2023-05-05 23:11:58Natalie didn’t check my groceries. But she did ask if I bought everything I’ve listed. The answer is obviously not because I’m on a tight budget, especially after preparing for the fight with Khione. I’m not rich like her. My pocket money comes from Terrence’s parents and my own savings from helping in the academy and part-time jobs near the academy. They're not much, and I still have to save up.
***
Reward claimed! You got additional 30 TP by helping (3) people!
***
I just remembered that Ozzie’s system has additional points that I can claim through helping people. In the plaza, I helped an auntie get a yogurt from the rack in the supermarket and a guy taking a picture by the fountain. That’s two. The last one must be the boy. Well, if that boy was being honest and he did find this, then I just helped him get out of trouble. That boy did say he found it in a field. If someone ever confront me for it, I’ll just feed the person my bullet. Flat characters are not important.
I put my groceries on the floor and put the pendant on my desk. Then I heard another ding. This time it’s my Arrow, the smartwatch given to every students in the Terrace. It works like a phone would, with its internet like stuffs and social media.
I look at my Arrow screen and am surprised to see the sender.
.
From: Rean
-1 sweeping 4 PM. Do you want to come?
.
He’s in need of one more person to fill in his sweeping team today. Good timing! I’ve just shopped today and I’m kinda broke now. Not to mention that after the exam, I wouldn’t have enough energy to do part-time jobs. I would be starving after the 2nd exam, and I choose not to be in debt to the cafeteria.
I immediately reply to him that I’ll be there. He doesn’t reply, but I know he got the message.
I still have some time before the mission start, so I sit on the floor and plan my strategy for tomorrow.
When it’s almost time, I got a message from Rean about the meeting location. So I pop in a chocolate croissant into my mouth, courtesy of the auntie I helped, and leave the dorm.
I go to the academy’s entrance and Rean’s already waiting there with two other people I don't recognize. They must be side characters.
“Isn’t this guy that gunner from your class, Rean?” The female one looks at me disapprovingly.
The guy scrunches his nose at the question but does not say anything. But it’s clear that they guy’s expressing his disapproval too.
“Don’t judge people by their weapon of choice. You weren’t a pro either when you pick up those swords.” Rean scolds them.
The two immediately looks away awkwardly. Then Rean turns to me. “Thank you for coming. You’ll be our range attacker.”
I smile at their disgruntled expressions before turning to Rean. “Aye aye boss!”
Sweeping mission is, as the name said, sweeping. Students who accept this mission must clear a certain area from monsters. Usually due to random spawns near dungeon area. There are dungeons outside of the city, and monsters spawn there regularly. The academy is located in the southwest side, near the outskirts of the city. There are small villages here that depends on the academy for protection, thus, this sweeping mission is enacted.
We get into the academy-issued vehicle a.k.a borrowed car from the academy and go on our way. I’d like to sit with one of the two chumps, but Rean insists I sit in the passenger seat beside him. Boo. But I did as he asked.
“Why did you agree to come, Terrence?” Rean asks as he drives.
I almost tell him I needed some money, but I decide to peek the rear-view mirror to see how the chumps are doing. They’re looking annoyed at the window, so I decide to make the car ride more interesting for them. “Well~ I’ve never been in these missions before, thought I’ll give it a try.”
The two in the back immediately lose hold on their jaws.
“You’ve never…? Rean!! He’ll be a hindrance!”
“How could you bring someone inexperienced with us?”
Rean ignores them. “Good. If you’re having a difficulty, tell me.”
“Gotcha.”
The two look at him in disbelief and try to argue about my existence in this temporary group. But Rean deflects them away. “Enough. I’m not stopping the car. So if you don’t want to work together, just jump out.”
They immediately shut up. But I can see the girl glaring at me from the rear-view mirror. I only smile at her. This is gonna be fun.
Rean drives us to the Mimosa Village and parks the car in front of the chief’s house. The chief is already waiting there with his old man’s trademark warm smile.
“Good afternoon, Rean. Sorry to trouble you today.” The nice old man welcomes us.
Rean smiles back with a protagonist’s trademark cool smile. “It’s our job. Where is it today, sir?”
