Man Of Systems

Chapter 7: 3D Printing

‘It is still alive?’ Rael was shocked, controlling his breath quickly as he watched the squished Arhkar glaring his way. Or more like, it was unable to move anymore, with all the bones of its body shattered.

Relying on the last vestiges of its lifeforce, it stared in one direction, not with intention. And, he coincidentally happened to hide in its line of sight.

Screech!

Suddenly, the second Arhkar unleashed a violent sound, similar to an insect, alarming Rael. He almost jerked in response, but his body had become numb from fear, thankfully for him. So, he didn’t give away his position.

After all, some of the books covering him already came in contact with the squished Arhkar’s blood, soaking it up. Thanks to this, there was a partial cover of its blood over him, preventing the second Arhkar from locating him.

All it could sense was his lingering scent as he had been in the place for long enough. It looked around, unable to find any traces of him, turning around to leave.

All along, Rael had been holding his breath, struggling, maintaining it even after it left. For, if he made any abrupt reactions, it would return. So, even while exhaling, he did it as slowly as possible.

Though, he was halfway into it when he was unable to endure it any longer, exhaling sharply before gasping for breath, wheezing a couple of times, “Puah!”

‘Oh shit!’ He cursed at himself, hearing the screeching sounds approach his room again.

<Ding!>

[Quest Completed! Generating reward! Granted the Skill: 3D Printing]

Screee!

The Arhkar rushed into the room, having locked onto his position already. For, as he stayed in the same place for long, his scent had congregated the highest there. And since his scent didn’t linger anywhere else, it was easy to ascertain his location, not to mention his rapid breaths that spread out his scent further.

As the Arhkar entered the room, Rael grabbed hold of a couple of books and threw them at it, also kicking some of the miscellaneous items on the floor at it, intending to at least distract it for a moment.

Taking that moment, he shouted, “System, what does this Skill do?”

[It extracts molecules from the surroundings according to the designated blueprint and creates the item in a matter of seconds…]

The Arhkar rushed at him when he flashed the beam from the flashlight at its face, causing it to blank out for a moment. Taking the chance, he rushed out of the room, no longer able to fight there.

He had already caused a lot of commotion, not to mention the increase in the concentration of his scent there since he was sweating now. Aware of their traits, he realised that staying there was tantamount to death.

Though, he didn’t run for long, understanding his horrible stamina and the expert agility of his foe. So, he rushed into the adjacent room, thanking the heavens that the doorknob still functioned. He opened it, struggling a bit to move it as the door had tilted a little towards the floor, scratching along the surface when he opened it.

He barely squeezed in through the gap and closed it, locking the door, grunting in exhaustion. He then heard the System give the rest of the explanation.

[If you hold any object in your hand and think of the word ‘Scan’ in your mind, the System would scan the object and load its blueprint from my database. You’ll be able to 3D Print it after that by thinking of the word ‘Print’. Caution note: As you don’t have any Plasma, your stamina would be consumed to activate this Skill]

[With User Rael’s stamina reserves, 3D Printing three boxes of bullets is your limit]

‘If I need to scan something to use it, then…’ He thought, gazing at the flashlight in his hands, observing how effective it was, ‘At least, I’ll be able to survive with this.’

He then looked around, noticing that the room had a couple of sofas, a table in the centre, a book atop it, and a water purifier in the corner. There was also a cabinet at the side with some trophies and photos.

Rael flashed the light on the cabinet, observing that all the pictures were empty. But, upon noticing the book atop the table, he rushed towards it, opening it before smiling in relief. For, there was a large hole in the pages, and contained within it was a gun.

Though, it was dismantled as Rael hurriedly assembled it back, holding the flashlight using his mouth.

There were already banging sounds on the door as the Arhkar was trying its best to break it down. As it wasn’t a power-type creature, it needed some time to barge into the room.

Even though his hands shivered in fluster, Rael somehow managed to assemble the gun before loading the bullets into it, reading it. It was a hand-held gun, lacking firepower. But, he had 20 bullets to rely upon, hoping that it would be enough to do the damage.

But, he didn’t wish to rely upon that alone. For, if the Arhkar simply charged at him while he was shooting at it, he could be knocked out from the impact.

So, he held the flashlight, saying in his mind, ‘Scan’.

[Blueprint loaded]

He then repeated the same for the gun and bullet too before arriving at the cabinet as he said mentally, ‘Print!’

“Create four flashlights!”

[Skill Activated, searching for materials…related material detected. Processing…]

Anything beyond the keywords had to be uttered by the mouth, a risky operation in the presence of others.

Rael noticed the items within the cabinet trembling before dust flew out of them and swerved towards his palm, condensing into a sphere there before taking the shape of four flashlights.

Immediately, an intense sense of exhaustion enveloped him as Rael slumped on the ground, panting in response. He then observed the four flashlights that he had created, noticing that even the logo of the company that manufactured it was on them, ‘So, it makes an exact replica.’

