'I've been floating in nothingness for hours. Is this what death feels like... just nothing? I can't even see myself'. Brayden thought as he drifted in darkness.
'Am I even supposed to be capable of forming thoughts, aren't I dead?...
'Wait...I think I can feel my legs... and my arms... and my lips, tongue, teeth...I can feel my body. And I'm not dead, my eyes are just closed'. Brayden opened his eyes and was greeted by blinding white light.
"Ah, I guess I'm dead afterall and was brought to heaven". He said softly to himself.
His eyes adjusted to the light and a cream coloured ceiling came into focus. He tried to sit up but couldn't, then suddenly a black screen popped up, just a few centimetres from his face, and written on it in blue text was;
_________________
•INSTALLATION SUCCESSFUL
•Reboot Complete
_________________
''What the hell is this?''. Brayden lamented as he tried to shove the screen aside, only for his palm to pass through it.
"What the... shit, this is the system!". He exclaimed excitedly. "And if I can see the system then surely I'm alive, right?". He tried to sit up again and succeeded, albeit barely.
"But where the hell am I". Brayden said with wide eyes, his mouth hanging open at the overwhelming sight before him.
— — —
"This is definitely not Earth". Brayden said to himself as he took in the sight before him.
There was a wooden bookshelf –about 1.5m tall– placed vertically, a few steps to his right and adjacent the shelf –directly in front of him– was a wooden desk and chair. He tried to stand up but couldn't and found out he was on some type of cushion made of hay, it was surprisingly very comfortable, too good to be normal even. He looked outside through the open door in front of him to the left and saw the ground was completely covered by grass, and he could see a lot of flowers some distance away.
"What the... where the hell am I? and how is there so many wood and plants!?". Brayden almost screamed. The earth he knew had long lost any naturally growing plants and was covered entirely in metals, alloys and infertile soil.
The last natural tree on earth was a safely guarded monument that was properly cared for and only ever seen by few. The regular meals on earth contained a lot of synthetic nutrients and even the few fruits and meat available were gotten from the farm on the moon and could only be afforded by financially well of individuals, so being in a wooden building, surrounded by wooden furniture and seeing a lot of living plants gave him quite a shock that he fell back into the hay cushion to keep his sanity.
— — —
Brayden was staring at the ceiling –which he noticed was also a type of wood– before he noticed a black circle at the corner of his eyesight, he focused on it for a moment and a black rectangular screen appeared in front of him, there was a new message now aside from the former one;
________________
•Start up complete
|Open System|
_________________
'Well, the system should be able to explain things'. He thought to himself then reached out his hand to select the 'open system' button, his palm passed through the screen yet again, he paused, retracted his hand then focused on the button.
'Open system'. He said in his head, then he heard a faint click sound, followed by an almost inaudible "System starting".
Three dots appeared on the screen, blinking in and out one after the other. After about a minute the dots disappeared, the screen flickered and four tabs appeared on the screen, the first one sporting the words 'status', the other three blurred out.
"What's up with the blurred options?". Brayden said to himself as he selected the status tab by saying it in his head, and the tab opened up almost immediately.
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NAME: XENON PRASEDYMUM
AGE: 14
LEVEL: 1 | EXP 0/50
STATE: DISEASED; EXTREMELY WEAK
HP: 2/10
OUSIA: DAMAGED
ATTRIBUTES[>]
SYSTEM SKILL: SCAN(Lvl1)
QUESTS²[>]
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"What the hell is this?". Brayden lamented. "Who's Xenon?, what the fuck is an Ousia? And where the hell did I get a disease?...
"Those guys ripped my off, didn't they? Ah, I should have known, with the way alarms were going off and that capsule was flashing red. They fucking gave me a faulty system.
"No wonder I was in pain and lost my senses. Those bastards, that lady... they are the reason I got hit by that black thing. What even was that black thing?".
He closed the system and continued to stare at the ceiling for a while before deciding to seat up. He saw a small round glass bottle filled with clear sparkling liquid on the desk beside the bookshelf.
"Great, I'm very thirsty". He tried to stand up and failed several times.
"How am I this weak, I can't even stand up, what the fuck is wrong with my body? Am I still suffering from the after effects of being hit with that black stuff. Damn I don't even know what hit me, but I don't seem to have any wounds or scars. My skin is very pale though". Brayden lamented, trying to look for signs of the accident on his body.
He tried to stand up once more, this time crawling over to the bookshelf and using it as a support to pull himself up. He succeeded and trailed the shelf, he reached the edge of the shelf and launched himself forward, towards the wooden chair, he collided with the chair –unfortunately he didn't fall– regained his balance and sat down.
He stretched out his left hand, grabbed the bottle, brought it close to his face and shook it to inspect the contents.
"It sure looks like sparkling water to me". Brayden said to himself and was about to remove the wooden stopper lodged in the neck of the bottle, before the black screen of the system popped up.
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•System Skill; SCAN in effect
ITEM: Mid-grade, Low Quality, Spirit Rejuvenating Potion
EFFECT(null): ???
•Added effect – elevates fatigue, and restores vitality
_________________
"What is this gibberish?". Brayden said to himself, confused. The system screen switched to his status and highlighted the arrowhead beside 'ATTRIBUTES'. Brayden concentrated on it reluctantly.
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ATTRIBUTES[<]
|Strength: 3| |Agility: 2| |Endurance: 10|
|Intelligence: 17| |Senses: 5|
[Fatigue: 90% | Vitality 20%]
•Take potion to recover fatigue and vitality
_________________
"I don't even know if this system is faulty or just messing with me anymore. Well since it doesn't mention any bad effects I'll just drink it anyway". He uncorked the bottle and emptied the contents into his throat.
°Ding
Immediately he swallowed it, he felt a weird sensation all over his body, he let go of the bottle inadvertently as he drowned in the overwhelmingly refreshing sensation. He shrugged off the feeling and opened the system as soon as he regained his senses to check his attributes, ignoring the notification sent by the system earlier when he consumed the potion... and alas...
_________________
ATTRIBUTES[<]
|Strength: 3| |Agility: 2| |Endurance: 10|
|Intelligence: 17| |Senses: 5|
[Fatigue: 70% | Vitality 30%]
_________________
"Wow! This stuff really did work... I feel energised". He attempted to stand, and this time he could stand by himself, without a support –for about a few seconds.
"If this is true, then am I truly diseased?". He said as he stared at the system status screen where it indicated his state as diseased.
He picked up the potion's bottle which he had dropped by mistake, aiming to put it back on the wooden table but his attention was drawn to his reflection on the bottle. He scrunched up his face as he continued to look at the reflection.
"What happened to my face?". He said slowly, softly.
_________________
•Would you like access this body's memories
[Yes | No]
________________
He read the message that was displayed on the system's screen, opened his mouth to say something... decided against it... opened it again... closed it...
"What the hell is actually happening here?". He continued to stare at the screen for some seconds then eventually selected the option 'Yes'.