My Troll System

Chapter 5 : Father is Calling

The forest fell back into a deep, heavy hush. The roar of the Dungeon Boss that had shaken the entire area moments ago had completely vanished, replaced by the soft whisper of the wind rustling through the canopy. Four Awakeners still stood frozen in place. Their chests heaved as they gasped for breath. Their bodies were covered in jagged wounds, their clothes torn to shreds, while the weapons they clutched in their grips were so heavy they nearly slipped from their numbed fingers.

Yet, that wasn't what had them completely paralyzed.

Their burning gazes were locked entirely on a single young man standing not far from the lifeless corpse of the Dungeon Boss. That young man was none other than Litchi.

While the four Awakeners were still struggling to process the sheer absurdity of what had just transpired, Litchi was busy staring intently at two objects that had materialized right before his eyes. A massive, ornate treasure chest and a crimson crystal the size of a fist that pulsed with a faint, hypnotic light.

DING!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Dungeon Boss Treasure

Chest F-Rank Monster Core

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Litchi gave a slow, thoughtful nod.

"A treasure chest... a monster core...?"

Memories of dozens of novels, manga, and isekai films he had enjoyed during his past life instantly rushed to the forefront of his mind.

"If I'm following those stories... there should be an Inventory right about now!"

He hurriedly thrust a hand forward.

"Mmmhh! Mmmhh!"

Nothing happened.

Litchi blinked.

"Eh?"

He tried again, this time putting on an expression of grim determination.

"Mmmmmhh! Mmmmmhh!"

Still zero reaction. He glanced warily to his right and left, making sure no one was watching. Then, stealthily, he swept his index finger in a circle through the air, trying to manually carve a virtual menu out of thin air.

"Mmmhh..."

Silence.

"......"

"Did I use the wrong incantation?"

"Or is this System actively messing with me?"

With a scowl, he poked the treasure chest with the tip of his wooden spoon.

"Mmmhh!!"

DING!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Inventory Unlocked

Capacity : 0 / 100

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Litchi's eyes flew wide open.

"WHAT?!"

"It's actually real?!"

If his mouth hadn't been locked down by a disciplinary voice seal, his shout probably would have echoed across the entire forest.

He hurriedly tapped the floating icon of the treasure chest.

Whoosh!

The Dungeon Boss Treasure Chest dissolved into a flurry of glittering particles before vanishing from the ground.

The Inventory panel updated instantly.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Inventory Dungeon Boss

Treasure Chest ×1

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"Mmmhh..."

Litchi nodded in supreme satisfaction.

"Incredibly convenient. If my old world had a feature like this, moving houses would literally just take a single tap."

His curiosity flared up again. He picked up the Monster Core still resting on the dirt.

Whoosh!

The red crystal shifted into light and whisked itself straight into the Inventory.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Inventory Dungeon Boss

Treasure Chest ×1

F-Rank Monster Core ×1

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"Mmmhh... (Astonishingly practical. If I had this back home, I wouldn't even need to buy a wardrobe.)"

He smiled smugly, patting the empty air.

Meanwhile, the four Awakeners were observing his every single move with burning eyes.

The bulky man clenched his fist so tightly the veins on his temples bulged.

"Damn it..."

The elderly spearmaster turned to him.

"What is it?"

"That brat." The bulky man pointed a trembling finger at Litchi. "The whole time, he was cowering behind a boulder. He only shows up right when the Boss is on its last breath. And now... he's even walking away with all our spoils."

His face darkened into a furious scowl.

"That's a blatant kill steal."

The old man stroked his beard slowly.

"I suppose you're right."

The green-robed woman let out a weary sigh.

"If that's the case... what are we going to do?"

The bulky man snorted harshly.

"I want to wipe him out right here and now."

"But..." He tightened his grip on his heavy sword. "My body isn't recovered."

His internal mana reserves were practically dried up. His physical stamina was utterly exhausted from the brutal, prolonged war against the Dungeon Boss.

The green-robed woman nodded in grim agreement.

"We're all in the same boat."

"If we pick a fight now... victory is far from guaranteed."

The blonde archer, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke up.

"As far as I'm concerned... the important thing is that we're still alive."

"The Dungeon Boss is dead."

"That's enough for today."

The bulky man glared daggers at him.

"Enough? Did you just say enough?"

"All of our hard work got snatched away just like that!"

"The Treasure Chest."

