[Halo Upgrades:
Pain Control : Level 1/5 (Can be activated and deactivated at will.)]
It was empty. The only thing available inside her Halo Upgrade was the Pain Control she had just bought.
But this made her confused.
"If I can buy attributes inside the Shop, then why can I also buy 'Halo Upgrade' for 10 Million Points?"
[Information related to this question is unavailable.]
Frowning slightly, Akuta decided to just let the thought be for now.
After all, she can't even buy it anyway.
'Hah... The life of a poverty victim, haven't gone through this since middle school.'
She turned her attention away and went back into the 'Shop'.
There is one difference now that she had bought the 'Pain Control' earlier. It was the cost.
[400k Points for Pain Control Upgrade (2/5)]
"...Damn, that's expensive as hell. Or maybe it isn't...?"
After all, she doesn't even know how easy or how hard it is trying to extract emotions out of people yet.
First of all, she needed to test out how capable the first level of 'Pain Control' is.
"Right, since I'm a student, does that mean I also have my own gun?"
[Affirmative. It can be accessed through the system.]
"Great, give it to me." Extending her hand, Akuta thought that perhaps the gun would appear inside her hand, but she turned slightly red in embarrassment as another panel appeared instead.
[Would you like to claim your personal firearm?(Y/N)]
Without hesitation, she clicked the (Y). "Why the hell wouldn't I?"
It was then that a light materialized in front of her, forming red cubes that slowly began to take shape into the a familiar looking weapon.
Slowly, the red cube lost the red hue and began to recolor itself into the color of steel.
First, it was the handle that was materialized, following that was the main body and then the nuzzle.
It was a... very small gun, to say the least.
Since Akuta wasn't really educated on the types of firearm, she decided to ask the System about the specifics of her newly arrived weapon.
[The gun is a model created specifically by the System in order to fit the Host's body's constitution. It is fitted with everything a gun would need. Host can modify the gun to fit the host's taste with the item available inside 'Shop'.]
"...You practically didn't answer my question. In that case, which gun on earth held the most resemblance to this firearm?" Akuta asked, trying to be more specific.
[The closest model would be the Ruger-57.]
"There we go. That's what I wanted to hear... Well, I still have no clue what gun that is anyway. So that's that." The gun could fit comfortably inside her hand.
Throwing it up and down a couple of times, Akuta thought that she could easily get use to this weight.
'Ah, better not forget about the safety pin...'
BANG!
Akuta's head tilted upward and she began to see stars. Not long after, her back landed on the hard ground.
"Huh?"
Her ears were ringing and her forehead was stinging in absolute pain.
It wasn't just that, the visuals of what had happened caused her brain to short-circuit.
She clearly saw it, the dark barrel of her gun and the small spark she saw before the impact landed on her head almost instantaneously.
'I... shot myself?' She still couldn't believe it. Was it the fact that she had accidentally pulled the trigger on herself or was it the fact that she actually survived the aftermath?
It was probably a combination of both.
No matter how weak a Halo is, it could easily suppress the damage taken from an attack that is not coated in Mystic.
"...Ouch." Rubbing her forehead, Akuta got on her knees. The gun had fallen out of her grasp the moment she fell over and is now planted on the ground nearby.
(Author's Note: a Mystic is some kind of power inside Kivotos that gave the students their insane power. The opposite of a Mystic is Terror. Practically two side of the same coin. Just know that Mystic is good aura, Terror is bad aura. This information may or may not be accurate to the in-game lore. Take it with a grain of headcanon.)
"That hurts way less than I would've expected. Did it scrap off any skin at all?" While rubbing her forehead, she made her way to the small hand mirror again and looked in the reflection.
Indeed, only some red bruises remained, no blood at all.
'Maybe that's why it didn't hurt as much. Probably only felt like someone flicked my head extremely hard...'
Wait, is her Pain Control active right now?
[Affirmative.]
"In that case, try turning it off." She still needed to test whether or not it actually helped reduce the amount of pain she feels.
The feeling was instant.
Instead of a simple brunt force pain, Akuta started to feel some needle stabbing her forehead, the exact same location the bullet had landed on.
It was much worse than earlier, but it's still bearable. And this amount of pain was from single gun shot...
'Yeah, hell no. I can't imagine actually tanking a real bullet.'
With speed unprecedented to herself, Akuta quickly scrolled through the 'Shop' panel and bought the upgrade for 'Pain Control'.
[800k Points for Pain Control Upgrade (3/5)]
[Points Remaining: 400,000]
"Activate Pain Control, please."
[Pick the level you'd want to keep it active to.]
"Level 2."
[Affirmative.]
With that, the stinging on her forehead disappeared, the only sensation remaining were the numbness of the aftermath.
"Phew~" Sighing in relieved, Akuta decided to ask the system,
"Will all that being said... This 'Simulation' Panel on the top left, can you elaborate more on what it does?"
[Affirmative, Host can choose to extract emotions through a different persona that are prepared by the System. Said persona would go through a life in an entirely different place and time of this world. That being said, it will still take place inside Kivotos.]
[It is highly recommended for the Host to take control of the persona as each body created will cost the Host extra Points. The lowest quality persona would cost 100k Points.]
[If the Host decided to let the simulation run automatically, the result would differ greatly and wouldn't be optimal at all. There's even a chance of a catastrophe befalling Kivotos if the simulated AI isn't taking precautions.]
[On the other hand, emotions that are personally extracted by the host would be multiplied by 1000 times when compared to the automated simulation which are extracted with a rate of 1.]
"In any case, I would still have a Halo even with those other persona, right?"
[Affirmative.]
Scratching her head slightly, Akuta looked at the remains of her Points, a mere 400k.
"...Self-Healing sounds like it'll be useful."
Although she wasn't quite sure yet, having both Self-Healing Constitution and Pain Control sounded like an amazing combo.
Not only can she not feel pain, the injury would immediately heal itself!
'Well, if it does exactly what the name implies, then hopefully that's the case.'
Tapping the Simulation Panel, a notification rang out,
[Would you like to begin simulation? Warning, actions taken inside the simulation may appear again in the future. Double tap the screen to confirm, tap it once to go back.]
Akuta's finger hovered over the screen for a few seconds before finally landing on the panel consecutively.
[Starting Simulation, Would the host like to take control of the vessel 'Karumi Kasuka'? Double tap to confirm, tap it once to decline.]
'It'll be stupid to not take advantage of that 1000x Points extraction event!' With a wide smile, Akuta pressed her finger twice on the panel.
With that, the world began to turn into a blur...
And now, in front of her eyes, the back of a white haired child with wings sprouting from the back of her waist, seemingly stained with dirt and dust, was being beaten down by an adult in a mask.
---
Author's Notes: This three will be the only chapters I release for a while, I'm stocking up on chapters so that I could release them consistently in the future. I'll finish up this arc first, then you can expect for a chapter or two to be released everyday.
Sorry if you wanted to binge read this... As of writing this Author's note, I've written 10 chapters. 24/9/2025
(Things are prone to changes as I made my way to finishing the arc, don't expect the first three chapters to stay the same after the entirety of the first arc is released.)