44 would have been a cute little girl if she wasn't malnourished. Jade white skin was tanned from years of being sent to work outside doing heavy work no small child should be asked to do, a slight yellowish undertone indicating lack of vitamins. Her natural carmine hair was dry, faded, matted, and limp from lack of proper care. The sheer amount of split ends made Li Mei wrinkle her nose in distaste.
From memories the child had of glancing in mirrors, Li Mei knew her large cat-like eyes were a soft mauve in color. Dark circles detracted from their beauty, along with the gaunt hollows of her cheeks.
They fed 44 enough to barely keep her alive and working. None of it was anything substantial, but somehow her straight teeth were fairly white with no cavities or cracks. Sharp eyeteeth would give her a charming mischievous grin if the kid ever smiled.
Li Mei turned such thoughts over in her mind as she forced her frail body to do countless sit-ups. Recovering from malnutrition would take a long time, and require food high in nutrients. Her goal for the moment was to get her body to a state where it wasn't exhausting to traverse the manor.
Baby steps. Sometimes literally!
Days on Elysium were thirty hours long. For nine of those hours she slept with one eye open, nesting in a pile of sheets and blankets in the dusty storage closet's hidden corner. At the slightest noise or disturbance in her vicinity she'd jerk awake, holding her breath until silence reigned once more.
She allocated four hours of night time to gathering resources. Food and water from the kitchens, toiletries from the bathrooms, clothes from the laundry room. It would all add up over time when packed into her storage, so she made sure to take only what was absolutely necessary for future survival.
Two hours every three days was spent sneaking into the bathrooms to take quick showers, scrubbing layers of grime off her body.
For the other seventeen hours every day Li Mei trained her body. Push-ups, lunges, squats, sit-ups. Even deep breathing exercises to strengthen her weak lungs.
She started with such a slow pace it was infuriating, forced to pause after five minutes of activity to rest for an entire hour. While resting she did slow stretches, moving up to simple yoga poses when her limbs stopped their violent trembling. Once her body recovered enough she went back to strength exercises until she had to rest again.
Every ache felt like the worst thing in the world. Every pain stabbed right to her bone marrow. The Sickly trait reducing pain resistance wasn't kidding around! Li Mei didn't enjoy pain, but she clenched her teeth and forced through for the sake of her plans.
Being in a small body felt strange at first, but a few days of exercise helped Li Mei feel comfortable in her new skin. After ten days she didn't feel stinging pains in her lungs during exercise, and didn't need to rest as much either.
Sneaking around to get to the lavatory every so often was a bit difficult, since so many people worked in and around the manor. Using the secret passages helped, but more than once Li Mei found herself crouched behind some statue holding her breath so people nearby wouldn't notice her.
She earned two new skills because of it.
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[Hide Lv.1]
You have started learning how to erase your presence. It's easier for you to be overlooked when crouching behind cover.
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[Stealth Lv.1]
Your quiet footfalls are rarely heard by those not listening for them. People are not naturally alerted to your presence unless you draw attention to yourself or they're otherwise on guard.
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Holding in her bodily functions while creeping down hallways was a special level of torture. Watching the slow tick upwards of her health percentage and EXP gains in the Interface was a different yet equally horrible kind of torture.
Twenty days passed of rigorous exercise combined with an improved diet, and her health only went up 9%! The percentages next to the basic stats were her progress towards gaining another stat point.
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NAME: Li Mei
HEALTH: 52% (Malnourished)
AGE: 12
SPECIES: Human (? ? ?)
