Levias blinked again, but it wasn't his eyelids. The room itself looked like a curtain that had been pulled between him and reality.
Tarrin, who had been staring at him with wide eyes, was too frozen mid-breath. His lips looked parted as if caught in a photograph. Even the dust were left in the air.
[System Initiated]
Levias jumped. "What again?!"
The system's words didn't sound out loud. They appeared in front of him, floating, glowing in the light. Letters looked clean and simple at his eye level.
[Survival Rank: –100]
Levias's jaw dropped. "Negative one hundred? That's… that's not even failing, that's being buried under the school."
Another line appeared.
[Fate has marked you for death. To escape it, you must raise your rank to 0.]
Levias scratched his head. "Zero? So that's the goal? Not a hundred? Not a thousand? Just… zero?"
[Correction: 0 is the threshold. At 0, your fate may change. At higher ranks, new paths may open.]
Levias let out a low whistle. "Wow. All I have to do to stop the universe from squashing me is crawl out of negative numbers. Perfect. Totally reasonable."
The words changes again.
[Requirement: Complete side quests. Each quest clears obstacles and raises your rank.]
He rubbed his face. "So basically… chores. I live if I do cosmic chores."
[Next Side Quest: Remove the dead bodies from the hotel. Reward: +1 Rank.]
Levias groaned. "Dead bodies... Of course… You couldn't have started me with, oh I don't know, like sweeping the floor? Cleaning a lamp?"
The words faded slightly, like the system was ignoring his complaints.
[Note: Until rank 0 is reached, you gain no strength, no powers, no potential. Only survival chances increase.]
Levias blinked at that. His belly made a gurgling sound. "So… no new skills? No lightning bolts from my hands? Not even faster running?"
[Correct.]
"Thought so," he muttered. "Even when I get a system, it comes with the training wheels locked.
Niva gave him a small nod.
"Don't laugh…if that's what you're trying to do…" Levias told her. "You're part of this too. I'm not dragging corpses around by myself."
The fox lifted her head as if to say, we'll see.
The system vanished, and everything moved again.
Tarrin blinked, stepping back as if nothing had happened.
He looked around the room, confusion wrinkled his brow. "What… what just happened?"
Levias smiled. He had no intention of explaining glowing words and negative ranks. The fewer people knew, the better.
"Listen, Tarrin," he started smoothly. "You didn't see anything, right?"
Tarrin frowned. "I saw plenty. You, Motti on the ground, that fox-"
Levias stepped closer, lowering his voice. "Do you remember last winter, when you borrowed money from the cash drawer to buy that girl flowers? And then you forgot to put it back?"
Tarrin paled. "You…how did you-"
"I'm the receptionist," Levias shrugged. "I see everything. Now imagine what Father would do if he heard about it. Or worse, my sister."
Tarrin swallowed hard. "You wouldn't."
"Depends…Are you going to keep your mouth shut about this? About me, the fox, and…" He glanced at the body under the bed. "Our little housekeeping problem?"
Tarrin hesitated, then nodded eventually. "Fine. I saw nothing. Nothing at all."
"Good man." Levias patted him on the shoulder. "Now, go pretend to clean something before Motti wakes up and starts screaming again."
Tarrin gave one last horrified look at the body, then bolted from the room.
Levias exhaled through his nose. "Well. That's one problem solved."
Niva licked his cheek.
"And yes, I know," Levias rolled his eyes. "Now we have to solve the other problem. Dead bodies…. And apparently it's step one on my road from minus one hundred to zero."
The fox wagged her tail.
Levias groaned. "This is my life now. Cleaning corpses like they're dirty laundry. At least give me gloves." He rolled his eyes again.
Though, the death of the assasin wasn't unexpected because the avatar wasn't supposed to belong to him…but, why was there another corpse and whose was it?
"Oh well, this can't ruin my day…" He muttered and went to get his gloves.