Xavier sat frozen on the edge of his bed, his heart hammering a frantic rhythm against his ribs. The blue light from the floating interface reflected in his one remaining glasses lens, casting a ghostly glow over his bruised face.
"Is this… a hallucination?" he whispered, his voice cracking.
He blinked hard, then manually swiped the air to bring up his standard, government-issued status menu. The familiar, clunky holographic orange screen appeared, showing his name and that mocking 0.0%. But the blue screen didn't vanish. It sat right on top of the old one, sleek and vibrant.
[WELCOME, PLAYER]
"No way," he muttered. He reached out, his fingers passing through the light. It wasn't physical, yet it felt like the air around the text was humming with a static charge.
[WOULD YOU LIKE TO BEGIN THE TUTORIAL?]
[YES / NO]
Xavier's mind raced. He'd heard rumors of advanced AI interfaces used by the top-ranking Commanders in the military, but those required neural implants and a mana output of at least 40% just to synchronize. He was a Zero. He was a kid in a cramped apartment with a broken pair of glasses.
He stood up quietly, creeping to his bedroom door. He cracked it open. The hallway was dark, the only sound being the low hum of the refrigerator and the rhythmic, exhausted breathing of his mother from the room across the hall. She was out cold.
He closed the door and turned back to the blue glow. "Yes," he breathed.
He closed the door and turned back to the blue glow. "Yes," he breathed.
The text blurred and reshaped itself.
[TUTORIAL INITIATED]
[YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN AS THE SOLE OPERATOR OF THE SYSTEM. BY COMPLETING 'QUESTS,' YOU WILL EARN VARIOUS CATEGORIES OF POINTS:]
• [SHOP POINTS (SP): USED TO PURCHASE EQUIPMENT, CONSUMABLES, AND SKILLS.]
• [INTEL POINTS (IP): USED TO ACCESS CLASSIFIED DATA AND HIDDEN MAPS.]
• [STAT POINTS (STP): USED TO PERMANENTLY ENHANCE PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES, INCLUDING MANA OUTPUT.]
Xavier's breath hitched at the last line. Including mana output.
He lay back down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling through the menu. It felt like a fever dream. If he could raise his output, he wouldn't just be a normal person—he could be a Chaser. He could be someone who actually mattered.
The screen flashed one final warning in a deep, alarming shade of crimson.
[FINAL TUTORIAL NOTE: THE SYSTEM IS A CONTRACT. FAILURE TO COMPLETE ASSIGNED QUESTS WITHIN THE ALLOTTED TIME WILL RESULT IN A PENALTY.]
[TUTORIAL QUEST: BASIC HYGIENE]
[OBJECTIVE: BRUSH YOUR TEETH AND TAKE A FULL BATH.]
[TIME LIMIT: 30 MINUTES]
[REWARD: 1 STAT POINT]
[PENALTY: ELECTRO-STIMULATION PUNISHMENT]
Xavier stared at the screen for a long moment, then let out a dry, cynical laugh. "Brush my teeth? This has to be a joke. My brain finally snapped from that beating Asher gave me."
He ignored the floating timer that had appeared in the corner of his vision. He didn't feel like bathing. He felt like his ribs were broken and his life was over. He walked over to his desk, cracked open his old PC, and began scrolling through the news, looking at the latest Gate Break reports in the European Sector.
He lost himself in the articles, the orange glow of the PC monitor drowning out the blue flickering of the System. Thirty minutes, he thought. Whatever.
Suddenly, the blue screen turned bright red.
[QUEST FAILED]
[PENALTY INITIATED]
"Wait, what—"
Xavier didn't get to finish the sentence. A violent surge of electricity ripped through his body, arching from the air itself into his chest. It wasn't a static shock; it was a localized lightning strike. His muscles seized, his jaw locked, and his vision turned into a kaleidoscope of white sparks.
He collapsed to the floor, his head hitting the carpeted boards with a dull thud. His world went black before he could even scream.
Xavier woke up to the smell of burnt toast and the dull ache of a massive hangover, though he'd never touched a drop of alcohol in his life. His limbs felt like lead.
"Xavier? Honey, are you up?"
His bedroom door opened, and Elena stepped in. She looked better than she had the night before, though the dark circles under her eyes remained. She saw him lying on the floor and gasped.
"Oh, did you fall out of bed again? You always were a restless sleeper." She walked over, helping him up. "I'm so sorry about yesterday, Xavier. Truly. I made some breakfast. Come eat before the bus gets here."
Xavier leaned against the wall, his head spinning. The memory of the shock came rushing back. It wasn't a dream. He looked at his hand—it was still trembling.
As Elena turned to leave the room, a new window snapped into existence right in front of Xavier's face.
[DAILY QUEST: THE SON'S BURDEN]
[OBJECTIVE: APOLOGIZE TO YOUR MOTHER FOR THE TROUBLE AND GIVE HER A SINCERE HUG.]
