CATMAN - 30 What The System Thinks

Slowly entering his house, he turned on the lights illuminating the room. Afternoon though it was, the curtains were covering the windows of his house letting no rays inside.

Closing the door, he unmasked himself and kept the goat mask on the shelve where one would usually keep shoes.

The room that laid in front of his eyes was quite big as it could fit three couches, a dining table surrounded by four chairs, a cupboard, an 82 inches television hanging on the wall and many other furniture… and even that would leave quite a big space for about twelve people to sleep side by side.

He sat on the couch, relaxing and making himself comfortable, he sighed deeply.

“Damn, it isn’t easy as I had thought it would be. Only 3 points? It seems I have to work hard just to locate the students and right when he is needed, Froy isn’t here.”

“Anyway…” His lips slowly curled up, bending to the point that he seemed like an evil demon king himself grinning over his own plan to take over the world.

“System, Open the mailbox.”

Ring~

As the words left his mouth, a screen hovering in the air appeared in front of his eyes.

Auden had thought about the distraction the screen could create for him in the midst of some grisly situation so he had asked the system to change one function some days after getting his hands on the system. The information screen wouldn’t be in front of his eyes every time and would only appear in front of him if he thought about it or used his voice to issue a command or when he completed some quest issued by the system or completed the achievements.

He slowly moved his eyes to the upper part of the screen as his heart jump happily when he saw the message about the quest reward on it.

“Accept the reward.”

Ring~

[The reward has been accepted.]

He immediately closed the mailbox and checked the amount of CP he had in total, but there seemed to be no change. The amount hadn’t even gone up by one.

[Total CP: 26]

What? Did some error occur? or Is the system glitching?

His smile disappeared and a displeased look followed.

“System, did you make some kind of mistake? Even though I claimed rewards…it seems the total no. of CP I have didn’t change.”

Ring~

[Negative. The system didn’t make any mistake whatsoever.]

“If you didn’t make any mistake then where are my hard-earned CP? Where is the reward I earned from the hidden quest?”

Ring~

[It’s hidden.]

“Hidden? You’ve got to be kidding me. Are you pulling some prank or something?”

[Affirmative. The system played a prank on the host. There is no such thing as a free meal, so the host must work hard to earn CP.]

“What?” Auden exclaimed with a surprised tone for a moment, but he slowly calmed himself.

“It has literally been a year and I know better than anyone how hard it is to obtain CP…what did I even expect?”

He was disappointed, yes, but didn’t take it to heart because it was his greed that had taken the best of him. And it was also his fault for leaving the Human function as it is. If he had just turned off the function then there might have been a case that his request to create the quest would have been upright denied.

Basically, he was pranked because of his overthinking and his ignorance…there was nothing more to it. He wanted to laugh but the sadness of not being able to get the CP was choking it down.

He then asked, “System, what do you think of me?”

Ring~

[That was an unforeseen question. Um…Eh…The system doesn’t know how to tackle it.]

[Can the host be more specific about the question?]

“I just want to know what you think of me? I mean being the system of a boy who tries to overthink everything must be pretty annoying right? Since you now have human feelings and all.” Auden solemnly said.

“Actually, I’ve been thinking for a while… not for a while, it’s been about two months, I guess. I have been thinking that did I, a trash with broken vessel deserve such power. I mean, I haven’t done something that could actually be called some heroic task.”

“I just pretend to be a wannabe hero, who only helps others just for his own sake. Sometimes I get arrogant and suffer from near-death situations. So, when I think about it, I always wonder that if it was someone else with the power, that person could’ve done something I couldn’t even dream of. Do you think that it was good that I got this system?”

“I want to know why you chose me when there are pretty powerful people out there who can do a thousand times better than me with the system.”

Ring~

[Hmmm…if the system were to say it bluntly then it is an undeniable fact that if the system was in possession of some powerful person, he/she could’ve done a lot better than the current host.]

[Even though they could have done better, there is no way of changing the past. The only thing that the host can do right now is to forge his path to the brighter future and get to a certain level if he wants to live his dream of using magic that is.]

[And one fact remains the same. There is no such thing as a free meal. It wasn’t the creator of the system who chose the current host, nor it was the system itself. The host earned the system and there’s nothing more to it.]

