13th Project: Substitute Coder

Chapter 1: Just a Substitute

Seijuro's POV

"Ow!" I groaned in pain as the fall from my bed woke me up from my euphoric dream.

Looking at my alarm clock, I noticed that I woke up a minute before my alarm started ringing.

"Another tiresome day," I muttered and stood from my bed.

After taking some warm-ups, eating my breakfast, taking a bath, and wearing my school uniform, I decided to check the System if something different had occured, which I would prefer since dealing with Dump Files and Bugs bore me. This wasn't a job for someone who came from the 13th Project. I should be fighting against Hackers, not useless files.

Several blue hologram screens appeared in front of me and I tapped it. Another blue hologram screen showed up and the words written in it made me sigh in disappointment.

[Warning: Dump File detected. Size: 727 MB]

Another boring job to do. Oh well, I had no other choice but to delete it. I started coding and did a quick scan of the server. Within a second, I found its location.

Weird. It was found on a mountain, specifically a forest. Typically, they were found in an abandoned warehouse, but a forest? I mean, they're both literally abandoned so there's no worries about someone who can compromise my identity.

I entered the command: [move_self X: 177.01371527412 Y: 69.2288220251 Z: 35.164171742]

The scenery changed from my room to a forest where the Dump File has been spotted. Trees were cut down and some has claw marks in it. Looking at the Dump File, it has a similar shape to a bear but it has a height of a 2-storey building. Its back was emitting steam and its eyes were glowing red. It howled out loud that the ground started tremblimg.

I shouldn't have expected more. What a waste of time. I'm already here, so what should I do next?

[developer_mode1]

I entered the command and a blue square barrier encased the forest.

[object_spawn_flamethrower 1]

A flamethrower appeared above me and fired towards the Dump File. His body was engulfed with flame but the steam extinguished it. Talk about adaptations.

I started focusing onto the cut trees around the Dump Files as they glowed into blue color.

[set_highlight_explosive

add_explosive_power_500kJ

set_timer_2s]

With this, the trees started glowing red. Such a simple trick to turn them into a death trap.

[highlight_raise]

The ground rose and acted like a wall just a second before the trees blasted. My eardrums almost bursted, but I'm lucky enough that the wall withstood such power. Unfortunately, that was careless of me that I caused a loud explosion that could catch everyone's attentions.

As the wall crumbled, all I could see was the Dump File barely hanging onto its life. It was lying on the ground, waiting for the final blow.

Oh well.

[object_spawn_sword 1]

A sword appeared on my hand. I decided to highlight it.

[set_highlight_fire]

The sword was set onto fire as I sliced the head of the Dump File. After a moment, it turned into white rectangles and disappeared like a dust.

"Another meaningless file, deleted," I muttered as I entered the command [developer_mode_0], disabling the barrier.