“The right choice, hmm…” I muttered to myself, turning Tesla’s parting words over in my head.

  If there were no repercussions for killing, would I do it? Fuck no.

  Of course not. Especially not if there were consequences like the ones

  back on Earth.

  But would I have the nerve to do it if killing meant surviving?

  I’d like to say yes, but it was easier said than done. My so-called

  “morality” wasn’t some switch I could flip on and off whenever it became

  convenient. That was exactly why I was still sitting in the dark room

  of this empty library, trying to think of a way to clear this EVENT

  while keeping whatever morality I have intact.

  And one idea came to mind.

  “An environmental kill, maybe?” I murmured.

  I had done something similar when I killed the Cerberus earlier. But

  would that really be any different? Even if the environment caused the

  kill, I would still be the one who set it up with the intention of

  killing someone. Wouldn’t that still be murder? And even if I didn’t

  intend it, wouldn’t it still count as homicide with me as the suspect?

  Not to mention, my enemies now wouldn’t be mindless monsters anymore.

  Humans were more cunning, smarter, and unfortunately, far more prone to

  betrayal.

  And when I thought about betrayal, my mind drifted to my companions.

  The siblings, Luah and Arthur, were loyal to Orion to a fault. Yuna

  could be a bit volatile when it came to Luah, but I was fairly confident

  their rivalry was nothing more than childish bickering.

  As for Orion… I was certain he wouldn’t betray them.

  He was just a kid.

  Yet a part of me struggled to believe he was incapable of hurting

  someone close to him. Arthur’s story about Orion killing three men

  without lifting a single finger was too disturbing to ignore. For our sake… maybe I should talk to him about that, I thought, even though Arthur had asked me not to share that story with Orion.

  No matter how many angles I considered, I kept arriving at the same conclusion if I wanted to survive in this world.

  “In the end… I don’t think I really have a choice, do I…?”

  I exhaled slowly and began preparing for the inevitable. The first

  thing I did was open my achievement menu. Just like what Tesla said, a

  new one was waiting for me.

  Unfortunately, it was useless.

  [(A-Tier Achievement) Freeloader]

  You completed a task in an

  elimination-based EVENT without eliminating anything. Wow. You are

  shameless, freeloading little bitch. You might’ve gotten away with it if

  this was eighth grade, but you are a literal adult! I’m shaking my head

  if you can see me right now.

  I didn’t exactly freeload… I wanted to argue, but I ended up swiping the achievement away instead.

  While I was at it, I also realized something else. Tesla had

  forgotten to give me my compensation earlier after he falsely accused me

  of not being a newbie and of being some kind of outsider. He insinuated

  that I was part of an “Awakened God” cult. Whatever that meant, I

  doubted it would affect me much. What mattered was that he had

  apologized and given me a healing potion that cleared all my injuries.

  But he still didn’t give me anything else after all that.

  Just as I was thinking about it, my inbox panel began flashing. I opened it.

  From: Tesla (Field Operator, Threat Balancing Committee, GSNC)

  To: Devon Crocus (Tutorial Citizen)

  Subject: Forgot to give you something

  I was thinking of not giving this to you anymore because, let’s be honest, you’ll just smart-ass

  your way out of trouble like always. My colleague here says otherwise

  if I don’t want my ass to get flagged. So here you go. Make good use of

  it.

  Attachments:

  

  
• (L-Tier Consumable) Inventory Gacha Ticket


  

  Thankfully, he hadn’t forgotten after all. I let out a quiet sigh of

  relief, claimed the item from my inbox, and inspected it immediately.

  [(L-Tier Consumable) Inventory Gacha Ticket]

  Oohh, it’s time to gamble! Despite

  this being an L-Tier Consumable, it’s so damn easy to get that a single

  quantity of this item is the entrance fee for El Grandiosa—the city of

  trade and gold—which has the easiest admission rate out of all the

  cities and kingdoms within Phrygia. If you do decide to use this item,

  this will list all items that have ever graced in your inventory,

  selects a random item within the list, and gives you that item. Skill

  scrolls and items with modifiers are not included in the gacha.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  Wait… isn’t this actually pretty strong?

  I hadn’t received many A-Tier to C-Tier items so far, but excluding

  the skill scrolls, there was still a decent chance I could pull

  something valuable. The [Vision Cape of Shadowflesh Cerberus] had

  technically entered my inventory before it was distributed earlier,

  which meant it should still be eligible. On top of that, there were the

  rewards from the first and second wave bosses, the achievement rewards,

  and the items from the mails I had received.

  I gave myself a small nod.

  “Let’s give it a try.”

  [You have used 1x Inventory Gacha Ticket.]

  [These are the list of items you can acquire.]

  

  
• (A-Tier Item) A used goblin groin cover


  
• (A-Tier Talisman) Bug Repellant Talisman


  
• (B-Tier Potion) Potion of Lesser Healing


  
• (B-Tier Item) Ammonium Nitrate Cube


  
• (C-Tier Weapon) Crude Multi-shifting Blade


  
• (C-Tier Weapon) Golden Crusader Shield


  
• (D-Tier Weapon) Goblin Longsword


  
• (D-Tier Potion) Potion of Moderate Healing


  
• (D-Tier Carcass) Dead Shadowflesh Direwolf excluded due to Heavy modifier


  
• (D-Tier Weapon Augment) Explosion Journal


  
• (F-Tier Artifact) Vision Cape of The Shadowflesh Cerberus


  
• (J-Tier Consumable) Homing Bullet


  
• (J-Tier Potion) Potion of Permanent Buff excluded due to Unique modifier


  
• (L-Tier Consumable) Inventory Gacha Ticket


  
• (V-Tier Artifact) Angelic Halo Bracelet excluded due to Indestructible modifier


  

  [Press this button to spin for an item!]

