4. System Penalties

- Alert! -

Warning: [Daily Requirements] (Quest) has not been completed

Applying Penalty. . .

+ - + - + - +

Ardan woke up in a cold sweat. His entire body felt itchy and his forehead was burning. He tried calling out once, but his throat was so dry that he couldn’t speak. Groaning, he pulled the sheets off and swung his legs off the bed. Sweat dripping off his face, he swung open the bedroom door and stumbled out into the corridor. His stomach was hurting. A lot. Pulling up his shirt, he grimaced as an ugly black splotch on his stomach stared back at him. His skin was rotting. Pus leaked out of large, infected lumps with dark green rings circling them, accompanied by flaking skin.

Ardan screamed.

“Ardan? What’s going on?”

Pat shuffled outside in his slippers, rubbing his eyes and yawning slightly.

“I-I… don’t know.”

Pat took one look at Ardan and his eyes widened in alarm.

“We’re going to a hospital. Now.”

+ - + - + - +

“There’s obviously something very wrong here.”

The doctor scratched his beard and looked at Ardan’s body worriedly. Pat had rushed him to the hospital and now Ardan lay on a hard bed half naked. His shirt had been taken off by the doctor, who was now prodding near Ardan’s stomach.

“You’re telling me this just… appeared this morning?”

Ardan nodded, still in shock. How had he gone from perfectly healthy to feeling like someone suffering from cancer in the span of one night? Suddenly, his mind flitted back to a screen he had seen in a dream last night. Or had it not been a dream?

Pat sat on a chair next to his bed, as shocked as he was about the whole incident. Ardan was still sweating, but luckily, the itchiness had become a little more bearable.

Sighing and shaking his head, the doctor turned to face him.

“I don’t know what happened to you, let alone how. It doesn’t match any illnesses I’ve ever come across, and the necrosis…” The doctor’s voice trailed off.

“Is there anything we can do to help him? He looks like he’s in a lot of pain.” Pat spoke up, his strong voice contrasting the concerned look on his face.

Thankfully, the doctor replied with positive news. “I can prescribe painkillers for the pain and medicine for the fever, but necrosis is a serious problem. I know some ointment for it, but in his case, it may not help. We’ll just have to see.”

Ardan felt like he was dying. There had to be some sort of cause for this pain, and some sort of solution. A nagging feeling told him it had something to do with the strange screens that popped up in his vision.

After the doctor dismissed them, Pat carried him to a bench just outside the pharmacy, an attempt to relieve his suffering.

“Ardan, can I leave you here? I’m going in to get your medicine.”

He nodded, and Pat began to walk away, but then hesitated.

“Don’t go anywhere, kay? I’m trusting you on this one.”

So he was still cautious, after all, Ardan thought to himself, before nodding yet again. This time, he watched as Pat dashed off on a quest to find his medicine.

Just as he was about to open up the menu, Ardan realised that his HP bar had dropped to fifty out of a hundred, and the word 'poison' hovered above it. Dear lord, something was seriously wrong.

“Menu.”

Menu - Ardan Boone

Currency: 0§ Profile Inventory Statistics

Skills Quests Shop

Settings

The familiar screen appeared, and a hunch told him the answer would be found in the ‘Quests’ section.

“Quests.”

Active Quests

Daily Requirements (Overdue)

- 0/5km ran

Rewards: O EXP, clear effects

Daily Requirements (15:24:02)

- 0/1 hours meditated

Rewards: 500 EXP, 10§

So there had been ‘Daily Requirements’, after all. But this didn’t explain why he had gained all these negative effects. Frowning, Ardan re-read the screen, hoping to find some more information. He didn’t. Was this not the cause? But it had to be, unless he was hallucinating on top of dreaming last night.

“Daily Requirements Information.”

A screen appeared on top of the other, and Ardan smiled a little. This system wasn’t as complicated as he thought.

Daily Requirements Information

Daily Requirements are an ‘Insane’ progression rate special feature. There are no penalties for not completing the daily quest in the other PRs, but in ‘Insane’, there are. Daily Requirements are changed every day for the player and are a challenge to complete. Disastrous effects await the player if they do not complete the quest, including but not limited to necrosis, fevers, itchiness, stomach cramps, headaches and sore throats. The only way to remove these effects is to complete the quest. However, rewards are given if the quest is completed on time, including (but not limited to) EXP and currency. Both the rewards and difficulty of the quest depend on the player’s level.

