[Chapter:4][System functions (II) .]

"Open the Starter Pack, please."

Grace sighed as he finished off another one of 'them' and paused to catch his breath. While he was a rather accomplished martial artist, that didn't mean he was super human. He still had a limit to his strength and stamina, only they are not that far away from the peak of what one could achieve without things like a certain Captain's blue serum.

Closing the Lottery window, making it turn into an icon with a wheel symbol that appeared at the right edge of his vision, Grace opened his status while waiting for the little loli to open his Starter Pack.

(Yes~~!)

With a bright and excited voice, something that Grace had recognised to be how the little loli Dea would be whenever she opens or does something that could give random results like the lottery, Dea makes a window appear, covering he Status window Grace had just opened.

"A pink gift box?"

Grace blinked at the sight of the pink gift box with a red ribbon that appeared on the window. The red ribbon twirled open, and the lid of the gift box moved to the side, making golden light overflow the entire window.

"Seriously? Do you have to be so dramatic?"

Grace shook his head while Dea didn't bother to comment, and he could practically 'see' the blue haired loli staring at the bright light with large watery sapphire eyes and an excited expression on her face.

A few seconds later, the light, along with the box, disappear, and what replaces them are three cards.

The first was a golden card, the second silver, and the third blue.

(Letmedoit! Pleasecanidoit? Pleasepleasecaniplease?)

Grace blinked as a finger sized being of light suddenly appeared before his eyes, turning into a familiar blue haired and sapphire eyed little loli.

'So you're going to ignore not even telling poor old me you can do that?'

Grace sighed before shaking his head.

"Knock yourself out."

(Thankyouthankyouthankyousomuch! OhI'msosoexcited!)

Grace shook his head again as he felt unable to connect this hyper excited loli that spoke in the 'Language of Gods' as a certain mon-*cough* err Saiyan would say to the relaxed and calm and actually pretty elegant looking little loli that had discussed with him the philosophical meaning of life, in other words, helped him make it hard for poor Author-san by banging the fourth wall with a metaphoric sledgehammer.

(A/N : I Fucking knew it! You two did it on purpose didn't you!?)

Grace watched as the now ever so tiny little loli practically flashed to the cards, and with her hands trembling in what he assumed to be a mix of excitement and nervousness, tapped…

…all three cards at once?

'Huh? How did that happen?'

Grace blinked at the sight of the tiny blue head somehow managing to tap all three of the cards with only one hand, and seemingly simultaneously at that.

Regardless of his confusion, the three cards turn around, and the golden, silver, and blue light that covered their surfaces faded away, revealing images and descriptions.

......

(No Fatigue : SSS+)

Type : Ability / Passive

Description : An ability that erases / nullifies the effect / concept of fatigue, exhaustion, etc… from the user, thus allowing the user to instantly feel rejuvenated the moment user exhausts his / her physical, mental, spiritual, etc… energies.

......

......

(Mind Palace : F-)

Type : Skill / Passive

Description : Create a mental structure labelled 'Mind Palace' wherein user can store his / her memories, knowledge, etc… securely. The higher the rank, the greater the capacity and defences of the 'Mind Palace'. Constructing the 'Mind Palace' also allows user to access his / her sea of consciousness as a side effect, where the 'Mind Palace' will be constructed.

......

......

(Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Armstrong Cannon : SSS+)

Type : Item

Description : A special cannon which can, through sheer force alone, bypass the differences between Life Tiers / Realms and damage as well as possibly kill a Divine Being. The sheer magnitude of the damage caused can effect the Laws of Reality, hence making this cannon an intergalactic taboo. Can function indefinitely, can be used by a single person with proper knowledge, and can fire up to three shots per hour of cool down.

......

(Yes! I did it!)

Grace blinked as the tiny little loli begins to dance through the air in joy.

"Two SSS+ and a F-. Even though I won't, ever, take the cannon out, I guess that's pretty awesome."

Recalling the image of the cannon, Grace quickly shook his head.

'Nope, not happening, no way.'

Then the feeling of bone chilling cold washing his entire body returned, as Grace's face melted in bliss.

