Marx was unsure how to catch fish with his bare hands. That was not even the major problem here. The top of lake was frozen. This could only mean that he had to first to get rid of the ice.
Well thanks to his system boost, he had come to realize that maybe this ice did not stand a chance for any of his skills. Now that he thought of it, he decided to go through the notifications.
Mission complete reward.
-You can now upgrade your skills!
-With the beast crystals obtained, its possible to use them in crafting and upgrading your skills.
-With beast crystals, you can use them to create fire igniters.
-With beast crystals, you can craft weapons in the system as you wish.
-Mission complete bonus_ choose between Box 1 and Box 2.
-Mission complete_ bonus new skills unlocked.
-Mission complete bonus_ you can now access unlimited knowledge as long as its authorized infinitely.
-Mission complete bonus_ you can now have access to infinite limited access to system features.
-Mission complete bonus_ you can now access the knowledge about the planet and why we are here.
Marx went through all the rewards. It seemed that there were no timers anymore. The only timer he found was the one on the annual countdown. Seven months had passed since he had set off.
Also, his sixteenth birthday had passed few weeks ago while he was unconcious. If he was at home, there would be a celebration. He was sure that his grandmother had celebrated it even in his absence.
He could not help but wonder what these boxes were. He absentmindedly chose box one.
Box 1 chosen_ First weapon unlocked. Tap [open] to view it.
Box 2_ Helmet.
Marx tapped the open button realizing that he could also use his hands to operate the system. But it was just better to think because when he used his hand, the system would just pick the reflex from his impulses and register it as he had tapped.
He was excited as a magnificent gun appeared on the screen. It appeared to have some red and siver parts. The gun appeared to be have features of the M60 of present day. It was half a meter long. From the details Marx was seeing, its barrel length was 33mm.
It had a shoulder rest that was almost rectangular. From what he could see from it, he realized that it was supposed to fire laser bullets. It had a red chamber at its center. What the system described about it, it was here where the laser bullets were generated.
The system described that it required to be charged to full power. Once it was fully charged, it could fire 200 bullets before it could lose its power. On the top of the gun, there were 20 red rectangular dots. These showed the amount of power left in the gun.
"How long does it take to charge the gun?" Marx asked. He did not want to get sweet talked then get caught up in a dangerous situation by over dependence on it after its power was depleted.
Marx listened to this and nodded. He went through an extra feature of the gun.
Marx could only suck in a cold breath. He did not know just how powerful a normal bullet let alone when it was 40x more powerful. It was likely to cause an explosion. Maybe the system did not want to call them explosves..
Marx did not know that he was yet to unlock explosives. Explosives could easily flatten their village and its surrounding. If he knew this, he would not compare them with explosive.
The laser bullets were more powerful than hand grenades of present times. One can only imagine the power of these super bullets which were 40x more powerful.
Came a notification. It was like the system was as excited as he was. It was music to his ears. Marx nodded forgetting all about Jerry which he would certainly feel guilty for.
The gun materialized from thin air and fell on his open hands. He was caught of offguard by its weight that he almost fell face first. He stumbled forward though, tripping on the bike he had carelessly dropped. Unable to balance himself, he fell face first on the snow the gun still on his hands.
He grunted as he almost rolled but remembered that the backpack was still on his back and Jerry was still in there. He stood up releasing the gun. He removed the backpack and placed it on the bike.
He then bent to pick the gun. He realized why he could not access some features before. He was already struggling to lift the gun when his strength was already 2.5. What about when it was below then, he could not even shake it.
Marx did not even realize that his stats had increased. If he knew, he would realize that his strength was already 3. This was to mean, even when his strength was at 2.5, he could not even make it budge.
He could realize that the system did not hold back when his stats were in the required range, it would unlock all features he could manage to use. What was shocking though was the spatial storage it had within itself.
Marx after extorting his muscles, he finally managed to lift the gun. In order to wield the gun, one had to have strong muscles even in their feet and arms or they would fall even if they could lift it.
In his hands, Marx felt it was the most magnificent sight he had seen in his life. The gun majestically fit in his hands. The gun if sold, it was enough to earn him a fortune that he would not work even after hundreds of years.
Yet to him, he felt that this was just one of the things he could casually get and use for he deserved them. He felt the gun. It was too smooth such that he could feel no roughness on it. He felt it more and the texture made his blood boil with excitement.
The gun was a mixture of reddish and silver colour all over it. It was fully charged! Marx's fingers landed on the trigger and he pulled it but there was nothing.
"Why can't it fire?" He asked displeased.
Marx wanted to ask what this safety was and how it was removed. He studied the gun for a while and finally his eyes landed on a button. It had both the words ON and OFF. He did not need anyone to tell him that this was safety because it was the only one that was ON.
On the other side, there was what appeared like a round tuner. On its sides were various marks. One was 45⁰, 90⁰, 135⁰, 180⁰, 225⁰, 270⁰, 315⁰, and at the bottom most part was the 360⁰ mark. Marx could guess what these were. It seemed that the system had been shallow in its explanantion.
He needed to ask about these varying degrees.
"What's up with the tuner?" He asked.
Marx grinned. He looked at the marker of the tuner and it was only marking 0⁰. He was have dangerous thoughts at the moment. He was now confident that he could fire the bullets.
Marx turned safety button off. He then tuned the power to 360⁰. If anyone was here with him, they would not wait for him to fire that shot. A recruit wielding that much power! Who knew if he could not fire to the wrong direction?
Marx was most above all excited. He placed the gun's shoulder rest on his chest. One halnd holding the handle on the front. The other hand landed on the trigger. He wanted to test the true power of the gun.
The best way was to fire at the lake. He had not even realized that the 20 red dots had turned to five large square dots. He aimed at the lake and pulled the trigger. He had expected it to fire immediately but that was not the case.
But he could quite understand the concept. It would take around five seconds before the gun powered up and released the super bullet. The gun glowed blue and as it powered up, it started vibrating.
This did not scare Marx at all, rather, he became super excited. His heart beat in sync with the vibration. He held the gun tightly and after five seconds, the bullet was released. The bullet passed throught the barrel getting powered up and as it reached the nozzle, its aura was too powerful that Marx could not bring himself to look at it.
It released a bright blue light even before it was fired causing him to close his eyes. But what happened next was completely out of his expectations. He had expected to hear a resounding bang but it was just a soft sound that was released when the bullet was released at the nozzle. Like a pebble dropped in a pond releasing a pop sound.
But that was not the shocking part, it was the recoil. Marx had no way of withstanding the recoil. Infact as primitive minded as he was, he did not know any thing about recoil. He felt like he had been ran over by a beast on his chest.
He subconciously released the gun but he was blown over tens meters behind. While he was in the air, there followed an explosion that shook the entire area...