Chapter 48: Rewards

He sat upright immediately.

The excitement he had been suppressing since the morning returned all at once. Kyle raised his hand and opened the system window, and the familiar translucent interface appeared before his eyes.

For a moment, he simply stared at it.

’Alright... what did I get?’

His finger hovered over the quest section before he finally opened it.

A notification appeared almost instantly.

[Quest Completed.]

Kyle’s eyes widened.

Finally.

The notification he had been waiting for had arrived.

[Congratulations, User.]

[You have successfully completed the Emergent Quest: Survive.]

[Your performance has exceeded the minimum requirements.]

Kyle’s eyebrows rose.

’Exceeded the minimum requirements?’

That sounded promising.

Another notification appeared.

[Calculating additional rewards...]

Kyle leaned forward, his eyes fixed on the screen.

’Come on... show me something good.’

The system paused for several seconds before another window finally appeared.

[Reward calculation complete.]

[Generating Quest Completion Rewards...]

Kyle’s heartbeat quickened.

The system had been acting unusually excited all morning, and now he finally understood why.

Whatever was coming next, it was apparently something worth getting excited about.

"It better be something good!"

Although Kyle already had a feeling that the reward would be impressive, he still prayed internally. His luck had never exactly been exemplary, and he knew better than to get his hopes up too early. For all he knew, the system could give him something completely useless and ruin his entire mood.

’Please... just don’t give me another Silk Touch or something equally ridiculous.’

The reward window appeared.

[

Congratulations, User! You have received the following rewards:

1x Temporary Random Dimension Travel Ticket

1x Random Combat Skill Card

1x Random Skill Card

500 System Points

]

The second Kyle finished reading the rewards, his jaw dropped.

He stared at the screen in disbelief, his eyes widening as his entire body practically froze from excitement.

Then his brain finally caught up with what he had just seen.

"Holy fuck! Are you kidding me?! These rewards are fucking peak!"

Kyle jumped up from the bed, unable to contain himself.

He had expected something decent, perhaps a few system points and another skill card, but this was completely different.

The points were good and skill cards were even better.

But there was one reward that overshadowed everything else.

The Dimension Travel Ticket.

Kyle stared at those words as if they were the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

"Finally!"

He clenched his fists.

"I can finally go to another dimension!"

For as long as he had possessed the system, one of his biggest fantasies had been the possibility of leaving Earth and entering an entirely different world. He had grown up reading fantasy stories, watching anime, playing games, and consuming every ridiculous piece of fiction he could get his hands on.

He had imagined himself standing in some medieval fantasy world with a sword in his hand, becoming ridiculously powerful, defeating monsters, meeting strange races, discovering magic, and eventually becoming the protagonist of a story far more interesting than his own life had ever been.

And now...

That fantasy wasn’t merely a fantasy anymore.

He had an actual ticket to another world.

"Let’s travel to a new world right now!"

His voice came out much higher than usual because of sheer excitement.

Kyle’s imagination immediately began running wild.

He could already picture himself arriving in some medieval kingdom, surrounded by beautiful women, powerful warriors, mysterious magic users, dragons, monsters, and all sorts of fantastical creatures.

’Maybe I’ll get dropped into some fantasy world where I can become ridiculously strong.’

His thoughts became increasingly absurd as his imagination continued spiraling.

’Maybe there’ll be dragon women. Or some ridiculously beautiful elf princess. Hell, maybe I’ll end up surrounded by women who think I’m some mysterious otherworldly hero.’

The countless fantasy stories and questionable material he had consumed during his teenage years had clearly left their mark on his imagination.

Kyle’s grin became wider.

’This is it. I’m actually going to become the protagonist.’

He reached toward the Dimension Travel Ticket, almost ready to activate it.

[Alright, pipe down, bro.]

Kyle stopped.

The system’s voice suddenly sounded far more serious than before.

[Do you really want to travel right now?]

"Of course I want to travel right now—"

Kyle’s excited response stopped halfway through.

He stared at the ticket again.

Then his expression slowly changed.

"...but..."

The excitement in his eyes remained, but a small portion of his common sense finally managed to claw its way through the madness.

The system wasn’t wrong.

He had absolutely no idea what awaited him on the other side.

Kyle slowly lowered his hand.

"Now that I think about it... you’re right. I need preparation time too."

[Exactly.]

The system seemed almost relieved that Kyle had finally activated his brain.

[Preparation time isn’t the only thing you need. You also need to learn some survival skills beforehand.]

Kyle nodded slowly.

[Think about it. This ticket can potentially drop you into a random location in a random world. Even with the system’s protection, you’ll still have trouble surviving if you don’t know what you’re doing.]

The system continued explaining while Kyle listened carefully.

[That world won’t be Earth. You don’t know its environment, creatures, weather, civilization, technology, laws, geography, or even whether the atmosphere is safe for you.]

Kyle’s expression became more serious.

[You could arrive in the middle of a forest, desert, mountain range, ocean, battlefield, monster territory, or somewhere even worse. You don’t know what kind of creatures you’ll encounter either.]

Kyle swallowed.

The fantasy suddenly seemed slightly less glamorous.

[And there’s another problem. You might have the option to return, but that doesn’t mean you should assume you’ll always get the opportunity to use it safely. If you’re injured, captured, surrounded, or placed somewhere where activating the system becomes difficult, your options could become severely limited.]

Kyle leaned back against the sofa.

’When you put it that way...’

He had been so focused on the fantasy of another world that he had completely ignored the obvious question.

How the hell was he supposed to survive there?