"Shit, shit!" Waking up suddenly, Lukas looked at the room as he groped his entire body. The pain was still there, and it was all so real. Tears were in his eyes as he remembered Chloe being killed.
"Shit, shit, shit!" Lukas curled up in his blanket, not seeming to understand what was happening. He seemed beside himself.
[ New skill learned ]
[ You have learned the skill 'Evaluation' ]
[ The skill has been added to your skill list ]
After all those messages appeared in his mind, it seemed that Lukas had finally come to his senses. He took the blanket off his head and looked up at the ceiling. But even though he realised that everything was okay, he continued to cry.
Chloe was the girl he loved and seeing her die brought him entirely down.
'What's happening to me? What is all this? Is it all this system's fault?' Lukas put his two hands over his head and began to think about everything.
####
After calming down, Lukas stood up and walked to his bedroom window. There he could see his mother and father leaving to go to work.
'Looks like I won't be going to school today.' He scratched his head and then walked downstairs. When he got there, Anna approached him carrying a cup of coffee and handed it to him.
Above her head, some numbers and details appeared, but Lukas didn't seem to care. He didn't even seem to notice all those numbers.
"How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine."
"You had another nightmare, didn't you?"
"..."
"When I passed in front of your room, I heard you talk about something and crying."
"I dreamed about a group of unknown people dying... But it even seemed like those people were my friends. I couldn't hold back my tears."
Lukas lamented as he bowed his head. Then tears welled up in his eyes, ran down his face and fell into his coffee cup.
Anna's eyes widened in surprise at his behaviour. She then picked up the cup, placed it on the table and hugged Lukas. "It's okay, and it was just a nightmare, right?" Anna stroked her brother's head.
'I wonder if he's still thinking about what happened to Philip?' That's what she thought.
Lukas hugged Anna and continued to cry for a few minutes before calming down.
'What the hell am I doing?'
####
A few more days passed, and Lukas hadn't had any more nightmares those days, making him calm. He didn't want to go through the same "crisis" as a few days ago. There were only a few parts of that nightmare left in his mind. Everything was becoming hazy.
He usually forgot all his nightmares after a while. He could no longer even remember the details of the nightmare he had before that voice started speaking in his mind. He only remembers two people dying.
But after the last nightmare, something began to torment Lukas.
Everyone who passed in front of his eyes had their "Status" revealed. He soon remembered the skill "Evaluation" that had appeared in that same skill list that the voice in his mind had shown him.
He had no control.
The school was hell. Everyone in front of him had numbers and letters on top of their heads, showing every detail of their skills, strength, agility... everything! Every day he became more and more annoyed and crazy with this.
He reached his limit.
"System, please teach me how to deactivate this," Lukas said after throwing his backpack on the bed.
[ I couldn't understand ]
"This ability is active, and it keeps showing all these numbers and letters whenever I look at someone."
[ 'Evaluation' Skill ]
[ When you activate this skill, it will show all the target's information ]
"Yes, I already know how it works! I want to learn how to deactivate it. Otherwise, my brain will explode. I've already suffered too much in the last few days."
[ To deactivate ability, concentrate. You won't see it as long as you don't want to see it.]
"Is that it? That's fine." Lukas closed his eyes and breathed. He began to wish that all those numbers and letters would never appear again. Then he ran to the first floor and looked at his sister sitting on the sofa.
Anna tilted her head in confusion at his sudden approach. "Hm? What is it?"
Lukas' eyes filled with tears again. He had finally gotten rid of those damned numbers and letters.
"What? Are you sad again?"
"It's not that. I just got emotional."
"Huh? With what?"
"It's nothing." Lukas smiled and then went up to his room again. He called up the system again and started going through all the details.
"I'll have to use this at some point, won't I?" Lukas remembered Philip again.
Looking at that skill tree with infinite possibility, he thought he could have saved Philip if he had been strong enough.
'No, it wouldn't be that easy. I received this thing the day before it happened... There would be nothing I could do. I would have to kill monsters to increase that soul bar and get points.'
"I've never fought a monster before. It would be impossible. I don't even know what the experience of looking directly at one is. Honestly, I'm afraid of what might happen."
Lukas took a deep breath.
"What will happen if I decide to accept that my life is upside down and start using this damn system?"
Lukas was lying down and right on top of him was a large "image" with all of his information. Name, age, class ( which was empty ), strength, agility... Everything. In addition, a list on the left showed his skills, and the one on the right had a huge skill tree similar to an RPG.
There was a skill called "NULL" on the skill list that Lukas had no idea what it was. Even if he asked the system, it didn't seem to know what it was.
And Lukas also noticed the skill 'Evaluation' that had been messing up his life for the last few days.
'I certainly didn't have this skill before. I remember hearing the system says something about this skill as soon as I woke up from that last nightmare. Wait... No, that would be too convenient.'