CHAPTER 8 – What to do now? (Part 1)

"♪♫♬♪♫♬… I FLY A GIGANTIC MONSTER; I AM CAPTAIN EVIL-STOMPER… ♪♫♬♪♫♬"

"…"

"♪♫♬♪♫♬… I GET TO WEAR A BIG BLACK HELMET; I PILOT THE HATREDCOPTER!!!… ♪♫♬♪♫♬"

"…Fuck…"

I woke up to the alarm, feeling an intense headache, exactly the same I felt when I first got here. And to make it worst, the pain from my own stigma hasn't completely subsided.

"♪♫♬♪♫♬… I FLY THE BEAST MADE OF STEEL; TIN MONSTER, CRUMPLE LIGHT… ♪♫♬♪♫♬"

"Right, right, I'm listening, I'll wake up in a moment… just stop."

I stand up from the floor, as it seems I fell off the couch when I blacked out, and reach up to turn the alarm off.

Until Monday we won't have any classes, so it's kind of like a free period for everyone, though a lot of people will keep training every day as to not fall back on the ranking.

That leaves me with the weekend to sort things out. What will I be doing? Certainly, I could try to live normally here, like I would in any other world including mine. But will that be all?

"That seems like the boring path to take… And I still need to see what this 'Affinity' is about… Thinking about it, I still haven't seen my new profile. I'm dying to know how much did that guy limited my power."

With that said, I reach out to the table just in front of the couch and grab the laptop, sitting on the floor to have it at eye level.

Turning it on, I start seeing the same black screen, with all the messages I couldn't see because of the pain and blacking out.

[David Ross, synchronization with Cristopher D. Lamas complete.] [All status reset.] [Unique Authority, 'World's Reading and Understanding', acquired.] [Unique Authority, 'Dragon Heart', acquired.] [Unique Authority, 'Origin Dragon's Blood', acquired.] [Unique Authority, 'Dragon Body', acquired.] [Unique Authority, 'Eyes of the Dragon God', acquired.] [Unique Authority, 'Dragon's Breath', acquired.] [Unique Authority, 'Apocalypse Dragon's Stigma', acquired.] [Warning…] [Power does not match world's level] [Needing to readjust…] [Readjust impossible…] [Forced summoning in process…] [Forced summoning completed]

"Somehow, this feels more like a log than a normal operating system. I wonder if it will work like that all the time…"

Trying to figure out what to do, I press a few keys, but nothing happened at least until I pressed 'Enter', the black screen immediately changed again.

[Starting…] [Arrangements have been made with the user…] [Readjusting of stats now possible…] [Temporally readjusting stats from the user to a tolerable level…] [Impossible to seal user's authorities…] [Limiting user's Authorities' power…] [All status resets.]

"Mmm… seems like it was really possible for him once we got to an agreement. Well, let's see how much did he limit my power."

[Synchronization completed] ======== [David Ross's status reset, Cristopher D. Lamas status transferred] ======== [All status reset and limited under agreement with the user. No extra stats points acquired.]

[Loading user's interface]

1. Cristopher D. Lamas [Affinity 5%]

▷Stats

*Variable Stats: [Strength 9][Stamina 9][Speed 9][Perception 20][Vitality 15][Magic power 20]

*Invariable Stats: [Intelligence – ???][Perseverance – 3/10][Luck – ???][Charm – 5/10]

*Special Stats: [Natural Energy 20] [Draconic Energy 20] [Spirit Fire ???]

▷Gift

* Observation and Reading (Modified) [Null attribute]:

- Observation: Gives the ability to observe everything around you, without any kind of limitation. It also gives you improved hearing and the ability to observe and hear any target at sight without distance's problems.

- Reading: It allows you to read into the novel's setting, and everything related to its universe, is possible to know the minimal details about its principal characters, the universe, dungeons, and more. Kind of like an appraisal

-Eyes of the Dragon God modification: You now can use this gift without the need for a medium. Thanks to your eyes and their connection to the akashic record, you can also get more information, if available.

* Nature's Blessing [Nature attribute]: Being a Dragon capable of absorbing and using Nature's energy, you were blessed by nature, improving all your abilities that use this energy, and enhancing your elemental powers.

