Rook woke up, covered in sweat, and lay on his bed; his vision was a bit blurry. "Didn't i die?" as he got a doubt about his death. " Or am I in the heaven " as he immediately went to the out side as he can see the humans roaming on the streets. He can see all is well in his surroundings as his half tension got relieved. But

"Maybe…. maybe I am not able to die in that world," he muttered and was both relieved and haunted by lingering pain from the recent demise, But he learns a great thing today, from now on he needs not to fear about the death in that dangerous world and can obtain all resources he needed, to test that he again closes wants to check the world.

He closed his eyes, and within a second, he found himself again in the white dimension. There, he found four gene crystals: two of F-rank beasts and two of E-rank ones and the same card. "What are these E-rank crystals doing here?" he asked. It wasn't evident to him. Though death was still frightening, he knew it was the time to move on. But differently the card shows timer of 12 hours on it.

—-------

Rook switched back to the real world, his doubts still raging at him. He peeled himself off the cold floor, got up slowly, and went into the bathroom to clean all that sweat off his body. The cold water helped a lot to set him within the present.

The doorbell rang just then. A delivery had come—one large cardboard container. Stricken with curiosity, Rook carried this box to his bed and opened it. Inside were blue crystals that glowed a high, pure form of blue essence.

"Yahoo! I can upgrade my rank from F to E. But I am already at E rank," he suddenly remembered the upgrade from the rat's gene. "Now what should I do with these essence crystals?" he pondered, a dilemma taking root.

Suddenly, a hoarse male voice resounded in his brain. "New function uploading into the system. Processing. Processing. Ding! Completed."

"New function Shop added to the system. Please check the new function," the voice announced.

Rook's eyes gleamed like LED bulbs as he immediately began praying to whatever deity could be responsible for this boon. He opened the system panel and saw a new tab that read "Shop," much like a browser tab on a laptop.

Stolen novel; please report.

In the shop section, Rook saw a blank white screen. "Did it scam me?" he muttered, doubt etched into his features. Suddenly, words slid in as if it had been a slide show explaining that the system needed essence ores as currency to begin the shop.

"You scammer! I will not give you my ores," Rook declared with a resolution in his tone. For that matter, he actually worked hard for those ores and wasn't about to give up that easily. But the slideshow continued with a new message: "If you don't give, the new function will be closed in 5 seconds. Maybe this might be a life-changing skill. 5… 4… 3… 2…"

Rook cried tearfully, unwilling to hand over the essence container, his voice shivering. In the blink of an eye, all essence crystals were swept clean. "Noooo!" His heart broke, and Rook felt a bitter anguish wash over him. Ah, that was his hard work, gone in an instant!.

A laughing emoji flickered on the system panel, mocking his despair. Then the screen changed, revealing multiple types of slots. Only one slot was open; the others had lock icons on them. Rook had no idea how to unlock any of them.

At the top right corner, it showed how much he had in his inventory, 200 essence crystals. Wiping away his tears, Rook tapped on the first slot. He opened a map with a price tag of 150 crystals.

Anger washed over him. His body turned red as essence flowed out of his pores – much like when he had been mutating. This time, it was pure rage burning that was not mutation. "This system is driving me crazy," he thought, biting down to keep his rage in check.

His glare at the map reflected the storm within him, all full of frustration and determination. He could not simply let himself be preyed upon by the whims of a system, nor could he afford to turn his back on its opportunities. Rook took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.

He clicked on the map, watching his essence crystals decrease to 50 as it unfurled into minute detail about the pocket world. Points of interest, hidden treasures, dangerous zones—all were clearly marked.

Rook peered over the map, which was covered with several assorted places marked out by images of E rank beasts across grassy plains. There was the rat, the rabbit, and the bull, but there was an entire class of bird-like creatures. Of course, these weren't very ordinary beasts. While some were much larger than their common brethren from his world, others looked fiercer, their size and demeanor more intimidating.

"This. this is actually useful," Rook said, begrudgingly, his anger slowly subsiding. He could see areas that until now he had not explored, places that held valuable resources or deadly threats. The concept of untapped potential appealed to him.

But the more he focused on studying the map, the more something new caught his attention. The markings of the beasts outlined a circle, enfacing a large area. "What the hell.?" he muttered, with his eyes wide in surprise.

It was too purposeful to be a coincidence. It looked like some kind of containing ring or barrier of protection. The realization sent a chill down his spine.