CHAPTER 3: SIGN-IN SUCCESSFUL!

Arriving back home, Roy was already expecting to be chewed out by his grandmother... and she didn’t disappoint.

She screamed and hurled insults at him up until the point he entered his room and slammed the door behind him.

There was really no explanation that Roy could give her for getting himself suspended.

Thud!

He threw his school bag to the corner and fell on his bed.

"A week’s suspension, thank God," Roy muttered and covered his face with his palm.

He thought back to what he said to Jane, and his heart sank. He had only said that because he was pissed she didn’t at least tell him she was seeing Pierre, considering how they were quite close friends.

Instead, he learnt it from Chris’s mouth, right before the boyfriend in question came to extort money from them.

"I guess I overestimated my importance again," Roy said and sat up in his bed. "But it should’ve been me!"

"System," he called out, and the iridescent cube appeared in front of him, floating as usual and spinning slowly on its axis.

~Tap to sign in~

Roy inhaled deeply and exhaled, then tapped the cube.

[Sign-In Unavailable!]

"Ah?" Roy was shocked. "Unavailable? But it linked to Pierre’s system..."

Roy had long figured that the ability to link was most likely his first skill, and just because the skills panel couldn’t be displayed, didn’t mean he didn’t have any skills.

If he wasn’t lucky enough to have someone like Pierre—who was hiding his system—touch him, he wouldn’t have figured out the initial sign-in requirement until he had a fortuitous encounter later in the future.

Currently, it didn’t show any error, meaning this was progress.

"I have to wait for Pierre to sign in. That must be when signing-in will be available," Roy figured and rolled back and forth in his bed with joy.

The STDY.exe commenter on the forum was absolutely correct! Roy’s WTF.exe just had a sign-in requirement to fulfil.

He went back to the online forum and quoted his initial post and typed: "The study guy was right! Some systems have a harder activation method than just simply tapping sign in! Thank you!"

Executioners were simply system users who had attained a license from the Executioners’ Association.

As for system users with no license, they were called ’Irregulars,’ but they referred to each other as... ’guys’ online, no matter the gender, as it was best to assume everyone on the Internet was male.

Quickly, though, the comments flooded in.

Whoa. Really? Tell us your system title. (23 likes).

Congrats, then. I guess that study guy isn’t riding his dick for nothing. (19 likes).

Roy grinned and waited patiently in his room, only screaming at the wall and hurling curses at Pierre once every thirty seconds since he began waiting two hours ago. However, he constantly checked the cube to see when it would display ’Available’ or something.

"Wait!" Roy paused his pace and mumbled, "What if Pierre has signed in already? Won’t he need to refill his energy before signing in again?"

Suddenly, it all began to click in Roy’s head, making his eyes widen. He always wondered why someone like Pierre was so eager to extort money from him and Chris. Roy always thought he never needed the money and just did it for fun.

"That bastard was using us to buy himself energy crystals!" He voiced with an annoyed expression.

An energy crystal was an essential part of the post-modern world as it powered the most advanced technology made in the past fifteen years. However, it was exclusively provided by the creatures from God’s Abyss.

Abyss creatures all had this mysterious energy in their body, powering their attacks, defense, and other abilities. And upon their death, it coalesced into a single crystal depending on the rank of the creature.

Energy crystals were ranked in worth by lettered grades from F-grade up to S-grade.

The energy stored within the crystals couldn’t be made, replicated, or copied. And once depleted, the energy stored within was gone forever.

And all system users absorbed these energy crystals to fill their energy meter faster, which was necessary for them to sign in again. In other words, signing in cost a full energy meter; otherwise, signing in was impossible.

Because of this, energy crystals were expensive. Even the least expensive F-grade crystal went for about fifty dollars.

This was the major issue most Irregulars faced. Because of financial constraints, they had to wait for their energy meter to replenish naturally before signing in again, even after the twenty-four-hour countdown was over.

Hence, Pierre wasn’t broke, energy crystals were just expensive!

Roy clicked his tongue, but then clasped his hands and prayed seriously, "God, please, let it be that Pierre took out his anger on Chris after school and was able to extort a hefty amount from him, and then managed to buy the needed energy crystals."

"What are you saying in there?" Nana voiced from outside the door.

"Piss off!!!"

"I came to check up on you, you ungrateful—"

"Well, don’t. You’re not my mom!" Roy screamed and covered himself with his blanket again.

He expected the old lady to scream and retort as usual, but she didn’t and just silently walked away.

Roy’s face scrunched in surprise and confusion. "Did she really leave?"

But he rose from his bed and palmed his face slightly. ’Dammit. Sh-She knows I didn’t mean it.’

To take his mind off that, Roy attempted to view the linked host’s information, but it still said that he needed to sign in first.

Normally, this sign-in restriction wasn’t supposed to be there, but it was like this every first sign-in. In other words, one couldn’t access anything in the system until they signed in for the first time.

Roy didn’t know when his eyes closed to sleep, but when they opened next, it was because he felt something in his chest.

Before him, the cube was already manifested, so he quickly tapped it.

Not enough energy!

"Shit! My first sign-in was supposed to be free, but the linking took some of my energy!"

Roy’s mind raced. He ran to his wardrobe, pulled out a small box, and took out the white crystal pendant resting within.

"Mom’s necklace..." he voiced in a tone tinged with regret but nevertheless tightened it within his fist and focused his mind.

Instinctively, he absorbed the energy within!

White particle-like lights flowed out from his tightened fist, curling around his hand in a spiral and entering his chest until the crystal dimmed.

Roy didn’t waste a second and tapped the cube again.

[Sign-In Successful!]

Joy welled up in Roy’s heart, and he experienced a sense of vertigo. One second, he was standing before his wardrobe, and the next, he was nowhere to be found in his room. He had vanished entirely!

’Yes! Yes! No more school for me!’ He laughed internally.

All Roy saw was darkness, but the system messages were ever so visible before him.

[Connecting to LOVE.exe...]

[Accessing Linked Host Data...]

’Wait, LOVE?!’ Roy blurted out. No wonder Pierre was so... Pierre.

And then, he was shown another panel of information.

+

[System Information]

Host System: LOVE.exe

System Title: "Highschool Re:Date to Live, Live to LOVE.exe"

World: Aoi Private High School

+

"School again? Fuck!!!"