* Spirit Fire [Spirit attribute] [Elemental attribute]: You control the Spirit Fire, a ghostly blue fire that follows your will at 100% and allows you to burn only what you want to burn. It is the demise of any kind of spirit and other untouchable beings. (Limited. Power greatly reduced.)

▷Authorities

* World's Reading and Understanding: You're allowed to use the author's original gift 'Observation and Reading', having access to all the information related to this world as its reader. You can also understand any language you don't know while inside the novel as it will be automatically translated, and you can normally interact with the people around you without limitations. For interaction purposes, whatever you say will be understood as Korean, excepting cases when you consciously intend to communicate in other languages.

* Dragon's Heart: Your power's core. It transforms the blood inside your body in Original Dragon's Blood, it also allows you to harness mana and other kinds of energy freely.

* Original Dragon's Blood: As the Original Dragon's blood flows through your veins, you are able to use the power of every dragon in the multiverse (temporally limited to only fire and lighting elemental dragons)

* Eyes of the Dragon God: You have acquired great power along the years, receiving the title of Dragon God and awakening the Eyes of the Dragon God, allowing you to access the Akashic Records and seeing into the truth of the world (Limited, now only works as a medium to use Observation and Reading (Modified), and giving you perfect vision of 5 Km around you.)

* Dragon's Body: As the blood of a Dragon flows through your veins, your body slowly started to change. While humans as the base, you slowly can become more and more like a Dragon, until you transform into the perfect hybrid at will. (Limited. Can only use Eyes of the Dragon God, Fire Dragon's Scales, and Fire Dragon's Wings {sealed until strength and speed gets to 16 points or higher}).

* Dragon's Breath: The authority of all Dragons that existed, exists, and will exist, a breath full of power, fusing mana, draconic energy, and natural energy to make a destructive blast capable of disintegrating anything. (Limited. Power greatly reduced)

* Apocalypse Dragon's Stigma: The result of the primary attribute of fire being corrupted by hate, wrath, pain, and a senseless wish for destruction. It allows its porter to gain free rein of all flames, including Spirit Fire and the Apocalypse's Black Flames, a concept of pure destruction that will end anything and everything it touches. (Limited. Power of Spirit Fire greatly reduced, Black Fire temporally sealed until the middle part of the plot)

▷Arts

*Free Movement: You have total spatial sense around your body, and you can control yourself to the limit, allowing you to move as you please, even doing things that wouldn't be normally possible.

*Dragon's Fangs Dance: Dual sword technique created after years of training and developing. Can also be used with one sword and a few bladed weapons.

*Perfect Coordination: You have Dynamic Visual Acuity, letting you react almost instantly to changes in your surrounding.

▷Physique

*Fire Dragon's Scales: Your body can reinforce itself, allowing it to become as durable as a Dragon's scales. It can't be damaged by any fire, and will automatically absorb and reserve natural energy. Further reinforcement is possible with an attribute, allowing attacks to unphysical entities. (Power reduced, increase stamina by 5 when reinforced and strength by 2, adding fire attribute to your physical attacks)

*Stomach of steel: As a Dragon, you can digest almost everything, making it difficult to get poisoned, unless certain plants are added to the drug or poison. You can suppress this effect whenever you wish for. (Power reduced. When consuming a really strong poison, there's a chance of getting intoxication)

*Sage Mode: Learned from another world. You can actually use the natural energy inside and outside your body to severely amplify your power. (Limited. Can only increase variable stats by 3 and perception by 5, cannot automatically absorb natural energy from your surroundings while in this state, giving you a time limit for it)

??? – Will be unlocked when the main story is completed

"Ok... Guess he tried his best to get my stats as low as possible… Well, there's no problem to start almost from scratch, and even in the worst case, I still have my magic power, draconic energy, and nature's energy, so there will be no problem in case shits go wrong somewhere; though he still got it down really hard, that's an interdimensional being for you."

In the case of my magic, all he could get was putting them on 20, the same with natural energy and draconic energy. Well, that's absurdly low, I guess that having my agreement really let him nerf me, though I honestly thought he would do more, my stats are not that bad if we take cadets stats into account. Hajin will have it harder than me at the start.

