'Uhhh...what!?'
John's eyes just widened when he saw the floating translucent screen before his eyes. Like his time stopped, he just stood there like a statue that the fish on his feet flapped around while trying to go back to the water.
"Bro, are you okay? Can you let me hold it and take a photo with it? You know, for the thumbnail"
Thinking that he was just distracted about something, Andy took the liberty to unhook the fish himself and picked it up from the ground.
"Damn, it's real heavy. I think it's around seven kilos...or something"
"It's 10.37 kilos" John blurted out.
Andy looked at him with surprise and said, "How did you know that?"
John slowly turned towards him, and with a nervous laugh, he said, "Nah, I-I was just messing with you"
Thinking that he was just really messing around, Andy then just laugh along with it and said, "Yeah, it's not like any normal human would even know the exact weight of an object. Anyway, come on, take a photo of me with the fish!"
John could only laugh while taking a glance at the corner of his face.
"John, take the photo, quick! My arms are getting numb!" Andy couldn't help but yell at John when he saw him getting distracted again.
John was startled by that, so he quickly used the camera that Andy handed to him and took a photo of the young man holding the huge fish that's almost as big as his upper torso.
"There"
John handed the camera back to Andy after taking the photo, and the latter happily took it from him after handing the fish over to John.
"Are you still gonna continue fishing?" Andy asked after looking at his photo with a satisfied grin.
"No, I'll see you later" John answered with a serious look on his face as he started packing up.
"Uhh...later then?" Andy waved his hand stiffly and felt that John's reaction is a little bit weird.
"Shouldn't he be happy that he caught a big one?" Andy mumbled as looked at John's receding figure.
"Hmm...maybe that's what happens when you're good at it"
Then he just shrugged off his shoulders thinking that John must have caught a lot of prized fish by now that he doesn't easily get excited anymore.
John hurriedly but carefully made his way home.
Standing at their terrace, he has this daze look on his face while looking at the square thingy with words on it floating before his eyes.
"Was the egg this morning bad that it's causing me to see things that shouldn't be there?" John mumbled, thinking that he might have eaten something bad while staring at the holographic screen.
[Giant Trevally
Just a common fish. It can be sold for 1 Credit Points.
Weight: 10.37 Kilograms]
The information above keeps popping up before his eyes every time John focuses his attention on the fish in his hand, and by now, he's already starting to doubt if he's really just seeing things or he's just realizing now that he's starting to go inside.
"And what the heck are Credit Points?" John couldn't help but mumble to himself with a frown.
[Credit Points is the currency for the Miracle Program. You can use it to buy things in the Miracle Mall or exchange it for real-world currency]
"W-what the f*ck!? Who's that!?"
Bang!
John couldn't help but jump in fright, and bumped onto the stone railings and almost flipped over.
[I am Oberon. The voice assistant assigned to Host 003. I will be your guide on how the Miracle Program works]
Once again, a robotic voice echoed, but this time, John was able to determine that it wasn't coming from anywhere but inside his head!
"Am I high or something? Did the eggs I ate earlier been infused with illegal drugs? No, that couldn't be it! But why am I seeing and hearing things all of a sudden?"
John felt like he was going insane and started seeing things he shouldn't that he had even suspected that the hard boiled egg earlier today was infused with some illegal substance, like how would that even be possible?
[Detecting Host current condition…]
[Detected no abnormalities in your body, but the host needs to rest for another six hours to avoid falling unconscious again because of fatigue]
When John heard that, he stood still for a second before he suddenly bolted inside the house and quickly closed the door behind him!
He headed to the direction of the kitchen, took out a basin and placed the fish in it, and then he hurriedly washed his hands with some soap, before he quickly went inside the bathroom.
Inside, he sat on the lid of the toilet bowl and took out his phone from his pocket.
"Why am I hearing voices inside my head and seeing words floating before my eyes?" mumbled John while typing those exact same words on the search engine called Boogle.
[...]
Then a series of results appeared on his phone.
"Visual hallucinations...Hypnagogic Hallucinations"
John clicked his tongue in annoyance because there were not the results he was hoping for as he had finally realized that he was not really seeing or hearing things. He is not dumb to believe that he's really high, especially when that robotic voice had mentioned that it had not detected any abnormalities inside his body.
After a couple of taps, he spotted a link that's not related to what he had searched for and couldn't help but curiously press on it.
"I Can Turn Into A Fish, huh? This is an online story though"
John's curiosity was piqued and he started reading it, and the longer he read it, the brighter his eyes became.
A couple of minutes passed by.
He stopped the binge reading and closed his phone, and now without a source of light, he's now surrounded by darkness.
"System Status"
".."
Nothing happened after he said those words, and even when he's alone, John still couldn't help but cover his face in embarrassment after saying those words, which was stupid of him in believing those couple of stories he had read earlier on his phone.
[Beep!]
But then there was a sudden computer beep like sound, which were followed by a bunch of information that suddenly appeared before his eyes.
John's eyes widened in shock that he stopped breathing for a second, though the first thing he noticed was his photo: a handsome appearance with that serious look on his face that he looks like he's applying for the army or something.
Then beside his photo were a series of data.
[Name: John Smith
Status: Human
Level: 1
Combat Power: 2
Trait: Hardworking, High Libido
Skills: None
Credit Points: None
Software Level: 1]
"Holy...sh*t. This is really f*cking happening!"
John immediately covered his mouth as he's starting to get loud because of his excitement, though his eyes kept darting around the...dark?