[You'll die]
They both turned silent at the system's words. Aria's golden eyes turned cold while Ren's blue eyes glowed as he replied to the system,
"Are you threatening us?"
The bold system letters flickered in reply,
[Threatening? No! Why would I need to threaten you?]
Aria interjected, her eyes narrowing,
"But you just said we'd die if we didn't listen, right?"
[Ah! You misunderstand! I'm not killing you, that rank 10 is when it appears and devours the world.]
"Then phrase it better."
'That creepy bolding was unnecessary!'
In disbelief, she responded both with her voice and mind.
'So that's the case.'
Ren put his hand on his chin in thought, asking the system a question.
"Then what exactly is this rank 10 being, and why will we die if we don't kill it?"
The system text flickered, losing its bold font, and replied matter of factly.
[Their name is the God of Chaos, a god whose corpse was torn asunder and strewn across the world.]
Aria tilted her head in confusion,
"Corpse? So it's dead?"
[Yes, but I'm sure you two know gods don't die so easily. The Chaos God will revive; it is inevitable.]
Ren frowned at the system's words.
The god's revival was inevitable. This meant that a rank 10 would descend, and, given the way the system spoke, it would end the world by devouring it.
[Although this revival is inevitable, we shouldn't give up, right? So my job is to help you weaken the forces of Chaos and get you strong enough to fight the Chaos God. With my help, it's possible.]
Coming from the useless system, the words were far from reassuring. With a frown, Aria asked another question.
"Why were we transmigrated? Why us and not someone else? And why two of us? And why were we sent to this forest?"
[Four questions in a row? How bold! Let's see, because you or, I guess, both of you would be more appropriate. Have something tightly connected here, so that's why.]
Aria tilted her head,
"Something tightly connected here? Could it be…"
[Yes! That fate that has been pestering you two throughout your pitiful lives!]
The system text flickered as it continued.
[This fate is the reason why you were sent instead of the soul of a powerful god or that fellow who killed them in the first place.]
The question of why two average humans were sent has now been answered. It was because of the fate they had.
'That fellow?'
'So I was just really unlucky!'
In their thoughts, the system discreetly added.
[That was also why we needed to toughen you up]
"Toughen us up?"
Ren asked, but the system flickered in reaction and didn't say anything more.
[And lastly, why were you sent to this deadly monster-infested forest?]
[That's because an important item is here, you see that big tree right? Go inside and retrieve the item; it will be helpful.]
"An item? What is it?"
Aria asked with curiosity in her golden eyes. The system gave a flickering response.
[Surprises are what make things interesting, right? So find out for yourself!]
The text of the system flickered more and more.
[Oh gosh, I'm feeling pretty sleepy… I should wrap it up.]
[So let me first apologize to you two.]
""Apologize?""
Aria and Ren spoke in unison, causing the system to type a chuckle.
[Hehe, how could I not? You two were sent into the Abyss and Solaris, then here to do something forced onto you.]
The flickering didn't stop and increased as the system continued to talk.
[Despite that, you persist in saving the world. So there is not much to say, if the Chaos God revives, all the worlds will be destroyed, whether that be this one or Earth.]
[So I'm sorry for pushing this onto you.]
The pair looked at the system words with serious eyes. For Ren, who didn't have anyone, he wasn't too distraught that he was pushed here.
But what about Aria, who was ripped away from her family?
Ren turned to his side and gave her a worried look, but instead of finding Aria looking at the system text, she looked at him with a smile.
"I'm fine Ren… I'm unhappy or was, but there isn't anything I can do, right?"
"Aria you.."
"Ren, I no We're already here, right?"
Watching her resolute eyes, Ren smiled, looking back at the system
"We accept your apology."
Aria then spoke in agreement.
"Yeah, even if it was a shitty system, the messaging function was very helpful."
[You two… Hahaha, then thank you, I guess. I'll be sleeping until our next meeting.]
Aria's eyes widened as she quickly asked her last question.
"Wait! The system didn't talk like this before. Who really are you?"
[Who am I? Hmm, I go by many names.]
The flicker of the text, which was quick, was now very fast.
[Those who hate me label me the Witch of Insanity, The impartial call me The one from beyond, and those who admire me title me, Great Sage.]
Now the system's flickering noise started to appear, blurring the text.
[But you two can call me Astlyn]
[And as Astlyn, I give you a single piece of advice.]
The noise and flickering of the text now made the system nearly unreadable as the witch gave her final words, bolding them to make sure the two could read them.
[Never give up.]
In the preceding silence, the two stared at the now blank window
"What about our rewards?"
The system didn't respond
…
"Wow~ the system is fixed!"
Aria looked excitedly at the now fixed system window.
"But.."
The stat and level system was now gone. Only the mission board telling them to go to the tree, as well as the messaging function, worked.
It was really barebones!
As Aria was thinking of the simplicity of the new system, Ren answered her thoughts.
