Jaiden sat alone in his office chair, facing two screens — his computer monitor and the one belonging to his system.
"Just as I thought."
Jaiden had always dreamed of becoming an Awakened, which was why he'd spent years obsessively gathering information about them.
He devoured interviews with Awakened and guild leaders, documentaries, livestreams showing dungeon raids — anything and everything he could get his hands on.
Despite having been a bit of a delinquent in his teenage years, when it came to this topic, he was a total otaku. He had consumed countless hours of content over the years.
Yet, despite all that research, he had never heard a single mention of a "system." And sure enough, after searching online, he couldn't find a single reference to anything remotely like the one he now had.
"There are two possibilities," he muttered. "Either this is something completely new to the world, or it's something that's already happened — but kept confidential."
Either way, it wasn't something anyone could help him with. How the Supreme Lord System worked was something he'd have to figure out on his own.
At that moment, he thought about Emilia. Jaiden didn't want her to know about the system.
Not only because he would have to explain the stabbing—which was already dangerous enough—but also because if he told her he was now an Awakened, it would mean exposing himself to even more danger.
One day, he would have to explain everything to her. He knew he couldn't lie forever, but now wasn't the time to tell her about it.
Jaiden turned toward the floating blue screen in front of him. It displayed several features, but what stood out most were his stats.
[Supreme Lord System]
[Name: Jaiden Stadfield]
[Level: 1]
[Health Points: 10]
[Mana Points: 10]
[Strength: 1]
[Magic: 1]
[Vitality: 1]
[Agility: 1]
[Status Points: 0]
It looked exactly like a video game. As expected, the player started at level 1 — but what felt odd was how low his base stats were. Everything began at just 1 point, and his total HP was only 10.
"If these points hit zero, I die, right? Yeah… that's not funny at all," Jaiden grumbled at the glowing screen.
If the system worked like a game, then he'd need to defeat creatures to level up. Finding them would be a challenge — one he already had a few ideas about — but his biggest concern right now was his survival.
"Ten HP is way too little," he said irritably.
He had no idea how much damage even the weakest monsters could deal. What if one of them could hit for 5 points of damage? That meant he'd die in just two hits.
"I'd be an absolute disgrace if I died to a level 1 goblin," he muttered to himself.
Still, there was no point in complaining. These were the cards he'd been dealt. All he could do was try to make the most of his potential. He knew that taking risks was part of the path — no Awakened ever escaped that reality.
"Let's see if I can get a better description… Got it!" said Jaiden excitedly at the discovery.
By clicking on the status, it was possible to see a better description of what each one meant.
[Strength is associated with the user's physical strength, the damage of normal attacks, and skills based on physical damage. The more points in Strength, the greater the related aptitudes,] Jaiden's eyes went over the description of the stats.
[Magic is associated with the amount of mana and skills based on magical damage. The more points in Magic, the greater the related aptitudes.]
Everything seemed normal so far, but the Vitality stat caught his attention.
"What the hell is this?!" said Jaiden in shock.
[Vitality is associated with the amount of Health Points and resistance to "Fatigue." The more points in Vitality, the greater the related aptitudes.]
"A fatigue system. Seriously?"
Fatigue systems were a mechanic that existed in some older RPGs but were eventually abandoned by developers over time.
Basically, after spending a certain amount of time inside dungeons, the system would give the player a "Tired" status. That condition affected their performance in battle—damage, defense, evasion, susceptibility to status effects—everything could be impacted depending on the type of game.
The best option was usually to leave the dungeon until the "Tired" status wore off, which made the early game slower until the mechanic eventually became irrelevant.
"I wanted to start by leveling up Strength, Magic, or Agility, but it looks like I'll have to increase Vitality first. Damn it."
Jaiden decided to drop the issue for now. He didn't like the idea, but the more he uncovered about the system, the better his chances would be of getting rid of this ball and chain attached to him.