“It’s near the shipping shed. The workers fled first thing at lunch, and no one dares to check because they said it’s Direwolves. A villager said one even got into the shed.” The man told us the condition.
Rean nods. “Alright. We’ll try and see if we can help.” The old man thanks him and he returns to us. “Let’s go.”
The shed is located between the village and the city. We passed it on the way here, and I can say that I didn’t see anyone there, so the evacuation must’ve been done quickly.
“Before we go in, Rean.” The female stops the group. Then she points at me. “You, noob, don’t stand in our way. Just stand at the back.”
“Julie…” Rean looks disapprovingly at her.
It’ll be fun to make fun of her, but I don’t exactly have time to spare for flat characters right now. I still have to plan my strategy because the D-day’s tomorrow. So I told her. “Lookie here, Rean’s the leader. So I’m gonna do what he tells me to do.” Then I turn to Rean. “Let’s get this over with, yeah?”
Thankfully, Rean understands and stop the arguments. She can only grit her teeth in annoyance.
We enter the shed’s area and surely, there are visible tracks of Direwolves here. I let the others walk in front of me while I take the back. As the leader, Rean is obviously in front of all of us. We creeps to the front of the shed where the double door is still wide open. We can hear growls from inside the shed, and he hold his hand to stop us.
“Terrence, give me vision.” Rean said.
I get what he meant, so I zig-zag myself among the stack of produces to find a good position to see the situation. I find a good spot behind a stack of hay and take a peek. The inside of the shed is a mess. I can see three Direwolves that are bigger in size than that of ordinary wolves, with bigger and sharper teeth. The two of them are chewing something like a big chunk of jerky inside the shed, and one of them is just sitting near the door while chewing its own jerky.
I run back to the group and tell them the situation.
“Alright. Each of us takes one. Terrence, make sure no escapees.” Rean sheathes his sword. They go in while I resume my scouting position with my handgun drawn. I don’t help Rean because he easily takes one down, so I help the other two.
One is about to chew on the guy’s hand, so I aim my gun at it and shoot. Now, I’m not saying I’m a proficient marksman, but I’ve trained a lot in the two months I’ve been in this world. I mean, I’m in a world full of monsters. You can’t expect me to sit down and take it easy. So I have quite adapted to using this handgun and my aim is sometimes—
The bullet hits the wolf directly in the eye and the wolf staggers.
“Amazing.” I whisper, feeling so proud of myself.
The guy immediately swoops in with his sword and takes the kill. He looks over to me and nods, then he goes to help the girl. Both takes the last wolf together within a few slashes. Then our sweeping is done.
We return to the old man afterwards, and he expresses his gratitude. He insists we stay for tea, but Rean refuses on behalf of us because it was an easy mission. So the lady of the house packs each of us small pouches of cookies. Yeay!
We bid the two nice couples goodbye, then we drive back to the academy.
“Good job, you three. I’ll file the report so you can claim your money tomorrow.” Rean said like a no-nonsense person that he is.
Nobody said a thing in the car after that, so it’s quiet and nice. Rean parks the car in the academy’s parking lot and all of us get out at the same time.
“Hey, blondie.” I turn around, it was the guy. “Thanks for today. And sorry.”
I shrug. “No problem.” I hear a ‘hmph’ on the other side of the car and I see the girl walking away while stomping.
“Please forgive Julie. She’s…”
“I don’t care.” I cut the guy. “Well, good evening to you.” I leave the guy hanging and catch up to Rean who is waiting for me at the parking lot’s entrance.
“I’m impressed you can keep your cool.” Rean told me.
I smile. “Well, no need to make any trouble. Might need their help one day, who knows.”
The last sentence is a lie.
He offers me his cookie bag. “Here.”
“Ooo~ Treats! Woof!” I take the bag from him.
He shakes his head with a small smile. “I don’t understand you, Terrence.”
“I’m not made for this world, Rean. I’m too amazing.” I said wholeheartedly, but he doesn’t know that.
We return to our dormitory rooms, and I immediately take a shower. It’s not a hard mission, but I still need the bath. When I’m done, there’s a notification from Ozzie.
[Congratulations! You’ve reached level 6! You have 3 unused Ability Points and additional 10 Trading Points. Would you like to use your AP now?]
