…eep! Beep! Beep! Good morning!

Ugh… oh yea, I’ve set up the A.I. chip to wake me up if I am to sleep more than 1 hour. I really want to sleep more, but I don’t need to, and I’ll destroy my sleep schedule. It was 20 years ago when I’ve started training in polyphasic sleep, reducing my sleep hours to 3 per day. This was further halved by the genetic enhancements 5 years ago. With the ones I have now, I doubt I need even 1 hour per day, yet I’ve slept 3 hours if we are to count the ones from after the sunset.

I don’t feel fully refreshed yet, but that’s no wonder after all that happened. Almost 6 hours have passed since the sun set, so it should be a bit past midnight, going by Terra’s clock. What could have been inside my mind when I’ve ventured towards the mountain by nightfall? There’s no way I would have made such a decision with a clear mind.

I’ve already established that this world closely resembles a video game. In any video game the deeper you go in a forest the stronger the enemies will be. Yet, without any care in the world, I went straight to the point that screams ‘here be staying the final boss’. To make matters worse, I’ve done that when I’m barely able to fight a few trash mobs in the middle of the forest.

I know that I sound a bit absurd right now, but even if I didn’t thought this way, the chances of finding civilization are infinitely higher if I search outside the forest. That’s definitely better than searching atop a 5kilometers tall mountain. This begs the question, why did I go that way? Did my thirst for adventure cloud my mind? Was I tired and didn’t consider my options clearly? Were my thoughts somehow manipulated?

In every way I look at it, the last option becomes more feasible. I’ve experienced critic situations before, and, even if I was emotionally shaken, I didn’t lose my calculated mind. Every decision I’ve ever made always considered the benefits and the risks. My night adventure loses in both of these categories. Sure, it ended well in the end, but I had no way of knowing that when I’ve decided to head for the mountain.

Now comes the big problem, if my thought were altered, who did it? The biggest suspect is the System. Sure, there can be a mind mage or whatever but neither I nor the A.I. chip detected anything strange. I dread to think there’s a person who can pull such a feat. This leads to the question, if the System did it, what did it stand to gain from it? I’ve already established that if it wanted to kill me it could have done so in many other easier ways.

Does it want to prevent me from meeting with other humans? Did it know how my excursion will end up? If it did, what was its goal? Why would it pay attention to me? So many questions and I have no way to find the answers. Well, I do have a way, but it’s a crazy gamble. Focus, Avitus! If I am to succeed, I mustn’t let my thought deter for even a second!

The plan it’s simple, I will kill myself. If the System has plans for me, it will find a way to stop me. If it doesn’t, or if my thought were controlled by somebody else, well… let’s just say that I would rather die than being a puppet in somebody else’s plan.

I get the padrenth’s fang out of my pocket and reinforce my conviction once more. I raise my hand and exhale a long breath, I’m going through with it. I reinforce my grip on the fang and aim for my heart. 3, 2, 1, go!

Due to your actions, hidden perk ‘Protagonist’ is now being displayed in your status. You are more likely to end up in interesting scenarios. You are more likely to survive in life or death scenarios.

When the fang was only a few millimeters away from my hearth, I’ve received a perk from the System. Or more accurately I’ve been revealed a hidden one. Still, my gamble paid off and I’ve got a ton of useful information. First of all, even if the System probably knew as well as I did that a heart strike wouldn’t kill me, it chose to confirm my suspicion rather than having me be heavily injured.

Yea, of course I wasn’t gonna kill myself, it was just a rouse. If there was someone else besides the System, they wouldn’t have known that my body can survive without my heart long enough for it to regenerate. Hiding this information from my thoughts and making it seem like a genuine suicide attempt, might have forced them to act. Heck, there might be someone controlling the System that didn’t had time to review my body condition due to my fast acting.

But, fucking hell, what the fuck is this? Is the fucking System toying with me? Protagonist? Really? At least I know now for sure that the System is interested in me and is stealthy messing with my thoughts. But why? The ‘Protagonist’ perk is basically saying survive and amuse me. There’s no way such a rigid A.I. will act with that line of thought. Is there really someone behind the System?

Or it has other plans and is just telling me ‘survive and improve’? Or more likely ‘experience what this world has to offer’ than ‘improve’. But once again, why? There are too many questions and too little answer. I don’t like this situation one bit, but I can’t do anything about it, which frustrates me endlessly.

At least now I have an explanation for everything that happened until this point. Instead of my errors of judgment, the System probably guided me is critical scenarios with high risk and reward. It’s unclear if it knew that I would end up ok, but I don’t want to fall into the thinking that it will get me out of any dangerous situation. Now that I know about the System’s shenanigans, maybe I can avoid having my thought influenced again. This might help me avoid trouble in the future.

Warning! Unidentified humanoid appeared 30meters away from host’s position. No prior signs detected. Caution advised!

