— System, can you explain the parameters?

So you've had your time and dumped me?

— System? HEY!

...

— Jervis, clip that.

All right, while this Ii's being ungodly stupid, I think we can have a look at my current window. What's my specialty? I'm an owner? And, I'm supposed to get double the experience from killing? Probably not, and the conditions are completely different, but since the system is apparently disabled, I can only guess. That's a shame.

Sitting on the floor, not daring to go check the house, I tried to guess the meaning of the text myself. Level? It's clear, it's some kind of gauge of my level and overall strength, and it's possible that it multiplies the strength of the skills proportionally.

Race, perhaps an interesting metric, maybe in the aftermath I'll stop being human altogether.

Uh, if I become a cthulhu, kill me. I don't want to be that ugly!

Skills are probably the most obscure thing for me, by repeating things I get some skill for the action I'm doing thus making that move stronger than before, that's what the prompt said. Suppose? I started throwing a rock 10 times. Do I get the ability to do that efficiently or do I need something more thorough for that, something that is beyond the understanding of the average person, or just a little beyond the knowledge of most people?

Let's check it out.

Walking out of the door I walk to the nearest tree, looking for rocks to experiment with. After picking up 10 small stones, I stand a meter away and throw them at the trunk. All the stones hit the trunk, but I didn't get a skill, as expected.

I'll note the result.

I write down with a stick, and move away to 10 meters, only 4 stones hit the trunk, I threw up to 10 hits. Expecting that something should happen I see nothing, and out of sadness, I throw a stone with all my might from my shoulder, hitting.

— YO!

Then the blue table opens again, with that coveted ability.

▷Name: Klei Smith

▷Race: Human

▷Level: 1

▷Specialization: Owner (experience 200%)

▷Skills: Translation(A), Throwing(F)

▷State: Happy

— It worked! — as I shifted my eyes, I noticed another change in my name.

▷Name: Klei Smith, The Lord of the Pebbles

Well, it's a pretty classy name, so whatever. — Jarvis cli– — okay, I stop doing that(I lie).

After thinking about it for a moment, I noticed that a bush about 50 meters away from me was stirring. Not that it was unusual, but what really bothered me, because I see two tails coming out of it. I may have seen a lot of things in my life, but this was the first time. Maybe, I smoked something I shouldn't have to.

[Achievement: Meet a catgirl. 100 system points]

Oh, what? Catgirl? I was expecting some kind of isekai, but I wasn't prepared for this kind of discovery, not at all. It's the ultimate weapon of all fantasy worlds!

— Hey, get out there! — I shouted in that direction, expecting a response, but nothing. The tails are still sticking out, but they're moving a lot slower.

She heard me, but didn't show it, did she?

— Come out, don't be afraid! Hello! I can see you, I'm not blind!

If you wanted to hide, you failed catastrophically, I'm not kidding.

This time she realized I heard her and peeked out from under the bush a little and looked at me with yellow cat eyes that peeked out from under her green hat, where her cat ears peeked out. She awkwardly raised her hand and waved at me in a rather sweet manner. I smiled and waved back at her too.

She's so cute!

After hesitating a bit longer, she makes up her mind and stands up from under the bush, looking very embarrassed, but she's trying to look very mature.

— Hello mortal! I'm Chen!

In front of me stood a girl of very short stature, about my chest height. She had dark brown eyes, light brown hair, and a green cap on her head. On her head she has black cat ears with a gold earring in her left ear, she also has two cat tails. Her dress is red with a white layer around the edges and a white bow on the collar framed in gold. The sleeves of the dress are also white in color. Yo!

— Hey, hey, you have a cool greeting! I love it!

— My name is Klei, I may be as mortal as you say, but I hope I can survive this conversation without falling apart! — she didn't see that coming.

"Oh look at her reaction of utter shock!"

The girl tried to come up with the most mature response she could think of, and when she did, she looked at me confidently, lifting her head up —I know, I know! People are mortal!