"Damn…that feels…incredible…", he grunted.

Despite being a virgin, something he's not exactly ashamed of, Grace felt like perhaps even sex that so many brag about isn't as pleasurable as integrating with a SSS+ ability.

Luckily for him, his Will wasn't weak enough to lose himself in the pleasure, or Grace might just become a pleasure addict, making the readers flame the poor Author-san to death.

"!?"

Just then, however, Grace shook in slight fear before swiftly piercing his blood soaked metal rod right through the open mouth of one of 'them' that had somehow managed to get less than a foot from him!

"Bloody hell…what ever happened to social distancing?"

(A/N : It's a zombie apocalypse you dumbass, not the Covid pandemic.)

Grace grumbled as he realised that he had been in a very dangerous situation just now.

"Looks like I'll have to find some way to delay the ability integration. Damn that was close.", he muttered softly.

Of course, he knew that Author-san, along with his own plot armour, would make sure he awakens from his blissful stupor just in time to survive the danger, like what happened just now, but he simply didn't like the feeling of being forced into a daze and nearly dying from a mindless walking corpse of all things.

"Forget it, I'll think about it later."

Shaking his head, he smiles as he feels the fatigue that had piled up from killing over 469 of 'them' disappear as though he had just woken up from a nice, long, and satisfactory sleep.

In fact, he quickly realised that even his hunger and thirst disappeared!

"I guess this is the start of me becoming OP and doing justice to that OP-MC tag."

With a small smile, he looks at the blue firefly zooming around in excitement.

"…"

Speechless, he reaches over and catches her with his left, non-blood soaked arm.

(Hey! What gives!)

Grace rolled his eyes at the pout that the tiny loli gave him as he pushed her onto his head.

"Don't make trouble. I'm not superman nor do I have an armour made of kinetic energy absorbing metal. A single scratch and I'm done for."

Well, he knew that even if he takes a nap in the middle of a crowd of 'them', Author-san would try to come up with some bullshit and somehow make him survive, but he also didn't want to make it hard for the poor fat guy.

It's already hard as it is to deal with a duo that hammers the fourth wall on a nearly hourly basis, why make the poor guy suffer from giving the readers a reason to flame him more than he most probably already is being flamed?

(A/N : Oi, English geniuses, is the latter part of the sentence above right? Or do I need to edit it?)

"Hmm?"

Grace looked around, before asking the tiny loli that was pulling his hair in mock anger.

"Did you just hear something, Dea-chan?"

(A/N : What the fuck!?)

"Ah! There it is again."

(A/N : Holy…! Pops! Get me my duct tape!)

(No? I don't hear…Ah, I hear it now.)

Grace concentrates and manages to hear a soft, muffled scream. Of course, it's rather obvious people would scream during a zombie apocalypse, but all screams had all but stopped after just several minutes in the Highschool.

(A/N : Thank Morgan, so it wasn't me.)

'Eh, what the hell.'

With a shrug, Grace turns and walks on the direction of the scream.

He wanted to try out raising his 'Mind Palace' skill through the ranks, as he realised that he could now think faster and even recall things easily, but then decided to do so later.

(Good decision, I'm sorry I forgot to tell you to take care when using your GP to raise skill or ability Ranks.)

'It's alright, I didn't get hurt or anything.'

Grace shakes off Dea-chan's apology, before asking her,

"That's 472, I should be done with one of the sub quests right?"

(Yup, you also got 1 additional GP and SP.)

He nodded as he took another glance at his status before moving to the source of the screams that still hadn't stopped.

......

(Status)

Gabriel Grace Godkin

Human Male 19 years old

World : Highschool of the Dead

State : normal, calm, alert

Points : 473 Silver Points : 1

Golden Points : 2 Crystal Points : 0

......

Just as he reached the source, however…

"Hm? That's…unexpected…"

......

*Beyond the fourth wall*

Cliff hanger da!

Lol, angry? Hehe, bite me!

*cough* *cough*

Anyway, hey there readers! Welcome back to 'Beyond the fourth wall', hosted by yours truly, sponsored by Red Bull! Taste like Thunder!

