Turning Point

Ding! [You have successfully killed a Dred]

[You have leveled up] [Lv. 1 → Lv. 2]

[Tap to view more ↆ]

Elion laughed at the messages from the system.

"I can level up now? That's nice. Feels like a reward to me."

After tapping the floating message in front of his face, a large screen stretched out, displaying Elion's status.

[STATUS WINDOW]

NAME: Elion Viro 

LEVEL: Lv. 1 → Lv. 2 

AGE: 14 years 

HP: 200/200 (↑100) 

IP: 200/200 (↑100) 

Strength: 4 (↑2) 

Intelligence: 50 

Stamina: 5 (↑2) 

Agility: 7 (↑2) 

Skills: [Creation Lv. 1]

Elion stared at his status in awe. Many of his stats increased just from one level up, and his health points were now fully restored. 

This was a new experience for him. Elion had often secretly watched his classmates play games that also had status windows like this, but he had never played one himself. Aside from the fact that his classmates excluded him and never invited him to play, his mother wouldn't allow Elion to play games either. 

After examining his status, Elion stood and did a small jump, checking the condition of his body. Magically, all his wounds had disappeared, and he felt stronger and faster than before. 

"System, does my body fully recover every time I level up?" Elion asked.

[Yes. Every time you level up, HP and IP increase by 100 and are fully restored.]

"Okay. But what about the stats that increased? Did I do something that made them go up?"

[Of course. Stats increase depending on the aspects you used during the level-up process.] 

[For example, during the fight with the Dred, you ran, dodged, and threw a knife using strength. Therefore, stamina, agility, and strength increased after leveling up.]

"I see … pretty confusing, but I get it."

Elion paused for a moment, thinking. To him, the system was still too mysterious. There were so many things he didn't know yet—from the origins of the system, how to use it effectively, and how it appeared right after the world was destroyed and everyone disappeared suddenly. 

Since Elion had left his house and walked through the city, he hadn't seen a single corpse. He concluded that this wasn't simply humanity dying due to a disaster; everyone had disappeared because of a mysterious force Elion didn't understand. 

Elion let out a long sigh. "Imagination system, huh? I still have to use my brain, after all."

[Of course, you have to use your brain to think. Can anyone imagine something without a brain?]

"What the—?" Elion was startled by the system's response, as if it could hear his thoughts. "Can you read my mind?" Elion asked suspiciously.

[Well, duh.]

The system's reply left Elion speechless. Why did the system suddenly sound as if it had emotions? That's what he was thinking. It felt as if there was a human behind the robotic voice. 

Before Elion could fire off a thousand questions at the system, the robotic voice returned.

[Instead of that, you'd better find water and build a shelter quickly. Unless you want to die at the hands of hundreds of Dred.]

Elion clenched his lips shut. The system was right. He couldn't stay here talking to it like an idiot. As he was engaged in the Q&A session, he could hear the strange sounds of Dred approaching. 

"You're right," Elion mumbled in frustration. "But I still have a lot of questions for you. Just wait!" 

He quickly ran, leaving the city center, moving swiftly toward the quieter outskirts, closer to his home. With his perfect memory, Elion managed to find a supermarket much faster this time. 

Though the supermarket was in a terrible state, with the roof collapsed, glass shards everywhere, and shelves toppled over each other, Elion was still able to find food and drinks in good condition. 

"With this, I don't have to worry about starving or dehydrating to death," Elion said, picking up several bottles of drinks and packets of instant food, holding them in his small arms.

[Are you going to carry them like that? How inefficient. What happened to your 50 intelligence points?]

"Huh?"

Elion frowned, visibly annoyed. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. The system could even mock him now. Had it evolved or something to be able to do something like that? 

"Do you have a more efficient way then, huh?" Elion asked, irritated.

[Tch.]

"What? Did you just click your tongue? Unbelievable!" Elion shouted in frustration. 

As he awaited the system's response, a vortex of energy suddenly appeared, causing a gust of wind that made Elion step back in surprise. 

The energy vortex was full of colors, shaped like a circle, and resembled the portals Elion had seen in a movie about time travel when he was a child.

Elion swallowed hard and walked closer to the portal out of curiosity, reaching out his hand to touch it. However, the intense cold from the portal immediately froze his hand, forcing Elion to pull his arm back quickly. 

"What the heck? Why is it so cold?" Elion exclaimed, shaking his hand. 

[Sigh. What are you doing? That's an inventory, a sub-dimension where you can store your items.]

"If you'd told me that earlier, I wouldn't have done something so stupid." Elion grumbled, annoyed. 

Without thinking further, Elion put the bottles and packets of food into the inventory. Then a message from the system appeared in the air.

[Skill: [Inventory] Acquired!] 

[Skill description: Allows you to store any object in a sub-dimension. Time does not exist in the sub-dimension, so items will remain in the same condition as when they were stored.]

"Whoa! This skill is super useful!" Elion spoke in awe. 

But once again, the system's robotic voice interrupted him.

[Of course, it's useful. You should be grateful, as I'm only making an exception to give you a free skill this time.]

The smile on Elion's face quickly vanished. "Yeah, yeah. Thanks a lot, Your Majesty." 

Elion continued to walk around the supermarket, storing every food and drink he saw into the inventory. His hands moved quickly as he occasionally glanced around to check his surroundings, ready in case a Dred approached. 

Watching him, the system suddenly sighed.

[Sigh…]

Noticing the system's annoying behavior, Elion rolled his eyes. "What now? What do you want to say?"

[You're doing something inefficient again. Just think of what you want to store, and the inventory skill will automatically transfer the item into the sub-dimension.]

Elion's frustration peaked. Now he could only think the system was doing this on purpose.

"You should've explained that earlier, you damn system!"

________________________________________

After gathering and storing materials to build a shelter in his inventory, such as stone debris from the ruins, steel lying in the streets, and usable wood and glass, Elion moved toward the forest. 

He chose the forest as his new home because, after checking, there were no Dreds roaming around. With that, Elion now stood in the middle of the forest. In an instant, the materials he had collected earlier emerged from the sub-dimensional portal in order, floating for a moment before crashing down with a loud thud. 

"Here we go!" Elion exclaimed excitedly. 

He raised both hands in the air and began imagining the detailed process of constructing a house in his mind. Then, like magic, the materials started glowing and rising high into the air.

One by one, the materials moved, forming a solid structure. Steel pieces pierced the ground to create the foundation, stones lined up neatly to establish walls, wood became the doors and roof, and glass turned into windows. 

The process of building the house was finally complete. 

[Congratulations! You have successfully built a small house!]

[Skill: Creation Lv.1 → Lv. 2]

The house was very simple, measuring 3×3, with one door, a window, and a wooden roof. However, Elion gazed at his first house with a sense of pride.

"This is pretty good. I didn't expect to be able to build a house on my first try." 

[Not bad. But I'm not sure if this house will last more than a week.] 

"Now you can even give opinions?" Elion shook his head in disbelief. He had given up on understanding the system's behavior. 

While Elion was inspecting the sturdiness of his house, he failed to notice a creature approaching at an incredible speed from afar. Every second, the creature shot closer, faster and sharper. The system, realizing the creature's presence, quickly gave a warning.

[Warning! A Dred is—] 

But the system's warning came too late. When Elion noticed, a giant needle had already pierced through his back, leaving a gaping hole in his stomach. Blood splattered, staining the house's walls, and his internal organs dropped to the ground with a sickening thud. 

"W-What... the fuck?" 

Elion's consciousness slowly faded, breath trapped in his throat. As his vision turned black, a voice echoed in his head.

[You have died.] 

[Returning host to the starting point.]