26 The Month Is Up

The tradition of Halloween where everyone had to dress up as their favorite character for the entire day while going trick or treat at night have never been more popular. Since the advent of AR technology, people could literally buy a physical projectors and put it above their heads to change their entire body and face, letting them pretend to be whoever they want.

Of course, since there are obvious problems regarding the use of such a technology, the government would normally ban the use of such things except when given special permission for artistic use. The one exception to the law though was during the day of October 31, every year.

Each citizen is allowed to project a fictional or non-fictional character onto themselves without any consequences on the condition that their full names and IDs be placed on top of their heads, allowing others to know of their true identities to prevent crimes from occuring during such time.

On this day, Daniel had decided to dress up as B*tman, not because he was a fan of the franchise or anything, but because of something else entirely.

****

[Ting! An entire month has passed without the host ever being within the vicinity of an adamantine shard. Therefore, the Assassin System is automatically activated. As usual, please finish the mission within 24 hours to prevent forcibe detachment and death.

Please complete one of the following missions:

1. Retrieve 5 grams of adamantine and fuse it with the system (+5XP)

2. Assassinate 5 unawakened 'Binded' and retrieve all the adamantinue absorbed from his/her soul (+100XP)

3. Gain information about the status of 5 other awakened 'Binded' persons. (+500XP)]

When Daniel had heard the sudden voice from the system, he was in the middle of his much needed R.E.M. sleep, dreaming about nonsensical things only to have a cold bucket poured over his head when he was instantly awoken by the cheerful idol-like voice.

After retrieving the missions, Daniel couldn't help but complain.

"System... aren't you being a little too unfair?"

[What do you mean, Master?] The system asked with a confused tone as though it had no idea what Daniel was talking about.

"You know what I mean! The EXP points! Why do I only get 5 XP when I absorb 5g of adamantine, when I got 10XP for absorbing 1g last month! Aren't you just trying to force me to kill people again?" Daniel spoke in fury within his mind, feeling as though he was going through a storm emotionally.

[Well... it is called 'Assassin System', for a reason, Master.]

"What a scam!" Daniel exclaimed. "Give me another system instead! I'm sure that Martian spy we met a month ago have a much better system than me, otherwise why would he be so much stronger?!"

[Since your opponent back then is a spy, I would conjecture that he must have gotten the '007 Super-Spy System' --] The system said slowly, giving out its own hypothesis only to be interrupted mid-way by a certain angry teenager.

"WTF! That sounds so cool! How come I don't have that?!" Daniel thought.

[Because Master isn't a spy, or doesn't contain the personality needed to become one. However, rest assured, Mater! Each system have their own purposes and they are all designed to help magnify the powers of their hosts as much as possible based on their abilities!]

"I still don't believe you." Daniel scoffed. "How can I be bounded with an assassin system when I haven't even killed anyone! The most I've ever done was kill a cockroach I've found while camping when I was a kid!"

[Your cynical and nihilistic personality does match with the occupation of an assassin though.] The system chided.

"I wish I can absorb all the adamantine right now, so that I could manifest your body and punch you in the face!" Daniel fumed for awhile before he finally calmed down, since he knew that being angry would only make him more unproductive. He has a time limit after all.

Luckily, throughout the entire month, Daniel have been constantly 'upgrading his stats', going through as much combat training and mech training as possible during and after school while also levitating his stress ball without stop every singel day. It has come to the point where Jake would often laugh at him and joke, "Did you get a crush on some girl or something? Why are you so keen in working out? Too bad, just because you get abs doesn't mean she'll like you! Why don't you try and win the Federal Olympiad of Mathematics or something. Smart nerds are the fad nowadays."

To which, Daniel simply responded, "I'm only taking self-defense courses to get myself in shape so I can catch up with EUMA's curriculum when I transfer there the beginning of next year."

Of course, Jake still felt quite suspicious of Daniel's behavior but since the former couldn't pry the infomation out of him, he simply shrugged and enjoyed himself while watching the latter suffer as he leisurely ate junk food while seated at the edge of the dojo.

Now that the time has come, Daniel took a look at his personal menu, thinking to himself, "Well, at least I have some skills under my belt now, so I wouldn't be that useless when I encounter an 'awakened' in the future.

[Name: Daniel07777

Age: 16

Level: 2/?

XP: 0/20

HP: 100/100

SP: 100/100

STR: 5

AGI: 5

Unallocated base points: 1

Supernatural Skills: Psychokinesis (Lvl 5)

Normal Skills: Karate (Novice), Brazilian Jiu-jitsu (Novice), Federation-Style Hand-to-Hand Combat (Novice), Robotics Engineering (Beginner)]

Daniel was a little surprised at the new stats and asked the system, "Hey, System. Why did the stuff that I learned for the past month appear on the 'Normal Skills' colemn?"

[The Assassin System have determined that these normal skills, which cannot be taught by the system itself, is beneficial to Master's growth as an assassin, which is why it's displayed in a new column, so to encourage Master to also develop these skills along with your supernatural skills.]

"I see. So that's why something like 'Language Proficiency' or 'Elementary Quantum Mechanics' isn't displayed but 'Robotics Engineering' is displayed instead, since the latter is related to improving my strength through the use of mechs, while the former two doesn't enhance my combat abilities. Is that right?" Daniel analyzed.

[That's correct! Master is a genius! I'm so happy to be bounded with you!]

"Okay, okay! Stop with the bootlicking! It makes me want to vomit!" Daniel exclaimed within his mind, feeling slightly nauseous at how the shameless the system was behaving.

***

*Clank!*

A bat-shaped shuriken struck against the wall before Daniel before travelling directly back into his hand. Seeing the growth of his psychokinesis skill, Daniel couldn't help but nod in satisfaction. "Well, at least I can now affect objects at a further distance while also manipulate them for another few seconds before losing its affect." He thought to himself.

After placing a framed painting over the dent on the wall caused by the shuriken, Daniel returned to his own study room and used his 3D printer to print out 7 more of them before stuffing them into his yellow utility belt. Only when his utility belt became packed with different sorts of equipment did Daniel felt it was safe enough for him to leave his own apartment.

Of course, he didn't forget to send a DM to his uncle and thank him for giving the former an exemption order for printing a potentially dangerous tool with the excuse of saying that he wanted to make his constume look as perfect as possible.

If Uncle Eric were to delve further, he would have realized that it wasn't necessary for Daniel to even have a utility belt, since his costume and face would be entirely holographic. However, since Eric is usually busy with his work in the military, he didn't think twice before granting permission, not knowing the gravity of what he had done.

As usual, Daniel took the elevator down towards the second floor and walked towards the public bus station, arriving at school right on time with the direction of the Minerva System, whose punctuality is never questioned.

Seeing his best friend cosplaying one of the most oldest and vintage superheroes for Halloween, he couldn't help but give the other a thumbs up when him, jaws dropping on the floor.

"OMG! I don't know whether you're brave or stupid!" Jake exclaimed as he circled around Daniel, giving the latter's holographic image a good look. "Why would you wear such an outdated icon to school? You'll definitely be laughed at by everyone! Are you trying to suck up to your grandparents or something?!"

"At least I'm better than you." Daniel sneered. "Who would have thought that you would have such a fetish, Jake! To cross-dress as an anime girl without any shame. To make things worse, you even increased the breast size of your character by two-folds! Are you not afraid of suddenly being groped on the street?"