Chapter 10
It finally came to me that I should figure out what these pop-up messages that showed up occasionally were because they were not part of the original novel. Additionally, I had to consider what these achievement points were all about too. It seemed my crappy novel had now merged with an internal game system, making it an even more bizarre chimera.
Who would read such a ridiculous hybrid genre? Even I, who loved going above and beyond when it came to genres, found it absurd. Anyway, I might have received cheat-level abilities in this new world so I didn’t really care. No matter how terrible my novel became, if it made my life more comfortable, that was all that mattered.
I understood why the “isekai” genre became so popular. I couldn’t help but think that if I had written more novels of that genre, then I would be happy right now. Actually, never mind. In a case like mine where you don’t spawn as the main character, it’s nothing but a nightmare.
It would be absolutely ridiculous to spawn as a side character for some novel and watch the main character who seems to be an ordinary middle school student, but in reality is an amazing martial artist with unique family techniques only known to his clan. My blood pressure might spike again just witnessing that nonsense.
Anyway, that’s that.
Hoping that my terrible trash of a novel had turned into an isekai cheat story, and wishing that those cheats were mine, I examined the system. Just by thinking about them in my head, the messages appeared in front of my eyes.
[Congratulations. Based on atonement, punishment, and public evaluation, you now have the authority to make changes to the world of your infamous and unprecedented garbage novel, The Demon King Is Dead.]
Wow, were they seriously going to straight-up roast my novel like that? I mean, I did think it was a crappy piece of trash as well, but hearing it coming from another was seriously depressing.
[You will occasionally experience events that range from minor events to significant major ones. The rewards for most events are in the form of achievement points.]
There was no convenient settings menu. I didn’t need features like volume control or anything like that, but they could’ve at least given me an interface for all this. It seemed like there wasn’t one as it didn’t appear in front of me even though I was thinking about it.
[You have the ability to prevent events from happening, or cause events that should not have occurred, altering the main story. In such cases, you will occasionally receive a larger quantity of achievement points than from regular events.]
[Additionally, you can take on ‘Challenges.’ You will be rewarded achievement points if you successfully complete a challenge.]
‘What’s a challenge, though?’
[A challenge refers to mission objectives. To undertake a challenge, please check the ‘currently active challenge’ list. The list is updated periodically, and some challenges may not reappear.]
Looking through the challenge list gave me an idea of what it was all about.
Here are some of the challenges:
[Power slap the Emperor across the cheek: 10,000 points]
[Get imprisoned in Gradium Prison: 1,200 points]
[Break out from prison: 2,000 points]
[Pickpocket a knight: 100 points]
[Beg your way into buying a 99㎡ home: 1,000 points]
.
.
.
Not a single ordinary option in the list, it seemed.
“Slap the emperor”? They were basically asking me to exchange my life for points. That would be impossible to even attempt to do. All this feature did was make me feel worse.
I decided to look through what my other options were for the time being.
[You can now use your achievement points as a reward for clearing the prologue.]
[Achievement points are used for the ‘Revise’ function, a function where you can change the world’s settings such as forcibly bestowing you with talents, and altering events, either by manifesting new events or preventing events that should happen from happening. Furthermore, it can be used to preview the changes that have happened in the story due to your actions having changed the plot. However, large-scale operations or interference with major characters are either impossible or require a significant number of achievement points.]
[Please note that tasks that collapse the setting of the story will not be performed. If you attempt to add such settings or perform a ‘Revise’ without recognizing that it will severely affect the setting, you will incur penalties against your achievement points. If your memory is so bad that you’ll trigger a collapse of the setting of your own novel, it’s recommended to add the setting ‘there is a cure for Alzheimer’s in this world’.]
Was it just me, or did it start out as informative but end with provocation?
[Please note that you cannot remove added or pre-existing settings.]
[For example, if the setting ‘Dragons are immortal’ exists, you cannot add the setting ‘Dragons die.’]
