The classroom was plunged into chaos. Screams, blood, and the smell of smoke filled the air. But to me, it was nothing more than a playground where I could have some fun.
My eyes focused on the empty air above the heads of the remaining Goblins. The Administrator interface responding to my desire.
[Accessing Variables] (Common Goblin)...][Variable Found: global_goblin_drop_rate][Current Value: 0.05 (5%)]
That was why millions of beginners died. They killed twenty monsters, risking their lives, just to get a single rusty dagger or a poor-quality healing potion.
The system was stingy. But I wasn't a player. I was the one controlling the tower now.
[Admin Command: Replace Value][New Value: 1.0 (100%)][Warning: This action will consume 1 System Power Point and increase Local System Instability.]
"Confirm," I whispered.
A wave of invisible pressure burst from my body. The Angel, floating above the school, shuddered, looking around as if it had felt an earthquake only it could perceive.
The Goblins advanced. There were three:
Goblin (Level 1)
Strength: 09Endurance: 04Agility: 10Mana: 01
Goblin (Level 3)
Strength: 11Endurance: 08Agility: 09Mana: 03
Goblin (Level 1)
Strength: 06Endurance: 05Agility: 11Mana: 01
With Strength 11 and Agility 15 (perhaps thanks to my slightly superior "Administrator" stats compared to the average human's 10), I was faster than them. But the real trump card was the Edited box cutter.
The first goblin tried to hit me with a small sword. I didn't even dodge. I simply took a precise sidestep, calculated with ten years of experience reading attack patterns. The box cutter blade drew an arc through the air.
"Shhhk!"
The goblin's throat opened. This time, there wasn't just blood. As soon as the body hit the ground and dissolved into blue particles, a bright glow appeared.
"Ding!"(A small green crystal (Lesser Mana Stone) and a Rusty Dagger fell to the ground.)
"Ding!"[Congratulations to the player for reaching Level 2!]
I didn't stop. I spun my body, using the momentum to decapitate the second goblin. "Ding!" Another drop. The third tried to run. I threw the box cutter. The skill [Critical Slash] activated passively due to the precision of the throw. The blade pierced the creature's skull and pinned it to the wall. "Ding!" Another drop.
"Ding!"[Congratulations to the player for reaching Level 3!]
In ten seconds, the room was silent, except for the sobbing of students hiding under the desks. On the floor, where monsters had been moments before, there was now a carpet of glowing items. Crystals, old weapons, pieces of rotten leather armor.
A 100% drop rate. Any veteran player of the future would kill their own mother for an ability like that.
I calmly walked to the wall, retrieved my box cutter, and began picking up the items.
"Kael…" Lucas's voice trembled. He crawled out from under a desk, staring at the items on the floor with instinctive greed. "What… what is all this? How did you do that?"
The other students began to stand up. Fear was giving way to covetousness. They had seen that monsters dropped "rewards." One of the football team guys, a brute named Bruno (whom I remembered becoming a mediocre Rank C Warrior before dying of a potion overdose), stepped forward.
"Hey, Kael," Bruno said, puffing out his chest. The light of the "Warrior" class still glowed faintly on him. "Those are weapons, right?" he said arrogantly, looking at Kael and the others."We need those to defend ourselves. Hand them over. You can't keep everything."
I stopped collecting crystals and looked at him. In my past life, I would have handed them over. I would have begged to be part of his group. This time, I just laughed.
"You want one?" I kicked a Rusty Dagger in his direction. Bruno smiled triumphantly and bent down to pick it up.
"Don't touch that!" the Angel suddenly shouted, descending from the ceiling. "The Loot Distribution System is sacred! The player who dealt the last hit has priority for 10 minutes! If you touch it, you will receive a penalty"
"Shut up, glowing pigeon." I interrupted the Angel.
The Angel choked. The students held their breath. No one insulted the tutorial guide. But I wasn't worried about priority rules. I was worried about Recycling.
My Admin interface flashed.
[Large volume of "Data Trash" detected (Rank G/F Items).][Convert unused items into Admin XP?]
This was what I had been waiting for. Just as I imagined, the Admin System didn't level up by killing monsters. It leveled up by devouring the world's code.
'Absorb,' I ordered mentally.