I earned the system? The words he heard inside his mind were completely unexpected.

He knew he was powerless and the fact that he was chosen by the system was making him uncomfortable for some time. But hearing that he wasn’t chosen but he had earned the system made him completely dumbfounded.

“Wait a minute? Does this mean, I wasn’t chosen but I earned it?”

[Affirmative. So, the host doesn’t have to feel guilty.]

So, I earned it. There is nothing more to it. There is no catch.

“Then can I ask you that what did I actually do to earn the system?”

[No.]

“Wh…no, I won’t ask it. If you aren’t going to tell me then there is no point in asking it. But can you tell me more about the creator of the system you mentioned? I feel like the one who created such a system must be an overpowered person. Can you tell me about your creator?”

He knew that if the system didn’t want to answer his question then he would only be wasting time. So, he asked another question.

Ring~

[Unfortunately, the system cannot answer that as well because the information is locked on the basis of the level. If the host wants to know more about the system’s creator then he must reach level 150 to unlock the information regarding the creator.]

[Leaving that aside, the system will now answer another of the host’s questions.]

[The system agrees on the fact that the host is helping others just for his benefit but also disagrees with the host saying that he hasn’t done anything after he started getting help from the system. He has helped many people even if it was for his own benefit… and the system also wants to say that getting help from the system doesn’t actually mean that the host has to grow stronger very fast.]

[Strength can’t grow overnight, it needs time and battle experience to grow. So, rushing to level up might harm the host instead of benefitting him. That’s why Attribute Points are usually referred to as a double-edged sword. If the attributes aren’t well balanced, it will end up dragging the host down and the host will become nothing but a dull sword, which is a sword but can’t cut anything… even a paper.]

[And the host said he hasn’t done anything fruitful with the help of the system is also false. Coincidence though it was, the host was able to save half the city when he entered the room of that mansion filled with the corpse of cats. The concentration of mana in that room was so rich that if unbalanced it could destroy half the city in an instant… but because the host entered the room, the explosion was limited only to that room.]

[The host indirectly saved half a million lives if the system were to say so. And if the host is confused why the mana that could destroy half the city ended up destroying only the mansion then it was as White Tiger said, because of Life Barrier.]

[And about the host character… The system finds it quite entertaining. The current host most of the time tries to think out of the box which is a plus point if compared to the previous hosts.]

[Sometimes the host ends up teaching new things to the system itself. Like the inventory thing, even the system didn’t think that host could hide in the inventory. But the system has now removed the air and made the inventory so that no living being can stay inside it.]

[And the idea of creating a quest by the host himself was quite unique as well. And the system found that it is possible for the host to create his own quest.]

“Eh…I can create? Why didn’t I received any rewards then?” Auden asked as if confused.

Ring~

[That is because it is the host that created the quest. If the host creates a quest then it is up to the host to choose appropriate rewards, but the catch is that the host has to pay it from his own pocket. If the host wants 100,000 and if he doesn’t even have 100,000 to pay himself then there is no benefit of creating the quest.]

[Simply, the host creating the quest for himself wouldn’t do anything. This function can be used for hosting tournaments or something where the host can issue a quest and the person who fulfills the criteria would get the reward which of course would be from the host’s pocket.]

[Simply put, the system finds the current host quite amusing. The system will help the host grow stronger as before but it is up to the host if he wants to keep on getting stronger.]

“Oh, so I saved so many people without even knowing, huh? It’s like I saved everyone from the shadows…then should I call myself ‘Shadow Hero’ from now on?” Auden frowned with a serious look on his face.

[…]

[The host didn’t listen to what I said just now, did he? If the host doesn’t want to listen then don’t ask the system. Hmph.]

“Haha, I was only thinking about something but I listened to everything you said. Quit acting like that and now tell me about the Advanced Mystery box. I had heard about it right after leaving the organization so I want to know about it.” He said.

[Hmph.]

His lips twitched with another ring inside his head.

“Ok, keep your secret. I will know about it after I uncover the identity of the serial killer anyway.” Auden said.

This human function of the system had more to it than he knew…and he realized it with many changing tones of the system. Since he had rested enough and had decided on leaving the matter of points to rest as well, he took out the file given by the old man of the organization from the inventory and opened it.

“It’s time to get serious.”