章 2: Hospitalized

Ryu slowly regained consciousness, but his nose started working before his eyes did. He smelled an unfamiliar smell, one that's smell could be described as sterile, the smell of lemon based cleaner, and isopropyl alcohol permeated his nostrils.

His eyes started to regain their senses, and he noticed he was in a hospital room, this was obvious from the IV sticking out of his right arm and the classic look of the curtains and bed he was residing in.

This wasn't the most surprising thing he noticed, though, for in front of him was a semitransparent seemingly holographic screen. He rubbed his eyes a couple times to make sure he was seeing right.

The concept of a system was unknown to him, because he stayed away from webnovels, and comics. So instead of dancing, well he couldn't stand so, rejoicing, he thought he ought to check himself into the mental ward.

"There's no way I'm going insane, did they knock something loose in my brain when they were pummeling me?" Ryu thought to himself.

The transparent screen displayed the words, "No you are not insane, I am something called a system, I'm here to aid you in your troubles."

He was unconvinced by this and started descending into a panic attack.

"Why is this happening to me, first I'm bullied, now I might be schizophrenic, what the hell!" Ryu thought as his heartbeat rose, as indicated by the machine and his thoughts spiraled out of control.

In response to this the system administered him with a shock that snapped him back to reality and displayed the following words, "No you are not going insane, I am not a figment of your imagination but a real screen that only you can see, now if you don't want to be shocked again let me introduce myself."

Ryu, unconvinced, still let the "system" explain itself because regardless of if it was a figment of his imagination he did not want to be shocked again.

"You are someone who holds great potential, but you have not been able to realize it because of your social factors, this system, which is to aid you in fighting skills and physical strength, has been sent to you to help you live a more fulfilling life."

Being in despair because of his situation, Ryu ignored his logical mind, and instead had a small amount of hope that this whole "system" thing would be real.

The system continued, "With this, do you accept this system, if you do you will effectively change the outcome of your life."

Still reluctant to agree to the supposed delusion, he started to ponder whether he should accept this proposal.

Not allowing him to second guess it, the system entered him into a dream of some sorts. Showing him how his life will play out if he doesn't accept the system.

Many pictures rapidly shot past him, some happy, some sad. But after a while it stopped and played something that almost resembled a pre-recorded video.

It was Ryu alone on a shabby bed in a cheap apartment, except Ryu looked to be aged around his mid-thirties. In this video Ryu, overworked and in poor physical shape went to sleep.

"Why the hell am I being shown all of this?" Ryu thought to himself as the "video" kept playing.

To Ryu's surprise, the video fast forwarded, and the Ryu portrayed in the video never woke up, he had overworked himself to death and even worse the video continued showing a funeral and burial attended by nearly nobody, a testament to the sad fruitless life he would live without the system.

With this the system brought him back to reality and again he was presented with the following text, "Do you accept this system, if you do you will effectively change the outcome of your life?"

Newly installed under the text was a text box inscribed "Yes" and another to the right of it inscribed "No".

Ryu thought to himself, "Well I have nothing to lose, so I mine as well just hit the yes button."

As he thought this he reached out towards the translucent screen and pressed the yes button, signifying his agreement to accepting the system.

(From now on system display text will be signified by the following brackets [])

[Thank you for agreeing to the system's terms and conditions] read the system.

"Wait, there were terms and conditions?" Ryu thought to himself "Damn I've been suckered into something again."

[With this, the only feature currently is [Quests] and [Status] these two can be opened by thinking of the word "Quests" or "Status" once thought of a translucent screen will open showing you these two pages]

[With that, I will announce my departure, we will talk again once you level up the system and unlock new features.]

"Wait!" Ryu screamed out in person, realizing his mistake his face turned beet red, he realized he accidentally screamed what he meant to think.

Luckily nobody was in his room at the hospital, therefore nobody ran to check up on him, or else he'd be in a precarious situation.

"Well, I might as well treat this as real until I prove it isn't, let me check out Status."

As he thought the word status a translucent screen appeared in front of him which displayed the following:

[Host: Ryu]

[Strength: 1]

[Intelligence: 8]

[Appearance: 2]

[Agility: 1]

[Health Status: Very poor, without intervention soon death may occur.]

[A normal human's attributes range from 10-15 in each category.]

[Skills: N/A]

[Arts: N/A]

"Damn the system spares no punches, I guess I'm more of a below average loser than I really thought…" Ryu thought to himself.

"Well maybe with this I'll actually have the power to improve myself" thought Ryu.

"I might as well check out the quests tab"

With this the status tab closed, and was replaced with a new similar looking [Quests] tab.

[Quests]

[Physical Fitness]

[Pushups: 0/100]

[Sit-ups: 0/100]

[Run: 0/5 Miles]

[Reward: Stat Points and a Gym Membership Card]

[Time Limit: 1 Day]

"Close Quests" Ryu thought to himself, as he thought this the translucent screen closed and he thought to himself.

"I wonder how much stat points will affect me, and I've never really worked out in my life, so we'll see how this quest goes."

"My first issue, though, is figuring out when I'm discharged, because in my current state there's no way I'll be able to do this quest."

"My second issue is these medical bills, with our crappy insurance I'm sure these are gonna end up running my pockets completely dry"

As he finished this thought, his tranquility was interrupted as a nurse entered his room.

The nurse wore a nametag that read "Amy", she stood at 5'6 and had very Western features, from her face it was visible that her job was wearing her out, she had eyebags and was starting to develop wrinkle lines which contrasted with her youthful looking face.

"Hey, how are you doing, you're finally up." Amy said in a respectful, yet caring tone.

"I'm doing alright, I'm aching a bit, but I should be alright" retorted Ryu in a weak voice.

"Yeah, that was a pretty bad slipup, your friend, Kenzo I think it was, said that you fell down the stairs and bumped yourself up pretty badly," said Amy.

Ryu slowly processed what she said, and as he understood the reality of the situation anger started to well up in his body.

He calmed himself down and replied to Amy politely saying, "Yeah, one second I was on the stairs, the next second I wake up here, by the way when am I going to be discharged?"

Amy replied calmly saying, "You should be good to leave now that you've regained consciousness, I mean we have no reason to hold you, there was no internal bleeding it's just your body was so weak you went unconscious from the pain."

"Alright, let's get me out of here then, thank you for your hospitality," said Ryu, maintaining his manners with Amy.

With that Amy started taking out his IV tubes and got him ready for discharge.

As Ryu got up to leave, he noticed a note and some fresh clothes, he read the note attached to the bundle of clean clothes.

The note read, "Hey honey, I'm so sorry I heard about your accident, I stopped by to drop off clean clothes for you, but sadly I can't stay because I have to get to work, I love you, get better soon!"

Reading the note, he felt sadness well up inside him, he resolved that he would get stronger so that he could protect his mother and make her proud.

Ryu quickly changed into his clothes in the room's provided bathroom and fixed his hair up. After freshening up he continued out the door and followed the arrowed exit signs until he got outside.