nothing!" I-Sites were quite common too. Hunters can't track down the website owner nor block them. According to a rumor he once found in a forum, the owner of the site is probably an S-rank!
The website had a black background. Various armors, guns, swords, and other weapons were on display.
Even the cheapest one he saw there was priced at 5,000 credits!
After searching for a long time, he found a small gun priced at 800 credits.
"...I may not be able to pay rent this year." He clicked on the 'Purchase' button.
A small green light flashed, and a hologram of a card reader appeared from the screen.
He swiped his card.
Ding!
With that sound, the hologram faded away. A small vortex appeared on the screen, and a gun was thrown out, landing on the bed.
After that, the vortex disappeared along with his 800 credits.
"I can survive for a year with this much." He looked at the remaining 200 credits and nearly cried.
1,000 credits were a lot. Even the cheapest food in the market cost 1 credit. Food was the cheapest thing as growing vegetables, trees, and other living things could be done quickly with skills.
"Wow." He had never held a gun before. The metal felt good to the touch. It had a simple black and red design.
There was no need for bullets. It only needed either mana or electricity to function.
Its charge was full, so according to its description, it could fire 1,000 times.
"Wait!" Suddenly, he looked at his stats. "I have mana too, even if it is... despairingly low."
He wanted to give it a try... but he stopped. "If I really do have mana... then why waste it here? I'll give it a try in the dungeon."
Murmuring to himself, he opened the system interface and clicked on the dungeon.
[Do you want to enter the dungeon - The World?]
[Yes] / [No]
"Yes." As he said that, the hologram expanded in size.
It stretched from the floor to the ceiling, from one side of the wall to the other. In the middle of the hologram, a huge rotating energy appeared.
[Please move inside the portal within 5 minutes, or else the portal will disappear.]
The message flashed before his eyes. Reading it, he walked forward.
His heart palpitated. Sweat accumulated on his forehead as his legs shook.
"Damn..." he gritted his teeth. He was scared... really scared.
An image appeared in his head. A horde of bat-like monsters, three times bigger than humans, flying around.
Grabbing humans like food, they bit and devoured them.
His parents grabbed his hands and ran. As fast as they could, they tried to escape.
They arrived at a wide river. Without a boat or bridge, crossing it was difficult. The current was strong, making swimming challenging.
"Son... survive!"
"What? Dad!" Lu Chen wasn't crying. He was used to seeing monsters. Even at 8 years old, he thought more like an adult than a child.
"Live a good life, okay." Those were the last words from his mother.
Short and sweet. They still rang in his ears.
The last image of his parents was him falling into the river while two bat-like monsters grabbed his parents and... bit their heads off.
Blood splattered. Seeing all that... he lost consciousness.
"Damn! Damn!" He clenched his fist. He couldn't move an inch.
He staggered...
"I... I..." he couldn't speak.
Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes.
"Live a good life!" He shouted to himself and ran into the portal.
The moment he passed through the portal, his world turned into ripples.
The sensation of zooming down from the sky to the ground spread.
The darkness disappeared from his eyes. Rays of light reflected into his eyes, giving him the image of the world.
"Huh?" The moment he saw his surroundings, he was stunned.
"Didn't I enter the dungeon?" he remembered. "So why am I still in my room?!"
It was his room. However, there was a difference.
"The cracks... They are bigger. There is a gloomy atmosphere here. The colors... They all look gray. The furniture is all cracked and heavily damaged.
There were no windows, and only the door there was an iron door. it was tightly shut too.
[Tutorial Mission (1) - Beat 5 shadow monsters.]
[Mission starts in 10 seconds]
"W-Wait!" The sudden message surprised him. He hurriedly looked around and found his gun lying on the ground.
Picking it up, he took a fighting stance.
[4]
[3]
[2]
[1]
As the timer reaches 0, a cold wind drifts into the room.
Five shadows appeared on the walls. They were all humanoid shadows, similar in height to Lu Chen.
The shadows darkened and peeled off from the wall.
A black aura spread from their bodies, visible to the naked eye.
The five shadows surrounded him.
"Here goes nothing!" He fired his gun.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
He shot five bullets at the first shadow. The bullet was a thin sharp energy. The bullets pierced its skin and appeared from the back dissipating as it touched the wall.
Holes formed in the shadow, but they immediately filled up within a second.
"..." Lu Chen moved back, but another shadow was approaching him from behind.
"How am I supposed to beat this shit!" He cursed.
His body shivered. As the shadow neared him, the chill spread through his body.
They all walked slowly. He shot at the shadows again.
Ten, twenty, and even a hundred times! From toe to head, there wasn't a single place devoid of holes.
"..." Lu Chen felt like punching himself as he saw the shadow dissolve into the ground.
[Killed Shadow Monster]
[5 exp gained]
"So, each shot dealt only 1 damage, and they have 100 hit points." He hurriedly rushed to the spot where the shadow monster disappeared.
He shot his gun at the remaining shadows. After two minutes, all the shadows dissolved.
[Killed 4 Shadow Monsters]
[20 exp gained]
"Hah!" He collapsed on the ground, wiping the sweat off his forehead.
[Ding!]
[Tutorial Mission (1) completed]
[Reward: 100 exp]
Seeing the notification, all his nerves relaxed.
[Tutorial Mission (2) - Clear the Apartment]
[Mission starts in 10 seconds and remains for 25 minutes]
"..." Lu Chen's face twitched.
"Just give me some time to rest!" His voice was heard by no one.
An arrow appeared on the ground, pointing in the direction out of his room.
The iron door opened, and chilly air blew in from outside.
Gulping down his saliva, he timidly moved towards the door. He looked to both sides. It was dark and empty.
The corridor wasn't that long, and he lived on the first floor, so the exit was near his room.
However, in the dungeon, the corridor stretched as far as the eye could see.
"Clear the apartment, it says. But how can I clear it?! I'm not a superhero, am I?" He didn't want to admit it.
Just his room alone had 5 shadows. How many shadows would a 50-floor old apartment have?
"Even if I shot all the bullets left in this gun, I don't believe I would kill more than 5." He let out a huge sigh.
As he turned his head back to the room, the five shadows were standing in a line, looking at him.
It shocked him so much that he froze on the ground. His heart raced, and he nearly fainted.
There was a hologram in the middle of the room, stuck there. It wasn't near his face, but at the center of the room. That's why he missed it.
"..." Lu Chen collapsed on the floor. "Fuck!" He cursed. "That scared Jesus out of me." He took a deep breath and pointed his gun at the shadows.
But the shadows didn't move. They all looked at him as if he were their owner.
"Wait..." he cautiously moved towards the hologram, making sure that the shadows were there and not moving.
He looked at the hologram.
[You have defeated this room; hence, this room belongs to you now.]
As he read the sentence, the words disappeared, and new words appeared.
[Room: Owned]
[Grade: F-]
[Number of monsters: 5]
Lu Chen: "..."
He just wanted to collapse again.