“What in the hell!?” Liang Wu screamed in shock. “My system! It's broken!”
As his scream echoed through the emptiness of the night, the voice of his System Helper reverberated inside his aching head. “From what I can see, the only functions of the system that were damaged are your status screen, display name, and display nickname options. Oh, also some of your attributes have been decreased from the damage.”
“What did you say!?”
“I didn't say anything.” Chen Li Li responded, as she couldn't hear the voice he was talking to and assumed he was talking to her.
“No, not you, I'm talking to my System Helper.”
“Ooh, why don't you talk to it via your thoughts, so you don't look like a crazy person?” She was genuinely curious, as everyone but Liang Wu talked to their System Helpers with their thoughts.
“Did I have a feature like that?” He couldn't remember adding such a feature to talk via thought to the system when he created it.
“The feature to talk via thought was added after receiving user feedback. An overwhelming amount of users said. ‘We look like we're insane when we talk to voices that no one else can hear’.” The System Helper commented. The System Helpers could hear and see everything around their hosts, however they couldn't interact with anyone other than the person they were bound to.
When Liang Wu first enslav– when he first appointed the wandering souls’ of the dead as System Helpers, the souls initially refused to help, however after promising them that if their hosts were to reach the God Realm, he would allow for the host the option to give the Helpers new body's, they finally, reluctantly agreed to help. Although their would probably be very few that could ever achieve such a feat, if any.
“Whatever, just show me the stats screen.” Liang Wu was fed up with all of the changes his system was making on him without informing him first.
“Why do you want to see my stats?” Chen Li Li asked.
“I wasn't talking to you! I was talking to the Helper!”
“What are you getting angry at me for? I told you to talk using thoughts so I wouldn't get confused!” She placed her arms on her sides and puffed her cheeks out angrily as she reprimanded Liang Wu.
She continued to reprimand him, however he wasn’t paying attention as a screen had appeared before his eyes, and he was focused on reading the information within.
ATTRIBUTES
VALUES
MODIFIERS
TOTALS
Vitality
10
-5 (Soul Damage)
5
Strength
10
-2 (Soul Damage)
8
Dexterity
10
-2 (Soul Damage)
8
Agility
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10
-2 (Soul Damage)
8
Qi
0
+0
0
Luck
∞
-99999⁹⁹⁹…
(Soul Damage)
100
Attack *1.5STR *.5DEX *.5AGI (Basic Calculation)
25
-5
20
Defense
0
+0
0
Evaluation: Basic Mortal Stats, Weakened by Soul Damage. (Incalculable Luck, Weakened by Soul Damage.)
No Available Breakthrough
Free Points (0)
The clone that Liang Wu was currently inhabiting had the same baseline stats as every mortal, except for his luck, which had been nearly infinite. When he turned this world into one resembling a video game, he'd set every mortal's stats at the peak of mortality. Only luck he couldn't change, as luck was something engraved into a person's soul when they are born.
“This is very bad!” Liang Wu said, panic evident in his voice.
“What’s wrong?” Chen Li Li asked. While warming her hands near the campfire, she had at some point sat next to him beside the fire.
“I just realized my System Helper said that my Display Nickname option was disabled because of my soul damage! Can you see my nickname?”
She had an incredulous look on her face as she asked in disbelief, “That's what you're worried about? Your nickname not being displayed?”
“Yes, otherwise how else would I feel like a video game character?” He said that like she was supposed to know what it meant. What he had failed to realize was that nobody but himself had played video games in this world.
“What is a ‘video game character’?”
“Hm? Oooh right! I'd forgotten, the people in this world don't have video games! Hold on, I'll show you.” He hadn't signed out of his admin mode before he fell unconscious, so he opened his admin inventory and pulled out a handheld game system.
“Here, this is a Mist Deck. It's my own version of a popular gaming console from a world called Earth. I created a game for it that emulates what I've done to this world. See here, this is my character. Some people also call it an avatar. I modeled this one after my true form.” On the screen was a pixelated man holding a large sword over his right shoulder in a set of white and blue robes, with a metal dragon head on the left shoulder. The pixelated man resembled an older version of Liang Wu.
image [https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc4yhmmWnyhGZmRstTbrfoY94Zgd8A7ijYMcN7looEPxTaIsqrpMtV-X1u-ShRykOo2VNGp5tWVetu0OG5G1ZxPhNzlojmROWo5lSPcuC5JTYcXkcbBVsGCsgHuIh4y0aVOd-Gd-0kDkq3rpzRqGRXrERev?key=Tcf6Ak4QtKQo6HgpW3wskQ]
“Isn't that just an Image Stone with the image of your father? Look, I have one as well.” She reached down to a small pouch tied to her waist and pulled out a stone tablet that should have been much too large to fit inside her small pouch. The tablet had a colorful image of a graceful woman dressed in white billowing robes that seemed to shine a halo of pure light around her. Her hair was tied up with a similar-looking jade hairpin as the one in Chen Li Li's hair. The woman was standing amidst a field of pink flowers and bore a strong resemblance to Chen Li Li.
image [https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcs2FRmg2CtOTREGAal0eQw4UGdEwQbQqHLVaTz2NToWCCsWST7IflVRz3BFjL0P6lPw01JZPEmgsXpuuXpoSZD4SLkEudv__w_8PeM5k03YLZIOPVbUWrqCDZtS4FBsFmHT-VGVJ3iKcYpcuOWjECRhtHt?key=Tcf6Ak4QtKQo6HgpW3wskQ]
“See, this is an Image Stone with my mother's image.” She smiled and stared lovingly at the image of the woman on the stone. However, for a moment, a brief spark of longing flashed through her expression. A single tear slid down her cheek, falling onto the dry earth. Not a single second passed before it was absorbed as if it was never there. The only sign it left behind was a slight dark mark on the ground.