I Reject Quests

Famin shook his head. 'You think I haven't thought of that? When I registered on the site, it traced my IP address.' 

[There are other websites, right?]

'Sure, there are. But from the looks of it, all the websites are connected with one another. It's likely that I could get into a problem if I were to try purchasing a free martial art on other websites after I already purchased one.'

[That's a problem. Well! You are on your own!]

Famin scratched his head and looked through the martial arts again.

'Ugh, now that it has come to this, I'm going to go ahead and pick a random one!'

Just like that, he purchased a form of martial art named – [Polka Ost].

Immediately after he purchased the free martial art, a PDF file got downloaded. Within a fraction of a second, the download was completed. Tapping on the file, he opened it.

'Wow. I never expected it to be a whole book.'

Famin exclaimed inwardly.

There were 551 pages in total.

After a momentary shock, he sucked in a cold breath. 'Do I seriously need to read the whole book?'

[You probably do. What did you even expect? Even if you have the physique of a G-grade Martial Artist, that won't make you a capable fighter. If you were a capable fighter, you wouldn't have been in a pathetic condition like you are now. Better start your plans early!]

'You are right.'

Famin acknowledged. The reason he was bullied his entire life was primarily because of two reasons – his weak will and his incompatibility to adjust himself to fight. It was never because his physical strength wasn't enough.

If he were to be asked why he couldn't 'fight', he would attribute this to his weak will but he did consider himself as one of the people who "just aren't born to fight" or someone whose "blood doesn't have the fighting spirit".

'Bullshit. Those are excuses.'

Famin cursed himself inwardly as he looked through the book of [Polka Ost]. Briefly reading a few pages, he figured the fundamentals of the martial arts.

[Polka Ost] is a martial art heavily reliant on breathing. Behind every force, there has to be breathing involved. Aside from that, it is more focused on kicks than punches.

"There doesn't seem to be anything special in martial arts. I think it's probably a loss."

[Well, what did you even expect? A hidden gem? Be glad that you didn't get anything worse. Besides, there is no particular grading system on martial arts. There are no useless martial arts, only useless people.]

Famin sighed, then shook his head. He had no interest in engaging in a discussion over an overused and overrated phrase. Although not much related, he remembered an incident from a few years ago.

It was the fifth time he was forced to go inside the V-Space. His opponent was a meek girl from his class with unremarkable physical strength. He was confident that he could get his first win. However, something unexpected happened. During the distribution of weapons, he was given a small knife instead of a sword, and his opponent, the meek girl, got a saber.

He got anxious and requested a 'good' weapon.

His request was denied and was forced with the meek girl.

Needless to say, he got defeated.

His homeroom teacher came to him and lightly mocked him. "Can't even defeat her, eh?"

That was the day he lost his fifth fight as well as his entire desire to even win.

For Famin, the phrase – "There are no useless X, only useless people" – is nothing more than a tactic to victim-blame as well as a coping mechanism. It is only used by people who want to feel good about themselves.

"Let's see… First, I have to read the entire book and then, I could start with training my martial arts. I don't know how long it would take but to take an ignorant conservative estimate… Maybe two months? Yeah, it shouldn't take longer than three months. What do you say?"

[I don't know.]

Famin didn't dwell too much on the subject and moved on to the last mission – [Booming confidence] which requires him to fight three people and defeat them.

'Should I even do the mission?' He was greatly hesitant because of his weak character. Let alone whether he could even defeat three people or not, he likely doesn't have the guts to get into a fight by himself.

In fact, even if he does nothing, people would definitely pick a fight with him.

[This is a great opportunity for you! It helps the fact that people would pick a fight with you. That way, after thrashing them, you don't need to give any justification.]

'You skipped an important step. What if I can't defeat them?'

[Then try again!]

'That's so easy for you to say.'

[Shouldn't you be accustomed to getting hits by now?]

'That's awfully rude.' Famin said, then started writing in his notebook. 'It's decided. I would try to engage in a fight if someone bothers me.'

[You would 'try'?]

'Look. Don't pressurize me. I'll try my best to do what I can. Besides, you haven't even told me your backstory.'

[My backstory? What do you want to know?]

'Ah… what are you?'

[Is that the best?]

Famin scratched his head. He hadn't expected Mii to be so cooperative. Putting his hand on his chin, he thought about a question. 'Alright… why is the name of the… system something like 5th Success?'

[It's '5th Successor System'.]

'Yes. 5th Successor System. Why is the name like this? Do I have a Master or someone like that?'

[You do have a predecessor but he isn't your Master.]

'That's cool. That's cool… Who is my predecessor?'

[You will know soon. In fact, I would even say that it's sooner than you would expect.]

'Come on. Tell me something about the person.'

[Well, he's dead. His death caused the disintegration of the system and one such integration chose you.]

Famin sucked in a mouthful of air. Suddenly, he felt that the atmosphere had changed. Isn't a plot like this supposed to be a huge revelation of sorts?

[You have a lot of work to do in the future, my dear Host.]

Famin gave a small nod, then switched off the lights and fell asleep.

***

43-F Street.

Klofar Residence.

"So that's the entire story…" Denny took a sip of water from the bottle placed on her desk. She had been narrating the events leading to Rewen's death from start to finish including every minute detail. Needless to say, her face was tired from speaking continuously for over two hours.

Looking at the silent faces of her friends, she didn't know what to say.

"It's sad." Junar sighed. "I just met him last night."

For the next fifteen minutes, the group was mostly silent.

"Okay… it's too late. We are leaving."

"Yeah, goodnight."

"Don't worry about the matter too much. We'll talk tomorrow."

"Take care."

"Bye."

Within a span of a few seconds, Denny was all alone in her room. For some reason, she felt lost and uncomfortable. A few seconds later, she decided to take a walk outside.

Slightly opening the door, she found that the lights were off.

'Everyone must have gone to sleep.'

She turned on the lights and went to the balcony.

"Uncle?"

The first thing she saw after reaching the balcony was her uncle sitting calmly on the chair.

Her uncle, Mr. Klofar, turned his head. "How are you doing? Did your friends leave?"

Denny gave a small nod before sitting down on a chair beside him. "Yes. Uncle… I… I have something to say."

Mr. Klofar nodded slightly when he heard her. "We are all family. There's no need to hesitate. If you have something in your mind, you should be open about it. However, if you are here to talk about how guilty you are for the unfortunate death of my son, then I would look down on you."

Denny was quiet for a few seconds, then she hesitantly opened her mouth. "It's not that. A few days ago, Rewen collapsed and…"

"He had Stage 5 Interference?"

Denny's mouth went wide. "How…"

"Cal told me a while ago."

"Oh…" Denny fell silent.

After a brief silence, Mr. Klofar suddenly said. "You know... your narration of the events was almost perfect." 

"You heard…?" Denny looked at him confusedly. Even though she wasn't whispering when she was narrating the events that led to Rewen's death, unless a person was standing close to her room, he/she couldn't hear clearly. Her uncle certainly didn't look like the type of person who would eavesdrop on a teenager's conversation.

Seeing the confusion on her face, Mr. Klofar pointed to his ears. "My ears are unusually sharp. Of course, only when I want it to be."

Realization dawned upon Denny. "I understand."

"Even so… there was something missing in your narration." Mr. Klofar said in a meaningful tone.