"The Monster Core."

"That brat took the whole lot."

The old man nodded slowly.

"It's infuriating, yes."

"But right now isn't the right time."

The bulky man drew a harsh, ragged breath. His gaze remained locked like a predator on Litchi's back.

"Fine. We wait..."

"Sooner or later... we'll get our chance to finish him."

None of his three companions voiced their agreement, but none of them spoke out to counter him either.

Suddenly, a blinding pillar of blue light erupted directly beneath Litchi, instantly swallowing his entire form. Litchi's vision turned pure white for a brief second. A weightless sensation enveloped his body, as though he were being dragged smoothly through an endless, quiet tunnel.

A few moments later, the soles of his feet connected firmly with solid ground once more. A cool, refreshing breeze brushed against his face.

Litchi slowly blinked his eyes open.

The scene unfolding before him left him standing completely frozen.

Soaring skyscrapers pierced the heavens.

A massive, multi-lane highway stretched out before him, marked with neat, crisp white lines.

Cars and motorcycles hummed past in an endless stream. Traffic lights flickered in steady, predictable intervals. Lush trees lined the clean sidewalks. People strolled along casually, carrying briefcases, iced beverages, or staring deeply into the screens of their smartphones.

Everything looked utterly, terrifyingly normal.

"Mmmhh... (Did I actually make it out?)"

Litchi pivoted slowly on his heel.

The Dungeon Portal now stood right behind him like a glowing gate concealed neatly behind a metal guardrail.

A few pedestrians were wandering in and out of the portal with casual expressions, treating it as if it were nothing more than an everyday morning commute.

Not a single person looked panicked, and not a single soul looked startled.

Litchi swallowed hard.

"This world feels completely bizarre."

"Dungeons exist, yet city life goes on exactly like Earth."

His eyes kept darting across his surroundings.

In the distance stood a modern shopping mall. Giant electronic billboard screens flashed vivid promotional advertisements. City buses rumbled by. The occasional honk of a horn drifted through the air. The longer he looked, the more intense that profound sense of alienation grew.

"This Planet Astral... why does it look so identical to Earth?"

"If it weren't for the dungeons..."

"...I'd honestly think I never died at all."

Right at that moment...

DING!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Congratulations.

The Host has just acquired their first enemy in this world.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Litchi blinked rapidly.

"Mmmhh? (Enemy?)"

He whipped his head to the left.

Nobody was there.

He whipped his head to the right.

Still nobody.

Finally, he looked back over his shoulder.

All he saw were everyday Awakeners casually walking in and out of the dungeon gate.

"Mmmhh... (Who? Wait... Could it be...)"

His memory instantly flashed back to the four Awakeners who had fought the Dungeon Boss.

"Them?"

"Probably..."

"But why?"

He tried to summon the blue system panel.

Yet the moment he parted his lips to speak, only a soft, muffled hum escaped.

"Mmmhh..."

Litchi remembered.

"Ah. Right. My punishment isn't over yet."

He let out a defeated sigh.

"Whatever... I'll just ask later."

"What matters more right now is figuring out what kind of world this actually is."

He began walking down the pavement.

The further he strolled, the more wonders caught his eye, amplifying his fascination.

On the corner of the street stood a modern coffee shop packed with customers. Office workers sat relaxed, sipping specialty lattes.

Across the avenue, a convenience store buzzed with shoppers. Schoolchildren in crisp uniforms laughed and joked as they walked past, some of them even carrying backpacks printed with cute cartoon monster motifs.

Litchi tilted his head, resting a hand thoughtfully on his chin.

"So..."

"Monsters are just a regular part of everyday life?"

"Nobody is terrified?"

His eyes drifted up to a massive electronic billboard.

A bold, flashy advertisement blazed across the screen.

[Hunter Gear 30% Off!]

Beneath the text was an illustration of a towering Awakener clad in jet-black armor, wielding a massive executioner's sword.

Litchi blinked again.

"Hunter supply stores?"

"Meaning the Hunter profession is a fully recognized, official career path."

Not far away, a towering public news screen was broadcasting a live report.

"Guild Black Wolf successfully cleared a Rank-C Dungeon this morning..."

"Zero casualties reported..."

"The Hunter Association reminds citizens not to enter active dungeon zones without official clearance..."

Litchi nodded slowly.

"Just like the novels."

"The only difference is... this is all completely real."

He resumed his walk.

