New items and assumptions
Mark didn't get the chance to choose over the last panel, as more appeared.
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You completed the secret challenge for Driver Skill <HP Regeneration>
Challenge: Complete a heart-attack trucking
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<HP Regeneration> is of a higher Rank than your current Tier, so the Skill's cost was reduced instead of unlocked.
Rewards started recalculating
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Reward: 5x Small Healing Potions
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As Mark finished all the panels, he noticed that his truck was moving again. Of course, he still was controlling the battery's energy, and the engine was clearly off, but the truck moved nonetheless.
'Now that I think about it, even unchanging completely, the battery wouldn't cause the truck to freeze like it did. '
When he used his Skill, he wasn't that far from the Old Lady, but he couldn't think clearly at that moment. It seemed Truck-kun had more control over the truck than he thought, making him wonder if the young man was the target from the beginning and not the Old Lady.
Mark let the energy return to the battery, as there was still a connection between the two that he hadn't separated completely. So the connection didn't cause the battery to work, but the energy could return to it when he stopped focusing on manipulating it.
Hopefully, that wouldn't cause that much damage to it, and the moment he let the energy go, the engine was on again. The truck had moved around the Old Lady and the young man in the ground and started driving back from where Mark came from the factory.
Mark noticed something strange, though, as he saw the reflection of his truck over the glass shop window. He usually wouldn't have looked that way, but for a moment, his body moved by itself for him to look that way.
What he saw was that the look of his truck differed from before. The design was the same, but most colors differed entirely from what they used to be.
"Is that also your doing? "
There was no response to his question, and he didn't know if he was just ignored or if there was no reason for an answer. So instead, he decided to look for an explanation by opening the [Truck Status].
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TRUCK-KUN
Driver Sync: 92%
HP: 133/133
SP: 78/78
STATS
Power: 14
Agility: 16
Mind: 16
Defence: 12
Endurance: 20
Luck: 3
TRUCK UPGRADES
D-Rank: Vehicle Possessor (Lvl 75), Camouflage (Lvl100/Temporary Unlocked)
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'Is it the same as he did in the <Dungeon>? '
Truck-kun had used his ability to turn into a truck when they first entered the <Dungeon>, which was a <Truck Upgrade> that they could buy but hadn't yet.
Mark noticed that the truck wasn't moving as smoothly as before, which was a sign that Truck-kun's control over it was weakening. The last time he Unlocked an <Upgrade> that way, it caused him to be 'asleep 'for quite some time, which seemed to be the case now too.
Mark started taking control over driving, and even if he couldn't see how his truck looked now, he could somehow tell that its new look had also changed. But they had left the town at this point, and nobody had gone after them.
Mark didn't know when Truck-kun started their disguise, but he felt like it should be before entering the town. Otherwise, there could be witnesses to the transformation.
He once more turned around to get back into the town, but his turn wasn't as sudden as the one that Truck-kun had done. He used another route, as there were police over where the 'accident' had happened.
Some police cars were moving around, but none stopped him, probably because he didn't fit the truck's description. The disguise hadn't only changed the color of what already existed, but it also added a design to the trailer. The design was the pic of an ad for milk, as it had a cow and a bottle full of milk next to it.
It didn't take long to reach his destination, which wasn't that far outside the town. Mark could tell that Truck-kun was back to his sleep mode', as he got a strange feeling from his phone when he tried to use his <Minor Energy Manipulation> on it.
It felt like something was covering the phone, not allowing him to feel or control its energy. Of course, the same thing happened the last time Truck-kun was in that situation, so it was easy for Mark to put two and two together.
But since he had reached a 'safe 'place, he could focus on a few other things.
First, he opened his [Inventory] and saw that one slot was filled with an item, and the number five was at the top right corner of it. The image of that item was an image of a glass vial filled with red liquid, which was classic for an item with that name.
Mark decided to <Inspect> it, which he luckily had the option to do so.
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SMALL HEALING POTION
Rank: Unranked
Description: A potion of the lowest alchemical degree. Still enough to help rapid recovery in times of need.
Effect: +50 HP
Note: The potion has no effect on people whose current HP is over 10% of their Max HP
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Reading everything about his new item made Mark both surprised and somewhat like they tricked him. He was supposed to get a C-Rank Skill but instead got 5 unranked items.
He had read about that Skill during one of his breaks in the <Dungeon> as he found the rate that his HP recovered relatively slow. The only way that sped up the progress was leveling up, which filled his HP and SP completely when that happened.
The Skill increased the rate of his HP regenerations and allowed him to regenerate HP without the need for rest, even during combat. However, compared to that Skill, the consumable items, which also had a limitation of when he could use them, were the worst deal Mark had ever seen.
'Is that how people think about me when they learn about me not being a Ranac anymore? '
Mark could feel frustration over the System for screwing him over and could stop himself from thinking of that comparison. This caused his frustration over the situation to get less tense, as it would feel a bit hypocritical otherwise.
But now he had to go through everything he had just learned. Truck-kun had given him a brief explanation about how trucking someone worked, but it didn't seem the same as that.
Truck-kun had said that trucking someone was transferring them into some other Realm, which Mark was sure meant moving their bodies too.
But that boy's body didn't go anywhere, and since the notification said that he had done a heart-attack trucking, he had killed him.
Although, Mark found it weird that what appeared to be a younger man had a heart attack, as it would have made more sense if it happened with the Old Lady.
'Maybe that person had some kind of heart disease? '
Even if Mark didn't think that someone's heart wouldn't be calm from seeing a truck heading their way. But since the person had 'voluntarily 'got in there, they shouldn't be feeling that intense to have a heart attack, or at least that made sense to Mark.
But he couldn't do anything about it other than assumptions.
As for that, not being the trucking Truck-kun had mentioned, Mark considered the chance to be almost non-existed since he got the corresponding notification from doing that exact thing. But the notifications said it to be a 'heart-attack' trucking which should mean that there were other ways to do so.
'Maybe what Truck-kun mentioned actually works differently. I need to get some answers from him when he wakes up. '
Mark didn't plan to let Truck-kun ignore him on that piece of information, but for now, he could only wait for the latter to 'wake up. '
In the meantime, Mark wanted to train on his <Martial Art> Skill, as it had stayed behind compared to the other two Skills. Of course, the difference wasn't as big as the difference between his Skills and Truck-kun's Upgrade levels, but he had to focus on one problem at a time.
He tried to get as comfortable in his seat as possible, as he planned to train in the Darkroom instead of the real world. After all, he could move there without any worries about his surroundings, and the doozy side effect was actually helpful in pushing himself.
This time he wasn't just focusing on controlling Trucki with his fists and feet. Instead, he wanted to get to the next level with Trucki manipulation, which generally should be something to do after mastering the basics.
He wanted to make a blade out of it.