Just before Luke could charge into a fight, that would have inevitably ended in his unfortunate and disappointing end at the hands (or perhaps feet) of the most underwhelming of opponents, he was saved by the bell.
Just as soon as the bell went off in his head, time began to slow down. He could no longer move, only think. It was incredibly disorientating to Luke who was focusing on trying to make his last moments look remotely heroic. Thankfully the voice in his head had different plans.
"Combat initiated. Tutorial 1 will now commence."
Jason was understandably confused by what was going on.
"To allow for the tutorial the Completionist will temporarily be unkillable."
"What? Unkillable?" Luke let out.
".....The Completionist will have access to a number of bronze rank rewards during the fight."
Luke suddenly felt his whole body change. All his injuries suddenly disappeared, but rather than feeling like he was back to normal, he felt a great deal better than normal. Everyone who had survived this long in the Azure world, considering everything a normal day in the apocalypse entailed, could at least claim to be in very good shape. However, Luke felt a great deal better than even that. To put the feeling in perspective, Luke was reminded of that old saying people told him about peer pressure: If a friend jumped off a cliff would you follow? Well right now Luke wasn't afraid to jump off a cliff in the slightest and after recent events, Luke felt like somewhat of an expert when it came to falling from heights.
"Please test out the movement system"
After Luke heard the words he regained control of his body, but time seemingly still hadn't started moving again for anything but him. Luke was unsure exactly what the voice meant. He tried taking a step in each direction but nothing seemed to be any different. Stumped on what had changed, he looked at the rats in front of him.
It was only when he looked closer that he realised that they were no longer frozen. They just appeared to be since they were moving so slowly. It finally hit him. His movement had changed dramatically. He was now so fast that it was almost hard to fathom.
He took off in a jog and circled the rats, which tried their best to follow him as he did so; however, they were struggling. When Luke started to break into a sprint, their eyes could no longer follow him, let alone their bodies.
As he ran a smile spread across Luke's face. In just a few seconds, he had gone from facing a bleak death to toying with his potential killers.
"Movement test complete"
"Please test out the defence system"
All of a sudden the rats sped up and could easily keep their eyes on Luke as he circled around. However, they were still dizzy from the experience. Only one of the rats recovered fast enough to attack Luke, who was now back to normal speed. It was the original rat which had blocked Luke's path.
It leapt at Luke and he braced himself by raising his arms to protect his body and face from its sharp teeth and piercing claws. To both Luke and the rat's surprise its attacks just bounced off of Luke as if he was made of metal.
Luke was so shocked he inspected his arms to double-check check he wasn't imagining things. But looking down he was certain. There wasn't even a slight scratch on him, yet the raggedy clothes he was wearing had been sliced perfectly. The voice had called him unkillable, but he seemed to be fully invulnerable.
"Defensive test complete"
"Please test out the attack system"
Luke was enjoying this and was more than happy to comply with the voice. He quickly stepped in to attack the rats which were starting to hesitate on whether this prey was worth it.
"Come on then rats, you didn't seem bothered before. You scared now." Luke said. Which once again drew no response as Luke was still talking to rats.
The bravest of the rats decided it was going to give the frontal assault one last try. Luke tried to protect himself, but he wasn't too worried as he was expecting the same result as before. He did not get it.
The rat managed to create a large cut straight down Luke's front. He felt warm blood burst out and he cried out in pain. As a subconscious reaction, he also swatted at the rat which had just attacked him. As he did a crash rang out. This was followed quickly by another much larger booming blast that would have been heard hundreds of metres away.
Luke surveyed the scene. The rat was no longer in sight, his hand was covered in blue-coloured blood, a trait of all creatures of the Azure world, and half the building to his right was now gone.
The rats then proceeded to look from Luke to the building and then back at Luke. Before swiftly turning and running away as fast as they could.
Despite being the one to do the damage, it took Luke longer than the rats to realise that he was the one responsible and make sense of what had just happened. He looked down at his hand and struggled to find anything meaningful to say.
"What The Fuck!" was all that came out.
"Attack Test Complete"
*Tutorial 1 Complete*
Excited by events Luke opened up the menu from before. He was desperate to find out what his ability could do.
He was greeted by a new line of text:
*Access to the Completion System Unlocked*
This time when he tapped on it the text box disappeared and he was brought to a very simple screen.
*[Status]
[Health: 100]
[Stamina: 100]
[Speed: 100]
[Attack: 100]
[Defence: 105]
[Title: Bog Role Bandit - No Benefit, Slight decrease in likability to all]*
"Why the hell do I have the title Bog Roll Bandit?" Luke exclaimed.
"It was your decision to steal the toilet paper the only one you have to blame is yourself."
Luke jumped he had not expected a response to his question. Plus the voice that responded was the same one that had helped him through the tutorial.
"You can talk?"
"Yes, I am your reference assistant for the Completion system. I will help advise you on how to use the Completionist system, should you have any questions."
"Well, I guess you could give me the basic run-through of what's going on."
"I can do that easily." The voice spoke with quite a lot of pride. Luke was surprised that his system didn't talk robotically and had a bit of an ego.
"After you received your first achievement [Is there fall damage?] you unlocked the Completionist system. With each achievement, you will receive rewards that will improve your status in the categories listed. Achievements also vary in difficulty. More difficult and rarer achievements may even expand the system in different directions."
Luke could make a good guess at when he had completed that achievement. But if he was correct and that was the sort of act he would have to do every time then this ability was going to get him killed before it helped him.
"That all makes sense, but what sort of achievements do I need to accomplish."
"Well, that comes with the name: Completionist. You just have to imagine this world as one big game. Everything you do from exploring to eating will grant you progress in achievements in one way or another. Rarer achievements will only occur when you have gone out of your usual comfort zone by either experimenting or challenging yourself to more uncertain situations…"
"Do you mean dangerous?"
"That is exactly what I mean. Anyway from the tutorial you will have seen what the system is capable of. It is very possible that you could reach that level if you work hard."
"Wait are you saying that wasn't permanent? Am I not unkillable anymore?"
"No that was just a demonstration and you were given protection while you did so. You have returned to your previous state."
"Are you telling me I wasted being invincible and strong enough to destroy a house on some rats!"
"Yes, that is correct."
"Couldn't you have warned me I could have used it on the gang chasing me?"
"No."
"For an assistant, you aren't very helpful."
"Hmph" From the voice's tone it was clear they were far from pleased.
"So what else?"
"….."
"Are you ignoring me?"
"…."
From nearby, shouts started to spread out across the long-abandoned neighbourhood. Luke was under no doubt that the shouts were coming from the gang members, he had just escaped from.
"It is likely they heard the massive explosion you caused."
"You think! Is your job just to state the obvious?"
"Yeah, that is pretty much my exact purpose."
"Sarcasm, that might get old really fast."
"I have to find some way of making this entertaining for me as well." The voice replied.
"I guess the system will have to wait for the moment I need to get out of here," Luke said mostly to himself.
"….Don't delay too much. You don't have much time." The voice whispered such that Luke couldn't hear.