Caleb took this chance to read everything in the text box, which flowed really quickly whenever there was a major change that happened.
The interface was simplified enough and was more or less the same as the one from the game, minus some differences. As for the wealth, since it was like in the game, then this meant he had to collect credit points, which was the main currency of the game.
As far as he knew, these credit points, along with experience, could be obtained through killing these monsters.
And he would need to do so. There was a daily maintenance fee automatically deducted from his wallet during reset, and payment was necessary to keep it running for the day after the reset.
This meant that if there wasn't enough money in his wallet by midnight, then he could say goodbye to the barrier.
Imagining himself being feasted on by bugs gave him the biggest goosebump of his life.
But…could he really handle them? It wasn't that he was useless. He worked in a lot of physically-consuming jobs during his student days, and even went to fight in underground arenas.
However, monsters were different from humans. He doubted his fist could get through those chitin shells…
Caleb reread his stats and then looked at the skills, studying the only one he got.
[Eye of Truth]
[Information: Ability to see the status and basic description of all beings in this world. A passive gift to the owner of the Oasis.]
Well, at least it wasn't completely useless. He wasn't sure how to use it yet, though, but it was better than nothing. He needed to test it first.
He turned to the beetles, who were still trying to get to him. By this time, they were focusing on the spot nearest to him, and they were compressing to the point of stepping over each other, creating a creepy wall of bugs trying to kill him.
The skill only worked on an individual each time, and he had to be relatively close—a meter or less away—so he chose a random monster to check.
It was not an active skill, but something that would automatically activate when he met the conditions. Fortunately, it did not consume mana.
He stood up and walked a few steps forward, closing in on the beetle wall forming in front of him. Soon, a small game window thing appeared above one of the monsters. It was not big, but big enough to read the contents.
Other than the basic HP and MP bars, like in those games, the loots were also listed below them. For now, though, he had no idea how to use those other than to sell, so he ignored them for a while.
For now, what he needed to do was to kill them.
—his eyes twitched as he looked at the beasts and their sharp, serrated legs—
But…how?
Sure, he killed a lot of monsters in the game. The difference was the game display was pixelated, so the monsters and characters were cute. In real life, they were disgusting, macabre, and terrifying.
Not to mention, in the game, he at least had basic equipment at the start, and then he just bought some better ones as the game went on and he gained more points.
Thinking of this, he jumped to the logo of the bag, and a grid opened up. There were 10 inventory boxes now; if it was like in the game, then he could store 99x of each kind in each one.
Each item within a grid didn't have to be exactly the same, just the same kind. For example, an item 1 meter big could be stored in the grid where the rest of the items were half that size and quality.
Sadly, there was no loophole where 99x identical boxes could contain different things, as the space would detect the internal contents of the boxes and would count them separately.
At present, only one out of ten boxes was occupied, and it was, fortunately, a low-class weapon mystery box inside.
To grab something from the inventory, he simply has to grab the image in front of him. He took it out and opened it up.
[Randomized Class-E Weapon generating…]
[Old Bronze Pickaxe (E)]
[Description: Newbie weapon that can damage rocks. Also monsters level 5 and below.
[Durability: 10/10]
Caleb looked at the weapon. It looked like it would crumble within a few attacks, and it probably would. He knew that the system had a market where he could buy some basic weapons in. But what could he do without money?
Rather, what this crumbling weapon told him was that he had limited chances to gain the credit points he needed so he could buy something better in the market.
He swung it a few times, getting a feel of it. It was not light, but fortunately not heavy either. He worked a lot of manual labor jobs growing up, including porter jobs and construction labor, so he was not too weak, at least for his level.
He took a deep breath and stood in front of the barrier. Since he had played the game, he just told himself it was the same. "Don't think about the potential loss of an arm," he told himself.
In contrast, he went to look at the description of the barrier itself, just to remind himself that he really needed to do this.
[Barrier (Lv1) Details:
Life: 1000/1000
Maintenance Fee: 100 credits/day
Repair Fee: 10 credits/point]
Fortunately, it was still full of life. However, he was not planning on waiting for too long and waiting for life to get deducted. This was literally his lifeline, after all!