Tick!
11:53 PM
"Ah, it's almost time... My birthday. A very painful day..."
Sigh.
A seemingly careless young man, who's a student in his sophomore year, said before sitting on the edge of his bed in the room with plenty of decorations in it.
Liam Keene. An orphan, who had been living by himself for almost five years straight, wore an ugly expression just as he woke up after having a quick nap.
'I better prepare myself for 'that' later.'
He stood up and walked in front of the wooden cabinet near his bed.
Liam crouched down and opened the cabinet before picking up a small and shabby old box in the corner. He quickly stood back up again and sat on top of his bed cross-legged as he placed the box in front of him.
He swept away all the dirt and dust that was covering the box using his hands away from the bed also to see the text written in the box.
"Hah... 'Fix your headache box', huh. Although this hardly even healed me before, it might still be useful."
'...If it works that is.'
Liam carelessly flipped the box upside down to put all the things out of it. All the stuff that fell were different kinds of medicine pills specifically for headaches.
The pills scattered all over the bed and some even went on the floor but he didn't care less about it being messy.
"I bought so many yet I only consumed plenty..." He said inwardly as he intently looked at the pills.
"I learned that the amount of pain increases in every year... Should I just consume pills more compared to last time?"
Liam thought about the idea for a while but soon decided against it.
'The possibility of overdose occurring to me will only get higher. That's out of the choices.'
He kept feeling uncomfortable just by having to think deeper into it.
"Meditation... I think I can hold onto it. Although it could be more painful than before, the duration is just a minute or two, right?"
Liam spoke his thoughts fully knowing that there was no one else in the room beside him. Somehow, talking to himself was one of the things that calmed him down in events where his mind is being overfilled with thoughts.
"Yeah. It's gonna happen for just a minute and I'm gonna be safe and sound if I just endure it."
And so for the same day of another year, he once again tried to gaslight himself.
"No, I would not die today... There's no way... Probably..." Liam said reluctantly and let out a heavy sigh.
Everything he said just now, was the same stuff he had already said before, and the result? Pain. Extremely unbearable pain.
Although he was very much skeptical and knew that he was only convincing himself all this time, what else could he possibly do in his current situation?
11:57
Liam tried to overcome the anxiety that was building up inside his heart by closing his eyes and started meditating to clear all the negative thoughts which were going through and through inside his mind.
Fortunately for him, in the past couple of years, he acquired the wisdom of meditation by solely searching and reading countless articles about learning how to meditate and calm one's mind.
11:58:42
A short while later.
Liam, with the practice of mediation at play, now possessed a calm, unpolluted mind resembling a shining mirror and still water as he carefully tried to make his thought cleared out while not having to move one bit from his position.
11:59:01
11:59:25
11:59:33
11:59:42
DING! DING!
A cellphone rang and a sudden message popped up covering the entire screen.
— Hey, uh, Liam! It's me, Ian, can I go to sleep in your house my parents are out of town...
Liam opened his eyes after hearing his phone rang just a second ago, resulting in instantly losing all his focus as well as his calm demeanor. The meditating man was disturbed and now the thought of bad events happening to him soon in mere seconds crept into his mind.
With a bitter expression, Liam, to his friend, cursed inside endlessly.
Realizing it was too late now, his anxiety started to build inside his heart once again.
"Shit, shit, shit! How could I forget to turn off the damn phone...!" Liam immediately regretted his carelessness and started to find something in a hurry.
Another message popped up at the wrong time... again.
— I brought a gift for you so don't worry about me being a useless friend.
Liam read the message of his friend and started cursing inwardly once again.
"Screw your gifts! Why now?!" Liam quickly grabbed all the medicine pills he had in a panic and put them all into his mouth without considering the side effect and the overdose of consuming many of the same pills.
'Shit, shit, shit...'
Liam hurriedly digested dozens of pills all the while continuous curses echoed throughout his mind as well as constantly wishing for a miracle to happen.
He no longer knew know what to do anymore but to choose the choice that he said was out of the choices.
11:59:59
DING!