[Of course, in your past life, you often broke this law and added additional settings, saying something like, ‘Well, dragons were initially immortal, but I added a Dragon Slayer who can easily kill them now lol,’ or, ‘I did say that, but too bad, it’s going to be like this now.’ These kinds of excuses or ‘additional settings’ are considered petty actions and will either require even more achievement points than usual or will not be tolerated at all.]
Yep, it wasn’t just me. It was provoking me for sure.
What was up with this system message? It felt like it was doing more than just explaining; it was like reading hate comments from someone I didn’t like. Why did its explanation carry emotions?
There was definitely something sinister about it. Considering it mentioned my past life, it must’ve been intentional. And hearing about additional settings felt like a punch to the gut.
Its criticism genuinely hurt me.
It’s said that the truth hurts, and I couldn’t agree more.
Who was writing this? It seemed like it was happening in real-time.
Was all of this a prank and were they broadcasting me worldwide? Were they trying to teach the viewers a lesson that people who write crappy novels received this kind of punishment or something?
Well, I guess I wasn’t famous enough that they would even care to broadcast someone like me. They’d just be like, “So who is this guy, anyway?”
[The required amount of achievement points may vary depending on the situation. What could be done for 100 points yesterday might be 200 points the next day, or 50 points, or it might not even be possible at all.]
I thought the system message would respond to my thought of this being a worldwide broadcast prank, but it didn’t even acknowledge it at all, which was a bit hurtful. Was it saying that it wasn’t even worth considering?
Afterward, a list of various actions that could be performed with achievement points was presented.
Upon seeing that list, I felt something peculiar.
It seemed like... well, it seemed like a cheat in the system, but it was a strangely uncooperative one. I seemed to have gained the ability to interfere with the world of the novel I wrote from the perspective of the author. The functions like “additional settings” and “revision” suggested that they were trying to tell me to rewrite my poorly written novel and make it more enjoyable.
But here’s the thing.
Earlier, they said it would cost 100,000 points just to add a setting about the demon race.
And right now, I was receiving a punishment rather than a reward.
The way things had unfolded so far, it didn’t seem like adding that setting would help me significantly. In the first place, the fact that I’d been reborn as the Demon King’s son seemed to come with a heavy dose of malicious intent. It might become important someday, but at the moment, I only had 1,100 achievement points to work with.
What could I do with that?
[For example, you can create a situation like this: ‘The owner of the bakery gives you a piece of bread, feeling sorry to see a poor beggar like you.’ You can manifest an event that wouldn’t have occurred originally, and it would solve your hunger.
It is important to note that manifesting such an event through a less kind-hearted individual will require more achievement points than manifesting it through a kind-hearted bakery owner. This means that violating the law of probability will require a significant amount of achievement points.
You are well aware of the law of probability, aren’t you? You know, the one you often messed up and then would try to justify it later on without success, causing your mental state to deteriorate. It was the main reason for you stopping a series and running away.]
Calling me a poor beggar and talking about screwing up the law of probability. That was a bit harsh, wasn’t it? The language in these messages was quite ruthless. Perhaps one of my haters who was affected by the frequent discontinuation of my novels was writing these system messages.
I didn’t know if it was a god or a person who was watching over me and writing these messages, but I was sure that they hated me.
And why were there so many constraints? I mean, interfering with major characters might not be a good idea—not that I would—but attempting something significant, like causing someone to die in an accident, would undoubtedly require an enormous number of points or be impossible.
But wait a minute.
If I accumulated enough achievement points, could I do that? You know, split someone in half or something?
If that was the case, I may have actually received an enormous cheat in the system.
Achievement points essentially served as a means to use the Revise function and add new settings to the grand scale of the narrative. Ultimately, it all boiled down to staying within those two frameworks. It could be thought of as a feature that allowed you to rewrite the novel, within certain boundaries.
However, with a mere 1,100 achievement points at my disposal, I was uncertain if it could truly salvage my current situation. As I contemplated the various functions that could be unlocked through achievement points, I stumbled upon an unusual ability.
