7 Chapter 6

"Oi Oliver! What did you talk about with the Captain?" Alex asked while drinking a can of soda.

"Nothing important." Oliver replied nonchalantly.

"Hmmm…. but you were gone for such a long time." Alex muttered to himself. 'Well I will just go and ask her myself. Hmph, stupid Oliver, thinks that he could keep secrets from me.'

Alex quickly finished the can of soda and chucked it into a nearby trashcan.

"Then I will see you later Oliver. Buh-bye."

Oliver gave a nod of acknowledgement and started listening to some piano compositions to relax his strained mind.

...…

|Oliver new mission details have arrived. You will be working as a gunman at the Northern walls.

|The battle will start soon so I think that you should start moving.

'Sure Grace. And could you please start playing some rap music about fighting instead of the piano.'

|I will immediately do it.

'Thanks.'

Oliver started walking towards his deployment position briskly with a song about never giving up blasting in his ears.

When he reached his designated battlement, Oliver realized that someone else had already made the place his picnic spot. A box of soda along with a few lunchboxes were neatly laid upon a small cloth. The culprit was setting up his sniper rifle while whistling an upbeat tune.

"Yo! Fancy meeting you here Alex. On the same battlement and in the same time slot as me. Pretty sure all of this is a coincidence. Right?" Oliver asked sarcastically to his only kind-friend in this world.

Alex gave him an innocent look and said, "Yep. I totally didn't beg Captain Wolf for this arrangement."

*Sigh*

'This is too much for me right now. I just need to kill the required amount of Hive creatures and go back so that I can find out if the person who pushed me off the wall wasn't joking. You can do this Oliver!'

Olive also started arranging his magazines and spare rifle while waiting for the enemies to arrive.

....

[*Ding* You have completed the main mission. You can either stay for 24 hours more or you can extract yourself right away. Please answer in 30, 29, 28…]

Oliver looked at Alex who was shooting some down a flying Goliath and softly murmured, "Goodbye! It was nice meeting you."

'I want to leave now.'

Alex turned around while asking, "Huh, what was that? I didn't hear it."

But all that greeted him was cold silence.

....

[Welcome back Candidate #2212345678. You have successfully completed the main mission.]

Oliver quickly regained his consciousness after a brief period of darkness. He instantly realized that he was back into the grayish small room where everything started.

[Calculating Rewards…..

Branch Quest 1 – Failed....Penalty – None

Branch Quest 2 – Completed...….

Rewards – 10,000 SVP, 2 Skill Points, (6*1000 + 45*500 + 9934*10) = 127,840 SVP

Main Mission – Completed......Ranking - S

Rewards – 5 SP, and

Please choose any two from the following:

1) 5-person Military Quality VR chamber

2) Decapitation Style Armor + Neuro chip

3) Compact Ammunition Production Factory (Low-level)

4) Compact Armor Repair Facility (High-level)]

After reading all the options Oliver had a constipated look on his face. It wasn't because the options were bad. In fact, it was the opposite.

"All of these seem important. How do I even decide?"

It was then an idea struck his mind.

"Hey! First of all, how should I refer you AI? And could you please display the price or value for each of the four options."

[You can refer to me as the Orb. And these are the prices for the given products.

1) 5-person Military Quality VR chamber  80,000 SVP

2) Decapitation Style Armor + Neuro Chip  110,000 SVP

3) Compact Ammunition Production Factory (Low-level)  70,000 SVP

4) Compact Armor Repair Facility (High-level)  30,000 SVP]

"Damn! My armor and Grace are so costly."

[Your armor merely costs 40,000 SVP. Your Neuro Chip on the other hand costs 70,000 SVP. I suggest that you buy option 1 and option 2. They will be very helpful in the future.]

"What do you mean by that Orb?"

[I was going to talk about this after you had been rewarded, but I guess now is a good time too. The world you went to was one of the original 3,000 contracted worlds I talked about last time. Every one of these worlds is fighting something that is trying to invade them from another world or the great void. So, can you guess what is going to happen to your own precious little world?]

The expressions of horror, shock, and disbelief could be seen flashing by repeatedly on Oliver's face.

"This isn't a joke?"

[No. Why do you think this place was made? So, that Order could have a fighting chance against the Chaos. You will eventually need to build a military to fend them off. The first enemy should arrive after 2 years, but as "someone" messed with time barriers, so they should be arriving in 1 year. I suggest you start early. The VR will be very helpful in producing soldiers of a certain level and skill. And option 3 and 4 are useless without option 2. So, the choice seems pretty obvious.]

*Sigh*

Oliver tried massaging his forehead to keep the incoming headache at bay and said, "Okay then, I will choose option 1 and 2."

[Total Rewards – 137,840 SVP, 7 Skill Points, 5-person Military Quality VR chamber, Decapitation Style Armor + Neuro chip]

After Orb announced the reward, Oliver immediately started feeling the presence of Grace again.

|Where is this place Oliver?

