3 2 - Okay, this would have to do for now

Opening his eyes once again, he was faced with the same screen but with different words on it this time. |welcome new player, your mission is to kill the dire wolf outside the cave. Failure to do so means death. And this time, it's for real!|

Mickaila's eyes widened, sitting up from where he was laying and searched his body, looking everywhere checking if he was still intact and luckily for him, he was. He thought back once again, he was certain he died and just remembering the scene made him shiver in cold sweat paling his exterior figure.

He then looked back at the screen and re-read it, [it's the same command as before however, what does it mean by 'it's real' this time?] As he hesitated, he realised something and bursted out into a crazy laughter, [is this stupid thing playing with my life?] he asked aggressively, wanting to punch it if it wasn't for the fact that he cannot touch it.

"Aah, whatever, first thing first, I must first find out how to get out of here." he mumbled to himself.

He searched around everywhere within the temple like room but there was nothing, "damn, through all the manga I read, at times of need the male protagonist would always get a bad ass weapon but where is mine?" Mickaila fumed but soon later the energy left his body and he calmed down sighing, "face it, reality is cruel" he said to himself. He then searched inside his bag and emptied it all out trying to find something that can be useful but as expected... nothing.

Everything laying before him was his uniform, some pens, pencils, some textbooks and a torch along with an ID and some money.

[Well, nothing seems to be useful.] he sighed, "If I knew this was going to happen, I should've brought something sharp to school this morning, something like a hand knife or even better a gun."

"Ah, never mind, let's face reality. Even if I successfully got them, it's unlikely I'll be able to take it to school with teachers doing morning searches on every student. Furthermore, I don't even have money to buy food, let alone getting a weapon."

Rubbing his head and looking up, "this is so damn annoying, why is God playing with my life like this?" he complained, "never mind." he said knowing that God wouldn't even answer him.

He looked down on the ground, "I guess this would have to do." as he grabbed some of the sharpest pens and pencils and putting everything else back into his bag before standing up and taking a deep breath before opening the stone door. Peeping out the corner, like before and just as expected, there was no wolf. He slowly approached the end of the cave with his pens and pencils on hand, ready to attack.

Mickaila then took another deep breath before running out of the cave and just as expected the wolf was above the cave awaiting for him to exit and feast on him. [hah, as if I'm going to let you munch on me again] Mickaila scoffed. As the wolf jumped down onto the grass land, they stared at each other eye to eye, awaiting for one another to finally attack. The dire wolf growled and jumped at Mickaila who was clenching on the weapon he was now holding in hand, well that is if you could count it as a weapon.

With the wolf nearing, Mickaila ducked as it jumped over his head with his back facing him, Mickaila quickly turned around using one of his pencils and stabbed into the wolf's back side causing it to howl in pain.

The wolf spun around causing Mickaila to lose a hold of his pencil and fell onto the cold wet grass beneath them and as for the pencil, it was still sticking inside the wolf's back side.

"Tsk, you are quite tough." Mickaila smiled, standing up once again facing the wolf who eyed him with a fiery growl.

From the dark murderous look in the wolf's eyes, Mickaila knew the wolf was angered, ignoring his own pain from the wound he suffered, instead of a pained look on his face, there was a evil glint that came across his own features, "What, are you afraid to attack now?" Mickaila said, mockingly staring at the wolf with daring eyes which fumed the wolf to attack once again.

With Mickaila's quick thinking, he swiftly ran towards the wolf whilst he was in midair and stabbed one of his pencil into the wolf's left eye whilst reaching out for another as he slide under the wolf, he stabbed another underneath the wolf causing the wolf to howl once again, "this isn't the end yet" Mickaila said as he spun around quickly standing on his two feet and grabbed onto the wolf's tail, swinging it and with both his hands, pulling it down making a large "thud" sound before it hit the floor, seeing how the wolf was still not dead, he looked at the 3 pencils and pulled each and everyone of them out causing the wolf to bleed out in pain, "this is what you get for killing me" he said, "well the previous me" Mickaila reiterated.

However, luck wasn't really on his side, the wolf clawed at Mickaila, wounding his arms and tummy before jumping backwards, "damn, your good." Mickaila wickedly smiled, he held onto the pencils and ran towards the wolf who was limping in front of him and jumped, landing on the back of the wolf, holding a few pens and pencils in each hand and stabbed downwards comparatively, repeating the same process over and over again until the wolf finally collapsed.

As the wolf fell, the light within its eyes was slowly fading, with certainty, Mickaila got off the wolf, "damn, you were a hard opponent to beat!" he exhaled.

Staring at the wolf, his tummy began to grumble, "hehehe... I guess you owe me" Mickaila said looking at the wolf hungrily, wanting to cook it for meat however just as he reached out, instead of touching the meat, it was replaced with a bottle of liquid, "what is this? Where is my meat?" Mickaila questioned furiously.

