[Welcome to the Ascension System!]
Leo read through the text on the screen in front of him. "Welcome to the Hero Ascension—what the hell is this thing?"
His hand flew to his head as he felt a dull ache behind his eyes. "And what happened to me? Lily, where is—"
Leo's eyes snapped open as he stumbled out of bed running to the door. He fumbled with the door handle, clearly in a hurry.
If 4 years had actually passed, then what of his sister?
The house was a small two-room apartment in a complex that his parents had purchased a long time ago, so the landlady never disturbed for rent since that part of the building solely belonged to them.
The living room that was usually in bad shape with scraps and Leo's "experiments" was now… clean. Just a worn-out couch, a simple wooden table and dead clock on the wall.
His question wasn't really "what happened here?" but "who did it?"
Skidding to a halt in front of his sister's room, he breathed in and out, slowly turning the door handle and when it was fully open his heart sank.
The room was simply… empty.
Lily was nowhere to be found.
The bed was spread well, the room was neat and didn't have that familiar smell of drugs that always hung in the air.
Leo slowly walked in, his heart thumping in his chest, filtering out all other sound that came from the outside world.
His lips quivered, twitching into a forced smile and returning as he tried stopping the tears that quickly came to his eyes. "This is—this is a joke, right? A bad joke. A dream."
Leo started to laugh, subtle at first but it started rising. "It's a dream. A very very bad dream. I mean, I'm supposed to be dead, right? Lily's sick, so she can't leave her room. Four years? No. This must be a state before final death," he laughed.
He went down on his knees, helplessly as he kept on laughing, the tears rolling off his cheeks.
The laughter started to become maniacal and soon enough it turned into a scream. "NOOOOOOOO! I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO OFFER. STOP TAKING EVERYTHING AWAY FROM ME!"
He didn't know who he was calling out to and yelling at, but he knew someone was listening to him. Listening to his plea, to his pain and mental agony.
But even if they did answer him. Would what they had to say suffice his continuous suffering or would it be an insult to his very existence?
Leo lost every thing or person he ever loved. The one last thing that still kept him sane was now gone.
What more was there to life?
Just what exactly was he still alive for?
So the world could laugh at him? This cruel world.
After about an hour of shedding tears, Leo finally calmed down with partly swollen eyes, his back against the bedframe as he kept on caressing his hair, making it a jumbled mess.
The one thing that he prayed countlessly of not losing was gone.
This was where he sat and she would slowly move her working hand, placing it on his hair and caressing it as a means of saying "thank you for being there for me."
But now? It was all lost to something he never even understood.
As he kept caressing his hair with his eyes closed, a light shun in front of him and he opened them.
There it was again, that weird HUD.
But the message it displayed alarmed him.
[-Administrator Connected-]
[She is not dead. Yes, Lily is alive.]
"Wh-what? Where is she? Where is my sister?!" He got to his feet quickly, the screen following him.
[Please calm down, user. You will meet your sister when you meet all requirements we have set for you.]
[Please, use the Hero's Ascension System. It is nothing hard. It is just like playing a game, so treat it like one.]
Leo's voice came down. "What are—what are the requirements? What do I do with it? The system."
[Requirements are set and marked on our end. Do not disappoint us, user, or lose the last thing you ever cared about. Completely.]
[-Administrator Disconnected-]
Leo blinked at the message. "Hey hey hey, admin. You there? Administrator."
But the system didn't reply, instead, a normal screen showed up.
[System Restarting...]
[Ding!]
[System Initializing Complete!]
[Welcome to the Ascension System!]
It was the same message from earlier. But another set followed.
[New User Detected!]
[Initiating First-Time Login Bonuses...
· +1 Stat Point (Unassigned)
· +100 System Credits
· Starter Skill: Observe (Lv. 1)
· Newbie Quest Generated!]
[NEWBIE QUEST: A Hero's First Step]
[Objective: Find and defeat an enemy.
Reward: 50 EXP, 100 Credits, Random Common Skill Scroll.
Failure to complete this task before dusk will result in System seeking a more worthy host. (Termination Protocol Engaged)]
Leo stared at the screen for a moment longer before slumping back to the bed, hands on his head. "I don't understand any of this."
He was so confused right now.
Firstly, he wasn't dead and his body was whole. How?
Secondly, four years had passed.
Thirdly, he had this weird system, and whoever the "administrator" person is, was holding his sister captive.
Fourthly, with the system now telling him to find someone and beat them, he remembered how weak he was.
But he wasn't going to let it slide. If he was thinking right, then losing the system would mean losing his sister.
He had to do follow Administrator's orders. But then, if it was giving him powers, did it mean he had a Ginx? Was this what every Ginx user was seeing? So he was finally a slave for the corporate empire he was running from.
"Tch," Leo gritted his teeth, standing up and walking out of the room.
He quietly locked the door and went to his room, picked up his hoodie and decided to go out of the house.
As he walked down the stairs of the apartment complex, he thought of the system again and it appeared. The text displayed this time was also completely different.
[User: Leo Clevon.]
[Level: 1]
[Exp points: 0/100
[HP: 20/20
[Stats:
• STR - 10
• AGI - 10
• STM - 10]
[Skills:
• Observe (Lv. 1)]
[Unassigned Stat Points: 1]
"They weren't wrong. This really is a game," Leo said to himself, reaching the ground floor.
He walked out of the apartment complex and stood still, his eyes scanning the city. It was actually in good shape like it should have been. Four years really made a difference.
There were more tall corporate buildings though, and the streets were filled modern technology that he didn't believe would ever be used here.
From the traffic lights to the clean streets to the electric cars, cable cars and the massive logos of Triston Corp on a handful of skyscrapers. Leo's eyes scanned everywhere in awe, but it didn't show on his face.
He thought things were normal now, but they weren't.
"Help me! Thief!"
A lady's voice came from the side.
Hands tucked in the pockets of his jacket, Leo turned to see a masked man running towards him with a purse that probably belonged to the lady he was being chased by.
Leo wanted to move out of the way as he would always do, but something was different about him now. Something this little wasn't enough to scare him, why? He also didn't know.
His eyes were locked with the thief's as he stood in place, causing the thief to cut into an alley.
"Please, you're a hero, right? Help me." The lady pleaded from afar.
She mistaked his confidence and thought it was because he was a Ginx user.
Leo wanted to say no, but he remembered the system quest and thought this might be it.
It was already getting late as the sun started to go down, so he just nodded and and ran into the alley.
He bumped into the thief who was stuck at the dead end. The thief turned to him and removed a pocket knife. "Don't be a hero, mister. You know what happens to 'em here."
Mister? He was eightee—oh, right. Four years. He was what now, twenty-two? Wow.
The pocket knife made him raise his hands in surrender. "Maybe someone else," he said, turning to leave.
But something didn't let him.
[Quest updated!]
[Defeat the thief!]
Great. Just great.
Leo slowly continued to turn until he faced the thief again. "Uhh, hey?"