Directly after those dreaded words showed themselves on Zane’s display, he ran straight towards Jack, trying to grab his sword or steal a piece of his armour set.
“What are you trying to do? Steal my equipment?”
The crowd let out a roar of laughter as Zane got teleported back when he’d nearly reached Jack’s sword.
‘The f*** is happening, this isn’t supposed to happen! Since when does the system teleport me around…’
“Now die…”, Jack’s humorous posture changed to a more grim form. He grew larger and his body transformed into a huge muscular build.
‘This can’t be happening, Plan A, my only realistic option to win, has been swept away from my reach…’
Upon realising this, Zane started to build up his stamina gauge and deflected or outmanoeuvred most of Jack’s attacks.
“Trying to run away?”
The crowd started shouting in unison.
“Coward!”
‘F***, even with my careful stamina management I can’t seem to keep up with Jack’s attacks. It’s as if he has unlimited Stamina…’
[Oh! Ah! Hoho! Zane my boy, things aren’t looking so bright for you now, heeeeh?]“So I’m not Z-A-N-E anymore? You seem to have learnt from your mistakes… Even changing your dungeon layout like that…”
[Do you like it? I’ve worked hard on it for the past month…]‘Past month? How’s that possible? It’s only been 5 hours…’
Zane remembers his first time being summoned to the dungeon, he’d been in there for a few hours. When he’d gotten back, he’d lost the amount of time he’d spent there since he just woke up and pretended that the system was all in his head; just another fever dream.
‘But a month? How’s that possible???’
He tried remembering the time delay as best as he could. But his memory after returning seems pretty much non-existent. He’d always come back to the real world with a bursting headache and aches all over his body.
[What’s that confused look on your face Zaney boy? You should know that this world’s time is controlled by me… Let me explain… I control time so I control the rate of time that passes in this world; there’s no fixed time rate but I can decide how slow time runs here. I’m still not able to fast-forward time though… Such a pity, would’ve been hilarious to see you fight against my monsters and win, giving you a false sense of victory only to be transported back as an old man! HAHAHA, oh how I would enjoy seeing that!]‘This System really is something out of this world. This feels like as if I’m living in an “I’ve been reincarnated as an SSS-Class system and I like to destroy puny humans.” novel…’
“Well, so how slow is time running currently? At what rate did you set it?”
[Hmm, why would I answer that?]“Good point…”
Zane looked at Jack, he’d been frozen in place, waiting for the System to resume his combat AI.
“Hey Sys…”
[Yes?]“After I win this battle, could you at least add rewards after completing quests? I’m kinda struggling with these high-level mobs you’ve been spamming at me…”
[That’s IF you WIN Zane… And like I said before, things aren’t looking dandy for you now, aren’t they?]“Just wait, you’d be surprised with my capabilities… But please, could you create a quest with a reward attached to it?”
[Haha, sure, but you won’t ever get to see the quest being completed!] [New Quest created by Administrator] [Quest: “A hero is born”] [Description: “Overpower an Overlord in a duel.”] [Reward: “???”]‘Seems like I don’t know what I will get after the quest has completed… Typical…’
[Happy now?]‘Wait… What’s an Overlord? God, I should’ve known when I saw Jack’s real tag…’
“So you’ve created an Overlord and named it Jack?”
[Ugh, you found my little secret! But yes, he’s an Overlord…]‘Now, what the actual f*** is an Overlord… Is it a lord of lords? Some kind of demon lord? And before you fact-checking me whilst I’m trying to survive, I’ll search for the definition on my display – if it has a dictionary…’
Zane opened his display and searched for the keyword ‘Dictionary’. One result was found after typing in the keyword.
[Dictionary: ….. [Search]]He typed in the word “Overlord”
[Overlord: most powerful being in Universe-1###, can only be spawned by an Administrators or Super-##### users. Usually wields a tier SS sword and has the same class of armour equipped.]‘Well, of course, it’s made not to give me every single piece of information but hey, it’s something. So yes, I’m still absolutely, royally screwed… SS equipment? I suppose that’s something way too overpowered. When are you going to fix your game System!!! Please nerf! Oh wait, yeah nevermind, ain’t gonna happen anytime soon…’
*SLASH*
A bolt of lighting spawned out of thin air and almost fried Zane. Jack’s AI was back in the game and it seemed like the System had nudged it a tiny bit – because an Overlord with its AI on ‘Medium’ isn’t fun after all right?.
[Player: Zane] [HP: 45]‘F***, that bolt almost hit me dead centre.’
Jack has been mercilessly attacking Zane for hours.
*Dodge!*
*Bend down!*
*Strife left!*
*Strife right!*
[Player: Zane] [HP: 10]‘I’m running out of HP and I don’t have any way of healing myself… Jack seems to have unlimited stamina and I can’t deflect his sword since its defence stat seems to be maxed at whatever level the system deems as maxed.’
Jack had been quiet after his AI kicked in again – even the system gave Zane the cold shoulder.
‘Seems like even the system wants this duel to end as soon as possible; it’s nowhere in sight and it doesn’t seem to be observing me anymore for some reason. Maybe it decided to find a new human subject to torture in its virtual world or maybe it just magically decided to not be a psychopathic system anymore and stopped trying to kill its users…’