And to be honest, while my stats are severely nerfed, I still have my authorities and other few things. Though I did promise I wouldn't go insane and start doing shits here and there. Well, I'm still starting the plot, I wouldn't need to use all my power right now, and probably the only way I would be forced to use all of my power would be in a fight against Baal, which I probably won't be participating, and even if I was, it's still time until then. At least 8 years.

And what about my luck? What are those question signs? Does that mean I'm extremely lucky or extremely unlucky? The same with my Intelligence… Does that make me an idiot or a genius out of this world?

My physique and arts are not that bad, guess I get to keep a few things, though I doubt he could actually seal everything about my Dragon's Body authority, the interface just shows a few things, and even limit them. In particular Sage Mode... The bastard actually limited the time I could be in that state. I normally can use it permanently whenever there's natural energy around, as my body automatically absorbs it and supply me with more of it. But now? Now I have to work just with the natural energy inside my body to enter that state. I'll have to learn how to control that.

*Sigh…*

"Now what I'm going to do? I need to plan ahead what I actually want to do… Well, I still have some days to think things out and try to get everything straight. After all, I did promise I would try not to blow things up here."

Not being the first world I travel to, I sure know how things can actually get out of hand. And even Kim Hajin would learn with time here that actually interfering with a plot can make really unpredictable changes to it, no matter how small an act you make.

Sometimes even a little talk will change fate, some even to a point where we can't control it anymore. Whether it is a good or bad change it all depends on how you see it, and how you act upon it. At the end of the day, it is like going up a rollercoaster, when you can't control it, you just have to go with the ride, and hope that you won't derail and fall to your death, so, enjoy it.

Though, here enters the philosophical question, is this a true world? Or is this just a novel that became real for a little time? To Hajin, whether he accepts reality or not, will depend on the moment he answers this question.

To me? Long ago I accepted that sometimes reality can be fake, and fake can be a reality. Experience has taught me that you can't see or judge things as they first seem to be.

This may be a novel I read, but everyone in this world feels, thinks, and acts upon their own will, how can you say to their face that they're just a character in a novel? When everything they go through, every trauma, every love, every crush, every experience they had was as real as what I or Hajin could have had during our lives.

So, how can I dare say or even think this is all just a novel? Well, you may actually say that I'm biased, after all, this is not my first time experiencing something like this, though this time, it wasn't of my own free will. Not that I hate it. As said before, I actually look for interesting things to do, something to fill that void that constantly goes rampage mode inside me and makes me feel like some kind of creep, a monster if you will, just like the co-author thinks about me.

"A monster huh… Yeah… Maybe I'm slowly becoming less and less human with every passing year… I wonder when it started? Maybe it was when I acquired this stigma, or maybe even before of starting to change… Though, being a hybrid does indeed make me something else than human. But I at least would like to keep my humanity intact as much as possible."

While thinking about useless stuff, I slowly bring up my right arm to see the stigma that marked the moment when I started seeing my life differently.

"You… I don't know what to think about you anymore… You're always there, remembering me of that moment. But at the same time. You're the one that has helped me when things seem to be lost."

A stigma, a mark that engraved itself on my arm with fire and pain. To those around me, it just looks like a really big tribal tattoo. For me, it is a memory of a distant yet short past that will always torment me.

Starting on my right wrist, with a dual chain of fire surrounding it and then extending all the way through my forearm in a helical shape, like some kind of fire snakes going up my arm.

Then from my elbow all the way up to my shoulder, symbols, and runes that seem to be disorganized make way to the fire that slowly extends to my shoulder blade and my pectoral, ending in a skeletal dragon covering itself in its wings while irradiating flames in my shoulder blade and a dragon's head spitting the same fire that surrounds it almost in a protective yet destructive way.

All my right arm, covered in symbols, runes, and tribal figures, making way to a really weird tattoo, just that it hurts worst, and every now and then, I can still feel the pain. Just like hours ago, when it engraved itself again.

Well, it could be worse. At least it looks like a tattoo, and not like a real big scar. Though it sometimes shines, especially when I use some abilities, and it also extends whenever I start using Sage Mode, covering all my body in runes and symbols.

It was a surprise when I first learned Sage Mode and used it. It scared me to see all those runes and symbols quickly covering every part of my body. All in all, it's a really chuuni thing to have. Not that I dislike it that much.