"HP and MP are health and mana points," Jaiden muttered, "but what's a Status Point?"
[Status Points are gained when you defeat a monster or perform other tasks. Each point can be converted into one point in any of your stats, but cannot be converted back into Status Points.]
"So basically, if I have some kind of build in mind for the start, I'll have to stick to it," Jaiden said to himself.
Something caught the young man's attention. Up until then, he had been staring at the central part of the screen that displayed his stats, but in the corner, there were other functions—and two of them stood out to him: Inventory and Skills.
Jaiden's Inventory was empty, as expected. He didn't have any weapons or equipment, and the system hadn't been generous enough to grant him a starter weapon.
"Guess I'll have to buy one… great, another problem."
The upside was that the Inventory didn't seem to have any sort of item limit or weight system that could affect his mobility.
The fatigue system was already annoying enough—Jaiden was at least a little relieved that he didn't have to deal with yet another stupid mechanic.
As for the skills, that was something he hadn't expected. Jaiden had two skills: "Smash" and "Skill Conqueror."
[Smash: The user can perform a normal attack on an enemy with additional damage.
Cost: 2 MP
Requirement: [Strength: 1]
]
"So, normal attacks, with or without weapons, deal extra damage at least once… but the MP cost is actually pretty low."
It didn't seem like a bad starting skill to Jaiden, but…
"Requirement, huh… So it looks like my status affects what kind of skills I can have." Jaiden sighed.
"Point allocation is going to be a pain. If I level up HP first, I'll delay getting offensive skills," he grumbled, realizing that achieving his dream was still going to take work.
But it was the second one that gave him the motivation to really try and make things work.
[Skill Conqueror: After finishing a battle, the user can acquire one skill from each opponent defeated.
Cost: 0 MP
Requirement: Null
]
"So, as long as I defeat my enemy, I can get any skill! Sure, there's still the issue of requirements, getting a weapon, and my stats being trash—but I can make this work," Jaiden said, starting to get excited.
"Even if I have to level up Vitality first, nothing's stopping me from stealing an offensive skill. Once I've got a safety margin, I can start raising Strength or Magic," he continued, enjoying his own monologue.
But there was still another matter to be dealt with.
"I need to level up killing monsters. Which means…" Jaiden said, coming back to reality.
When monsters and dungeons first began appearing forty years ago, there were countless incidents of creatures showing up in the streets. Needless to say, many people lost their lives back then.
But with the rise of the Awakened, and later the formation of guilds and the reform of public security, it became rare to encounter a monster out on the streets.
"Ah… I'm going to have to join a guild. And I need to deal with some annoying stuff first," Jaiden said, exhausted.
It was already late at night, and Jaiden had work the next day.
"I'm not going to get anywhere overthinking this at this hour. That's a problem for tomorrow's Jaiden." Saying that, the young man let his back sink into the bed.
Sleep didn't come easily. Jaiden's mind was still processing everything that had happened that night.
The stab he'd taken didn't even feel real anymore, yet he could still remember the voice that had saved him from death by offering the system. But after the restoration, he never heard it again.
He was grateful for having been saved. The voice had sounded somewhat robotic, but if it belonged to a real person, he wished he could thank her.
His thoughts wandered, drifting to the name of the gift he'd been given.
'Why is this called the Supreme Lord System if it's so limited?' he thought, recalling all the restrictions the system had thrown at him right from the start.
His tired mind then drifted to Emilia.
'She's probably already asleep. I'll make up with her tomorrow,' he thought, trying to close his eyes.
But before he finally fell asleep, an image of a blonde-haired girl floated into his thoughts.
'Seriously… Even in my dreams this girl is chasing me,' Jaiden thought, slightly annoyed.
'I said I would forget her. So why…' But before he could finish the thought, sleep finally took him.
Jaiden was sleeping deeply on the bed, his body lying defenseless.
But he was mistaken about one thing.
He wasn't alone in his room.