  As expected, the lineup practically guaranteed a useful payout as

  long as I avoided a few specific items. The two A-Tier junk items, the

  D-Tier Explosion Journal—which was useless without explosives—and the

  B-Tier Ammonium Nitrate Cube since I didn’t have Yuna’s puppets to prime

  it.

  “Anything above A-Tier should be usable for this wave,” I muttered

  while calculating the odds in my head. “If I use this now, I’m looking

  at roughly a seventy percent positive payout. Maybe even higher if I get

  anything above F-Tier, which probably makes up around thirty percent of

  that.”

  But looking at it another way meant thirty percent of the pool would

  be completely useless to me, forty percent would only be mildly helpful,

  and thirty percent would be extremely valuable.

  What I really wanted was the J-Tier Consumable, [Homing Bullet].

  If I got that, killing someone would become trivial as long as I

  stayed hidden. Sure, I’d feel like absolute shit for taking someone’s

  life, but at least I wouldn’t have to watch them suffer.

  Without wasting any more time, I pressed the spin button.

  [Gacha-gacha! It’s rolling!]

  The list of items flickered rapidly as the gacha cycled through them.

  Most of the flashes were high-rarity items, which only made the

  anticipation worse. Slowly, the spinning began to slow. And when it did…

  [Ding ding ding!]

  [Here’s your item: (B-Tier) Ammonium Nitrate Cube]

  …

  Holy shit, seriously? I internally cursed. I can’t use this!

  I stared down at the cube that had suddenly appeared in my hands. It

  was a block of tempered glass containing a white crystalline powder.

  With a defeated sigh, I stuffed the item back into my inventory.

  That left me with almost nothing to fight with.

  My inventory hadn’t changed much either. The only notable items left

  were a [Potion of Energy Drink] that temporarily boosted my DEX and the

  [Potion of Permanent Buff] that I had been saving to maximize later. But

  maybe, this time, I didn’t have a choice.

  If I wanted the best chance at surviving, I might have to use it now.

  [You have a new achievement for drinking a [Unique] potion.]

  Select any one buff from the list to turn it into a permanent buff!

  

  
• (A-Tier) Pain Resistance


  
• (A-Tier) Clumsy Resistance


  
• (A-Tier) Alcohol Resistance
  
    
• ….


  

  The description hadn’t been exaggerating. There were easily more than

  a hundred buffs and status effects to choose from. Of course, not all

  of them were helpful. I quickly skipped past things like the status

  effect (B-Tier) Super Stomach-ache, which sounded like it would only

  leave me permanently gassy.

  Eventually I reached the J-Tier buffs. If there was anything useful, it would be in the highest rarity ones.

  I began reading through the names and descriptions carefully.

  Some of them were genuinely good. Buffs like Elemental Resistance,

  Skill Expander, and Speedy Legs immediately caught my attention. There

  were also scaling buffs that improved based on how high a particular

  stat was. If I were already high level, permanently taking one of those

  would have been incredible. But that wasn’t what I needed right now.

  About ten minutes later, after scrolling through the list, I finally found something that made me stop.

  [(J-Tier Status Effect) Trait Switched]

  When this status effect is placed

  on you, you now gain the respective race’s trait buffs, without changing

  your species! You can be a human but have cat traits, like wanting

  fishy tuna for dinner and an increased vision. You can also be a human

  with goblin traits but—okay, let’s be honest. Who in their right mind

  would do that?

  As an effect of permanence from

  (J-Tier) Potion of Permanent Buff, the status effect (J-Tier) Trait

  Switched will gain an option to switch between different monster races

  you have slain.

  The more I read these descriptions, the more I started to suspect the System had some kind of prejudice against goblins.

  This status effect was different. If I used Trait Switcher and

  changed my traits to a goblin one, I could activate [Goblin Mania] and

  double my STR and CON stats. With all my buffs active, my STR could

  reach around forty for about thirty seconds. On that note, Arthur nearly

  killed the Level 20 Cerberus with roughly sixty STR.

  That was good enough for me.

  Without hesitation, I selected the Trait Switcher buff. It

  immediately appeared on my HUD as a square icon with a human face on it.

  When I pressed it, another panel opened showing the available options:

  Human, Goblin, and Fleshwolf. The Human trait was selected by default.

  But before I could examine them further, my body suddenly pulsed with

  a deep orange glow. It faded for a moment before pulsing again.

  The pulses repeated every two seconds. Suddenly—

  [You are in a combat encounter!]

  I immediately jumped to my feet and vaulted out the window. The drop

  was only two stories, so I landed easily and broke into a sprint away

  from the library. This time I avoided the alleyways entirely since I

  could barely see anything inside them.

  The combat encounter icon, two swords clashing together, remained

  active on my HUD. My body continued pulsing like a beacon that was

  broadcasting my location.

  But nothing went in to attack me yet. I couldn’t see anyone, either

  Shit. Where are they?!