Every few meters, he stumbled upon something that expanded his sense of wonder. There were directional signs pointing toward the Hunter Association headquarters. Billboards advertised specialized Awakener academies. There was even a trendy cafe using an adorable, chibi goblin as its corporate logo.

A visible vein throbbed on Litchi's temple.

"I almost feel bad for the Goblins."

"Hunted inside the dungeons."

"Turned into restaurant logos outside of them."

Just then...

DING!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Punishment Done.

Voice Seal Released.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Litchi instantly slammed the brakes, stopping dead in his tracks. His eyes widened, and he cleared his throat gently.

"Ahem..."

His voice rang out crystal clear and loud.

"Testing..."

"Yes! I can finally talk again!!"

He threw both hands triumphantly up toward the sky.

"FINALLY!!"

A few passing pedestrians instantly turned to look at him.

A young child tugged anxiously on his mother's sleeve.

"Mom..."

"What's wrong with that mister?"

His mother quickened her pace, pulling the child along.

"Don't stare."

"He probably just went through a terrible breakup."

Litchi caught the whisper and pulled an intensely awkward face.

"Hehehe..."

"No, no, I just recovered from being mute."

A passing man glanced over, offering a polite, casual nod.

"Oh! Glad to hear you're better."

And with that, the man kept walking as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

Litchi scratched his cheek sheepishly.

"People in this world are dangerously relaxed."

Once normalcy was restored to his surroundings, he let out a long, sweeping exhale. Then, his gaze dropped to the blue panel drifting back into view before him.

A faint, confident smile spread across his face. He flexed both hands with eager anticipation.

"Alright, System."

"Now there's nothing stopping my vocal cords."

"I've got a mountain of questions for you."

The blue panel settled calmly into place.

[Ask.]

Litchi grinned broadly.

"Now that's more like it."

"If we communicate like this, we can talk like civilized beings."

The panel remained completely mute.

Litchi cleared his throat once more.

"Okay! Question number one."

"You said this body wasn't a manufactured vessel."

[I never claimed otherwise.]

"Then whose identity does this body actually belong to?"

The blue panel flickered lazily.

[Check the Host's smartphone.]

Litchi frowned.

"Smartphone?"

It was only then that he felt a heavy, unfamiliar weight pressing against his trouser pocket.

He quickly reached in and pulled it out.

A sleek, premium black smartphone rested in his palm.

Litchi let out a relieved breath.

"Thank goodness."

"At least I don't have to memorize a brand-new phone number from scratch."

[Open the identity application.]

Litchi tapped the screen to wake it up.

Strangely enough, there were no lock screens, passwords, or biometric fingerprint scanners to bypass.

The moment the display lit up, a clean grid of app icons appeared. His eyes instantly zeroed in on an icon shaped like a digital ID card. Litchi tapped it with his index finger.

A few seconds later, a full profile of personal data flooded the screen.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Name : Litchi Bruce

Age : 25

Race : Human

Status : Awakener

Occupation : Hunter

Address : Sky Garden Mansion District ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Litchi blinked repeatedly.

"Huh?"

"That is wildly detailed."

He scrolled down the screen.

National ID number.

Hunter License registration.

Medical history.

Awakener clearance logs.

Right down to tax compliance records.

"Seriously..."

"This is even more thorough than my civil registry records back in my old world."

[All data has been fully synchronized with the Planet Astral database.]

"The technology here is straight-up insane."

Driven by sudden curiosity, he tapped out of the file and opened another application.

A digital banking wallet.

Litchi smiled thinly.

"If the identity checks out..."

"...does that mean the bank account comes with it?"

He tapped it open.

A couple of seconds later, his eyes popped wide open in sheer disbelief.

"What?!"

His hand nearly dropped the phone.

He rubbed his eyes vigorously before leaning in close to count the string of zeros glaring back at him from the screen.

"One, two, three, four..."

".........."

"WHAT???"

"550 Billion?"

"That is an ungodly amount of money!"

His hands began to tremble slightly.

"System."

[What?]

"Is this app glitching out?"

[No.]

"Don't mess with me."

"A balance this high is enough to buy out a premier professional football club."

[That balance legally belongs to the Host.]

Litchi swallowed hard.

"Not just a football club." He muttered.

"This could buy out several major multi-national corporations."

His gaze drifted back up to his residential address.

Sky Garden Mansion District.

