"I'm not dead." Ye Bai spoke to himself as he stared at the hospital ceiling. He had just woken up, so he was a bit confused as to what had happened. One thing is for sure, though. It's the fact that he did not die after jumping off a 15th-floor building.
Though… his body was aching all over. From head to toe, his whole body was wrapped in gauze and plaster.
"Aish!!!" Ye Bai clenched his teeth. What kind of stupid joke was this? He should've been dead. He should've had his head pummeled into meat paste at the very least.
Ye Bai sat up on his hospital bed and looked around the room, shocked. Other than himself, there's nobody.
Rather… that's where the problem lay.
Nobody but himself is in the room!
Across from the foot of his bed, someone who looked exactly like him sat there staring at him with a smile on his face. He had black hair, brown eyes, and other features exactly like himself! Though, he was a little taller and had wrinkles all on some places of his face.
"Hi. How ya feeling?" The impostor continued to smile as if the best thing in the world had happened to him.
"Eh? Who are you?" Ye Bai opened his mouth and gave the impostor a weird look.
"Well, shouldn't you be telling me who I am?" The impostor kept his smile, but he stood up, strode next to Ye Bai's bed, and gave him a piece of parchment paper.
Accepting the parchment paper, Ye Bai looked it over.
[As you were detected to be in an extremely dangerous situation, the System had expended its remaining power to prevent the worst-case scenario. Temporarily, you will have a random ability activated. Temporarily, something else will replace the System for Host's assistance. You are to complete one thing while the System is recovering. That is to become healthy.]
"Is this a joke?" Ye Bai held the paper as he glared at the impostor.
"Ha! Not at all." The impostor laughed.
"Assistant...?" Real Ye Bai asked, unsure. The note did mention a STSEMO Assistant, though.
"Heh, that's right. Took you long enough," impostor said as he went back to sit on his chair.
"I still think this is a joke." Ye Bai told the impostor. What else can he make of this? Some random impostor waited for him to wake up and gave him a paper telling him sh*t.
"Oh? But you've always spoken to me, though? Every time when you're at home by yourself. During those times in school when you're isolated from others. You've always spoken to me." The old impostor explained.
"Pft. You're funny." Ye Bai shook his head in denial. He had never spoken to this impostor before.
Ssssh
The ward door opened and a nurse peeked into the room. "Ah! You've woken up! Stay there. I'll go get the doctor!" The nurse said as she closed the door and quickly ran off.
"It's good that you've failed." The Impostor spoke after the nurse went away.
"Hm?" Ye Bai hummed.
"It's good that you've failed killing yourself. Because once you're dead, you wouldn't be able to live on for your mother." The impostor continued.
"I know. You're telling me things that I already know… But would my mother even want to see me live like how I was!? For the past years, I lived without a reason but to just live so that my memories of my mother won't fade! Yet, I live in a repeating routine. Don't you think it's just a freaking waste of time!?" Ye Bai raised his voice. He had tried so hard to break his routine. He tried his best to become someone, but he just couldn't do anything. Except, if he killed himself. That was the only answer he found that will help him break his routine.
"I do think that everything that you did was a waste of time. But you still need to live. There's still so much more you can do to break out of your routine." The Impostor conversed.
"F*ck off." Ye Bai cursed at the impostor and became silent. He just had too many things in his mind. He tried to die, but he could not. He lived, but he didn't live well at all. He struggled day after another. Both living and dying give him pain but at least dying's pain doesn't last. Thus, he finally decided to end it all after struggling with his mind for a whole year. But now this?
Tap Tap Tap
Footsteps rushed towards the ward.
The door opened and the doctor walked in accompanied by two nurses. The doctor is a woman who seemed to be in her early thirties. Her hair was tied into a bun and she wore a white long coat over herself. Figure wise, she is quite slim.
"Give him a checkup." The doctor ordered the two nurses and went to Ye Bai.
"Hello, my name is Yu Ling, how do you feel at the moment?" She asks Ye Bai. From the report, this patient of hers had jumped from a 15th-floor building and miraculously survived with little damage. There were no broken bones. There was also no inner damage to his body. He was just covered in bruises and bled from a few places with wounds. In fact, she personally wanted to become the overseer of this boy because of this strange occurrence. Normally, she would only take in patients who have high prestige.
Ye Bai ignored her and just kept staring on in a daze.
"Hmm. Was there some brain damage?" The doctor pondered. The nurse had said she heard someone talking, therefore she peeked in the ward to see that the boy was awake.
"Sir, you do hear me?" She tapped on his shoulder.
"Sir?" Yu Ling continued tapping. Having some brain damage isn't out of the question, but she wanted to believe that there isn't any problem.
Since Ye Bai did not answer her, Yu Ling placed her fingers on his chin and forcefully turned it towards her face. "Are you alright?" She asked.
Coming back into focus, Ye Bai stared at the female doctor. The two nurses were doing their check-up routine while the female doctor tried to converse with him.
"Yes, I'm fine." Ye Bai copied the old impostor's smile and said to the female doctor. Should he tell the doctor about the things that are going on in his mind? No! Why the heck will he do that? All they will do is try to convince him to not suicide with jibberish.
"You fell from the 15th-floor building, do you remember that?" The lady probed, trying to get a sense of Ye Bai's situation.
"I do." Ye Bai nodded. He couldn't falsify the fact that he did jump from a 15th-floor building. If there were cameras, he was probably caught on them.
"So why did you jump off?" Yu Ling continued.
"None of your business. Rather, can I be discharged right now?" Ye Bai waved off her question and asked his own question.
"Nonsense. Although you're not really hurt, what if an accident similar to this happens once again after you leave?" Yu Ling shook her head.
"I request to be discharged." Ye Bai told the lady.
"Under the strict policy, we can not let you be discharged until after we make sure that you are really okay." Yu Ling wished that the boy just be cooperative so that she can run some tests on him.
"I don't have money." Ye Bai gave an excuse so that he wouldn't have to stay here.
"I'll pay your bills." Yu Ling wouldn't give up so easily.
"My dog is at home, and he is going to die of starvation."
"I'll send someone to feed it. Just tell me the address and give me your key later."
"I feel distressed in the hospital and I wish to leave."
"I need to go to a fistfight with a dinosaur from outer space… Can you do that for me too? If not, then you should discharge me." Ye Bai tried to convince her.
Yu Ling: "..."
There must be something wrong with her patient's head. No, there's something wrong with his whole body!!