Whatever. I'll do her a solid, but she's coming with me. I grab her arm and pull her behind me to the middle of the field.
The boy scratches his head and manipulates something on the screen again. How can he do that? Where is Penguin?
I creep closer and look at Mel with a plan in mind. She looks down at me and then at the guy. Then it clicks for her, and she nods before disappearing in the tall grass. Together, we close in on him and jump him at the same time.
"Hey! Stop it!"
"Who are you and what did you do with Penguin?!"
I sit on his legs, and Mel sits on his chest. He slaps her back with his hands and screams at the top of his lungs. "It's me! It's me! Stop it!"
Melinoë screamed in his face like a banshee."Liar! Give him back right now!"
"Oh my—Ria! You're always trying to turn me into nuggets or tenders. Whenever you get petulant and upset, you give me chicken duty! Mel! We secretly spend money behind Ria's back whenever she gives us chicken duty!"
Melinoë stopped hitting him, and I froze. She inspected his face and asked hesitantly. "Penguin?"
Woah! Let's not forget what's important here."What the fuck do you mean you spend my money behind my back?!"
"That's not important…Never mind that. Ria! Look at your status!"
"My status?! What did you do to my money?!??"
"Ria!"
I growled and called out without taking my eyes off him. "Status."
The familiar blue page opened up in front of me again. Except that a lot had changed.
[Miseria Noxcissa Duccanes.]
[Level: 10]
[Race: High Dark Elf, Pureblood Vampire, ]
[Age: 1]
[Health: 1500/1500]
[Mental Energy: 800/800]
[Strength: 10]
[Vitality: 13]
[Intelligence: 20]
[Agility: 10]
[Skill : Telekinesis]
[Skill: Psychic Perception]
[Skill: Cognitive Overload]
[Skill: Aura Manipulation]
[Skill: Psychic Barrier]
[Skill: Pet Space]
[Skill: Culinary Novice]
[Skill: Novice Gardener]
[Equipment: None]
[Balance: 5279 GD]
"I got an upgrade?"
He stressed. "We got an upgrade! It's wonderful, Ria." He sounds so proud of himself, and I just shake my head in disbelief. His hands flap instinctively, and then he just lets them flop down.
That's my annoying bird, alright. "What are all these skills? I don't remember buying any of this?"
He smugly answers. "You didn't have to. You earned them independently, and I recognized them as legitimate skills. No need to thank me."
I had no intention of doing that in the first place."Good. I told you to fix it! Not to add more! Oh my god."
He sounds a little miffed but unsurprised at my reaction."And I told you that skills are non-refundable. This doesn't matter. I have a little gift for you."
"Save it."
"No. No. You're going to like this. Look!" He pointed to our left, and I spared a glance in that direction. It's just a bunch of grass. Some of it is taking on a purple tint similar to the grass in the real world. What is he talking about? Is it better pet feed?
"Is that water?" Melinoë scrambled up off of Penguin's chest and walked in the direction of…
"Is that a pond?" I jumped up and followed her. No way. Our own source of water! This means we can have fish and all types of meat that come from it. This is good. Still not enough to compensate me. Speaking of…
I pointed to all of the new additions to the space. "What is all of this? Why is there a sun, trees, and a pond here? How are we going to afford this?"
He grinned to himself. "It came with my system upgrade. There are a few other benefits as well. Such as this! Boo! Penny! Come out!"
Boo? Where is the little guy?
A small black cat leaped in and of the grass as it made its way to us. Trailing behind it was a large butterfly. Goosebumps rose on my skin, and I shot a glare at Penguin.
"What are you doing? What did I tell you about keeping that thing away from me?"
He gave me a displeased look and stood up from the ground. His plain white clothes were smeared with black grass stains and dirt. He clicked his tongue and beckoned the two over.
"Inspect them."
"..." I gave him a weird look, but decided to humor him and get this over with.
"Inspect."
