"Why wouldn't we?" Natalie raised an eyebrow. "The satellites are still in their place."
Her response wiped the expression off of Mark's face and he stared at her for a few seconds. The world had long since transitioned to a worldwide satellite internet constellation so still having telecommunications wasn't so strange.
Even if the infrastructure is destroyed, one only needs a few components to get connected to the web once more.
Nevertheless, that didn't mean the internet would be the same. Most servers were still on earth, and if any of them were to be destroyed, connecting to the sites hosted on them would be impossible.
"Don't let it bother you," Rebecca spoke up. "The site still working is just a coincidence."
"Really?"
The Head General seemed genuinely surprised by the revelation which drew an exasperated sigh from Mark. He didn't think the boss of a secret alien organization was so tech-illiterate.
"Anyway, This is the first time we have a Level 05 on base," Rebecca spoke with a hint of excitement in her voice. "How much did your LRGS take from the game?"
By the time she started with the questions, the doctor had already booted up the game and was going through the prologue. She was mashing one of the buttons repeatedly causing the text to progress rapidly. Despite that, Mark got the feeling that not a single word had escaped her attention.
"To be honest, I have yet to check everything," Mark answered. "I only know that some stats were swapped. Oh, and the leveling system was changed as well."
The slight dizziness from the blood loss was gradually fading, allowing him to get a better look at his surroundings. He was confused by the presence of a computer in a patient's room until it became clear that he was in an office of some sort, most likely belonging to the black doctor.
"Do you have the Store?" She asked.
"Yeah," Mark replied, only to realize that doing so might have been a bad idea a second later.
He saw that she had opened the Store from the Player Menu and was scrolling through the items available there. That made him quite a bit uncomfortable.
The store was another key aspect of his System. Just like his stats, it wasn't something that should be revealed to just anyone. Hiding its existence should have been his first thought yet for some reason he let it slip just like that.
The game was publicly available so anyone with a computer and internet connection could check the contents.
Doing so would allow them to learn what kind of items he could obtain through his shop, but unless they had a way of determining how said items would manifest in the real world, it would be very difficult to make use of that information.
"Hmm… have you tried purchasing anything from it?"
Mark thought for a moment before answering honestly.
"Yeah…"
Rebecca remained silent for a while. She clicked on a few items and stopped to read their description, only humming every now and then.
"This is a lot better than most Level 4s." She eventually said. "Though we still have to test them in the real world first."
Mark frowned a little.
"Well, that's gonna take forever." He said. "The prices are different from the game, and I don't even know how to get Gold."
"Well, that's to be expected. The prices of items are dictated by the materials needed to create them." She paused for a moment before adding. "And don't worry. The LRGS wouldn't have added the function without a way to earn the currency needed for it. Just give it some time."
"I just wish the tutorial did a little more than show me how to open the menu."
Mark heaved a sigh.
"It's based on your game." Natalie frowned. "Why would you need a tutorial for it?"
Mark turned to her with a glare.
"I don't know. Maybe because I never had a program installed into my head before?"
The muscular woman was about to retort when a loud beeping came from her pocket. With a grimace, she took out her phone and gave it a glance. Her shoulders slumped a second later and she let out a very long sigh.
"Welp, time to get back behind the desk." Saying that, she turned around and left.
Looking at her behavior, Mark questioned whether she really was the big boss of the secret organization. He decided to forget about her and returned his focus to the conversation he was having with the black doctor.
Lara seemed quite a bit interested in the game, seeing that she had dragged her chair to the doctor's desk. She was staring intently at the screen as if she was struggling to understand what was being displayed.
"I think the problem lies in your LRGS being a Level 5" Rebecca drew his attention away from the silver-haired girl. "Most people start as a Level 1, and since that only allows them to see their stats, the only tutorial they need is how to open the main menu."
"That's just bad design." Mark's frown deepened.
Though he was still not convinced, the youth saw no point in discussing the matter any further. The System wasn't going to create a new tutorial for him just because he complained, and he probably would've skipped it anyway.
The last thing he would want to do is read through pop-ups while a dragon is trying to bring down a building on his head.
"By the way, did you try leveling up already?" Rebecca asked.
"Not yet." Mark found himself frowning again. He was sure the doctor was asking about his actual level, not the level of his LRGS. The way the same word was used when referring to two different things annoyed him quite a bit. "I raised Lara's, though."
"Since you're a Level 5, I'm guessing nothing will happen when you Rank up for the first time." The doctor was still playing the whole time they were talking. After wandering around for a while, she finally reached the part where the MC meets one of the maids for the first time. "Oh, a little advice from your doctor, you should avoid raising your level for the time being."
Mark gave her a questioning look "Why?"
"To be honest, you're physically unfit. If you level up now it will affect your training later on." Pausing for a moment, the doctor turned to look at him. "By the way, how much AP do you still have?"
"Not much, if I remember right..." Mark replied.
