American comic book: My Father is Superman, am I just an NPC?

Chapter 4 Conceptual Professions, Gifts from Heaven

The scene before him was already familiar to Ian.

This nightmare... no, perhaps it's more accurate to say that he falls into this strange state every night, and it started some time before he awakened the cheat system on his system panel.

"What the hell is this place?"

Frost crystals quickly formed on Ian's eyelashes. He raised his hand to catch the snow that was falling from the sky. The white snow curtain swallowed up the skyline of the ruined city.

The snow was too heavy.

Ian could only see things clearly that were right in front of him. Strangely, he didn't feel cold in this environment, as if he were actually there but also detached from the rest of the world.

The howling wind was mixed with the cracking sound of ice breaking, and the quiet city was as desolate as a scene from a post-apocalyptic painting. Perhaps this world was already a post-apocalyptic world.

"Da da da~"

"Da da da~"

Ian walked on the frozen ground, unsure of what he could do in this world. All his previous attempts had proven that he could not bring anything back from here.

Perhaps the only benefit this city can bring Ian is to become the inspiration for a famous decadent painter; the broken viaduct juts out into the snow like a dissected steel skeleton.

The rusty car wrecks were half-buried in the ice, the collapsed bus stops had their glass roofs shattered, and many buildings shrouded in deep snow had also collapsed.

Broken power lines swayed in the wind everywhere, making the place seem like a ruin abandoned by the gods, where even hearing a single insect chirp was an impossible dream.

"Hey! Come out!"

Ian shouted at the sky out of boredom, but no trash fell from the sky. His nine years of compulsory education had failed to become his secret weapon for exploring this strange world.

"It seems we can only follow the old rules." Ian also has strict requirements for himself in this world. The fact that he was able to upgrade his [Student] profession to LV7 in such a short time is partly thanks to the Nightmare World. In this world, Ian will have an extra seven hours for time management.

I even study in my dreams.

He certainly deserved his excellent grades and rapid advancement.

This is not.

Ian had already begun searching through the ruins of the icy world for bookstores that hadn't yet been buried, most of which contained a considerable number of adult magazines and periodicals.

The two older brothers had to hide these books in the neighbor's doghouse, while Ian didn't have to worry about being discovered by his parents, and he could even gain experience points from appreciating them. Learning about the adult world—isn't that a form of learning too? Ian's "Student" profession is very flexible in determining experience gain.

"No area can be weak; that's what makes a true academic genius in the new era!" Ian was very satisfied with his plan as he walked through one snow-covered street after another.

As Ian stomped on the ice, the soles of his boots made a sickening scraping sound. Of course, he would slip in such conditions, but he could shake himself off and stand up without feeling any pain.

It's like a lucid dream.

It was just quite coherent and unique. Soon, Ian found his destination, a bookstore buried in snow, which he could easily dig into with his hardworking hands in just half an hour.

There were hardly any people in the bookstore, not even any dead customers. Fortunately, although the books on the shelves were quite fragile, the books in the glass display cases could still be gently flipped through.

[You have read carefully and grasped some aesthetic techniques. [Student] Professional Experience Points +1]

[You have read carefully and grasped some aesthetic techniques. [Student] Professional Experience Points +1]

...Time passed by in a fulfilling learning environment.

Ian also happened to find a still-functional revolver next to a collector's item magazine, and he immediately pointed it at his temple and pulled the trigger.

"Bang bang bang~"

The bullet touched his flesh, creating ripples, but it couldn't harm him in the slightest. Ian had already figured out the special nature of dreams, and this action brought him additional experience.

[You attempted to learn how to catch bullets by hand. Although the practical learning failed, you did learn some dangerous techniques. [Student] Professional Experience +3]

[You attempted to learn how to catch bullets by hand. Although the practical learning failed, you did learn some dangerous techniques. [Student] Professional Experience +3]

……

The six system notifications weren't Ian's limit, but rather the limit of his revolver magazine. It was a pity that no more bullets could be found nearby, otherwise Ian would have been very grateful for nature's gift—a full eighteen experience points, which would have taken him a long time to gain. It proved that only by being ruthless could one get ahead.

“I still feel unsatisfied.”

Ian provided himself with a voiceover.

I've said that before.

His experience gain criteria for the [Student] profession are very flexible, which is why he feels that his system panel is like an unfinished game.

It's not that there are many bugs, but rather that there aren't many restrictions.

"See you tomorrow night, Miss who doesn't like wearing underwear." Ian put down his personal photo album, estimated the time of his return, and moved a table to the entrance of the bookstore.

Although there was no coffee or cakes, the bookstore naturally had plenty of pictures of those two items, and Ian cut out several of them and placed them on the small table in front of him.

When people get bored to a certain extent, they do become a little more abstract. However, Ian thinks this is a kind of ritual. He would be bored to death every night if he didn't have any activities to pass the time.

A world of utter desolation.

Isn't it just a dull, dark little room?

Outside the dog hole Ian had dug, snowflakes were falling, and it was unusually quiet, except for the occasional icicle that broke off from the sign and stuck into the snowdrift with a crisp sound.

"Boom!"

Well, the sudden noise wasn't crisp, but it was very loud, and the ground even trembled a little like muffled thunder, which really startled Ian, who was used to silence.

The sudden commotion was intense and muffled; it was definitely not the sound of icicles falling to the ground, but rather like a mountain collapsing and crashing heavily onto the ground!

"Holy crap, something really fell from the sky?" Ian snapped out of his daze and quickly stood up, skillfully crawling out through the dog hole he had dug out by the front door.

on the street.

The gale, carrying ice shards, was still howling.

I saw.

In Ian's incredulous, wide-eyed gaze, a figure as large as a small mountain was reflected—the culprit that had fallen from the sky with a dull thud.

A green giant, just like this world, completely frozen in ice and snow!
(End of this chapter)