System

In a dark room, a young man could be seen sitting on a metallic chair and tied down with a thick rope that tightly clung to his skin.

His head was slightly bowed, and his body wasn't moving.

(Sfx for teardrop)

A bead of tears constantly dropped from his eyes and shattered on the ground below. The tears on the ground formed a small pool of them.

"For the poor, this world is just a game that we don't know how to play; we are continually used as pawns by the rich, and I was nothing more than a play piece although I lived my life."

"Weak, poor, pathetic, and clumsy, why was I fuckin created this way? I don't want to suffer this much; I want a life of peace, and I always made sure to stay out of the way of others."

"And then I made a foolish mistake, taking my trust and placing it on one person. I gave her my all, and she became the only reason I really wanted to live in this pathetic world, but *sniff, sniff, she was just a fuckin lie! "My life, everything, was just a fuckin lie!"

Ethan's pained voice echoed across the dark room.

His parents worked so hard to make things right, and they died trying to provide a future for him. He wanted to build on that foundation to live a peaceful life, but who would have thought that his life was just a lie?

His old time bully took his girl away. No, he didn't take her away; she was the one who went with him because he was rich!

Ethan's head remained in a bowing position. He was strapped to this dark place, and he did not know how to get out of it.

Beep~

Beep~

"Ethan!! "Don't die, please."

He heard those sounds, struggling to lift his head up.

Then he saw a door left ajar, from which light escaped into the dark room.

The ropes binding him to the chair loosened.

Ethan stood up and started making his way toward the door in front of him.

He trotted slowly until he reached the door.

Ethan looked back at the dark room; the chair, the rope that bound him, and the pool of tears had disappeared completely.

He sighed, and without hesitation, he opened the door, where a blinding amount of illumination greeted him, blinding his eyes.

Beep~

"Madame, please wait outside; let's do our job."

"Ethan, don't leave me."

The sound wasn't clear, but the loud beeping sound constantly rang in his ear.

It was inside a room in the hospital. Ethan's body was lying on the hospital bed, and two nurses attended to him while two others held Shelly.

Ethan struggled to open his eyes, and when he did, he was greeted with a blurry light that suddenly became clearer.

"He's awake!"

"He survived!"

The nurses in the room yelled.

"Ethan!" Shelly called out loudly and ran to the bed.

Ethan's eyes were wide open, staring at the light and the faces that constantly flashed in his eyes. He tried to make out exactly where he was, but his sanity was messed up at the moment.

Just then, he felt warmth in his body.

Shelly hugged him tightly and wept.

"Shelly.." Ethan called out weakly. There is no way he would forget this feeling of friendship, something that he almost gave up for love.

Ethan placed his hands around her neck and drew her in for an embrace, then started to recall everything that happened before he lost consciousness.

The last thing he saw was the flashing of blue and red lights, and the last thing he heard was the sound of the ambulance.

"Madam, please, you have to be careful; it's harmful to add pressure to the bullet wound." One of them held Shelly.

Shelly nodded her head and wiped her tears with the back of her sweater.

Ethan was able to recall every piece of information that was there to recall, and he also recalled the dark room he was in.

The doctors in the room started fixing the drip in his body and applied different treatments to his wounds.

"I'm alive" was the only thought that constantly ran through his mind.

A loud beep rang in his ear; it was just the same as the one he heard in the dark room.

But it wasn't coming from any device in this room.

That was when his eyes were opened to the window in front of him.

[Congratulations! You have accomplished the hidden quest.]

[You have been granted the Ethereal Adventure System.]

[Your dream can be achieved with this system. Power, wealth, super intelligence, and everything you ever wished for will be achieved by this system.]

You have a reward waiting for you for accomplishing the hidden quest.

Ethan looked at the system panel with a weird look in his face.

He looked at the nurses and the doctor that just walked in, but neither of them was aware of it.

"Can you see that?" Ethan asked one of the nurses and stretched out his hand to point at the numerous system windows in his field of vision.

"Did he sustain brain damage? We will have to run a test immediately to check for that." The nurse thought that he had probably sustained memory loss and developed a brain disorder that makes one see hallucinations.

She shook her head to answer his question, and then she focused on her job.

Ethan kept staring at the floating windows in front of him.

He asked the doctor and two other nurses, but they all confirmed that nothing was there; one of the nurses was so open that she even told him to rest so as not to stress his brain, and then she asked the doctor to run a full body test on him.

"Am I really the only one seeing this?" Ethan was confused.

[Your reward is available now; call out "Open Reward" to unveil your reward. Note: You can summon your reward later for convenience. [Status is serializing and would be available in the next twenty-four hours.]

Ethan decided to rest a little. It might really be that he is seeing things because of his condition; it might get worse if he doesn't rest now.