[Chapter:9][Event (I) !]

*bang!*

Normally, Grace wouldn't give a damn if the world burns.

The ones before him could fuck each other like rabbits and slit their own throats and he wouldn't give half an ounce of horse shit.

That's how little he cares for strangers, or stranger equivalents.

This time, however, he needed the people present to actually work together. After all, the world's gone to hell, and his quest was still at (4/10), meaning he needed to either save, or kill six people before they reach the bus and escape.

And he didn't feel like going on a slaughter, especially when many of them are his 'future' waifus and would probably hate him for that.

And while he might be on his path to OPness, he was still a rookie in the 'OP MC Club', so he couldn't exactly carry them all the way. He might no longer need rest, but he wasn't superhuman yet after all.

Thus, when he saw how those in the group, or to be more specific, one self proclaimed genius Saya and one currently useless orange head Rei argue about whether what appeared on the news, about the undead upRising, pun intended, was truly happening all over the globe or not, he couldn't help but bang the table.

*cough*

Coughing lightly, and seeing that he had the group's attention, Grace gave them all a smile.

"Why don't we leave the discussions and relax for a bit? I'm sure all of you are beyond tired, and self proclaimed genius could use a change of clothes though there isn't time for a bath."

He pointed at a rather hidden corner of the room, where no one would see you without approaching, and Saya, despite being incensed at being called by her nickname, recalled that her uniform was still drenched in blood and brain matter, and quickly went there.

Of course, after taking a spare uniform that 'coincidentally' happened to be present in the room.

Hmm, wonder why a female uniform is present in the staff room? Any guesses? Cause this might be an important plot point Author-san made.

((A/N : You know what…I give up. Turn the fourth wall to rubble, I don't care anymore. And yes, remember this point, it'll be brought up in the coming chapters once or twice more. Also, any guesses why?))

With poor Author-sans surrender, Grace looked at the group that looked like headless chickens and sighed mentally.

'This is why I hate having to lead.'

(Fufu~~ You're doing quite well, you know~~?)

He shook his head helplessly.

Grace was never the leader type, no, he was more of a fighter and maybe even an academic than he was a leader. He didn't like schemes politics. Of course, that didn't mean he couldn't scheme or plot, but he simply liked fighting more.

Some may think of him as a mindless brute, but Grace begs to differ. Why waste brain cells trying to one up some guy with all kinds of plots and schemes when you can just put a bullet through his gullet?

With schemes? You have to think about yourself, about your enemy, about your family and what could possibly happen to them, about your enemy's possible moves, about not effecting innocent civilians in your plots, about your enemy's family, about your own strengths and weaknesses, about your enemy's strengths and weaknesses, and do all this while making sure you're not too vulnerable and that you don't end up completely forgetting about other possible enemies that might take advantage of you in a moment of weakness and slit your throat from behind.

Nah, man, Grace prefers aiming his rifle and pulling the trigger and being done with it for good anytime.

'Well that's enough describing myself. For now, I think it's about time to completely explore the System functions.'

Yes, perhaps the readers had all but forgotten, but out of all the System Functions, only 'Status', 'Quests', and the 'Lottery' Functions have been explored!

(Aha! So you finally remember!)

Dea-chan snorted in dissatisfaction. It was, even if thought of by our creative and highly intelligent and incredibly astute and charming an-

(You sit on a Throne of Lies, Author-san.)

'Is your nose reaching the clouds yet, Author-san?'

((A/N : …no comment.))

*cough*

Anyway, although the Trash Disposal System was thought of by Author-san, it was, after all, created by the Supreme Goddess of the reality and the highest existence in the book, Dea Numen herself!

(Oh, right, my full name is Dea Numen isn't it? I forgot since I'm always called Dea-chan…)

'…'

Anyway, she was of course unhappy that the cheat she gave wasn't even examined fully.

'Hey, I just had no time, ok? How is that my fault?'

(Most reincarnators and transmigrators don't even look at their surroundings until they completely explore their Systems! It's obviously your fault!)

'…'

'They all are just idiots. What if you end up on top of a crumbling cliff? Without quickly getting off before it collapses, won't you die?'

(That's isn't the issue here!)

'Alright, alright, aren't I doing it now?'

(Humph!)

Grace felt rather helpless with this little loli!

But then he remembered something, something that might just make her do a 180.

'Now that I think about it, don't I have one more Silver Point to spend?'

(!!!)

Before he could even say anything, a tiny little firefly had zipped down his head and a pair of small, yet also large watery blue eyes looked at him.

((A/N : Dea-chan used the infamous 'Puppy Eyes'!))

'…seriously?'

((A/N : It was!...not so effective.))

Dea-chan pouted at Grace's lack of response.

She was using the infamous 'Puppy Eyes' technique, wasn't she!? Why didn't he falter yet!?

This wasn't on the script though!?

((A/N : Hehehe! You think the MC I created will fall for something like 'Puppy Eyes'!? Hah! Beware, little lolis! He who can break your invincible attacks has come!))

'Yeah, how about no?'

Grace felt rather speechless. Whether it was due to the little loli's antics, or Author-san's shameless advertisement, remained known only to him.

With a sigh, he looked at the tiny blue head floating before his face.

'Am I forgiven then?'

The response was immediate.

(Yesyesyesyou'redefinatelyforgive! Idon'tmindatallthatyouforgotaboutthesysyemigaveyou! Youweresimplytoobusytorememberitbutnomatter! You'reagoodguyaberyverygodguy!)

"…"

Grace looked at her speechlessly but sighed again.

'Alright, spin the wheel.'

(Thankyouthankyouthankyousomuch!)

Grace walked over and opened the fridge before taking a can of coke and going back to a chair. Sitting down, he opens the can and takes a sip before sighing in bliss.

