Chapter 9 - 9: Rewards And Strength

<Side Mission Successful. The reward has been given>

Ryder heard Janus' voice while he was lying on the ground, trying to calm down his fast breathing heart.

He sat up and walked over to the bed.

"This was a nightmare. Anyway, where is my reward? Where can I get those pills? They can be helpful," Ryder muttered as he sat on the bed.

< Your reward has already been provided to you. You can open your inventory to see the rewards. The origin points have been added to your account as well. You can use the points to purchase things from the system's store>

Janus answered Ryder.

"Inventory? How do I access it?" He asked.

Although he understood what Janus was talking about, he still had some questions.

'Inventory? Did he take that term out of that game and gave me a similar inventory?' He wondered.

<Host needs to say 'Open inventory' to access the inventory. The host can say 'Open the store' to access the store>

"Janus, Open the inventory!" He followed Janus's instructions and commanded.

As soon as the words left his mouth, a semi-transparent screen appeared in front of his face.

'I was right! It's similar to the inventory of the game. It looks like Janus took some ideas from Divinity,'

Ryder thought as he observed the inventory, which looked strikingly similar to the inventory of Divinity.

There were around 20 boxes in the inventory screen. The first box had a pill-shaped item with an 'X2' mark at the bottom of the box. 

He tapped on the box, and the description of the pill appeared on another screen.

<Strengthening pill: Consuming the pill can increase the strength of the person by 50 percent>

'What the hell? A single pill can increase my strength by 50%? Doesn't that mean that these two pills would increase my strength by 125% after the stacking of their effects? That will make me twice as strong as I am right now!' 

He grew excited just at the thought of it. The pill was really miraculous and might actually be able to help him in his primary mission.

He double-tapped on the first box, and a pill appeared in the air. It floated in front of him.

The pill looks like a normal medicinal pill; it was not too big, nor was it too small.

He smelled the pill, and that's where the real difference came in. Unlike most of the medical pills, the red pill in front of him had a pleasing smell.

After initial hesitation, He placed the pill in his mouth and swallowed it.

"My body... it's burning up." 

He could feel his body heating up. That feeling disappeared in a few seconds, and everything returned to normal.

"Am I stronger now? I feel no different?" He muttered with a confused look on his face.

He walked towards his bed. He had two dumbells that were placed near his bed. He bought those so that he could exercise in his room. 

Although he was a lazy man, he never forgot to do some exercise in the morning. Each dumbbell had a weight of 10kg.

He picked a dumbbell and couldn't help but be shocked. He couldn't even feel the weight while picking it up. In fact, the dumbbells felt a little too light. He used his left hand and picked the dumbbell from it as well, but there was no difference. The 10 kg dumbbell was way too light for him now.

"Awesome! Although it was tough, the rewards are really not bad," He muttered as he placed the dumbbells back to their original place.

The inventory still hadn't disappeared. He double-tapped on the first box, and the second strengthening pill also appeared in front of him.

The first box that previously held a pill icon was now empty. 

He grabbed the pill and swallowed it immediately. That burning feeling again came from inside and disappeared soon after.

'Janus, close the inventory," He commanded Janus.

He didn't have to ask him about the way to close it. He was able to guess it easily after learning how to open it.

The inventory disappeared. 

'It's really like fantasy. Everything feels so impossible, yet it's happening right before my eyes. So magical.'