The smile was wiped straight off of Ardan’s face. Am I supposed to be happy or upset? Ardan thought to himself as he read the information. The information said that this… quest was supposed to be ‘good’, but he seriously doubted that. At least the pain would go away after he ran five kilometers. But would he be able to run five kilometers in this state?

There’s only one way to find out.

This would also be a good way to find out just how much this ‘system’ knew, and if it could really alter someone’s physical body.

Fortunately, Pat had just returned from the pharmacist, carrying a load of medicine.

+ - + - + - +

As soon as they had gotten back, Pat rushed to feed Ardan his medicine. Ardan didn’t normally like being fussed over, but felt strangely happy this time. It was a weird feeling, something he had never felt before. Straight after taking his medicine, he was put to bed like a little child.

“I’ve got to go out today, so I’m leaving you in the house alone. Don’t break anything, and don’t open the door, or it’ll send an alarm to me.”

No wonder why he let me live here so easily. The whole house is probably alarmed.

“Get some rest and I’ll see you in the afternoon. I trust you can make your own lunch? There’s some food in the pantry."

Ardan nodded. The chef at the orphanage had given him a few lessons on cooking his own meals that mainly consisted of sandwiches.

With that, Pat dashed off into the other room in a rush to get changed. When he came out, Ardan spotted a suit and a briefcase. He didn’t know what Pat had to do, but he suspected that he was late, because of him.

Click.

The frantic padding footsteps came to a stop and Ardan heard the door swing closed. Pat was gone, and it was time to complete his daily requirement.

Pushing off the covers, he sat up in the bed and looked around him. The daily requirement was to run five kilometers, but how was that possible indoors? Pat had said the door was alarmed, so he couldn’t leave that way.

His gaze came to a rest on the open window, where a nice breeze blew in.

He had his way out.

Stepping out of bed, he clambered onto the desk underneath the window, peering at the street below. The drop was about two or three metres, probably because he was on the second story. A rusty drainage pipe stuck out from the wall beside his window, leading to the ground.

Ardan leant out and grabbed the pipe with a hand, pulling it to test its steadiness. It creaked a little, but didn’t move. Assured that it would hold his weight, Ardan opened the window further and lowered his legs over the ledge. Grunting, he shuffled to the right, gripping his legs around the drainage pipe. As Ardan’s lower body dangled out the window, he began to have second thoughts. Was it worth it? What if someone saw him?

Suddenly, exhaustion hit and the energy seemed to drain out of his arms. Oh no, Ardan thought as he tumbled out the window. All he could do was to try not to scream as the first floor’s balcony came rushing up to meet him.

Thud.

His legs had taken the impact of the fall. Though they were now sore, nothing felt broken or sprained. It was a miracle he hadn’t hurt himself in the tumble. In fact, the rush of adrenaline had helped to clear the headache. Now that he looked back on it, climbing out of the window was not a good idea.

Fortunately, this floor’s balcony was connected to the ground, so all that separated him from the street was a railing and some grass. No one had seen him yet, and he wanted to keep it that way.

Slipping on the hood of his jumper, he walked briskly to the footpath before shoving his hands into his pockets. Running in jeans and a hoodie - not to mention that they were borrowed - wasn’t preferable, but it was necessary. He subconsciously scratched the back of his neck. It was getting itchier.

“Menu. Quests.”

He pulled up the screen and broke into a light jog. Would it start counting automatically or what? When nothing happened, he increased his speed.

Active Quests

Daily Requirements (Overdue)

- 0.15/5km ran

Rewards: O EXP, clear effects

The counter had moved up by just over zero point one.

Progress.

Slow, but still progress.

Wasn’t that what the game was all about anyways?

Tired, sick, rotting and hungry, Ardan turned right as he reached the end of the street. He really should have eaten something before coming out.

