Chương 32: Solo Mission - Theo (7)

His vision was blurred. It took a while for him to realise where he was. Theo Parker had been fighting the boss of a planet he didn't live on, and he had somehow won. He had accomplished his goal and completed all of the missions. Planet 502 was officially his. And he had levelled up. This wasn't a dream. It was reality. And it felt unreal.

"I did it," Theo said, tiredness and fatigue clearly present in his voice.

"I completed my solo mission." And now it was time for him to heal himself, get the heck off this planet, return home, have a shower and go straight to sleep. He was surrounded by mana crystals; he told himself that one day he would come back and mine the rest of the mana crystals to make a truckload of cash. Although he had exchanged some of the mana crystals he had earned from defeating the bear, he still had a few on him, and he swallowed them all on the spot. [Skill, 'Healing (basic)', has been activated.]"The next step is to level up all of my skills. These are advanced-level wounds, so healing them with basic-level skills will use up a ton of mana." At least Theo understood that part.

"I wonder what my profile looks like now." Theo couldn't shake off his curiosity. He opened his profile. Name: Theo Parker Age: 17 Height: 6'2" Level: Advanced (stage 5, 235/5000 XP) Main skill: Enhanced Strength Other skills: Teleportation (basic), Recovery (basic), Healing (basic) Traits: Strength: 58 Agility: 25 Stamina: 43 Intelligence: 13 Perception: 10 Locked????? Hopper status: Status: Active Planets explored: 3 (including home planet) Planets claimed: 1"Finally," Theo said, admiring his profile.

"I have finally turned that zero into a one." There were major changes, including his level and his Hopper status. Theo felt like he had achieved something in life. The number of planets claimed was finally one and not zero. That in itself could be considered levelling up. Theo had also unlocked a new trait: perception. It didn't matter to him currently, but like the other traits, he should think about upgrading it in the future.

After he closed his profile, he took off the crown on his head and looked down at the necklace he had gotten by defeating the bear.

"This necklace also looks good on me. And the crown looks like it's made of real gold. Maybe the system has information on them." They did, and the windows popped up as if the system was able to read Theo's mind. Blood Bear Crown Level: Advanced Description: A crown made of the finest gold. One of a kind. Pair this with the Necklace of the Blood Bears to gain complete power over the Blood Bears and become the king of this planet.

Necklace of the Blood Bears Level: Advanced Description: A necklace made using the rarest materials available on 'Planet 502'. One of a kind. Pair this with the Blood Bear Crown to gain complete power over the Blood Bears and become the king of this planet. Theo's mouth began to depict a belated sly smile.

"I can finally be the king of something," he sneered to himself.

"I can definitely get used to this." What was more important, however, was getting off this planet. Theo decided that he could live on this planet and rule over the blood bears after he retired from being a Hopper.

"Time to get out of here," Theo said with his hands behind his head. He stretched his back and began to walk out of the throne room.

"These blood bear corpses are gonna be a nightmare to clean up," Theo murmured. Although that was a problem for the future and not the present. The most important problem to solve in the present was the problem of excessive exhaustion and fatigue. The throne room was deep inside this cave, and it took Theo a good while to reach the exit of the cave. He almost tripped over several blood bear corpses and had to deal with the unmissable odour which made the cave reek of rotting bodies and fresh blood.

And when he reached the exit of the cave, he was greeted by something which he thought was only possible back on Planet Earth.

"It's raining," Theo muttered to himself.

"It's actually raining. I could get a free shower out of this." Theo, who was wearing the Blood Bear Crown and the Necklace of the Blood Bears, stepped out into the rain. He didn't mind, however, since he had been stained with blood due to the countless fights with the mana beasts.

"This feels so nice," Theo said.

"It almost feels like I'm back on Earth already. I can return home cleaner than when I first stepped foot on this planet." On his way back to camp, Theo made good use of the rainy conditions: he drenched himself in rain water, he drank some of the rain water and he splashed his eyes with the water to make himself feel less sleepy. Eventually, however, he had returned to the hole he had dug up and the ladder leading down to the portal room.

"I'm back," Theo said, "and I'm glad it's all over." Theo couldn't wait to be back on Earth. He hurriedly descended the ladder down to the portal room while soaking himself in the rain water. He had completed his mission, and he had finally obtained all the rewards for his hard work. Finally.

"It's good to be back," Theo said as he reached the bottom of the ladder and was greeted by the large circular portal in the middle of the portal room. He stared at the portal, feeling a wide variety of emotions surging in.

