Chapter 7 - System Tutorial

When the gate opened once more, Joren met a place that he felt familiar with. It has normal houses, paved roads, street lamps, and sidewalks. It was like a normal neighborhood.

"This is your key and house number. I'll come back to you later once your test is ready. The test will determine which classroom you will be placed into."

Scarlett explained while handing him the said key with a plate attached to it.

"My hands... they're still cuffed." Joren reminded her.

"Oh, I forgot." Scarlett then unlocked, making Joren feel relief.

"Booo~~"

[Don't forget your baggage, scary sir.] the ghost then took out the baggage.

"Thank you." Joren took it and stepped back to see that the place he just came out of did not exist.

There was only the gate and behind it, there was nothing as if the elevator inside was in a different dimension.

"This is the Abnormals' area, but you won't see them until after classes. Be polite and don't scare them too much when you see them, or else, you might die."

"Okay, I will- wait, die?!" Joren shouted but the gate closed and faded into nothingness.

"Hey!" he shouted but there was no trace left of the gate, "What do you mean, I will die!?"

<Finally, I'm out!>

Hearing a familiar voice, Joren finally let loose.

"You...!" he turned around to see the dried fish floating.

But there was so much he wanted to say that it got stuck in his throat.

<I know, I know, you want to see your stats and rewards from the first two missions, right? Here, take a good look at your stats first>

Joren's frown slowly faded when he saw a translucent screen popped out in front of him.

[Name: Joren Vierei]

[Race: Human]

[Title: Thug Underling]

[Level: 1]

[Experience: 0/10]

[Health: 100/100

Toughness: 76

Strength: 53

Agility: 62

Stamina: 80

Talent: 02

Thugness: -143]

<Would you look at those stats, unbelievable. Normal people only have 12 or so points in each category but Stamina, 80?! Then your Talent is just 2, what's going on? As for your Thugness...>

The fish stared at Joren. It has no expression but Joren could tell that it was trying to express "...seriously...?"

"What does Thugness even mean?" Joren sighed and kept his complaints for later.

<Duh, it means how Thug you are. It changes depending on your past achievements. Just how much of a pussy are you? -143? How is that possible? Even little brats have 2 or 3.>

The fish insulted him but Joren was not offended. Instead, he was quite proud of it.

"I'm that kind."

<It's okay, we can change that later. Let turn the negative into positive! Let's be positive!>

"..." Joren's face seemingly melted in a hopeless frown.

<Now, dundundun! Here are your rewards!>

[Mission: Shoo and make the annoying landlord cry.

Time limit: Before the System stabs you.

Reward: 5 EXP, +1 free stat points, not getting stabbed by the system.]

[Mission accomplished: Accept reward?]

<Say yes, later, or no. Although you would be the dumbest known human ever if you say no to that reward.>

Feeling curious, Joren answered.

"Yes"

[Reward Accepted]

The boards that popped out soon disappeared and Joren saw changes in his personal stats board.

[Experience: 0/10 -> 5/10]

[1 Free Stat Point]

<If you have played a game before, you should know that a free stat point can be allocated to any of your stats except Thugness and Talent.>

"Hmm... okay."

Joren didn't want to admit it but he thinks it was pretty cool and neat.

"Then I'll put it on my Strength. How do I do it?"

<Try tapping on it and a plus sign will show up beside it. Tap that and it will automatically be added.>

Joren nodded and did as the fish said.

[Strength: 53 -> 54]

[1 -> 0 Free Stat Point.]

"Hmm... I feel nothing. But I guess one point isn't going to do that much." Joren wanted to test it if it's legit but the difference was so small, he couldn't tell.

<Normally, 1 stat point is already huge. But because you trained like an idiot, you now have superhuman stats before you even accepted the system.>

"Wait, how do you know that I trained?"

<Heh, let's talk about that later. Receive your second mission rewards first. This time, you do it. Say Open Mission Tab or even just think about it.>

"Open Mission Tab." Joren said and an overlapping board appeared again.

It was split into three more tabs - Main, Sub, and History.