Oh, right. Ability Points. It also exists for the game characters. It’s extra points that I can add into any of the character’s status to enhance their ability. In the game, it’s kind of a useless feature for me because I’m not a maniac gamer who likes to calculate status percentages. But in here, I think every point counts, especially for me. This body is hella weak, and if I don’t do anything to change it, I won’t survive.
“Yes, please.”
Ozzie’s interface pops up in front of me and I add all the points to my strength.
***
Name : Terrence Blair , Host : *****
Age : 18
Level : 6
Affiliation : Orion Terrace
Hometown: Chertan Town
STARs rank : -
Job : Terrace Student
Status :
- STR 36 - MAG 40
- LUC 100 - VIT 56
- WIS 77 - AGI 47
- DEX 52
Active skills: There is no active skills.
Passive skills: Gameplot knowledge
Weapon: Gun
Items: 5 Potions, 5 Antidotes, 1 Beruang Greens, Yellow Pendant
***
Huh, some of the status points changed after I levelled up. I now understand how this works.
“Thanks, Ozzie.” I said. The interface closes.
I pop in a cinnamon roll and pull out my notebook again. I have already finished my strategy, but I’m running it in a few scenarios just in case. Besides, getting a high score is easy, but getting higher than Rean is questionable. Especially if I have to do it by myself. I just wish that splitting up from my group won’t deduct my points, because I really can’t have a deduction from that.
After running it a couple of times for hours, I wish myself good luck and sleep the night.
Previous Chapter
Related Chapters
Robin's Reincarnation System 0.1 07 - D-Day
In this world, there is a certain ore called Terra Gemma. It is a magical crystal that can emit sound and image because of a unique magnetic wave. Each crystal has its own signature wave and none of them are the same. If two crystals are within close distance, their waves can instantly connect, but if they’re far from each other, it has to connect to a Connector crystal that could forward the connection. It’s similar to how signal and satellite work and it is used as a mean of communication between settlements. These Connector crystals are put in towers called Crystal Towers with people managing them. It is filled with connector crystals and it needs to be above the ground to ensure no interception from other kinds of ore that has magnetic waves. Denebola City has four of these towers in each wind direction, and one is going to be very troubled today. Several grey vans are spotted in the North District. All of them line up one by one like a caravan and then disperse one by one into d
Robin's Reincarnation System 0.1 08
Now I shouldn’t be excited over something like this. Because this is a life and death situation, just like when I was fighting Khione. But I can’t help it. I need to make my very best in here although my strategy is just so-so. I mean, I only plan it out based on what the things that would get me a point in the game. So it’s not, by any means, foolproof especially since this is real now. Those things might change (though I hope not). As commanded, the students of the third- and fourth-years gather in the square. There are 4 classes of third- and fourth-year each, and there are 20 people each, so it’s around 160 worth of cadets. There is a stage just in front of the Shell fountain, in the courtyard in the ground floor, and the headmaster, Clifford Huang, walks up to it with a mic in hand. “Test, test, is this on? Okay. We have received a distress call from the police. The North Crystal Tower have been taken over by terrorist and they need our help to take it back. We have not yet rece
Robin's Reincarnation System 0.1 09
There are only a few points that I can earn here since it wasn’t feasible to access all the houses in the game. Even if it’s real time now, I don’t necessarily have to go to each of them that are open. The other cadets already took care of that. Tracing back my memories and making sure the correct houses are there, I go to the nearest one. Jake is following me closely, seems like he’s taking his senior role seriously. I ‘must’ get rid of him. “Open lightly,” Jake told me as we reach the porch. I may be in tight schedule, and I know where the enemy is. But I also have to make sure I give this senior a good impression before I leave him. I’m not risking giving birth to point deduction. So I did as he says. I open the front door lightly with my gun ready. I feel like a police officer who is about to ambush a drug dealer. I feel so cool already. “Clear,” I said after pretending to secure the room. “Alright. You check upstairs, I’ll check down here.” Jake said. I see him walk to the