— That's why, I'm better than them, nya! But, if you're so polite, I guess I can talk to you for a while, because I'm COOL!

I smiled, — Thank you for your generosity! I need to find out where I am, green forest is not a marker for me.

≽^•⩊•^≼: — Oh, that's easy!

≽^•⩊•^≼: — Mom calls this a reality boundary? I don't really understand it, but it's like a barrier that closes us off from the outside world, nya.

≽^•⩊•^≼: — We call it Gensokyo!

After a little thought, she adds, — There are also yokai here, and they're cool! I'm a yokai, and of course I'm cool too! Isn't that awesome!? — yeah, how else could it be, cool kitty?

≽^•⩊•^≼: — We are, as mom said, the spawn of people's thoughts and feed off their fears, surprises, and other emotions. So you could say it's a little yokai paradise, where the human population is very small!

Seems like a complete utopia for people where they can't live normally without fear of tomorrow? What a world I'm in, isn't it? Yokai are what I understand to be little monsters like Chen. Maybe she's just so cute? And everyone else is ugly? Still, I can't judge just by one person.

I think it's worth making acquaintances, since I'll be here for a while.

— Thank you, Chen, can we be friends? — yo, like a gentleman, I extend my hand for a handshake.

Chen spins around her a bit examining it, and looking at me confused asks, shaking her head in uncertainty. "Jarvis clip this. No really Jarvis, I BEG YOU!"

— Yeah! But, why did you put your arm out like that? It's weird. — first, cultural differences.

I said, — All right, forget it. Shouldn't you be getting home? Your mom's gonna be worried. It's late, 6:00 in the evening.

Exclaiming her crowning nya, she looks at me, then up at the sky, stunned, Chen quickly says goodbye to me.

With a dazzling smile, she shouts running off into the distance — BYE KLEI! IT WAS A LOT OF FUN TALKING WITH YOU! — saying that, Chen turns around and runs off at triple speed into the forest.

"Yo? What a flash."

And here I am again, standing alone, watching the sunset. It wasn't time, I was getting too relaxed. I looked around, and seeing nothing strange, but absolute silence around me, I went back inside home.

Just as I walk in the door, a message from the system pops up in my face.

[Hello user, sorry for the overload, it was necessary for further work of the system. We apologize for the delay.]

Thanks for coming back. So show me the place.

[Yes, user. You have a four-room apartment at your disposal. There are: 2 bedrooms, a toilet, a kitchen and two empty rooms for any needs. At the moment I've designated them as storage.]

"It's a great place, I thought I'd be living like a slug in a back alley."

I walk into the house and there's a hallway leading to three rooms? The planner's a freak. Shouldn't there be a living room in there, huh? I go through the left door and there's a kitchen and two more branches behind it.

"Am I in a maze?"

Okay, I go right, see an empty room in the dim light. I pass it, I go left. Toilet with a black hole in the opening. Fucking sparrows. What the fuck is wrong with you people? What the fuck is this? There's no toilet paper in here. That's it, let's go back to the other rooms.

I get out and go to the room in front of the hallway. Whoa! Bedroom! Again, what a freak of a designer. You've got nothing, but garbage in your head that you put a bedroom off the hallway?!

There's a bedroom and an empty room on the other side.

"So how do I eat? What to fill my belly with, to paraphrase. System?"

[All the food can be found in this catalog.]

I'm only looking at one of the available choices, not enough. So five days of simple meals for 10 points. That's pretty expensive considering I only have 200. Okay stingy, come on.

After a minute or so a light shone and 5 servings of what looked like army rations appeared in front of me. No, I unwrapped the bag and realized that's what it was. Yuck, it's not good.

— Jervis, what the fuck is this unpalatable?

I reasonably asked the question. But there was no answer. Got it.

— Can I rename you to Jervis, please?

[Accepted]

"How dry…" — I thought we were friends!