What happened next made Bruno scream and jump back. The dagger he was about to grab began to melt. Not like metal, but like a corrupted computer file. It turned into a sludge of purple numbers and floated toward my chest. All the weapons and armor on the ground, except for the mana crystals, liquefied into code and were sucked into me.
[Processing data…][2 Rank G items consumed.][1 Rank F item consumed.][Admin XP: +6][Admin Tool v0 upgraded to v0.2]
I felt a wave of heat surge through my veins. It wasn't mana. It was authority. The world felt a little more pliable, a little less real.
[Admin Tool v0.2] New Functions Unlocked:
Inspect: Now displays psychological weaknesses and hidden histories of NPCs/Monsters.Reforge: Can fuse two identical items to create a superior version (No chance of failure).
Bruno stared at the empty floor, then at me, horrified. "You… you ate the weapons? What kind of thing are you?"
I looked him in the eyes. I activated inspection, making Bruno feel a chill run through his body.
Target: Bruno (Human)Class: WarriorMental State: Fear (80%), Envy (20%)Weak Point: Right knee (old football injury).
"I'm the guy who'll keep you alive if you stay quiet," I replied coldly. "And I'm the guy who'll kill you if you try to steal my loot. Understood?"
Bruno swallowed hard and backed away. He was stupid, but not suicidal. He had seen what I did to the goblins.
I turned to the Angel. The NPC looked pale (if a being of light can be pale)."Hey, Guide. Where's the Boss? I cleared the room. The script says the Hobgoblin Champion should appear now."
The Angel blinked, as if consulting a distant server. "Y-you altered the flow… The difficulty was automatically adjusted due to the abnormally fast elimination of enemies…"
A much stronger tremor shook the school building. The blackboard split down the middle. Outside, in the schoolyard, a roar made the remaining windows vibrate.
[SYSTEM ALERT][Difficulty Adjusted: HELL][The 'Hobgoblin Champion' has been replaced.][Hidden Event Boss Appeared: The Iron Butcher (Rank E+)]
The Angel looked at me with a mix of terror and vindictive triumph."You broke the rules, Player Kael, and the tower doesn't like that. Now the System has sent something beginners cannot kill…"
"The Iron Butcher has armor that nullifies any physical damage below 20 points. Your box cutter won't even scratch it. You will all die," the Angel said coldly.
Some weak-minded students began to cry. I walked to the broken window and looked down. In the schoolyard, a half-orc, half-goblin— a three-meter-tall creature made of gray muscle and covered in crude metal plates— was crushing a car with a massive metal club.
I analyzed the monster.
Boss: Iron ButcherDefense: 25 (Immune to weak attacks)HP: 500/500
My box cutter dealt 3 base damage. With a critical, maybe it could reach 6, 9, or even 18… Useless. The Angel was right. Mathematically, it was impossible to win. For a normal player.
Kael gave a faint smile. Opening my inventory, where the 4 Mana Crystals I hadn't absorbed were stored, I took out the box cutter.
"Angel," I called without looking back. "You said its defense is 25?"
"Yes! It's impenetrable for your level! Run or accept an early death!"
"Twenty-five is still a very low defense for me not to be able to crush," I murmured.
I tapped the option [Reforge]. But I didn't have another box cutter to fuse.
The System said I could fuse Items. But my Admin Tool didn't follow system definitions."If I try to fuse the idea of penetration from the box cutter with the raw energy of mana crystals…"
[Illegal Crafting Attempt Detected.][Combine: box cutter (F) + 4x Lesser Mana Crystals?][Success Probability: 0% (Impossible)][Use Admin Authority to force compilation?]
(Warning: this action requires '01' System Power!)
My system power dropped to 0. I felt a splitting headache, as if my brain were about to explode. "Combine!"
The box cutter in my hand shone with a blinding, unstable purple light. The metal hissed. When the light faded, the weapon had changed. It no longer looked like a box cutter. It looked like a fragment of void-glass, translucent and pulsing.
[Item Successfully Created]Name: Fang of the (ERROR) Rank: D (Evolution possible)Damage: 21Passive (ERROR): [Ignore Defense (Fixed)]. This item treats the target's defense as 0.
I turned to the Angel, twirling the Glitch Fang between my fingers."Good enough," I said coldly.
I jumped out the window, falling two stories while allocating all 6 status points I gained from leveling into endurance.
It was time to show the tower something interesting.