My Life Almost A Year Later (2)
After the two floating Orb Wizards flopped to the ground and perished, the game announced that the dungeon was cleared. I walk to the chest that was formerly blocked by a aqua barrier and open it.
Shining items pop out of the chest like fireworks. I got the usual loot for Saturdays, just some evolution materials, silvagems and XP.
Dungeons change loot every day. Today is Saturday, so I get Saturday's items.
'School is in two days, huh?'
I haven't gone to school since the aliens—although it was really the System—froze time for humans. No one aged during this whole almost-year. Most people probably didn't study, but I bought books from the System Store. Actually, they're more like files that were downloaded to my phone. There's books on advanced technology and magic. There's even fighting books and a simulator that I bought a couple months ago. I don't want the
They shouldn't care about a random human, but the System really likes me for some reason.
It even messages me on the broken messaging app. It told me its full name was the System of the Omniverse and it ruled over everyone in existence. I asked it why it pays attention to me, but it just said I have a special aura. It also mentioned something about an "unknown fate." That's a bit scary since the System is supposed to know everything including the future.
I didn't get a real answer. Or maybe I did and didn't understand. After all, I've never even seen auras. Though I'm pretty sure that's just some mumbo jumbo the System made up. I'm just a human in any case.
My iPhone 8 dinged. The System sent me a message.
[Are you excited about school?]
It was a shockingly normal message. I've gotten used to it by now. [Meh, it's not like I really need it.]
[That's why I sent you the System Shop and told you to buy some books. School should be easy now.
I've made some adjustments to school to make it fun for you. The monsters are dwindling in your game right? I made monster areas!] There was a picture attached to the message.
The picture displayed a door with different levels next to it. The door was open, revealing a spacious room behind it. There was a panel on the other side of the room to adjust the room's settings, like location.
[Wait, did you redo all the schools to entertain me?]
[Yep, I did! :)]
[Why do you do all this for me?] I probed.
[I told you, you have a special aura.]
[Can you be specific? Like how did you even focus on me?]
[Well, one day I discovered that I couldn't see the future of this world. So I investigated and found you. You were the reason why the world's future was unknown. You also have a special ability. If I gave the phone to an ordinary human or actually, anyone in the omniverse, they would explode.]
My first thought was, 'It was that easy for it to tell me?' My second thought was, 'What? I'm actually special in that way?' Finally, I thought, 'I could've exploded?!'
//////////
Sunday morning.
I dragged myself out of bed. 'Tomorrow I have to go to that crazy school...' I went to my closet and changed into day clothes.
//////////
After I got over my shock yesterday (and was reassured that the System wasn't deliberately trying to kill me) the System told me about the other changes it made.
[I kept the academic classes, but the time in them are halved. Basically, they're now morning classes. Don't worry, the tests are the same.]
[What about the other people? They wouldn't be able to learn as much in half the time!]
[Academic classes are only a fourth of your total grade.]
Wow, shouldn't have expected school to be the same with the System managing it...
[Instead, you will be graded on your progress in
[Friends?] I've met one of them. We chatted a bit about his job and things like that. It wasn't a exactly normal conversation though...
That's because that person was Death. The System gave him the job to manage death, since it had other things to do. Death is an omnipotent existence like the System.
There are only three omnipotent beings in the omniverse. There used to be more, but the others all died. The only thing that could kill an omnipotent being is another omnipotent being.
The System and Death are the two most powerful. The third being is much weaker but one that cannot die at all costs.
The leader of the
At least three omnipotent beings need to exist in order for the omniverse to function. The moment one of them dies, the omniverse explodes. Not even the System could survive. That's why Ofusac killed the other beings before going rogue. It was to ensure his survival.
The other beings could not be revived. Otherwise, omnipotent beings would be popping up everywhere, as the System would want to revive its old friends. It hasn't been confirmed, but I think the System is trying to make me an omnipotent being. There was a book called
It didn't work for me though.
[Yep! All your teachers except for the academic classes are my friends, so there shouldn't be any trouble for you. I showed them your picture to avoid mistaken identity.
Also, I added a PvP arena. You've been playing by yourself, right? Now you can beat up other people and become friends!]
'I don't think that's how friendship works.'
[Is that really the best way to make friends?]
[According to statistics from other worlds, yes. Someone beats another person in a fight. Then they become best friends! That's how it works in most universes with magic or what you call "futuristic" technology.]
[That's not how it works here.]
I was about to send this message, but then a strange creaking noise sounded from outside my room. That's strange because I'm the only one in the house. And the entire neighborhood.
//////////
One month after what people call
I was not in my house that day. I went grocery shopping as my parents were both injured gravely on the dual of the failed invasion. They went to the hospital for a couple of weeks and were recently discharged. They couldn't move around properly though. This was most people's situation.