Robin's Reincarnation System 0.1 10 - Finding Another Device
I hit the pedal and sprint down the road on a bike. I stole—no, I’m borrowing it from old Polly’s house. I must move between different locations fast if I want to earn all the points. But I also just realized that there is one thing I’ve missed when I left the neighborhood. It’s not really important, but I can’t just get it out now that it exists. Or more like, I can’t get out of it. “Can’t you go faster?” Natalie asked from behind. She asked me that question and yet she’s gripping my sides tightly. “Well, I’m bringing a beautiful princess over here. I ‘have’ to be delicate.” I don’t actually go slow, I’m riding just a little bit faster than average and that’s only because I have cargo. If only she’s not here, I would’ve already been the Flash. I can hear her tongue clicks in annoyance. “Don’t mind me and just hit it! We have to check the surroundings!” “I’m trying. Why do you insist on coming anyway? You can just check via everybody’s Arrow.” I said. I was unfortunately caught b
Robin's Reincarnation System 0.1 11 - Baiting & Cracking
The gunner guy becomes alert of my presence and raises his handgun at me. Goosebumps rise quickly from my back and I know if I don’t move now, I’ll be dead. I jump forward just a second before gunshot echo in the area. I roll on the ground again and land in front of the field’s broken fence door. Now I’ve landed in a more dangerous spot. Because I’m closer the gunner’s line of fire. But so does him in mine. I can have a clear shot from here. A pity I can’t kill him, but I can still stun him a little. I point my gun to the gunner’s hand and pull the trigger. The bullet hits his hand and it made him drop the gun. I immediately run close and take it from him, then I dodge to the side as he tries to grab me. I know it was a very risky move. But I’d rather have bruises from close encounters rather than being shot while I was running. It won’t be very convenient for the mission. I stand up and point the guns at them and grin. “Let’s go for a run, eh, mofos?!” I pull the trigger and sh
Robin's Reincarnation System 0.1 12 - Finally Moving Alone
“TERRENCE!” She screams at the same time as Ozzie’s ding. I don’t get to check the points because she grabs and shakes me back and forth. “WHAT DID YOU DO?!” “N-NOTHING!” I raise my voice to make it seem like I’m also panicking. “WHAT DID YOU DO?!!” She screams at me again with more intensive shakes. “I-It slipped from my hands! I SWEAR! Ugh—” I’m starting to get dizzy from her shaking, not going to lie. That ‘ugh’ in the end is honest from the bottom of my throat. “I think I’m gonna puke…” Her face twitches from anger to worry, and then to annoyance. She doesn’t look like she’s done with me, but maybe she can see the paleness in my face, because eventually she lets me go. I immediately move to the side and let rainbow flows from my mouth. I think adrenaline from the chase finally gets me with all that shaking. But it’s worth it because my points are now 5/27. I take out my water bottle and gargle some water to wash the foul taste from my mouth. Then I return to her folding a clo
Robin's Reincarnation System 0.1 13 - Guess Not Really
My point hasn’t gone up, which means that just beating them isn’t enough. So I go to the restroom. There is a staff card right outside the door. It should belong to the guy hiding inside, so I take it. I remember the door is locked from the inside, so I don’t bother knocking and just kick the door open. “Terrace cadet on site! We are rescuing the workers! Is there anyone here?!” I shouted. There is no answer, but I know he’s in one of the stalls. So I shout again. “Is there anyone in this restroom?! Please answer me!” Still, no answer. Alright, last straw. “Terrace, come in. Cadet reporting. There is no one in the 5th floor—” “I’M HERE!!” The last stall suddenly slammed open and a man comes out of it. “I-I’m here…” I smile and show him his Staff ID card. “Mr. Shawn?” The man nods. “Are you really from the Orion Terrace?” When I show him my Arrow and uniform, he’s finally convinced. We exit the restroom and this Mr. Shawn almost didn’t want to go because he’s too afraid of ste
Robin's Reincarnation System 0.1 14 - Being Creative
