Torn City: The Almighty System

Sir Detective

The fifteen minutes ride started taking forever in Lincoln's sight. He wanted nothing more than to get out of this car. He opened the system again and checked his chat but the guy hasn't replied

“Can I run faster than a car yet?” Lincoln wondered 

“maybe not yet” he responded to himself and waited for the long ride to end. 

Not long after, the car parked in front of his house “Take care if yourself Johnson, I'll see you later” 

Lincoln rushed into his room and sat on his bed “Now, let's check you out”

Lincoln opened the system and click on [Go to Mission].

[To go to Mission you need 1 Transportation scroll]

[You can only use Transportation Scroll once per week]

[You have 1 Transportation Scroll, you can get more by completing missions]

[Are you sure you want to use 1 Transportation Scroll? Yes/No]

Transportation Scroll? Where will it take me to?

Lincoln was puzzled. He decided to know more about the system before he was transported to somewhere he'll die.

Lincoln message another person. His name; Evilgenius. 

There's a green dot before the guy's name indicating he's online. Not long after, Lincoln got a reply

*Hey, noob?*

*Your noob, right?”*

Evilgenius sent two rounds of messages

*Yes, just got the system. I'm about to go to mission now but I want to know what I can expect* Lincoln went straight to the point.

*When you go to mission, you'll be taken to systemized world, you'll be given mission to complete based on your system identity. You have to be careful tho, you can die in the system fake world and that's real life death*

*Before starting your first mission, make sure you have weapons that are corresponding to your basic skills, you can get them from shop for some points*

*The system will put you in any space and time it wants, if you're lucky, you'll be put in a time that matches your skills and equipment. If not, there'll be restrictions*

Evilgenius dropped load of messages

*Wow, thanks. How come you reply so fast?* Lincoln questioned

*You are not the first noob and won't be the last*

*I'm sorry, I have to go now. Try out a mission, message me if you don't die* Evilgenius replied and the green dot turned ash. 

Perhaps Lincoln learn more during the mission, this is his first after all and it should be easy 

[Are you sure you want to use 1 Transportation Scroll? Yes/No]

Lincoln chose Yes.

[Choose your system name ___]

Lincoln typed in Hades. 

Instantly, he was covered by white light that blinded his eyes so much he had to shut them. When he felt the light disappear, Lincoln opened his eyes and words appeared in his sight. 

[Background: The daughter of a renowned businessman by the name Bolton has gone missing. You, as the city’s greatest detective, have been hired to find his precious daughter. You are now heading to Bolton’s manor to investigate...]

[Main Mission: Find Arya Bolton, dead or alive, within a month.]

[Temporary language pack, disappears upon exiting the Mission Worlds.]

[Clothing, backpack, weapons, items, attributes remain unchanged, temporarily changed look, disappears upon exiting the Mission Worlds.]

[Inspecting firearms and grenades... Weapons do not match the current year, damage reduced by 50%, handgun reloading speed +1 seconds, sniper reloading speed +30 seconds]

[Hint 1: This is your first official mission. You can fail the main mission, but you will have to pay 100 Points as a penalty, and your highest attributes will drop by 1. If your points are insufficient, the system will deduct from your equipment. If your equipment is insufficient, you will fail.]

[Hint 2: The real mission marks the beginning of the title mission. The title mission and sub mission are both hidden. You will need to discover them yourself.]

...

When the blinding light subsided, Lincoln heard a series of gallops and the sound of a wheel splashing through a puddle on the ground. His body was bouncing in a orderly manner.

It had been raining the day before and the roads were full of puddles of water. There were people cleaning them, but only the bigger puddles were cleaned off completely.

The smaller puddles that the wheels were splashing into were hard for the cleaners to get rid off.

"A horse wagon?"

Lincoln looked around with a startled face.

It was an average cabin with a three to four person capacity. There were two rows of seats, front and back, facing each other. Lincoln was sitting in the back, facing the front. He could see clearly the passing view through the window of the cabin.