That day, the Experts razed my neighborhood to the ground. At first, they were just looting the houses, but when they discovered that one of the neighbors was a soldier, they completely wrecked all the houses. He wasn't even an active soldier, but just the mere fact that he was a soldier warranted total destruction.
Everyone died. Including my parents. I buried them in my backyard. I crazily gamed for the next month.
//////////
I cautiously crept out of my room. Slowly, I walked toward the source of the noise-
Okay, actually I just ran directly to the sound. I have the System on my side, so why should I be afraid? Plus, unless it's the
The noise stooped. There was a thud, as if something heavy was tossed onto the ground. It came from...
The backyard.
My parents' bodies are buried there.
I leap through the back door. I run through the overgrown grass and discover an empty hole where my dad's corpse was buried.
'Was there a grave robber?' I thought, not really panicked. It wasn't like anything could hurt me. Besides, too many things happened to me that I'm not surprised by anything anymore. I would believe it if my dad turned into a zombie.
I don't disrespect the dead, but my parents have been dead for months. By now, their bodies have become skeletons, so there's not much sentimental value in them. My parents are in a special place my System gave them anyway.
Suddenly, I was attacked from behind.
"Attacked? I'm not doing anything harmful to you."
I turn around to see my father, alive and well. Plus, he's hugging me.
/////////
Apparently, the System always wanted to come down to Earth to talk to me face-to-face, but could not due to the world restrictions. Today, it saw a vague future where the only thing that could be seen was the world not being destroyed from its descension. It could possess a dead body of someone specifically related to me and not destroy this world. So, it possessed my father, altered the records—which were nonexistent in the first place—and presumed the position of my dad.
"How's this?" It asked me with a frying pan in hand. It was cooking eggs normal-human-style. Although this was its first time, it did a great job.
It looked really normal, wearing my dad's slightly ripped jeans and brown loafers you see most dads wearing. He fabricated the T-shirt out of nowhere, as my dad only had plaid or formal shirts left. The rest of them were destroyed with my house.
By the way, after my house was destroyed during the massacre,(what, you don't expect my house to be the only one standing after all the ones next to it are destroyed, do you?) the System restored my house. For some reason, some of the furniture came back and others didn't. My dad's shirt closet was one that was gone forever. The other shirts were on his bed, so they came back.
The shirt the System created is green with orange letters spelling out "I came back from the dead." There's a zombie eating the "I."
"As the System of the Omniverse, anything you do will be perfect. Is that even a question?"
It scoops the eggs onto a white plate. "Well, I've never cooked human food using a 2020 pan."
"Technically, you made the pan. Besides, why do you need to cook food like a human? I'm sure that fabricated food tastes better." I sit at newly replaced kitchen table. The old one broke after I accidentally shot it with lightning. Technically, Vaqu did it.
The characters have their own personalities as they are actual people from another world. They signed a contract with people, either humans, Experts or others using the same system, to work for them. Actually, everyone in the Omniverse uses the same system after discovering it.
The contracts differ on what the characters are doing and how much they like the person they're signing with. They decide after we use them as a trial character. It turns out that my characters already signed a contract when I got them permanently in-game. The characters I got from wishes were characters who already signed and were just waiting for me to roll them.
Contracts for people in real life are unfavorable to the characters. They are forced to sign when people get them. The contracts themselves are slave contacts. They have to do what their "masters" tell them to do, even if they die. If they die, they die forever.
Mine are different. Although they also signed slave contracts, they did it without me knowing. I never signed anything, but they were still contracted to me. Actually, they were the ones who proposed the contracts and forced me to "sign" them. I suspect the System had a hand in this.
Plus, when they die, they don't actually die. They just go back to their world. They can revive using Heal Points or revival food.
Characters only die when their HP goes down to zero, like a video game. Also like a video game, they don't bleed. Same with people, only they revive like players in game, infinitely. They just lose adventure levels.
When characters are summoned to the world the "players" are from, time pauses in their world. They can even get stronger by leveling up by the time they return. However, since they were forced to sign slave contracts, they never are happy about this.
Duplicate characters—quest characters and any other people can get—come from parallel worlds. Their skills and elements are the same, just that their personalities may differ.
//////////
After I found out about the contracts, I summoned all my characters to my world. In the backyard of course. If I summoned them in my house, it would probably explode again. I can't summon them in places I can't see.
I had 16 rank one, 13 rank two, 21 rank three, 15 rank four and 7 rank five characters. I didn't collect all the characters in the game, but I leveled them all to the max. Even the rank one characters since I had excess XP books. If you exclude the quest characters then I have 12 rank one, 9 rank two, 20 rank three, 15 rank four and 7 rank five characters.
Oh right, all my characters except the quest characters rose by two ranks. Plus I have the rank six, or rank eight in real life Valyn.
