1 [Chapter:1][Game start.]
"…"
((You slept in bed. HP restored. MP restored. All abnormal statuses cleansed.))
"…"
No matter how long he kept staring at the floating hologram-like blue screen before him, it didn't change.
"…"
A whole minute later, Echo sighed as he realised he wasn't imagining it. Pinching himself didn't work how he wanted it to, so he knew he wasn't dreaming. And no matter which direction he turned his head, the message remained in the very centre of his field of vision.
Getting off his bed, he walked towards the only mirror in the small, barely furnished yet cosy looking room and looked at his reflection.
"I can't see it…"
He couldn't see the reflection of the screen in the mirror. So either it was something he alone could see, or it was a prank by some supernatural being who was even more bored than him.
'Close.'
Mentally commanding whatever it was, he watched as the screen 'disappears' from his vision.
"…"
'Status.'
He muttered the magic word in his thoughts, and his hollow black eyes flashed momentarily as a larger screen appears before him.
"It's similar…but also different."
. . . . . .
[Status]
Echo Howers
Human | 19 years | Male
Level : 0 (00.00%)
Job : [None]
HP : 110/110 (11 per min)
MP : 190/190 (17 per min)
[Stats]
Strength : 13
Endurance : 14
Vitality : 11
Agility : 13
Intelligence : 19
Wisdom : 17
Senses : 11
Charm : 19
Stat Points : 0
[Skills]
[Gamers' Body(Lv-Max)]
[Gamers' Mind(Lv-Max)]
[Perks]
[None]
. . . . . .
"There are some changes…but most of it is the same.", Echo muttered to himself as he mentally commanded the screen to close.
Thinking about it for a moment, he looked around and his gaze rested in his bed.
"If that's how it is…"
He stared at the bed, trying to catch each and every nook and cranny of it, and as he had expected,
((Conditions met. Skill [Observe] learned.))
The very next moment, as the sudden prompt disappears, he felt like he had just pulled a 'trigger' he never even knew he had been holding, and another screen appeared in his view.
. . . . . .
[Simple Bed]
Type : Item
Description : A simple bed made of tough wood. Combined with a soft mattress, would allow a person to rest comfortably.
Note : The [Gamer] may recover completely after sleeping on it uninterrupted for a certain amount of time.
. . . . . .
Opening his [Status] again, he nodded at the sight of the new level : 1 skill visible in the [Skills] column. At the same time, he realised the skill would use 10 MP per use.
"Well…I can experiment later."
As much as he wishes to explore his 'new toy', Echo curbed the slight excitement he was feeling which practically no one would be able to discern from his neutral face and blank gaze, and moved to the bathroom to freshen up.
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
"Fu! Finally! We're done!"
The young blue haired girl sighed in relief as she swept the sweat off her forehead. Looking at the table she had worked hard to set, she puffed her chest in pride.
"Good work Rhi-chan."
A hand patted her head as it ruffled her hair, making her look back.
"Onee-chan!"
"Mom and E-kun should be done as well. How about we go out for a meal? It's been a while since we've come back to Japan, hasn't it?"
"Hai!"
Leah smiled at the sight of the young girl pump her hands up in excitement.
"Let's go ask mom then."
"No need.", a gentle voice came from behind them.
"Let's go. We need to buy books for Rhi anyway."
"Yes! Shopping! We're going shopping!"
Aya smiled at her youngest daughter before glancing at her son who walked behind her quietly.
"Will you come?"
Echo shook his head before waving his hand at them to say goodbye.
"Take care."
Despite meaning to say it as gently as his mother would, his words came out cold and indifferent.
Aya smiled at him as she rubbed her head, knowing his inability at expressing himself properly.
Leah didn't mind either, having watched him grow, but Rhi looked a bit awkward at how 'cold' her big brother was.
'Sigh…'
Echo, as someone who could barely show his emotions, had always been good at reading them in people. Looking at the receding back of his little sister, and knowing his uncomfortable he made her feel despite wanting anything but that, he couldn't help but feel a bit depressed.
Then again, he couldn't blame her. After all, to her, he was just the cold and unfriendly man who never smiled at her once since she was but a baby.
Shaking his head, already used to the awkward relationship between himself and Rhi, he closed the door and walked back to his room.
Sitting on his bed, and looking at the ceiling blankly, Echo recalled his second life…
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
"Well, no use will come from just thinking…"
Echo sighed softly before looking at what he alone could see.
"Status."
His status, which was the same as before, appeared before him. There was one difference, however.
'Cleaning(Lv-3)'
A new skill he had acquired when cleaning their new house from all the dust and dirt. And he had managed to level it up twice as well.
"I still have no available jobs…so either only combat related jobs would be available, or skills alone aren't enough to get jobs."
Thinking about the original 'Gamer System' from the manhwa, he recalled the other functions available.
"Inventory."
A blue screen with ten rows and ten columns of boxes, forming a hundred square slots in total, appeared before him. There was also an arrow at the bottom right corner pointing to the right, clearly for the next page.
And the Inventory wasn't empty. In the first slot of the 'Inventory' was a crystal like object.
Tapping it, Echo looked at the options that appeared next to it, them being 'Info', 'Withdraw', 'Use', 'Lock', and 'Discard', and tapped on 'Info'.