The first scene that plays in front of us is a gunshot sound and a wounded cadet crawling towards us. The cadet, who is my classmate Greg, is looking pretty worn. His eyes are wide open with shock, his suit is tattered, and he also has blood on him. When the cadet sees us, he immediately shouts for help. “Help! It’s a gunner!” More gunshots echo from the hallway behind him, also screams. We immediately pull him to us to get him out of the line of fire. “Treat him, I’ll buy time.” Jake said. But I stop him. “It’s a gunner and you’re a batter. You can’t fight him. I’ll go.” I crawl to the edge and I thought he doesn’t have any comments, but he protests right after I took position to take vision. “You have never fought these guys before. You’ll get shot!” “Do you want to get shot instead?” I glance at him. He doesn’t retaliate. Good. I don’t want him too. It’s troublesome to argue and a waste of time. Besides, I need to work a little bit creative here to rescue the people in this f
Latest Chapter
122 - Waiting for Backup
As we waited for backup to come, I split up with them and went to the chief’s house. But, I only found his frightened wife there who told me that he went to the restaurant. After I told her to stay put inside the house, I went to the restaurant.Sure enough, I found him there along with some scared and injured villagers.“Cadet!” The chief immediately came to me. “How’s the village’s condition? Do you know why is this happening?”“First things first, chief, is everyone here? I made sure nobody’s outside, but I haven’t really checked door to door. And your wife is by the house. I made sure she’s safe.” I told him.He nodded frivolously. “Ah yes, yes, thank you! Yes, everyone had gathered here after the monsters came. Your friend the blue haired guy protected me while I checked.”Huh. I didn’t think that guy would be quite nice to do that. But it’s part of being a cadet, so it’s not worth my compliment.I nodded at his report and went to check on the injured villagers. I knew I couldn’t
121 - Re-group (2)
“Blondie! Rufus, stop!”“No, Rufus! The village is still in chaos!”I could hear Guinevere and Pierce yelling from the side.Then I could hear clothes shuffling and Rufus said. “Let go of me! He needs to be taught a lesson!!”When I looked, Pierce was holding Rufus from behind. The four-eyed didn’t say anything, but it looked like he was trying his best to stop his leader from finishing me. His face was starting to get pinkish.I’m a bit surprised to see that Pierce got balls to stop that blue maniac. But I used this chance to get up.“I swear! I did not do it! I was looking for a Bearon like you told me to! I don’t know anything about the broken fences or monsters!” I said. I tried to make it believable.Rufus stopped resisting and glared his eyes at me. “Broken fences? So you knew the fences w
120 - Re-group (1)
Terrence and Guinevere returned to the village via the same way the monsters the entered the village. The village’s condition wasn’t that much of a difference. It was still in chaos. Although there were more upturned wagons and broken fences, along with monster carcasses.Both cadets grimaced when they saw the situation. Then the plum haired one nodded. “Yeah. Nu-uh. You obviously can’t trigger those monsters. But Rufus obviously wouldn’t listen. He BELIEVED you did it. So, you’re still in trouble.”“Dang it!” Terrence sighed heavily, pretending to be very bothered by it. “Couldn’t this day get any better?”Then they heard a scream from our right. It was high pitched and it was asking for help.“Help!! Uwaa!”A little girl emerged from the corner of a house, looking all bruised and bleeding. Behind her, a Cassory was following her closely while pecking on her dirty blue dress from behind.With her clothes being pulled, the girl lost her balance fell to the ground with a yell. The Cass
119 - Plum found Blondie
Guinevere followed the sound of gunshots and roars that led her deeper into the Southeast Forest. Her heart was beating fast with anxiety. Between getting lost and ambushed, she was also anxious that they would be punished for the chaos in the village.They were the ones who told Blondie to hunt a Bearon after all. And Guinevere had a thought that he must have aggravated the monsters in the forest somehow. She didn’t know if that’s true, but that what most likely to happen. And if it was, then it was their fault.'Is he dead?' Guinevere pouted in distress. Because if he was, it was also their fault.She started to think that testing the Blondie with Bearon hunt ‘alone’ was a bad idea. 'What if he's badly injured and he reports us to the teachers? But he's a nobody. So no one would listen to him, right? But he looks like he's close with Rean... And Rean is a star student, teachers praised him&helli
118 - Sweet Chaos
