When Jaden was young, his dreams were rather unusual for a child. Other kids would declare they would be doctors or astronauts. Jaden would not.
He would scream to anyone who would bother to listen: "When I'm a grown-up, I won't work even a minute of overtime! I'll always leave the office on time!"
When he became a teenager, it seemed everyone suddenly wanted to stand out. Jaden just wanted to blend in. Always finish his assignments on time, never skip school. Don't be too boring, don't be too exciting. That was what he told himself every day.
He never expected to be an important person, he never even wanted to be. His decision was firm: better to live a long life than a short and glorious one.
So why was the universe completely against him!?
God Emperor? Destroy the world??
Count him out!
This golden-eyed Emperor was Jaden's complete opposite. Everything he never wanted to be was standing right before him, smiling with shark-like teeth.
So why was Jaden the one with the system?
He cleared his throat. "What exactly do you mean by: destroy the world? It wouldn't hurt to be a bit more specific."
The emperor only yawned. "You only had two questions. Figure it out yourself." He lay down, but then changed his mind. He sat up and stared right at Jaden. "And don't think you've got away so easily. I shall take back my system…another day." He finally lay down and began to snore loudly.
Who would serve an emperor like that, Jaden had no idea. He wasn't about to stick around to find out.
That trip home felt like the longest trip home of his entire life.
His home was familiar, warm and ordinary. But he just couldn't relax. He found himself peeking around corners, under the bed, worried a monster was going to jump at him.
What was he becoming??
Jaden collapsed onto his bed, simply exhausted. He couldn't live like this any longer. He didn't want to fight any more monsters, and he wanted nothing to do with the end of the world.
Simply ignoring his system wasn't working. It seemed that his system was not a fan of that idea.
Give the system back to Emperor Zil? Zil seemed to think it was possible, although he had completely failed. As much as Jaden didn't want his system himself, he somehow didn't want to see the smug look on the Emperor's face.
He also had a feeling Zil was on board with the whole destroy the world idea. He'd rather keep the world nice and not destroyed, thank you very much!
That left…
…
He was out of options.
Jaden had no more idea. He decided to try one last thing. He pulled out his computer and typed out: 'how to get rid of a system'. He expected no results, but to his surprise something came up.
"An Analysis of the Appearance and Disappearance of Systems, Focusing on the Interactions of Fighting and Healing Systems."
It was a scientific article published by a "Dr. Vihaan Malik". Jaden couldn't understand a word it said, it was way too complicated. But it was something.
Dr. Vihaan Malik apparently worked at the training facility in the Philippines.
He lived in the United States! He worked a 9 to 5 job! How the hell was he supposed to get to the Philippines?
In frustration, he threw his coat to the floor. Something came flying out of the pocket. Something white, that floated slowly to the ground like a feather.
No way. A terrible idea.
Sofia's phone number lay on the ground, tempting him.
This would be a horrible mistake.
Sofia was sure to be very familiar with the facility in the Philippines.
She also obviously wanted to become very familiar with Jaden!
Jaden was sure he was about to make the number 1 mistake of his life. His current number 1 mistake was handing in his yearly report late and missing out on a raise.
This was much, much worse.
The phone began to ring. It rang once. Would she even pick up? It rang twice. He wished he had never thought of this idea.
Then the call connected.
"Hello, is this Sofia Jensen? You gave me your number."
…
"Kyah~!"
Did he hear that right!? Was there a 'kyah' on the other end? He must be hearing things.
"Is this Sofia? This is Jaden, I wanted to ask you something."
Jaden could hear some muffled sounds on the other end.
"Sofia speaking. How may I assist you?"
A voice cold as ice once more!
It was now or never. Jaden said carefully: "I have been having an interest in systems recently. I don't have one myself of course, but I really want to visit the training facility in the Philippines. Do you know any way I could?"
If one could ever detect a note of fluster in a voice sharper than knives, it would be now. "I am returning there tomorrow. It would be very inconvenient to my plans if you were to come along. However, I have no interest in fighting against you. Since you really are insisting, I will be at the airport at 8AM tomorrow."
There was a sharp click, and that was it. She had hung up.
He really hadn't insisted. Did this woman consider asking a question to be starting a fight?
This trip was a mess and it hadn't even started yet!