Our absolutely clueless mc, Miren was sitting in their chair, well past 4am in the morning, still reading the same novel they had been for the past 14 hours now. Eyes struggling to keep themselves open, drool attempting to escape their mouth, as they continued to read.
"Just one more chapter, then I'll sleep." They said for the millionth time tonight, sadly it was a lie. Just as their eyes threatened to close for good this time, a faint chime played, then suddenly Miren's eyes were filled with a translucent tint of blue blocking out all that existed in front of them, and waking Miren from their mire. Text popped up before them 'System download initiated, mandatory shutdown commencing', that is all Miren could see before suddenly seeing nothing, and their consciousness seemingly ceasing to exist.
Then they came back to, they were laying on their back staring up at the sky above them, a beautiful blue, wind gently caressing their face, lulling them further awake. They felt incredibly groggy, as if every muscle of their entire being just ran a million mile marathon all at once. A chime once again played in their mind, then a familiar translucent blue swept across their vision.
'System download complete, Welcome to the system host' Virtual confetti filled the screen before falling and disappearing, Seemingly mocking the host, or at least that's how Miren felt. A twitch played at their mouth as the text on the screen changed 'Host tutorial activated, welcome to the system newbie'. That made Miren want to punch the screen if it didn't exist within their eyes.
This time the entire system changed, it seemed to pop out from their eyes, instead of covering their entire vision it 'backed up' and took up only a portion of their vision seemingly at a distance of a foot or so away, but when they went to touch it, their hand didn't even go through the screen. Their hand swept through like the screen didn't exist at all, confirming to them this thing was within their eyes, or mind, one or the other.
The screen had a lot of things going on, Miren was silently thankful for the tutorial but didn't want to admit it. Following the slow blinking glow of a pop up, they read, 'Welcome to your one and only Universal Purpose System, where with enough points you can unlock anything. [NEXT]' "Well that explains everything. Thank you system for your vague ass message, I so appreciate it." Said Miren in their mind while making a heart wit their fingers, then clicking next.
'This is your status screen, above the stats you'll see your exp bar. Every time you take the life of something you'll get exp. That exp will fill up your exp bar, once filled you'll level up. Every level up you'll gain both status points and system points. The status points can be used to upgrade yourself, the system points can be used to upgrade and use the system features. [NEXT]'
'These are your stats, as you can see some stats are greyed out, anything in the system greyed out is locked, some locked items don't have shown names, and are locked by a lock icon. Those items are locked by both system points and conditions. Items only locked by grey are unlockable by system points. You can unlock them by buying them, or items required from the system shop [NEXT]'
'Your current unlocked stats can be upgraded by by using the arrow next to them to add points then clicking accept at the bottom of the stats screen, which will appear when you try to add points to your stats. To the right of your stats is your miniature self display. [NEXT]'
'Your miniature self display shows your current self, clothes, equipment slots, money, etc. You can change your appearance by using the system shop. Any items, equipment, etc. can all be bought in the system shop. Under your self display is your inventory. Currently it is only 25 slots, each slot can only hold one type of item, and each item can only stack up to 999 times, this can be upgraded in the system shop. [NEXT]'
As Miren clicked next the previous screen closed, and another opened. 'This screen contains everything else the system has to offer in as compact a place as possible. Each category is organized by name, and a pull down arrow bar, by clicking the arrow the category will open. If you wish to open any category on its own, this entire screen its self or the previous screen just say the name of page/category you wish to open, or think about it and it will open automatically. [NEXT]'
'As you can see most of the categories are currently locked, and many are unreadable currently. Work hard to unlock more system categories and functions in the future. Currently the only category unlocked is 'info' the info category shows your current info not within your stats window. This includes name, race, age, world origin, skills, blood type, and much more. All of which can be changed by using the system shop. [CLOSE]'
'What, that's it? That was the whole tutorial? What about the shop? Where I currently am? What are skills? What the hell is going on?' With the info screen still open in front of them, Miren sat up finally. Sitting cross legged hands on their face, letting out a long sigh, then sitting there like that for a few minutes. Likely trying to wake up from whatever shitty dream this was to no avail. Finally opening their eyes again they looked at the info screen.
