Episode 1: My First Day! Again?! (3)
Spidery, ragged lines appeared on the ceiling. It's starting again.
Hendrix gathered the students in a line in front of the door. However, this time I won't be joining it.
I pick up a chair.
"What are you doing?"
Ian asks me, bewildered. I answer, "Smashing the window." And I slam the chair against the window as hard as I can.
Ian just stands there, dumbfounded, while I repeatedly hit the chair against the window. The carbon-enhanced window was tough, but the chair was made of titanium. This school didn't skimp on money.
Cracks started to appear on the window. Outside, more streaks flash. The building shakes and splits apart. Hendrix shouts at me to join the line, but I ignore him. This is a better exit.
Finally the window shatters, the shards glittering like diamonds as they fly into the wind. I drop the chair and leap out the window. I take a look behind me.
"What are you doing? Let's go!"
The students look at Hendrix. He just stares at me before shrugging. "Well, seeing as you worked so hard to break through, why not?"
Wow, I didn't actually expect this to work. Usually teachers would be stubborn and insist we follow protocol, especially in a top school like Daedalus. However, the
After getting Hendrix' approval, the kids swarm out of the broken window. Hendrix brought up the rear.
"So, you must have a plan, right?" Hendrix asks me.
"Of course I do." I point towards the main entrance. "We'll just follow the rest of the classes."
Hendrix nods and rounds everyone up. He leads the procession of students to the mass of students at the main entrance. Once we get there, he makes sure everyone's safe before turning to me.
"Now, how did you create this plan so quickly? You didn't even seem surprised when the school was hit. Even I panicked a bit."
Here's the awkward question. I guess I'll just tell him the truth. I don't have anything to hide anyway.
'It's my ExtrA. It sent me back in time to save my class.'
Is what I wanted to say. Instead, I said, "It's @)$/+;$). @)&-&$(@&)&£]\>|&#." What? Why is it filtered? Wait a minute...
"What?" He looks a bit puzzled as to why I just spouted gibberish.
It makes sense that things like this would be censored. In TV shows, sensitive information is censored or edited out. You can't edit things out of real life, so the information is instead censored. But why is my ExtrA important enough to be censored? Is it because it's related to time?
"I mean, I was panicked on the inside. I'm just not good at making expressions," I answer instead. It is true. I can make fake expressions, just not real ones. "I just saw a window, so the first thing I thought of was jumping out of it." You know, like action movies. That last part was censored though. It seems that information about my ExtrA and TV are censored. Does that mean I can't talk about TV anymore? I'll have to test that.
Hendrix nods. He might want to question me more, but it's not his business to dig into my life. Besides, he has
It's weird. Cliches happening in real life. Why did my life turn out like this?
—————
Thirty minutes later, the storm still rages on, but the attackers have retreated. The school is now taking inventory of the casualties and calling parents. My parents listed their phone number as mine so they wouldn't be bothered, but it's a bit annoying that I have to sneak away, pull out my voice modulator, and impersonate my dad. I want to view that reward the System just gave me.
Why couldn't it have given me my rewards thirty minutes ago? Was it because the attackers didn't leave? By the way, who are they?
After ending the call, I call up the System.
[System upgraded. Loading in new functions.] A loading bar appears. A couple seconds later, the bar fills up with a ding!
[Loading complete. Would you like an overview of the new functions?]
'Yes.'
Some icons pop up.
[Status Panel—View your stats, skills, level, and System Points.
Inventory—Stores anything bought from the Shop and rewards from the Lottery, missions and choices.
Shop—Buy skills, summons, and items with System Points.
Lottery—Get prizes here. Tickets can be obtained through choices and missions. There is no "Thank you for participating." Guaranteed reward.
Missions—Get rewards after completing a task. You won't get choices every day.]
At least this System doesn't do web novel cliches. Otherwise, I'd get trash items and an uncooperative System. TV cliches at least increase luck.
I see two more icons on the bottom that are grayed out. These must not be available.
[Cliche Forcing—Can force TV cliches to happen depending on the size of the cliche storm.
Dimension Traveling—Can travel to different dimensions. The higher the System Lvl, the farther you can travel.]
"..."
What.
Is.
This.
'ARE YOU SURE YOU ARE A GAME SYSTEM AND NOT A CHEAT? GAMES ARE BALANCED! I mean, I'm not complaining but still...'
