Michael quickly hurried home with the small monster in his arms.
"I'm back!" shouted Michael the moment he ran inside their house.
"Welcome ba- what is that in your arms?"
When his mother who was in the kitchen saw him running towards his room with something in his arms, she couldn't help but inquire about it with a curious look on her face.
"Ohh...nothing! It's just a pet I picked up on the way here!"
Slam!
Michael didn't bother to turn around and just rushed inside his room and slammed the door shut.
"Hmmm…?"
Michael's mom has a question mark floating above her as she slightly tilted her head to the side as she's confused about her son's weird behaviour.
"I wonder what kind of pet it is that makes him so rushed? Huh?"
She was left wondering at first, but when she noticed the mud stains on the floor, she burst into an angry fit and started shouting for Michael.
"Yaaa! Michael! Get your butt out of your room and clean up the muddy footprint you left on the floor! Michael, now!"
"Yes mom!" yelled back Michael from his room as he quickly came out and ran towards the back of their house, grabbed the mop and drenched it with water from the faucet located at the back of their home.
He wrung out the water from the mop and quickly made his way back inside and cleaned the mud off the floor.
He went back and forth inside the house twice before he was finally done, and just ignored his mother who's been watching him the whole time with a dumbfounded look on her face and returned to his room hastily.
"What's wrong with this kid? Is the pet you picked up a dragon or something?" Shaking her head, she just laughed it off and went back to cooking dinner.
It might not be a dragon, but it certainly is something.
Inside his room.
"Just what are you?"
Michael is sitting on the floor while rubbing his chin, studying the small horned cat obediently sitting on his bed, who is also watching him at the same time while tilting its head, its eyes filled with curiosity towards him.
"Haooong!"
The furry creature suddenly raised its right paw and showed a bright smiling expression on its face like a human saying hi to a stranger.
Michael's eyebrow jumped as he still couldn't get used to this, and he had this urge to quickly hug it because of how cute this cat monster is!
"Yeah, Hi Hao, and...I'm Michael, so you're a girl and how come I can understand you when you're only using a single word every time you...talk?" Michael said slowly as he fought the urge to hug it.
"Hao?" replied Hao with a pondering expression on its face.
"System?"
As soon as Michael said that word, a holographic screen appeared before his eyes.
[Michael Grey] [Human]
[Level 1] 0/50 EXP
[Strength: 9]
[Agility: 8]
[Stamina: 9]
"Okay~" Michael said slowly, then he raised his hand and used his index finger to press the floating screen in front of him, but nothing special happened though, except for the fact that when his finger phased through the floating screen and produced a buzzing noise similar to a bee.
"Holy crap, this sh*t is real!"
Michael's mouth was opened so wide that it was enough for an egg to fit in, as his finger kept poking the holographic screen back and forth with a mesmerized look on his face.
"Haooong!"
Looking at Michael's expression, Hao couldn't help but let out a soft howl with this expression on her face that says "isn't it awesome?".
"Tsk!"
Then Michael's expression returned to normal when he heard her and just clicked his tongue as he still can't get over the fact that there would be a day that such a huge pie would actually land on him!
His excitement slowly calmed down as the world wasn't the same anymore.
After all, there's even a Spatial Rifts that leads to another world, what more of a Unique Skill similar to Character Screens in the games he had played in the past before when he was still a teenager?
The only confusing thing is that Michael had never heard of someone awakening from getting bitten by a monster before, and while Michael was observing the status screen, Hao suddenly leapt down from the bed and climbed on his right shoulder.
"What is it?" asked Michael as he lightly turned his head around towards her.
"Hao! Haooong!" replied Hao as she raised one of her paws and pointed at something.
"Wait...you can see it?" said Michael, and at the same time, he couldn't help but lightly poke Hao's cheek with his finger because of how cute she is.
"Hao!" answered Hao with a bright smile along with the human finger poking her cheek.
'So Hao can see the status screen, noted. I should ask mom later if she could also see it'
Michael made a mental note to ask his mother later, because it's fine if the status screen can be viewed by Hao other than himself, but it would certainly be a bad idea if other humans can also see it.
After all, no sane person out there would want to reveal the full extent of their Unique Ability to anyone.
'Now that I remember, Hao was pointing at something earlier'
Michael had finally noticed the other tabs on top of the status screen that goes from.
[User Status] [Skills] [Quest] [Marketplace] [Commons].
Michael focused his attention on the [Skills] and was about to press it when the holographic screen softly flashed and the [Skills] section appeared, replacing the previous tab.
[Skills]
[You do not have any skills yet]
[Skill Points Available: 0]
"Well, that sucks,"
"Haooo~!"
Michael mumbled with a little disappointment, followed by Hao who answered in agreement while nodding with her eyes closed and looked really cute with her every action!
He smiled lightly when he heard Hao and thought, 'What do you know kid? I've been waiting for this moment for a long time'
Seeing that there is nothing noteworthy on the [Skills] section yet, Michael quickly turned his attention towards the [Quest] section.
[Major Quest]
[Reach Level 5]
[Brush Hao's fur for Ten Minutes]
[Side/Daily Quest]
[Walk Hao for an hour
Reward(s): 10 EXP]
[Getting Into Shape
10 Push-ups, 10 Sit-ups, 10 Squats and 1 Kilometer Run
Reward(s): 0.5 Strength, 0.5 Agility and 0.5 Stamina
Repeatable Quest: 0/30]
Michael raised an eyebrow when he saw those rows of words when an absurd thought suddenly surfaced inside him.
So he quickly turned his attention towards the two remaining sections and checked them out.
[Marketplace]
[Unlocks at Level 5]
[Commons]
{Monster Companions}
[Hao]
'I knew it. Mine is different'
"Hao??"
Hao uttered a startled cry when Michael suddenly stood up from the floor and ran towards his desk and opened his laptop.
Beep!
"Come on laptop, hurry up"
Tap! Tap! Tap!
His laptop slowly booted up as Michael felt jittery inside and kept tapping his desk with his fingers.
Fortunately, his device didn't make him wait long and Michael quickly opened up a search engine and typed the words "Terran Status Screen" and pressed Enter.
And the search results gave him a number of websites leading to that topic, but Michael just ignored it and instead clicked on the "Images" tab and finally found an example of what he's anxiously looking for.
[Earth User: ???]
[Race: Earth Human]
[Skills:???]
"I knew it. Mine is really different! Hahahaha!"
Michael started laughing in delight!
It was because at first, he didn't notice the abnormality of his Status Screen, but he slowly realized that the more things he discovered with his Unique Ability and the weird way he awakened, made him remember that the Status Screen of an awakened human shouldn't have so many options!
"YESSSS! Finally! Hahaha!"
"Hao!?"
Meanwhile,
"Hahaha!"
"Michael, shut up!"
In the living room, a young girl around high school was comfortably watching some show on TV when Michael's crazed laughter suddenly reverberated throughout the house, startling her and their mom who's in the kitchen and was just about to finish preparing dinner.
"YESSSS! Finally! Hahaha!"
"Mom, I think Michael has gone nuts with his creepy laugh!" the young girl couldn't help but turn to her mother and complain.
Michael's mom was just about to open her mouth and say something, but then stopped when she suddenly remembered her son's weird behavior earlier and thought of something.
"Its fine, it must be something worth celebrating for"
"What~? Mom!"