Awakening With the Renegade System

Chapter Ten: Satisfying Rewards

Ouch... Why does my body keep hurting me? Why do I keep passing out? It's too much...

Javier staggered to his feet, his muscles trembling under the weight of exhaustion. His lungs still burned from inhaling the Blackstone Powder, and every joint ached as if he had been dragged across solid rock. Yet, despite the pain, a sense of power coursed through him—a stark reminder that he had survived what should have been a fatal encounter.

Blake Johnson... he thought within himself. What a formidable opponent you've been. I almost lost my life fighting you...

Then the familiar red holographic screen appeared before his eyes:

[RENEGADE SYSTEM ONLINE...]

>LEVEL UP DETECTED

>CURRENT LEVEL: 2

>STAT POINTS AWARDED: 5

>EXP: 0/10

>HP RESTORED TO MAX

>SP RESTORED TO MAX

[NEW SKILL ACQUIRED]

>SWORDPLAY, LV1 (PASSIVE)

Your wielding of blades is seamless. You can cut opponent in flashes, your body gaining an agility beyond normal.

[ITEM ACQUIRED]

>BLACK STONE POWDER

>"The deadliest strikes are those shrouded in secrecy."

Javier closed his eyes briefly, letting the holographic interface process the data streaming through his consciousness. Slowly, he ran a hand over his steel-like skin, feeling the residual warmth of Fleshborne Healing still coursing through his veins.

I really got the Hunter's sword skill and item, he thought within himself in glee. Who could have thought that such an opportunity would come disguised as danger? I'm so happy...

He then muttered under his breath, "Level two already... And Swordplay as a passive skill? Finally I'll have something to fight with properly. I won't just rely on my Steel Skin."

He flexed his fingers and felt the faint tingling that marked the activation of Swordplay. A sudden flash of memory from his past encounters with blades came to mind, the times he had swung knives and fought men with swords. It wasn't much, but it was enough to give him a slight edge.

[STAT OVERVIEW]

[STATS]

>STRENGTH (STR): 8 (+2)

>AGILITY (AGI): 9 (+3)

>ENDURANCE (END): 7 (+2)

>VITALITY (VIT): 5 (+3)

>INTELLIGENCE (INT): 6 (+0)

>PERCEPTION (PRC): 8 (+2)

>LUCK (LCK): 5 (+0)

[SKILLS]

>SCAMMING, LV2 (PASSIVE)

Enhances ability to deceive. Automatically modifies speech tone, eye contact, facial and body micro expressions to improve lying success rate. Effectiveness increases through successful use.

>STEEL SKIN, LV4 (PASSIVE)

Reinforces skin with steel-like fibre

+35% Damage resistance

+25% Piercing resistance

Enables Evolution Compatibility (Can evolve with rare cores)

>FLESHBORNE HEALING, LV1 (PASSIVE)

Extracts toxins

Converts to biomass

Regenerates organs

Toxin efficiency 55%

Regeneration rate 65%

Cooldown 2hrs

>SWORDPLAY, LV1 (PASSIVE)

Your wielding of blades is seamless. You can cut opponent in flashes, your body gaining an agility beyond normal.

[INVENTORY]

>BLACKSTONE POWDER (×1)

Javier opened his eyes and looked at the forest around him. The sun was beginning its picturesque descent, casting long shadows between the tall, thin trees. A gentle wind stirred the grass, and for a moment, everything felt calm. He even felt a soothing sensation on his mind.

But he knew better. Out here, calm was just the eye of the storm. It was only a matter of time before another Steel Sabertooth or Raider attacked him. There was no true calm here—only bloodshed.

'Blake is gone...' Javier though, a dark grin curling across his face. 'One of my enemies has been eliminated. But that doesn't mean the danger is over. There's a whole world out there, unexplored. And it's just waiting to test me—someone who got reincarnated here by chance.'

He crouched down, picking up the discarded Steel Fang dagger and checking its edge. It still gleamed faint under the sunlight, reflecting the forest likea shard of steel. Holding it, Javier felt a sense of familiarity, like an extension of his own arm.

'Swordplay,' he thought within himself. 'With this passive skill, maybe I can finally make use of this Steel Fang dagger properly..."

Javier's thoughts were interrupted by the Renegade system's alert:

[RENEGADE SYSTEM ONLINE...]

[QUEST: INITIATION PROTOCOL]

[QUEST: INITIATION PROTOCOL]

OBJECTIVES:

>SURVIVE THE RUIN OF NIGHTMARE (COMPLETED)

>LOCATE THE NEAREST HUMAN SETTLEMENT

DURATION: 48 HOURS

PROGRESS:

>TIME: 45HRS 6MINS

>KILLS: 1

>HUMAN SIGNALS DETECTED: 0

REWARD:

+1 LEVEL

+5 STAT POINTS

MEMORY SYNC +5%

RANDOM PASSIVE SKILL

'So I've only completed only one objective,' he thought within himself. 'I still have to find that human settlement. Too bad I can't detect any human signal...'

Javier allowed himself a moment to breathe, closing his eyes again as he let the data sync with his mind. A faint ache remained in his lungs from the Blackstone Powder, but he already felt the lingering effects of Fleshborne Healing repairing his tissues at a rate faster than he could sense.

'I really survived because of all these skills,' he thought within himself. 'The Scamming skill actually saved me against Blake as well. This is going to get interesting. This new world isn't all bad."

He stood up slowly, brushing dirt from his tattered clothes. His muscles were tense, ready to spring at any moment. The forest around him was silent, but Javier didn't trust silence anymore. Every step he took, every crack of a branch or rustle of leaves, could mean another ambush. And he wasn't prepared for that right now.

'Time to move,' he murmured, gripping the Steel Fang dagger tightly. Although it could be dismissed to the inventory, he felt safer carrying it around.

'The nearest human settlement... it's my only shot at survival,' he thought within himself. 'And I'm not going to let anything stop me. I still need to figure out a lot of things about this world.'

With that, Javier began moving through the forest, every step measured, every sense alert.

>SP RECOVERY: +2 PER MINUTE

>STAMINA: 10/10

>HP: 10/10

He paused for a moment, glancing at the Blackstone Powder in his inventory.

'If another Raider tries to use this... I can use it too,' he thought, a dangerous glint in his eyes. 'Maybe it's not just a weapon. Maybe it's a key to survival out here... in this world filled with special powers.'

And with that thought, Javier disappeared deeper into the shadowed forest, his steel-like skin glinting faintly in the last rays of sunlight. The glint then receded as if it had all been an illusion.

>MEMORY SYNC: +1% (CURRENT: 7%)

"Your truths will haunt you, even when you try to forget them!"

Javier smirked faintly, feeling the weight of the Renegade System pressing on him. Every skill, every item, every memory was a weapon—and he intended to use them all. It was at this point of time he realized that the system was really cold and calculative.

'Now my next objective is finding a human settlement...' he thought within himself as he began advancing.