Duel of systems

Second

From one moment to the next, I appeared in a white room with a strange ringing in my ear.

I got up from the floor and a strange announcement appeared.

(Welcome user)

[You have received a new opportunity]

[You will return to life as if nothing had happened to you, but you must do a mission]

(Rules)

[You cannot be detected by a regular person doing a mission. Simply put, no normal person can recognize you doing the mission Automatically, you go on the punishment list and if you are caught, you will also go on the target list]

[You cannot kill another player without being on a mission]

[You cannot interfere in another player’s life without being allowed to do so]

[You cannot kill external people]

[You cannot tell a normal person what you do]

[Any rule can be added or changed. Breaking any of the rules makes you a target for as long as the system determines]

(Missions)

[You will be given missions to kill or steal. There are only 200 available worldwide]

[You have a limit of one week to complete any of the missions, and you must compete with 2000 players worldwide. Travel and weapons must be paid for by yourself]

[If you don’t finish your weekly mission. You will enter the list of targets to be eliminated next week. If you survive, you can become a player again]

[After five months you will be a free person]

(Rewards)

[If you are one of the first ten to do the first missions of the month, you can be free for the rest of the month]

[If you kill another player in the middle of the mission, you have the right to receive a hefty sum of money and reduction of your time in this system duel]

[After five months you will be free]

(Punishment)

[Killing external people or players who are not on a mission makes you a target for five months]

[Stepping into a player’s life without their permission will give you fouls that, if accumulated, your system will be locked for 4 days]

After hearing those rules, I felt stressed. I had to stain my hands with blood of innocent people. I was not happy to hear that. I was just a simple married man trying to earn some money to fulfill his wife’s dream, but I ended up in the middle of a game of assassins.

[…]

I woke up a little later on the street where I had been run over. Many people were watching. I opened my eyes and tried to get up from the ground, my mouth tasted like blood and sand. I looked up and there was my wife and that guy. She was being comforted by that man. She thought she had died.

The person who ran over me was an elderly gentleman, he had glasses, white hair, somewhat long and some wrinkles.

“Are you all right, young man?”

I didn’t answer him. I was still in shock after seeing her with that man. I was feeling very bad. There was no physical pain that could match the discomfort I felt.

The old man grabbed my shoulders and helped me up from the floor. My wife turned to look at me, but I took off my wedding ring and threw it on the floor in front of her. I never wanted to see her again. I was disappointed and not going back, I wanted to go home.

That man took me to his car. It was a gray pickup truck guy, maybe he was taking me to the hospital. The blow had been pretty hard, I had died, but I was alive. I thought that everything I saw in that room had been a dream, so I just lay down in the back seat of the car. I was just hoping to get to the hospital quickly and maybe stay all night. I wasn’t going home. I gave up everything I had and got with the person I thought was my wife. Just thinking about all the time I spent with that woman made me feel annoyed. Maybe during those two months she was with her lover dozens of times while I was getting all kinds of insults at that job.

I got so upset that I fell asleep, there were too many thoughts that could make me sick.

[…]

When I arrived at the hospital, I was taken to a stretcher and taken to an ICU, perhaps on the orders of that man. It seemed very strange to me, I was not supposed to be in that place, but I didn’t care. I wanted to stay there all night, and not go back home, tomorrow I would do all the divorce paperwork.

However, I started to hear a whistling sound and some kind of board appeared in front of me.

[Statistics]

Muscle mass 32

Strength 25

Endurance 14

Intelligence 75

Weapon proficiency 5

Position: 2000

I remembered everything I read from the supposed rules and felt like a loser. Out of 2000 players, I was last and couldn’t kill a literal rabbit. It was very disappointing to see that what I think was a dream was true. I had died and was being forced into a manic game where I had to kill people to survive, or I would die again.

I stopped looking at the part of the board, just leaned to the side and ignored what was happening. However, I heard an alarm.

[Warning, you have daily chores to do]

[New user rests this week. Must choose between killing or stealing next week]

I turned my face and looked at the board again and was shocked to see that. I was given a choice between killing and stealing. I preferred stealing because I considered it easier, and I wasn’t hurting anyone.

However, very difficult things popped up for me, apparently the easier ones had already been done.

[Stealing a diamond from a tycoon]

[Steal money from a CEO]

[Stealing a luxury car]

[Stealing a diamond store]

When I got there, I was very lazy. Everything was impossible, no matter how smart I was, stealing some of it was too difficult. I felt I was going to get the punishment and gave up before I tried to do anything. I closed the system without choosing anything.

I tucked myself in with the sheets to sleep. I didn’t want to wake up anymore. My life was a total failure.

[…]

The next day, the man who ran me over showed up. He was dressed in a robe. I knew right away that he was a doctor.

He came up to me and spoke to me.

“I did a lot of tests on you and you have nothing. It’s quite strange, you don’t have any damage to your body, it’s unbelievable, I saw you fall hard against the asphalt!”

“I’m hard to die.”

“You can’t leave yet, I want to come to an agreement with you. Don’t press charges against me. For now, I don’t want any trouble.”

His tone of voice changed quite a bit. From there I began to suspect that he was drunk yesterday. I remembered a smell of liquor in the car. He had been drinking yesterday and was afraid of going to jail, but he was a doctor, he doesn’t make exorbitant amounts of money. So with a certain amount, I decided to make a deal not to go through with it anymore.

“Okay, just for a certain amount of money.”

“Excuse me?”

“When you ran me over I was following someone, because of you I couldn’t catch up with them, for now I have nowhere to live, I want to go back.”

The man looked upset, but it wasn’t much money either. If I had died, the police would have investigated, and he would be in jail.

“It’s okay, I’ll pay the hospital bill and give him a check for the amount of money he gave me. I just hope I don’t run into him again.”

“Same here, but I can’t leave without the money, like I told you, I have nowhere to go.”

The gentleman didn’t say a word and left that place. I thought about spending all that money in two days and dying the following week. I didn’t want to start a new life, just live on the edge and rest from this world once and for all.

However, the system gave me another somewhat unique warning.

[You have received a new daily mission time limit to complete 12 hours]

I didn’t feel like opening the message. I was not going to be the servant of anything, or anyone my life was over, and I was not going to change my mind.

[…]

I received the money from the doctor. Hours later, I was determined to spend it all in a disco and with whores.

I went to the pink zone of the city, I no longer cared about anything, just enjoying my last days on earth; however, everything was not as easy as I thought. In the nightclub I arrived, I was alone with a bunch of strangers doing drugs and dancing senselessly. The lights were purple, blue and red, too annoying, maybe the years were bothering me. I bribed the security guard to get in. I always wanted to be in a nightclub like this. Here were the middle class people, but I felt like an old man, I started to get bored and preferred to go to see prostitutes; however, I received a message from my system.

[Target to assassinate approaching]

I was still free this week, I had to leave and avoid another user, I didn’t want to die yet, but when I headed for the exit, the target appeared.

He was a fat bald man, somewhat hairless, with tattoos on his hand, gold chains and rings. He was accompanied by some guys who appeared to be his bodyguards. I had to stand there and not move, as he passed by. He and his group scared me. It was hard to kill someone so protected in front of so many people. So I tried to get out of there fast; however, I ran head-on into another user.

The system put some kind of sign on him to identify the players. He was dressed like an office worker. A blue suit and some shoes, but he was hiding weapons in his pants. He looked at me and recognized me immediately. He held a knife to my chest. Since it was impossible for anyone to see him because of the darkness of the place.

“Follow me.”

I got quite scared, my whole body started sweating, and I began to tremble. Against my will I started to follow that man.