My Superstar System

Installation Complete.

“What’s wrong?” Daniel asked, staring worriedly at Zach, whose tears were silently falling.

Zach looked at him without a word, then turned and walked out of the room.

The hospital wasn’t far from the school, so it didn’t take long for him to get there.

“I’m here to see my mom,” Zach said to the receptionist.

“Are you Zach?” the man asked.

“Yes,” Zach replied.

A nearby nurse turned to him. Zach’s eyes were bloodshot, but he still noticed how young the nurse looked, maybe 17 or 18 and strikingly beautiful. But that didn’t matter now.

“Please follow me,” the young woman said, leading him down the hallway.

When they entered the room, Zach saw nurses pacing nervously. The scene made his heart skip a beat.

“Who is this?” a man asked. He looked like the doctor.

“He’s the son of the patient,” the nurse replied.

“Oh, you’re Zach,” the doctor said. “Your mom kept repeating your name.”

“Is she alright?” Zach asked, voice trembling.

“We managed to stop the bleeding,” the doctor said, “but she lost a lot of blood. The issue is... her blood type. She’s O negative. It's rare, and we don’t have it in stock.”

“Check mine,” Zach said quickly. “If I’m a match, take it. Take as much as she needs.”

The doctor glanced at the nurses. “Run the test immediately.”

Moments later, one of them returned. “He’s O negative, sir.”

“Good. Let’s begin,” the doctor said.

They set Zach up and began the transfusion. He watched the blood drain from his body into the tubes, and after a while, everything started to blur.

He fen dizzy and didn't know when he dozed off..

Zach had a strange dream, or maybe not a dream, but he heard a weird conversation.

“You chose him?”

“Yeah, he’s too miserable. I like him.”

“Your taste is weird. Go be with him then.”

“The others have already chosen theirs, right?”

“Yeah, and their choices are way better than yours. They’ll thrive immediately.”

“Well, I’m different.”

“Go, go. What a nag.”

Then Zach heard a strange, AI-like voice inside his head:

INSTALLING... 1%... 6%... 30%... 99%...

Zach woke up, sweating.

His surroundings were unfamiliar. He was in a hospital ward, lying in a bed. He felt incredibly weak.

He tried to sit up.

“Zach, don’t move. You’re too weak right now.”

A soft, melodious voice sounded out

He turned to see who it was. It was the same girl who had led him into the room earlier, the young nurse.

“How’s my mom?” Zach asked urgently.

The girl went silent. Her reaction made Zach to panic.

“It’s bad... but she’s alive,” she finally said.

Zach felt a wave of depression wash over him, but also a feeling of hope. At least she was alive.

“Can I see her?” he asked.

“Not yet. She’s still in surgery.”

“And you’re too weak to see her right now,” the girl added gently.

Zach went silent. Then, he remembered the strange conversation he’d had in his sleep. He didn’t know what it was or what it meant, but he didn’t care at the moment.

It was getting dark outside, but the hospital room was still brightly lit. The girl had stayed by his side, and every now and then, she looked at him with a touch of pity in her eyes.

“What is it?” Zach finally asked, unable to hold back.

“Nothing,” she said, then added bluntly, “Just that you’re malnourished... and honestly, you look pitiful.”

Zach turned to face her, stunned. He didn’t expect a nurse to say something so harsh. Nurses were usually more gentle and more filtered with their words.

But then he understood, she was probably just an intern and still very young, and probably too inexperienced to know better.

She was beautiful, though—maybe too beautiful to be real.

“That’s harsh,” Zach said with a sigh.

“It’s not harsh. I’m just being honest,” she replied calmly.

Zach didn’t respond. He just stared at the ceiling in silence.

“My shift’s almost over,” she said after a pause. “But before I go, I wanted to give you this. I got it for myself, but since I’m heading home, you can have it. You’ve been given energy boosters, but after losing that much blood, you really should eat something.”

She stood up and left the room, placing a large nylon bag beside his bed.

Zach was stunned. He opened the bag and found some fruits, and a well-made rice dish with chicken wings. His stomach growled loudly.

After eating, he felt a deep sense of gratitude toward the girl. It had been a long time since he’d eaten anything this good.

He appreciated her kindness and really wanted to thank her properly, so he waited in the days that followed, hoping to see her again. But he never saw her.

On the second day, he was quite strong now and didn't feel as tired as before, the doctor called him aside and broke a sad news to him.

His mom didn’t have long to live.

The doctor explained that due to a spinal injury that happened during the accident, she had no more than four days left. Zach felt like the world had stopped spinning. Everything inside him shattered.

Time slowly went by and she had been unconscious the entire time. Two days had passed since the doctor delivered the news, and she still hadn’t woken up.

He hadn’t even been able to say goodbye...Zach thought silently.

Zach stayed by her side, sleeping beside her every night, praying she’d open her eyes, just once. She was all he had left. If she died... he didn’t know what would become of him.

He didn’t want to imagine that reality. He knew he wouldn’t be able to recover.

Now it was the fourth day.

She was still unconscious.

"Mom please don't leave me." Zach said with his voice cracking.

Tears slid down Zach’s face as he stared at his mom Was this it? Was he truly going to be an orphan?

Just as that thought crossed his mind, a voice suddenly echoed in his head:

“Installation complete.”