Alice wanted to be a cop when she was a little kid, like her mother. Well, a policewoman, an officer. In twelve years, when her elder brother became a cop, she retracted those dreams and decided on a more ambitious target, to be a superhero. There is no defeat in sight for all criminals, but what about global threats? There is probably a mastermind out there is waiting for an opponent, or a giant meteorite to be shattered into dust, is there not?
Unfortunately, there were no hero academies in a phone book and gamma radiation worked not exactly as the old comic books that the girl’s father and siblings had gathered during their youth were suggesting. Alice checked during her brief search for plutonium to build her own atomic bomb. A little one, to keep the neighborhood safe the responsible young lady was designing atomic fireworks.
After her dream was smashed by cold reality, Alice simply followed her mother’s wise arrangements. The girl studied mathematics, physics hard, skipped two years of high school and rolled into one of the best universities in the country.
She had been fifteen just two months ago…
Alice opened her eyes, feeling hungry, thirsty and only slightly refreshed after an accidental tired nap. Momentary she got scared from her own light-headedness. Taking a nap here..? Not a smart move, but the sobering thought came too late.
The girl stood up without looking at the dead centipedes and moved her limbs a little to drive away soreness. After having brought the bow back to the back quiver, she counted arrows in it: nine. Carefully, she walked to the big centipede, pulled out the sword, – a nasty sound scratched her ears, – and returned it to its sheath.
Everything she did as thoughtlessly as she could, trying to catch the tails of what had been implanted into her by the system.
Alice didn’t become a grandmaster of either of weapons over one teleportation, no. The changes were confusing, alarming and slightly delighting. Originally, the girl knew how to shoot, but only firearms. There was no fencing in her personal history either, only five years of karate lessons. Ironically, something she had never seriously thought to use for self-defense since her 'growth' spurt must have saved her life today when she had been leaping around in fright.
Before chanting a system command, Alice closed her eyes for a moment and nodded to herself.
"Skill list."
Hunt mastery: 1
Bow mastery: 1
Spear mastery: 1
Observation: 1
Stealth: 1
Butchering: 1
Every skill was also showing its relevant price: 1 SP, or a skill point. Wait-a-sec… what about swords? Alice felt a chill crawling down her spine and wind roaming her stomach as she recalled her incompetence while wielding one. She literally got no experience with swords both in her life and in her skill list!
A vein popped out on the girl’s forehead and she opened her mouth foolishly just to close it tight and inhale very, very deep through her nose. Then she opened her mouth, closed again and repeated several times, not finding the right words to question the ceiling on the subject of giving her a weapon she couldn't fight with.
Most of coming to Alice’s head had combinations of ‘hell’, ‘shit’ and bloody system’s relatives and all kinds of indecent sexual intercourses. As a gentle flowery girl she naturally did not speak aloud, but only used curses as a meditative technique.
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She might possess the will to survive the shit, but it could hardly erase her indignation.
"…Fine. So be it. Status."
What appeared wasn't a fancy and well-organized table, but an uninspiring mundane list. Though Alice only cared that it worked.
Alice Sung-Hyun Branson
Human/###hidden###
Level 1 Hunter
Exp: 600/1,000
Skill Points: 0
Battle Points: 1,240
Strength: 3.8
Endurance: 4.0
Dexterity: 5.8
Agility: 4.5
Perception: 5.8
Not just a human? Me?
Nonono, not possible.
The first reaction, full-scaled denial, helped her very little. Bitter heavy mush emerged from her stomach and climbed its way up to burn her throat with acid. Alice choked on it, then swallowed together with cold, hostile air.
Isn't? the girl’s eyelashes fluttered in distress as she tried to recall mysterious disappearances in her family, strange calls, creepy friends, ambiguous conversations and unclear warnings…
None of it came to her mind. My family is ok, Alice stated to herself firmly. But what about her? No. I was sick once, so? Millions of kids were, are. Bad time for hollow panic. Breath. Just more crap the system has done onto me, nothing more.
Alice ordered her body to relax as she stood straight with her feet placed apart and parallel. She clenched hands into fists, inhaled and moved them up to block an invisible enemy, them left leg forward, punched the air. Counting minutes in her mind, the girl went through various kata inside the narrow cave.
Later, Alice exhaled, slowly lowering her arms back in the starting stance, now calm again. Smiled wryly.
Not even that scary, hidden is hidden. By the way, the girl frowned, these stats, class and level, monster names… Earth doesn’t have any of it. Probably, she flinched. From now on, sure. What she couldn't understand, why was it so familiar, so… humanish.
Carefully Alice walked over to the lesser centipede and inspected it closely while fighting off nausea. The creature lacked small details. The carapace seemed smooth with no antennas or horns. It’s not like Alice was an insect expert, but the centipede really looked like a replica of its smaller prototype.
The bigger one appeared to be more realistic, the girl concluded as she closed in on it. Segments of its body could be traced clearly, with protrusions and everything. Also the creature’s eyes, so life-like, even after death. Still, she sighed, something seemed off to her. Unnatural.
Not counting the average craziness of her last hour or two.
Monsters had statuses, or at least levels just like her. Dangerous, yes, but perhaps nothing like real insects, had they been simply enlarged by some mysterious force. Alice could react, could dodge and, in the end, kill those abominations. Even with her embarrassingly clumsy manner.
Naturally, the girl didn’t feel any guilt. Alice had cried more because of the mortal danger she had gone through and the general wretchedness she had been feeling. The system did give her ‘Hunter’ class for a reason, coincidental or not. Killing two centipedes felt nothing like killing dears during hunts with her father and brothers. No, these monsters looked gross enough to generate negative points of sympathy from any sane person.
Few of those monsters more, or ten, or a thousand… a burned anthill is just a stinking hole underfoot after all. Having decided so, Alice glanced at her status one more time with some detachment.
"Appraisal. Strength. Dexterity. Agility. Description, open. Hunter. Show me something."
Oh?
[Battle Points (BP)] [Special reward system for killing monsters and the world’s enemies and completing system quests. In the present you can exchange Battle Points for experience and items through Nodes]
Random attempts of collecting at least some information from the system finally bore fruit of knowledge.
Local Tutorial sucks, the girl judged and glanced at the space-time anomaly in the cave. On the other side, the lecture hall was already full of police and other important people collecting evidence, in other words, missing people’s stuff. Wait, are these my clothes? Hey, careful!
"…"
No time to be distracted.
"Quest log."
[#1 (main): Complete ///hidden entry/// Reward: 5,000 BP]
[#2: Destroy the closest nest of monsters. Time restriction: 164h 39m. Reward: 10,000 BP]
Staring at the system's nonsense, Alice gloomily sighed.
"More secrets? Fucking really?"
My main quest sucks too, the girl decided. I would need a hint for this freaking guessing game.
At the very least, her side mission was pretty straightforward. A plain product of a lazy mind.
"I really, really hope it will work. So… System shop?"