System Installation

Venn gritted his teeth as he pushed himself up, every muscle in his body protesting from the bone-crushing impact against the wall.

"Ouch!" he exclaimed, rubbing his aching backside.

A wry grin crossed his face as he muttered,

"Note to self: once I'm out of here, let's buy a few thousand UCs worth of beef even if I have to go down in debt!"

A brief chuckle escaped his lips, but Venn quickly composed himself, realizing the gravity of the situation.

Even when he was joking to himself, his sight never left the giant bull in front of him. Venn's smile grew wider, and he shouted.

"Let's do this, you f*cking overweight bull!"

The moment the words left his mouth, the bull charged straight at him, its massive form barreling forward with thunderous force.

Venn planted his feet, his body tensing as he prepared to evade the charge.

He narrowly avoided the oncoming charge with a swift leap to the right and kicked the wall to jump above the bull.

The charge planted the creature's head right inside the wall, keeping it still for a moment.

In mid-air, Venn's agile body twisted, expertly landing atop the bull's back.

As he clung to the creature's rough fur, adrenaline surged through his veins, drowning out the chaos around him.

The bull thrashed and bucked, desperately trying to shake off its unexpected rider. But Venn's exceptional balance kept him rooted atop the raging beast, defying the laws of gravity.

Venn's heart pounded in his chest, and for a moment, he questioned his own action.

But there was no turning back now; he had to keep moving, or else he would just die pointlessly.

Like a skilled circus performer on a tightrope, Venn's body swayed effortlessly, mirroring the bull's erratic movements.

His feet shifted and adjusted with each twist and turn, maintaining his precarious position.

"It's such a shame," Venn muttered, his voice tinged with a hint of melancholy.

"My beloved antique runic weapon went down with the whole damn school."

Sighing, Venn unleashed a series of powerful blows, his augmented fists finding their mark on the bull's thick neck.

The fading remnants of his augmentation provided an extra burst of strength, empowering his strikes.

Despite the diminishing power, he continued to rain down blows upon the bull.

With every strike, the bull's struggles intensified, its head thrashing and twisting in a desperate attempt to dislodge its tenacious rider.

A smirk played upon Venn's lips as he let his body sway with the rhythm of the bull's rampage.

For a moment, both of them fell into a stalemate. The bull can't hit Venn, while Venn cannot deal significant damage to the bull.

Suddenly, a flicker of flame ignited at the tip of the bull's tail, growing into a menacing inferno.

The fiery tail whipped towards Venn with unexpected speed and accuracy.

Caught off guard, Venn only managed to block the blow with his right arm and right leg in a crouching position.

He was sent flying, the impact jarring his body as he crashed into the ground.

'That hurts, dammit!'

"Grrk ghk"

Venn tried to open his mouth to curse, only to find himself unable to let out a sound.

'Ah, it looks like it was the worst result that happened.'

Smiling wryly, or it was what he intended to do because his face only contorted into an ugly mess.

He could feel his whole body in pain.

When he managed to open his eyes, he saw the bull standing still. Its face contorted into a hideous smile, making it unbelievably appalling.

'Damn it! Even an animal is mocking me now!'

Venn racked his brain, searching for any solution. He tried to move his body, but all he ever managed was a grunt with no visible movement each time he tried to.

The bull-like monster before him seemed to revel in his helplessness, merely sitting and observing with an air of amusement.

Venn kept trying, but after some time, he figured that everything else couldn't be moved except for his left arm and neck.

Slowly, he resigned himself to the inevitable.

As he gave up resistance, the bull sneered with an almost human-like expression.

Seeing that Venn had already given up, the bull stood up.

*tap tap tap

Step by step, the bull sauntered towards Venn as if it was reeling in its reverie of a successful hunt.

It was when the bull was in front of his face and opened its mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth that something happened.

*Ding!

An electronic sound resounded throughout the whole planet. The sound was awfully clear to Venn's ringing ear.

His eyes widened when he saw it—a floating, game-like announcement interface appeared.

[To all of the survivors, Congratulations~!]

*clap clap clap

The congratulatory was followed by a derisive clapping sound effect.

[In commemoration of the first opening of the 'Dungeon,' the management has decided to distribute some gifts to all of the survivors]

[Oh, so that everyone here can inspect the gift in peace, the whole planet will be frozen in time for five minutes.]

[Also, we will pull out your soul body to install the system. Don't worry; it will only be like pricked by a needle :D]

When he saw the last line, Venn felt a pain that was completely out of this world.

'Pricked by a needle my ass!' He groaned inwardly, his translucent soul body swaying.

The pain was absolutely maddening; it was as if thousands of sharp needles pierced through every pore of his body.

Seemingly not fit with how Venn was writhing around from the pain, a loading bar floated innocently in front of him, indicating the installation progress.

[Installing 10%... 20%... 30%...]

[ERROR!!! ERROR!!! ERROR!!!]

[RECORD SOURCE NOT FOUND!]

[REINSTALLING]

[Installing 10%... 20%... 30%... 40%... 100%]

[System Installation Complete! Welcome, challenger!]