"Well, it could be worse, right? The stat system was just so we knew what to train, but with our experience, it really isn't necessary anymore."
In their past lives, the stat system didn't give them points to put into the stats. It only gave them numbers on how good a particular stat was.
The average for stats was 5 for an adult. So if your strength was 5 while your stamina was 2, it became clear that you should train your stamina before moving on to strength.
After ranking up, the numbers increased exponentially, reaching into the hundreds of thousands, but that never meant that training was useless, making the system quite a useful tool.
Ren smiled lightly, reading.
"Oh! Aria, the status function is working as well."
"Really? But it didn't help much in the past."
The status system, as the name implies, gave them information about their status, whether that be buffs or debuffs.
If they drank poison, it would tell them. One time, Aria had been poisoned, yet the system didn't warn her until the effects were severe, so she didn't really have a good experience with it.
Looking at the status system, her eyes glowed with slight surprise.
"It's upgraded? I see your name here."
She saw bolded words saying Ren on one side of the system and her name on the other side of the system.
She focused on Ren's name, opening a new tab.
***
Ren
-Exhausted
-Soreness
-Mana exhaustion
-...
Looking down, she was even more surprised to find that the statuses displayed were ones she hadn't seen before.
Though their meaning was obvious, such as 'exhaustion' meaning Ren was tired, in their past lives, such details were usually skimmed over and not stated.
'This is pretty good, right? I wonder what the limit is?'
Focusing more on the status, a new window appeared.
***
Exhaustion
[A status that appeared after pushing one's body. It would be best to rest and recover]
Since they could both see the systems, Ren took a peek from the side, mouthing his surprise.
"That's useful, isn't it? If it gives us solutions to the status, if we get poisoned, wouldn't we also find solutions to that as well?"
Aria's eyes sparkled while nodding in agreement.
"That's right! This system is good for something after all!"
As they both looked at the system, they soon came upon a tab labeled [Fate], and they let out a grimace, recognizing the tab.
"It seems it's still here."
Ren's eyes narrowed as Aria sighed,
"Well, who knows, it might be gone."
"Aria… with our luck?"
Ren then showed his pale hands to her, and for a moment she tilted her head in confusion before her eyes widened.
"It causes that?"
"Yeah, even in the Abyss, my hands were slightly paler than most, but now I'm back a rank 1, it's worse than before."
The system tab labeled [Fate] was opened as the two both looked at the words, formerly one for each of them, since the system was combined, there were now two.
***
Fate:
Ren: Seed of Self Annihilation
Aria: Chaotic Omen
"Ugh, damn it."
"It's still here."
Aria cursed while Ren shook his head bitterly. Focusing on the Fate, a window opened, describing them.
***
[Seed of Self Annihilation]: The fate of destruction looms over your existence; your life will soon end, and your body is weak. Pushing the body will expedite the process, so be careful.
[You will die in 330(-35) days.]
The two stared in silence. Ren only had a single year left to live. It was the illness of death that loomed over him since his life in the Abyss, and if his thoughts were right, it was with him during his time on Earth as well.
During their messaging in their past lives, just as Aria didn't talk much about her fate, Ren didn't talk much about his own fate either.
He only mentioned that it caused his body to be sickly and joked about being mistaken for a corpse.
But after reading the description, she would be a fool if she didn't know what it meant.
Aria then stared at the number next to the days (-35). It appeared that it had recently gone down dramatically by over a month, and she knew exactly why.
"Ren, it went down because of the fight last night, right?"
She turned to him, and his dark blue eyes stared back.
"Ren, I'm sorry if only..."
Aria held guilt on her face, yet Ren's expression was calm as he smiled at her.
"Why are you apologizing?"
"Isn't it obvious? Because your life is at risk, I suggested we hunt the monster in the first place, and you pushed yourself because of that."
He stared at her for a couple of moments before shaking his head,
"When has my life not been at risk? Besides the number of days, I have increased when I rank up. If I didn't rank up it would be at a month instead of a year."
"But.."
"It's fine, this could be worse, right? Let's read yours."
Moving on, Aria let out a sigh before looking at her fate.
***
[Chaotic Omen]: Trouble finds you, encounters are chaotic, some harmful, some good. What can go wrong will go wrong, yet what can go wrong might be a life altering boon if navigated properly.
"That's quite the fate."
Ren stared at the system with surprised eyes.
It was obvious that it had been affecting them since the start, whether that be meeting in the forest or fighting monsters that weren't too strong, allowing them to rank up.
Ren even thought that it was a good fate before shaking his head.
'As if!'
The only reason they could take advantage of the troubles that were in their way was because of their experience.
Without experience, if they encountered the [Pale Harvester], they would undoubtedly be dead!
Ren could imagine the trouble that it brought Aria in her past life. Looking at Aria, he found her staring at the fate with a frowning expression before sighing, causing him to sigh as well.
It felt as if they had a long road ahead of them.