Winston was perplexed. Out of everything that he expected from his ten-hour shift, talking to a magical woman that popped up in his head was far beyond his expectations! He was smart, and well-read for a slave, and yet he had never heard about 'systems' before. This name was entirely new to him.
Likewise, he could barely catch up with the system when she continued to chat along. She didn't have an off-button.
[I showed these statistics to you, Winston, because I want you to understand that each and every one of them can be upgraded. The fact of the matter is that I will help you upgrade them.]
[However, these statistics are also of secondary importance, so you don't have to upgrade them right away.]
[The statistics that are of primary importance are yet to follow.]
After she said the latter, the tab that featured his statistics disappeared, and was replaced by another tab. The tab started out blank, but seconds later, he saw the dark outlines of an item being drawn in the middle of it.
The system was drawing a blueprint, and he was absorbing the details of it in real time. This got him excited a little bit, or at the very least it entertained him, but he had no idea what to expect, as his tiny, complex starfish brain was being overloaded with information every other second.
Seconds later, the system finished drawing the blueprint. It belonged to a gun, and he recognized the gun within the drawing as a simple 9mm pistol that was used amongst starfish. There were hundreds of variations of this gun across the sea, but he could already tell from the blueprint that this pistol was decent, at least decent for a cheap, 9mm pistol. It was a bit improved, and its statistics were the following.
[Damage = 200
Range = 20 Meters
Mobility = 8/10
Accuracy = 5/10
Magazine = 8 Bullets - 9mm]
[9mm Starfish Destroyer has been added to your arsenal.]
[This is a gift from me, to you, Winston, and I wish your health to use it. It didn't cost you any system points, but rather, I wanted to give you a great example of what your primary statistics are going to be. Guns, your primary statistics will feature a lot of guns!]
"You mean, I can summon it now?" He asked.
Afterwards, in a motion that felt purely intuitive, he flicked his right wrist, and so the 9mm Starfish Destroyer from the drawings popped up in his pointy hand! He was armed.
"Beautiful…" He whispered.
The pistol had a short, gray barrel, a black handle-panel, and a black-coloured magazine. The magazine didn't need any physical bullets, but rather, it could be filled with his mana, which behaved like bullets. The magazine could fit eight of them.
"How far does this thing shoot again?" WInston asked frantically, as he felt the pistol's weight. It seemed as physical as every other gun that the common starfish carried. "Your blueprint was boasting about its range."
[It can shoot up to 20 meters.]
A moment after he heard the system's answer, the most sinister smile stretched across his face. The amount of adrenaline he started to feel at that moment, was nothing compared to the pure, raw happiness that he felt!
Winston had been pretending like he was working for a good couple of minutes now, however, he then powered his pickaxe with mana, and struck the iron vein. He put a little bit of real work in, and then he grabbed the iron chunks, and hid his gun within them.
Afterwards he stood up, left his pickaxe behind, and started walking towards the mine cart that was two meters away. It was a bit of a walk, so on the way there, he did his best to prepare his pistol gun.
With a bit of effort, he poured mana into the pistol's magazine, which in turn filled it with eight bullets. He smiled like an over-excited child once he felt his pistol get a little bit heavier, and so he continued walking forward.
[-8 blue mana points]
Once he got close to the big mine cart, he pulled the barrel of his pistol backwards, and then turned off the safety lever. He was ready, now more than ever.
Winston then threw the iron chunks into the cart, and noticed that the guard was about to say something. Three chunks was not not a lot, and Winston knew that, but he had brought only three of them to force a reaction out of the guard. He wanted the guard to be upset, because he knew that an upset guard would almost never use their gun to shoot, but rather, they would use it to smack slaves across the head.
"Three chunks, are you kidding?" The guard shouted. "What did I just tell you, you pink bastard?!"
"Come just a little bit closer…" He whispered, but overall he tried to look scared.
Winston had been hiding the gun behind the large cart, and when the guard started walking around the cart, Winston didn't waste another second. He used the opportunity to attack, taking advantage of the guard's blindspot, and so he shot him in the head, twice!
[Bubonic Starfish killed. 10 system points have been added to your sum in exchange.]
[You now have 10 system points in total.]
"Ok?" He thought.
Anyway, the gunshots reverberated across the mine, but he did not care whatsoever. He was armed, and he was going to shoot at anyone who was unlucky enough to cross his path!
Winston then made his way to the tunnel at his left, because he knew that it led upwards. He knew that if he was going to escape these mines today, and for good, then he needed to run upwards as fast as he could, and regardless of what the price was!
On his way up, he ran into two more guards, and nailed them both in the head. He had a great advantage over them, because no one would expect to see the common Worker Starfish with a gun on their hands. He abused that advantage to the fullest!
[+20 system points]
[Total points = 30]
"Nice?" He thought, and paid no attention to these points that the system kept talking about.
Eventually, he ran into some starfish that he was quite hesitant to shoot at. They were starfish of his own species, and they were enslaved as well…