Anyway, I talked to them about the contracts and if they were okay with helping me. They were more than willing, as I was not only favored by the System, but it also turns out that I have a strange element like Valyn.
Everyone gets an element and an avatar when they get the system. My avatar was already set though...
But apparently everyone else on Earth, including the Experts are overage chunnis. I get the teenagers who have eight grade syndrome or little kids, but what about the adults and Experts? Seriously, the designs are really exaggerated. At least my avatar doesn't stick out. I don't have to use it anyway.
Back to my element. It was not "system" but something actually more powerful.
Omniverse.
That was my element. Everyone but me knew about it. Well, only the System and my characters, but it's pretty much everyone I know.
I checked my skills. They are even more OP than Valyn. But I only level them in real life. It's not worth it though, as my adventure level became my level. I'm much higher than my characters. I already have all my skills unlocked. All I have to do is get a weapon and gather materials. The materials can only be bought in the System Shop. I leveled my basic attack and ultimate once, but could not spare any more Kills to buy more materials. I can buy them when I go to school.
As for my weapon, I can not only equip anything, but I can also duel wield. Everyone else as a "player" can do this as well. The System just gave me a weapon though...
Of course, it was completely broken.
I had to level and evolve it using special materials from the System shop, and it was impossible to Improve, but the skills were insane.
Not only that, it could split into two weapons with separate abilities. One was a sword and the other was a gun!
Guns don't exist in this system! You need to be someone from the
Not that I'm complaining. While being more powerful does make me stand out more, it's probably too late. I should get as strong as possible to defend myself.
Besides, I want to pay the System back for helping me. The only way I can do that is by becoming an omnipotent being and allowing the System to kill Ofusac. In any case, I don't want my world to be destroyed.
Once I go to school, I can power up my most powerful weapons. My skills, my broken weapons and Valyn could be upgraded. As I said before, it was not worth it to travel all around the world just to get a piddling amount of XP. But with the changes the System made to school, I could wipe out high level monsters in one place, without making it inconvenient for anyone. There is different levels in the monster areas after all.
Since no one was unhappy, I let them be. They could come and go out of my world anytime they want until I go to school. I told them not to go out of the neighborhood, and if they did, they should stay out of sight. They might be mistaken for players and provoked. Some of them have a short fuse and might kill them all...
//////////
I finished off my meal and washed my plate in the sink. The System was conjuring foods and wolfing them down like crazy at the table.
"You don't have to eat food like a human, you know."
The System stuffed a raw potato in its mouth. "I wanted to see what food tastes like to humans."
"You already know."
"It might be different in this world. I can't even see the future of this world."
I dried off my plate. "Is it any different?"
"Nope." All the empty plates disappeared. The table and floor became spotless. "School's tomorrow. I set up your dorm already!"
The System set up dorms in my high school so I don't have to be lonely in my house. It's not like I don't have any friends though.
I had a lot of friends throughout the years. After all, a game addict always has something to talk about with fellow game addicts. Although I didn't play the same games as them, I still could talk about common gaming strategy and the fun of games. Most of them weren't very close, just a temporary circle for elementary or middle school.
I do have a best friend I kept in contact with even after transitioning from elementary to middle school. He's going to the same high school as well.
//////////
I have known him since third grade. Technically we were acquaintances since I entered kindergarten, but no one becomes best friends right away. That is something that only happens in TV shows and novels.
We started off our friendship by talking about the new PC that was coming out. He was in my circle of friends and visited one of the other friends' house. He had the newest PC and showed it off. Both my soon-to-be friend and I also had the same PC we got for Christmas. We quietly talked about it while the others were fawning over the PC and begging to try it.
"You have it too? What games do you play on it?" Asidus Meng asked. He was the extreme introvert of the group. He would be categorized as an otaku, though maybe not so much right then. He had dark brown hair with low bangs and brown eyes. He had freckles on both cheeks.
"I play Creationblock and Rn Runners."
"I play too! What's your ID?" he asked excitedly. At this age, after finding someone with a similar interest kids would immediately open up, even if they're shy.
"Um..." My Creationblock ID was normal for an elementary schooler, but my Rn Runners ID was made when I was still in my chunni phase...
"For Creationblock it's Stonefiresword, and I...created a new Rn account. The ID is KeyboardWarrior123." It's a good thing I don't play much anyway. I'll just sneakily create an account and play for a couple of hours...
"Add me as a friend!" And that's how I earned myself a best friend.
//////////
The System showed me pictures of my dorm at night. It was...okay, surprisingly. I was afraid it would paint the walls bright blue or something. I might have to fix the positions of the beds though...
I should get to school extra early to move the beds before my dorm mates get there.
"I'll pick out your clothes for tomorrow!" it exclaimed as it turned off the light in my room.
'Please don't.'