Fight. Level. Survive.

Chapter 52 - Just Gonna Get Weirder

“What do you mean, half Demon…?” Mason carefully asked.

She rolled her eyes, “Oh, it’s just an expression! I didn’t peg you as the religious type!”

Mason’s heart was beating so fast he thought for sure it must be visible. He laughed, and it came out sounding very forced. “Haha yeah… I mean, I’m not really… I’ve just never heard that expression before.”

She gave him a considering look. “Huh, it’s pretty common. It just means she’s a bit of a-” Nays lowered her voice, “-bitch. Some of the more religious types think it blasphemous, but It’s not like I’m saying the G-word.” She cocked her head at him. “You didn’t really think I thought she was a half-Demon, right?”

“Haha, no! Of course not! Mayry’s definitely not a half-Demon that would be crazy! Haha, I have to go. I’ll see you around!” Before she could reply, he was up out of his seat and gone.

He got to his room and leaned back against the door. “Well, that could have gone better.” He said to himself.

“What could have gone better?” A voice said.

Mason jumped and reflectively shot a Magic Bolt at the speaker, who caught it in his hand, causing the magic to fizzle out.

“Dammit! People have got to stop sneaking up on me!” he shouted.

The Mayor ignored his outburst. “I believe it’s time we had a chat, Mason. Just the two of us.” He gestured for Mason to take a seat.

Mason considered. Up until today, he had thought if push came to shove, he could probably take the old man in a fight. Now that he knew the man was apparently a God and could obliterate him without much effort, he was far more on edge around him.

He took the seat anyway. This was his room, so he didn’t really have anywhere else he could retreat to.

“Firstly, I would like to apologise. You were brought into this world and dragged into a mess you can only begin to understand, and for that, I am sorry. Being an act of Chaos, you would have been a random choice. It isn’t fair, but here we are.”

They sat in silence for several moments. Mason wasn’t sure if the Mayor expected him to say something or what, but Mason stayed silent. Eventually, the Mayor continued speaking as if there was no pause. “The ‘system’ inside of you is unique and will allow you to grow far fast than any ‘Other’ as long as you continue to push yourself. You are going with my daughter, correct?” At Mason’s nod, he went on. “While I expect you to keep her safe, that isn’t what we need to discuss. There are things you need to know before you leave.”

Mason nodded, the man had always been very serious, but the way he was acting now was on a whole other level.

“The power inside of you gives you almost limitless potential. Your ‘System’ is far more powerful than the ones the ‘Others’ use. The more power you gain, the more obvious this will become.”

“Why?” Mason found himself asking. He had been planning on keeping his mouth shut and just listen, but that had never really been ‘his thing’. “Why is my ’System’ different from theirs?”

The Mayor paused for a moment, considering how best to phrase his next words, “The System inside of you was made willingly by a fraction of the god of Chaos; all the power that he had left after bringing you here went into creating it. Your system is essentially a blend of your personality, vast amounts of Chaos Energy and the consciousness that belonged to that iteration. On the other side of things, the Systems that the ‘Others’ use is made by continuously ripping apart a captured iteration’s essence and using it to scaffold together a mass-produced imitation of what a system could be.”

Mason looked sceptical. “I don’t know, Gael seemed to be using her system pretty well. The first time we met, I barely scratched her.”

“Yes, well. You are a random person from a world without Magic who had probably never been in a real fight. She is-“ He smirked and corrected himself, “-was, from a world with magic, where she was no doubt trained as a warrior from a young age and taught all about how to exploit the Systems. The fact remains that your system is a thoroughbred stallion compared to the ‘Others’ three-legged donkey with enough effort, you can make it work, but one will always prove significantly better than the other.”

Mason was still unsure but was open to the idea that the partial divinity in front of him might know more on this subject. “Okay, fine, I’m great. I was already aware. You mentioned system exploits? Are there any I could use?”

“Again, your system is based on you. Your personality and your experiences. If there are any exploits, you would be the one to know. Your subconscious essentially created your system, and the iteration guided the creation to ensure it would work.”

Mason had a few ideas he wanted to try out, one of which could not wait. He immediately closed his eyes and opened his menu. “In my world, we have something called video games, they’re like moving pictures you control. They tell a story by having you overcome obstacles. A lot of those games use systems similar to mine. A few of these games have something called the Konami code….” In his menu, he cleared his mind and thought, ‘Up, Up, Down, Down, B, A, Start.’

Instantly he heard the *DING* of a notification.

Excited, he bought it up, eager to see what his subconscious would award him.

Achievement God Mode Unlocked!

You have entered the ultra-secret Konami code

Before reading on, Mason gasped out loud. Holy fuck, he was grinning so much that his face was starting to hurt. His subconscious was awesome!

Reward: Only joking Dickhead. Here have a free stat point instead.

His grin disappeared in an instant. His subconscious was a wanker.

“What happened?” He heard the Mayor ask. Mason opened his eyes and saw the Mayor leaning forward with an intrigued expression.

In a deadpan voice, Mason replied. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

He had gotten a single stat point, which sucked, but it did mean that there might be cheats that actually worked. Of course, those could also just turn out to be his subconscious trolling him as well... He would need to think on it and write out a list of things to try.

The Mayor stood, “Before I leave, I need you to understand, regardless of how powerful you think you are, there are ‘Others’ out there who have been feeding their Systems Chaos Energy for a very long time. If they become aware of your existence, they will come for you long before you are ready. Your unique situation would make killing you like slaying a level 1 rat, looting it and finding it had 100 gold coins on it. You would give out an extraordinary amount of Chaos Energy to anyone who killed you.” He made to leave, but hesitated, trying to decide whether or not to say something. After a moment, he looked Mason in the eye and said, almost pleadingly. “Keep my daughter safe.” And with that, he left.

Despite everything, Mason found himself feeling bad for the guy. Yeah, he was a bit of a dick but just like Mason, he hadn’t asked for any of this. All he had wanted was to live a normal life with his wife and his daughter and forget all about his origins. Now his daughter was angry at him and was leaving with probably the one person in the world most likely to get into trouble.

Mason sighed and rubbed his temples, trying to push away the headache that was starting to form. He knew that he couldn't fix everything, but he could at least try to do what the Mayor had asked of him. Keeping the man's daughter safe wasn't going to be easy, especially considering he was kind of a magnet for trouble, plus her developing Demonic powers were going to be an issue.

He considered talking to her to try to convince her to stay for a few more days so her father could guide her through using her powers, but he knew that convincing Mayry to do something she didn't want to was an exercise in futility.

How had he gotten to this point? A few weeks ago, he was just some guy, but now he was talking to ex-gods travelling with a Demi-Demon, and nearly dying what seemed like every five minutes! What’s more, he was fully expecting that this was only the beginning. His life was just gonna get weirder from here on out.