What Cyril expected to see inside the room was a surgery table with a few doctors and nurses standing around with their masks, gloves, and other safety precautions on.
What he did not expect was a single man standing in front of a desk. In his hand was a machine that so much resembled a barcode reader he had seen in department stores on the television.
The man did look like a man in stores who collects bills.
'Is this the man that will put a chip in my head? Are these people serious? What if something happens to me?' Cyril was dumbfounded.
He opened his lips to speak but the man in front of him did not give him a chance, "Move fast. Don't dilly-dally here."
He casually caught Cyril's hand, pulled him towards him, pointed the machine in his hand towards Cyril's neck in the back, and pressed the 'trigger'.
A beep sounded, and the man said, "Done. Leave now."
"..." 'Huh? Done? There is a chip in my head right now?'
"What does this do?" He asked the man.
The man looked irritated at being questioned, "What a nuisance. It is just a chip that everyone in the prison has. It will give you your system according to your strengths. Now get out. Don't waste my precious time here."
The man even waved his hand in disgust.
"..." 'So this is how it feels to be waved at? I was the one doing this all these years.' Cyril thought to himself in sadness.
His eyes then fell on the 'barcode reader' in the man's hands and felt that he was suddenly inside a sci-fi movie.
But what would this chip do to him? He did not know.
He did not feel any changes in him until now.
He slowly walked out of the room from the other door and saw the bunch of people who were in front of him in the line earlier were all sitting there in random places.
Looks like they were getting used to the changes in their bodies.
[Hello, user.
Ready to start?
Yes No ]
Suddenly, a few words appeared in front of his eyes.
Is this the 'system' they were talking about?
'Should I have this thing? I want to say no.'
-No-
[Ha ha. Nice try, user. You don't have the right to say no. Selecting yes.]
'...' 'If I don't have the right, why did you show me the option, you stupid system?'
Of course, the system did not reply.
He saw a few circles moving around as if the system was calculating something and preparing his data.
It was taking a while, and he wouldn't stand all this while. So, he, too, selected a random place and sat down like all the others.
In the meantime, he saw Rian walking towards him, and he waved his hand to call him over.
Rian smiled brightly, "Cyril. Damn, man. I didn't expect inserting a chip to be that easy. I was scared for nothing. Ha ha."
'I feel you,' Cyril thought to himself and nodded.
Well, he wouldn't act as silly as Rian was anyway.
"So? What do we do next? What is everyone doing?" Rian asked, as his system did not appear yet, and he did not understand what everyone was doing.
"Wait. Your system will appear and it will start." Cyril said whatever he had understood so far.
"Oh? Oh! Yes, I see it now. Can I select no?" He suddenly cheered happily like a little kid.
"Calm down, will you? Even if you select no, the system will take a yes." Cyril said in a flat voice. It was his way of showing his disappointment towards the system.
[Your stats are ready, dear user. Do you want to see them?
Yes No ]
'Stop asking these yes or no questions if you won't take one of the options,' Cyril's lips twitched, but he still selected an option.
-Yes-
[Showing stats]
[Name: Cyril Carcer
Age: 26
Previous identity: Heir to Carcer Enterprises.
Current identity: Yet to be received.
.
.
.]
'What do you mean by yet to be received? What am I until I receive my identity? I am nothing?' Cyril had another monologue all on his own against the system, but the system couldn't hear his questions anyway.
After a long session of his monologue, Cyril continued to study his stats again.
[.
.
Current identity: Yet to be received.
Level: 66
Physical strength: 0
Stamina: 10
Favorability: 25
Work points: 0
Experience: 0
.
.
.
Intelligence: 280
.
.]
There is a long list of stats and all of their values were 0 and nothing more.
The only noticeable stats were his level and intelligence.
Since the big guy said that the ward was full of level 20 or below, Cyril was mentally prepared to have a single-digit level in his account. He had never expected him to exceed that until 66. He did not know what he had done to gain such a high level, but he was happy with what he had.
When he saw all his stats in small numbers, he slowly got dispirited, but then he saw his intelligence in three digits and was shocked.
'Well, I am intelligent, to begin with. So, this shouldn't be shocking, right?' He thought to himself.
He saw his physical strength was zero and stamina was ten and did not know how to feel.
He was now in a weird prison where he didn't know what he had to do later to survive, and he had such low stamina and strength? How should he survive?
With just his intelligence?
Well, that wouldn't be a bad idea either.
He then saw that his favorability points were twenty-five and fell into a deep thought.
'How were these points calculated? How were all my other points almost zero but my favorability twenty-five?'
He was not narcissistic enough to think that everyone loved him in his life and that was why he got so much favorability.
He slowly understood that all these points were actually calculated from the time he was kidnapped or, to be more precise, from the moment he entered this prison.
If that was the case, then these favorability points should have been obtained because of the big guy's 'fight scene' earlier.
He noticed that most of the spectators liked him after what happened, even though he did not understand the reason.
So he received these twenty-five favorability points because of all the people who liked him there?
As he thought, he slowly turned around and looked at Rian beside him. He was suddenly shocked by what he saw.