© WebNovel
"Be better."
Those were the words my mother spoke on her deathbed. Just two words, yet they held a profound meaning.
Be better than all those who turned this beautiful world into the crazy hell it is today. The hell of betrayal, rat's-racing and backstabbing. The inferno of hate, jealousy, and wrath.
Be better than them.
Ever since I've become an orphan, I took those words and turned them into my life's creed.
I was better than intruding on the talks I'd chanced upon and causing a scene. It didn't matter I heard how my girl asked me out due to a dare rather than a real interest.
Hearing the insults her friends threw my way only to see her stupidly smile and nod along… As much as it broke my heart, I manned up and left, opting for calculated damage control over letting my emotions get the better of me.
When my adopted family crashed on the little wealth my mom left me, I gritted my teeth and looked away. There was no use fighting over some items at the cost of escalating the situation and making my situation even worse.
In this world, I had no protector. Before becoming an adult, I was powerless to change my fate. But now…
"I'm sorry, but your creditor has refused to cover the entrance fee."
The voice in the phone struck me like a sharp arrow, skewering my brain all across.
"Excuse me, but…" I hesitated for a second, too shocked to form a single thought.
I held back when my greedy step-family essentially stole my physical possessions. I've had no power to defend them from the sticky hands of my dear aunt and uncle. I was powerless to stop them from using my inheritance to let my lovely step-sister live the high life she could never otherwise afford.
The moment I finished my obligatory education, they threw me away to a nearby city, renting a small unit just to keep custody of the house for a few more years.
I didn't care about all of that, because, in that specific scenario, my mom was better. She was well aware of her little sister's spoiled nature and locked the lion's share of her wealth in my college fund.
The fund that failed to cover the entry cost to the expensive University of Arts and Crafts in the academy town recently developed on the east coast.
"Excuse me, but could you please run it through me again?" I requested in an unsteady voice. My arms tensed and relaxed in a weird dance of anxiety.
'It could be some silly mistake,' I thought, hoping for this to be any different than all the times when the life screwed me over.
"We are not sure yet, but this response…" the voice on the other side of the phone hesitated. "This response is what we usually get when there's no money to cover the invoice."
There was no satisfaction, smugness, or vile happiness in the speaker's voice. Maybe a bit of pity?
'I guess this isn't his first time dealing with a situation like that,' I realized.
And as I did so, the weight of the situation suddenly bore down on my shoulders.
"I will try to call the bank and ask them to fix the issue," I bought some time while trying to gather my thoughts. "Would it be all right if I called you back as soon as I get back from them?"
After a few words of ironing out the details of the next contact, I hung up and took a deep breath. My vision blurred, as my thoughts scattered.
Then, my unsteady hand brought the phone up and my fingers dialed out one of the few numbers I had saved.
"I'm sorry, my name is Peter Wozniak, my ID is…"
The call didn't last long, soon confirming the worst-case scenario.
My inheritance was gone.
All the money my late mom hid away from the greedy hands of my aunt had evaporated from the accounts the moment I was formally accepted into the university.
The bank's clerk was justifiably confused, promising to look into the matter and report potential fraud…
But if my aunt was good at anything, it was planning her moves out in the finest detail. And I could be damn sure she had enough paper to keep me from recovering my small fortune until my dear step-sister's grandkids would die of old age!
"Shit!"
The shock-induced adrenaline started to dissolve in my blood.
My body turned limp and fell down to the ground. Falling powerlessly, I struck the edge of my bed with the middle of my spine, adding physical pain like an insult to an injury.
"Fucking hell!"
I slammed my fists down on the floor, a renewed fire of desperation pumping my veins full of the sweet nectar of primal euphoria. Yet, in the contest of strength, the hard, concrete floor of my 'apartment' proved supreme.
Feeling the cold touch of blood seeping down my knuckles, I raised and took a deep breath.
All the money was gone.
'Sure, I can sue them…' I thought, only to fall back and rest against the side of my bed. "Haa… As if."
I was fully broke, with just some scraps left in the account. Barely enough to survive on literal bread and water until I would find a part-time job and get my first paycheck.
With absolutely no money in hand, the costly and likely lengthy procedures of the legal proceedings would bankrupt me many times over.
'Maybe that's how she plans to keep it?' I thought, feeling my adrenaline-induced strength degrade and vanish.
I took a deep breath and looked down… Only to see an image of my mom's figure appear before my eyes.
Her smiling eyes… Her powerful aura hiding in her petite and feeble frame…
'No…'
I closed my eyes, unable to stand the mirage. But it only grew stronger instead.
My mom's delicate, caring smile. Extreme power seeping from her kind eyes.
'She loved me too much…'
Suddenly, the calculative side of my brain took over, muting all the grief and desperation, replacing them with cold logic.
"She was better than this."