Sigh, and here’s the System saying ‘if you don’t want to seek trouble, I’ll bring it to you’.

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I want to run away right now and be done with it, just to spite the System, but I’d pass a chance to interact with a human from this planet. Dammit, I hate the feeling that I’m playing into someone’s tune right now, but this situation is too favorable to throw away. There’s also the problem of the language barrier, but that’s probably why I received the [Automatic Translation] skill not even 3hours ago.

Well, charging in without any information isn’t an option I’d ever take, so let’s just observe for now. Having made my decision, I hide myself atop the branch and wait. I really want to see who was able to sneak so close to me without the A.I. chip noticing beforehand.

Two more unidentified humanoids appeared in the same spot. No prior signs identified. Caution advised!

Ok, this is more than a mere coincidence. 3 people sneaking so close, then throwing their cover in the same place doesn’t seem like a possible explanation. Is it teleportation? If so, why did they come separately? What is so important in this place that required the attention of at least 2 individuals with the ability to teleport? ... Please don’t tell me that I’m their target.

Hiding even better and raising my alert level to the maximum, I look towards the spot indicated by the A.I. chip. A few seconds later, a beautiful girl in a very elegant and eccentric blue dress, comes into my view. What stands out about her, except for the clearly out of place clothing, is the pair of thin translucent wings on her back. If they weren’t moving like she was trying to take flight, I would have thought that they are part of the dress.

Taking a better look at her face, fear and desperation are apparent. Combining that with her tears, she looks like she is running for her life. I don’t get any time to speculate about what she’s running from, as two jet black full body armored guards wielding giant golden ornamented spears appear behind her. From the looks of it, she is just a bit faster than her pursuers, as their armor is greatly slowing them down.

“Damn, the bitch brought us to the main plane! No wonder I feel so weak!”(Armored man 1)

“Shut up and focus! We’re in the forest surrounding the Lightning’s God Mountain, if we encounter any monster here, we’re done for. We need to kill the princess and return at once.”(Armored man 2)

Seeing that they are being outrun, the two chasers chant some strange words and a part of their armor is dropped, leaving them in a chainmail. Not having the helmet anymore, I get a better look at the two men. One is looking like he’s in the end of his forties, while the other seems to have barely reached his thirties. What’s strange about them is that they also have a pair of wings on their back. Leaving the bulky part of their armors behind, their speed instantly triples and they catch up to the running princess almost immediately.

When she’s about to be stricken by the spear of the older man, she turns around and throws her necklace. Barely leaving her hand, its crystal cracks and shatters, creating a strong force that blew off all 3 of them. The girl ended up hitting the tree in which I’m in, wounded to the point where she clearly can’t continue running. The other two were also wounded by the sudden explosion but they are able to quickly get back on their feet. The girl kept crying and screaming, as the two guards approached her.

“Why? Big brother, where are you? Please, help me! Big sis, what happened to you?! Big sis… Please, help! Anybody, please! PLEASE HELP ME!”

As the guard raised his spear once again to end her life, the princess let out a last cry of desperation. Guess I’ll play along with the System for now.

You have killed a ‘Royal Guard’ Lightning Fairy! You have received 78.3 stat points! You have received 4 skill points.

Your skill [Basic Martial Arts] has leveled up!

Your [Otherworlder 2] path has reached the 25% milestone! TLN base stat increased by 20 permanently.

Spoiler: Status

Identity

Stats

Active Paths

Name

Avitus Volten

STR

238

[261.8]

VIT

153

[168.3]

Human

43.5%

Race

Human

AGI

293

[321.2]

PER

369

[405.9]

Otherworlder 2

26.8%

Sex

Male

DEX

327

[359.7]

INT

353

[386.1]

Apprentice Lightning Mage

3.5%

Age

47

CON

192

[211.2]

WIS

98

[106.7]

Magic Scholar 1

0%

Title

Outsider

END

103

[113.3]

TLN

50

[70.4]

Affinities

Resistances

Titles Earned

Perks

Lightning

98%

Lightning

95%

Otherworlder

Lightningborn

A.I. Chip

Mental

82%

Pain

72%

Outsider

Protagonist

Shadow

53%

Mental

55%

Fire

38%

Poison

52%

Spatial

8%

Spatial

25%

Temporal

2%

Skills

Common

Rare

Personal

Basic Self-Regeneration Lv8

Fake Status Lv1

Quantum A.I. Processor Lv27

Basic Martial Arts Lv8

Basic Long-range Appraisal Lv1

Dismantle Lv3

Lightning Conversion MAX

Meditation Lv1

Cognitive Overpower Lv4

Basic Fire Magic Lv1

Automatic Translation MAX

Basic Lightning Magic Lv1

Basic Lightning Magic Manipulation Lv1

No-Attribute Magic Language Lv1

You have 106 unspent stat points, 12 unspent skill point and 12 unspent path points.