My phone buzzed half way through my fifth fairy tale which meant I had to remember the page and put the book down because I had run out of things to use as bookmarks in my room. It was a message from my best friend Dan he wanted to know what had happened to me earlier and because of that he had to answer all the questions of a girl he would never speak to and I assume it was a lot of apologies and blame being passed around. I just told him that I had an appointment at the library that I was late for, but I knew that it wasn't a good enough excuse I must have looked really shook up after dying over and over and having to face my killer one more time.
I quickly put that I was busy right now and that I'd see him tomorrow to put a preemptive stop to any more questions and went back to reading.
That night I tossed and turned, covers felt unfamiliar, sweat coated me and my mind wouldn't stop. Questions and theories wouldn't stop running through my head, they put my mind in a vice and squeezed never relenting to let me get rest. I was tempted to grab my phone or a book but I could tell it was far too late for that. I probably couldn't concentrate on anything anyway. I rolled over onto my other side. I began to wonder that if I really had gained a system where had it come from and had anyone else received one. The questions keeping hooks on my mind toying with it. However I finally managed it after flipping my pillow over to the cold side and letting my blue covers envelop me like a cool body of water.
[Tutorial has ended! Status will now begin initialising ~]
[Status has been created and tailored to the user]
[REM has been achieved]
[Finding event at random: - - -]
[Activating event: "Adventures of a renounced space pirate" Chapter 77 (Drifting through space in my ship)]
Huh it didn't say it was Augmenting my reality. Instead of the world scrolling up I'm just a spaceship all of a sudden. I clench and unclench my hands I can feel the difference in gravity and when I look at my hands they're unfamiliar. I look around at my surroundings, a mismatched metallic room that is mostly a kind of grey but some panels have been chipped or pulled out exposing colourful arrays of wires. In front of me is a rectangular window I stare out of it and look at all the stars and the first thing I realise is I'm in space and the second thing I realise is that there is a lot of space debris flying around out there. I now hear sirens blaring and lights flashing as I realise my third thing, the debris was crucial parts of the ship and I am going to have to fix it or die in space...
The ship's gravity has been turned off so I have to learn how to float around before I can start trying to fix anything. I throw up a few times and knock the side of a bed and start spinning. I guess that this room is my bedroom on the ship right before I bump into the window I was looking at. I see a digital clock on a screen in the wall that begins to power down and I realise that there is no time dilation this time so I have maybe less than six hours if I had to guess. I wish I could have gone to sleep faster then I could have had a couple more hours to work with. My reality hasn't been augmented either so there's a chance I could really die. I see my face in a mirror it's a twenty-something man with a five o'clock shadow and the beginnings of muscle reaching his face. I see the sadness well up in his eyes and a look of hopelessness spreads all over. What am I doing?! Look at this guy he knows what he's doing if I remember he correctly he's flown this ship hundreds of times, he's a hero and he's not me. I'm ruining this man's face with my feelings! I need to be a reader not a hero.
Now picture that I'm at home reading this story what would I anticipate him to do? First I'd think he should probably look around to find the damage. I keep my mind on remembering the novel and thinking of what to do next whilst my body seems to move on its own. Sadly I don't think this is a cool skill I just think this body had muscle memory or its like when you walk without thinking about it. I float from the room out into a hall way and conveniently hear sparks and see glimpses of light in between the red danger lights coming from the end of the hallway. I get to work floating down the hallway even pushing off the door way with my hands to make me go faster. I think I can make out a planet in my peripheral vision through a window or two but I'm too busy to appreciate the coolness of being in space.
I continue to try and let my mind float as seamlessly as my body.
My/his hands reach out toward three significant significant holes scorched into the side of the ship which will have been sustained yesterday when this body had escaped from a research station. Which reminded me to check my hands as I ran them along the damage and I found the cut which would turn into one of the longest arcs of the novel. But I would worry about that after stopping my impending death. I was so glad that the ship had protocols in place that turns a shield on to allow repairs to be made. If only it could make its own repairs. So my plan is, one go find tools, two fix the damage (how hard can it be) and three (if I have time) stop the disease from spreading throughout this body from the cut on its hand. I remember that in the novel the mc had a cybernetic chip which gave him a system and I'm going to need information if I want to actually fix this thing.
"Status!"
[Name: Owen Matthews]
[Level 1]
[Strength: F]
[Intelligence: D]
[Charisma: F+]
...
[Other menus: Skills, inventory, relationships, Quests, Novels, achievements, settings]
Wait this is my system. That's my name! I finally got a status screen for my system!
"Skills!" There's just got to be some cool OP skills I didn't know I had.
[Written word: F]
[Reading: D+]
[Apology: F]
[Pain tolerance: F]
What the hell is this! These are my skills?!
[Character skills: ]
[Noble Kristof (Chapter 64): ]
[Disease Tolerance: C]
[Swordsmanship: C+]
[Apology: F]
Wait this was the character in the first novel I was in. But he didn't have a system so what is this?
I tap on [Disease Tolerance].
[You may Level up or choose a character skill upon earning skill points]
[You earn skill points by levelling up]
But I didn't even know I could Level up! But this is amazing this means that the more characters I become the more skills I can potentially gain! It sucks that I can't gain the [Disease Tolerance] now because that really could have helped me deal with my third goal.
Upon thinking that I realised that I still had a spaceship to fix and not that long to do it. My mind focused again and I realised I had inadvertently floated into a wall... and I was upside down. I decided I would investigate more of the system when I was safely back on earth.
Using my arms to steady me I managed to flip back over and pushed myself away from the wall.
Searching through the rooms on the ship took quite a while; Empty room, Bedroom, Bathroom, Closet, Kitchen. Wait I should go and check out that closet again. It was full of all the stuff that you would usually see in a janitors Closet mops, buckets, rags, etc.
I shift around everything in there and take out some duct tape but see nothing else of use.
Back to searching I guess.
I finally decide to check out the bridge and lo and behold I find a toolbox sitting on a shelf in bright red so people don't have to spend ages looking for it. I put the tape on my arm as a bracelet and pick up the box but it meant I had to only use one arm to push myself around.
Right goal one accomplished now just to suddenly learn engineering and how to use tools...