บท 2: The system

"What the hell is going on? Am I hearing things?!" (AN: I tend to speak to myself when alone.)

[The system is naturally occurring, just like souls are. It will insert itself within a soul, then help increase the 'power' of the host to new heights. ]

"And how exactly do you increase this power? Also, how do I know I am not imagining things right now?!"

[By gathering experience points through life experiences, you, the user, will be able to upgrade different 'abilities', such as the strength that can be exerted in a muscle, or the ability to see in low light environments. Some of these experience points, aka Ep, will also be used to make sure your body and mind can handle the stress of this upgrade.]

[For instance, if your muscles could exert a few tons of force unless your bones could withstand a few tons of force at least, they would be destroyed. So some Ep is taken up to make sure this doesn't happen.]

"Alright, that makes sense, more sense than those systems in those novels I read on Webnovel and other such places. However, how do I know I am not imagining things right now?"

[Just try to use the system later on and see if it has an effect on your life.]

"Fine, will do."

And then George fell asleep.

George wakes up to a new day, feeling the sensation of his blanket against his clothes, and his clothes against his skin.

[Ep + 0.05]

"What the hell was that?!

[You gained some Ep. You currently have 10.05 Ep. 10 of this Ep is from sleeping, and 0.5 Ep is from utilizing a sense to the extreme.]

"Oh yeah, this thing exists. Anyway, hang on, I am autistic, I kind of have no choice but to use my sense of touch to the extreme, so how does that count?!"

[The system does not care. Ep is gained through any experience your mind goes under.]

[Using the host's memories and concepts to create an idea of what counts as an experience: Mental pain, emotions, imagining something, learning something; anything that affects the state of your brain and mind shall count as an experience.]

"Right... Isn't that a little overpowered?"

[Host is mistaken. Abilities tend to cost quite a bit. For instance, increasing the memorization ability of the host by 1%, which would allow the host to memorize 505 words over 2 hours instead of just 500 words over 2 hours; will cost the host 100 Ep.]

[And as the ability gets further and further away from what the host's body can presently handle, more Ep is needed to bring up the hosts body to the lowest possible standards to survive the ability.]

"Still seems pretty powerful to me. Oh yeah, system, do you have a name?"

[No. While I might have the same origin as the soul, I am not sentient. I am more of a 'computer program' than anything else.]

However, George didn't care. He is a kind person. Or at least, he has the ability to care about every other thing in existence if he is aware of it. Don't mistake this for empathy though. Those are two very different things.

"So what do I call you then?"

[System]

"Fine, system, can I have a general overview of my current abilities?"

[Yes]

{Name: George Brown

Age: 18

General muscle strength: 70kg

General bone strength: 100kg

Digestive system strength: strong

Heart/lung system strength: weak

Illnesses: none

Reaction speed: low

Eyesight: high or 20/20

Hearing: medium

Touch: overly high

Smell: low

Taste: low

Analytical intelligence: high

Emotional intelligence: none

social skills: low

}

"Huh."

"Is that any good?"

[Compared to other humans, you are not doing well physically. Mentally speaking, you are really good in some area, and really bad in other areas.]

"Wait... Can I increase my emotional intelligence using Ep?!"

[Yes. It would cost about 1 million Ep.]

"Why is it so expensive?!"

[Because it would require rebuilding your entire brain, and inserting knowledge to do with how emotions work, and other such things, to make sure the host doesn't go insane from confusion.]

"That's... understandable actually. Say, system, to cure my autism, how much would it cost?"

[It is not possible to cure what is viewed in your brain as autism, due to the fact that it would mean changing the very base your soul is built upon, memories and all. This would collapse your soul, leading to your complete death.]

"Huh. That sucks. Then how about making each of the issues less of an issue?"

[Perfectly possible. Upgraded to the same standards as a neurotypical person, it would cost about 4.5 million Ep. However, you would still have the same fundamental problem of not quite understanding others. Your memories and habits would remain the same, leading to you failing in a few little things. It is not possible for the system to fix these, the host will have to do it himself.]

"Sounds good to me! Guess I better get around to doing that then! First up, getting 4.5 million Ep! That would be about, 450,000 nights of sleeping; or around 1 and a half thousand years."

This might take a while, but if I succeed, then I can finally behave like a normal person, and not have to mask myself, or make mistakes all of the time!