He quickly took out some gauze, tore out a piece, and used it to tie the four flashlights together, muttering, “System, is it possible to undo the 3D Printing after I’m done with them?”

[No, since the products are real. So, if User Rael wishes to dispose of them, he’ll have to destroy them the conventional way]

‘Then, unless absolutely necessary, I won’t condense bullets this way, since it is possible for them to be tallied.’ He thought, sighing as he stood ready, gazing at the hinges of the door beginning to come off.

Whether it was the Arhkar in the building, the placement of weapons, etc. everything was dictated by the military. Of course, they would also have records of it, since they would have probably done the same for the other recruits too.

So, if they find bullet wounds on the Arhkars that didn’t match with the number of bullets consumed, they would at least investigate him. So, to avoid that, he wished to play it safe.

Just as he thought as such, the door was slammed open as two Arhkars entered the room, shocking him. Of course, thanks to all the commotion, another one joined the chaos.

As he had already had his palm wrapped around the four flashlights’ switch, the moment he held the bundle tightly, all four flashlights were switched on, slamming a powerful beam of light onto the two Arhkars, stunning them, for the intensity this time was too high.

The eyes of the closest Arhkar even began to bleed when Rael held the bundle with his mouth, propped the gun with his hands, and shot.

Bang!

Since they were in proximity and there were two of them, none of his shots missed, mostly hitting the heads of both, causing them to scream in pain as they charged at him.

“Ahh!” Gasping in fright, he leaped aside, watching the two Arhkars collapse to the ground after slamming into the wall. The first one was heavily injured, unable to get up for the time being while the second one, though injured, was still able to move, slithering towards him while emitting a baleful screech.

During his leap to the side, he had dropped his flashlight bundle, lacking the main weapon to disorient the enemies. But, right as the Arhkar closed in on him, swiping its nails at him, he unloaded all the remaining bullets into it.

Bang!

Bang! Bang!

Blood leaked out of the many holes that had formed on its head and chest as the Arhkar weakly collapsed on the floor, twitching. But it wasn’t dead yet.

Rael panted, feeling his legs had gone numb from fear, for it was too scary to pit his life against two monsters. Though, his rational self prevented him from relaxing already, making him realise that though their wounds were severe, they weren’t dead yet.

So, he approached the broken door, picked it up with strain, and dropped it on the closest Arhkar, watching it emit a groan from the impact. He then jumped on it, hearing the groans from it increase in pitch while he continued to do so, soon watching the blood form a pool on the floor.

As for the other Arhkar, he flipped the table over it, jumping over it enough times until he was exhausted.

Picking up his gun and flashlight bundle, Rael peeked out of the room carefully, noticing that the coast was clear. Though, the silence of the place was eerie, causing him to freak out when one of the nails of the Arhkar twitched, making a mild scratching sound.

He then made his way through the corridor, entering the closest room to find that it was the restroom. He searched around using the flashlight, failing to find anything of value, intending to leave when something struck him as odd, causing him to peek out of the window.

He wasn’t able to see anything, for it was pitch black outside. All he noticed were flashes of light in other buildings. They were probably from the recruits there.

He then peeked out and observed his building, failing to notice any sources of light there, ‘Am I the only one in this building?’

He frowned, seeing that the flashes of light were only one per building. And in the building from which the recruit fell to his death, it was dark, with no signs of movement.

Rael was curious about everything but didn’t try to probe around, for he had run out of bullets already. Thankfully for him, the military had prepared a gun whose magazine was able to hold twenty bullets.

If he had to reload them mid-fight, that would have been impossible. After all, this was his first fight against creatures that were trying to kill him. The fact that he managed to kill three of them without suffering from an injury was already amazing.

Even though Rael had a weak physique and was susceptible to fear, he still had a stable mind, able to somehow pull off whatever he had thought and planned beforehand.

Had the military increased the difficulty, then only a pile of bodies of the recruits would be what awaited them the next day.

After gathering his bearings, he inched from one room to another, finding some food and water supplies. He eventually made his way towards the ground floor, noticing the entrance to the building was closed shut. It was an electronic door, in working condition.

And based on its almost pristine state, it was installed by the military separately for the screening test. After all, there were only three Arhkars in the building in total.

Rael gazed at the transparent device, observing that he had completed the second mission successfully, “Finally, they died. They still lived for twenty minutes after all that.”

He then entered what seemed to be a lounge on the first floor, eating some of the rations that he had procured, having his fill of water. He had also discovered two more boxes of bullets. But, finding them wasn’t joyful. Because, he understood a subtle fact.

If the military had hidden two more boxes of bullets, when half their quantity was enough to kill the three Arhkars, it meant that the third mission would be even more dangerous.

And as he had expected, when 24 hours were up, the details to the third mission appeared while the entrance to the building opened, causing Arhkars in the open to stream inside.