*Ding*

A system notification window appeared in front of Shiro.

[ System rebooting… ]

[ Rebooting…]

*Ding*

[ Congratulations on becoming the host ]

[ The Pirate System has been activated… ]

Shiro looked at the window in front of him, bewildered. He had never seen such a thing before in his life.

It was semi-transparent. He could almost look at the other side. The blue screen, that appeared in front of him, had mysterious words engraved on it.

Of course, Shiro had learned how to read and write from Sera, but despite that, he couldn't understand a single word on the screen. Though, the voice was completely clear.

Just as he kept staring at it, the words finally became understandable, mysteriously. As mentioned, the system was rebooting, perhaps it was a glitch or it might have been a change so that the system would better suit its host!

'What is this?', Shiro thought to himself.

'This box- what's it supposed to do?'

'Why does it keep blinking?'

'What is a host? Is it calling me a host?'

'Congratulations…??'

'And…'

'Pirate system?', weird questions popped into his mind.

In his current emotional state, he could hardly think about what was going on. The anger inside him, the fact that the officers killed his mom, and the fact that his heart pained because he could no longer see his mom were already a huge toll on his brain.

Now, with the appearance of the system, he could hardly think straight.

So many questions popped out in Shiro's head, but he had answers to none.

A notification popped on top of the window. Shiro squinted his eyes to read it.

[Press Continue]

Shiro read it carefully a few more times. The gears in his head kept rotating, trying to figure out what that window was.

The window was a bit bright. It made Shiro's eyes hurt a little, but he kept looking at the window.

'Am I hallucinating?', Shiro asked himself. He pinched his arm hard and yelped in pain.

'Ouch, that hurts!'

'I'm not in a dream- Mom what is this?', Shin thought to himself as he looked towards his mom's grave. Shiro wished Loyola would suddenly revive again and explain all of what was happening to him.

Well, he would rather ask for a wish that would make her alive again, even if she couldn't speak or explain.

Unfortunately, his request was not fulfilled. It was merely his wishful thinking. Shiro shook his head in dismay, wondering what made him think like that.

He knew clearly that a dead person cannot be revived. Shiro cleared his thoughts immediately, not wanting to drown in the abyss of darkness at such times.

The locket in his hands was still shining rather brightly. Shiro brought it closer to inspect, but there was nothing abnormal about it. It was just shining, nothing more, nothing less.

'This is so weird…', Shiro thought to himself again, while glancing at the screen.

The window began blinking furiously again. It was as if it needed Shiro's immediate action.

'Should I press continue?', Shiro pondered. He was hesitating, unknowing the consequences if he pressed it.

Eventually, Shiro came to terms with pressing the button, the only problem was, that he did not know how to do that.

Shiro held up his index finger slowly as he pressed 'continue'. Shiro cautiously looked at the window after that.

The window started buffering, and eventually, another window popped up. This time, it was labeled as 'System Notification'.

*Ding*

[ System Notification ]

[ Tutorial Mission Will Begin in 5 minutes. ]

Now, Shiro was confused more than ever. What tutorial mission?

Most importantly, he did not sign up for anything! Why was this in front of him?

[Tutorial Mission List]

: Learn to swim [ incomplete ]

: Learn to climb using rope [ incomplete ]

: Learn to climb without rope [ incomplete ]

: Learn Basic Self Defense [ incomplete ]

Shiro scratched his head in confusion. What is this?

Shiro had never swam before, nor had he climbed anything. The most puzzling thing about this was, that Shiro didn't know why these things were needed in the first place!

'What in the world is happening to me?', Shiro asked himself, trying to pinch himself back to reality only to realize he really wasn't in any dream.

All of a sudden, he heard a familiar voice calling for him.

"Shiro? Are you there?"

Shiro realized it was Mornil looking for him. He looked back at the window, and it was counting down from 10.

'Yes, I can ask uncle about this…'

[10, 9, 8]

"I'm here, uncle!" Shiro yelled.

Of course, Mornil knew Shiro was present there. He never left too far from the place as he was worried about Shiro.

[7, 6, 5, 4]

"Yes, uncle! Over here!", Shiro screamed at the top of his lungs, which resulted in a coughing fit. His body was still weak after all, and screaming did not do any good to his already sore throat.

"Shiro?", Mornil was confused because Shiro kept screaming.

Either something was wrong, or he was just behaving weirdly because of his unstable emotions. Mornil rushed, hearing his voice.

"I'm right here!"

[3, 2, 1. System complete. The Tutorial Mission will take begin immediately.]

[ Beginning Teleportation… ]

"I'm here-"

That was all Shiro was able to say before he felt a pang of nauseousness hit him. He wanted to cover his mouth, but his eyes widened in surprise when he saw his left pinky disappearing.

He looked down at his hands and realized they were disappearing. However, one thing weird about it was, that there were small boxes- almost like pixels forming every time another part of him disappears.

Shiro widened his eyes. Before he realized it, he was teleported to another place, completely disappearing from the current location. Unfortunately, Mornil had only arrived after his body had disappeared fully.

"Shiro?", Mornil called out as he arrived at Loyola's burial spot. He was panting heavily, trying to catch his breath.

"Shiro!?"

"Where are you!?", Mornil called out to him, as he looked at Shiro's stable footprints on the ground which led particularly nowhere.