. . . . . .
[Skill Crystal]
Type : Item / Special / Consumable
Description : A special item that allows one to 'create' a skill of their choice upon use.
. . . . . .
An extremely useful item, if one thinks about it. Echo recalled that skills can be learned by three ways with the 'Gamer' system.
Doing the action related to the skill itself, from skill books, or learning them from others, either orally or through observing their actions.
None of those ways, however, allowed him to 'create' his own skill with effects of his choosing. Although he might be able to write his own skill book, one needs knowledge of the skill to write it down, and if he had knowledge of how a skill works, he would be able to learn it himself anyway.
Thinking of what skill he would need the most at the moment, Echo glanced at his Status which he didn't close, and saw his MP.
"Right…I need to hide myself."
He recalled the kind of troubles the original Gamer went through from having a ridiculous MP capacity and recovery, being hunted down by several parties when he was still weak to be turned into a mana battery. Not to mention, he knew the world he was in was far more dangerous, with several kinds of factions that wouldn't give a damn about an ordinary human.
Thinking so, he taps on 'use', making a prompt appear.
((Think of the effects of the skill you would like to create.))
"Hiding my mana…no, making it naturally fade away into the environment…making me fade away, making people ignore me, my presence, everything, even if they are looking for me and I am standing right in front of them…"
Completely hiding himself might actually attract more attention to himself. Instead, what he wanted was to be ignored even if seen. To fade away like a chameleon.
((Skill created [Void Fade].))
He looked at the description of the skill even as information about it flowed into his mind.
. . . . . .
[Void Fade(Lv-1)]
Type : Skill / Active
Description : Fade into the Void. Sensory skills would have to be several levels above this skill to detect you, or anything about you, and you would be able to remain undetected regardless of who you face when the skill reaches level - 100.
Note : At higher levels, can allow you to conceal your mana, vitality, life force, heat, sound, etc… as well.
Cost : 1 MP / sec
. . . . . .
"Well…good enough, I guess."
At the same time, another thought came to his mind.
'Maybe I should have used it to create a special sensing skill instead?'
After all, for all he knew, some powerful supernatural being could be looking at him right then, just floating above him or even standing right behind him.
'No use thinking about it now…'
Shaking his head, he looked at the cost of the skill and nodded.
"1 MP per second…60 MP per minute…with my current MP and recovery, I will last…263 seconds before I run dry."
((Conditions met. Skill [Calculations] learned.))
He blinked at the new skill available to him, but didn't bother thinking about it too much.
"263 seconds, a little over four minutes. It's not much, especially since I doubt it'll make me invisible and all at level 1…and I'll have to see if levelling up will increase the cost."
Thinking about it, he realised he would have to somehow obtain a lot of MP in order to be able to maintain the skill, even if only for his large MP reserves, 24/7.
"Well, it's a start, I guess."
Deciding not to think about it too much, he looked at his Status, or at his 'Jobs' to be precise, and the result made him nod in satisfaction even as his expression remained blank.
"'Assassin'…and 'Scholar'. For 'Void Fade' and 'Calculations'."
It seemed that skills were indeed the requirement for Jobs, or at least some of them, and the Jobs available to him wouldn't be combat related only either.
As for which Job he would be selecting…
"The choice is obvious…"
With little hesitation, he tapped on the 'Scholar' Job.
After all, while becoming an 'Assassin' and being able to move faster than an eye could see and all that sounded cool, Echo knew how pathetically weak he currently is. Assuming that the only way for getting EXP for a combat Job is from combat, who would he assassinate? Thugs? Delinquents?
Even an extremely weak cannon fodder among supernatural beings could probably kill him as he was now. Not to mention, considering he was currently in territory managed by Devils, going on a killing spree was a very bad idea.
Sure, he might be able to level up with Quests, but he doubted he would be able to follow the original Gamer. His mom spoiled them too much to make them do chores for her unless it was something fun or a new experience like preparing their new house.
'If Rhi hadn't been excited about setting up the house herself, mom would have probably done it all by herself…'
And although he might be able to go to Dungeons, he couldn't exactly disappear for extended periods of time.
'Mom and Sis would be worried if the tracking spells they used on me disappear.'
He knew for a long time both his mother and his big sister were a part of the supernatural world, and he was quite sure neither of them actually knew the other wasn't ordinary. As for why, well, he discovered it from his mother when he was a toddler and she assumed her drunken rants wouldn't be understood by him, and his sister had inherited her bad drinking habits even though she could barely handle half a bottle without her powers before she gets wasted.
People tend to say things they normally wouldn't even dream of letting out when they are drunk, and him being a six year old back then probably helped lower her guard too. After all, what kind of six year old would even remember, let along believe, his drunk sister when she says she was going to be the first human to reincarnate as an Angel?
"I got out of track…"
Regardless, it didn't change the fact that not only would choosing 'Assassin' when he was as weak as he was would be a very bad idea, he also didn't need power that much.
The world he was in was a very dangerous world.
"But mom and sis are more dangerous…"
With all of that,
((Job selected [Scholar]. Job change complete.))
((Job Skills available. Please choose one of the given four.))
((Level up!))