"I want to stay here, but at the same time, I want to see my friends again." Unfortunately, he couldn't stay on Planet 502 forever. His job as a Hopper required him to travel to numerous other planets and not just Planet 502.

"It's been fun being on this planet and completing all of the missions," Theo said as he trudged closer and closer to the portal.

"I'll be back one day to mine all the mana crystals and rule over the blood bears." It truly had been a fun journey. But all good journeys had to come to an end. And this was no exception. Theo stepped into the portal, covered his whole body in the dense purple mana, and let magic whisk him back to his homeland.

How long had he been here? A week? Two weeks? A month? No. Daniel De Souza had only been kidnapped for ten hours. What? The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. That couldn't be possible. The time he had spent in here felt exponentially longer than ten hours. It felt like at least three days had passed already. Oh yeah. Daniel had passed out once Gavin left the room he was in the night before, presumably from exhaustion.

He thought he had just woken up from a long coma. In his sleep, there had been a weird message in a blue background that popped up and said: [You have been selected to be a skill user. You are able to use, store and wield mana. Click here to start the tutorial.] Daniel didn't know what that message meant, and he thought that he was only seeing it in his dream. However, the message included the term 'skill user', which Gavin and the Boss had used before he passed out.

He couldn't tell what was real and what was fake anymore.

"You're awake," said Gavin, who was standing next to Daniel when he woke up. His face was devoid of any emotion.

"Time to start the day. You're starting nice and early today."

"G-Gavin!" Daniel flinched; he was bewildered.

"Why are you here? Can I not get out of this room by myself?" Gavin shook his head.

"Unfortunately not. You're one of us now, so you have to learn the rules and regulations we have here. There may be severe consequences and punishments for you if you don't follow these rules." Daniel sat up on his bed.

"What do you mean?" Daniel asked.

"My parents are probably worried about me. I don't even know what time it is!"

"It's time to start the day." Gavin cut Daniel off before Daniel could continue damaging his vocal cords.

"That doesn't tell me anything!"

"It tells you everything."

"Like what?"

"Like the fact that you have to get up, get dressed and follow my instructions." Daniel looked down at the clothes he was wearing. He was still in his school uniform; his blazer was wrapped around a nearby chair, his shirt had several creases and his tie was loose around his neck. I slept in those? Daniel couldn't believe it.

"I don't need to get dressed. I can continue my day wearing these," Daniel paused and said.

"I didn't ask." Fucking hell, this guy is a pain in the ass. Daniel didn't know how much longer he could stay in a confined space with Gavin. If he had to stay in this room with Gavin for just a few more minutes, his brain might end up exploding into smithereens. All Gavin did when Daniel looked down at his school uniform was smirk and display a wry smile on his lifeless face.

"Follow me once you're ready." Gavin beckoned for Daniel to get off the bed and follow him, which Daniel did. All of Daniel's surroundings were foreign; it looked like Daniel was in a maximum-security prison and Gavin was his prison guard, despite the fact that Gavin might even be more annoying and hard to deal with than a standard prison guard. There were doors on either side of Daniel placed equal distances apart, and there were many people wearing white lab coats like Gavin.

It made him, who was wearing a creased white shirt, black trousers and a tie, the odd one out. In a bad way. It really looks like a prison, but a prison for scientific experiments, Daniel thought.

"What? What did you bring me here for? Were you the one who kidnapped me and brought me here?" Daniel let out all of his questions at once, which earned him a blank face from Gavin.

"Hold on a second before I answer these questions," Gavin snarled.

"Can't you see we're in public right now? You stand out significantly in this hallway. The questions that you have just spilled out are questions that should be talked about privately between the two of us. Besides, I know all of the answers. Just be patient." Daniel sighed and hung his head.

"At least tell me where we're going," he said.

"You'll find out soon enough," was Gavin's curt reply. Daniel knew nothing. He was in this prison against his own will, and his prison guard was being rudely annoying, and it was pushing him beyond his limits. The bomb inside his body was going to explode at any second, which would cause him to snap and wrestle Gavin to the floor. Eventually, however, Gavin stopped and opened one of the doors in the dull hallway, and that was when Daniel breathed a sigh of relief.

"Go in," Gavin ordered. Daniel did as he was told. Why was he even listening to a kid his age? Daniel didn't have the right to do that, especially since there was a possibility that Gavin was younger than him. Daniel didn't expect what he was seeing. He looked like he was in the living room of his own house. The room was neat and had a sofa, an armchair, a coffee table and a TV. He felt like he was back at home.

"This is where you will be living," Gavin said.