At this moment, this was one sound conclusion. One observation I somehow failed to make up until now.
I had to be better. But she already was better. She was the very picture of what "being better" meant for me! As such, would forcing such a defeatist mindset be something she would impose upon the son she loved with all her heart?
A burning sensation suddenly grew at the bottom of my stomach. A rotating sphere of inner warmth that I've never felt before.
"Was I wrong this entire time?" I uttered silently into the empty space of my desolate room.
The heat in my stomach spread into my guts. Before long, it was all over my lungs.
"Was I really so stuck to an interpretation of her words I made as a small kid?"
This was one hell of a painful question to ask, one putting the foundation of the last five years of my life under scrutiny.
But just like I accepted all the harm and hurt before to follow my creed, I accepted the pains of change this time as well. Without hesitation, I threw my mind at the possibility and forced myself to analyze my situation through this new point of view.
"Be better… Be better than them…" I muttered.
The heat spread from my lungs to my throat and then my head, bringing my brain to a boil and cooking out a concrete picture of a different interpretation.
One that abandoned self-depreciation in favor of self-importance.
"Be better than all those fuckers that can only lie and steal. Show them where they belong…"
A weird, unfamiliar yet extreme sensation exploded in the middle of my stomach, right as the heat reached the tip of my tongue. A heat far more intense than the warmth from before.
"You've finally woken up, son."
A voice filled my thoughts. A familiar voice… yet one I last heard when I was merely four, whole fifteen years ago.
My father's voice.
The warmth at the tip of my tongue exploded and merged with the scorching heat from my stomach… Only to suddenly vanish, radiating away in a small shockwave.
The dust kicked up from the concrete as the physical heat dissipated, and some of the smaller items in the room trembled.
And right before my eyes, there was now a pulsating, oval shape, luring me with hypnotizing, purple light.
"Here's my belated parting gift and apology for leaving so suddenly."
The face of my father, a face I had no right to remember after fifteen years, appeared in perfect detail for me to see.
"I wish I could tell you just how much I love you and how sorry I am. But I hope one day, you will understand. Or rather…"
The face twisted in a grimace of deep worry and anxiety.
"Or maybe it would be better if you never came to learn what made me leave."
Both the voice and the vision vanished in a single instant. But the strange, purple gate in the middle of my room did not.
My instincts screamed out in alarm.
I shook my head to the left and then to the right, hurriedly scanning my surroundings.
'Watch out for a truck!'
Years of escaping from the harsh reality into the simpler worlds of the novels paid off with my instant wariness towards the potential appearance of a certain kun from Japanese modern folklore. Thankfully, for how shoddy my rented studio was, it was entirely made out of reinforced concrete, a barrier even a speeding truck would struggle to penetrate.
"Is this what I actually think it is?"
Slowly, the reality of the situation started to dawn on me.
'Did I miss some spots while cleaning and allowed some toxic or hallucinogenic shrooms to grow undetected?'
That was the rational thought.
'Is this a damn gate to another world?' My naive yet hopeful side came to the rescue with a different approach.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Yet, even after opening them back again, the purple, oval frame continued its hypnotizing flux.
"Haaa…" I raised my right hand towards my face to wipe my eyes.
And the gate vanished without a trace.
"Huh?"
My hand stopped, soon followed by the rest of my body. Guided by instinct, I moved my hand back… and swiped it to the side again.
And there it was, the purple gate, the alleged last gift from my long-missing father, back to its purple dance of colors as if nothing had happened.
I gulped my saliva down.
'So that's how it is.'
The connections appeared in my thoughts, drawing lines between all the dots.
It likely wasn't a random stroke of luck for this vision and gate to appear right now. For someone capable of bending the laws of the universe and making something impossible to appear in this strictly physic-governed world…
For someone on this level, setting up a message without a trigger would be a shoddy work!
And what could that trigger be? The answer couldn't be more obvious.
"So I was really stuck on such a childish misconception of my mom's wishes…" I muttered while breathing out a long sigh.
And it was the change in my perspective, my renewed will to actively fight for my own fate, that likely triggered this strange vision.
A part of me wanted to throw everything aside and take a plunge into the gate. If my hopes were right just this once, then all my problems…
A more rational side wished for a more careful approach, befitting of someone as calculative as I prided myself on being.
But my calculating side forced my body up and reached out for the phone.
"Hello, I was talking to you just a few moments ago," I threw into the cheap, hand-on from my little sister.
Knowing my aunt, it was wire-tapped… Just because I couldn't afford to get a new one even if I was aware of the fact.
"I'm going to solve this issue within a week," I spoke with endless confidence fueled by the strange fire of my new, changed belief. "Could you be as kind as to wait until then?"
"Yes, that's perfectly doable. I will await your call on the next Friday, then," the clerk on the other side of the phone replied, as happy to help as he was certain this delay would prove ineffective.
