Reminiscing on the past, Ryo was grateful for all of the support; his family, his brother, and everyone helped him overcome his challenges. The thought of everything they had ever done, all that they had sacrificed, made his eyes water.
Ryo had been alone in the backyard, juggling his football in the misty dark. The rain had passed, leaving the grass heavy with water. The rhythmic sound of the ball tapping against his bare feet echoed in his ears. Nothing else existed as he juggled the ball.
Thirty minutes passed before he knew it, and he finally let the ball drop and lay back on the damp earth, cool drops sliding across his face.
There was nothing he loved more than playing football. If only he could see. If only he could join a team, compete, maybe even chase the dream of playing professionally. But his sight had disappeared. No matter how much he wished, blindness was an insurmountable wall.
He had lived his life to the fullest, yet what had happened? His brother gave up on his dreams to help Ryo. His parents constantly took care of him with the little time and money they had. Yet his dreams couldn't advance any further. Was he truly happy with how he lived his life? Did he have any regrets? Was he destined to fail from the moment he was born?
The answers seemed obvious, but to Ryo, the answers were ambiguous. He had lived a life worth living, yet he felt he could have gone a lot further. He hadn't dragged his family down; he went to high school, university, learned what he could, yet he couldn't help them grow out of their situation. He had made many promises during his life, but was he able to truly uphold them, or did he just fail to give up? None of the questions that crossed his mind had an answer, and for the first time in his life, Ryo felt powerless.
So, standing at the pinnacle of utmost reflection, lying down on an altar, where his soul was torn open and vulnerable, Ryo took in his last breath.
—————————————————————————————————
Right below where Ryo lay was an intersection between a gas line and an electrical line. Because of poor engineering, the two utilities crossed each other in a residential backyard. The gas line was so old that it suddenly split open, rapidly expanding into a dense pocket of gas. The electrical line, crossing over the fault in the pipe, had also been in a decrepit condition. Its insulation was weathered down; its bare wire frayed by the constant contact with the gas pipe.
So, upon Ryo's final breath, the conditions all met; with a pocket of gas and an exposed wire in the same vicinity, all that was needed was a spark. Even a spark, small enough that it couldn't even light kindling, would complete the puzzle.
That spark was delivered because of a power surge caused by the passing storm. Though usually harmless, with no insulation and only slight separation between wires, the electricity had nothing to stop its leap across the gap.
At the end of Ryo's exhale, with the night clawing at his senses, and his inner turmoil bared to the cosmos, the cool, damp air tore apart as a blazing inferno consumed the land; the surroundings erupted into an abominable conflagration, a monstrous column of fire and earth, a terrifying vortex of destruction, ascending with a deafening roar, cleaving through the tranquil night, shattering windows with its terrifying shockwave—Hades himself had burst forth from the depths of hell, his divine wrath vaporizing all life within his domain, leaving only one boundless soul in the wake of his emergence.
That night, the only casualty of this explosion was Ryo.
—————————————————————————————————
[A Potential Host Has Been Detected!]
[Scanning The Unbound Soul…]
[Scan Complete! Unknown Traces Detected!]
[Reasons To Accept Host: 1]
[Reasons To Reject Host: 0]
[Host Accepted!]
[Fetching The Soul's Coordinates…]
[Coordinates Found!]
[Setting Up A Suitable Environment For The Host…]
[Set Up Complete!]
[Determining The Destination Coordinates…]
[Coordinates Found!]
[Transferring The Soul To Destination Coordinates…]
[Transfer Complete! Integrating The Soul Into the Desired Body…]
[Integration Complete! Merging Into The Host…]
[Merging Complete! Awakening Host.]
—————————————————————————————————
Ryo felt a warm sensation on his face. The sun was already up. He groaned, shifting under his covers. Just a bit longer…
Suddenly, like a jolt of lightning, he shot upright.
Light was seeping through his eyelids. Where am I? Just moments ago, he had been lying on the ground outside.
More importantly, he could see. Slowly, hesitantly, he opened his eyes, watching the sunlight filter in through the blinds.
His room stretched before him. Eighteen years since he'd last seen anything, and every detail struck him like a revelation. Ren was still asleep across the room, the brown desk he had spent countless hours at, sitting between their beds. Light refracted through the window, illuminating specks of dust floating lazily in the air. The room was tidy—no clothes, no football gear, and no books scattered around.
Ryo's breath hitched. The light. The colors. It's all here. After all this time… I can finally see again.
Tears slid down his face, and he brought a trembling hand up to wipe them away. As he calmed, he noticed something odd. His hands… weren't they smaller than before?
[Your Soul Has Been Chosen By The System!]
As he sat on the edge of his bed, Ryo froze at the presence in front of him. Barely an arm's length away floated a rectangular, screen-like form. Its surface was impeccably smooth, a translucent silver-white film that seemed to ripple like liquid metal. Its edges, engraved with intricate patterns, blue and violet streams flowing in iridescent waves, pulsed as if it were alive.
The dark, lapis-blue characters etched across its surface shimmered gently within their thin, black confines, as if they were whispering to Ryo. The air around it, oblivious to its existence, seemed to bend, pressed by an authority beyond imagination.
Even without a face, without eyes, the being's presence was absolute—entirely ethereal, yet undeniably sentient. This presence was known to mortals as The System.
Ryo's lips trembled, "The System?" The words barely escaped, suffocated under the weight of the being before him.
[To Call Up The System, Say "System Open."]
The regal characters shifted, each stroke bending to the screen's will, its tone commanding, weighing down on Ryo. Failing to stay upright, he crumbled onto the ground, arms shaking, sweat beading on his forehead. Ryo slowly looked up, afraid to glance at the manifestation in front of him. The forces holding up the universe, all condensed into a single, incomprehensible being.
The System.