A sound rang through his mind and a text printed in a game-like window was suddenly floating in front of him. As he read a mechanical voice followed.
『 The prerequisite condition has been met, [20 Years Old]. New skills will be given to you by Project X's System. Please wait. 』
"Uh... Eh? Huh-!? Project X? What the hell... What is going on, right now? Condition? It's the first time that something like this happened to me."
Liam spoke with a confused expression carved all over his face.
'What is this? Is this for real?'
Liam doubted his eyes while trying to think how this unbelievable phenomenon happened in front of him.
"Although something similar did happen..."
Liam thought that, for the past few years, it always had been an unauthentic, robotic female voice saying along the lines of 'You will be given a random skill from the project. Be prepared for the side effects.'
He, of course, expected the voice to happen again but not a floating, holographic-like screen along with the mechanical voice.
"What's this screen in front of me now?"
He could not believe it at first but looking back to the voices he had been hearing, he had no choice but to think that the thing in front of him now was related to it.
Badump-!
"A-Ah? Fuck! Overdose...? Am I having an overdose, right now?!" Liam was distressed as he just realized that he mindlessly consumed over a dozen pills and now he was being taken by the backlash.
'Ugh... it's getting hard to breathe...!'
"D-Damn it! Urgh... Haah...Haaah."
Liam stood up with difficulty as he walked inside the bathroom.
He opened the tap and tried drinking all the water that was pouring down from it.
Liam moved upward and looked into the mirror above the sink. He saw himself in the mirror with an expression that of a dying man.
The overdose was taking effect faster than he imagined.
His skin was turning pale, an extremely itchy sensation was going on from his chest to his neck, and his breathe started to slowly dissipate.
In his current predicament, the thought of him dying now came to him.
"N-No..."
Badump-!
"No way..."
Ugh!
'I don't want to die, right now!'
No.
'Not yet...!'
I still needed to do something.
'I still don't want to die yet...!'
What was it...
"Haah..Haah..." Liam felt like crying as he got himself feeling an intense amount of pain in his chest, but only then did he recalled the memories of his birthday 5 years ago.
"M-Mom... and Dad..."
'I still...'
That's right.
'I still have yet to avenge their deaths...!'
Thud!
Liam lost all the energy in his body and pitifully fell on the floor.
He clutched onto his right chest while his vision was slowly turning pitch black.
It seemed like his breathing was going to stop at any second.
He couldn't think properly anymore with his consciousness was fading...
But, suddenly–
DING!
The game-like window screen which Liam already saw earlier was now floating in front of his eyes and was once again followed by a voice.
『 The System's Guide has finally been imparted. The System will now guide the host from now on and for the rest of his life. 』
『 The host is slowly dying from the effect of a strong Pill Overdose. 』
『 The (2nd Bonus Skill) that has been imparted to the host by the system is automatically activating. 』
『 Granting the host a skill needed for his current situation. 』
『 The skill [Immunity] has been granted. 』
Gasp-!
『 The Overdose and other bad side effects of the consumed pills are now gone because of the skill [Immunity]. 』
"Haaaaaah... Haaaah... Haaaah..."
Liam, who was still panting heavily, saw the text written on the game-like screen in front of him.
A few moments later, he stood up full of energy like nothing bad had ever happened earlier.
"What in the world is...? This... This thing came just r-right on time... Ha... Haha... Hahahaha-"
After a moment of his senseless laughing, Liam decided to take a quick bath to be refreshed.
He didn't know what to think or do anymore after what just occurred.
He soon decided to go to his room and relax himself.
He laid his body down on top of the bed...
"What the hell..."
Now, staring at the empty ceiling, remembering how he was just on the verge of death...
"I survived... again."
He felt that earlier, lady luck came in time to save him.
"No. I guess... I should thank this thing called system..."
Feeling that he just did something stupid by thanking a mysterious thing, he went back to sleep.
﹏﹏﹏﹏ ﹏﹏﹏﹏ ﹏﹏﹏ ﹏﹏ ﹏
A few moments later...
[ The host will be given a...]