*Ding!*
[You have killed a level 10 Boss Monster, Grizzly Gorilla]
[You have leveled up]
[You have cleared a C-Tier Gate]
[Time Before Gate Closes: 1 hour, 29 minutes, 56 seconds]
"... Fuck..." I spit out, my manic grin disappearing like a mirage.
'How was I supposed to know that was the boss monster! You're not supposed to kill those if you encounter them in Public Gates, you're supposed to run! Shit, speaking of run, I oughta do that now before anyone sees me here.'
Using [Mana Imbuement], I manage to push the boss monster's corpse into my inventory, before sprinting towards the Gate entrance, more system notifications flooding in as I do.
[Hidden Mission Completed: Clear a C-Tier Gate]
[System Rewards being distributed]
[30 Unallocated Stat Points, 20000 XP, Class Upgrade Ticket, 2x D-Tier Ability Upgrade Tickets, 1 C-Tier Ability Upgrade Ticket, Title: 'C-Tier', B-Tier Key]
[You have leveled up]
[You have leveled up]
[Title - 'C-Tier': The bearer of this title may select one ability and have it's abilities be upgraded to C-Tier as long as the title is active. The title bearer may change the selected ability once a day.]
[B-Tier Key: Gives the Host access to a private B-Tier dungeon that can be farmed for XP, Currency, and Resources.]
'If only I had the time to celebrate! Those rewards are sick!' I grumble inwardly, reading over the notifications as I run towards the Gate entrance.
Reaching the entrance after about 15 minutes of sprinting, I scan over the people to see how they're acting, and put on an act to blend in.
Most people aren't particularly panicking, it's mostly confusion alongside a mix of fear and concern, these people having no clue how a Boss Monster in a Public Gate suddenly died.
Feigning the same emotions, though part of my confusion being real,- I mean really, why was the Boss Monster just roaming around?- I make it through the Gate once again, and find myself back in the Concrete Jungle of New Ohio.
Making my way back to my apartment, I decide to lay low for a while and hope they don't find out I'm the one who killed the Boss Monster.
My contingency plan is that, if I think they're onto me, I'll go into my private dungeon and grind out levels alongside using the System to upgrade my class. Having seen the way the government treats it's S-Tier Awakened, I'm fairly certain it'll be swept under the rug if I show myself to be a powerful ally, and an even more powerful enemy.
'Heh, I've always wanted to be able to strong-arm a government body.' I think to myself, half-jokingly. Well, the only real "Joke" part is that I never thought I'd have to capabilities to do anything of the sort. Hacking was never something I was good at in my old world, so it was always a pipe-dream.
I allocate my resources equally between Unallocated Stat Points, [Fireball], [Mana Imbuement], and my class, having noticed a limit of their capabilities when fighting C-Tier Gate Monsters.
If the day comes where I end up needing to take refuge in my private dungeon, I'll need to be capable enough to fight B-Tier monsters of unknown level without dying.
I make a note that I should look into cheap stealth skills for me to level up, and I gaze over my status screen, finding myself extremely pleased with the gains I made.
[Name: Buford Presley]
[Race: Human]
[Title: C-Tier]
[Level: 9]
[HP: 3400]
[XP: 800/9000]
[Age: 15]
[Class: Gamer(F-Tier)] [-] [+]
[System: Idle Game System]
[Stamina: 9] [-] [+]
[Agility: 8] [-] [+]
[Strength: 8] [-] [+]
[Intelligence: 20] [-] [+]
[Wisdom: 20] [-] [+]
[Unallocated Stat Points: 60] [-] [+]
[Energy: 0/3400]
[Mana: 0/8000]
[Active Abilities]
[Sprint (E)] [-] [+], [Mana Imbuement(E)] [-] [+], [Meditate (E)] [-] [+], [Fireball(F)] [-] [+]
[Fatigue(E): A spell that causes a 2% Fatigue effect to be applied to the caster's target.] [-] [+]
[Passive Abilities]
[Well Fed (E)] [-] [+], [Gamer's Constitution(???)], [Gamer's Cognition(D)] [-] [+]
Smiling in satisfaction, I lock the apartment door behind me, and put 20 Unallocated Stat Points into each of my magic stats, allocating the newly acquired mana equally into the same things as before.
With all that taken care of, I go back to my uneventful life of working out, playing games, occasionally checking the Awakened Shop for spells and other useful things to take note of for later, with the addition of paying attention to the news of what happened today, making sure to be careful to not let myself appear suspicious.
I also decide to triple my workout routine, wanting to complete my foundation and reap the rewards of the System Quest as soon as possible.
Elsewhere, in the same run-down alley Buford arrived in, a familiar gruff man affiliated with the Awakened Association was standing there with the same team once again.
In his hands was a holographic clipboard, showing three things.
The first being a picture and information sheet of a teenager named "Buford Presley".
The second being the recorded mana reading from the teen's awakening, more specifically the frequencies of his mana.
The third was a matching mana frequency, the same frequency read from the anomaly they had found a month prior.
"Boss, should we capture him?" The awakened with the purple eye asked.
The other agents stiffened immediately, all feeling the temperature around them drop drastically, as the gruff man's demeaner changed uncharacteristically to one the other members had already had the misfortune of witnessing, but the new recruit had not, and was confused about his boss' sudden change.
The recruit, a man named Maine, went to open his mouth to speak, but was unable to even take the first breath in before his boss, a man named Sylvius, responded.
Not with words, but with a swift, precise, just barely non-lethal punch to Maine's face.
A sickening crunching noise was heard as Maine's nose fractured into pieces, his jaw dislocating and his brain being rattled around in his skull.
Before the man could even react, a swift round-house kick was delivered to his side, sending Maine flying towards the wall, his body curling into a ball as he tried to protect his vital organs from any injury.
"Suggest hurting a child again and I'll be sending your wife flowers and money for your funeral, Maine."
Sylvius spat out coldly, sending a shiver down the man's spine.
"Make no mistake, we may skirt around the rules and do things off the books, but we will not be hurting any children as long as I'm alive and leading this division."
Coughing out blood, all Maine could manage to mutter out was a labored "Yes, sir." before he passed out from the impacts to his skull.
"Boys, clear this scene up. Wipe the data and remove all records of the boy's involvement in this. I want this completely swept under the rug. If the boy becomes a problem when he's an adult then we can deal with him then, through whatever means necessary, but until then none of you are to lay a finger on him or endanger him in any way."
Sylvius ordered, his voice softening as he remembered his own children, sending a deathly glare at Maine at the thought of any harm coming to an innocent child.