Jin ended up passing out right there on the floor. He was only spotted when Sylvia was leaving the bathroom and taking the alley to the bar.

She told Flint where he was; and they all carried him back inside the bar again.

———

"If he's not dead; then all the alcohol he drank must be taking its toll…"

"Probably…"

"I can't believe Jin actually drank all that, and is now getting affected…"

"Special kid. I like him."

"Yeah, you're right. Jin's special," said Alura, "I think he should join our gang…"

"Yeah, I think so too," opined Sylvia, looking at Jin; who had been on Flint's back like a book bag.

Flint turned around, "It's gonna be dark in about an hour. I'm gonna carry him home. Maybe I'll pick up some soup for his grandma as well…"

"Do that…"

"Just don't bail on us though," uttered Alura, "We still gotta put our unconscious Baron to bed too, remember?"

"Yeah," replied Flint, "That's not a problem.

The bar was empty; only Flint and the others remained.

"Baron's like a baby…"

Krod folded his arms, "I'm still waiting for his ass to get up so that we can settle things once and for all!"

"Baron would win again though…"

"FUCK YOU, FLINT!"

Flint smirked, and snapped his fingers. As a result, a dark portal promptly opened in front of him.

Aileen stood next to him, "When are ya' gonna bring him back here?"

"I dunno," Fling shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe in two days if things run smoothly."

"Alright."

"Don't forget to buy his grandma the soup!"

"I won't," he walked into the portal.

———

Jin woke up the next day; his mouth brimming with something that was still completely unbeknownst to him. He flew up from his bed, and darted towards the bathroom.

Standing in front of the sink, he quickly bent over and began to puke out his organs. He puked until the sink was filthy with vomit.

Puke even gushed out from his nose, and he had begun to even excessively scorn himself.

He turned on the pipe, and water came gushing out and into the sink. Then, he quickly washed the entirety of his morning face, and looked in the mirror.

Looking into the mirror, he noticed that there was still lipstick on his lips from kissing Alura. He quickly began to reminisce about that moment.

Strangely, he started to feel a throbbing pain on his head. When he touched the area, he realized that it was swollen.

"Did I collapse?"

Simply, he exhaled, picking up a toothbrush. He squeezed toothpaste onto this said toothbrush, and promptly started to brush his teeth to in turn suppress the returned, lingering wrath of his morning breath.

He brushed his teeth, took a bath, and went back into his bedroom again. He then walked to the door of his room, standing in front of it with partially closed eyes.

"I need cold water," he clutched his hand to the doorknob.

When he started opening the door, something that was on the ground; and leaning against the said door, had slid across the tiles, revealing itself to him.

It was a brown bag.

Confused, he bent over and picked the bag up from the floor. It accommodated three white, plastic bowls of soup that appeared to be bought from a restaurant.

There was a piece of paper that had handwriting stuck to the first plastic bowl. It was conspicuously a note.

Jin immediately started skimming through it.

The note read, 'Hey, you passed out cold so I said portal no hy-key-o-sis, opened a portal and carried you home. And oh, you're looking at soup right now. Obviously. They're for your grandma—she needs all the strength she could get to handle your troublesome ass—don't touch it!

Flint'

Having read the note, Jin could not help but smile.

He simply closed the bag again; and walked through the door.

The first thing he had landed eyes upon from the time he entered the living room were his friends Dobby and Ashton.

His eyes had immediately widened.

It was clear to him that they had slept through the entire night on the couches in his living room.

"Guys!?"

They both flew up.

"Oh, thank Goodness," said Dobby, "You're awake…"

Ashton looked at him, "Dobby thought you were dead, Jin."

"Shut your face hole, Ashton!" hissed Dobby.

"What are you two doing here!? In my house?"

"We spent the night here," replied Ashton.

"State something other than the obvious," Jin sat down on one of the couches.

Dobby stood, "You're fucking out of you're mind, Jin! That's something other than the obvious…"

Ashton looked up at him, "Shhh, you can't swear so lou—"

Dobby interjected, raising an index finger, and chiding, "Don't even think about starting that shit today…"

He shifted his attention to Jin again, "You know what you're doin', Jin? You're fucking up your own life…"

Jin grimaced, "What do you mean?"

