Afternoon sunlight streaming through tattered blinds awoke a sleeping youth of only 20 years old. The light revealed the sorry state of the room, with water damage stains on the ceiling and paint-chipped walls, food packaging and clothes strewn all about, and a makeshift desk of a stool and a wooden plank where an old, laggy laptop rested. In the corner of the room lied the dusty mattress on which the young man tossed and turned from the disturbance.
Finally admitting defeat in the face of the stubbornly shining sun, the youth slowly blinked his eyes open. He stared dazedly at his ceiling for a few seconds, trying to get used to the new reality called real life which now faced him.
Allowing his gaze to fall downwards towards the walls of his room, he discovered a seemingly holographic panel in front of him. He simply stared at it with his still-tired eyes, waiting for himself to wake up more and stop half-dreaming.
When the panel remained in his vision even after a while, he furrowed his brows slightly and brought up a hand to rub at his eyes a bit. But even then, the panel was still there.
Curiosity chasing away his tiredness, the boy sat up in bed to take a closer look.
[You have one (1) good task to perform today.]
Below the text there was a timer ticking down until the end of the day along with a single 'OK' button.
'There's no "yes or no" option?' The youth was familiar with these types of scenarios, having read his fair share of comics and stories online. 'This timer must mean that I'm supposed to do what it says before the end of the day...'
The young man let out a sigh after having read the instruction again. 'What the hell is this...'
He tapped the OK button on the panel and it disappeared, leaving the timer in his peripheral vision. He rubbed his face and yawned before getting out of bed and picking up a hoodie and pair of pants from off the floor and pulling them on.
'This must be the stupidest system anyone's ever gotten in the history of ever. This wouldn't even be worth writing a story about.'
The youth pulled out a cigarette from his hoodie pocket and lit it up as he stepped out of his apartment door.
He puffed the cigarette, walking down the street towards the warehouse where he worked afternoons. It was just a minimum wage paying job, and honestly probably wasn't worth the long hours and all the heavy lifting required in the job, but it paid the rent and food bills.
Entering his workplace, the young man barely even acknowledged his coworkers, opting to just clock in and start working straight away instead.
"Hey! Christopher Lee!" Another young man of about 23 years of age greeted the bristly hooded youth who had just walked in to start his shift.
'Christopher' let out a quiet sigh before turning to respond, "Andrew Hwang, I told you to call me Chris."
"And I told you to call me Andy," the upbeat muscular man named Andy grinned.
Chris couldn't stop the tiny smirk creeping up on his face. Despite the fact that Andy's enthusiasm could be annoying at times, he was probably the closest thing that Chris had to a friend. Of course, that wasn't to say that they were close friends either.
Andy let out a hearty laugh and clapped Chris on the back before returning to work himself.
The day dully dragged on, the dwindling timer in the periphery of Chris' vision being forgotten entirely. Save for a few short breaks, Chris kept busy with moving boxes and equipment around the warehouse and loading and unloading trucks that came by at various points in the day.
When the time reached late evening, it was finally the end of Chris' shift. He stretched and wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his hoodie before clocking out for the day. He lit up another cigarette as he started walking back to his apartment.
When Chris reached his unit, he pushed his door open and kicked it closed behind him. It was already 12 am by the time he got in. The forgotten timer from the system that had appeared before him had turned red and a new alert popped up in a panel in front of him.
[You have failed to perform a good deed within the time limit. A penalty will be administered.]
'What the hell...? I literally could not care any less.' Chris quickly closed the panel and flopped down on his mattress, tired from the day's work. After laying down for a few minutes, Chris heard his stomach growl. Letting out a groan of complaint, he heaved himself off the mattress and quickly scarfed down some random microwavable food before washing up a bit and finally going to sleep.
As on most days, Chris was once again awoken by the afternoon sun peaking through his broken blinds. Allowing himself to slowly rouse his senses, Chris noticed something strange as he looked around his room.
The holographic panel was in front of him again.
He immediately sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He read the same message:
[You have one (1) good task to perform today.]
'This again? Ugh.' Chris just closed the panel again as he had the day before. Ignoring the ticking timer once again, Chris thought about what he'd do that day. 'It's Sunday... My one day off during the week...'
He grabbed his phone, throwing his head back on his pillow, planning to spend some time just playing mobile games or watching videos in bed.
When he unlocked his phone, however, something strange caught his attention. The date.
[Saturday, November 15]
A ridiculous thought crossed Chris' mind. 'No way...'
He threw his legs off the bed and quickly got up to find his cigarette pack in his hoodie pocket. He opened up the box and counted the sticks.
"There's still 8? Even though I know I smoked 2 yesterday..."
Chris' mind raced as he thought through possible explanations for this. 'Could it have all been a dream? But damn, it felt so real. The exhaustion I felt from working felt real.'
He began thinking of ways to confirm whether or not it really was a dream or not. He remembered the microwave dinner he had had the night before and checked in the fridge. The box sat in the fridge, right in the spot where he had grabbed it from last night.
Still confused and unsatisfied, Chris pulled on some clothes to head over to the warehouse. He rushed in, immediately approaching Andy.
"Hey! Christopher Lee!" Andy called out with his usual cheery voice.
"Andrew, what day is it?" Chris asked with some urgency in his voice.
Andy chuckled slightly before starting, "I told you to call me An-"
"Andy! What day is it?" This time, Chris grabbed his shoulders and stared seriously at Andy.
A confused expression started to show itself on Andy's usually smiling face. "What do you mean? It's Saturday. You're here for your shift, right?"
Chris tightened his grip on Andy's shoulders and brought his face closer to his friend's. "This isn't some elaborate prank you're playing on me, is it?"
"Whoa, Chris, you're scaring me. Chill." Andy took a couple steps back after lightly removing Chris' hands from himself. "I don't know what you're talking about, but we have a lot of work that needs to be done today, so let's get to it, yeah?"
Chris stared at Andy for a few seconds before coming to his senses and nodding along. "Y-yeah. Yeah. Let's go."
Chris clocked in, pinching his arm and smacking his face a bit before beginning work.
As Chris worked through the tasks that he was meant to do that day, he realized with growing certainty that the schedule was exactly the same as what he remembered doing "the day before." In fact, the events of the day were a precise copy of yesterday, to a tee. He was moving boxes that he had already moved, unloading trucks that he had already emptied, having the same conversations with the same people.
The chilling theory that he had originally thought of crept to the forefront of his mind.
The System had caused him to repeat the same day.