Book 1: Chapter 38

Aqua I feel nothing but pain as I sit down in my cavern lying against my backpack and staring up at the ceiling. Just nothing but pain. The pain is far worse than any pain I’ve felt so far, but the vague phantom sensations I’m feeling from my missing arm that is currently still inside the shark’s mouth probably bother me more than the pain. Even if I know it’ll grow back eventually. The only question is how long it’ll take for my arm to grow back. On the bright side though, I lower my gaze to glance down at the System Messages playing in my vision. [You have killed a level thirty Deepsea Ripper Shark. EXP has been granted accordingly.] [You have killed a creature underwater. Apex Predator of the Depths has been activated, increasing your REGEN stat by one.] [Congratulations! You have now reached level 26! Your total free points have increased by two, and your mana stat has increased by ten.] [Congratulations! You have now reached level 27! Your total free points have increased by two, and your mana stat has increased by ten.] I lightly scoff at the sight of the messages. All that work for one measly REGEN stat point and a couple levels. I shake my head at the thought. Whatever. I’m alive. I didn’t actually lose anything other than an arm for probably a few days to a week. And I got two levels out of it. Even my home is still in one piece despite the rubble that was destroyed outside of it. It’s fine. Everything’s fine. I lie back on my backpack before feeling tears beginning to leak from my eyes. But even that’s fine. It’s all fine. I take in a deep, shaky breath, before letting it out again. Then I wipe the tears, blink a few times, and take another deep breath. This one being a lot more stable. Right. Back in order again. Then I find something flashing in the corner of my vision, reminding me of something else that exists. Oh, yeah. I kind of forgot about the leaderboards. I select the menu before finding a notification there. System Notification Congratulations, Aqua Fallen! Your position on the leaderboards have officially updated: Oceana Leaderboards – 1st Dartric Galaxy Leaderboards – 21st Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. As a reward for reaching first place on the Oceana Leaderboards, you have received the trait World First Ranker. I stare blankly at it before a faint smile begins to spread across my face. Okay, maybe this better than I thought. I open my status before looking at the new trait. [World First Ranker – A trait reserved for the first ranked user in any world. However, should the user lose their position as first ranked in their world, they will lose this trait one month after losing the rank unless they reclaim the rank within that time. During which time both the new and old first ranked will have the trait. This trait grants the user an additional free point every two levels.] Yeah, I completely forgot about this trait. It just never really crossed my mind since I wasn’t thinking about competing with the natives of this world. I was just trying to survive. Well, this trait will be helpful at least. It’s too bad it doesn’t seem to take effect until after opening that. I let out another sigh at that thought before finally sitting up with a grimace and carefully taking my armor off. Which I was avoiding doing thanks to my pain and my arm. But my arm seems to be scabbing over a bit now so it’s not bleeding right now. That said, it’s itchy as hell. Also, my poor hoodie is now missing most of its right sleeve. Same with my shirt under it. I glance at the Sponsorship System menu again to see if there are any other outfits I can get through the sponsorship right now. And there actually is. It unlocked when I reached level 25. So I go ahead and accept that, making a new outfit very similar yet different from my current one appear before me. Apparently these sponsors are dead set on me keeping this image of short shorts and a hoodie. This hoodie, shirt, and shorts, and even the underwear are all black and deep blue in color. And they’re the same size as the last sets. I go ahead and put those into my storage ring to wear later. After I’ve healed enough to be up to changing. Then I go ahead and take off my hoodie and even my shirt. Because they’re both irritating my scabbed stump of an arm even more just from being on and occasionally touching it. Leaving me in a sports bra and shorts. This entire thing... it’s messed up. The viewers who enjoy it, the system itself that is set up in a way to make everything as tense and dangerous as possible like not giving any better weapons from the sponsorship until level thirty, and so on. It’s all messed up. Honestly, the entire Alliance is messed up. Fine though. I just have to survive and move on. I’ve always been like that. Just survive and continue on. Keep pushing. Don’t stop. I will eventually make it to my goal. To a better life. So long as I keep pushing. It’s always been how I do things. And it’s not a wrong mentality to live by and has actually worked for me. When I push harder, through the pain, the sorrow, and the work, I get results. And things do get a little easier. It’s why I have barely complained about this entire ‘being chosen as a Pioneer’ thing at all. Plus viewers don’t like Pioneers who make a fuss or whine about being made to be a Pioneer. And not being liked by viewers is a death sentence in its own right due to sponsorships. No one is going to sponsor a Pioneer who isn’t liked by the viewers after all. I let out a sigh as I place my hand over my chest – since my stomach currently has some bones sticking out of it so I can’t place my hands there – just occasionally tapping my fingers. Just gotta keep pushing and then my life will be golden. My eyes begin to droop closed even as my missing arm itches horribly. All the way until they close, and I find myself falling asleep. When they open again, I feel my arm still being just as itchy as before. And the broadcast fortunately doesn’t start right away considering my current state of attire. So after sitting up and stretching my remaining arm before climbing to my feet and doing as many stretches as I can actually do, I go ahead and jump in the water down below to clean off. Ignoring the further itchiness from my arm – which actually does seem to have grown a little bit over night – and the pain in my stomach from the exposed bones as I do so. Then I jump up onto the ruins and then jump straight over to the cavern I call home, clearing the distance with ease despite my injuries. While ignoring the shark’s massive corpse floating in the water. And after briefly looking over my arm again, which seems to be pretty much eternally scabbed as it slowly regrows, I go ahead and put on my old clothes. Leaving the new clothes for after my bones are no longer sticking out of me. Just so that I don’t get any blood on the new clothes right away. Because that would be a shame. Although I do cut off the right sleeve so that it doesn’t irritate the scab. And I don’t wear armor over my missing right arm. Even after repairing my armor with mana. After I finish preparing and am fully dressed, the broadcast starts. With the chat quickly filling and blowing up with people talking. Not that it’ll matter for long as I’ll be taking on jobs in a moment, so they’ll be kicked out when the broadcast ends. But right as I’m about to accept the first job of today, I notice the chat talking about prosthetics. Yeah, I kinda forgot those were a thing. But it doesn’t matter. I don’t need them. At the rate my arm is regrowing, it’ll probably be fully regrown in just a few days. Four more days, maybe five at the most. While I’m going through my business inquiries for the one I’m looking for, I can’t help but notice a lot of sponsorships for prosthetics amongst them. But I just roll my eyes at that and continue searching. All the way until I find the job I’m looking for and accept it. Sending out my System Phantom in the process. Back to work.