+ - + - + - +

An hour and several rest breaks later, Ardan had just about completed the task. The quest screen read 4.97/5km run, so just thirty more metres and he would be finished. Would the headaches and rotting skin disappear? Throughout this time, he had played around with the recording system, which seemed to stop counting when his pace dropped. The gauge that he was working with wasn’t accurate, he knew, but everytime he thought he had figured it out, it would change. It was almost as if this system didn’t want him to know how it worked.

Since he didn’t know the neighborhood well, he opted to just run up and down the same street outside Pat’s apartment.

- Alert! -

You have completed [Daily Requirements] (Overdue) (Quest)

You have recieved 0 EXP

All effects associated with the designated quest have been removed

A strange feeling filled Ardan’s body, and he felt slightly rejuvenated. The itchiness and headache were gone, and he was about to lift his shirt up when he realised he was in public. That was a close call, he thought, before blushing in embarrassment.

He ambled toward the back of the building, near the balcony he had landed on. As soon as there were no more people, he peeled open his shirt to reveal… perfectly flawless skin.

The rot was gone.

“B-but- h-how?” Ardan exclaimed out loud, surprised though it was expected. Excitedly, he activated the screens once more to look for his next quest. If this could alter his body so much… What would leveling do? Was it possible to change his body in real life too?

Active Quests

Daily Requirements (12:19:42)

- 0/1 hours meditated

Rewards: 500 EXP, 10§

Meditation for an hour seemed to be a pretty easy task, but the problem now was the space. Since he was unable to get back into the building or his room, he needed to do it somewhere outside.

Preferably with no people.

And a soft ground.

And some shade.

Ardan looked around and realised the spot which he was standing on had exactly that. Finally, things were going his way. He sat down on the grass in a cross-legged position and wondered what to do next. Did he have to close his eyes? Perhaps put one hand on each knee and make circles with his fingers? Maybe a little bit of humming?

This system was starting to trigger him a little. Couldn’t it give him more exact instructions?

Oh, yeah. He didn’t do the tutorial.

Closing his eyes, Ardan took a deep breath and tried to usher in a sense of calm. His heart was still pounding from the run and his body heaved with each breath.

Breathe.

Dozens of thoughts swirled in his head like angry clouds, and he struggled to focus on staying calm.

Just breathe.

Ardan dwelled on that thought, and everything else faded away.

I sound like a yoga instructor.

He grinned a bit, before pushing that away too. He needed to focus for this to work. Ardan exhaled, returning to his sense of calm. After a few minutes, he peeked out to see whether the numbers had gone up.

Active Quests

Daily Requirements (12:19:42)

- 0.16/1 hours meditated

Rewards: 500 EXP, 10§

So it worked again, after all. A nice feeling settled in Ardan’s stomach as he realised that he was finally getting the hang of this game. Settling into as comfortable a position as he could get cross-legged, he shut his eyes once more, ready for the wait ahead of him.

After testing the system for a while, he determined that he could think other thoughts and it would still count as ‘meditating’.

What do I get for leveling up?

Who controls this system?

What are the features of this system?

Does Dr Halper have something to do with this system?

Why was I chosen?

What happened to all the other children? Did they get the pill too?

What’s going to happen to me now?

Questions ran through Ardan’s head, triggering both confusion and a determination to figure out their answers.

- Alert! -

You have completed [Daily Requirements] (Quest)

You have recieved 500 EXP (x27)

You leveled up! (x4)

You have recieved 20 ATP

You have recieved 4 SKP

You have receieved 10§

A repetitive, soft dinging sound broke Ardan out of his trance. Had it already been an hour? That had been faster than expected. Undoing his cross-legged position, he stretched his back and legs. Ardan’s body felt energized and a quick glance to his HP bar told him he was back to full health. As he jumped up, he realised the notifications weren’t disappearing and they were blocking his vision.

“Dismiss?”

Thus far, the system hadn’t appeared to be overcomplicated, nor hard to understand. It seemed to operate on voice commands only, so saying ‘dismiss’ should work, right? Unless he was completely wrong, of course. Fortunately, it seemed as if he was correct, because the screen disappeared a few seconds later, only to be replaced by another one.

- Alert! -

Unspent Attribute Points available

Unspent Skill Points available

Attribute points? Skill points? What are they? Dismissing the screen, Ardan was about to delve further into exactly what these points were when he heard a sound coming from behind him.

Rustle.