I concluded the call and lowered my hand-wielding phone, only for my eyes to dart toward the purple gate.
It was drawing my eyes like some kind of charm, promising prospects I would never deep possible otherwise.
My leg moved on its own, taking a step toward this strange anomaly…
"No, going in like that would be flat out stupid," I voiced out my concerns to the audience of me, myself, and I… But my hand moved on its own, reaching out for the alluring potential hidden in that gate.
What kind of world would I see on the other side?
I've read enough novels to guess what this gate entailed… But I still had yet to determine what kind of surprise was hidden behind this hypnotizing, pulsating object.
"Shit, I nearly reached out for it," I forced my arm to freeze, stopping it mere inches away from the anomaly. "For now, let's prepare," I muttered, using my left hand to pull my right arm back. Doing so, somehow freed me from the strange call of the gate, allowing me to swipe my right hand and close the portal.
"Let's prepare so that I will be ready for whatever might await on the other side!"
Hello everyone, Sloth here!
Who cares about schemes? Who cares about a well-crafted plot? Let's all delve into this simplistic yet complex story of power, revenge, and most importantly...
CONSEQUENCES (insert John's Wick meme here)
(Consequences of crossing the MC, if you really need that hint to figure out the idea behind this story!)
And of course, as this novel participates in WPC, I would be more than happy if you could share some votes, your thoughts in the comments or maybe your opinion in an honest review?
Cheers!
The purple color of the gate filled the only room of my so-called apartment with a strange, mysterious vibe.
In theory, it would be for the best for me to close the gate and prepare to dive in without the influence of its strange call… But at the same time, operating in the hue the portal shone with somehow made it easier for me to focus on the task at hand.
And it was one hell of a task.
'Food and water check,' I thought as I stuffed the biggest backpack I could find with the groceries I just brought home.
The amount of supplies I bought alone was enough to put a massive dent into my meager savings. Right now, rather than surviving on bread and water, I would have to literally ration rice that I could eat in a day. But that wasn't enough for me.
'Who doesn't risk it, doesn't get the damn biscuit!' I thought while back at the shop, leading me to splurge nearly all the rest of my remaining money on various types of sundries that were cheap on this side of the gate yet could prove quite expensive in whatever world awaited on the other side.
"Okay, let's take stock of everything," I muttered to myself once I finally stuffed my backpack to the maximum and marked the stuff inside on a note by the side. "That amount of food should be enough for five days, a week if I ration. When it comes to the water, I will be fine as long as I find any source of it."
This was the blessing of the modern world. Even if all I could expect on the other side turned out to be some dirty water from a puddle, I wasn't worried. Just a single pack of detoxifying tablets and a purification bag solved this problem in advance.
Then came the sundries… Or, in other words, objects that I could buy for cheap thanks to the miracle of industrialization of my world. Following the experiences of the colonizers of the past, I stuffed an entire pocket of my backpack with sharp, glass beads and fake corals. Another pocket was brimming with all sorts of fake jewelry, lighters, matches and all kinds of wonders that were common in my world yet were likely to be one hell of a novelty in a less developed world.
"And with all that said and done…" I muttered once I ran down the list of the things I packed and raised my eyes towards the purple portal that filled my shoddy room with its magical, purple light. "There isn't anything left for me to stall for, is there?"
No matter how excited I was to check just what this gate was all about… I couldn't help but feel scared of the unknown at the same time. My preparations were nothing more but a silly attempt at calming my worries down, regardless of how impossible it was to prepare for something I knew nothing about.
"Well, I've already spent my time waiting for an opportunity that would reward all my pains and efforts," I muttered to myself, using my own voice to reignite the flames of courage in my soul. "How sad it would be if it all went down the drain because I acted cowardly just this once…"
The moment I started to condition myself into stepping towards the gate, its call returned with a renewed might, pulling me like some sort of a black hole.
My steps grew longer, turning into strides. My hands reached out…
And just like that, the world suddenly exploded in purple, only for this strange, mysterious color to then vanish, revealing a vast swath of beautiful grasslands stretching from below my feet to as far as I could see!
"Woah…" With the burden of all the produce I packed into my back now weighing my shoulders down, I took a deep breath of this otherwordly air.
Yes, I had no doubt that I was now in a different world. After all, even if this portal could bring me to a different place on Earth… It could hardly produce a moon's sibling and hang it like a picture on the skydome!
"Haaaa…." Releasing the deep breath I just took, I couldn't help but smile.
Even the air tasted different here. But how could an air have any damned taste?
'I guess that's what truly clean air tastes like,' I thought, more than aware of all the downsides of living in the industrialized world. And no matter how I looked, there were no signs that this world bore the same quality.