They were in a Victorian Era street. Antique cars passed by from time to time, allowing Lincoln to estimate the date.

The people on the streets greeted each other by taking off their hats. The men wore suits, and the women wore long parasol skirts.

Lincoln himself was wearing a black trenchcoat. While he was inspecting his new outfit, he noticed that he was holding a smoking pipe and wearing a deerstalker. After checking the background message, "You are the city’s greatest detective", he raised his eyebrow and wondered...

"If you want me to cosplay as Sherlock Holmes, you might as well give me a Watson to go with it! The female version, that is!"

"Searching the missing link? Firearms damaged and decreased?"

After his wild guess about his outfit, he noticed the introduction of the system world stating that his firearm abilities had been decreased. He frowned at that.

Decreased, damaged, increased reloading time... No doubt those were big disadvantages for Lincoln. His fighting power had to have been reduced by 30% or so.

"So this is what Evilgenius meant by restrictions, huh?" Lincoln could not help but mumble.

Before entering the Mission Worlds, Lincoln had waited for three hours for Evilgenius to return just to have another talk with him. Evilgenius had been generous enough to share some information with Lincoln. 

Basically, the information he got could be categorized into four parts.

First, veteran Inmates had created a secret bazaar within the game. It would only open its door every month for a certain period. Any Inmate could enter by paying a 10-point entry fee. Inside, it housed tons of high-rank equipment that exceeded the quality of the forum.

Secondly, the Mission Worlds would change according to the environment and year, and generate different restrictions for the Inmates. Some were good, some were bad. The majority were bad.

Third, the Mission Worldss the Inmates cleared would not change difficulty because the Inmate had gotten stronger. That would change according to the times the Inmate had entered the game. When entry times increased, the Mission Worlds’s difficulty would as well. The [Team Mission Worlds] difficulty would change according to the average entry times of the Inmates.

Last but not least, Inmates were allowed to fail the mission of the Mission Worlds, but would have to suffer a penalty. Depending on the number of times they had failed, the penalty could be more or less serious.

[This is your first real Mission Worlds. You may fail the main mission, but you will need to pay 100 Points as penalty, and your highest attributes will drop by 1.]

Lincoln looked at that specific hint as he recalled Evilgenius’s kind warning.

"If you don’t want to die a gruesome death, you must finish the main mission. Even if you can’t, you will compensate for your losses!"

Lincoln could not agree more with that statement.

100 Points were nothing for him, but his highest stats decreasing by 1 would be a big loss. Lincoln could not afford such a heavy penalty.

If his stats decreased, the cost would be almost same as the cost of leveling [Tracking] up to Master level.

A hefty sum of 3,000 Points and 2 Skill Points, Lincoln knew it's worth even though he got it for free.

Although his calculations were just an estimation, they were not too far from reality.

Lincoln could imagine the state that he would be in if he failed the Mission Worlds’s main mission.

It would be an abysmal death cycle.

If he did not complete the Mission Worlds’s main mission, other than losing points and having his attributes drop, it would also affect badly the second Mission Worlds’s main mission.

Since his stats would have been lowered, Lincoln would eventually fail the second mission too, and pay the penalty once more.

It would go on and on and on... It would be an endless vicious cycle with self-explanatory results.

A weak Inmate facing a vicious beast could only end up in a massacre.

"Not only do I need to finish the main mission, but if possible, I also need to finish the submission, as well as the title mission. Only then will I be able to survive and have better odds in the other Mission Worldss!"

Lincoln knew that Mission Worlds difficulty changed based on entry times, so he knew what he was supposed to do.

He was already one step ahead of the other Inmates.

Using his rewards from the fight, he had progressed much further than them.

It was the tools that made the handyman after all.

Lincoln quickly prepared himself for the upcoming mission.

He looked at his own tactical backpack, but it had already changed.

A wooden box about 1.5 m long and 45 cm wide was placed beside Lincoln’s hand. It was covered in black paint and locked with two silver pearl security locks. A leather belt was tied over it to use as a strap for carrying it. On the upper part of the strap, two keys were hanging- a small one and a big one.

