Chapter 2: 2. Repeating History

I looked around the room, I found that I could recognize it easily. This was my bedroom from the time before the system came around.

I used to live here until I had to sell this house, to gather the funds to join the guild as an adventurer.

One of my worst decisions no doubt, due to my class limitations, I was mostly a porter for adventuring teams, and I couldn’t level up my class or my dismantling skill for a while because no one wanted to let a no-name dismantler deal with their precious monster corpses.

I shook my head at the negative thought, I had to focus on the present, or the past for that matter.

I got up from the bed towards the mirror, I checked my face, it had a gloomy facial expression that was semi-permanent with dead fish eyes, it was indeed mine but from my teenage years, as there was no beard and my hairline didn’t start receding yet.

I looked for my phone, this is nostalgic, it has been a while since the last time I used a phone. Tech companies that survived in the future focused on combining mana with technology, success wasn’t always the result so the supply was low, leading to exorbitant prices.

I swear I’ll never be poor again, I thought. I’ve always lived as a poor person, my parents’ death when I was sixteen really worsened my mental health, leading me to neglect school and work part-time in a butchery to get the funds to get by barely.

Which leads me to my current situation, I have no money saved up so my current plans for quick success will take a bit longer. My current location is my hometown, which is located in a remote corner in France.

There isn't anything interesting around here, I’ll have to travel quickly.

I checked the date, it was the seventh of July, 2027. Whereas the digital clock displayed ‘7:54’.

So, I went back to the day of the system integration, when I was eighteen. I have six minutes until the system appears, I’ll do some preparations to be ready in the right time.

We’ll be sent to the tutorial in an hour after the system appears, many people didn’t believe the notice but I knew better at this point. It was a precious hour that many people used to familiarize themselves with the system in my past life. I shouldn’t have gone back to sleep after dismissing the system integration notice.

I breathed in and steadied myself, I wonder if the given class will be the same?

As soon as the clock showed ‘8:00’, a huge blue screen appeared in front of me. It was translucent, and my hand could pass through unhindered. Just like the last time.

[System notice:

[System integration: Success] [Welcome, Host] [Initializing System…] [A bug occurred, facing a dilemma…] [Awaiting manual input from a System admin] [Host acquired system (modified), as an apology to your bugged system, you’ll gain access to the shop.] [You gained 100 points as a starter bonus] [You'll be teleported to the Tutorial Zone in 60 minutes ] [Good Luck. . . ]]

Ahh yes, my system had some... issues. It misinterpreted many of my orders. It was truly random in that sense but I learned that being as precise as possible can somewhat control the issue.

The dreaded notice will appear any moment now…

[The system noticed your great efforts and achievements; would you like to accept the common class [Dismantler]?]

To be honest, the system had my attention in the first half. That’s the main cause of stupid decision in my past life.

“I refuse the common class [Dismantler]” I said in a monotonous, I had to be very precise this time. I can’t risk being stuck with this class again.

[Warning: Refusing your compatible class results in being [Classless] -You won’t receive any class skills -You won’t level up (any experience gained when you’re classless is stored but it can’t advance your level) Do you want to confirm your decision?]

“Confirm my decision” I said, and the notice disappeared

“Status screen I said and a screen filled with numbers appeared:

I felt so bad looking at my current state of being quantified, I was the most average joe of them all. My name even starts with a J.

“Show me my current shop points” I said.

[Host is using a system feature for the first time, 10 points rewarded.]

 

[Current points: 110 points]

I had the same number of points as last time, but I knew of a much better way to use them right now.

General skills were usually the most valuable thing a person could have, as they weren’t restricted by classes, their grades differed depending on their restrictions and effects.

“I would like to buy the uncommon skill book [Zoom]” I said, overjoyed with the possibility. This skill was so valuable in my past life because it allowed the person the teleport to anywhere withing his line of sight, or that he visited before.

The restrictions were a bit overwhelming, yet it could teleport the user anywhere with the same amount of mana as long. That made its value skyrocket, regular people considered having it a commodity.

It’s a shame that other people can’t use the skill books bought from the shop. I would’ve been rich easily that way.