I shook my head, ridding my mind of all the useless thoughts and considerations. I then took a look around, quickly noticing a wide strand of a river flowing out of a dense forest behind my back and cutting straight through the open grasslands that stretched out seemingly ad infinitum.
"No matter the world, people need access to water. So, to find people, I should follow the river," I muttered to myself, making use of all the knowledge I explored whenever reading novels that depicted the scenario I found myself in. Yet, the very moment I raised my foot to take a step, the world itself trembled.
[Traveler successfully registered!]
[Traveler's system initialization]
Two lines of text appeared before my eyes… only for my vision to suddenly turn blank, as if visual drivers for my eyes suddenly went through an update. And when my vision returned… I could now see two, semi-transparent windows floating just to the left of the center of my perspective!
[Traveler's system > Leveling up system]
[Peter Wozniak > Peter Von Ziaq]
[Level: 1]
[Strenght: 0.25]
[Agility: 0.25]
[Wisdom: 1]
[Inteligence: 1.25]
[Endurance: 1.5]
[Aura: 0]
[Usable points: 1]
The first window was pretty much self-explanatory, save for its two lines.
How did the traveler's system turn into a leveling-up system? And how did my normal surname turn into something befitting of an ancient nobility?
'It might be a while before I figure those two things out…' I thought.
For now, I didn't have enough information about this world, this strange system, or literally anything else. And without the necessary information, the best I could do was guess.
But guessing would lead me to create a random explanation for those things, which in turn would only make it harder for me to figure out the truth even once I gained the information I needed!
So, as to not make things harder for myself, I simply ignored the first two lines and moved my attention down, to all the statistics the window displayed.
'What's with those fractions?' My mood soured as soon as I saw the zeros and the numbers displayed after the dot.
'Assuming that one is generally an average for a simple human… then how freaking weak am I right now?!'
It was hard not to freak out, even if I just warned myself of how dangerous it was to allow any assumptions to cloud my judgment.
Surprisingly though, the hardest nut to crack turned out to be the very last line displayed in this floating, semi-transparent window. Not because it was hard to understand the purpose of the 'usable points'.
I played more than enough RPG-type games to instantly figure out what I could do with that free point. The hard question, though, was where should I assign it?
'Usually, putting everything in the one stat that's already high would be the most risky yet most optimal strat…' I thought, my enthusiasm to see what would happen thwarted only by my innate fear of going through with a useless build.
And while it was only my gut speaking, I could somehow tell it wouldn't be all that easy to change those stats once I assigned the free point.
'Let's put this off for later, then,' I decided, turning my eyes to my right, where the other floating window tempted my attention.
[Main mission: Starlight plain
- Easy route - Escape the Starlight plains
- Advanced route - Survive on the Starlight plains
- Master route - Uncover the secret behind the Starlight plains
//Completing any route doesn't lock the ability to complete the others!//
//Rewards increase with the difficulty of the route//]
[Suggested mission: Bounties of the forest
- Easy route - XXXXXX
- Master route - XXXXXX
- "Are you fucking serious?" route - XXXXX
//You need to raise your wisdom to unlock the information about routes!//
//Required wisdom: 1.5//]
I took my time scanning every last word displayed on the second window. Yet, no matter how hard I stared at the blanked-out spaces on the side quest, nothing else appeared.
'I guess I need to put the side quest for later?' I thought, low-key happy that this system of mine not only allowed me to actively track my progress but also offered some suggestions over how I should proceed.
There was hardly anything that could make me happier than to have a guide in this unknown world! But at the same time, my innate distrust made me wary of it. After all, how could I know for sure that this system actually pointed me toward fruitful encounters?
'I lived my life in an easy mode so far. And the results were…' I thought, gritting my teeth when all the abuse I toughened through throughout the years resurfaced in my memory.
My eyelids moved down, the darkness that ensued allowing me to calm down a little bit.
"Well," I muttered as I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. "I lived my life in an easy mode and I didn't like it. Isn't this a perfect opportunity to try to challenge myself, then?"
With renewed confidence, I took a step forward, leaving the comfortable shadow of the nearby forest and stepping into the plain.
The plain that somehow made surviving on it a challenge, according to the quest displayed by my system, that is.
"Ugh…" Nearly instantly, a dull sigh escaped from my lips as my mind filled with images of the past that I despised.
The moment when I learned the truth about my relationship resurfaced in my thoughts, filling my soul with all the grief I felt back then. The silent, seething rage of watching my mom's things get sold off soon joined the fray… And all of that, after taking a single step into the plains!
'I guess that's what surviving this place is all about,' I thought as I hurriedly took a step back into the shadow of the forest. Yet, as I glanced over at my status… a smile somehow appeared on my lips while my soul calmed down, the negative emotions from before defeated by the sense of exhilaration.
And it was all thanks to just one, small change.
[Usable points: 1] > [Usable points: 1.07]