The two of them stopped in their tracks and looked over at me. Two screens appeared from out of nowhere and levitated above their heads.
[Boo]
[LvL: 1]
[HP: 200/200]
[MP: 100/100]
[Hunger: 100/100]
[Shared Skill: Bite]
[Shared Skill: Track]
"Boo, you have skills?" He bounced on his paws and ran over to me. I grabbed him and played with his tail while he playfully bit me. "You're getting extra meat for dinner."
He purred and rubbed his furry head against my hand. What about the other one? I squinted and read its details from a safe distance.
[Penelope]
[LvL: 1]
[HP: 100/100]
[MP: 250/250]
[Hunger: 100/100]
[Shared Skill: Body Double]
[Shared Skill: Hypnosis]
Penny flapped its wings and flew in a circle once it realized I was appraising it.
"They have skills too?"
He nodded and blinked his glowing neon blue eyes."Mhmm. Now you can use them in case of an emergency in the outside world."
"What about you? Why do you look like that?"
Splash!
I turned my head to look over at the pond. Melinoë was having the time of her life playing in the water and almost drowning herself.
"Well. As part of my upgrade, I was allowed to take on a similar form to yours. I thought it would help facilitate better interactions between the two of us." He cheerfully smiled without it reaching his eyes, and I shuddered.
Nobody smiles normally anymore. Also…better interactions? What does that mean?
Still, there were issues at hand. "How are we going to manage this place? Someone's going to have to feed the pets, take care of all this new wildlife, maintain the garden, cook, clean, and manage my system. We don't have enough people for all of that."
"That's why I have a proposal." He raises a finger to stop my protest. "Please unmute your system notifications."
I refused without even batting an eyelid."No. Those things are loud and annoying."
"..." He sucks in a breath and tries again. "Fine. Please open your system inbox."
Sighing all the while, I did as I was told and opened up the blue screen. It flashed in front of me, and I was shocked silly. How much stuff did I accumulate in only a few months?
"There should be golden tickets in there."
I looked it up and sorted out the junk from the real treasures. Then I prepared to transfer most of it out to my inventory. When I noticed that the inventory was a lot bigger. There must be at least twenty more boxes of space, not including the ten that were already full.
Ok. Now I see why he was so excited. The coins instantly flew over to my status screen, and everything else was sorted into the boxes. Including the rookie gift bags. I had about forty of them waiting to be opened. However, there were a few other interesting things to note.
Weapons. Swords, shields, gauntlets, and a helmet. Is this the equipment they were talking about?
Penguin sidled up to me silently and analyzed my stuffed inventory. "There. The tickets!"
Next to the box was a small number indicating the quantity of the object in the designated box. I have sixteen tickets. Not including the ones that might be randomly hiding in the rookie gift bags.
"Now open the gacha page. Hurry!" He bounced on his heels, and I gave him a strange look. Why is he in such a hurry?
I summoned the screen and expanded it to show everything available. There are new events. Weapons, medicine, tools, support, and clothing. Interesting. Next to each of the names was a time limit. It expires within eleven hours. No wonder he's in a hurry. Drop rates are up, and there's a discount. If you use nine tickets in one event, you'll get an extra item for free.
"There's no warrior gacha's though?"
"Yes, but what we need is a support class."
"..."
The dots connected for me, and my eyes widened. Oh! That's what that means. Warrior is a class of 'hero', I guess. So there must be other types like support, strategy, mage, rogue, assassin, priest, etc. That's amazing.
"What are you waiting for?"
"What should we do? I do need help, but I'm not going to recruit ten more people. That's way too much, and we have no idea what they're going to be like…We have to be careful or else…"
I trail off and make a point to stare at Melinoë, who's currently holding her own head underwater. She struggles against herself, and I vacantly stare ahead before looking back at my corrupt system manager.
Penguin winces and nods lamely. "That's fair. Fine. I want at least two people to help with chicken duty and the animals."