He took a moment to analyze the message that popped up in front of him. It seemed to be a choice. If he chose Yes then he would risk taking double damage or no damage and also whatever GC was. If he chose No then he would take 5 points of damage.

  Axel chose the Status button.

  Axel’s eyes scanned over the bright blue text. He understood what was being presented to him. It was a status box similar to those of the games back on Earth.

  STR likely represented Strength, AGI meant Agility, INT for Intelligence, VIT was vitality, and LUK...is it Luck? Axel decided he would take a closer look later as he turned his attention back towards the message.

  Axel drew abated breath and selected Yes.

  A protective sheen of light enveloped Axel’s fist as his fist connected with the tree trunk.

  Thud

  Nothing happened. He didn’t feel any pain at all. A message then popped up in the air in front of the tree.

  Axel was astounded. What should have hurt any regular human being did absolutely nothing to him.

  Was this his newfound power?

  Axel focused his mind.

  Open Status

  A new row had been added to his status page. Gamble Coin: 2. Axel focused in on the new row and a pop up appeared.

  Gambler’s System

  Only two options? I thought there would be more to this system. Maybe I can expand the system.

  Axel selected Expand.

  1000 GC? I only have 2 GC in my inventory, how am I supposed to acquire more? It seems so far away. Let me try out Lucky Draw.

  Axel was baffled. These costs were absurdly high. It was as if the system was mocking him for being poor. How in the world was he expected to obtain more GC? Wait...there was a reason why the system triggered in the first place. If the system had appeared only because he was about to take damage, then perhaps…

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Axel drew his right-hand back, formed a fist, and fired it straight at the tree again.

  It appeared again! It seems that whenever I’m about to hit something or take damage, the system will show up and give me a gamble. This must have been what Sorn was talking about earlier.

  Axel once again selected Yes.

  Axel let out a cry of pain as his fist connected with the hardwood of the oak tree. He could feel the sting of the wood splinters pierce into his knuckles. Tears of pain formed in his eyes as he cradled his injured hand.

  He wracked his brain. There must be a better way. A more efficient method. There had to be more to the system than damage mitigation.

  Axel eyed a branch lying underneath some leaves. He picked it up and wielded it like a weapon. He swung the branch at the tree.

  Yes!

  “Take that, tree! Why are you hitting yourself?” Axel triumphantly declared as he swung the branch. His mood improved with every coin he gained.

  After breaking dozens of branches, Axel finally stopped. He had completely exhausted the available supply around him. The sun was starting to set anyways. He had discovered a couple of things about the Gambler’s system as he was farming coins.

  Dice was used as the main gambling tool. A 1-3 roll yielded a fail, while a 4-6 roll yielded a success. He couldn’t reuse something that had run out of HP, which meant he couldn’t keep using branches that broke.

  Axel groaned as he massaged his sore arm. Even though farming coins were beneficial, there was still a limit to how much his body could take.

  Status

  It wasn’t enough. A lucky draw cost 250 coins and Axel was less than half-way there. There wasn’t enough light left in the day to find more branches to use.

  Then a message popped up.

  Axel suddenly visualized two present boxes appearing in front of him. They exuded a tantalizing orange glow as if beckoning Axel to open them. Axel was filled with anticipation as he proceeded to open the present on the left.

  Axel was speechless. He didn’t know if the system had just given him something amazing or terrible. Did the system want him to keep whacking trees? He sighed, at least there was still one more box to go, hopefully, this time it would be more clear.

  Axel nervously opened the final box. Suddenly he was hit with a barrage of notifications.