Endzone: Simulated Apocalypse

After taking note of the fact that the stats of Oathsworns and Imprints can be accessed from the Companions menu, as well as their current location, Cyanide closed it up and went to sleep.

There were also some newly added stats such on his profile screen now that he had reached Level 25, including Attack, Defense, Life Steal, Armor Penetration, Movement Speed, and an overall combat rating that grouped all of those stats together while also factoring in Soul Arts, specific item abilities, and such, calculating the strength of someone at their 'peak' power with all skills active.

It was almost as if the game only truly fully began now, and the 'tutorial' was over.

For an update, Cyanide's current stats looked like this:

[Level: 25]

[HP: 250/250]

[SF: 35/35]

[STR: 60]

[AGI: 70]

[VIT: 50]

[INT: 35]

[DEX: 16]

[LUC: 15]

[Available CP: 0][Available SP: 0]

[ATK: 170][DEF: 130][LIFE STEAL: 25%][ARMOR PEN: 0%][Movement Speed: 700]

[CR (Combat Rating): 413]

Just looking at these numbers, Cyanide could more or less figure out the calculations used by the system to reach them. ATK, for example, most likely added his STR and INT together as they affected the power of his normal attacks and Soul/Weapon Arts respectively, then added the base ATK of his weapons onto that.

In this case, his knife had a base ATK of 25 while his gun had a base ATK of 50, adding up to 75 total. His STR and INT together is 95, which makes 170 when added to 75.

DEF, on the other hand, is even more straight-forward. It simply takes his VIT stat and adds it to the collective DEF total of his four armor pieces. Currently, Cyanide wore lightweight cloth armor, but thanks to Infusion Modules, this cloth essentially had the DEF of metal armor. Each piece had 20 base DEF, totaling up to 80 when added together.

Movement Speed simply multiplied the AGI stat by ten, and Cyanide assumed it represented how many meters he could travel in a minute. 700 seemed like a reasonable number, but it still was slower than what he was capable of doing back on Earth—not for long, though.

And finally, as for Combat Rating… that was a little harder to figure out. Cyanide decided not to think about it now as it wasn't all that important anyway and was just there as a number to sum up how powerful someone is—there's no point trying to solve how it's exactly calculated.

With that, Cyanide decided to go to sleep.

*****

The next morning, Cyanide found Kirika already awake and rummaging through the room with all the food. This was strange, considering he had expected her to be more of a lazy, late waker, especially since she had been wounded yesterday, but…

"Oh, good morning, Cyanide!" She called out with a wave upon seeing him, but his reply was nowhere near as enthusiastic.

"… Why are you up this early?"

"Heehee, if you're worried about me, you can just say so, y'know," Kirika replied with a wink, then stood up and dusted her clothes off. "But jokes aside, knowing you, you definitely have somewhere else to go today. I didn't want to get left behind, and I don't know when you usually wake up, so…"

"… I see."

Cyanide shot a brief glance at her ankle too quick to notice, and saw that it had been quite professionally treated to, now with a long white compression bandage around it, then turned away and left the room to get himself ready for the day, starting with his daily routine of a shower.

After stepping out of the shower area, however, he suddenly heard a high-pitched scream from Kirika, and the smell of something burning in the air.

Immediately, his first instinct was 'Fire'?

Not bothering to slip on anything besides a towel to wrap around his waist, he rushed towards the source of the smell using his strong senses. Slamming the door open, he found-

"…"

"U-Um, C-C-Cyanide?!"

Cyanide narrowed his eyes. "… What, exactly, are you doing here?"

"Uh… this is, well…" Kirika trailed off, too embarrassed to continue.

Before Cyanide, a scene of absolute disaster lay. A frying pan lay on the floor with two burnt eggs spilled out of it, and there was smoke rising out of the stovetop Kirika had used to make this.

"Turn off the stove, you moron!" Cyanide yelled, and Kirika's soul nearly jumped out of her body.

"E-Eek! Yes sir!"

Hurriedly, she shut the stove off, but due to her clumsy nature and the surprise at Cyanide's near-naked getup, she ended up accidentally touching her elbow on the heated stovetop.

"Ow-!" She cried and leaped backwards, and Cyanide, being the gentleman he was, didn't make any move to help. Instead, he only shook his head and muttered a single word.

"… Idiot."

"I-I'm sorry…" Kirika whimpered like a sad puppy, crouched down on the floor and holding her burnt elbow painfully. "I just… wanted to cook something… didn't know it would be so hard though…"

"Are you stupid?" Cyanide asked, despite already knowing the answer in his mind. "You're Level 23. You haven't even unlocked Cooking yet. What's the point of cooking if there's already premade food right in front of you, and cooking your own doesn't yield any benefits?"

"U-Um… that's…" Kirika glanced at the two burnt eggs on the floor, and shook her head. "Never mind. I won't do it again, I promise…"

She looked so saddened and disappointed, but Cyanide didn't care. She brought this upon herself, and all actions have consequences. It wasn't any of his problem, and he instead simply went to put on his normal clothes—which, by the way, automatically cleaned themselves as part of the game's system.

Kirika, watching him leave without a second glance, gave a little sigh of disappointment. Whether that was directed at her failure at cooking or the fact that Cyanide showed no concern at all towards her despite being allies now was anyone's guess. She had noticed Cyanide didn't eat anything before going into the shower, so she had tried to whip something up herself, but… it didn't go as planned, clearly.

Still, it was the thought that counts, right?

At least, that's what any gentleman would've said to her had they realized she was cooking for them. Unfortunately, this was how Cyanide was, and Kirika knew that.

"Come here."

A voice suddenly snapped her out of her depressing thoughts, and she looked up to see Cyanide, now fully dressed.

"Uh… what is it?" She asked faintly, not wanting to meet his eye.

"… Tch."

With an annoyed snort, Cyanide strode into the room and suddenly grabbed Kirika by the forearm, then lifted her up with ease.

"E-Eh? Cyanide, what are you-"

But she had no chance to protest as she was forcefully dragged into the room across from where they had been. There, Cyanide opened the sink's tap with one hand, then pulled Kirika's arm underneath the stream of water so that her burnt elbow could get some relief.

"A-Ah…" Kirika shut one eye as she dealt with the sting, but strangely, the warmth of Cyanide's fingers on her forearm were enough to keep her calm. Despite the pain, she wanted this blissful moment to continue.

Sadly, reality never goes the way you want it to, as Cyanide immediately let go of her after her elbow was in the right position.

"Stay there and rinse it until the pain fades," he ordered, then turned around so that his back was facing Kirika. "I may need a scapegoat today since we're going into somewhere dangerous, so you best prepare yourself."

"H-Huh? Oh, okay…" Kirika trailed off, still reminiscing at the feel of Cyanide's touch. But then, she realized.

"… Wait, so the only reason you're healing my elbow right now is so you can use me as proper bait?!"

"… Hmph."

Cyanide didn't reply as usual, and walked away to clean up the mess Kirika had made in the other room.