[System Update is Available]

[Do you want to proceed?]

[No response detected, Automatically continuing with the update]

[Updating 10%... 20%... 30%... 40%... 100%]

[Update Complete]

[Unauthorized System Update has been detected. Updates will be locked!]

[A Gift has been detected]

[Do you want to obtain your "Opening Day Gift" now?]

Venn tried his best to grip onto his consciousness as he observed the floating announcement window.

He was surprised when he saw the red error line flashed continuously. He only heaves a sigh of relief after the reinstallation is completed.

But then, a sudden update made Venn's heartbeat quicken.

He was confused, why would there be an update when it was the first installation?

In the first place, is a system update even possible for something that was quite literally placed inside his soul?

What kind of being was the management? Are they Gods? Why would they suddenly create something like a dungeon?

Question upon question keeps popping up inside his throbbing head. Eventually, he just let it be and looked at the announcement window.

When he saw the next line, he sighed in relief.

Even though he was confused by the error and the sudden update, he immediately pushed it to the back of his mind.

Looking at the choice in front of him, he was smiling ear to ear and selected "Yes" to acquire his gift.

How could he not? Although this was real life, the system was a game-like interface, and usually, in a game, the first-time bonus would be useful.

'Perhaps this is the answer to my current situation,' When he thought back to the ugly face of the bull before his body, his mind turned sour.

'Whatever'

With that thought in mind, he looked at the gathering lights before him.

A few moments later, tied with a red ribbon, a copper gift box materialized before him.

[A Fun and Happy Adventure Pack! Crafted especially by yours truly :D]

Venn's lips twitched when he read the item's name in the interface.

'I don't know who the management are, but they sure have quite the humor.'

Inside the box were six vials of syrupy liquid - two red, two blue, and two green.

The red vials were health restoration potions, and the blue and green were energy restoration and antidote potions.

Other than that, he also finds a small dagger.

It was a pitiful gift, considering how the first opening of a dungeon was something he heard for the first time.

Well, of course, it was the 'First' opening of the dungeon after all.

Anyway, now that he pretty much got all he needed to survive his current ordeal, he was ready to kill that f*cking bull.

'But before that, I should take a look at my status. After all, with clear information, I would understand my capability.'

Although he thought about that, in actuality, he was just curious how the system would asses him.

He thought as he pressed on the status option at the system interface.

[STATUS]

[ Name: Venn Vermillion

Class: Special Category

Pool Saturation: 0% (Evolution Unavailable)

Rank: 10 (Awakened)

Energy Point: 0 (0)

Condition: Gravely Wounded]

[Remnant:

- Abilities: None

- Weapon: None

- Armor: None

- Tools: None

- Summon: None]

"Huh?!" Venn was shocked by his status window.

His class was supposed to be 'Body Reinforcement,' but now he was suddenly labeled as a 'Special Category.' Not only that,

'This is crazy! 0% saturation?! Then what did I train all this time for?!

Did the installation of the system reset my class and advancement? But that's impossible; even though Kuran Planet was not even a 4th class planet, it was at least a home for rank 7 supers.'

And if the system were to reset a rank 7's progress, that would be completely insane!

But that wasn't all. Venn's 'Energy Point' was now at 0 too! How could he have performed instant augmentation with no energy?

Even if he exhausted all of his energy for his instant augmentation before, at least there would be some leftover, either 0.1 or 0.2.

Venn was utterly flabbergasted by the fact that his progress was turned to zero, and he just stood there frozen for a good four minutes.

The five-minute counter was almost up when he snapped out of it.

He quickly chugged his physical body's mouth with a health potion and put the dagger in his left hand.

Then, he put the rest of the vial into the pocket of his pants- or what was left of it.

It was a weird feeling; although he was in his soul body, he was able to put the dagger and vials into his intended place.

But his hands just passed through when he tried to touch the bull. Other than that, he also tried to touch all the other things around him.

The result? He couldn't touch anything other than the rest of the vials and the dagger.

Well, he did touch his pants for a moment, but when his intention changed from putting the vials to touching the pants, his hands just passed through it.

Finished with his experiment, he moved his attention to his physical body again.

Looking at the body before him, he couldn't help but shake his head.

Before him lay the mangled body of a teen.

Tattered remnants of a once-dignified school uniform adorned his bloodied form.

The black fabric was now mottled with dirt, torn and burnt in places, evidence of how hard the bull had hit him.

His shoulder-length black hair was disheveled as it clung to his face, covering the shocked face of the young man.

Beneath the messy hair, his gray eyes were wide open as if he had just seen the most shocking thing in his life.

Looking at how silly his surprised face was, Venn couldn't help but shake his head.

He then lay down and positioned his soul body just like his body's current position.

Venn also readied himself to start augmenting his body. He would try it, not caring whether he could use energy to augment his body or not.

He looked at the counter at the corner of the interface.

[5… 4… 3… 2… 1…]

'Alright, Let's do this!'

[0! Good Luck, and Have Fun! XD]