'Not now Grace. I will explain everything in a bit.'

[Now, would you like to spend some SVPs?]

"Yes, but could you please explain a bit more about how to properly and efficiently expend them?"

[*Sigh* Sure but let me tell you something else first. In the recent world you must have noticed that everything went pretty smoothly, right? You just happened to be on the same planet as the Hive. You just happened to be a soldier. The enemy just happened to have worse equipment than you. In fact, if you didn't struggle so much in the tutorial, you wouldn't even have to brave the danger of rushing into the enemy lines.]

"Let me guess, You were behind it. But why?"

[You are not completely wrong. That world's candidate also helped, though you will have to repay him by training his successor. The reason is simple, it takes a lot of energy to sign a contract with the Orb, thus if possible, I will try to prevent a stupid death. I'm not your babysitter though, from now on everything is your responsibility. In the upcoming worlds you won't even have an official identity at all. You will have to think of something yourself. That means police, government, and armies may very well become your obstacles. Day-to-day activities can land you into jail or worse.]

"I think I get it. I was playing on very easy mode and suddenly you will push me to the hell mode."

[Yup, Exactly! You have to keep these in mind while spending the SVPs. It will become very hard to earn so much SVP from now on, so use them wisely. I suggest that you balance between improving your attributes and getting something to start your personal army. You can also buy a good weapon if you want, but I don't think you will need a new armor so soon.]

"Thanks a lot Orb. If you were not here, I don't know what would happen to me."

[You would die, or at least your world would.]

Oliver gave the room an exasperated look and said, "I don't know if that was a joke or you were completely serious. Forget it. I have to improve my attributes first. Status."

A blue box started floating in front of Oliver's eyes.

-------------------

Name – Oliver Hanover

Age – 22

Race – Human (Earth)

HP – 750

Strength – 6.5

Constitution – 7.5

Agility – 6

Intelligence – 3.2

Spirit – 0

Skills –

Active: None

Passive: Will of Steel (Level 2), Military Melee Combat Art (Level 5), Military Gun Arts (Level 4),

Armor operation (Level 5), Parkour (Level 4)

--------------------

"Hmmm…I didn't even know that my Gun Arts and Combat art had increased in level. It is a good thing though. Now, how do I increase my attributes Orb?"

[Just tell me and I will increase them. A 1 point increase requires 300 SVP. After reaching 50 points in any attribute it will require 450 SVP to increase that attribute. Your HP is ten times your constitution, and thus it can only be increased by increasing your constitution.]

"Oh! so let's see. If I upgrade each attribute except intelligence to 25 points I would need –"

[16,500 SVP]

*Sigh* "That's a lot, but I still got to do it. Orb please increase my Strength, Constitution, and Agility to 25 points. Also, increase my intelligence to 10 points."

[On it. 18,540 SVPs will be deducted. Please prepare for pain.]

The last thought Oliver had before fainting was, 'Orb your warnings always come way too late.'

...

It only took Oliver 5 minutes to wake up. A very drastic decrease in time required when compared to the previous occurring.

Oliver could feel the difference in his body immediately. He could feel the power bubbling just below his skin, waiting to burst out when required. For a slight moment, he felt that he could even take a whole army alone, but then he remembered the hive army and General class creatures lurking within it. It immediately calmed him down.

'Did I become taller? The ceiling looks even closer than before. Seems like I have grown around 5 cm.'

[What else would you like to do?]

"You said that I should build an army, but I don't know much about managing them or keeping them loyal. Do you have anything to manage them, keep them from betraying me and stuff?"

[You can do everything if you are willing to spend some SVPs. I have some contracts in the store. Each cost 100 SVP to buy, and then you have to pay 10 SVP each year to renew it. Very good for keeping your subordinates loyal, as they literally can't even have thoughts about betraying you after signing it. I totally recommend it for noobs. As for managing, it is a bit tricky and expensive. Go back to your world and see if you can come up with something. If not, then I do have something but it is very useless and expensive.]

"Hmm…Well, I will buy 10 for now. I will see how it works before buying more. Oh right, Can I buy stuff while not being in here?"

[If you are in your own world then yes. But you can't do it during missions. 1000 SVP has been deducted from your account. 10 Orb Contracts have been added to your inventory. Please access it by saying or thinking hard about the word inventory.]

"I didn't know I had an inventory before now."

[You didn't. It is a free service provided after purchasing something from the store for the first time. It provides a 1000 cubic meter space.]

"That's a pretty good deal."

[You have 118,300 SVP left. Would you like to buy anything else?]

"I will think on it for a while before buying anything more. I have a lot on my mind, and I need to relax ASAP."

[Good decision. If I were you, I won't even spend my Skill Points on your current skills. They are very easy to level up using training, so I would save those precious Skill Points for difficult times.]

"Well then see you later Orb. I will like to leave."

[Have a nice rest. Trust me, you will need it.]