CHAPTER 32: CHAPTER 32: LUCKY... OR NOT?[GTG]

-Smashes!

"Huh?" Lyra blurted in confusion.

"What was that?!" screamed Maria as Lyra rushed in, only to find her window broken.

"What... what happened?" she stuttered in fear as she reluctantly made her way to the huge window.

She looked to the side and found all the chains just lying there, which only left one conclusion.

"Leo!" she screamed, then rushed out of the room.

Maria gazed out the broken window, looking down the distance, and though she couldn’t clearly make out what she was seeing lying on the ground due to the distance, Lyra’s outburst had given her a clue.

"No! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" She rushed out of the room just as Lyra did, and in that moment... silence claimed the room, that was before a figure crawled out from under the bed.

"Damn it," Leo cursed, feeling severe pain all over his body. Luckily, he had cut off the link between him and the clone before it reached the ground; otherwise...

Sigh, he sighed, then stood to his feet. He then rushed out of the room as the clone had probably begun fading and was, at this point, gone. Given how perceptive both Lyra and Maria are, they would realize what had gone down instantly.

"I really need to get stronger," he thought to himself as he made his way to an elevator leading to the other exit of the building. This was the building for the high-rankers, so he couldn’t just walk out through the front door; he would probably be questioned about why he was here in the first place, so he decided to use the emergency exit that he knew from the game.

It was during an arc where the protagonist chased and rescued some side-character heroine, who wasn’t important in the later part of the whole story.

Haah.

"Status," he said, and an interface appeared once more.

[User Stats

Name: Leo.

Age: 18.

Class: Lunar, Year 8.

Affinity: Shadow.

Skills:

- Shadow manipulation: This gives you the ability to manipulate shadow to your very desires.

Details: There is no specific usage for this ability; it solely depends on the user.

Mana Usage: Dependent on the level of manipulation done.

Reset Timer: None.

- Shadow clone: This ability enables the user to create a replica of themselves that holds one-third of the user’s original strength. The user can also optionally choose to take over the manifested shadow clone, link emotions, send telepathic commands, and more.

Usage: For every clone created, the user expends 1 mana per second they remain in existence. This doubles if the user manifests another shadow clone. Therefore, the rate of mana consumption is proportional to the number of clones summoned.

Rate: At the current level, the user can summon at most two shadow clones.

Current status: 0/2

Note: When the user is linked to the clone, any damage sustained by the clone will be transferred to the user mentally.

Proficiency: 67%.

Strength: 27.

Endurance: 35.

Agility: 30.

Intelligence: 33.

Mana: 84/200.

Charm(AFP): 10 (divine being).

Available Points:

SP: 81.

AFP: -12043 (negative) +30200 (positive) [Error].]

’Damn, I really am out of mana,’ he thought, deciding from now on he would be more careful about using the shadow clone ability, as things could backfire spectacularly if he was ever completely out of mana in a dire situation.

"Alright," he nodded, taking in everything, but for some reason, he decided not to question the reason for the error in the positive affection, as he felt an explanation might scare him more than he already was.

[WHAT DO YOU WANT?]

The system asked, its voice a bit rough, probably annoyed at Leo’s lucky getaway.

"Add 50 SP to agility, 10 to strength, and 20 to endurance," he ordered, stepping out of the elevator into a corridor.

He followed the corridor, moving steadily without stopping. The place was quiet—too quiet, in fact, as most, if not all, students were rushing to their humble abodes.

In a while, he found the emergency exit and kicked it open.

[Are you sure you want to implement changes now? User might lose consciousness.]

"Um... I completely forgot about that," Leo muttered, thinking back on the pain that had assaulted him back on the rooftop when he made his first upgrade.

First, postpone it till we get to a more isolated area, he said, following the large number of students he found far up ahead. He ran and ran, and in a while, he caught up to them, then spotted a queue.

"Oh... the portal. Tch. This is going to take a while," he thought to himself, grimacing as he stared at the large number of people in lines.

Sigh, he sighed, then stood behind a line, calculating his next move. However, he suddenly felt something...

... it gave him a sinking feeling...

"What the hell is that?" he thought, as the feeling never left.

He looked around, trying to identify what was wrong, and there, standing in the third queue up ahead, he saw it...

... the reason for the unnerving feeling...

"Anna," he muttered, as he could see her gazing at him. She didn’t reveal any emotion at all; she was just staring, blankly, also moving with the line.

She was like a puppet being controlled.

Gulp, Leo gulped down a mouthful of saliva, then looked ahead of her, and what he saw nearly made him run away.

An angry protagonist.

’SHIT! DID SHE TELL HIM WHAT HAPPENED?!’ he thought, already able to predict what would happen next.

That bastard was definitely not going to let him go.

He was toast, he was fucking toast!

"MOVE, DAMN IT!" he heard and turned around to find a hefty-looking guy with an annoyed expression. It was then he realized just how much distance the line had gone and how...

... the girls were looking at him and blushing furiously.

YOU RUINED MY LIFE, YOU USELESS SYSTEM! he thought, already feeling the hateful glares of boys... and some... extremely uncomfortable ones.

However, he decided to wave it all off and focus ahead; it was then he saw the procedure in front that was making the line move so slowly.

Sigh. "This is really going to take all day," he muttered in annoyance as he could see students’ graphto-watches being scanned.

All he hoped at this moment was that Lyra and Maria wouldn’t find him before he was able to escape.