Becoming The Strongest Using My Would-You-Rather System!

After a while, Theo stepped out of his training room.

A few passing students immediately looked at him, their expressions changing slightly.

But he didn’t pay them any attention.

Outside, Owen was already waiting for him.

Leaning against the wall, arms crossed.

’’Took you long enough,’’ he said, pushing himself off.

Theo glanced at him, shaking his head lightly.

’’You were the one who wanted to train till so late.’’

Owen shrugged.

’’Yeah, well... can’t show up to the competition unprepared, right?’’

Theo nodded, a small smile on his face.

’’Fair enough,’’ he said.

The two continued walking, heading straight for their apartment.

A cold breeze brushed past them as the sun had long set.

’’By the way,’’ Owen said, tilting his head. ’’What do we do when we face each other in the finals?’’ 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Theo raised an eyebrow, turning to him.

’’What do you mean?’’

Owen scratched his head with a large smile.

’’Well... both of us are strong,’’ he said. ’’I doubt there’s actually competition for us in our city.’’

Silence fell for a moment.

Theo glanced at the ground, a difficult expression on his face.

’He’s right,’ he thought. ’I highly doubt there will be.’

So what to do then?

Face off like they are supposed to?

’No, that’s a terrible idea.’

A fight between the two of them would just reveal all their abilities.

That wasn’t the goal of the competition either way.

At least... not for him.

Owen scratched his head, thinking for a moment.

Then—

’’You know what,’’ he said. ’’I’ll just surrender and let you get the reward this time.’’

Theo’s head snapped towards him, confused.

’’What?’’

Owen grinned.

’’You gave me that two hundred thousand dollar resource, remember,’’ he continued. ’’Might as well make the score even now.’’

Staring at him for a moment, Theo’s eyes slowly widened.

’’But...’’ Owen said, pointing a finger at him. ’’You owe me a spar somewhere in the future.’’

Silence fell between the two for a moment.

Finally, Theo let out a quiet breath.

’’...Alright,’’ he said. ’’You surrender if it comes to that, and I owe you a proper spar later.’’

Owen’s smile widened immediately.

He patted Theo firmly on his back before quickening his pace.

Theo staggered forward slightly from the sudden pat, then quickly caught himself.

’’You’re crazy,’’ he muttered, shaking his head with a small smile.

His mind had long been occupied again.

’Freeing my dad...’ he thought. ’That’s all that matters.’

’And I’ll have to bait David and his family greatly to do that.’

By the time they reached their apartment, another half an hour had passed.

Theo quickly went upstairs, locking the door to his room immediately.

’There’s not much time left,’ he thought.

He tossed his bag aside, his eyes drifting up to the transparent screen beside him.

[Would You Rather cooldown: 00:02:12]

Exhaling slowly, he walked to his window.

He stood there for a moment, watching the city below.

Before finally shutting it closed.

’’Okay,’’ he muttered, sitting down on the ground. ’’Let’s concentrate on this now.’’

The cooldown had dropped by another minute.

From then, his eyes never left the screen.

[Would You Rather cooldown: 00:00:59]

[Would You Rather cooldown: 00:00:32]

[Would You Rather cooldown: 00:00:01]

Finally, the screen lit up.

[Would You Rather—]

Option 1: Obtain five spatial tokens

-instantly teleport yourself or others to a marked location.

Option 2: Obtain three barrier cores

-automatically blocks one lethal attack.

Theo stared at the screen in silence.

His eyes moved slowly across both options.

’Interesting options this time,’ he thought. ’Way better than last time.’

Remembering the choice between Coke and Pepsi, he couldn’t help but shake his head.

He didn’t even like drinking either of them.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Theo glanced back at the screen.

’So we have... a teleportation device,’ he thought, tilting his head. ’And guaranteed defense?’

Both were incredibly useful items, which could save his life many times over.

For a brief moment, he just looked at them.

Then—

A faint smile appeared on his face.

’...This is actually easier than I expected.’

There wasn’t much to think about.

The barrier would activate and save his life, sure.

But that was it.

He’d still be trapped in the same situation.

’Whoever I’m facing could just pop it over and over until it runs out.’

And then... he’d still die.

But the spatial tokens didn’t have that problem.

It would let him escape across massive distances in an instant, leaving the enemy unable to pursue him.

’Unless someone’s so strong they don’t even give me time to use it...’

He paused for a brief moment.

’...But someone like that would kill me even with the barrier item.’

With that in mind, he smiled.

’’System,’’ he called out. ’’I choose option 1.’’

The screen immediately changed into a bright golden color.

[Choice made.]

Another line followed.

[Congratulations! Host has successfully chosen the five spatial tokens.]

Theo nodded once, his heart pounding slightly faster.

[Granting rewards in 3...2...1...]

Five black plaques appeared out of thin air in his hands.

Each was about the size of his palm, with foreign letters engraved into them.

’Nice,’ he thought, raising one to his eyes.

The surface felt cold, but not quite like metal.

Theo raised one of his eyebrows, shaking his head slightly.

’Where does the system even get these things?’

He lowered the token again and placed all five carefully on his desk.

’’Now, I want to mark this location as the system mentioned.’’

The moment he said that, the tokens lit up.

A dark circle engraved itself into his desk, bed, and all other surrounding items.

Theo’s expression froze.

’’Really?’’

The rest of the night passed quietly.

After cleaning up the mess, Theo quickly went to bed early.

He lay on his back for a while, staring at the ceiling, replaying what had just happened.

After a few minutes, he simply shook his head.

’’I need to get actual sleep,’’ he muttered. ’’Tomorrow we’ll finally be heading back to Santa Barbara.’’

With that, he closed his eyes.