NOVEL NEXT Chapter 2: Quest
I experimented with the system and found my status screen.
Name: Lee Jae Sung
Level: 1
Next Level: 0/100
HP: 10/10
MP: 100/100
STR: 1
VIT: 1
DEX: 1
INT: 10
CHA: 5
Points: 0
$: 0.00
Traits
[Genius-level Intellect]: Every level up +1 bonus stat in INT. +50% EXP gain in all skills. High chance in acquiring INT stat increases. High chance in acquiring bonus INT stats from INT stat gains.
[Toddler]: -90% stat growth to Physical Attributes.
As expected, my physical attributes, STR, VIT and DEX were at the lowest possible value without becoming an egg shape number. CHA was also noticeably higher. Probably because this body had some good genetics and I was an adorable little bastard.
INT was surprisingly high, assuming all babies started out with 1 INT, but it was likely due to this body's good brain.
Heck, this body's brain was so big I even had a [Genius-level Intellect] trait. I definitely was no genius in my previous life, so the only likely hypothesis was that the stereotype of all Asians being good at math was true after all… Of course not! It was just that this Lee Jae Sung was a natural born genius.
The [Toddler] trait was a huge debuff, though it did make sense since I had the body of a 3 year old child. That also meant trying to grind physical attributes like STR, DEX and VIT would take a stupidly long time.
I also had an inventory feature, which was convenient but rather useless right now as a 3 year old child with no possessions to call my own. Except for my toys and children's books.
I found out that I needed to physically make contact with an object to store something into my inventory, which to the rest of the world would look like it simply disappeared. Retrieving something out of my inventory was also rather limited.
Firstly, I had basically two ways to take something out of my inventory space. One was letting it appear in my hand, or appearing in front of me at chest height – following which gravity would then take ahold of the object and bring it to the ground.
Trying to make it appear somewhere else did not work.
Another discovery was that I could learn skills after putting in substantial effort into doing something.
After spending an entire day listening to my parents converse in Korean with each other and actively trying to derive meaning from the foreign language, a notification suddenly appeared.
You have acquired the skill [Language Comprehension] LVL: 1
Although the new skill was only at level 1, I could suddenly understand bits and pieces of my parents' conversation.
It was weird. I had never studied the Korean language whether formally or informally, neither did I have any way of referencing the foreign words being enunciated by my parents. Yet, I could now somehow magically understand fragments of what they were saying?
Magical. That was the key word. The Gamer System seemed to be able to produce miraculous effects supernaturally. Did this extend to all languages? Even ones I had never heard of before? The skill was after all called [Language Comprehension], not [Korean Language Comprehension]. It wasn't a farfetched assumption that the skill would extend to all languages, perhaps even alien ones.
The next discovery was that I could also gain stats from doing seemingly mundane activities.
Playing with blocks in a particularly dextrous manner would result in a notification popping up.
Your fine motor skills have increased with external stimulation! +0.1 DEX
I then tried to bench press a gallon of milk.
Your strength have increased with external stimulation! +0.1 STR
Reading a children's book would similarly net me a notification.
Your reading comprehension has slightly deepened with external stimulation! +1 INT. +2 INT from [Genius-level Intellect].
So that was what the [Genius-level Intellect] trait meant by 'High chance in acquiring bonus INT stats from INT stat gains'. When I received INT stat points from doing something that stimulated my mind, say reading a book, I would receive more bonus INT stat points from the [Genius-level Intellect] trait.
Hell yeah Hungry Caterpillar! But shit, this trait is so broken…
After realizing that I received a total of 3 INT stat points just from merely reading a children's picture book that took less than a minute, I turned my eyes to the three other thin picture books shelved near me.
I quickly finished up the three other picture books that I had available to me, with each one netting me 3 INT stat points.
And it was at this point that the defining feature of a Gamer System was introduced.
Quest Alert!
[Precocious Bookworm (1)]
Read 10 books at the Preschool level (0/10)
Rewards:
+10 INT
+100 EXP
Accept? (Y/N)
The quest perfectly aligned with my own goals so there was no harm in accepting it. But I was curious. Did a quest generate due to my own personal desires and motivations, or was this specific quest offered due to current actions and behaviours?
Brimming with a gamer's spirit of trying to find exploits in any video games they played, I continued experimenting.
I tried to will a quest into existence by giving myself an objective. In this particular iteration, I set the condition of doing as many push ups as I could as my goal.
No quest appeared.
Then I dropped to the floor and began doing push ups. The purpose of this was to see if repetitive actions would generate a quest, as evidenced by my actions preceding the generation of the [Precocious Bookworm] quest.