Cashel had returned home a while later, just as evening was approaching and the sky had begun transitioning to orange. He locked the door, set the things he bought on the counter, and stood at the center of the living room for a moment.
After walking from the entrance of the area where he was dropped off all the way home, he had suddenly realised that his body felt oddly lighter.
He had already been light before, given the kind of body he woke up in and the fact that his physical strength from his past life had mysteriously come with him, but this was stranger.
That constant ringing in his ears and the ache in his body were long gone.
Standing at the center of the room, he rolled his shoulders, testing the difference a bit, then jumped in place before heading upstairs to change.
Once in comfortable clothes, he sat on the edge of the bed and summoned the system screen.
[Would you like to begin the Tutorial?]
He selected yes.
Suddenly a series of short explanations appeared.
The system would convert any rewards Andeen obtained; skills, items, materials into credits. Those credits were like currency, but they could only be spent within the system and could not be treated like real-world currency.
Which was a scam, to Cashel, especially when it would multiply that much and still be useless.
Moving on, the credits could be used in the System’s Gacha shop, tailored specifically for Awakeners or people granted exclusive access to the shop.
Not everyone could access it freely and buy whatever they needed or wanted all willy nilly. It would cause an imbalance within the system.
Permanent boosts and high-tier skills could only be given to Andeen, and even they had a significant time limit since she already had her own base class and abilities.
Anything put on himself potions, stats, skills, classes, would remain temporary unless in special cases and if a significantly huge amount of credits were spent on the draw.
But there was a bonus, lke the games he knew about, there were bundles to draw from and not just random pulls.
So on a good day, there could be an exclusive dark slate draw with a class, stats, weapons, and everything. All he would have to do is pull until he got everything in that very bundle.
Cashel was already pleased with what he was reading, although it still felt absurd.
However, his mood soured almost immediately when he got to the next section: the restrictions.
And boldly emphasized at the top was the fact that Dungeons worked against him in many ways.
He frowned deeply. "Is this like some sort of glitch because of the abilities I got?" he wondered, already concluding he was being treated like a glitch with a cheat skill.
A cheat skill that was useless when he couldn’t fight beasts.
The point of awakening was to fight beasts and raid dungeons. He couldn’t possibly use his abilities to hunt down.....
Cashel’s eyes suddenly gleamed as a sudden thought came to him.
’There’s no fucking way,’ he thought with a grin, his hands over his mouth as he stared at the screen. ’Is this why I have restrictions within dungeons and not outside?’
It was not, but he wasn’t particularly offended by the point. As much as his thoughts toward that area were completely supported, there were also cases of beasts roaming the city and dungeon breaks, where people like him could focus their efforts.
But putting that aside, Cashel got up from the bed, dismissed the screen to continue later, and went downstairs to cook.
He prepared a simple dinner, rice, grilled fish, and a light soup that he left warming on the stove. Then he went back to the bedroom to continue.
He was still going through the unimportant parts and the terms and conditions that had no business being in a system when the doorbell rang.
Cashel frowned, he instinctively knew that wasn’t Andeen because she never knocked on the door and simply walked in.
He went downstairs and looked through the side window.
Three men stood on the porch. They were huge, wearing the standard military uniforms, different from the SAMD design Andeen used.
They wore black masks, so it was difficult to identify them, but Cashel knew no one in the military. When he opened the door a few centimeters, still keeping the chain lock on, the one in front held up an identification card.
"Cashel Altar?" the man asked. "We’re with the Main Military Investigation Unit. We need to speak with you."
Cashel’s eyes narrowed slightly. He wanted to lie that he wasn’t who they were looking for, but he couldn’t help thinking about the timing.
Why would people from the military come to speak with him when he only got registered today, awakened today, and during the period Andeen was summoned over there?
And putting that aside, Andeen’s colleagues never visited, and he doubted they even knew where she lived, so...
"She’s not here," he said with a calm voice. "Come back later."
"This concerns you directly. Open the door."
Cashel closed it without hesitation and locked the remaining fifteen locks installed on the door, activated the alarm system, and called Andeen.
"Yes, everything’s fine..." He trailed off when the men started banging on the door. "But hurry back."
He ended the call and stepped back from the door, only for the knocking to grow more aggressive.
One of the men shouted that it was improper to refuse official personnel. Cashel remained silent, fighting the urge to yell back.
Suddenly, the sound of glass shattering at the back of the house reached his ears, and he flinched.
"Crap!" He cursed under his breath and ran to the kitchen. He grabbed the largest knife from the block and a ladle, then hurried up the stairs to the second floor where the largest window was. "I should have bought a gun the last time we went to the market. Tch." He clicked his tongue and turned when he saw the window was still intact.
As he made his way to the basement, the door burst open and the three men rushed inside.
Cashel did not hesitate one bit. He grabbed the vase nearby and threw it at the men with all his strength, then bolted down the basement stairs beneath the main stairs, where he saw another pair climbing through the window.
He threw the knife at one, hitting him right in the center of the forehead before the man could make a sound. He rushed toward the second one and hit him hard with the ladle.
However, due to the durable body of the officer, it broke.
Cashel hissed out of annoyance, reached behind him, pulled the knife from the staggering man, and hurled it at the second one.
But the bastard dodged.
Cashel had no choice but to use his hands, and that’s when the other three came.
The fight was ridiculous and messy.
Cashel’s new strength made every movement faster, but it was hard since he wasn’t used to fighting so light.
Plus, his senses were overwhelmed. He could hear their heartbeats, smell the metal of their weapons, and feel the energy shift in the air before each attack.
Thankfully they also fought bare-handed, and he found it easy to dodge. He successfully got a hold of his knife once again and cut one of the men’s hands clean off before a sharp, high-pitched bell rang.
[Identifying Weapon Used on Player.]
[Cowbell dong disamplifiy (CDD)]
[Description: Renders an awakener’s senses.. no matter the rank.... useless and causes significant weakness to the.... (Unfold)]