"What's going on?" Jackal stepped in, petting a cat in a blanket. Spotting Mayo, he extended his hand for a handshake. "Oh, hey, I've never seen you around before."
- 'Ding!'
> [Jackal has joined your party!]
"No, you definitely have," Mayo corrected, gingerly shaking his hand. She then blinked. "I-is that Kuro?"
"Y-yes. He kinda fell in the river," Jackal shrugged, struggling to keep the little blue cat from squirming. "So..."
- 'Mrow!'
> [Kuro (cat) has joined your party!]
"Look. Steven and Daseos—that's the guy in the front—are about to fight," Mayo pointed to the silver-haired boy, "We decided on a '3v3' to see who gets the spots... and there's like, three minutes till the next hour," Mayo explained, putting her hand on Zero's shoulder. "So, how do ya think he'll do?"
Zero shrugged, his red eyes staring straight ahead.
"Right, that translates to: we don't have high expectations!" Mayo nodded, turning back to Jackal, who had also shifted his attention ahead.
On the root-bridge, two boys stood: Daseos and Stev... Steven?
- - -
[Loading New Perspective...] [Please Wait...] • • • [Switching over to Party member's POV: Steven]
- - -
—Steven, of course, was not looking so great. Why was the bridge so shaky?
[Calibrating... Your current cultivation rank: N/A. You have not even reached 'Gathering Qi'... Your opponent is: Daseos. Cultivation Rank: 'Xia Dantian'. That is four ranks above your current status.
Well... that seemed—
[Conclusion: Purchasing... ointment [C Grade]... Transaction Success! Purchasing... facial reconstruction surgery [A grade]... ERROR: lack of funds!]
O-K...
+ [Extra CAUTION Advised: Please make sure not to get whacked in the facial region too much... as that may damage the contacts!]
<A little 'support' would be nice!> Steven exhaled, steadying himself as he tried to ignore the pop-up(s). The root bridge beneath him swayed gently, making his center of gravity feel like an unstable pendulum. Daseos stood a few yards away, his posture confident, holding a weapon that looked like chains with a spiked ball attached. Was that a... meteor hammer?
Remind him again why it was called a 'hammer', because it didn't look like one. His thoughts were interrupted by another notification from Dieze:
['Want me to pull up Daseos's profile?' X]
<No, not that. I'm in the middle of a fight,> Steven ducked, barely dodging the spiked ball that Daseos threw. It grazed his hair, causing a couple strands to fall out.
Dieze pulled up weapon information with another pop-up window: "Your opponent has equipped 'Conundrum Meteor Hammer' [??? Grade] [Heavenly Tier]"
'Description: This is the 'Conundrum', a Meteor Hammer crafted by a forgotten master during the enigmatic Zhou Dynasty. Upon the channeling of Qi, it can create paradoxical moves. With a core of harmonized Yin-Yang energies...>'
['Do you want the stat bonuses and additional info?' X]
Below, Dieze presented two options: [Y/N]
Trying to dodge the chain from hitting his face, Steven's elbow accidentally tapped the floating [Y], causing the stat bonuses window to pop out:
YOU ARE READING
NPC.com
Fantasy[??? book - D grade] [Description: A third-rate novel about the slice of life adventures of a boy and his friendly AI assistant. Nothing bad happens.] Recalibrating description... [Description (Revised): A hand-me-down novel about a boy who goes mi...