JOB: Slave
MANA: 0/0
M. QUALITY: ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
EXP: 15
STR: 1 (0.3%)
CON: 1 (0.5%)
DEX: 1 (0.3%)
INT: 3 (0.1%)
WIS: 8
TITLES: [Experiment 44] [Illegitimate Child]
TRAITS: [Enslavement Bind] [Sickly]
SKILLS: [Archive] [Hide Lv.1] [Scan Lv.1] [Stealth Lv.1] [Storage Lv.1]
SPELLS:
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She only earned fifteen points of experience total, less than one per day. Focusing on the EXP line brought up a cute animated shop menu for using experience points, promising more items to unlock when her strength increased or other requirements were met. Only base stat point upgrades were available, in whole numbers and percentage increments, but the cheapest were hundreds of points at the minimum! Fifteen was a mere drop in a vast bucket.
Li Mei leaned against the wall of the storage room and sighed, dragging her fingers down her face in frustration. "I'm just a frail little kid now, how will I get myself out of this situation without proper means or resources... I can hide and steal food for awhile, but at this rate it'll take years before I can even think about 44's revenge. And that's assuming someone doesn't find me first!
"I don't wanna stay in the walls forever like a gross sneaky rat. I want a soft bed with lots of pillows! And leisurely hot bubble baths every night! Delicious hot dinners with sweet desserts! Fragrant deodorant and shampoo and lotion for my poor hands! How can I get stronger so I can get out of this place and start living the good life?"
Almost the instant she stopped complaining a holoscreen popped up with a small animated explosion of confetti. Above the window was a chubby cat character doing an adorable dance. Li Mei watched it for a few moments, mesmerized, before she realized there were words underneath.
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[New Item!]
New Item available for purchase in the EXP Shop!
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She'd never received a notification for the EXP Shop before so her curiosity was immediately piqued.
The shop added a new category called Function Upgrades, with a single option for purchase outlined in bright green.
For 15 EXP Li Mei could unlock a Quest System. Eyebrows arched in surprise as her mauve eyes lit up, a faint sparkle hidden in their depths. 'Well, well, well. How convenient! Was this planned ahead of time when the Interface was designed? Did I unlock a backup plan through my complaining? Or is that Meddling Intern of Death paying close attention to me?'
Regardless of the underlying reason, a favorable solution to some of her problems was hovering in her face.
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[Quest System]
Max LV: 5
The Interface can assign tasks and provide ample rewards.
Your current situation and recommended goals will be analyzed based on your environment, capabilities, and previous activity. Based on the results of the analysis Quests within your capabilities will be generated.
Rewarded EXP will be determined based on your abilities. More difficult Quests will give higher rewards.
Amount of EXP earned is multiplied exponentially with the Quest System's level. Starting at Lv. 3, the Quest System can create tangible rewards in addition to EXP.
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She purchased it without hesitation. All her hard won EXP from the past twenty days vanished in a puff of animated smoke and fireworks. Cyan light flooded her field of vision accompanied by a sensation of cool water passing through her body.
When the light faded the Quest System option turned into a Lv.2 upgrade. Li Mei cringed seeing all the zeroes on the upgrade's price tag. "Yikes. That's not happening any time soon!"
Beneath the minimap a new exclamation icon appeared to join the other three. Li Mei eagerly rubbed her hands together and opened the window.
Quests were sorted into tabs depending on how difficult they were, ranked from zero to five stars. Zero and one star Quests would be auto-completed, distributing rewards as she fulfilled preset conditions. For Quests with higher star rankings she'd have to accept the Quest first.
Things like taking meals, completing a ten minute basic exercise course, and sneaking into a bathroom for a shower were repeating zero star Quests with 1 EXP as a reward. It didn't sound like much until Li Mei considered she didn't earn a whole point in a day on her own.
She could get credit for one shower a day, four basic exercise courses, and three meals. That was eight EXP a day just for having good living habits!
A repeating one star quest for sneaking into the manor house's study and scanning a book into the Archive was worth 10 EXP, ten times more than the zero star Quests. A two star Quest involved leaving the manor for a secret endurance run lasting at least three hours, rewarding 75 EXP as a base reward that was increased to 150 EXP if she pulled it off without being seen by any staff members!
"Thank you, Meddling Intern! This System's amazing!"