"Ahh…a cold drink after a long days work…"

The others, who knew what 'work' he referred to, looked at him strangely, well everyone other than Saeko, whose eyes flashed with slight interest, before copying him and taking drinks for themselves and sitting down. Saya, who had changed her uniform to one that was a little bigger than her own, did the same.

While they sat in silence, however, Grace who closed his eyes was in fact looking at the wheel spin and the little loli push the 'Stop' button which was actually bigger than her tiny body.

And then, as the number of Silver Points he had reached 0, the wheel stopped and disappeared as a rainbow coloured card appeared in its place.

'Oh? UR?'

Dea-chan didn't answer, as she quickly tapped the card, and it turned around and the light faded away to reveal…

...

(Events)

Type : Function

Description : A new System function that Author-san recently came up with. If you decide to follow the plot, or not wreck it entirely, you can participate in certain events that had occurred in the main series, and attain rewards based on your performance.

Note : This function can only be used if the plot hasn't been diverted from the original too much.

...

(YES! A FUNCTION!)

Grace blinked at the loli's excitement.

'Well that's new. I didn't know there are still other System functions I can get, but why are you so excited?'

(Of course I'm excited!)

Dea-chan zoomed at Grace, looking at him with joy and excitement clear in her eyes.

(System functions are unbelievably rare to come by! Since they only appear when Author-san receives a sudden inspiration and decides to put it in the story! And most of the times, these functions are incredible!)

((A/N : Huhuhu! Praise me more!))

(Although, Author-san is also an idiot! Why can't he get inspirations quickly? It actually took nine whole chapters for just the first one, who knows how long it'll take for another function to appear?)

((A/N : …))

'Wow, you're bashing him without even actually meaning to bash him.'

Grace felt rather speechless at the loli, but also understood that new System functions were truly rare. Then again, he couldn't blame Author-san.

It isn't easy creating new things while making sure the story doesn't get too repetitive or boring, after all.

Just take those Cultivation stories, for instance. There's only sitting in the basement, absorbing energy, getting out, provoking some arrogant piece of shit, killing said arrogant piece of shit, being hunted by arrogant piece of shit's even more arrogant father, going into hiding, Cultivating, breaking through, getting out of hiding and whooping ass, and then a shameless ancestor rises from his grace looking like a mummy and goes after the MC, and the whole damn thing repeats!

The only good thing about Cultivation novels is that Cultivation with Systems is a shortcut to becoming OP!

And maybe those 'heaven defying earth shattering nation warring continent crumbling long legged jade skinned flawlessly elegant' beauties as well. Yeah, Grace really wants to see if all the beauties from Cultivation novels have jade-like smooth and shiny green skin.

*cough*

Putting aside Author-san who simply enjoys bashing Cultivators' stupidity, Grace looked at the rainbow coloured card floating before him and the blue haired loli flying around obviously excited and smiled.

"Well, I guess that's good."

...

*Beyond the fourth wall*

Yo!

I don't have much time, since I have things to do here in this side of the wall, so I'll make this short.

This time, we're going to discuss the differences between Skills and Abilities.

To begin with, let's take an example

Suppose there is one skill named 'Marksmanship : A+'.

And there is also an ability named 'Marksmanship : A+'.

If Grace gets the skill, he would attain the experience, knowledge, etc… of years and decades of single minded marksmanship training and practise.

Not only would he acquire all knowledge related to shooting, whether it be with bows, artillery, handguns, rifles, shotguns, crossbows, jet fighters, etc…, but he would also acquire experience, in the form of muscle memory, instinct, etc… of utilising all that knowledge completely.

HOWEVER!

While he certainly attains the knowledge and experience, that doesn't change the fact that Grace would have to calculate the variables, such as air pressure, distance, angle, etc… and manually aim and pull the trigger.

If Grace gets the ability 'Marksmanship : A+', however, things get a lot easier.

Hmm, to put it simply, it's basically an Aimbot.

It doesn't matter if Grace is not in a position to aim properly, or has his eyes closed, or his senses weren't working, or if he simply doesn't have the capability of calculating all those variables.

Acknowledge the target, pull the trigger.

That's it.

And as long as it isn't an impossible shot like using a handgun to snipe a baldy on the other side of the planet, and there isn't anyone or anything that could block the bullet, the accuracy and hit-rate is a perfect 100%.

So, in short?

Skills are knowledge, techniques, and experience. They allow you to do things on your own, meaning with 'Marksmanship : A+', you can make an otherwise seemingly impossible shot for that skill Rank possible as well. Breaking your own as well as the skill's limits, so to speak.

Of course, just because you broke the limits of the Skill doesn't mean you need not spend Golden Points to raise its Rank anymore, nor does it mean the Rank will automatically be raised. Doing so will only give you the satisfaction of being able to do it, as well as 1 SP.

Abilities are logic less. You do it, simply because you can. That's it. There is no logic, no theory, no experience, no knowledge, nothing. The ability defines you to be capable of doing it, so you do it. Period.

And of course, since the ability 'Marksmanship : A+' is like an Aimbot, unless you upgrade the software itself, meaning spending Golden Points to raise its rank, there is simply no other way of improving it. So no breaking past the limit of the Rank or other things that you can do with Skills.

So, in conclusion!

Skills; give knowledge, give technique, give experience, can be improved, and can actually be taught to others, even if only the knowledge and tips and tricks alone.

Abilities; no need for other skills or abilities like 'Calculations : A+' which you need to do the calculations for the shot, no need for, well, anything at all, not even senses. As long as the target is there, and you know it, even if you can't see or hear or smell the target, 'know' it's there, and your arm will automatically move to lock on, and pull the trigger, and bam!

Now that that's done with, adios!