Chereads / System: Become More Than Human / Chapter 18 - Chapter 18 - Daily Quest

Chapter 18 - Chapter 18 - Daily Quest

System Initialization - 100%

Daily quests will now be assigned for physical enhancement (1/2)

Bewildered, Alex fell backward when he saw the holographic message.

'What the heck is this!' he exclaimed, waving his hand through the message, but surprisingly, his hand went through the message, leaving it undisturbed.

After staring at it for a few minutes, Alex noticed that the message was not going away.

'Umm, before all of this, I would have said that this is my imagination, but I don't think it is anymore since all this crazy stuff has been happening to me.'

Alex tried swiping his hand from top to bottom, left to right, anything he could think of to remove the message. After a while, he gave up.

'I'm sure this thing will go away eventually. What is a system anyway? What quests? And what is 1/2? Is there a second part? But I didn't receive anything? It would be cool, though, if this was similar to a game, with it giving me cool quests like hunting beasts or punching a tree 10 times or escort quests'

"Does this have to do with me reaching level 3 in I.Zombie? Or is it because I spoke to the ring?" Alex thoughtfully asked himself.

"Hey Ring, can you show me what the daily quest is?" he said, holding his thumb up and speaking to it as if it were a microphone. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened.

As Alex was in the middle of his thoughts, his stomach started growling, and he also needed to use the washroom. "Gotta pee, gotta eat. I'm going to use the washroom first; then I can eat the last piece of meat I stored in the mini-fridge."

As soon as Alex finished using the washroom, he - very - carefully flushed the toilet, then went to wash his hands. As he was washing his hands, Alex thought to himself, 'Wash well, Alex, just like mama used to always say. Get in between the fingers, twice over.'

As Alex was doing this, he rubbed the soap over his thumb and the ring that's still attached to it, and suddenly the message went away!

"Wait a second…what just happened? Where did the message go? Did I lose the quest? But I never received anything?" Alex yelled in surprise, with a mix of anger.

"I didn't do anything other than wash my hands!" As Alex kept thinking, he soon realized that he did indeed touch his ring a few times while washing.

'Could it be that the ring itself is some sort of an interface to the message I saw? What if I tried rubbing it all over again, like a genie in a bottle?'

'Come here, message, message, come here,' he kept repeating as if calling out to a dog, all the while continuing to rub the ring. And as soon as he did a full clockwise rub over the ring, the next message appeared!

"Daily Quest (1)

Complete 10 pushups

Complete 10 situps

Complete 100 squats"

"YES, THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! Holy crap, this is SO COOL!" Alex shouted in excitement. He could barely contain himself. Barely looking over the details of his quest, he thought this is so easy!

'I can easily do these! 10 pushups, 10 situps, 10 squats!' I've never done squats before, but how hard can 10 be?' Alex completely forgot about eating at this point, got out of the bathroom, and went to his bedroom.

He got down on his hands and knees and started to do pushups.

1/10 2/10 ... 10/10

"System Update:

Daily Quest - 10 Pushups completed."

"Amazing, this is so amazing - and that was super easy. I guess my upper body strength is really good for someone my age; that's probably why the ring thought it would be a good challenge for me, but little did it know that I'm overpowered as heck!" Alex thought, grinning widely.

'Next, it's situps.' 1/10 2/10 ... 10/10

"System Update:

Daily Quest - 10 Situps completed."

"I'm freaking amazing. I wish there were 10 daily quests! Well, I guess then it wouldn't be called a daily quest; it would be more like a chain quest, haha. Man, I can't wait to finish the 10 squats and see my reward; it's probably going to be something amazing,"

Alex continued to shout, adrenaline pumping through every part of his body. But then an annoying thought came to him.

'Actually, wait, why am I assuming there will even be a reward? What if the reward is just the act of doing the exercise itself? Something stupid like "it's not about the outcome, but the journey itself is the reward" or something silly like 'Here's a piece of meat for your trouble.'

'Egh, I would be so disappointed!'

Alex kept thinking. 'But what if I get some sort of status point or something? Wait, is there even a reward? What happens if I don't do these in the first place? Man, someone did not think of this quest system when designing it; there's literally no information.'

Unbeknownst to Alex, he had asked so many questions that someone wiser would have asked as soon as they saw the quest in the first place. Questions such as, 'What is this system? How is this even real? Why is it giving him a quest? Did someone actually design it? Why did it choose Alex? And what is this ring?'

But Alex, being a 10-year-old and easily distracted, did not even ponder anything. His mind wasn't really even thinking when he saw the first message.

He was just so happy to have a system like those he often had in games or read in books.

'Alright, let's finish this up! 10 squats should be a walk in the park. I think a squat is when you stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, toes slightly turned out. Lower your body down and back, as if sitting into a chair, while keeping your chest up and spine straight. Bend your knees until they reach a 90-degree angle or as low as you can comfortably go, ensuring your knees don't go past your toes. Then, push through your heels to return to the standing position.'

Alex has always had a great memory when he wanted to remember something, and this was something he learned during one of his gym classes.

Getting into position, he started. 1/10 2/10 ... 5/10

"Man, I'm getting tired! This is so much tougher than I thought. Are my legs really weak? I was able to beat Dash during the speed test, and he was supposedly one of the fastest candidates, so how come I'm struggling so much with squats?" Alex exclaimed loudly, while lying on his back and breathing heavily.

'Is it because of my upper body weight? That would make sense since I'm technically lifting myself up, and since I'm so darn strong, it's a bit tough hehehe.' Alex mused.

Okay, let's get this done!' 6/10 ... 10/10

'Phew, finally done!' Exhausted, Alex lay on his back, waiting on the quest complete message, but it never came…

"Huh, did it stop working? Hey Ring, don't be a cheapskate and give me a reward!" Alex said while holding on to his thumb and talking into it.

After a few minutes, he started to think. 'How do I even bring up my system progress?' Alex started fiddling with his ring, and as soon as he rubbed it clockwise, the holographic system appeared.

Quest Progress: Daily Quest (1)

Pushups 10/10 complete

Situps 10/10 complete

Squats 10/100

Alex's eyes nearly popped out of his head. '100? Does that really say 100 squats? There are two zeroes?? There's no way!!! This is impossible! Give me a break, Ring!'

Alex never actually read the details carefully, and he failed to notice that it said 100 squats instead of 10!

'I didn't notice this, I can't believe it… I just did 10, and I'm already exhausted.'

"Are you trying to turn me into some kind of squatting champion?" Alex complained, getting into the habit of holding his thumb while talking at the ring.

"You know what, I never liked you in the first place! I knew something is definitely wrong with you. What the heck even are you??" Alex kept complaining for the next 5 minutes, but eventually, even that tired him out.

'No use complaining huh... Who am I even complaining to? Man, I'm losing my mind. This is going to suck...'