[If your target was still breathing even after the allocated time for you to complete the mission has run out, you will be the one to say goodbye to this world.]
What? Say goodbye to this world? What did Nexus mean by it?
[I meant it in the literal sense.]
Nexus replied in its excited voice with a hint of casualness to it which left Jax feeling perplexed.
It didn't mean he would die, right...?
Even in his thoughts, Jax wasn't sure about denying the meaning of its words. Something in him screamed that Nexus meant each and every word it was saying. And, the system's next words confirmed his half- clarified thoughts.
[You will die, if you keep neglecting the inevitable and waste time.]
And when it finally used the word 'die', Jax could no longer answer back Nexus as if he just got short circuited by touching an electro- magnetic wire of ultra high voltage.
It seemed like all of his innumerable brain cells got burnt just in the span of a few seconds, that he couldn't even form a coherent thought in his mind.
He just sat like a statue while his blank eyes kept staring out of the window, into the distance, into the nothingness.
Meanwhile, Nexus chose to be understanding for God knows why and gave him an ample amount of time to reconstruct his thoughts.
However, even after waiting for a long time, Jax still remained silent, without asking the system any additional questions or kicking up a fuss about all this charade like he had been doing from the moment he learned that he needed to kill people.
Apparently, being warned of losing one's own life was even more terrifying than taking others'.
And, Nexus was right about one thing, dying seemed way more worse than dealing with scum at every hour of the day. At least, he would be still breathing than be buried six feet under the ground.
On the flip side, when it didn't get any response either directly from him or indirectly from his thoughts, Nexus began to test the waters as it couldn't wait any longer.
[So, as I have told you beforehand, you should man up and strive for yourself.]
Weirdly, it didn't get any reaction from Jax whatsoever. It was as if Jax's brain was a shut down computer that couldn't receive commands or send back messages.
Like he had successfully mastered the skill of maintaining mental silence, but this time he did so without even thinking about anything.
As for Jax, it was not like he didn't hear Nexus, but it was just that his brain was struck silly at the very thought of being killed.
Honestly, he didn't even know if he was scared or was genuinely dumbfounded, but Nexus couldn't get any response from him, even after trying to catch his attention for several hours straight.
The poor system tried so hard, by shouting shrilly, producing all kinds of noises, reminding him about the deadline for the task, to mentioning his possible unfortunate ending, time and again.
But, the stubborn youth like the arrogant basta*d he was, was soon out like a damaged bulb as he plunged into a dreamless sleep.
Nexus didn't have any choice but to wait until its stubborn host to wake up, before trying anything again.
Just like that, time passed and before Jax knew it, it was already very late in the morning of the next day when he finally woke up.
As soon as he opened his tired eyes, while his head was getting adjusted to the flow of thoughts that rushed into his subconscious, Nexus started screaming loudly in its excited voice.
[Finally, you woke up. Come on let's get on the task.]
But, the only thing it got in answer was silence. No matter what it said, the young man would remain completely unbothered as if it was shouting at a six foot high wall.
Yes, after waking up, Jax didn't really pay attention to the system anymore. Jax didn't know why but he didn't want to dwell on whatever Nexus was trying to convey to him.
He just chose to ignore anything and everything as he felt it was utterly dis- believing to actually consider the system's words.
Just like that he evaded the system, the task and its annoyingly high pitched voice for two days.
And, when it was already the morning of the third day, the prison doctor stuffed a few small medical jars with various pills for his recovery and literally kicked him out of the infirmary after sending a small notice to the sub jailer about the young man's discharge.
If Jax remembered it correctly, it was the second time the said doctor done this to him, that too in the span of three short days.
Jax felt thinking about trivial things like these really helped him keeping his head unwantedly filled with rubbish spouted by a weirdly excited voice in his head.
Jax didn't know how to get rid of this voice, so he could only ignore it altogether to save himself from nursing a bad headache.
He realized that dealing with Nexus was even more exhausting than devising a plan to kill someone. Because it wouldn't seem to get tired even after rambling continuously for two f*cking straight days.
Well technically, it was almost next to impossible for this kind of system to get tired, which he learnt in the hardest way. It was that bad, alright?
Just as he was strolling into his prison cell, Jax sensed someone coming in his direction, which successfully halted him in his steps.
And when he turned around to face that person, what greeted his eyes was a fat figure clad in guard clothes, with a stupid grin on his face.
Jax raised an eyebrow as if asking what did the latter want. And the man immediately complied Jax's unspoken request, as he introduced himself in an eerie yet scratchy voice that disturbed the latter to his core.
"Hi Jax, I'm Marco." Marco said with an unreadable glint in his eyes.
When Marco didn't get any reply for a full minute, he chose to drop another bomb on the young man.
"I know about the system."