[Skill book: [Zoom](uncommon) It lets the host learn the ability [Zoom] You are reading story System Dilemma at novel35.com Cost: 100 points]

 

[Proceed with transaction?]

“Proceed” I said, I was so restless to get the skill book. I had to confirm whether the places I visited in my past life can be teleported to.

[Gained skill book: [Zoom](uncommon)]

Suddenly the book appeared between my hands, I quickly turned it around. It was a rather dirty book that had a cover made of leather. It seemed unremarkable but judging books by their covers is a fatal mistake.

“I would like to learn this skill book” I said, and the system confirmed my successful acquisition of this skill.

[The General Skill [Zoom] acquired.]

[[Zoom] (uncommon) Uses 50 mana to teleport the user to a place within his line of sight or that he visited before]

Now, I had to try something. As the teleportation cost was too high, I could only make two trips.

I thought a bit and decided that my priority right now is to gather as many points as possible. When people came back from the tutorial, the hierarchy of the world changed and the strong monopolized anything that had at least some value.

What could the governments do when some of them could neutralize nuke? I shuddered, I had to overcome those monsters and the tutorial was my best chance to shine.

I looked in my room for something to use as a mask, all I found was a silly Oni mask. What can you do…?

I closed my eyes and imagined a certain location in Chicago, it had many fossils and bones on display but I knew that many of them were fakes, made by casting in molds. I visited this place four years after the integration to learn more information about the world and it was a dreadful experience in all honesty.

I activated [Zoom] and suddenly I could feel the mana get deducted, and I found myself on the second floor of the Field Museum. The cameras were bound to have recorded this but I didn’t care. Might makes right, at least when I am powerful enough later on.

No Shit, it worked!! I calmly scanned my surroundings to see if anyone noticed my sudden appearance. Many of the people were in a state of panic, trying to find out more about the weird blue screens that appeared in front of them. Almost everyone was on their way out of the museum, even the security guards.

Good, I won’t need violence to access the storage room.

However, I felt a bit bad when I saw a little boy stare at me speechlessly, he dropped his ice cream and seemed shocked. I thought that it had to do with him seeing me appear out of nowhere.

I am sorry, you’ll see much worse than a person wearing a mask soon anyway.

I quickly got to work, looking for the skull of a certain T-Rex. I ignored the occasional disgusted glances from passersby as I had an objective to achieve.

“Examine this item” I said.

As User already has access to full information on this item, it will be displayed fully.

[Skull of a Monster (fossilized) (Legendary Grade) (Level 351): This is the skull of a creature that appeared due to the fourth breakout after a system integration, it was a fierce monster able to spew magma and to use strong fire spells. It was killed due to the Heavenly Meteor spell, Used by the Archmage Milomagnarc.] It has a large amount of mana.

The same description as before, Huh?

Our world had many secrets, some of them will be uncovered in the tutorial soon...

“Convert this item to points” I said, putting my hand on the skull. Direct contact was required for items to get converted to points; this was my only chance to benefit from the skulls of dinosaurs before they get hidden away for research.

[Initializing conversion of this item to mana]

[Conversion successful: Gained 32012 points.

I felt overjoyed, I wondered how many points this would have given me if it wasn’t just a fossil. I went to the storage room and completely converted all the real bones to points.

Then I used Zoom to teleport myself to the Museum of Natural History in New York City and completely cleaned it of every fossil that could give me points. I had enough mana for another zoom, so why not?

“Show my current points” I said, feeling extremely happy.

[Current points: 220215 points]

 

Very well. I knew that these points should be enough to give me a huge lead in the tutorial. I checked the digital clock on my wrist, it showed ‘8:54’. I decided to just walk in the streets of New York, waiting to get automatically teleported to the tutorial.

“Status screen” I said.

 

I sighed; my mana was empty right now but that shouldn’t be an issue as the tutorial has a recovery zone in the start.

Something else weighed on my mind, if we reach the fourth breakout then this world will get destroyed. Who knows what happened to the original inhabitants of our planet…?

I guess I’ll just focus on personal development right now, I’ll cross that long bridge step by step.

Then suddenly, I felt disoriented and the scene in front of me shifted instantly.

 

 

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