At the Main Mission Tab, the second mission was posted. Subconsciously knowing what to do, Joren tapped it and another overlapping board appeared.

[Mission: Assualt Scarlett Fross.

Time Limit: None

Rewards: Result Depended.]

"Result depended?"

<It means what it says. It depends on the result. Accept the reward and you'll learn about it.>

[Mission Accomplished: Accept Reward?]

"... yes..." Joren felt a little guilty getting reward for assaulting Scarlett, but he was too curious to let it pass and it's not like he can take back what happened.

[Reward: 15 EXP, +2 Free Stat Points, +1 Thugness]

<As expected. If I didn't remind you and you went all the way, I think you could've gotten more than that. My bad.>

"No, I think that's better." Joren's shoulder dropped. He felt it was far from worth it.

<Stop being so negative! Hehehe, get it? Okay, you're ready to level up now. After that, you're done with the tutorial.>

"So this is a tutorial...?" Joren muttered before doing as the fish instructed.

[Level: 1 -> 2]

[Level-up Reward: +1 Free Stat Points, +1 Thugness]

[Experience: 5/10 -> 10/20]

[Thugness: -143 -> -141]

[0 -> 3 Free Stat Points.]

A lot of changes happened but Joren was able to follow them. Without the fish's instruction, he allocated all his Free Stats Points to Strenght.

[Strength: 54 -> 57]

At that moment, he felt some little changes. He felt a little lighter than a moment ago, but not too much for him to get excited.

<You're getting the hang of this.> the fish tried to nodded but its whole body move.

Joren then remembered a question and asked.

"Why are you a fish, anyway?"

<.... what?>

'Why does it sound like it doesn't know what I'm talking about?' Joren raised an eyebrow.

"I'm talking about your form. Why are you a fish?"

<Me...? A fish?>

"A dried fish..." Joren added.

<Dried fish...?>

"Yeah."

<... Joren, there are some things you shouldn't question.>

"So you're aware of it?"

<I remember that blonde chick saying you have a house here. Get there, first.<

It then disappeared.

"Huh...?" Joren was confused by what happened but then noticed that the boards were still up.

It wasn't hard for him to think about how to remove it.

"Close Personal Stats...?"

The board then disappeared which made Joren's eyes glittered. He pondered and this time, he didn't say anything and just thought.

'Open Stats'

The board appeared again.

'Close'

The board disappeared.

"Ohh... it seemed to know my intentions. But how does it work? Do others see it too?"

Joren asked but there was no one there to answer.

"I guess I have to find my place first." he looked around and saw that the doors on each house have a number.

He then looked at the plate number attached to the key Scarlett gave him, [House 12]

"It's quite near." it just took him a minute of walking before he reached House 12.

But while walking, he looked around and found fascination. The sky was actually not a sky. It's like a ceiling and a big lightbulb acting as the sun.

"Where am I?"

He looked far at the horizons and just saw darkness there. He shivered as he found it creepy and surreal but ignoring all those things, it's quite comfy there.

Reaching House 12, he opened the door and entered.

Joren's heart thumped in excitement.

Inside the house was far more beautiful and bigger than his apartment.

"I wasn't expecting so much since everything had been so crazy! But this is far better than what I want!"

Joren, for the first time, can run inside a house. As help looked around, he saw that it was not that furnished and felt empty but that was fine!

There's no television but there's a refrigerator, couch, dining table, bathtub, and a dried fish looking at itself at the mirror of the bathroom...-!?

"Y-you scared the hell out of me!?"

Joren held his chest as his heart almost jumped out of it.

The dried fish slowly oscillated towards him.

<LIfe is nothing but sorrow and misery.>

"H-huh!?"

At that moment, a board came out, notifying him.

[New Mission Added]

<A dried fish... Have you ever been a dried fish, Joren? You don't want to be reincarnated into a dried fish, right?>

[Mission: Lift the System's spirit up or it will kill itself after killing you.

Time: Before it kills you.

Reward: Result Depended]

"How am I supposed to lift this guy's spirit!?" Joren shouted at the mission board, "What kind of bullshit is this!?"