chapter1 · 003-ep3

Episode 3: This Is Completely First Come, First Served

Even after the level-up chime that had rung in the back of my head faded away, I stood rooted to the spot for a while.

Quiet.

It had been such chaos just minutes ago, and now the only sound left was my own breathing.

In front of me, the empty space where Greyfish should have been.

In its last moment, it had burst into something like specks of light and vanished.

Feels like a game.

But I'd definitely felt those punches land.

My side still hurts, too.

My left fist is still throbbing, too.

It's like a game, and it isn't one.

This world really is creepy.

"...No, no."

Right then, I hurriedly pulled up my Status window.

It had told me I leveled up, yes.

But the reality of it hadn't caught up yet.

I looked at the display, and a sound slipped out of me.

"Whoa, it went up."

The display that had read Level 1 now read Level 2.

And not just that.

Strength.

Endurance.

Agility.

Those numbers had all gone up, properly.

Strength from 8 to 11.

Endurance from 7 to 10.

Agility from 9 to 12.

The other values had each grown a little, too.

"Oh, for real!?"

The corners of my mouth rose before I knew it.

The numbers were genuinely, properly up — and that wasn't all.

How do I put it — my body feels a little lighter.

Could be my imagination, but my legs feel quicker than they did a minute ago.

As a test, I threw a few light punches right there.

Right.

Left.

A casual one-man round of shadowboxing.

"...Huh."

I couldn't prove it, but it felt faster than before.

Could've been my imagination, though.

Strength from 8 to 11.

Endurance from 7 to 10.

Agility from 9 to 12.

Well, if the numbers are actually up, then feeling it like this isn't strange, I guess.

"Now..."

Next, I checked the Skills field.

A new entry had been added there.

【Off-Hand Strike】

Boosts the power of attacks made with your non-dominant hand by an ultra-massive amount. Cannot be triggered again for 3 minutes after activation.

"...'Ultra-massive.'"

Sloppy.

But I get it.

Think back to that last punch, and there's no other way to describe it.

That was not normal punching.

The sheer power of it was obviously wrong.

"And it comes with a three-minute cooldown, huh."

I see.

Fair enough.

If you could spam that, it'd honestly be insane.

But flip it around, and it means I can fire it once every three minutes.

That's strong.

No — not just strong.

I had a feeling I'd already pulled a pretty big winner off my very first achievement reward.

And right then, that earlier display snagged in my head.

【World-First Reward will be granted】

"...World-first."

World-first.

The first person in the world to clear it.

...Hold on a second.

Does this mean that, hypothetically, if you're the second one to get it, there's no reward?

No, no way.

Anyone would give you a reward for a proper clear.

That's how games normally work.

But it specifically said world-first.

"Come on..."

I muttered, quietly.

If that's how it is, then this is completely first come, first served.

While the other Awakeners were busy losing it over Levels and attributes, I could be clearing incomprehensible achievements and scooping up exclusive rewards.

And judging by the achievement list, they were all conditions you'd never clear playing normally.

In other words, only the people who notice can get them.

And —

whoever gets them first wins.

"Come on..."

A little sound leaked out.

The way the achievement list looked to me changed all at once.

Up until a minute ago, it'd been a weird bit of completionist content.

Now it isn't.

Now it's the main strategy, plain and simple.

Or more than that — isn't this straight-up more broken than attributes?

I opened the achievement list immediately.

Scrolled.

More incomprehensible conditions in rows.

But right now, every one of them looked like a treasure chest.

And looking closer, each achievement had small lettering next to it.

D.

C.

B.

Further down, there were A's, too.

And past those, I could even see S's.

"I mean, there's D, C, and so on... well, if it goes up to S, it's probably a difficulty gauge or something."

For now, I started picking out the ones that looked achievable within this weekend.

My current gear, my current stamina, my current Level.

Factoring in the general dungeon vibe, too, I roughed out a priority order in my head.

【D: Withstand 5 enemy attacks in a row without moving a single step】

【C: Spend 12 or more hours together with the same monster, without either of you dying】

【C: Remain active inside a dungeon for 36 or more hours without sleeping】

【C: Complete 10,000 squats inside a dungeon】

"...Realistically speaking, this is about the range."

Not that I didn't think, "realistic? What part of this is realistic," myself.

What was lined up there was pretty unhinged.

But if I was actually going for things with my current gear and current situation, this stretch was the reasonable pick.

Five attacks weathered without moving a step.

This one felt like an extension of what I'd just been doing.

I had a feeling it'd give a Skill along the lines of stance, or parrying, that sort of thing.

I want that. A lot.

Twelve hours with the same monster — no way right now.

Well, maybe not impossible, but it's not a day-one activity.

Thirty-six hours without sleep inside a dungeon.

This one's not sane either.

But precisely because it's not sane, it feels like there's something there.

Ten thousand squats is beyond understanding entirely.

I don't get it, I really don't — but at this point, honestly, I'm kind of curious.

Well, that one's just a guts thing. I can gut it out.

"Alright, then — while the getting's good, let's bang out whatever achievements I can grab!"

Obvious upgrades like raising my Level, or whatever my attribute is — of course those are great too.

But separate from that: achievements nobody's taken, cleared by me alone, with rewards that belong to me alone.

There's no way a hardcore gamer wouldn't burn hot over that.

"Alright — WOOHOOOO!!"

The sound came out before I could stop it.

My hyped-up voice echoed way too loudly through the quiet corridor.

A little embarrassing.

But right now, I couldn't care less.

"Alright."

For now, onward.

"...Ah, wait — before that—"

I crouched down where Greyfish had vanished.

I was checking whether anything had dropped.

In a game, this kind of thing usually drops something.

And sure enough.

On the stone floor lay something like a small crystal.

A thin, murky gray.

A bit bigger than a marble, maybe.

"Oh, so drops are actually a thing."

There's an items field, after all.

Which means, naturally, there are things to pick up.

I picked it up right away.

Cold.

Hard.

But it doesn't feel like an ordinary stone.

As I was idly staring at it, the crystal suddenly glowed.

"...Huh?"

The next instant, the crystal burst into fine specks of light and was gone.

"Whoa, it's gone!?"

I scrambled to look at my palm.

Nothing there.

Nothing on the floor either.

Wait, what?

On reflex, I opened the window.

And there in the items field was a new entry that hadn't been there before.

【Magic Stone (Tiny)】

"...Oh, it goes there."

I laughed before I knew it.

I see.

Seemed like the auto-stow-on-pickup type.

Pretty convenient.

I directed my attention at it.

And smoothly, that little crystal appeared in my palm.

"Ohh."

Focused again.

This time it vanished.

Checking the items field, it was right back there.

"So I can pull it out and stow it, huh."

This is nice.

Little details like this being game-like — that's the stuff that gets you hyped, right?

I looked down the corridor again.

Past where Greyfish had been standing until a minute ago.

The stone corridor went on.

The fear hadn't gone away, of course.

I didn't want another one of those weird-faced things showing up, and if they came at me in numbers, I'd straight-up die.

But more than that, right now I was riding high.

What kind of Skill would I get next?

Just thinking about it got me excited.

"Alright, let's go."

With that mutter, I set off toward the depths of the dungeon.