[Yare yare daze, what a useless system. Why do I have to run into such bad luck? Sigh…]
The system crossed her arms over her chest and said with a speechless expression: "You still have the nerve to say that. If you hadn't blown up the time-space traversal track, this wouldn't have happened."
[Did that happen?]
Saiki scratched his head and thought for a moment. It seemed like that really did happen.
"It did happen, seriously. You got so many psychic powers and instead of using them to benefit humanity or save the world, you even tried to blow up the time-space traversal track."
[If you put it that way, there's nothing I can do. I don't want to be controlled by others. I want to do whatever I want, as long as it doesn't affect other people. And I've saved the world plenty of times already.]
"Then since you've saved the world so many times, why didn't you want to come with me back then? We could traverse infinite worlds, rack up performance for me… cough cough"
The system coughed, extended one hand, clenched her fist, and struck a cheering pose: "Wouldn't it be nice to dedicate beautiful blessings to the world?"
[That's from a different series, and you just said you wanted to rush performance, right? Right!]
Saiki wouldn't fall for the system's nonsense about saving the world. He still hadn't lived enough of the life he wanted.
He had gained psychic powers and wanted to benefit humanity at first, but he couldn't keep it up. Now just not harming society was already good enough.
Though a large part of that was thanks to his mother's teachings, and Saiki himself had a relatively kind personality.
If it were another traverser, day one would be protecting everyone's world, day two protecting my world, and maybe day three I'm not eating beef anymore.
[Forget it. I don't know when that horror game will show up, so I'll just go investigate this world first!]
Saiki turned and left the dead-end alley. He didn't want to keep facing the wall anymore; it felt like he was doing wall-facing penance for some wrongdoing.
The system tiptoed and floated up, circling around Saiki.
"Don't worry. Even though the horror game picks people randomly, maybe after you walk a couple steps outside or eat a meal or something, it'll come find you."
[That lucky?]
Saiki shook his head. Just as he was about to complain, a puddle in front of him suddenly glowed blood-red.
The puddle filled with bloody light floated up like a mirror, slowly rising until it was level with Saiki's height.
And on the mirror in big letters: "Horror Game," with a hideous ghostly face behind it.
[For real? My luck is this good?]
A glint appeared in Saiki's eyes, faintly carrying some anticipation.
Then more lines appeared on the blood-red mirror.
"Congratulations, you are the 9,999,999,999th person selected by the horror game. We will treat you well."
[So polite.]
"We sincerely invite you to participate in the horror game. Please choose one of the following two options:"
"Yes"
"Yes"
[Is there even a choice?]
"Mm, it really is a horror game. First time seeing one."
After looking at it, the system turned into a ball of light and entered Saiki's body.
(So you've never seen one either.)
Saiki didn't waste words and tapped "Yes."
The mirror slowly moved closer until it completely touched him. Saiki's figure and the mirror vanished together.
When Saiki opened his eyes again, he was in a pitch-black space. Before he could do anything, a red light enveloped him.
A cold voice rang out:
"Next, scanning your overall data to determine what abilities to allow for enjoyable horror game play."
(Playing a horror game probably won't be enjoyable.)
Mm, the red light lasted a full 30 seconds. Then a blood-red screen appeared in front, recording Saiki's body data.
But at this moment it looked like it had crashed—extremely strange.
On the screen, stats like power, constitution, speed, mental strength, etc., rose rapidly from 1 to hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, and kept going until garbled characters appeared.
[What's this situation!]
"Sorry, I forgot to hide it for you."
The system's voice came from Saiki's mind. Then a blue light wrapped around Saiki. Although the panel displaying his body data had already crashed,
the scanning step was skipped.
[So it needs to detect data. But why did it crash like that?]
The system's voice sounded again:
"Sorry about that. I forgot to hide it. Otherwise you probably wouldn't have been able to enter."
(You should've done that earlier.)
Then that cold voice rang out once more.
"Welcome to the instance: Beginner's Village — Modified"
"Game duration: 7 days"
"Main quest: Head to Beginner's Village, investigate to survive, and within 7 days capture 'Medusa' and hand her over to the village chief."
Note: If on the 7th day you have not captured Medusa and handed her over to the village chief, even if you survive, you will never be able to leave Beginner's Village!
Beginner's Village protection mechanism: After checking in at Beginner's Village, you will gain one revival opportunity. If you die, you can revive once in Beginner's Village.
"Side quest: Liberate Beginner's Village"
"Hidden side quest ∗∗∗∗∗"
"…"
After the cold words ended, the originally dark space suddenly had a door appear that could be exited. But outside the door drifted an icy, gloomy aura.
"Saiki, are you ready?"
The system materialized from Saiki's body, turning into a palm-sized mini elf sitting on his shoulder.
[First time participating in something like this. Honestly, I'm a little excited.]
"Tap tap tap… tap tap"
The corners of Saiki's mouth curved up slightly. Hands in pockets, he walked step by step toward the door.
[Alright, horror game, here I come!]
Leaving the dim space and stepping out the door, the door behind him vanished instantly.
Saiki looked around. A few large trees blocked the area in a circle. Besides Saiki, there were 5 other people.
Two men and three women: one loli, one mature big-sister type, a somewhat frail-looking glasses guy, a somewhat muscular man, and a shorts-wearing guy holding half a bucket of instant noodles, looking very nervous.
(They can form teams? Looks like things are getting more interesting.)
...