"Haah.", Alexi sighed, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the day's progression.
He scratched his head as he strolled through the academy's halls. Earlier, he was supposed to be in combat class, but since it was his first day and he still hadn't received his combat gear, he was forced to go get one before he could participate.
Alexi would have been pleased to simply sit out the class for the entire duration of his stay, but the teacher threatened him to go get it. From his tone, it was obvious the combat instructor was itching to give him a beating.
"Figures. With my horns and all.", He grabbed onto his horn with his fingers. They felt small and smooth, like thumb-sized needles. "I really am an infernal. And from the looks of it, not a strong one."
Infernals were the laughing stock of Alexi's novel. They were minions of devils, brought about from the union of devil and human, but lacked the former's magical prowess and the latter's ability to develop talents. Strictly speaking, they were basically stronger than the average human and with magic, but would never reach the pinnacle of both ancestors.
Around this time in the novel, the humans and devils were attempting to broker a peace deal. For that, both sides wanted to make sure that the other was trustworthy. For that reason, they decided to start an exchange program between their young. Human students would live with demons for a few months and infernal younglings would study with humans for a few months.
Obviously, not everyone is in complete agreement with this trade.
"Hi there!"
As Alexi lamented his situation, a new voice popped up. He took a glance at the origin from the corner of his eye. He was met with a loosely dressed student with a generous bust, who had her black hair tied into a pony tail and carried a recorder in her hand. Her appearance gave off the vibe of a slacker/gyaru, but something about how she moved felt too timid and weak.
She flashed a bright grin at his face as she approached him. With a loud voice and a peppy tone, she introduced herself, "I'm Amane Touka. I write articles online and post videos on the FlopTube channel, CrazyA.M, where I update the people on what happens in the most prestigious academy in the Gamma B Sky Dome."
"Was there a character like you?", Was the only thing Alexi could say in response as his face quickly scrolled through his list of characters.
"Excuse me?", She furrowed her brows.
"Whatever." Alexi, upon failing to attach her characteristics to a name, shrugged and gave up. "What do you want?"
"Oh, uh… I'd like to interview you."
"Why?"
"Because you… are, well, you're the new student…"
Her eyes jumped around their socket, looking between his eyes and his hair. No, not his hair. The pair of short white horns hiding beneath it.
"Oh… so that's what you want?"
Certainly, Alexi couldn't remember this character, but he knew this character type. Nosy information diggers wanting to get the scoop on anything fresh and exciting.
"W-What?"
She most likely only came to him because he was an infernal.
A wicked, sinister grin spread across his face.
"You want to mess with me just cause I'm an infernal?"
"T-That's not-"
"Want to get the full infernal experience? Why don't you come closer, huh?"
He opened his maul like a starving beast as he inched closer to her. The student cried out and jumped back.
"I-I'm sorry! Please don't eat me!", She screamed, running away. In her dramatic retreat, she dropped something to the floor.
Alexi walked closer to get a better look at it. It was her recorder. She basically dropped her entire personality and ran. Truly, there was nothing more rock bottom than infernal's reputation.
Alexi rubbed his chin.
"Huh, guess I have a new voice recorder."
Shrugging, he pocketed the device and continued his stride. Later, he could listen to all she'd said on it to gather some information. There was no way she conveniently had no information on it, right?
"Still, today's been absolutely terrible.", He sighed as he reached the student storeroom.
The clerk looked to be arguing with someone else at the counter.
A girl, half his size. She had pig tails and a mean glare.
Immediately, he flinched when he recognised who she was. He reflexively rubbed his neck as he remembered the sting of a sharp blade against it.
It was Jules and she was not having it at all. She was in her regular uniform and was trying to push something onto the counter, but the clerk kept pushing it back. Alexi moved in closer to eavesdrop on the conversation.
"Like I keep telling you. We can't fix your combat gear without your student ID."
"And like I keep telling you, I left my student ID in a friend's bag. He doesn't stay at the dorms, so the soonest I can get it back is tomorrow."
"So just come back tomorrow."
"What? I have combat class tomorrow. The instructor will chew me out if I don't have the gear ready by then."
"Not my problem, kid."
"Oh come on!"
BZZT!
Alexi's phone vibrated, prompting him to pick it up.