Err, I got the catchphrase wrong, didn't I? Teehee~~!

Anyway, continuing where I left last time, Authorities!

Mortals are shackled. Breaking these shackles make one a Transcendent.

Transcendents are those that have broken some or many of the shackles of mortals, and can strengthen their souls and also tap into the Void, thus 'creating' energy. Well, it's more like siphoning energy out of 'nothing' and 'nowhere', which is basically creating it? Right?

Divine Beings are those that have satisfied certain conditions, like faith or belief, strengthening the bond between or even fusing their bodies and souls, understanding one or several Laws of Reality, and a fourth condition I still haven't thought of. Don't bother with the fourth one, I'll keep it as a plot hole or 'The Mysterious Fourth Path' that will remain, well, a mystery.

And last, but not the least, are Exceeds. Those that have surpassed the infinitely many beings out there, be they Mortal, Transcendent, or Divine, in any field.

This time, we will focus on Exceeds and their Authorities.

…kind of feels like I'm giving a lecture or something huh? Haha.

Anyway, Exceeds are also called Kings / Queens because, well, Authority and King / Queen quite ring well together, don't you think?

Hmm…wait a sec, let me arrange my words…

…

…

…

Got it. Let's see, think of Authorities as a Legacy, so to speak.

What's a Legacy? It's the cumulation of all techniques, skills, and sometimes, even experiences of, say, person A, noted down, whether in written form or through other magical means, sometimes even sealed in bloodlines, and passed down so as to not be forgotten.

Authorities are similar, but also different. Similar, because they allow said Exceed to attain the skills, techniques, experiences, etc… just like Legacies. Different, because Authorities don't just include skills and etc… of one person like person A alone.

No, Authorities include the legacy of 'everyone'. For a sword Exceed, their Authority includes 'every single' sword user in existence, and the infinite variations of all those infinite sword users existing throughout the infinite worlds and realities through the infinite time lines and infinite parallel universes.

That's a lot of infinites isn't it?

Basically, what it means is, becoming a Sword Exceed allows you to get the skills, techniques, experience, and mastery over the sword of 'Zoro', 'Mihawk', 'Sword God A', 'Sword Princess B', 'Sword Venerate C', 'Sword King D', 'Sword Saint E', 'Artoria Pendragon a.k.a. Saber', 'All sword using servants from Fate including the fake Archer', 'The guy from Strongest Sword God', 'All Sword Cultivators in all wuxia / xianxia', 'All Soul Reapers that use katanas / swords', '...…..'.

You get it? Basically, and practically, 'everything'. As long as it's related to the sword, all knowledge, all experience, and everything expect personal information and knowledge that's unrelated to swords is included in the Authority.

Similarly, the Authorities for Guns, Blades, Sabres, Cutlasses, War, Weapons, Books, Law, Balance, Magic, Art, Craft, Architecture, Engineering, Biology, Zoology, Botany, Christmas, Holidays, Summer, Winter, Rain, Floods, Disaster, Good, Evil, Darkness, Elements, Stranger Things, Ghosts, Pokemon, Digimon, Dorae-*cough* maybe not the last one. Maybe.

But there are Authorities for every single concept imaginable, and when one attains an Authority, they become sort of 'Omniscient' and 'Omnipotent' on whatever it is that the Authority represents.

You have an Authority on Swords? You can use a half-broken rusty sword or a blunt wooden sword or even a stalk of grass to cut a universe in half.

Although, it's pretty idiotic not to use an overpowered sword like 'EA' or 'Excalibur' and instead depend on blades of grass and wooden twigs.

I really don't get that. Why the Fuck do Cultivators stop using weapons just because they are 'one with the sword', have a 'sword in the heart', or can use a 'sword without sword' or bullshit like that?

Why do they stop eating just because they no longer need to eat? Stop sleeping just because they no longer need to sleep?

Why not stop wearing clothes since you're skin is think enough, both metaphorically and literally, to be unbothered by heat or cold? Run around naked why don't you?

*cough* *cough*

Excuse my rant, I just find them beyond idiotic. Calling them idiots would be insulting actual idiots.

As usual, adios!