When Lincoln touched the big key, his mind was filled with simple memories, including but not limited to the past year’s knowledge- his character’s identity, contacts and address.

When he absorbed the new memories, Lincoln took the small key and opened the box.

It was easy to unlock.

The box held the sniper rifle [Viper-M1], the [M1905] handgun, the dagger, five [U-II] hand grenades, three cans of food, and three bottles of water. Everything he had bought was arranged neaty inside, nothing was missing. Even the magazines were arranged together.

Although the look of the equipment had been altered a little to fit the era that Lincoln was in, the method of using them was still the same.

Lincoln let out a breath of relief.

If the method of using his equipment changed according to the year, it would have been a nightmare for him.

Although his [Firearm (Light Firearm)] had already reached Master level, it had not really taught Lincoln how to use all kinds of guns and firearms. That part had to fall under the [Firearm (Special Firearm)] category.

Lincoln took out the dagger and the [M1905], and stuck them on both sides of his waist, covering them up with his trenchcoat.

After some thought, he took out the [U-II] grenades as well and hid them in the outer pocket of his coat.

Even if the main mission was searching for a missing person, Lincoln would have been naive to believe that searching was all he would need to do.

An unexpected battle was sure to occur.

In other words, "discovery and battle" were the theme of the system missions

If the [Viper-M1] was not too eye-catching, he would have hidden it under his coat. He would not have minded bringing it along as well, but he’d had to leave it behind in the box.

After all, Lincoln was the city’s greatest detective, not some kind of assassin.

He was just starting this Mission Worlds, and he did not want to do anything that did not match the setting and could potentially attract unwanted attention.

Even if he really had been an assassin, he would not carry the sniper rifle out in the open.

It was a safe, peaceful, quite wealthy city.

Or at least that’s what it looked like.

...

"Sir, we will be there soon!"

The wagoner spoke to Lincoln through the small window in the cabin. After about two minutes, the wagon stopped completely, and the wagoner opened the cabin door.

Lincoln carried his box as he jumped out of the wagon.

He started to inspect his surroundings. As mentioned in the introduction, there was a manor with fields of green grass and fountains. There was even a wall surrounding the manor.

In front of him, at the center of the compound, was a big house with five floors.

Lincoln stood in front of a mermaid fountain statue and looked towards the blue and white exterior of the building. It reminded him of the waves of the sea.

Especially the lively mermaid statue in front of him, which really made one feel as if they were in the middle of the sea.

"There was an admiral in House Bolton about a hundred years ago. Greetings, Sir Lincoln. I’m the butler of the Bolton family."

After a short introduction, a kind-looking elderly gentleman approached and greeted Lincoln with a bow.

Meanwhile, the wagoner, accompanied by a couple of young men, pulled the horse wagon into the stable and parked it.

Lincoln briefly scanned over the young men. They all looked strong and fit. Perhaps they had been trained in combat as well.

"The manor needed guards, just the police was not enough," the kind butler explained, elaborating further. "Please, if you may, Master is expecting you."

With a welcoming gesture, the butler guided Lincoln inside.

Lincoln followed with a nod, going up the flight of stairs and into the building.

There was a broad corridor, covered with a bright red velvet carpet, both sides of it decorated with candlesticks.

When he reached the end of the corridor, Lincoln’s eyes were blinded by the light.

A grand, glamorous hall appeared in front of him, crystal lights hanging from the top, reflecting the lights, instantly brightening up the entire hall.

However, the master of the hall seemed to be in a gloomy mood.

He was a pale, stout middle-aged man of average height.

Behind him was a middle-aged woman who shared the same facial expression.

By looking at the paintings in the middle of the hall, Lincoln could tell that this was the master of the house, Bolton himself, and his wife

.

Although the paintings had to be about a decade old, neither of them had aged much. They were both still recognizable.

When the master saw Lincoln come in, he immediately stood up and voiced his request, "Sir Detective! Please help us!"