=======
INSTALLING SYSTEM FUNCTIONS
Progress: 100%(Complete)
BOOTING UP
=======
"Finally done?"
The phone had been inactive ever since the initial alert that it was installing the system functions. Alexi looked at the arguing duo, then back at his phone. Whatever it was, he didn't want to get involved with Jules at this stage.
There was another notification from his phone just then.
======
FOR SUCCESSFUL BOOT UP, YOU HAVE RECEIVED 20 SP
YOU HAVE RECEIVED A NEW QUEST REQUEST
SIDE QUEST: HELP JULES (E grade)
======
'Side quest? This bitch really gave me an actual system.'
Alexi decided to dig further.
======
SIDE QUEST: HELP JULES (E GRADE)
Description: The character Jules has encountered some trouble at the storeroom. Help her out with her problem.
Reward(s): +1 Character Affinity (CA), +10 System points (SP)
======
Alexi cringed.
"Yeaaaah, no."
He shoved his phone into his pocket.
No matter what, he wasn't getting involved with her. Especially not with how he'd written her character.
He was interested in the quest notification, but his interest didn't outweigh his will to survive. If anything, this was the perfect opportunity to test if the quests had any punishments and just how bad those punishments could be.
***********
After an hour of walking and cautious glares from strangers, Alexi managed to find his way to the student dorms.
In the novels, he never described their exact location. They were just a location that characters would appear in from time to time, so he didn't have any real idea where they were. In fact, he had no real idea the infrastructure of certain buildings he'd made for his story.
It felt like a pain in the ass struggling so much just to get to the dorms. Eventually, he managed to get to his room on the 5th floor of the boys' dorm.
He walked into the room after using the keycard on his phone to open the door. Inside the room, he was met by a single unprepared bed, a broken TV, faulty lights and an old-looking fan. There was even some graffiti on one side of the wall.
"The hell? I didn't describe the dorm rooms like this at all!"
In the novel, the dorm rooms were actually in 2 different categories: Second class and first class.
Second class rooms were for average to below average dorm students. They came with a neat bed, a fan, television, desk with a fully stacked desktop computer and a bathroom.
The first-class rooms were way bigger, with 3 different rooms – a bedroom with bigger and softer beds, an AC unit, a hall with a sofa and TV, and a bathroom with a water heater. It went without saying that their rooms were simply better in every conceivable way.
But this?
"This bathroom even has cockroaches running amok?"
Alexi shut the bathroom door with a speed, pegging his nose.
"I-Is this really the world from my novel?"
BZZT!
Alexi could feel a vein about to pop when his right thigh shook. Something about this notification was already making him angry. He decided to check to see what it was about, and he felt validated.
Lazy God: How was your first day? Make some good friends already?
Slothful Savant: Shut up! What the hell did you do?
Lazy God: Why didn't you accept my quest? You could have gotten some real good benefits~~
Slothful Savant: You think I'm going to start doing random quests out of thin air without a good understanding of what is happening? Do I look gullible to you???
Lazy God: What more information do you need? You insulted a god and got wrekt, LMFAO. Just do what you're told or else…
Slothful Savant: Or else what? You already put me in the worst possible situation, no?
Lazy God: I could simply drop Pendragon into the school right now.
Slothful Savant: Are you mad?
Alexi's shuddered at the mere thought.
In the story, Alexi created a few strong antagonists for the main character to overcome in combat. Out of all the antagonists, Pendragon was one of the only two the main character was never able to overcome. His stats were set so high that even if the main character had a century to train, he wouldn't be able to win in a fight.
What made him even more terrifying was the fact that he was the most violent character in the story. In fact, he was so dangerous the readers were scared Alexi would resort to simple plot armour to take him out.
Alexi also hated him because it took Alexi a week to come up with a way to beat this character after tons of nerfing and item creations. Pendragon's existence and background alone contributed to 30% of the world's lore.
Lazy God: I won't, as long as you listen to me.
Slothful Savant: …
Lazy God: Good. As of this moment, we are rewriting this story.
Slothful Savant: Rewriting the story?
Lazy God: Yes. I requested that you changed the ending earlier, but you chose to antagonise me instead. For that reason, I chose to take matters into my own hands.
