The Forgotten Son’s System

Chapter 003: Twenty-Four Hours

Williams pushed the cleaning cart down the narrow hospital hallway. The wheels made a soft squeaking sound. His body still felt heavy from the river, but he kept moving.

The middle-aged nurse with short gray hair walked beside him.

“First ward is on the left,” she said. “A little girl threw up on the bed. Clean it fast. Her father is angry.”

Williams nodded and entered the room. A thin five-year-old girl lay on the bed, shaking. Her father glared at him.

“What took you so long?” the man shouted.

“I’m sorry,” Williams said quietly. He put on the old gloves, pulled the dirty sheet, and started cleaning. The smell was strong. At first his stomach turned, but he forced himself to keep working. After a few minutes the bed was clean. He helped the father put the girl back down.

As he left the room, the nurse met him again.

“Good. Now Ward 7. Old man with diarrhea. Be careful.”

Williams went. He cleaned the bed, helped the old man sit up, and threw the dirty sheet into the big furnace at the end of the hall. Then another call came. And another.

The hospital was small and poor. Only one doctor and two nurses worked there. They received almost no money from the government. Most patients paid nothing. The staff used their own money for medicine and food.

Williams saw many hard things that day. A young man talked happily with his mother, then stopped breathing ten minutes later. An old woman held Williams’s hand and asked him not to leave her alone. A boy with a broken leg cried because he missed school.

The nurses and doctor never stopped. They looked more tired than Williams. When the stern nurse brought him a small bowl of rice in the afternoon, he tried to refuse.

“You need to eat too,” he said.

She shook her head. “You are the one cleaning all day. Eat.”

Williams ate quickly and went back to work.

Night came. The calls did not stop. He cleaned blood, vomit, and worse things. His back hurt. His eyes burned. He wanted to sit down, but every time he thought about resting, he remembered the system’s words.

[Host must work twenty-four hours without rest.]

Near morning an old man called him in a weak voice.

“Please… the bed is dirty again. I can’t stand much longer.”

Williams cleaned it for the third time. When he finished, the old man whispered, “Thank you, son.”

Williams walked to the furnace, threw the sheet inside, and washed his hands. His arms shook.

The system spoke clearly in his mind.

[Quest complete. Host has worked as hospital janitor for twenty-four hours without rest.]

Williams stood still. “What… what is my reward?”

[One QR point and ten million dollars. The money will enter your account shortly.]

Williams’s old phone, which had somehow stayed with him through the river, vibrated in his pocket. He took it out with shaking hands. A message from the bank appeared.

Your account has received 10,000,000 dollars.

The phone slipped from his fingers and broke on the floor. Williams stared at the pieces. His heart beat so hard he could hear it.

[Has the host accepted this system’s existence now?]

Before he could answer, the stern nurse appeared in the doorway.

“Your twenty-four hours are finished,” she said. “You can leave. The bill is canceled. You worked hard enough.”

Williams looked at her tired face. He remembered the patients, the little girl, the old man who called him son.

“Where is the nearest bank?” he asked.

The nurse frowned. “Why?”

“I want to give some money to this hospital.”

She studied him for a long moment, then pointed down the street. “Two blocks that way. But use the money for yourself. You look like you need it more.”

Williams picked up the broken phone, put the pieces in his pocket, and walked out of the hospital. The morning sun felt warm on his face. For the first time in five years, he did not feel completely empty.

He walked toward the bank with one clear thought in his mind.

If the ten million dollars was real, he would help the hospital first. Then he would find a way to stand on his own feet again.

The system stayed quiet, but Williams could feel it waiting.

He pushed open the bank door and stepped inside.