[REWARD: 10 STAT POINTS]
[PENALTY: ELECTRO-STIMULATION PUNISHMENT (LEVEL 2)]
Xavier's eyes widened. Level 2? The first one had knocked him unconscious. He wasn't going to test his luck again.
He stumbled into the kitchen. Elena was at the stove, her back to him.
"Mom?"
She turned around, surprised. "Yeah, honey?"
Xavier swallowed his pride, feeling the heat rise in his neck. "I'm sorry. For yesterday. For getting into trouble and making you apologize to those people. I'll... I'll try harder."
He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. She froze for a second, then melted into the hug, resting her head on his shoulder. "Oh, Xavier. You don't have to apologize for being brave. I just want you to be safe."
Xavier felt a genuine warmth spread through him, and for a second, he forgot about the numbers and the mana. But the System didn't
[QUEST COMPLETE]
[REWARD GRANTED: 10 STAT POINTS]
Xavier hurried back to his room to get ready for school. He looked at his glasses on the nightstand. One lens was gone, the frame bent beyond repair. If he wore them, he'd just be giving the bullies more ammunition.
"Stat points," he whispered. "Menu."
The blue screen appeared. He saw his attributes: Strength, Agility, Intelligence, and Vision. His Vision was currently at a 4.
"Put five points into Vision," he commanded.
The change was instantaneous. It was like a veil had been lifted from the world. The dust motes dancing in the morning light became sharp, crystalline structures. He could see the microscopic cracks in the paint on his far wall. He could see the brand name on a discarded wrapper under his bed from across the room. Everything was in 8K resolution.
"Holy crap," he whispered, blinking. He didn't need the glasses anymore. In fact, his vision was now better than most "normal" people.
He looked at the remaining 5 points. "Put the rest into Strength."
He felt a slight tingle in his biceps and thighs. He stood up and grabbed his backpack, which was usually a heavy burden on his thin shoulders. He pulled it up.
"It's... a little lighter?" He frowned. He wasn't suddenly muscular. He didn't feel like a superhero. He just felt like he'd had a really good night's rest. "Five points and all I get is a lighter bag? What a scam."
School was the same gauntlet of whispers and pointing. Without his glasses, Xavier felt exposed, but he kept his head down, navigating the hallways with his newly sharpened sight. He could see the sneers on people's faces from fifty yards away now.
In the courtyard, he found his only real friend, Leo. Leo was a rich kid whose parents had basically bought his way into St. Jude's, but he was grounded. He had a mana output of 6%—low enough to be "normal," but high enough that nobody messed with him too much.
"Whoa, Xav! No glasses?" Leo asked, leaning against a hovering bench. "You look... less like a target. What happened?"
"Broke them," Xavier said shortly. He looked at Leo, a thought occurring to him. "Hey, Leo... you ever hear about, like, a system update? Something that gives you quests?"
Leo snorted, nearly choking on his nutrient drink. "A system update? Bro, who do you think I am? I'm a 6%. I'm not in the military. Only the elite Garrison pilots get that kind of neural-link tech. Why? You seeing ghosts?"
Xavier looked at the empty air where his blue menu usually sat. "Never mind. Just a weird dream I had."
The day dragged on. The System remained silent. No quests, no shocks, no rewards. Xavier began to wonder if the "Penalty" had just been a vivid hallucination caused by a concussion from Asher's beating.
***
Thirty days passed.
The final exams of the second year arrived and departed. Xavier studied harder than ever, his increased Vision making it easier to read for hours without eye strain. He sat through his tests, ignored the occasional spitball from Asher's crew, and watched as the school year wound down.
The blue screen didn't appear once during that month. Xavier eventually stopped checking. He convinced himself it was a one-time glitch of the mind, a defense mechanism born from trauma.
On the final day of school, Xavier woke up with a strange sense of peace. He'd survived the year. He was one step closer to graduation and a stable job. He got dressed, stuffed a piece of toast into his mouth, and grabbed his bag.
He reached for the front door handle, ready to head out for the last time before summer break.
Ping
The sound was like a crystal glass shattering in a quiet room. Xavier froze, the toast nearly falling from his mouth.
[INCOMING QUEST: THE PATH TO GREATNESS]
[OBJECTIVE: REGISTER FOR THE RECRUITMENT EXAM, JOIN THE ESDF, AND BECOME A CHASER.]
[REWARD: 100 STAT POINTS, UNLOCK 'MANA CIRCULATION']
[TIME LIMIT: 24 HOURS TO REGISTER]
[FAILURE TO COMPLETE: SYSTEM DELETION & PERMANENT NEURAL SHUTDOWN]
Xavier's hand trembled on the doorknob. Neural shutdown. That wasn't an electric shock. That was a nice way of saying his brain would stop working.
"A Chaser?" he whispered to the empty hallway. "I'm a Zero. They won't even let me in the building."
But the timer began to tick. 23:59:59...