Chapter 13: Curse Of Frailty

[Regional Chat (#058-34)

LagLord69: "What the hell was that??!!!! 500 INSTA KILLS????!!!"

JennyBricks145: "There’s an achievement system as well?"

BudgetBatman: "How is that even possible?. Five hundred insta kills?!. It hasn’t even been up to four hours since the world went to hell."

TrustWorthyGuy: "Dm me if you need help."

AllSeeingEyes: "@BudgetBatmanThis person wasn’t even on any of the rankings. Is this a hacker ?..... Is there a price for this achievement?. It’s so flashy, so there should be some sort of benefit, right? "

ClownDimps: " @ShyButterfly, senior, how are you so strong?. What grade of class did you awaken? "

Orion Blackridge: "@ShyButterfly, please check you Dm. I need your help, please."

GrampsOtaku: "@AllSeeingEyes. Judging by the fanfare earlier, I think there should be a huge reward for this achievement thing. Who can even get such an achievement?... Five hundred insta-kills? That person is clearly no longer human. Even @RainbowJubilee did not get something like this."

SlimShadi: "@Orion Blackridge. Why are you tagging him here?. Do that on the global channel if you can afford it. It’s not like he or she is from our region."

Orion Blackridge: "@SlimShadi No, he definitely is from our region. I swear I have seen that name appear in the comments here before."

CelestialGoddess92: "What?!! Is that true? Somebody, please confirm."]

There were two trending topics on the chat channels at the moment. One was the discovery that there exists an achievement system, as well as what other possible ways there could be to invoke an achievement.

The second trending topic was who exactly this ShyButterfly person was, with both formal bodies and individuals leaving several messages seeking help from this person, looking to recruit him, joining hands with him, trying to pry into his class or his identity for whatever reason, as well as find out what benefits being awarded such an achievement from this mysterious power meant.

Through it all, however, there wasn’t a single response from this individual with the username Shybutterfly. Whether anybody had succeeded in direct private communication was still unknown. The whole world was enamored by this person for one reason. Their strength.

Even others who had been trending for ranking on the leaderboards with their inhuman prowess had not accomplished this person’s ridiculous feat. People were coming up with many theories about who this person could be, as well as what kind of class they might have awakened, and the possibility that they in fact are the current strongest in the world.

Harvey and Mildred were quick to return their attention to what was most urgent, Mildred putting Hazel through Damon’s likes and dislikes as a mother would to a babysitter when leaving their child alone. Damon, watching this happen, couldn’t help but be embarrassed, sighing and closing his eyes. Haley smiled nervously, listening to the firesome lady’s instructions. She was around the same age as Damon, so she felt awkward being placed in such a position.

After all was said and done, Damon watched Harvey and Mildred exit through the front door that was locked behind them by Hazel according to their directive. He couldn’t help but worry and feel particularly saddened that he couldn’t do more to actively help.

Then he suddenly recalled what he had been meaning to do, a way in which he could probably provide some help. And that was the fact that he himself was an awakened.

Damon had barely browsed through any of the system’s functions, but the navigation was almost instinctual. Just like the voice at the back of his mind urging him to say the words ’Origin System,’ at the time, the navigation was just as intuitive.

With a thought, Damon was presented with a dashboard that everyone on Earth could access. This dashboard shimmered with purple luster, and on it there were primary segmented sections. There was the chat channels section, the store section, the leaderboard section, the events section, and finally, what Damon was currently curious about— the Awakener Status. And though it appeared as Awakener Status to Damon, it appeared simply as participant status to Harvey and Mildred.

The chat channels were simple enough, with some parts still greyed out. This was the one Damon had delved into prior, on which he learnt a lot in addition to the information he was presented with by Harvey. The leaderboard section didn’t seem that important yet; however, Damon noted to check that out soon enough since apparently there were generous rewards for ranking on these leaderboards, despite the inconvenience of standing out too much.

Damon also hasn’t had the time to check out the Origin store, and he thought it irrelevant for now since he had no Origin crystals, same as the events section, which he still wasn’t clear on even after seeing some comments regarding it. However, what was of utmost importance at the moment was exploring his awakener status, and seeing what exactly he had awakened, and if at all he stood a chance in this new hell.

He held his breath, pushing aside the growing need for slumber gnawing at him; Damon caused his awakener status to unspool before him with a thought—

[AWAKENER STATUS]

[DAMON EINSTEIN]

ALIAS: WHITE DEMON

RACE: AWAKENED HUMAN

TIER: 0

MENTALITY: ???

PHYSIQUE: 1.5

CLASS: RICH MAN [ UNIQUE HIDDEN (???) ]

[CLASS SKILL 0: RICH MAN’S BANK (PASSIVE) ]

[CLASS SKILL 1: LOCKED ]

[CLASS SKILL 2: LOCKED ]

[CLASS SKILL 3: LOCKED ]

[CLASS SKILL 4: LOCKED ]

[CLASS SKILL 5: LOCKED ]

[??? ]

AFFLICTION: CURSE OF FRAILTY [UNIQUE (ORIGIN) ]

Out of everything that appeared before Damon. Disregarding the several concerning question marks on his status, one thing in particular instantly caught his eye. That was the last part of his status that had the word ’Affliction.’

Instantly, what transpired in the awakening space began to flood his mind as his will was impressed upon that section. Surprisingly, everything else on his screen cleared out, bringing the affliction to his front view, expounding with more details—

[CURSE OF FRAILTY [UNIQUE (ORIGIN)

FOR YOU WHO TILTED THE BALANCE; THE ’ORIGIN WILL’ GIFTS A UNIQUE CURSE.

EFFECT 1: IMPOSSIBLE TO INCREASE PHYSIQUE STAT.

EFFECT 2: PRONE TO RANDOM LOSS OF CONSCIOUSNESS.

EFFECT 2: PRONE TO RANDOM FULL-BODY OR PARTIAL PARALYSIS.]

"..."

"Give me a damn break."