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"…Huh?" Isaac muttered, utterly speechless. The sudden voice in his head had thrown him off balance.
"Huh? A mission?" he repeated, trying to process the voice's cryptic message.
"Wait—saint? God and goddess? HUH?" His confusion deepened.
What the voice had conveyed felt like a fairytale, and he couldn't be sure he had understood it correctly.
"Did the voice in my head just tell me a fairytale?" he questioned aloud, still skeptical about the entire experience.
From what he could piece together, the voice was narrating a story about what had happened to the town.
"It did say that people fled the town. So is it abandoned?" he speculated, his concern growing. If the town was deserted, he faced a significant issue.
"How am I going to get food?" he muttered, his stomach grumbling in agreement.
The only edible-looking things he had encountered were those odd berries, and he wasn't even sure they were safe.
"Sigh~ I guess I will have to figure it out when I get there," Isaac decided, trying to push the problem aside.
He needed to focus on other matters to avoid feeling like his journey was pointless.
As he continued towards the town, Isaac pondered the voice's initial message.
"Why did it say system error? Is it a computer?" he wondered.
When the voice first spoke, it mentioned a system error, leaving him puzzled about its nature.
"Do I have a chip in my head or something? Why is it speaking like that?" he speculated, trying to make sense of the mysterious voice.
"Hmm, it did call itself a system or something like that at first. So I guess I will name it System from now on," he concluded.
Calling it "the voice inside my head" seemed too peculiar and unsettling and might drive him crazy.
"Well, actually, I might already be crazy. I'm talking to myself right now!" he exclaimed, chuckling at the absurdity of his situation.
Since the shadow wraith incident, he had been talking to himself more and more, and he was sure that anyone observing him would think he belonged in a mental asylum.
"Well, if I'm just a bit crazy, it wouldn't hurt anybody, would it?" he asked himself, half-jokingly.
Putting aside his increasing madness, Isaac considered the way the System had communicated.
"Why explain it in a poetic way and not just tell me the story directly?" he wondered. Did the System have a penchant for poetry?
"Does the System love poems so much it told the quest like that?" he thought.
Despite the cryptic nature of the System, it was comforting to hear another voice, even if it wasn't entirely clear.
"Wait, what does the System even sound like?" he pondered, trying to recall its voice. It didn't resemble anything specific; it felt like an ancient, disembodied presence.
"Sigh~ I was a bit distacted so I don't remember the whole story."
He sighed, realizing the story had been long and somewhat overwhelming.
He remembered most of it and the mission, but he was puzzled about why the reward was blank.
"If I could just speak with the System, I might understand more," he thought.
'Should I try to speak with it?' he asked himself. After a few moments, he decided to try.
"Hey System, can you tell me the story once more? I was a bit surprised to hear you speak like that," he said, hoping for an answer.
"…"
"…"
"Sigh~ so you aren't going to tal—" he began to give up when suddenly:
[Verifying the user's soul strength level… ACCESS GRANTED]
[Optimizing and adjusting to the user's need… CALIBRATING…]
Isaac was stunned again. Red text appeared before his eyes, slowly materializing:
[Adjustments were successful]
[The user can now check the mission. In the future, the user can check further information and unlock additional options by saying or thinking about the System.]
Isaac stared at the red text in disbelief. "Thank you!" he exclaimed happily.
"But what do you mean by 'soul strength level' and 'further information'?"
"…" He waited for a few seconds before the red text reappeared:
[Checking for information clearance… DENIED]
[The user has insufficient soul strength to ask further questions.]
After reading the text, Isaac felt he had partially understood the answer. "Hmm, I guess I need to kill more monsters to increase my soul strength."
He had tried talking to the System before, but it never answered.
After killing the shadow devils and other possessed beings, he had gained more small soul shards did the system start to talk.
"So if I kill more, will it grant me more access and further information?" he mused.
He wondered what other options the System might offer.
As he continued walking, a question popped into his head.
"Hey, System, why is the reward for the quest blank?" He waited again, and the System responded:
[The quest's reward depends on the user's performance.]
"Oh, is that so? What will I get if I do well?" he asked, curious about the possible rewards.
[Checking for clearance for the answer… DENIED]
"Well then, I will figure it out by just killing more," he said, his anticipation growing as he continued his journey towards the town.
The red dome that consumed the town ahead became increasingly clear.
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