Alexi thought back on it and shuddered. In retrospect, he should have simply ignored that text message, but there was something about this particular being that infuriated him that much.
Lazy God: For starters, we will be changing certain events that happen in the story, for my desired ending to come to fruition.
Slothful Savant: You want to change everything? Why didn't you just write a fanfic then, dude? This is abuse!
Lazy God: A fanfic wouldn't be canon.
Slothful Savant: That's your reason???
Lazy God: I have created a system to allow you to end at my desired outcome. For this to happen, you will be receiving two types of quests. Story Quests and Side Quests. I assume there is no need for me to explain them to you?
Slothful Savant: Story Quests are the general plot points needed to happen and Side Quests are, well, side quests. Not really necessary for plot progression, I'm assuming.
Lazy God: Good. If you successfully complete the story quests, you will acquire certain rewards. The most important of these rewards are the system points which can be used to level up your abilities (talents), buy new abilities or increase your stats. The side quests will grant you Character Affinity points which will boost your relationship with characters and make communication easy for you.
Slothful Savant: Ew. You really made a system…
Lazy God: You can check out your stats at any time with just a thought.
Alexi tried it out and a holographic screen popped up.
=======
STATUS
Username: SYSTEM LOVER
Combat Points: 10/10
Mana Points: 30/30
Race: Infernal
Bloodline: -
Strength: 8
Agility: 10
Dexterity: 11
Intelligence: 14
Constitution: 15
Charisma: -5
ABILITIES
Talent: Crystal Horn (F grade)
Skill: -
=======
Slothful Savant: SYSTEM LOVER??? ME? Now you're just fucking with me!
Lazy God: … That's all you noticed?
Slothful Savant: What's this thing about Talent? Infernals can't develop talents.
Lazy God: Oh yes. Another thing about your story that I didn't like. It didn't feel fair for the infernals to be such laughingstocks when they were clearly the superior race.
Slothful Savant: Were you even a fan of the story at all?
Lazy God: You can look up the talent descriptions whenever you please. I need to go now.
Slothful Savant: Wait. I have one more question.
Lazy God:
Slothful Savant: What happens if I refuse to abide by your rules?
Lazy God: How's that a question?
Alexi's heart started to race, an idea coming into mind.
Slothful Savant: I mean, apart from death, what worse thing can you do to me, huh?
Lazy God: Apart from… death?
Slothful Savant: I knew it.
Lazy God: What?
Slothful Savant: If death is all you can threaten me with, forget it.
Lazy God: Insolent mortal! You wish to die so badly?
Slothful Savant: Oh, heavens no. But now I know you won't kill me.
Lazy God: Wish to test that out?
Slothful Savant: Go ahead. Do it.
There was no text bubble from the other side anymore. Alexi's heart sunk, fear that he just made a big mistake paralysing him until quite some time had passed. Then, his lips curved in a wide, inhumane smirk befitting an infernal.
Slothful Savant: I'm right, aren't I? You won't. You can't. For some reason, you need me, don't you?
Slothful Savant: From the start, everything was suspicious. If you really didn't like the ending that much, you could have simply chosen to rewrite everything in your own way by yourself, but you didn't. It has to be me, right? I have to change the ending or it simply won't work, right?
Lazy God: …
Slothful Savant: Eh? Eh? What's this? Lost for words you shitty 13-year-old god? Eh? Come on. No more snide remarks, ey? Big bro here won't beat you up too much if you apologise.
Lazy God: You…
Slothful Savant: That's strange. Apologies usually start out with "I am sorry." Come on, you can try again.
Lazy God: Do the quests. Change the story and the ending or I will make you regret it. This is your final warning, Alexi.
Slothful Savant: Ew. Stop using my actual name. Whenever a creep like you does, I get goosebumps. Go bother some other author, you little shit.
Lazy God: Very well. I warned you.
That's where the texts ended.
Alexi dropped his phone onto the bed and started to think about his situation.
He was presumably dropped off into the world of his novel by a deity. This deity's goal was to make him alter the original ending of his story that none of the readers liked. For some reason, this deity couldn't alter the ending themselves.
There was no apparent reason, but in a way, Alexi held the winning cards here. He wasn't going to let them go to waste.
"Change my ending? Like hell I'll let you."