CHAPTER 9: 2X REWARDS!

Like a ray of light at the end of the tunnel, the sign-in complete message brought Roy immense relief. His first-ever sign-in wasn’t going to be for naught.

Pierre let out a deep sigh and voiced, elated, "I completed three levels this time. Last time it was this rewarding was my first sign-in."

[Host, your sign-in rewards are: +1.5 Stat Points, Apple (Item) ×1, Cursed Rag-doll (Item) ×1]

Pierre smiled slightly and nodded. "The Apple will really help when I get badly injured in the real world. I don’t know what I’ll do with the rag-doll, though. Ah, how nice it would be if I got a better combat-oriented item or skill. I could finally join a few raids and eventually get an Executioners’ License..."

"So this bastard gets chatty when he’s happy," voiced Roy, completely ignoring the fact that he was also guilty of such. "Heh, dreaming of becoming an Executioner with a system named LOVE.exe? Bold!"

For Roy, a simple panel appeared:

[Disconnecting from LOVE.exe...]

The generated LOVE.exe environment dematerialized into particles, leaving the blue-patterned grid floor and sky.

[Sign-In Complete!]

"Yes, yes, yes..." Roy rubbed his hands eagerly, unable to wait any second longer to receive his rewards.

[Host, your sign-in 2x rewards are: +3.0 Stat Points, Apples (Item) x2, Cursed Rag-dolls (Item) x2.]

With that, Roy experienced another sense of vertigo. One second he’s in his nullspace, and the next second, he’s back in his room, standing before the wardrobe.

Bearing widened eyes, Roy took a second to bask in the experience, an almost frightened smile breaking open on his face.

"Yes!!!" He screamed again.

’Okay, I have to calm down,’ he quickly thought and checked the time.

A few minutes past ten o’clock, Roy calculated and figured he had only gone from approximately sixty minutes.

’Did Nana come to check up on me again?’ He wondered and exited his room.

Roy heard a few voices and walked silently towards his grandmother’s room, her room door slightly ajar.

"...He isn’t answering, no matter how many times I knock. You should come back home and talk to him," she said to the person on the phone with her. Roy could already guess who it was.

She frantically added, "If-If it’s just to see him, that’s good too. I think he is just lonely."

The voice came from the other side of the phone in a dragged manner. "Nana, you know I’m busy. Roy’s just going through a phase. People need me. I can’t leave the important things I’m doing just to see Roy. He’s growing. He’s how old... fourteen now?"

"Sixteen..."

"Oh, sixteen even? He’ll be fine. Mom and Dad had similar troubles with me when I was sixteen. Nana, you remember, don’t you?"

"I do. But..."

"But what?" asked the other voice.

"They’re not here anymore. And," Nana lowered her voice, "you know Roy’s case is different."

"Is it really? We all lost people dear to us that day."

Roy’s grandmother furrowed her eyebrows and spoke in a more serious tone, "Donald, he was there that day. You didn’t have to bear the memory of such when you were growing up."

Donald, Roy’s elder brother, sighed deeply.

"Does he still have those nightmares?"

"Not that I—" Roy’s grandmother was about to answer when she was cut off abruptly.

"Damnit. Sorry, Nana, something just came up. I’ll try to call him sometime, okay? Don’t worry yourself too much. Bye."

Beep~

The call ended, and Nana let out a deep sigh, shaking her head in resignation.

Roy frowned and went back to his room, simply wondering, ’How come she never speaks that respectfully with me? It’s always screams and insults. Hmph.’

"Whatever. There are more important things to attend to now," Roy said and summoned his cube.

Ethereal, yet physical, the blue-neon cube spun calmly on its axis.

[23:56]

There was a countdown displayed on the small panel in front of it, indicating when the next sign-in would be possible.

Roy knew that already. Instead, he sent a short mental message, calling for something else.

[Rewards]:

[3.0 Stat Points (Unclaimed) ~Tap to claim~.]

[Apples ×2 (Unclaimed) ~Tap to claim~.]

[Cursed Rag-dolls ×2 (Unclaimed) ~Tap to claim~.]

Roy smiled and caressed under his nose; the immense joy he felt was palpable.

"Show me the information on the two items."

+

Item: [Apple] ×2

Type: Consumable

Rarity: Common

Description: "Eat to restore fifty percent health and stamina."

~

Item: [Cursed Ragdoll] ×2

Type: Charm

Rarity: Uncommon

Description: "Untold misfortune shall befall whoever is bound to this ragdoll. Bind by applying the target’s hair or blood and destroy the item to activate the curse."

+

"Uncommon?! Haha, this is awesome. I can really mess with people now. Too bad, it might be too dangerous. The apple’s good too," Roy nodded.

’Wait, Pierre has one of these rag dolls... might he use it on me?’ A frightening thought appeared in Roy’s mind, but he just laughed it off awkwardly.

"T-There’s no way he’d do that, right?"

Roy sighed.

He avoided claiming the item rewards because once he did, they would materialize physically, meaning he would have them on hand, and he didn’t have a spatial storage bag or system inventory. Hence, until it was time to utilize them, it was best to keep them unclaimed.

Roy tapped on the stat points reward, claimed it, and immediately requested his personal information.

+

[User Data]

Name: Roy Mclloyd

Age: 16

Level: 1

EXP: 0/1000

Stat Points: 3.0

Number of Sign-Ins: 1

Skills: Link (Active), 2x Multiplier (Passive)

Linked Hosts: 1/1

Overall Stats:

Physical = 1.0

Willpower = 1.0

Attack = 1.0

Defense = 1.0

Chance = 1.0

Total = 5.0

Overall Rating: "A weak, edgy loser who was lucky to be granted a unique system."

+

Looking at his data, he frowned. "Shouldn’t I have gotten some exp?"

[No, Host.]

Roy scrunched his face. "What? Pierre cleared quite a number of levels. And what about his love points? Shouldn’t that be doubled for me too?"

[Upon failure, the love points held by the linked host returned to zero and will only be re-populated at the next sign-in if the linked host chooses to continue from their last checkpoint, in contrast to restarting it. This is the case for all in-system currency of all hosts.]

Roy pondered aloud, "How then do I get exp?"

[Host, have you tried actually doing something?]

"Like what?" Roy rolled his eyes. "My executable environment is freakin’ non-existent, remember?"

[Host... to gain experience points and level up, your only option is to enter God’s Abyss and defeat Abyss Creatures.]

Roy’s eyes widened in horror. "I should WHAT?!"