Maids VS Apocalypse

"The hell do you mean by that?" Mark grumbled under his breath. "Weren’t you people who said I’m special?"

The rough surface under his hands fueled his annoyance, and when it scraped his skin after he lost his grip the pain caused him to curse out loudly. Thanks to the Force Field he didn’t get any deep cuts, but even a single scratch was still infuriating.

Mark was climbing the rubble of the destroyed building where the Dimensional Rift was, trying to reach the first floor to see if the stairs leading up didn’t crumble.

Same as last time, he was told to go deal with the whole thing on his own. The least he could call it was an annoyance, but to make things worse, he was just done getting roasted by that superior of his.

According to him, the first lecture at the Peace Keeper’s training academy was dedicated to curbing the delusions of the new recruits.

Apparently there is no end to the idiots who get themselves killed simply because they believed themselves to be the protagonists of a story, which brought upon the necessity to remind them that life wouldn’t go so easy on them.

If a bunch of people received something System straight out of a webnovel, it was easy to imagine a few getting the wrong idea.

"But does any of them have a maid summoning system?" Mark continued to grumble. "Didn’t think so."

It wasn’t as if he didn’t understand why that mentality was a problem. They were dealing with world-ending dangers with countless people losing their lives all the time. Treating all of that as if it isn’t real, not only would that be an insult to everyone who had suffered, but it can put one’s life in danger as well.

"... Haa... fucking damn it..."

After a long struggle, Mark arrived at the stairs on the first floor just to find out they were blocked with tons of rubble. After looking around some more, he decided to go back and look for another route.

"What’s up?" Ramsay called from the street. "Can’t find a way in?"

"The stairs are blocked!"

"Get climbing, then! We haven’t got the entire day!"

Mark clicked his tongue and went back to his task. Lara who should have been there to help him had retreated back into the truck. He remembered the look she gave him when the Sergeant berated him earlier and almost folded on himself. Facing her right now was too much so he was glad she gave him some alone time.

"I’m kinda an asshole, am I not?" He suddenly arrived at an epiphany.

For a while after their first meeting Mark had treated the maid as if she wasn’t real, then she found out he was treating everything they were going through as if it was a fictional story with him being the protagonist and everyone else the side characters.

"I should apologize to her later..."

For now, he decided to return his focus to the task at hand. After searching for a few minutes he found no path for him to get to the higher floors. His options were to either clear the rubble or find a way to climb the walls. While thinking about it, he ended up choosing the latter.

"Let’s hope this works..."

Standing in front of the half-crammed wall, he looked at his hands for a couple of seconds then filled his lungs with air. Focusing his mind, he gradually increased the output of the Force Field around his hands.

Once they were covered in a layer of lime green glow, Mark returned his sight to the wall then slowly extended his hand toward it.

He could see his hand come into contact with the wall but couldn’t feel its texture or temperature, only the repelling force of an object blocking his way. He put more strength into his arm and watched as his fingers slowly dug into the concrete wall as if corroding it.

’Now that I look at it again, isn’t this kinda broken?’

The Force Field was the most basic ability one gains upon awakening. Since it rejects any other forces directed at it when fully active, it can be used to cut through practically everything.

It can easily turn a wooden stick into a lightsaber as long as one has the MP to fuel it.

’Better hurry before I pass out again...’

Mark’s plan was very simple. He would use his force field to pierce holes into the wall then use them to climb it.

It was a genius idea that worked out really well for him. He was expecting something to happen and cause him to fall, but thankfully he managed to get all the way up to the second floor safely.

’I’m... not very used to climbing things...’

Instead of bothering to check the stairs again, Mark chose to continue climbing until he reached the third floor. Only once he reached it did he take a moment to catch his breath.

The short climb was yet another reminder of his of his less than mediocre physical abilities. He planned to do something about it at some point, but until the CDC was over he was stuck with what he had.

’Or I can just level up.’ He thought as he approached the Dimensional Rift. ’What’s the point of hoarding all of that AP anyway?’

Rebecca had warned him against leveling up saying it would affect his training. It felt a little odd for that to be the case considering the whole point of leveling up is to get stronger.

He took out the case containing the drone and let them work on sealing the Rift. Finding a piece of rubble to sit on, Mark opened his Status window.

[

Name: Mark White

Race: Human

Rank: Awakened

Stats:

Level 01

HP: 100/100

MP: 67/100

Strength 6

Endurance 5

Agility 5

Dexterity 10

Focus 14

Mind 150

Soul 115

AP:

0/20

Equipment:

Abilities:

Force Field.

]

He stared at the numbers with a hand on his chin, all while doing mental calculations. With each level adding one or two points to each of his stats, it would only take three to four level-ups for him to double his current capabilities.

[

Aether Points: 101620

Assign AP to Mark White:

+00/20

]

The amount of AP he had increased after Lara slaughtered the hoard of Stone Rhinos. From what he remembers, killing one of them gave him only 3 AP. For him to level up just once he would have had to have killed at least seven of those things, something he didn’t see himself doing without any help.

’Should I do it?’

The drones barely made a sound while working on sealing the rift. There was a continuous zap no different from multiple welders stitching something inside a factory, but it was so faint that it blended with the background noise.

"Well, it won’t hurt to try once..."

Pushing the hesitation stopping him aside, Mark focused on the + beside the counter and watched it go up one number at a time.

[01/20]

[02/20]

[03/20]

[04/20]

[05/20]

[06/20]

[07/20]

[08/20]

[09/20]

[10/20]

[11/20]

[12/20]

[13/20]

[14/20]

[15/20]

[16/20]

[17/20]

[18/20]

[19/20]

[20/20]

"Hm? Stra-"

Just when he thought nothing had changed, a sharp pain suddenly assaulted every part of Mark’s body.