[Function - The Scribe’s Advice]
What’s this? Was someone going to help me?
[At times, when you’re at a crossroads, unsure of what action to take, or feeling lost, The Scribe’s Advice ability comes into play. It provides you with advice from The Scribe on what action you should take at the moment.]
[This feature is available at a low cost, but the advice is generally shrouded in uncertainty.]
[The Scribe’s guidance may sometimes set traps, and taking the suggested action may lead to unfavorable consequences. It’s common for both good and bad results to manifest when following such advice from The Scribe.]
[The Scribe’s Advice is divided into ‘Clear Advice’ and ‘Ambiguous Advice.’ ‘Clear Advice’ offers straightforward actions but often comes with a higher probability of bad outcomes. On the other hand, ‘Ambiguous Advice’ is challenging to interpret but often leads toward favorable results.]
[I wish you the worst of luck, moron.]
Ah, it wasn’t even pretending to be a system message anymore.
Just reading the explanatory system message alone was disheartening.
***
Even with my current achievement points, there were many things I could attempt. I could create an incident at a grocery store run by a kind individual and get a meal, for example. But that would be a temporary solution. Perhaps I could provoke a situation where a generous wealthy household took me in, but who knows how many points that would require? And how would I even find such a generous household in the first place?
And what was with that system message pop-up? Why did it dislike me so much?
You could have told me that this was a gathering of people who despised me, and I would have easily believed it.
While contemplating various possibilities, it boiled down to the fact that the only option I could test out immediately was The Scribe’s Advice.
It was possibly a trap, but for now, the cost was low so it was worth a try.
[The Scribe’s Advice - 150 Points]
The system message said that the cost of achievement points would vary from time to time. So who knew if they would suddenly inflate the cost to thousands of points in the near future? Ultimately, it was up to me whether or not to listen to the advice and act on it, so I had nothing to lose.
[Clear Advice]
[Ambiguous Advice]
The choices were divided. Clear advice was easy to understand but had a high probability of being a trap, and ambiguous advice was the opposite. Moreover, most advice could likely lead to both good and bad consequences.
Things couldn’t get worse than the current situation I was in, with no food and nowhere to stay. Well, they could get worse, but that would involve risking my life.
In an attempt to increase my chances even slightly, I chose [Ambiguous Advice].
[The Scribe’s Ambiguous Advice]
[How were so many humans kidnapped and held captive at the Demon King's Castle?]
What was this?
What’s going on?
It wasn’t even ambiguous; it was completely unrelated.
Why suddenly throw a riddle at me? I didn’t expect anything even slightly detailed like “Go here” or “Go there,” but I at least expected some kind of instruction.
The sudden riddle caught me off guard and left me speechless.
Hostages in the Demon King’s castle; what about them? What was I supposed to do with that? They were simply kidnapped; that’s it.
At least I was assured that it wasn’t a trap, so that was good. If someone had set up a trap in this sort of riddle, they ought to be ridiculously stupid.
“Sigh....”
I sighed deeply, and a man passing by gave me a strange look as if it was weird for someone so young like me to sigh like that.
‘You don’t know how I feel!’
Would knowing how the people were kidnapped improve my situation? They were just kidnapped; there was nothing more to it. I knew it would be vague advice, but I didn’t think it’d be that vague.
I should have gone with the clear advice instead.
“... Oh?”
Hold on, that’s right. I could just use it again!
[The Scribe’s Advice - 150 Points]
There were no signs saying I couldn’t use it more than once, and the price also remained the same.
What was this? I wasn’t the type to enjoy this kind of mobile gacha-style gamble, but here I was doing it inside an isekai. One difference was that my situation was not about using points to get a thousand crystals or something, but I was gambling with my life instead.
This time, I chose [Clear Advice].
[The Scribe’s Clear Advice]
[Go to a magic item shop]
Finally, some actual advice that gave me direction.
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