Well, getting back on track, I don't have a setting intervention, which means I can't modify anything. Which isn't any problem per se. I can easily survive with what I have right now. I just wonder what this affinity is about… And how did I raise it in the first place? Not that it bothers me, I guess that with time I'll discover what is it about.

Now that everything's clear. Let's start with the planning part.

"What will I do? I mean, I could actually work as an extra, even a mob would be fine, not trying to do anything to interfere with the plot, and just living my life quietly as if nothing that will happens has something to do to me."

With that, we have option one on the table. But… Is it all?

"What's the difference between being a mob here and doing nothing back in my world? At the end of the day, I would just get bored as fuck. And would start thinking about useless things."

*Sigh…*

"Well, I guess it wouldn't make any damage to try and actually live here as if I was someone from this world. Which, I actually am if we take into account what happened to Hajin."

Turning myself on the coach I look at my laptop.

"What do you think? Old friend? Do you have any advice for me?"

*…*

"Of course… You're just a laptop, what could you help me with? Man at least Hajin has a clear goal, to end this 'novel' of his. At least until he stops seeing it as just a novel."

Without anything else coming to mind, I look for my smartphone and put some music.

"♪♫♬♪♫♬…INTRO; PIANO AND GUITAR RIFFS START SOUNDING… ♪♫♬♪♫♬"

I lay on the couch, looking up at the ceiling as I let the music flow around me.

"♪♫♬♪♫♬… WHEN THIS BEGAN; I HAD NOTHING TO SAY, AND I GET LOST IN THE NOTHINGNESS INSIDE OF ME… ♪♫♬♪♫♬"

"…"

"♪♫♬♪♫♬… I WAS CONFUSED…; AND I LET IT ALL OUT TO FIND THAT I'M NOT THE ONLY PERSON WITH THESE THINGS IN MIND… ♪♫♬♪♫♬"

I slowly turn to my side, looking directly at my laptop, trying to look for clues, or some answers.

"♪♫♬♪♫♬… INSIDE OF ME…; BUT ALL THAT THEY CAN SEE THE WORDS REVEALED, IS THE ONLY REAL THING THAT I'VE GOT LEFT TO FEEL…; NOTHING TO LOSE… ♪♫♬♪♫♬"

"Just stuck… Hollow and alone, and the fault is my own, AND THE FAULT IS MY OWN!!!!"

"♪♫♬♪♫♬…JUST STUCK; HOLLOW AND ALONE AND THE FAULT IS MY OWN, AND THE FAULT IS MY OWN…♪♫♬♪♫♬"

"I wanna heal! I wanna feel, what I thought was never real! I wanna let go of the pain I've felt for so long! I wanna heal! I wanna feel! Like I'm close to something real!!! I wanna find something I wanted all along… Somewhere I belong!!!"

"♪♫♬♪♫♬… I WANNA HEAL! I WANNA FEEL, WHAT I THOUGHT WAS NEVER REAL! I WANNA LET GO OF THE PAIN I'VE FELT SO LONG! I WANNA HEAL! I WANNA FEEL! LIKE I'M CLOSE TO SOMETHING REAL!!! I WANNA FIND SOMETHING I WANTED ALL ALONG… SOMEWHERE I BELONG!!!… ♪♫♬♪♫♬"

"…"

"♪♫♬♪♫♬♪♫♬♪♫♬…"

"Man… that was relaxing… Still, I don't know what I will do from now on."

Finishing my little sing along with Linkin Park, I'm stuck in the same dilemma… What will I do?

"Well, I'm sure something will occur to me, maybe I'll start trying to help Hajin finishing this story. After all, for what I can see, it seems that I also have to finish it to find answers."

How I would help him, that's what I'll have to think these few days.

"I also have to think about how I will interact with the other characters; I still don't want to make drastic changes with my presence here. Not like there wouldn't be any changes if I help Hajin. But at least I want to keep their relationships as it was in the novel. Maybe even trying to help mend some of their relationships here and there, for them to not end that badly…"

Time will tell what role I shall play in all of this. But one thing is sure. And that is, I will try to find something to do, something interesting, something that will amuse me. That will end this boredom and this empty feeling inside me. That is, and will always be my primary goal.

With that last thought, I close my eyes and go into dreamland… I don't have anything to do immediately. So, what's better than to sleep, right?