"I mean you're straying away from your true self. You were literally drunk last night!"

"I was?"

Ashton narrowed his eyes at him, "You were…"

"Yeah," Dobby continued, "We thought you weren't home and all. But still, we waited the entire day for you to return. We made your grandma food to eat while you were busy partying. On top of this, you just appeared last night out of the blue when we were worried sick…"

Ashton stood, "Yeah, Jin. We were going to start looking around the streets…we thought something happened to you!"

Dobby continued, "Let me finish Ashton," he peered at Jin again, "You appeared last night, walking out of your room—the place we already checked! We ended up smelling your breath, and seeing that you had lipstick on your lips. Alcohol was fresh on you. So we proceeded to scold you about it. And y'know what you did?"

Jin sighed, "What did I do, Dobby?"

"You cursed us like some kinda animals. You even wanted to hit me!"

Ashton then added, "And you kept mentioning the summoning of some Lae-shae-thing or whatever for us too…"

Jin felt his heart incinerate in his chest as he listened on.

"You're lucky Ashton was there last night Jin, I would've more than knocked you out!"

"How's your head feeling!"

'No…'

He became speechless.

'I'm an asshole. I got drunk and lost myself….'

'I could have killed them if I chose to use the power I have now. They could've died. They could've died after all the nice things they've done for me…'

'I let my guard down…'

'I almost blew it…'

He rubbed his temples, 'I put my first ever friends in great danger…'

'What kind of person am I?'

'I can't stand myself…'

'I was busy having fun; I was stuck in a delusion—deluding that everything was okay now when it isn't…'

'It's not okay…'

'With this system in my possession, I can't slack away and risk everything. I can't risk the lives of the very few people I care about. I must stay focused. I must push through."

"Jin!? Is he even hearing us!?"

"Jin!? Jin!!?? It's probably the alcohol, man, it's gotten to him. I think he probably took some crack too…"

"JIN?!"

Jin flew up from the couch, "What?"

"You died on us for a second there…."

"I'm sorry…"

'I'm supposed to use this power that I've been bestowed to protect the people dear to me.'

"I'm really sorry guys," he smiled, "I'm sorry for the wholeness of yesterday. I'm really, really sorry about everything I put you through…I'm a horrible friend, and I'm sorry about that as well…"

'I'll have to get stronger—stronger to protect them—stronger so that no one could harm them!'

Dobby approached him with a countenance that he could not delineate.

He stopped in front of him, and placed a hand on his shoulder. Then he smiled, and uttered, "You little shit, you. From today, we're not taking an eye off of you…"

Ashton walked up to them, "Jin, what happened yesterday?"

"We want to hear…"

"Everything…" they said in unison.

He smiled, 'These guys are what you call true friends…'

"I'll tell you as soon as I'm done taking a dump, alright?"

"Okay…"

"Went a little explicit there but whatever, pal…"

Jin turned around, and went into his room.

He then walked into the bathroom, and closed the door shut.

[New Task: 200 push-ups]

[Reward: 5 Exp]

'I WILL BECOME OP AS FUCK!'

He immediately started doing the push-ups with profound determination this time around. He felt like becoming stronger had become his top priority now.

[Progression: 16/200]

Having risked the life of his friends because of sheer carelessness, his eyes that remained close for the endurance of that day had once again opened up.

Stupidity and recklessness was being pushed being consciously shoved behind him by he himself now.

[Progression: 29]

For the first time in many years, a strong incentive had grown on him.

He pushed his body up from the floor as sweat dripped from his chin, 'PROTECT....FRIENDS!'

[Progression: 37]

'I've only scratched the surface with the things I know about pertaining to the system. I want to learn more…'

***

[Congratulations, you have leveled up!]

[+4 UP]

[Exp: 0/20 | Level 3]

"Alright…level three in just under four days…" he started approaching the mirror.

"Not too bad…"

Panting audibly, he wiped some sweat from his face as he peered at his reflection in the mirror. From the time he had placed his hands on either side of the sink; he noticed a figure behind his reflection.

He quickly turned around, and flinched in fear.

Staring at the familiar figure; his brows knotted and slowly he uttered, "Baron!?"