"What's going on here?" A voice asked in a stern tone, compelling attention from everyone present.
However, the owner of the voice didn't get any answer from the people involved in the commotion, nor from the audiences gathered around the place.
The person's question was answered with absolute silence.
They all remained quiet, as if the question was not directed to any one of them. However, the tension radiating from the few people near the mouth of the dark corridor was something that couldn't be overlooked so easily.
The person looked at the ten to twelve people from head to toe, seemingly trying to understand the situation and it didn't take long for his eyes to fall upon the battered youth, whose left hand looked like it had been crushed mercilessly under the hard knock of a mallet as it was covered in dried blood now and his left thigh which was bleeding profusely.
His eyes narrowed at the young man for a moment before he took out his walkie- talkie from his pocket.
Not long after that, several people came to his aid and before they knew it, they were all placed in separate interrogation rooms, each in one.
But he didn't forget to call for the prison doctor to treat Jax first. Well, it seemed like some of the personnel here have some humanity left in them after all.
After the doctor left Jax's new match box.
Jax finally got some time to think over everything that happened in these last few days.
Of all the things happened to him, hearing a robotic voice which sounded like a twelve to thirteen years old little girl, was the thing that intrigued him the most.
Why not? Everything else is already common to him. Hank's bullying, the two mystery men's gibberish, and the other inmates along with the guards ignorance and indifference toward everything. Nothing except for the robotic voice was a new issue for Jax.
Thinking about this, Jax didn't know how to summon it. Actually, he intended to have a good, elaborative conversation with the voice once he got out of the sticky situation earlier.
But the problem was; how should one call for a voice in their head out for a chat?
[Jax, you just have to think of me and I'll respond.]
While he was still pondering about how to connect with the robotic voice in his head, the childish voice with traces of static intonations rang in his ears all of a sudden, answering his unspoken questions.
Jax who was still trying to get used to a strange adolescent voice in his head, was stunned for a moment, because the voice just disappeared after hinting at him to use the mud vase, as if it never rang in his ears in the first place.
'What are you?'
Jax thought after adjusting his mind again.
[I'm a system delegated to guide you through your quest hunt.]
Jax was stunned after hearing its reply.
The system answered him so seriously in an almost business like tone, if only it sounded like a grown up, Jax would have thought that he was being ordered around by an army general.
But the problem was, he couldn't understand what it was saying to him in the slightest.
'A quest hunt? What would I get from completing those?'
Jax picked the most ridiculous thing he heard in the voice's words to fire a question of his own back.
[You will get levelled up, Jax.]
'And?'
Seriously, what would he get from levelling up? Jax couldn't understand what this weird system was getting at.
[It's important for you to level up.]
'For?'
[It's just important, Jax. I'm not allowed to disclose anything beyond this.]
'So you know what is all this for?'
[Kind of.]
'Why does it seem like even you don't know what is this all about?'
The system remained silent after this question flashed in Jax's mind.
So what now? Did he guess it correctly or what? Jax couldn't comprehend the meaning of its silence. Thus he just went with the most common insinuation, 'Silence is half consent.'
'Seems like my theory is on the point.'
[As you level up your abilities, I'll be able to get access to the details of the ultimate purpose of all this. However, you need to strengthen yourself for that to happen.]
The system answered him softly after stalling for another two minutes.
'Strengthen myself? Then what is your role in all of this?'
[I'm here to help you become stronger, Jax.]
It answered him so cheerfully that Jax felt like it was being over excited for some unknown reason it wasn't willing to disclose to him. But then, he remembered it asking for permission for a full body assessment. What was that for?
[I needed to conduct it to assess what level you were now exactly. And the results were long ready. Do you want to have a look Jax?]
It answered his thoughts once again, in a much more enthusiastic tone.
Have a look? He could take a peek at the results? How was it possible?
But then as if dashing his doubts to the gutter, a mechanized screen appeared before him, flashing rows after rows of information regarding himself. Jax was stunned when the screen appeared before his eyes, he felt like he was looking at an projected image but he knew that was all only happening in his head. Because the information literally appeared on the inner curve of his cornea, just like his brain was a projector for this picture to be displayed in his eyes directly.
[Race : Unknown.]
[Name : Jax Black]
[Gender : Male]
[Age : 20 years]
[Level : 1]
[Endurance : 4/17]
[Strength : 4/17]
[Agility : 4/17]
[Dexterity : 4/17]
[Stamina : 4/17]
[XP : 0/100]
It was obvious from Jax's frowning brows that he couldn't fully grasp the point of all these details, but it looked like a game he used to play, if he was not mistaken. However, he couldn't say it for sure since he was not much of a gamer.
Therefore, he needed to make sure what this odd things that was happening to him.
His future started looking more and more absurd