Chapter 18: Sync Rates (1)
Lanz sat on the floor of his room, legs crossed, staring at what used to be his Zero gear like it had personally betrayed him.
The cloak was shredded beyond salvation, the boots looked like they had kicked their way through a blender made of boar teeth, and the gloves had so many holes they could legally qualify as decorative netting.
The entire outfit reeked of blood, sweat, and faint goblin smoke, and yet it somehow looked more tragic now that it was just... sitting there in the morning light.
He let out a quiet sigh and summoned the System’s inventory window again, dragging the screen across his vision like someone skimming a cursed spreadsheet they didn’t remember making.
The Aged Blade Fragment, that he hasn’t used yet because he’s scared of damaging it, was unsellable. Plus, this sh*t had zero trade options and a passive-aggressive tooltip that practically whispered, "You’re stuck with me, dumbass."
The Goblin Dagger at least had a value tag, but it was so rusted and jagged that even a black market scrapper would probably ask if it came from a children’s Halloween set.
Lanz flipped through the rest of his gear — light padding, starter gloves, and a half-cracked ring that technically gave him a +1 VIT bonus but looked like something fished out of a vending machine from the 90s. None of it would buy him anything remotely close to a new disguise.
He leaned back until his head thumped gently against the floor, arms sprawled wide as he stared at the ceiling.
Maybe he could start a bootleg review channel for janky gear. ’Hi, I’m Zero, and today we’re seeing how many goblin kneecaps this glorified butter knife can snap before breaking in half.’ He was still half-committed to that internal monologue when a familiar buzz erupted from the corner of his desk, followed by an even more familiar alert name flashing across his phone screen.
"Monday, Dumbass."
The words glared back at him like a slap from Future Responsibility. Lanz sat up like someone had just pulled his soul out of his chest. His eyes scanned the clock. 7:38 a.m. Homeroom started at eight.
He blinked once, and again. Then everything moved at double speed.