[I am a game system.] It sounded kinda offended...
...I guess I should get over it.
'What can I do with
[
There are four types of storms. All the effects are stackable and savable.
The smallest type of storm is caused when ten cliches occur within an hour. You can use up to three small cliches. You cannot use a cliche to teleport someone here from the other side of the world. You can, however, cause accidents to happen. You can make a villain say a monologue to buy time as well.
The medium cliche storm is caused when fifty cliches appear over the course of a week. You get three bigger cliches, things like plot holes, plot armor, and continuity errors.
For example, you can make a villain's ExtrA change to something else. You can't make the villain suddenly get weak though.
Big storms are caused by one hundred cliches occurring within a month. You will be able to change existing cliches or add or delete up to ten cliches.
The biggest storm is more like a hurricane. The hurricane occurs when you directly or indirectly cause multiple cliches within ten minutes.
The amount of cliches depends on how involved you are with the cliches. If you directly cause fifty cliches within ten minutes, you will get a cliche hurricane.
The hurricane allows you to have total control on cliches. You could theoretically wipe someone out of existence. This control only lasts five minutes though.
Cliches only count towards cliche storm if they are within my detection range. It is currently ten meters. You will get a notification whenever I detect a cliche and will be able to view them in your Status Panel.]
This System is seriously overpowered. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since the System came from another dimension. I do have a question...
'Where do you get the energy to have all these functions?'
Energy can't be created from nowhere. Matter can't be destroyed or created from nothing. Even if this System came from another dimension, the laws of physics must apply there, right?
[My energy comes from the area in between dimensions. This place is called the Rift. The Rift has unlimited energy due to dimensions constantly being destroyed and re-created. Fortunately, I'm the only entity that can access the Rift. This is also how I can travel between dimensions.
If you're wondering why I can't just unlock everything and freely supply you with items, it is because this energy strangely cannot be accessed without the expenditure of System Points.
I do not know why I can travel between dimensions without System Points. I theorize that it may be due to the fact that this function will only be unlocked at System Lvl 10.]
That makes sense. Why didn't I think of this before?
By the way, I'm glad I got a cooperative System. Most systems don't answer questions, or are super stingy with points. The shop items are usually ridiculously expensive as well. Looking through System's Shop, the items are reasonable prices.
For a skill called
I assume I get 1-5 System Points for a difficulty 1 choice or mission. I'm basing this on the fact that an item called
The item says it completely restores physical fatigue, which seems kinda overpowered for 10 points, so I probably won't get tons of points for beginner missions.
Now, it's time for my reward! But just as I was about to click on it...
[A cliche has been activated.]
Just then, the teacher announced that they be giving instructions. Noooo, my reward...why, cliche, WHY?!
A man wearing a rumpled shirt and slightly torn black pants stood on a floating pedestal. He's the principal, Fernwick Akatski. Two other adults stand on either side of him.
To his right, a woman known as the vice principal looked like she just survived a natural disaster. Her white blouse was ripped at the sleeves, with one sleeve completely gone. She had purple hair and gold eyes which were angrily glancing to her left.
To the principal's left, the head of the high school division, named Alarno Rin, was in a much better condition. This might be due to the fact that the high school division wasn't hit hard compared to the college division, where the principal and vice principal's office was situated.
His gray coat and white slacks were in pristine condition, a stark contrast to the vice principal. He had brown hair and a smug look that he was trying to hide. It was directed at the vice principal.
He didn't look like someone who's school was attacked, causing people under his jurisdiction to die.
The college division's head was injured, according to Fernwick, and is currently resting in the medical wing.
Fernwick then started to talk about the attack, seemingly caused by the terrorist group
They moved to the Fanis Empire after Ishikawa's downfall, so the country has been on guard. The Empire treats them the same as the Fanis Empire's major enemy, Kahl'an's Dictatorship.
Yes, the Empire is a democracy, the closest one to the Ishikawa Coalition. Which isn't by much, as the next closest democracy is only five light-years farther.
But enough on the backstory. Fernwick also lists the casualties, but by now I wasn't paying attention.
Hey, it's not like I'm not respecting the dead, but rather I see something super shocking. The labels above the people on the pedestal's heads.
Fernwick had a label stating his name, and below that,
The vice principal had a label with her name, Merna Wkford. Alarno also had his name floating above his head.
The problem was the other label both adults had underneath their names.