Chapter 30: Level Up!

[You have slain the weak beast, Spiked-Tail Rat.]

[+20 EXP.]

With that, all the Spiked-Tail Rats were dead.

Roy, at one point, had to cover his nose with a hanky, while Master Abraham just raised his face mask. Roy was immensely jealous and annoyed that he didn’t have it, but the joy from getting so much exp filled his heart so much that he didn’t mind the smoke too much.

“Now…” Master Abraham voiced and extended his right arm.

Immediately, a black, semi-transparent circle appeared above the raging fire and covered it. With the reduced oxygen, the flame couldn’t burn and hence died out.

After the master-student duo exited the subway station, looking quite haphazard with smoke splodges on their face and smelling like burnt meat.

“Man, I stink,” Roy said, sniffing himself. “I’ll shower later. But Master Abe, I’ve levelled up!”

Master Abraham smiled lightly and nodded.

“I know. Check your system, what are your rewards?”

Roy quickly summoned the iridescent cube, wearing a wide smile on his face.

Instead of the regular ’Tap to sign in’ message, it showed something different:

[Level #1 — Cleared!]

[Rewards: +1.0 Stat Points, 20 Error Points.]

Roy immediately relayed what he saw to his mentor, but excluded the error points. If he mentioned it, Master Abraham and subsequently Donald would want to know what he could spend them on.

“What are your stats?” The executioner asked.

And Roy didn’t hesitate to answer. “Physical, willpower, attack, defense, and chance.”

Master Abraham frowned slightly. “Attack and defense, in what way?”

“I have no idea,” Roy said with a shrug. Although he did suspect they had a lot to do with the possible chance that he might get the skills of his linked hosts. But Master Abe didn’t need to know that.

Master Abraham gave him a long look, making Roy ask, “What?”

“Nothing,” Master said. “Put your stat points in Willpower.”

Roy’s face twisted. “Willpower? Why not Physical instead? I want to be stronger…”

“Willpower is your mind-soul stat. You need it the most when dealing with God’s Abyss and its creatures,” Master Abe calmly explained.

Roy’s heart was already set on his Physical stat, but he had to listen to the words of a veteran executioner.

He didn’t waste a second and immediately invested the entire stat point in Willpower, raising it from 1.0 to 2.0.

Not long after, they arrived back at the APC, and after informing Donny of the good news, he went to take his bath in the toilet stall installed in the vehicle.

Abraham drove them away from the gate and camped in the basement car park of an abandoned building.

The day had long ended, and the night was upon them. In the front monitor of the vehicle was the image of the Rank 1 Gate. It was now visibly red, with red sparks flying about its moving surface.

Roy had freshened up and came over to the front of the vehicle, where Donald and Abraham were. He had a question in mind.

“Master Abe, I was just thinking… Most system hosts tend to get stuck at their final bosses and are unable to proceed to the next class. Why is that so after they acquired all the rewards and so on up until that point?”

Master Abe didn’t bother looking at him and just answered, “Not many know this, but they are not actually getting all the rewards. That is why they can’t advance past the final boss levels.”

“What do you mean?” Donny asked, awaiting further explanation.

“All system hosts have special or hidden bosses to defeat.”

Roy’s eyes widened. He initially asked this question because of Pierre’s current issue and a rising worry for his own future as an F-Class.

“All? That can’t be right,” Donald said. Hidden stages were heard of, but weren’t given much attention by executioners, as not all stages had them, and it was hard to spot stages that did, as they were, in their nature… hidden.

“So you found a hidden boss level at some point?” Roy asked.

But to their surprise, Master Abe shook his head. “I haven’t encountered any. There were extremely hard levels, of course, but I always solved my way to the answer in the end.”

And funnily enough, this was how it was. Some systems didn’t need hidden bosses to defeat the final boss. But most, to different degrees, were hindered heavily by this factor.

Roy just sighed and went over to the back. He absorbed some energy crystals to refill his reserve, then summoned his system.

~Tap to sign in~

“Host Data,” he voiced, and said the information panel appeared mid-air.

+

[Host Data]

Name: Roy Mclloyd

Age: 16

Level: 2

EXP: 280/2000

Stat Points: 0.0

Number of Sign-ins: 3

Skills: Link (Active), 2x Multiplier (Passive)

Linked Hosts: 1/1

Abyss Souls: Veinback Ripper (Strange)

Overall Stats: Physical = 4.0, Willpower = 2.0, Attack = 1.0, Defense = 1.0, Chance = 1.0 >> Total = 8.0

Overall Rating: “A weak, edgy loser who was lucky to be granted a unique system.”

Miscellaneous: [Apple], [Cursed Ragdoll (2)]…

+

Roy closed the panel, having seen his current exp and sign-ins. Then, he tapped to sign in.

[Sign-In Successful!]

Roy experienced a sense of vertigo, disappearing from the vehicle and appearing in his empty nullspace.

[Welcome, Host.]

“Good day to you, too,” Roy said with a smile and looked up at the sky of the grid world.

The zero that was present there now had the number two before it.

“So it really is my error points,” he muttered with a nod. He was slowly learning more about his system; he felt proud.

[Connecting to LOVE.exe…]

And then, he was shown another panel of information.

+

[System Information]

Host System: LOVE.exe

System Title: “Highschool Re:Date to Live, Live to LOVE.exe”

World: Aoi Private High School

+

Right then, all around him, the empty blue-grid world changed, and he found himself standing in a bustling classroom.

They ignored him, of course, as they couldn’t see him. But they also ignored a young lad sitting in the back with blonde hair.

A pink and heart-shaped themed panel appeared before the young man, and spoke in an extremely enthusiastic manner.

[Welcome back, Host, to Highschool Re:Date to Live, Live to LOVE.exe! It’s another day to fall in love again!]

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