"What… just happened?" Linton was completely confused. He quickly checked his hand, which no longer had the swelling from earlier. The spot he was lying on seemed to be the same place he had been sleeping. Could it have been... a dream?
Just as this thought crossed his mind, the mechanical voice returned.
"System Alert: Exploration complete. Calculating exploration progress… Progress: 1.4%. Points earned: 14,000."
"System Alert: You have earned 12,750 battle points."
"System Alert: You have received a random reward—Spider Bloodline, Grade D."
"No way that was a dream." Linton rubbed his forehead. It certainly didn't feel like one; he could still vividly recall the terror of crashing to the ground. It seemed like he really had been transported to some bizarre place, possibly a movie world, but how any of it worked was beyond him.
Immediately, Linton opened his character page, as this sudden change had to be related to his system. Sure enough, he noticed a massive difference. Not only had he acquired a new Spider Bloodline skill, but his stats had also dramatically increased.
His Strength had shot up to 71, Agility to 89, and Constitution to 70—over double his previous stats. Judging by the numbers, this must be the result of the Spider Bloodline skill.
"And the points..." Linton suddenly remembered the other reward—points. What were they? He quickly looked through his page and noticed something new. Next to his character stats, there was a newly added section. He tapped it, and a new panel popped up.
Points: 26,750.
As expected, the first thing displayed on this new screen was his point total. Below it, there was another section with a long list of items on the left and corresponding numbers on the right, along with a "Purchase" option at the bottom. After a quick thought, Linton figured it was likely a shop.
So, points were some kind of currency. While still unsure how it all worked, Linton browsed through the shop. There weren't too many items available to him just yet. First, he saw bloodlines. He had already acquired the Spider Bloodline, but here he could purchase upgrades. His current one was Grade D, but the shop offered upgrades to Grade C, B, and A. That was easy to understand. Then there were skills like Spider Sense and Wall Crawling, followed by items such as a pistol and web shooters.
"These must be items and skills from the people I defeated." Linton reasoned. After all, he had taken down three people earlier—Spider-Man, a police officer, and a Black thief. The skills and items here seemed to be linked to those individuals. In other words, whatever he took from the people he defeated would appear in the points shop.
After considering it for a moment, Linton purchased a Grade C Spider Bloodline. There were no fancy effects, but after the purchase was successful, his points dropped by 10,000. He checked his character stats again—his Strength had increased to 144, Agility to 191, and Constitution to 119.
Looking at the numbers, his stats were now four or five times their original values. However, Linton didn't really feel any different. Perhaps he would need to test it out to truly understand how much stronger he had become.
Just as he was getting ready to test it, someone suddenly ran up to him. The person was out of breath, having clearly run some distance, but they anxiously said, "Young master, Lord Eck has been beaten up."
"What?" Linton immediately stood up. He recognized the young man in his twenties as Radnor, a soldier from the city guard. Due to some circumstances, he had been working at Linton's home and was considered one of Linton's close friends. Radnor was the same guy Linton had mentioned before—the one he could beat in just a few moves. And the person who had been beaten was Linton's servant.
"What happened? Who beat him?" Linton asked right away.
"It was Captain Chiola," Radnor answered.
Linton grimaced at the name but quickly said, "Let's go."
Without wasting time, Linton ran toward his home. Radnor had planned to follow him, but Linton's speed caught him off guard. Radnor couldn't keep up after just a few steps, watching in amazement as Linton disappeared from sight. "When did the young master get so fast?"
Linton, on the other hand, hadn't even noticed. Within minutes, he arrived near his home, where a crowd had already gathered outside his door, watching the commotion. As soon as they saw Linton, the crowd parted to make way. Linton quickly took in the scene.
Sure enough, it was Captain Chiola with three city guards blocking the entrance to his house. On the way here, Linton had already guessed what was going on. This Captain Chiola was nothing more than a scoundrel. While he was responsible for defending the city, his true passions lay in gambling, drinking, and visiting brothels.
Naturally, all these vices required money. Chiola, not only indulging in his habits but also treating his buddies, often resorted to two methods: running up tabs or "borrowing" money.
Of course, everyone knew what his "borrowing" really meant. At least, Linton had never heard of him repaying any of his debts. And out of all the people he "borrowed" from, Linton's family was his favorite target. After all, Linton was an easy mark. This time, it was no surprise—it was likely about borrowing money again.
"Oh, our little noble is back," Chiola sneered when he saw Linton approaching. He pointed to Eck, who was lying on the ground nearby. "Your servant was acting out of line, so I gave him a lesson."
"And I should thank you for that?" Linton asked calmly, staring at him.
Linton's tone surprised Chiola a bit. The last time Linton had faced him, he'd been arrogant until Chiola beat him up. Since then, Linton had avoided him at all costs. Today, however, Linton dared to talk back, so Chiola couldn't back down either. "Oh, the little noble is growing a spine, huh? What's this? Did your fighting spirit finally awaken?"
Chiola was poking at Linton's sore spot. The main reason Linton had fallen into such a sorry state was that he still hadn't awakened his fighting spirit at the age of 19.
But this wasn't the same Linton as before. The current Linton barely knew Chiola. The previous Linton had always let Eck handle these encounters, but it was time to get rid of this parasite for good. After all, it was his family's money being taken.
"Young master, I'm sorry. He demanded 10 silver coins, but our family…," Eck apologized, still clutching his stomach where he'd been punched.
"Ten silver coins isn't much, right?" Chiola chuckled. "Isn't the young master from a noble family? Surely you can't be that poor. Don't make people laugh."
Under Chiola's lead, the surrounding crowd started laughing as well. While these common folk often bad-mouthed Linton behind his back, today they were bold enough to laugh in his face, all thanks to Chiola's influence.
"Do you know our family's motto?" Linton suddenly stepped toward Chiola, staring him down.
Linton's unexpected boldness silenced the laughter. The townspeople were confused. Everyone knew about Linton's earlier scuffle with Chiola and how it had ended in humiliation. So why was he acting so tough now?
"What motto? Generosity and charity?" Chiola sneered and laughed again.
"The Merroway family motto is: 'A debt must be repaid,'" Linton replied calmly.
"What?" Eck, still on the ground, was baffled. That was definitely not the Merroway family motto. Where did Linton come up with this?
"If I'm not mistaken, you owe our family at least two gold coins by now," Linton continued. "If you want to borrow more, pay back what you already owe first."
"You're asking for trouble!" Chiola snapped, tossing his sword to one of the guards and cracking his knuckles as he approached Linton. He wouldn't dare kill him, but a beating? That was no problem.
"Seems like debtors are the real bosses, huh?" Linton muttered. He had no intention of drawing his sword. Instead, he stepped forward to meet Chiola. As soon as they got close, Chiola eagerly swung a punch at Linton.
To the onlookers, it was a powerful punch, and they could almost picture Linton being knocked to the ground. But in Linton's eyes, Chiola's attack was slow. He realized he had become much faster.
With a simple tilt of his head, Linton easily dodged the punch. Before Chiola could react, Linton landed a punch of his own squarely on Chiola's face. The force of the punch crushed Chiola's nose, dislodged one of his eyes, and sent him flying through the air. He crashed into a wooden stall, bringing it down with a loud crash.
The entire crowd fell silent, staring in shock at Linton. Their minds couldn't comprehend what had just happened. The town's strongest man, Captain Chiola, had been defeated in a single blow by Linton?
(End of Chapter)