9 New Desire

Entertainers could check the status of everyone undertaking the scenarios. Occasionally, a person would appear whose status couldn't be checked.

It could be due to an error in the system responsible for managing everything or it could be due to the protection provided to the person from a supporter.

I guessed that I was not an actual part of the story so my status couldn't be viewed. But then, another reason could exist.

"You guys can check the status of other people?" I asked, faking a surprised expression.

Sadly, I was never much of an actor. BangKok easily realized that I was faking my surprise, making him chuckle.

"You seem to be an interesting human. I will look after you personally. You might be what I need to receive a promotion. I am long overdue anyway." 

"Good luck on that even though I have no idea how I might help you."

"You might sound convincing but your expressions give it away. Might wanna work on that." BangKok winked. "Have you chosen your skill, human girl?"

Momentarily, I forgot that Vin was still present there. It looked like she had decided what skill she wanted and had been waiting for our conversation to end.

"This one is fine," Vin informed.

BangKok snapped his fingers and granted the skill to Vin. He didn't pay much attention to it which meant that Vin didn't pick any eye-catching skills.

But then, it was not like the F ranked skills gave you a lot of options. I just hoped that Vin hadn't picked something extremely weird.

If D-ranked skills consisted of so many weird options, I did not want to imagine what the F ranked skills held.

"I will be taking my leave now. I have to start streaming this. You will soon receive a guide about how things work but I don't think you need that." BangKok winked again. "Tell me your names."

"Michael."

"Vin."

"Good. Thank you for assisting me." BangKok grinned.

The Entertainer shifted his gaze towards the lifeless body of the Puppet. He muttered something under his breath before flying towards the portal in the sky.

The puppet's body launched itself into the air and closely followed BangKok. It was pretty obvious that the Entertainer enchanted the puppet to follow him.

From what I knew, he was going to hand over the body to the headquarters of Entertainer Inc. along with an official complaint. He might not receive a promotion but he would surely get a bonus.

"What did you choose?" I asked Vin once BangKok vanished inside the portal along with the puppet's body.

"This."

She flicked her wrist upwards and a miniature ball of light appeared in her palm. The ball of light closely resembled the sun and looked like a miniature version of it.

The light it provided wasn't the brightest but it had its uses.

"Portable light source. I am impressed. It can be used in all kinds of environments. It will be helpful in spots where I can't use my fire to provide light. My skill would be delivered after 24 hours

"Huh, that's weird. As for the skill, I can summon this miniature sun anywhere I want. It will work inside water as well."

"It is a cheap skill to use as well. Even though I feel that we have a lot of mana, using high-rank skills can surely drain us."

To be honest, my author intuition told me that the question marks represented infinity. Having infinite magic power removed all kinds of restrictions I could have faced.

Even the strongest of skills wouldn't be able to dry me out of magic power.

However, the skills would still take a toll on my body. Some skills consumed more than your magic power and could leave you drained if you overused them.

Human bodies took time to get used to using mana as an energy source for using skills. Many planets already had mana before the invasion so they adapted quickly to the changes.

Humans and many other beings weren't lucky enough to do so.

'Well, I wanted humans to struggle. Can't blame anyone for this.'

With a sigh, I looked at the sky. The sun was slowly setting down, indicating the arrival of the night.

The first day was about to be over soon. I easily survived day one despite the strange incidents and the anomaly that occurred.

Humans did not know about the incoming danger. Some of them lost their homes or shelters during the earthquake.

Sigh, there was nothing anyone could do about this.

"We should rest now. It's already evening time. I don't think we should venture out and encounter anyone else, just to be safe. Plus we need to sleep because tomorrow is going to be a long day."

Finally breaking the silence, I decided that it was best for us to rest up for the remainder of the day. Even though a major event was about to occur, neither I nor Vin could afford to use our skills.

"Yeah, I think I might crash if I have to use my skills again." Vin sighed.

Vin and I reentered the somewhat destroyed Ballmart.

Seeing the recent incident, I was pretty worried about being ambushed at night. I knew that I would not be able to sleep peacefully until the building was secured from all sides.

"Vin, wait here for a minute."

I quickly went inside the Ballmart and returned with a gasoline can. Soon enough, I spread the gasoline in a circle around it before going back to the entrance.

Vin was standing behind me, ready to catch me if I suddenly fell due to excessive use of magic.

I summoned a tiny amount of fire and threw it at the gasoline. A raging fire spread around the Ballmart, completely encircling it.

A smile appeared on my face when I felt a connection with all the flame around me.

Pyrokinesis was turning out to be more useful than I thought. Though I was already experiencing a minor headache.

I was also sweating a lot. The side effects were already showing yet I didn't experience the chest burning pain one felt when they had overused their magic power.

"You think it will remain like this while you are sleeping?" Vin asked with a worried expression.

"Obviously. The ground is made of concrete whereas the temperature of the flames isn't high enough to damage the building. It will definitely injure a person though."

"Unless they have a water skill or something to counter this."

"Has anyone ever told you that you are a pessimistic?"

"I reflect the mood of the person I am with."

"Then you should be jumping up and down in joy. I am such a cheerful person."

"Only few hours have passed since I met you and I already feel like lying on a bed and giving up."

I ended up laughing at her comment. I had always been kind of gloomy but no one had described me in such a way. It felt like old times where me and Vin would occasionally make fun of each other.

Maybe I should have tried to remain in contact with someone.

"Let's go eat something and discuss our plan for tomorrow."

After taking one last glance at the fire, me and Vin decided to eat quite unhealthy things. Once the upgrade system was unlocked, neither of us would need to eat much. We wouldn't require sleep either.

Eating would only be done to satisfy the taste buds at that point and sleeping would just provide comfort to the mind. Unless you encountered nightmares.

"Michael, do you think we will get to meet the main character?" Vin suddenly asked.

We were currently seated on a rather fluffy bed which was spared by Bash and were eating our favorite chips.

"Maybe. I don't really want to meet him though because I have no idea how that will affect the future."

"Damn, I want to meet him and everyone else in the novel. Don't you think it would be fun to see your favorite character?"

I was about to respond but suddenly stopped. To be honest, I wanted to see my own characters. Even if the novel hadn't earned a lot or gained popularity, it was still something I created

Countless days of my life had been spent carefully writing the novel and its characters. So what if it got a whole lot of hate and many people hated it?

It was still my novel and those were still my characters. I knew the most about them.

"I guess that's true. Maybe I will meet them." 

A new desire to meet the characters emerged inside me. I could correct many of their mistakes that resulted in them loosing precious things.

After all, their mistakes were my mistakes in a way. Some deaths were a result of me trying to make the plot interesting whereas some incidents were forced in order to remove plot holes.

I never thought about it much but now that the same characters were real, I couldn't help but feel that I ruined their lives. I felt a little bit guilty at their suffering.

I could help reduce that if I met them. Their lives could be better that way even if it meant altering the story line.

Maybe I would get to experience my own main character moment. It can't be that bad of a experience.

Right?