Luxury

The room was dimly lit, the only source of light flickering from a table light beside Shaoran. His eyes traced the dark pages of the book in front of him—the Book of Runes. A reward for slaying 5,000 nightmare creatures, the ancient text was supposed to hold answers, It had no immediate use, only strange symbols and cryptic runes that he need to memorize for system . The system had rewarded him for the 5000 kills against Nightmare.

As he flipped another page, the distant sound of gunfire reached his ears. His gaze flicked up toward the window where Jerry and his men were stationed. The sniper rifle crackled every second, echoing in the stillness of the early evening. Through the haze of gunfire and chaos, the nightmare creatures—ghouls, howling and relentless—drove forward, hungry for blood. Yet, Jerry and his crew stood tall, controlling the high ground, fighting back fiercely from the rooftop of the makeshift wooden office building. The scene outside was nothing short of apocalyptic, the air thick with the smell of death and decay.

"Damnit," Shaoran muttered, his voice a low growl. He couldn't ignore the situation outside. He never could. But as much as he wanted to leap into the fray and help, he knew he couldn't afford the distraction. Not right now.

He opened his system panel, the familiar cold interface filling his vision:

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World Name: Solva

Population: 1854

Races: Human (1300) | Goblin (554)

Map Explored: 0.5%

Current Domain: 0.1%

System Power: 254.356/300

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Missions:

Build a Town (Progress 53%)

Residential House: (30/100)

Lord Castle: (0/1)

Barracks: (0/5)

Bank: (0/1)

Bar: (1/5)

Warehouse: (2/6)

Town Wall: (20%)

Mission Reward: Subsystem, Inventory, Mana System.

Secret Reward: ???

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Shaoran let out a long breath, staring at the numbers in front of him. His eyes lingered on the mission progress—53% done, but the work was overwhelming. Residential houses were slow in coming, the town wall only 20% complete. There were far more critical things to do than focus on his progress in building a town. But time wasn't on his side, and the Nightmare creatures were relentless.

He shifted his attention to the next part of the panel, and for a moment, he allowed himself to imagine the potential benefits of the subsystem. It wasn't just for him—it could be the key to everything. If he could pull this off, if he could get others to use it, Solva would be able to handle its problems much more efficiently. Subsystems could give people their own limited version of the system, with inventory space and the ability to harness some of the system's magic. He had already shared some partial details about how it worked—he had no choice. People were growing desperate. But if they learned the full extent of what he could do, what he had access to... things could spiral out of control fast.

Shaoran couldn't let that happen. Not with the stakes this high.

The problem was the mana. The one thing that could elevate their strength, that could make them more powerful—was out of reach. Shaoran understood the theory behind magic and mana, but he couldn't figure out the damn circuits. It was beyond him. He wasn't a mage, and the system, despite its overwhelming capabilities, couldn't help him there. Even if it could, magic circuits were complex, and with the system's power constantly draining, he wasn't sure how much longer he could maintain his grip on Solva.

"Fuck," he muttered again, clenching his fists.

His eyes flicked back to the battlefield outside. Jerry had his hands full, leading the charge against the nightmare creatures with ruthless efficiency. But even Jerry couldn't keep up forever, not without the resources he needed.

The system beeped again, pulling Shaoran's attention away. The mission notification flashed:

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Emergency Notice: Nightmare Gate Detected on Jupiter (Universe: Cosmos)

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