“What’d you get Jack?”
Jack looked at his inventory menu and materialized his ‘gift’ from the system.
A shiny brand new sword appeared in his hands, ready to slay countless foes.
‘Yeah, the system really doesn’t like me, does it?’
[Immortal Emperor’s Sword]Even Jack’s name had turned into a shiny golden font colour. And as if it couldn’t get any better, little particles were added to represent gold dust floating near his name.
[And for you, Z-A-N-E, I didn’t forget you, here’s my gift to you.] [1 New Item has been added to your Inventory]“Open Inventory”
[Inventory] [5 Items] [Broken Rusty Iron Sword] [Note] [Wooden Sword x 2] [Bronze Sword]“Another wooden sword…”
[Alright, now… Let’s fight!]‘Let’s fight? What could we possible fight, no monsters have spawned yet and the system isn’t giving any popups to display creatures being created…’
[A new Duel has been created by Administrator] [Player ‘Zane’ versus Player ‘Jack’]“Sweeet! I always wanted to do a duel like this!”, Jack laughed and kissed his OP sword whilst glaring at Zane’s spiteful wooden sword.
[Duel starts in 5 seconds] [4 Seconds]…
[1 Second] [FIGHT!]Jack’s nametag started to glitch, it showed the tag [NPC] for a brief moment before disappearing again, reverting back to the usual golden name.
[NPC] [Jack] [HP: 100000/100000] -> [Jack] [HP: 100/100]‘You’ve got to be kidding me… And look at his HP… You’ve done it now System..’
[ALERT: closing the game’s room in 5 minutes.] [WARNING: server maintenance will take approximately 5 hours.]I AM F*****!
Literally, f*****…
I’ve outdone myself to some extent in order to survive the system’s endless waves of monsters. It always uses cheap tricks on me in order for it to have a good laugh at me.
But it went too far this time, way too far.
So, this is what I know about the System so far.
It is able to summon me in a 24-hour interval no matter my situation in the real world. It doesn’t care if I’m eating, sleeping, on the toilet or at work – nothing matters to it, I don’t matter to it. After all, a toy should be played with whenever its master requires relaxation, right?
And if this wasn’t bad enough already, it seems to level-up its monsters way too fast. At first, it would throw low-level monsters at me; giving me a chance to fight with my bare hands if I had no other option. But now it forces me to take on an ever-increasing number of enemies with seemingly no level cap in sight.
With the events of my latest summoning, I can also conclude that the System is capable of summoning some kind of sentient NPC. It’s as if I’m in an arena, fighting against an OP Isekai protagonist with no chance of survival – as if I’m just another dungeon monster to him.
So, to sum it all up, I’m f*****. Am I really the protagonist of my own life? I’m not so sure about that anymore…
I have approximately 2 hours left until I’m summoned back to that hellhole of a dungeon to fight in a duel against the most overpowered entity the System has created so far. Chances of success? Probably somewhere around 0.00001% – if my calculations are correct…
How am I supposed to win? Well… I did come up with a few plans that would possibly increase my odds against this powerful foe.
Plan A) Steal his sword: I’ve learned that stealing equipment from mobs is the only way to acquiring more powerful equipment in the dungeon – at least it isn’t an unclogger – even if it’s a broken beyond-repair rusted iron sword, I can still use it… So, in short, if I’m able to steal his weapon before his aggro (or whatever the System uses as a trigger event to activate the NPC’s combat AI), then I will be able to overpower him easily. This is probably the most realistic option that I managed to come up with so far…
Plan B) I evade his attacks until the duel’s timer timeout kicks in… The problem with this option is that I’m not sure about the duel’s mechanics yet… Is there a time limit to the duel? If there is, then how long does it take for a duel to stop? Does the duel require a winner? Do I have to sacrifice a limb to give Jack points and then continue the duel by evading him whilst trying to stay conscious? I know that pain had already been added before stamina – knowing the System, it wouldn’t want people to die peacefully.
And finally, Plan C) If I’m not able to achieve victory with Plan A or B, then my best option – and the most unreliable method, is to basically beg the system for my life. I don’t know if it really wants to kill me or if it just wants to keep me around for a little longer before killing me… Moreover, do I die in real life if I die in the dungeon? I’m not taking any chances, if my death in the real world is still a possibility after dying in the virtual world, then I don’t want to risk it.
Well, lady luck surely isn’t on my side this time.
…
[Alert: 1 hour left!]‘F*** f*** f***!’
…
[Alert: 30 minutes left!]‘Okay NEW PLAN! I just rush JACK right after I’m materialized into the dungeon, I can’t afford to lose a single second to hesitation.’
…
[Alert: Duel starting in 5 seconds]…
[Alert: Duel initiated, transporting players to the Duel scene]Zane got transported to the System’s little cosy home, but instead of being greeted by floating numbers or a screaming void beneath him, he was presented with a badass looking duel scene. The scene had the appearance of an ancient Flavian amphitheatre, the stone seats were filled with people – probably NPCs created by the system. The NPCs were acting as if Jack had already won; they were shouting his name, telling tales about “Lord Jack and the ugly goose” and enjoying themselves whilst looking at Zane and his puny Bronze Sword. He had no armour, and basically no way of defending himself against Jack…
Jack seemed to have grown even stronger, he’d gotten a full set of golden armour and his name was now spawning even more particles.