And just then the screen popped up again, |congratulations, you have gained 10 Exp points for defeating the dire wolf| |You are now at Level 1|.

"seriously? Why does this setting look like a game?"

'Well, to be exact, you are a gamer' A masculine voice answered, whilst Mickaila just nonchalantly nodded but suddenly jumped back looking around everywhere but no one was near, 'Who...who are you? Why are you in my mind?'

'Oh, sorry for the late introduction, I am the system in front of you.' the voice said, 'So what, are you saying you are like ''Siri'' from an Iphone or something.' Mickaila asked, 'Yes, more or less like that.' he replied.

[Wow, I guess I have my own internal Siri then, huh?]

'Ok then, system. What is this liquid thing?' he asked and suddenly new words appeared on the screen in front of him, 'this is a healing liquid, by taking it, you would heal all external injuries' The system spoke out whilst Mickaila just nodded, 'so what is this ranking thing about on the screen saying?' Mickaila asked, pointing at the screen saying the liquid is a C rank healing potion.

'Oh yes, if you look here' the screen then suddenly presented what seems like a ranking system popping up in front of him, 'this is the ranking of all the things you would receive, starting with the lowest rank of E all the way to A, S and SS. The higher the rank, the better the thing is.'

'Ok, then what about this?' Mickaila asked pointing at some keys with different colours, 'These are keys that can be used to open portals, the ranking is the same, the higher it is, the more difficult the enemy you would face at the other side of the portal. Furthermore, there is also the rarest type of keys where it'll change the portal from their ordinary level to something that is way harder than presented, these are called the error keys. And as for the colour, it is to tell you of what situation that it may lie within, for example a green key means, the battlefield on the other side would include poison, if it was blue, it'll mean it has something to do with water etc.'

'However, many of these keys require you to reach a specific level or have a list of requirements and if all are satisfied, you are then able to use the key.' Mickaila nodded, 'Alright' he said, accepting all the information that was given to him.

'Yes, and as for the wolf you just killed, it is the weakest monster of its kind. As you may have noticed when you battled it' as Mickaila simply nodded remembering just above the wolf's head there was a HP bar which was slowly decreasing along with Lvl 1 placed above the bar.

'The higher the level of the monster, the harder it is to defeat it.'

'Ok, then what is this thing at the top.' he said staring at the top bar that showed the time and date of today but also another, as if it was a countdown of something stating the year, month, week, days, hours and minutes. And from the looks of it, it is in 8 months time, just the time Mickaila would finally graduate from the academy and leave the Hades Family for good.

'Yes, that is the countdown until the barrier between this world you currently live in and the other world that you are now training to battle against.'

'What do you mean?' Mickaila asked confused, 'As you may remember, we have talked about the portals right?' The system questioned which Mickaila nodded, 'Well, in 8 months time, this world you are currently living in would come into chaos with portals opening around the world awaiting for people like yourself with special skills to enter and kill the boss on the other side before the portal disappears.' the system said, 'so, you're saying there are people like me?' Mickaila asked, 'well, not technically... you are someone chosen by the system as a gamer but for others they are known as hunters, newly awakened people with skills that are similar to yours but not on par to the uniqueness of being accepted by the system.'

'Ok, but how come I've never heard of these hunters ? before'

'Well, this is something that was decided by the group of people you call the government who were found about a year ago, experiencing and seeing first hand people who have un-measurable skills enabling them to kill monsters that appear around the world through small cracks between the two worlds. These awakened hunters would have a ranking system like you've seen with the liquid you've collected from E being the weakest hunters to SS being the strongest and those of the rarest intelligence and strength being ranked as SS+. But as for you, instead of being ranked, you are a gamer, someone that is able to level up rather than being allocated into a specific ranking group.'

'So basically like a gamer.'

'yes, exactly like you said.'

'Now then, if you call out status, you would be presented with your own details' Mickaila nodded, [Status] he called out as the screen suddenly changed in front of him revealing what seems like a status bar of a gamer.

Name: Mickaila Hades

Species: Human

Level: 1

Job: None

Titles: None

HP : 50/ 150 (energy)

MP: 0/0

Strength: 35

Intelligence: 45

Vitality: 10

Agility: 10

Sense: 10

Luck: 5

Skills: None

Basic points: 15

'Ok, so the more Exp points I get, the faster I level up right?' Mickaila asked, 'Yes' the system replied.

'Also what do the basic points do?'

'As you can see, you have gained 15 basic points from defeating the dire wolf, these points can be used to increase any of the status you have above from strength down to luck however for your magic, you first must find the magic stones which all contain different types of magic and by levelling up these stones, you level up the magic of that specific category. For example if you have a red stone, it means it's a fire element magic stone, and by levelling up the stone, you gain more powerful fire magic to cast however that only levels up your fire magic and not your other magic.' the system said.

'Ok, that's all the question I have in mind. So now then.' Mickaila stood up from his position and drank the liquid which made his HP recover to 150/150.

"Well then, it's about time I go back!"