"Make yourself at home. We designed it to accurately represent your own house. There's a bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen as well, but you can find them yourself." Eh? To accurately represent your own house? How creepy can one person even get to know the layout of someone else's house to such detail? Daniel slumped his athletic body on the armchair, waiting for Gavin to disappear and for him to be alone. But Gavin wasn't disappearing. Daniel grunted and got up from the armchair.

He then walked to the door furthest away from the armchair and opened it. It revealed a spotless, whitewashed kitchen. It was a decent-sized kitchen for an apartment of this size, and there was also a dining table to the side. Gavin walked into the kitchen afterwards, ordering him to take a seat, which Daniel did. Gavin then took a seat across from Daniel.

"Listen," Gavin said after Daniel had sat down.

"This is not what it looks like. What we've done to you has many benefits in its own ways. We just didn't know how to transport you here, that's all."

"You kidnapped me," Daniel snapped, pointing a finger at Gavin's eyes.

"You kidnapped me and brought me here." Gavin nodded.

"I admit, that was me." He sighed after openly admitting his mistake.

"But that was because I was ordered to do that by the Boss. He told me to kidnap you, bring you here and force you to be a skill user. I just couldn't think of a better way to do that." There was that term again. Skill user. Daniel had now heard that term from Gavin, the Boss and Cayman Grace back at school.

"You should've gotten a system message that says that you're now a skill user. Check your messages." Daniel didn't know how to check his 'system messages'. In fact, he didn't even know what they were. Was it related to the message he saw in his sleep the night before? Daniel was a library of unanswered questions, and he didn't like it. [You have been selected to be a skill user. You are able to use, store and wield mana. Click here to start the tutorial.] There it was. The message in his dream.

The blue background. So it was real after all. But how did he open it? He couldn't remember.

"Usually skill users awaken naturally, but you're a special case," Gavin continued.

"We forced you to become a skill user." This was going nowhere; Daniel was not getting the answers to his questions.

"You've received the system message telling you that you're a skill user, right?" Gavin asked. Daniel nodded apprehensively.

"That's an example of a system message." OK. That was just one piece of information.

"Check your profile," Gavin said. Profile? What was a profile?

"Click where it says here," Gavin said, losing patience.

"Jeez, you're really hard to work with." Daniel wanted to say that he was doing this against his own will but he didn't have the confidence to do so. Daniel clicked where it said 'here' on the system message, and that was when his confusion hit its peak.

"Have you clicked it? I can't tell. Only you can see your own system window." He had stretched his finger to point at something that apparently only he could see. A normal person watching him do so would think 'What the hell is this guy doing?' Once he clicked on 'here', a large system window opened in front of him. Name: Daniel De Souza Age: 17 Height: 6'2" Level: Basic (stage 1, 0/100 XP) Main skill: Human Shield Other skills: none Traits: Locked????? Locked????? Locked????? Locked????? Locked????? Locked?????

What the hell was he looking at?

"What is this?" Daniel asked Gavin with a quizzical look on his face.

"What is the 'level', what is 'XP' and what the hell is a 'Human Shield'?" Gavin's emotionless eyes lit up.

"Human Shield is a really good skill to start off with," he said excitedly. Daniel didn't think a person with a personality like Gavin's could show excitement at all.

"It's a defensive skill that can allow you to block against attacks. Stand up. I'll give you a demonstration." As if he was possessed by a demon, Daniel stood up. He was doing this against his own will. If Gavin injured him here, the result wouldn't be pretty.

"I'm going to punch you," Gavin said bluntly.

"Stand still and don't move." Gavin cracked his bulky, scarred fists. Then the punch came. [Skill, 'Human Shield (basic)', has been activated.] Clang! There was the sound of something crashing into metal. Gavin grabbed his fist, and bruises were beginning to form on his knuckles.

"It works," he said, gritting his teeth whilst in pain. Daniel didn't know what was happening. He didn't even know how he had activated his own skill.

"That's the basics done. Sit back down. There's still a lot I have to go through with you today." Daniel sat back down without looking at Gavin. Gavin, on the other hand, continued speaking.

"Listen," Gavin said.

"As annoying as I am, I really am trying to help you. You're a new skill user, and you can't learn everything by yourself. You have to listen carefully to what I'm about to say next."

"And why should I do that?" Daniel snapped.

"I just want to live a completely normal life, and now here I am, being a 'skill user' against my own will. What am I supposed to do now? I'm kidnapped and in some sort of research prison with no way out. Just get me out of here already!" Gavin put a hand on Daniel's arm. Daniel was silent.

"Just listen to me," Gavin continued in a low voice. His tone suddenly turned somber.

"If you listen to me, I can help you get out of this prison."