"That was far too fun. Haha..." Oscar ran down the street, laughing out loud.
Just a few seconds ago, he had grabbed the heavy plastic alarm clock off his desk and thrown it with full force.
Aimbot activated instantly, locking its target straight onto Brad’s crotch.
The clock smashed directly into the bully’s groin with absolute precision.
The pain was so intense that Brad collapsed onto his knees on the floor, clutching himself and groaning in agony.
Because none of the other lackeys in the group had awakened a System yet, their reaction speed was completely normal.
That small window of confusion gave Oscar more than enough time to slip past them and dash out of the dormitory room.
Reaching a quiet, narrow alleyway two blocks away from the campus, Oscar leaned against a brick wall, breathing in and out heavily to catch his breath.
"Damn it, every single attribute of Brad is higher than mine," Oscar muttered, wiping sweat from his forehead.
His Strength, Agility, Constitution, and Intelligence were all lower than Brad’s stats. Because of that gap, he could not use ’Ban’ on any of Brad’s variables right now.
The System had made it clear that to destabilize or ban a target’s stats, Oscar needed to have the corresponding attribute equal to or higher than theirs.
Otherwise, he would suffer a heavy backlash.
It was not that Oscar could not figure out a clever way to defeat Brad eventually. If he used his knowledge and environment effectively, a low-tier local bully like Brad would never be his opponent.
But his main quest specifically required him to crush the bully ring by hacking into their system database.
To complete the quest properly and claim the rewards, he had to follow the path provided by the System.
’Leveling up will give free attribute points...’ Oscar thought dangerously, a cold smirk appearing on his face.
Brad had awakened his Brawler System months ago, yet he was still stuck at Level 1. That meant the guy had not cleared a single dungeon or killed any serious monsters since awakening.
’What an absolute coward,’ Oscar spat on the dirty ground.
The government-regulated dungeons were not actually that dangerous if handled properly. As long as a Host chose a dungeon that matched their current rank and abilities, reaching Level 10 was not that difficult of a task.
What Oscar did not know was that entering a government-regulated dungeon required a large sum of credits. Normal Hosts had to pay heavy entry fees every single time they wanted to use a portal.
Only because Oscar was a Natural Awakener did he receive a free pass to enter IRD dungeons without paying a single credit.
Ordinary Hosts were not nearly as lucky. They had to save up money for months or grit their teeth and go out into the wild zone outside the city walls to hunt monsters for free.
Pretty much every area outside the defensive city walls was heavily infected with wild monsters. But almost no newbie Hosts would ever dare to go out there alone, as it was practically a guaranteed death sentence for anyone without proper gear and experience.
Brad had been saving up his credits for two whole months just to afford a single entry pass into an Iron-Ranked Dungeon.
He was only a few hundred credits away from reaching the required amount. That was the real reason why, after hearing Ronin’s report, Brad had bothered to come to the orphan dormitories personally.
He intended to steal every single credit from Oscar’s pockets to complete his dungeon fee.
Unaware of Brad’s financial struggles, Oscar walked straight to the regional Host Association branch to choose his very first dungeon.
He stood in front of a giant digital terminal inside the main hall, browsing through the list of available low-tier entry portals.
After scanning through several options, he booked a slot in the evening batch for a dungeon named ’Goblin’s Lounge’.
Goblin’s Lounge was a small underground maze infested with ordinary goblins ranging from Level 1 to Level 5.
There was a very specific reason why Oscar chose this particular dungeon over the others.
First, the physical defense and skin toughness of ordinary goblins were far weaker than human skin.
Second, goblins were bipedal monsters that walked on two legs, sharing a similar skeletal structure with humans.
Oscar was already very familiar with the anatomy of bipedal creatures from the games and simulations he played back on Earth.
Their weak points, like eyes, throat, and joints, were in the exact same positions. Also, monsters on four legs would be far more intimidating to him even if they were low level.
A level 1 wolf would terrify him more than a level 1 goblin. At least he would be bigger than goblins.
After confirming his evening slot booking, Oscar left the Association building and headed toward the local gear market to buy weapons that would help him inside the maze.
With his measly balance of barely one hundred credits, buying genuine monster-slaying weapons or enchanted blades was completely out of the question.
Even the cheapest iron sword at the market cost at least five hundred credits.
So he walked right past the high-end armor shops and entered a cheap hardware supply store located in the lower market sector.
The item he was going to buy was not a sword, a spear, or a shield. It was a box of heavy steel nails. He didn’t forget to choose those with sharpened ends.
"That will be thirty credits, kid," the shopkeeper said, sliding the box of ten-inch sharp steel construction nails across the wooden counter.
Oscar paid the thirty credits without hesitation and slid the heavy nails into his jacket pockets.
To any ordinary Host, trying to fight bloodthirsty monsters with simple construction nails would look like pure suicide.
But to Oscar, who possessed the Aimbot trait, these sharp steel spikes were far more dangerous than any expensive sword.
With Aimbot activated, every single nail he threw would automatically lock onto the target’s weakest vital point within a ten-meter radius.
He did not need strength to swing a heavy blade. He only needed enough force to flick a nail out of his fingers.
He knew continuously throwing was guaranteed to strain his arms. But other than that, his financial situation didn’t allow him anything else.
He could get a crossbow after the dungeon run by selling the materials. He had checked the cheapest crossbow he could buy earlier.
It cost ten thousand credits. That absurd was the cost of ordinary gear.
Oscar checked the time on his phone. It was four in the afternoon. The evening entry batch for the Goblin’s Lounge would open in exactly two hours.
He walked into a cheap fast-food diner nearby, spent another five credits on a basic meat sandwich and a glass of water, and sat by the window to eat quietly.
He needed to restore his stamina and let his body recover before stepping into the portal.
While eating, he called up his golden status screen once more to review his numbers.
Name: Oscar
System: Divine Hack System
Level: 0 (0/100)
STR: 2 | CONST: 1 | AGI: 3 | INT: 2 Mana: 20 | HP: 10
"Once I level up and dump my free attribute points, Brad will be nothing more than a joke," Oscar muttered under his breath, taking a large bite of his sandwich.
He finished his meal, wiped his hands with a paper napkin, and stood up from the table.
Leaving the diner, he made his way back toward the Host Association’s basement portal sector. The large waiting area was already filled with dozens of other young Hosts who were gearing up for the evening dungeon run.
Most of them wore thick leather armor and carried long swords, shields, or wooden magic staves.
Oscar stood near the back wall, dressed in his plain, dusty academy uniform with his hands stuffed deep inside his jacket pockets, feeling the sharp cold steel of the heavy nails against his fingers.
A loud mechanical horn echoed through the basement hall, signaling that the portals were officially opening.
"Evening batch for Iron-Ranked Dungeon: Goblin’s Lounge, please step forward to Portal 4!" a staff member shouted over the microphone.
Oscar stepped forward, sliding his official black Host ID card through the verification scanner beside the glowing blue portal gate.
Ding!
Verification Successful: Natural Awakener - Free Access Granted.
Without waiting for anyone else, Oscar stepped straight through the swirling blue light of the portal.