Systematic Survival

11 - [Help]

Matt studied the page in front of him, trying to figure out the best course of action. Usually, when he played RPGs he would put a lot of thought into his stats. Most games had different classes that would require different stat builds and so it was something he had often sunk a lot of time into thinking about.

'Honestly, extra agility could help me make deliveries. But that could be solved much faster with just a bike. I would probably need a ton more agility to compete with a bike, so it's not worth it.'

He looked back over the other stats. Most of them were useful in their own ways and really any one of them could be a good choice. There really wasn't a right answer since it all came down to preference anyway.

'Really nothing seems like it'll make much of a difference with 1 point.'

After thinking some more and comparing every stat, he came to a decision.

'I think I'll just put this last point in Constitution and then I'll finally be at the level of a normal person and above. It never hurts to round things out.'

He lifted his hand towards the menu and pressed the + icon next to the [Con] stat.

He once more felt a strange feeling of fortitude. It felt like his entire body became sturdier and denser. Though at this point, he only now had the durability of a normal healthy human. It felt like if he were to be punched, he wouldn't just crumble.

'Wow, I can never get used to that. Increasing my stats sure is addicting. This is next level compared to games.'

He thought about the many games he used to play with similar systems, but they didn't even compare to this. Feeling his body evolve and change into something higher was incredible. For some reason, he never thought about how it would actually feel to increase stats.

After having placed his final free stat point, he glanced back at his menu, remembering his two new skills.

'Help and Storage? Wait, storage! Finally, I was wondering if this system was just cheap. Usually, system storage comes default.'

He excitedly looked at the storage skill and not waiting another moment, he shouted in his mind.

'Storage!'

A small void started to form in front of him. After a second, it materialized into a black circle that hovered within his reach. It was roughly the width of his arm around. Above it was a line of text.

[0/25 Items]

'Ok item-based storage. So is weight and size not a factor? Maybe it just isn't displaying until I put something in?'

Wanting to test it, he pulled a penny out of his wallet and then shoved it in the hole. After a moment, the number above it updated.

(+1 Penny) [1/25 Items]

'So, no weight? I guess it is just slot based. Now the question is if it can stack.'

He took another penny and put it into the hole.

(+1 Penny) [2/25 Items]

'Damn. So it probably needs a level-up to do stacking. Hopefully. It would be kind of a pain to not be able to store anything with a lot of loose parts.'

He looked at it for a second before reaching his hand back in and pulling out a penny.

(-1 Penny) [1/25 Items]

'Nice, so I just have to think about the item and I can pull it out.'

He removed the last penny and then looked back at the void.

'One last thing to test. Does this thing get bigger or is the opening stuck at the size of an orange?'

He studied the portal for a second and then reached down to untie his shoe. After taking it off, he brought his shoe up to the hole and tried to push it into the storage. But the shoe just didn't go any further and stopped right at the entrance.

'Yep, so it can only store things smaller than it. Damn, another skill I need to level up for it to be useful. Guess I could store pencils or something in here until then.'

Storing that thought, he imagined the portal disappearing. After a second, it vanished into a point.

'Well, one last skill to check out, and then I should probably do a few more orders tonight.'

Looking back at his skill menu, he found the last skill and shouted the name out.

'Help!'

A few seconds passed by and nothing happened. He looked for a screen or anything that could've appeared, but he found nothing.

'Uh, isn't it supposed to activate?'

He waited some more but still, nothing happened.

'Huh, is it broken or something? Do I need to level something up first? But why isn't it giving me a message?'

Just as he was about to move on, a heard a tiny voice from behind him.

"Yo, what's up bitch? Did you request help?"

In shock, he turned around only to see a tiny blue pixelated fairy floating in the air. Wearing sunglasses. It was literally the last thing he expected to see.

"I, uh, what?"

Matt stammered, trying to find a foothold again for his words after his sudden shock. Even his 14 intelligence wasn't helping him right now due to the sheer strangeness of the situation.

"I said do you need help? Are you deaf?"

The little blue fairy crossed her arms and stared blankly at him, waiting for his response.

"I guess?" Matt eventually managed to say.

"SO. WHAT. DO. YOU. NEED. HELP. WITH!? Say it already!"

The tiny fairy shouted, spitting digital particles of spit in the aftermath. He didn't know what to think. Did the system go crazy? Why is there a tiny angry fairy yelling at him? To not incite more of the fairy's rage, he quickly thought of a question.

"What are you?"

"I'm [Help]! I exist to answer your questions. You aren't so bright, are you? Huh, that's strange, your intelligence is 14. Seems more like 5 to me."

That's it, he already couldn't stand this little brat.

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||Stats||

Name: Matt Peterson

Age: 18

LVL: 2 [XP 3/120]

HP | 20/20

MP | 0/0

Status Effects: (Physical Strain) [Moderate]

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||Attributes||

[Str] - 10

[Con] - 10 (+1)

[Agi] - 11

[Dex] - 12

[Int] - 14

[Luk] - 11

[Stat Points]: 0

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||Skills||

Inspect [Lv.1], Map [Lv.2], Help [Lv.1], Storage [Lv.1]

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||Quests||

-General-

Do Pushups [36/100] [Reward: +2 Strength, +20xp]

Pay the Rent [$43/800] [Reward: +Mystery Reward, +30xp]

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-Daily-

*Daily quests not available in beta*

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