“How can monsters enter the village?!” The villagers panicked. Rufus’s group tensed. Everybody knew that monsters couldn’t get into villages because there are wards installed. The only chances they could enter are only if those wards were destroyed. Which is obviously what happened here. “The wards… They’re broken…” Pierce mumbled in disbelief. The cadets immediately left the restaurant to look at the situation. When they reached outside, Prantas and Cassories were running around, chasing the villagers and making a mess in the village. “Waaarrkk!!” The Cassories screeched as they were making chaos. “Aaahh! Help!” “Monsters!” The villagers screamed. Some of them were running into their homes, some were hiding behind a cart, or even defending themselves with whatever they could. They were trying their best not to get hurt. “Ah! Duck!” Guinevere dragged Pierce down in time as a Cassory jumped at them. “Wark—ARK!” The freakish bird was immediately slashed by Rufus and fell to t
117 - Mischief
In the end, that SE stood for South East because we ended up going to the forestry near Rowan village.I didn’t take them to be people who like cold temperature, but I think they picked this area because the monsters are less wild than the southwest.Southeast region has Bearons, bear like beast monsters, that while don’t move as fast as Direwolves in the southwest, are essentially more powerful. Added with a couple of Prantas, vine-like plant monsters that crawl on the ground and could grab someone by their feet, this area is a perfect place for training.“The target today is killing a Bearon. Then we’ll bring its head to the local hunting lodge. It’ll fetch some money for dinner.” Rufus said.I’ve always wondered how did the game reward the characters’ team money while all they do is just killing. But here, I found out that monster corpses could be exchanged for money through instances such as Hunting Lodge in the forest.But luckily for me, I didn’t have to do that because the Syst
116 - Hurdle
After delivering the food, the number 7 instantly filled the quota which means there were 13 people left for me to help.There were only 5 days left before the big day, and I need to plan my strategies fast. Not to mention the teamwork I have to increase with those jerks. If I couldn’t open the map within tomorrow, I wouldn’t be able to prepare efficiently.Then I thought of Ian. He was so determined to help people and raise the society’s view of the academy. Maybe I could ask him for help.I opened the map of Orion Terrace to find the guy, but I saw his name right on my dot.“Huh?” I frowned.Then I felt a poke on my shoulder and appeared in front of me was the guy I was looking for.“Hey! You took my job!” He crossed his hands on his chest and looked a bit upset.“Sorry. I just kinda had the epiphany to help people.” I said, pretending to be nervous.“Just kinda…?” He frowned. “No one ‘just kinda’ had an epiphany to ‘help’ people.” He said.I shrugged and pointed to myself. “I did.
115 - First Locked Map
After that short briefing, we were dismissed. Rufus and the others went on their own way while I left to plan my own strategy.‘Ozzie. Did you catch when the event is going to happen? And can I have a map of the venue?’ I asked the System as soon as I got off the elevator.[It will happen at the end of this week. Map will be available for free when you are at the place. But you can buy it at the Shop if you are desperate.]That means I have less than a week to raise my level to at least 16, and work together with… I gulp. Rufus’s team.I never liked them back when I was still a player or now. Rufus is such a… Character. He’s a real bully and bad, and… I don’t like him. Period.Pierce is the only one tolerable. He is the one who has more sense between the three of them. But I still can’t trust him because he still has a dark side that he hasn’t shown yet.While Guinevere... Well… She’s Princess Annoying. F minus. Bleh.I whisked them away from my mind for now and opened the System’s sh
114 - Failed?!
*** Mission failed! You’ve failed the mission “Get in Rean’s Team”! You may not claim the rewards! + Mission changed! Finish the mission and… *** I couldn’t bring myself to continue reading the notification as the only thing on my mind is ‘FAILED?! WHAT THE FUCK?!’ After talking to the girls, also Natalie (again), because I passed out at the banquet and I remembered I had to apologize. But thankfully, she didn’t mind at all. Although she did hear that I went to the training center, and she wanted me to spill about it. I didn’t, of course. She didn’t like it, of course. But I don’t care and she didn’t press further. Then I had a talk with Rean and Ian. Their reactions were mostly the same as the girls. Overall, they had good impression on me. So then what the hell is this? “What is wrong with him?” Guinevere asked, looking at me nervously and slight disgust. “Probably intercepting his escaping brain cells.” Rufus replied uninterestedly. The comment made the plum haired girl