"A mansion?"

"Don't tell me I actually live in a place that massive?"

[Correct.]

Litchi's expression lit up like a Christmas tree.

"I never would've guessed that after suffering through two lifetimes..."

"...I'd actually get to experience what it's like to be obscenely rich."

He let out a quiet, giddy chuckle.

"Hehehe..."

"In the old days, I worked my fingers to the bone."

"And my paycheck vanished instantly on nonsense."

"Now..."

"I wake up and I'm straight-up a billionaire sultan."

Yet, a few seconds later, his smile faltered. He looked back up at the hovering System panel.

"Hold on."

"If all of this wealth really belongs to this body..."

"Does that mean this body had an original owner?"

[Correct.]

"Then who was he?"

[The scion of a prominent conglomerate family on Planet Astral.]

"Oh, well that explains why the bank account is giving me heart palpitations."

"So how did I end up taking over his body?"

The panel blinked once.

[The original owner of this body has passed away.]

"Passed away?"

"Did he die in a Dungeon Break?"

[No.]

"Killed by a monster?"

[No.]

Litchi's brow furrowed deeper.

"Then how?"

[That day marked his very first time entering a Dungeon.]

[And then he encountered a Goblin.]

"And then?"

[He died.]

Litchi froze entirely.

"Wait."

"Just like that?"

[Correct.]

"He got murdered by a Goblin?"

[No.]

"Ambushed?"

[No.]

"Chased down?"

[No.]

Litchi grew thoroughly bewildered.

"Then what was the cause of death?!"

[The Host suffered fatal cardiac arrest brought on by severe psychological shock upon his initial visual contact with a Goblin.]

Absolute silence descended upon the pavement.

Litchi stared blankly at the blue panel without even blinking.

"...Are you serious?"

[Correct.]

"So the Goblin didn't even get a chance to do anything?"

[Not yet.]

"Didn't get a chance to attack?"

[Not yet.]

"Didn't even get close?"

[Not yet.]

"Didn't even try to eat him?"

The panel paused for a moment.

[Irrelevant.]

Litchi massaged his temples in sheer exasperation.

"Okay."

"I can paint the picture vividly in my head."

"Step into a Dungeon."

"Lay eyes on a Goblin."

"Oh god! A monster!"

"And then..."

"...instant game over."

The panel remained dead silent.

Litchi shook his head slowly.

"Tragic."

"And profoundly embarrassing."

[Following the previous owner's expiration, the Host was successfully transferred into this vessel.]

Suddenly, the whole puzzle clicked into place.

This body hadn't been fabricated out of thin air by the System. Nor was it an empty shell. It was simply the vessel of a young man whose life had been cut abruptly short.

Litchi looked back down at the screen of his smartphone.

An absurdly astronomical bank balance, a luxury mansion, and a fully registered legal status as an elite Hunter and Awakener. Everything finally made logical sense.

He slipped the phone back into his pocket.

"Fine by me."

"In that case... I'll just make sure to live this new life to the absolute fullest."

[Log note accepted.]

Litchi gave a slow nod.

"Which brings me to my next question."

"Why on earth is my Profession listed as a Chef?"

The moment those words left his mouth...

The blue panel abruptly vanished into thin air.

".........????"

Litchi stared blankly at the empty space before him.

"Oi!"

"Don't you dare pretend you went offline."

"System?"

Not a peep in response.

"System?"

Total silence.

A vein throbbed violently on Litchi's temple.

"Cheapskate panel."

"The second the topic turns to Chef.. it immediately plays dead."

He let out a heavy sigh, deeply annoyed by the System's blatant ability to ghost him whenever it felt like it. However, just as Litchi turned to resume walking down the street...

BRRRR...

His smartphone vibrated intensely in his pocket. The screen lit up with a flood of notifications: "99 Missed Calls 47 Unread Messages."

The contact name sitting at the very top of the notification stack consisted of just two simple words.

Father. Right below it... Mother. Followed closely by... Head Butler, Alice, and Alessa

Litchi swallowed hard, a cold sweat breaking out on his neck.

"......."

"I actually have a family?"

Before he could even begin to mentally process that bombshell...

The phone buzzed violently in his hand once more, flashing that exact same dreaded name across the display.

FATHER IS CALLING...

Litchi stared at the glowing screen for a long, agonizing moment. He could practically feel a crushing atmospheric pressure radiating right through the glass.