"You sure?"
The AP was the System's substitute for experience points. Instead of it directly going into leveling him up, however, it accumulated in a separate pool which he could then use on him and his maid.
Mark recalled consuming the AP as it came, increasing Lara's level in a desperate attempt to push back the hoards of monsters.
His memory was a little foggy considering the amount of stress and pain he was going through, but when he gave everything a little more thought he realized the monsters his maid killed in her last attack should've earned him quite a bit.
"Let me see…"
He opened his status window then went straight to the bottom. When he focused on the AP counter, a new window appeared showing how much he had and if wants to use it to increase his level.
[
Aether Points: 101545
Assign AP to Mark White:
+00/20
]
"A 100K"
Mark's eyes widened when he saw the number, but Rebecca's reaction was much stronger. She seemed to choke on her own saliva, going into a coughing fit as she rotated her chair so she would be facing him.
"A… cough… a 100k? cough… are you… are you being serious!?"
Mark was a little dumbfounded. Apparently he was right to think the number was too high.
"It says I have 101545 Aether Points." He looked up at the doctor. "By the way, what's this Aether thing?"
"The Element of Existence," Lara answered. "You received a certain amount with each Fallen I had slain, correct?"
Mark was confused by her definition, but he didn't linger on it as his eyes drifted back to the blue panel floating in front of him.
"I did get some every time you killed one of those things, but… where did the 100k come from?"
Lara did indeed kill quite a number of abominations, but with how much AP each one earned them it would've taken a lot more to reach a 100k. Malarak was the boss so killing him probably would've earned them that much, but they weren't the ones who did it.
He began to wonder if he got a share of the AP thanks to his and his maid's contribution in the battle against the dragon, but at that moment a thought flashed in his mind, and going by the way Rebecca suddenly looked up, it appeared she was thinking the same.
""The Quest!""
Mark had received an S rank quest telling him to escape from Malarak. The clear reward was a whopping 20k AP before it got updated, after which it turned into question marks as if to say he had no hope of completing the quest.
But he was alive, and Malarak was dead. He had survived, and if that didn't count as him clearing the quest, nothing would.
He exited the status window and went to the "Journal" entry on the Player Menu. Ignoring the map, he pressed A on the "Quests" entry causing a new window to appear. On it was a single line:
[Malarak of the Dark Mountain (Cleared).]
Staring at it for a few seconds, Mark swallowed audibly and pressed A on his imaginary controller.
[
Quest: Malakar of the Dark Mountain.
Difficulty: SSS
As the time for the Complete Dimensional Collapse approaches, a rift in space appears, connecting your world to another. Hungry for the souls of your people, a mad Demon crawled out of his cave and crossed the rift, bringing with him death and destruction.
Due to your powerful soul, Malakar of the Dark Mountain has set his sights on you, wishing to make you his next meal. Survival was your goal, but you had your eyes on more. You weaved a plan and used all your resources, going as far as to strike a decisive blow.
The Demon writhed from the pain you caused, but his rage was brewing, and so did the Madness. Until your body is ripped and your Soul is devoured, Malarak has no intention of stopping. He will chase you to the ends of the world, no matter what world, if that is what it requires. There is no hope. There is no escape. There is no place for you to run or hide.
Status: Cleared.
Clear Reward:
Subject Mark White has been awarded 100 000 AP
Subject Mark White has been awarded Malarak's core
Subject Mark White has been awarded Malarak's fang (x4)
Subject Mark White has been awarded Malarak's Obsidian Scales (x100)
Malarak's core, Malarak's fangs, and Malarak's Obsidian Scales have been moved to Inventory.
]
'What the…'
The shock almost caused Mark to pass out. Turns out the mysterious reward from the impossible quest wasn't just a large sum of AP. On top of an entire 100K Aether Points, he also received three types of items, each with different amounts.
Their names indicated that they were a part of the dragon that almost killed him, which confused Mark a little since he had no idea how his System was able to get them.
"It's not strange to receive a survival quest right after you awaken, but..." Said Rebecca, bringing a cup to her mouth as she tried to soothe her aching throat. "A 100K? What difficulty was that quest?"
"SSS"
His response caused the doctor to spit her drink and the coughing returned right away.
"A… a triple S? Your first quest was… a triple S?"
"It was just an S at first, but then it got updated," Mark replied.
He remembered that, moments before it happened, the Dimensional Collapse countdown accelerated, bringing them four days closer to the end of the world.
Thankfully the Peace Keepers were able to buy that time back by repairing the Dimensional Border.
"Kid, you are one lucky motherf*cker to have lived through it."
Mark looked up with a start and saw the doctor covering her mouth. For a moment there it seemed like a completely different person was speaking to him, and the look of surprise on Lara told him he hadn't just misheard.
"Sorry about that," Rebecca replied, clearing her throat with a cough as she tried to hide her embarrassment. "My tongue kinda slipped."