Richard's eyelids twitched slightly before they struggled to open. His vision blurred for a moment, before the sight of unfamiliar white ceiling entered his line of vision. The constant beeping sound and the heavy smell of disinfectant made him instantly realized that he was laying on a soft bed in a hospital ward.
"I'm still alive?"
The previous memories flooded back into Richard's mind like a tsunami. Richard remembered everything vividly, the fear precipitated in his heart as he recalled the searing pain he experienced after falling from the cliff. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead as his body trembled recalling the dreadful sensation.
The feeling of walking through the gate of hell and coming back was enough to wash clean the fury and resentment in his heart.
What about losing a girlfriend? He could find a better woman than that bitch, Stella!
What about having no money? He could still work hard to change his fate!
As long as he alive, anything possible!
[Ding!]
[The host mind is clear and determine to change!]
[All the requirement is fulfilled. Initiating the system!]
[1%, 2%, 5%... 50%... 100%]
[Congratulation! The host successfully bind with Time Modifier System!]
Hearing the cold mechanical voice suddenly emerged out of thin air and reverberated inside his mind, Richard was almost jumping straight out the bed from fright but managed to quickly regain his composure as he leaned his back against the pillow.
To his surprise, his body didn't hurt anymore, and there was no wound or injury on his body. Everything was perfectly normal. He looked down at his hands, seeing that he wasn't holding anything.
"Where is my pocket watch?" Richard murmured to himself, noticing that his precious silver pocket watch was nowhere in his sight.
[The Pocket Watch is a mere vessel to contain the system. The host can be rest assured because it has already assimilated into the host's body.]
The cold voice once again rang in her mind, a prove that everything that happened wasn't just his imagination, or maybe his brain had been badly damaged due to the accident, resulting in a fantastical hallucination.
[Everything is real Host. Please stop denying the reality. There is more important thing for you to do as you are still in probation period, only by clearing the first quest will the system permanently bonded to you.]
"Wait, give me a moment, okay? I need sometime to process all of this madness..."
Richard was slightly overwhelmed by the sudden events that happened to him, including the fact that he was saved from death. Even though he was thankful for the timely help, he was still find all the talks about the system and what not slightly suspicious.
In the first place, he had no slightest idea of what was a system supposed to be and do.
Taking a deep breath, Richard started probing this unknown entity in his mind.
"So first... can you explain more about the system, no first of all are you the system or separate entity?"
[The system is the system. Its purpose is to assist the inheritor of the Silver Pocket Watch to master the power it contains.]
"What exactly the origin of this pocket watch?" Richard asked yet another question.
To be honest, he used to think that the pocket watch just a mere piece of trinket. It was precious to him just because it was a present from his grandfather, the only family member left after his parents died in accident, leaving him as an orphan, and the other relatives grew estranged from each other.
Richard suddenly recalled that his grandfather once told him that the pocket watch was a gift from a mysterious man he had once saved when he was still a young soldier in WW 2. The mysterious man called himself immortal, and he had a fate with his grandfather family, thus he entrusted the pocket watch to his grandfather for safekeeping before the fateful person born in his family, before vanished into thin air right before his grandfather eyes.
Honestly, all the story sounded bogus, and the family always used it as a way to tease his grandfather, which made his grandfather often throw a fit, making the whole family laughed at his antic.
But now... Richard didn't know what or what anymore. He could only wait for his grandfather to wake up from his comatose state before trying to probe more about it.
[That's for the host to slowly discover it with your own effort. The system couldn't provide any assistance about this matter.]
"Well, fine..." Richard replied curtly, irritated by the lack of explanation as if the system trying to maintain an air of mystery around itself, which was simply annoying. "Anyways, what kind of assistance you mention before?"
[Trying to connect the system interface into the host's brain… connection established…]
[Now the host can see the information window of every object in your line of sight.]
Suddenly, Richard noticed a translucent window hovering next to every object before his eyes. The bed, the medical instrument, even his clothes had a game-like panel beside them. He tried to read them one by one.
---
Name: Patient Uniform
Material: Cotton
Quality: Low
Production Year: 2020
Product Age: 2 years
Description: a standard mass-produced clothes for patient in Dawn City General Hospital.
Market Value: $5
Buyback Value: 0
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Name: CONTEC CMS8000 ICU CCU Vital Sign Patient Monitor 6 parameter
Quality: 70%
Production Year: 2017
Product Age: 5 Years
Description: The monitor has abundant functions that can be used for clinical monitoring with adult, pediatric and neonate. Users may select different parameter configuration according to different requirements. The monitor, power supplied by 100-240V～,50/60Hz, adopts 12.1'' color TFT LCD displaying real-time date and waveform. It can synchronously display eight-channel waveform and full monitoring parameters equipped with an optional 48mm thermal recorder. The monitor can be connected to the central monitoring system via wire or wireless network to form a network monitoring system.
Market Value: $1100
Buyback Value: $650
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Name: ….
---
Richard's head turned slightly dizzy due to the sheer amount of information his brain tried to process. Layer upon layer of windows overlapped with each other as if someone trying to open a hundred application at once in one monitor wasn't exactly helpful either, making his eyes quite strained.
"It's too messy… can it be turned off?"
[The host just need to will it.]
"Great."
As he said so, Richard tried to will the windows to disappear and only showed up when he focused his gaze on the intended object. Fortunately, it worked just fine, making him feel slightly more comfortable.
"So…" Richard squeezed some words out of his mouth as he was rubbing his glabella to lessen the headache. "Can I see my information too?"
[Yes. Exclusive for the host, you just need to think of it in your mind and your status window will show up in front of you.]
"Alright."
Instantly, a status window popped up before Richard's eyes.
---
Name: Richard Smith
Age: 22
Total Asset: $1,550 (cash+saving)/ $0 (no property)
Strength: 7 (Ordinary people, including athletes, peak at 10)
Intelligent: 7 (Ordinary people, including scientist and researchers, peak at 10)
Charm: 9 (Ordinary people, including celebrities and model, peak at 10)
Luck: 5 (Ordinary people peak at 10)
Skill: Art Appraisal Lv.1, Cooking Lv.1, Driving Lv.1
MC: 100 Credits
Evaluation: Handsome dude, slightly better than hobo. Why don't you just munch up to rich cougars? Having sugar momma is better than having nothing at all.
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