Name: Miren
Age: 23
Race: Human
Gender: Female
Skills: [Calm Mind] [beginners knife skills] [beginners hand combat]
Constitution: None
Physique: None
Current Status: [weak body] [exhaustion] [mild malnutrition] [mild dehydration] [sever near sightedness]
'Why am I so fucked up?' Miren, the chronically online, never been to the gym, sprite only drinking, insomnia having, glasses wearing human asked themselves. 'What's calm mind?' They asked, focusing on the skill, wanting to open it to see more. Which, to their surprise actually opened to show more info.
[Calm mind] To keep hosts from losing their minds, all hosts are given calm mind for free. As it sounds, calm mind is a skill to keep you generally calm in most situations. 'apt description.' Miren said before finally relaxing completely, and sifting through their system screens.
Stats Screen
[Strength] 3 [Dexterity] 3
[Endurance] 3 [Intelligence] 3
[Wisdom] 3 [Charisma] 3
[Locked] [Locked]
Currently equipped: Pj top, Pj bottoms, slippers, -5 prescription glasses
Currency: 0
'Wow, I'm weak and broke.' Miren finally said after going through everything unlocked. They did find the system shop, but it was greyed out. When they tried to open it, the system showed the unlock cost was 100 system points. 'Expensive a shit.' After closing the system entirely Miren took a minute to look around, they seemed to be sitting in a forest clearing and around 10 feet from them on all sides was forests with seemingly no end from where they sat. Sparse grass and weeds surrounded Miren within the clearing.
'Weak, middle of nowhere, no weapons, ahh fuck.' Miren said in their mind before finally decided to get up, then digesting everything the system told them previously. 'Every time you take the life of something. Do plants count?' They said while simultaneously picking a flower from the ground next to them. At the same time they heard a faint chime, and sure enough from the corner of their eye they saw a '+1 exp' message.
A faint smile spread across their face, clearly pleased. Proceeding to start weeding the forest clearing until they heard a different chime, and a new pop up in their vision. [Level up, Level 1] Opening the system they saw under their stats screen a new bar [Stats points: 1]. A new bar also appeared below the exp bar, [System points: 1]. Without even thinking Miren put the new point in strength.
As they clicked accept, and the +1 to strength was added, they did feel a tiny bit stronger. If before they couldn't kill a spider by stepping on it, for sure they could now. Miren was now sure the system was mocking them, this increase to strength was so tiny it felt like an insult.
Looking at the exp bar, to the next level they needed 25 exp. Miren got to work pulling weeds again, kneeling on the ground this time, and seemingly more driven, did they want to get a bunch of points to upgrade their strength to try to give the system a 'fuck you' in a weird way? Yes, yes they were.
Miren was mistaken about how long it would take to get strong the way they were doing things. After 4 hours of work, they only got to level 4, 56/500 exp. They already put all their points in strength, in the end they had a 7 in strength. Now for sure if they tried to cut a well done steak with a knife it'd be like cutting slightly frozen butter. Easier than normal, but still difficult, that is to say they still had slightly below average strength.
Miren sat on the ground sweaty and tired, pj's covered in dirt, and now it the sun was past mid day. 'I really want some water, or sprite. Mostly sprite.' Sprite addicted Miren thought, while trying to cool off in the faint breeze. Then abruptly standing up, and deciding to walk around the edge of the forest thinking maybe they could hear water if it was close. Sadly Miren was a bit of an idiot, as humans would smell water long before hearing it, and you can't find water by just trying to listen for it. Even if they could, would they even know if it was safe to drink?
They didn't even think about any of that as they walked in a giant circle, of course not hearing any water near by. The only water they could smell was their sweat, which they were not about to drink from their dirty pj's. Poor idiot Miren then decided to try to listen for animals, maybe the animals could lead them to water. It was an okay idea, but They could also lead Miren away from water, or get them even more lost, but Miren didn't think about that. They were mostly thinking about sprite, and wishing they had some in their pj pocket before this happened. Maybe it would of come with them if they did.