’I need to get out of here... somehow...’
’But how do I kill an omniscient illusion monster?’
That was when Lucifer remembered the last four system related prompts. Perhaps it being his golden finger could provide him a way out of here?
[Corruption is infecting System Capabilities.]
[System Glitched.]
[Adjusted System functions to match current mode.]
[System wishes host removes corruption as soon as possible.]
’Corruption infected the system?’
Lucifer didn’t delay any longer and opened the system that had seemingly saved his life.
As soon as Lucifer opened the system, he noticed that there were now four tabs on the top left corner instead of three and felt an ominous fear grip his chest as he read what the new tab was titled.
’Lifespan?’
’What Lifespan?’
’Whose Lifespan!? Why would that need to be tracked-?’
As soon as Lucifer selected that tab a prominent health bar opened up on the center of his screen with some statistics underneath it.
’Thirty four days by Hundred years’
’I have thirty four days left to live!? That’s my lifespan!?!? Why!??’
Lucifer’s heart rate quickened as his breath fell short, each new breath feeling laborious and hard to properly take in.
Lucifer was having a full blown panic attack.
The only reason no one noticed was that his face was buried in his pillow and his body was lying relatively still on the cot in shock.
’Is it because of the corruption!?’
’Because the System forcibly activated my Demonic Bloodline!?’
’God damn it!!! Why did you do that!!??’
’I’d have just simply died back then... now I have to live in absolute pain for the rest of my thirty days before I die in misery... I’d never have known that I’d caused my mother’s death!’
’Damn you!!!’
After a few painful breaths that slowly cooled down his shock, Lucifer looked at the system lifespan meter like it was a death sentence. It was obviously not a thing to celebrate.
’Can I just timeloop for these thirty four days continuously to live forever?’
Lucifer had the answer almost immediately.
’Given how my life has gone so far... probably not... there can never be such a good thing for me.’
’But it remains to be checked.’
Then Lucifer went ahead and checked out the Store tab once again to see if there were any items that could help him at present.
There what awaited him was only more despair.
’WHY ARE ALL THE ITEMS PRICED BY LIFESPAN!!!????’
The burgers, the sandwiches, the juice boxes... all of it were now worth a percentage of his lifespan bar!
The burgers and juice boxes were worth zero point three percent of his life span bar, while the sandwiches which temporarily improved his game development skills were worth about three percent.
This time there were also a lot more items in the store other than variations of these burgers, juice boxes and sandwiches that also gave out permanent upgrades but were worth more of his lifespan.
There was an item to bring the attention of people nearby to his video games, an item to increase the efficiency of his code.
There was an item to lifesteal from demons he killed but it was rather expensive along with an item to change the order in which his bloodline abilities awakened.
There was also a search bar to search through the long list of items instead of having to scan them one by one.
What a convenient little system.
So Lucifer immediately searched for ’Corruption Cure’.
[No items found.]
He searched for ’Dungeon’.
[No items found.]
He searched for ’Monster Guide’.
[No items found.]
’God damn it!! Is there anything useful in this store!?!?’
However when Lucifer typed out the last thing he wanted to search, ’Lifespan’ he found something shocking this time, something that lifted his mood instantly!
’One Hundred Thousand Emotional Points for one day’s worth of lifespan.’
Lucifer sighed.
’So there’s still some hope after all. I’ll just have to be making games for others to play...’
’Aggghh!!!! But who’ll play them while I’m in here other than that skin stealing freak?’
’Does a monster give emotional points!?’
But Lucifer couldn’t focus on any of those.
’If I’ve got to beat that crazy monster...’
’Do I need to purchase the things here...’
’With my lifespan?’
He became distraught once again.
’If the items were useless before... then they’re definitely useless now.’
’I’m definitely not purchasing them.’
Lucifer let out a muffled scream in his pillow.
’What a terrible life!’
’Are you enjoying watching all this you demon!!??’
’Just you wait... I’ll get out of here soon enough and then brutalise you so bad that you’ll remember it for the rest of your short lifespan!’
Finally after a healthy groan, Lucifer checked out the second and the third tabs to calm himself down.
The second tab was the Inventory tab. It allowed him to store up to thirty two items apparently.
’I should check to see later if the items are stackable and the range from which I can store items into the inventory...’
’It’d be nice if I can store something like an entire mountain inside my inventory...’
’Then I can summon it right on top of the warden when I escape here and crush him immediately. I doubt even a numbered demon will be able to hold out against an entire mountain... right?’
Finally, Lucifer checked out the third tab which was, ’Stats’.
It was a relatively simple panel.
[Name : Lucifer]
[Age : Seventeen]
[Race : Half Demon]
[Property : Light]
[Demonic Bloodline : Game Boy]
[Profession : Game Developer]
[Profession Based Stats]
[Art : Nine]
[Music : Nine]
[Programming : Eighty]
[Writing : Thirty]
[Business : Sixty]
’So the stats are out of a hundred?’
’Why are my art and music skills so poor? Can’t I just copy art from my previous life and then claim to be a great artist? I even drew so many anime girls in my past life... tsk.. Too bad none of it helped...’
’And why is my writing stat less than my business stat!? I guess reading thousands of novels and reviewing them doesn’t make you a better writer...’
’Well... we’ll see... I guess... at least my programming and business acumen are half decent.’
’The only way out is to probably purchase some items from this store and then become overpowered for a short duration to kill that omniscient illusion monster...’
’Otherwise I’m too weak to be able to do anything about it.’
’Oh yeah... I should also go back to the cavern the dungeon’s core is in and grab my scimitar... that’s probably the only real thing in this entire dungeon that can probably still hurt the monster.’
In the end, Lucifer remained limp on his bed for a long while more. It wasn’t until Annabeth came to find him once again that he pushed himself up.
’Alright... no more crying... not unless you want to tip off the monster and the demon watching you...’
’Not until you get them and let your mother finally rest in peace...’