Ian slowly peeled his eyes open as his consciousness returned. His head was pounding and his vision still felt hazy as he made tried sitting up, causing him to lie back down.
I'm still alive," he blurted out without much thought. As he said those words, he remembered the book and immediately scrambled off the bed before any part of his body touched the book again, gaining surprising strength in his bid to preserve his life.
"What kind of a stupid gift was that?!" he yelled without much thought and immediately clasped his hands around his mouth. He looked around and to his utmost delight, the room was empty. His roommates must have gone out already.
"I was lucky that today is a weekend," he sighed and his shoulders slumped as he relaxed. "I would have been late to class on my first day."
He could tell from the sunlight coming through the window that it was almost noon.
"What on Earth was that book?" he thought as he cautiously dragged his bedsheets to expose the book. He wasn't keen on looking around for it with his hands again.
"Where is it?" he asked rhetorically when he realized it was nowhere to be found. "Did my roommates take it?"
He thought about it but that was impossible. He doubted that they would even bother to check up on him considering how weak he was.
He searched a little more for the book, but he did it half-heartedly as he didn't want anything to do with the book, and if anyone actually took it then it wasn't his business whatever happens to them. He gave up when he couldn't find it anywhere and decided to go freshen up instead.
In the bathroom, he stared at his lean frame in the mirror. His body looked just a little bit better than a malnourished person, as he barely had any abs, and the rest of his body barely had any muscle. He was also not at the standard in terms of height, being barely 5'6. The only impressive thing about him was his exceptionally handsome face. His grey eyes were a perfect blend with his wavy silver hair which he would usually allow to cover his eyes, only letting him see through the little partings in between. He thought they made him look a little cool.
As he stared at himself in the mirror, a ding sounded in his head and a notification suddenly popped in front of him; startling him and making him fall hard on his ass on the hard floor.
He winced from the pain and the cold as his ass made contact with the hard, cold floor.
"What the hell?!" he yelled in frustration and glared at the notification. His anger soon changed to curiosity as his glare softened.
[The analysis of the host's body has been completed. New stat, Vessel Durability(VD) has been added.]
"What?" he thought as he peered at it. "What's this?"
He stood up and looked into the mirror but he realized that the screen in front of him wasn't reflected in the mirror. Looking at his system watch around his wrist, it was obvious that the wasn't the watch either.
"What's this?" he asked again.
[Would you like to view earlier notifications?]
"Umm.....yes?" he replied, unsure of what he was supposed to say.
[Blood analyzed.]
[Congratulations, Ian Yaeger.]
[You have unlocked the system.]
Seeing them now, he remembered seeing the first set of notifications before passing out. He thought they were just hallucinations so he thought nothing of them so it was surprising that they were real. He decided to continue reading.
[Race detected.]
[Race: Human]
[Error!]
[Multiple energies detected.]
[Race re-evaluating.]
[Race: Chimera]
[System name updated.]
[System Name: The Chimeric System]
"What??" his eyes widened as he saw his race. "What is this thing saying? I'm not human? What is a chimera in the first place?"
[Would you like to see your stats?]
"No!" he yelled in annoyance. "What is a chimera?!"
[Quest Update: Find out more about the Chimera race.]
[Reward: 5exp]
"Huh?" he asked. "You are giving me a quest to answer my own question? What sort of fuckery is that?"
[Would you like to check your status?]
"Status?"
[Host: Ian Yaeger]
[Race: Chimera]
[Sub Race: Human]
[Level: 1]
[Exp: 0/50]
[Energy: 85/100]
[VD: 5/100]
[Health: 10/10]
[Strength: 3]
[Agility: 3]
[Stamina: 5]
His heart dropped once again as he saw his stats. Looking at it reminded him of the despair he felt when he saw the same stats last time.
"Even a different system says I'm a weakling," he sighed. "What on Earth is this system anyway? How did I get this?"
He wracked his brain in search of answers but he made no progress as he couldn't remember an event that would have triggered it.
"Wait," he thought. "The only unnatural thing that has happened to me was the book. Did the book become the system?"
It seemed like the system isn't exactly interactive as there was no reaction to his question. Not that he expected one in the first place.
A ding sounded again and he saw the notification icon and decided to check it.
[Vessel's internal analysis completed. New stat added, Life Expectancy (LE).]
[Minute stabilization of human energy completed. New stat added, Stabilized Energy (SE).]
"What are these?" he thought and soon the tab for each stat expanded, giving more information.
[LE: Host's vessel is too weak and can barely contain the energy within, leading to clashing energies and thereby affecting the host's life span.]
[SE: Percentage of energy which host's present body can keep under control.]
Even with the explanation, he didn't grasp the whole message clearly, but one thing was obvious from the first and most worrisome stat. His life was in danger.
Just as he thought of checking his status, the screen reverted to his status.
"Oh, so it can be controlled by thoughts, huh?" he thought.
Checking his stats, they looked exactly the same as before, but it now had a scroll option which he decided to check.
[SE: 3/100%]
The content of the next stat after that caused his heart to stop as he saw it.
[LE: 10 months]