[Choose your rewards]
[Chick Magnet: Women automatically think you're charming and handsome]
[or]
[Bonds of Loyalty: Allows people to bind themselves in loyalty to you, so that no outside influence, including charms and mind control, can change their minds. However, your own actions can still lose their loyalty]
[or]
[Healing Presence: People around you gradually heal from past trauma and emotional wounds, while becoming more confident and self-actualized. They become less dependent on you, but still value your friendship]
What were these choices? It's obvious what the right choice is. Chick Magnet felt too much like mind control, and Healing Presence is something I'm convinced I already had in my past life. And look where it got me. Murdered.
My meek and gentle nature allowed others to feel open to sharing their past traumas and troubles with me. They unloaded their emotional burdens onto me and it helped them heal and feel better, but then they would go on to live happy and fulfilled lives.
And I would be left behind, with nothing in return, except other people's horrible life experiences floating around in my head bringing me down and making me hate the world and the people in it.
Chick Magnet would get me girls, albeit in an arguably unethical way, but what I needed most right now was loyal friends. People who would watch my back and help explain the world I now inhabited. Bonds of Loyalty, while certainly self serving, would help me protect myself in this dangerous world with murderous bakers.
'I choose Bonds of Loyalty.'
[Choice acknowledged. Bonds of Loyalty has been bestowed upon you. On to the next reward]
'Next reward?'
[Bonus reward for defeating evil for the first time!]
[Selfless Sufferer: The ability to take damage and pain from other people and suffer it yourself instead]
[or]
[Shared Suffering: The ability to share damage and pain among willing participants to reduce the amount dealt to the original individual who was hurt]
[or]
[Transfer Suffering: The ability to transfer your damage and pain onto another person, other than your attacker or attackers]
Hmm. This one was a little harder. Obviously Transfer Suffering was the best for myself, but what if in this life, unlike in my last life, I developed actual friends? I mean Manifest Dependency almost guaranteed loyal friendship. Why would I intentionally hurt people loyal to me?
That just seemed wrong. I would have to go with Shared Suffering. I certainly wasn't going with Selfless Sufferer. That was basically my past life all over again. That path betrayed me, so I won't choose it again. That would be stupid.
'I choose Shared Suffering.'
[Very well. Shared Suffering has been granted]
Ok, that was obviously the neutral option.
[Additional bonus reward for developing an aura and choosing a side rather than picking a neutral option]
[Transparent Heart: People can always tell if you're telling the truth or if you're lying. Makes your truth more convincing and your lies less so]
[Clear Communication: People always understand exactly what you're trying to say. They never misinterpret your words]
[Absolute Sincerity: Everyone believes that you believe what you're telling them, whether it's the truth or a lie. Can be used to convince people of lies or convince them you're a crazy person]
Again, the "good" option was just something I had in my previous life. People always believed me when I told the truth, but no one believed me when I lied. None of these "good" options had been very good for me in my previous life. Why would they be good here?
The obvious choice was Absolute Sincerity. It gave me the option to lie if I needed to, but the ability to tell the truth convincingly as well. I would probably use the truth more often than not, but if I was in a sticky situation against bad people, what's wrong with lying to them?
'I choose Absolute Sincerity.'
[Choice granted. Dark aura increased by 20 points.]
What? Dark Aura increased? It's saying I chose an evil option? I'm just trying to protect myself. How is that fair?
[Developing a dark aura is not necessarily bad, Tom. Dark aura's make it easier to intimidate and control people, submissive people find you attractive as a potential leader, they make you appear strong, it makes criminals more likely to talk with you, gives you better prices from scared merchants, gives you access to dark quests, and gives you respect from other people with dark aura's]
'Hmm. Interesting. It essentially gives me power over other people, rather than giving other people power over me, like it was in my previous life. I'm ok with that.'
Now that I had chosen my rewards, it was time to deal with the baker. I dragged his body behind the counter so no one could see even if they pressed their face up against the glass.
Then I checked him for personal belongings. He had a set of keys and a coin pouch.
[Inventory Activated! Requirement of having stuff in your hands that you need to put away has been met. Would you like to place these items in your inventory?]
'Yes.'
[Done]
The items disappeared out of my hands and went who knows where. It wasn't my pockets. I checked those. I walked around looking for an entrance to a basement. I didn't see one immediately.
It might have been hidden under something like a carpet or rug so people didn't think to go down there for any reason. I checked under rugs. There were rugs everywhere in this guy's bakery. After the dozenth rug, I finally found the basement hatch.
It had a lock on it. I needed to pull my keys out of my inventory.
'How do I get things out of my inventory?'
[Just think about getting it out of your inventory and it'll equip in your hand or wherever you want to equip it]
'Thanks.'
I thought about the keys appearing in my hand out of my inventory and suddenly there they were. I started trying keys until one of them worked on the lock and I opened the basement.
Then I realized something. I had never looked at my system status. Everyone always looked at their status in these kinds of stories.
'Status.'
[Stats]
[Name: Tom Ato Ketchup]
[Age: 21]
[Species: Human]
[Strength: 100]
[Agility: 100]
[Stamina: 100]
[Intelligence: 100]
[Class: Unassigned]
[Magical Potential: Unactivated]
[Dark Aura: 40]
[Bloodline: First of Line]
[Active Skills: Soul Inquiry, Counter Evil, Auto Crit on Evil]
[Passive Abilities: Bonds of Loyalty, Shared Suffering, Absolute Sincerity]
Interesting. My stats were normal. I was 21. It tracked all the stuff I already knew and there was a little bit of stuff I didn't know about yet. It was a good status screen. I closed it, satisfied.
I walked down a flight of steps into the basement. There were barrels, boxes, crates, and bags laying around the room and against one of the walls was a woman chained to the ground.
It was one of those bolts that had to be deliberately placed in the ground through hard work. So this wasn't a spur of the moment kidnapping. He had either been planning this one or he'd done this before.
The woman had a gag over her mouth, but not a blindfold. When she saw me, she tried to scream.