Tap tap tap
In a small apartment, consecutive typing sounds can be heard.
The whole room is mostly absent of light, only being lit up by a bright computer screen atop a study desk.
"Enemy double kill!" A mechanical female voice sounded from the screen.
Hearing this, a black haired young man that is causing the typing sounds earlier panicked as he moved his character away from the enemy.
His forearm muscle tensed as he moved away his character skillfully, his slightly arched back leaning forward and closer to the screen.
While doing this, his tanky character on the screen skillfully avoided incoming projectiles from other enemies.
However, as he tried to move away his character, he noticed the white ping indicator on the top left screen gradually turned red.
"Guys, Wait! I am lagging!" After seeing the lag indicator, he used a teleportation rune to escape the battlefield and shouted at his teamates using the protruding microphone of his headset, just under his chin.
The next moment, he noticed his character returning to its initial position where he just teleported away, indicating lag!
"Enemy triple kill!"
As the young man heard the mechanical female voice again, his tanky character stopped moving and died on the spot, making his screen a bit dimmer.
He even saw the enemy painting the ground with a temporary sticker, "Stupid! Uwu!"
Bang!
Seeing this, he smashed his keyboard, making the keys detach and fly away!
Thud thud
Pencils and pens rolled across the wooden study desk and fell down on the carpet floor.
After making fun of him, the enemy, alone by himself, continued on his way killing the two remaining allies.
"Genocide!" The mechanical voice sounded again, but louder than before. This is the sound that is both heavenly and hell-like for the players of this RPG game; indicating five consecutive kills within sixty seconds…
Heavenly if it came from your teammate's consecutive kills, but hell-like if it came from the enemy.
The black haired young man looked at his respawn timer, and felt despair take over his body as he clenched his right fist that is holding a computer mouse.
203 seconds…
The enemy players continued to attack the remaining towers, leaving only the last, but the most important tower in the game.
"Lol intro" One of the enemy with a 0 12 2 KDA sent in the chatbox.
"Cry" Another one said with a similar KDA.
"Are you guys bots?" The player who got [Genocide] title also said in the chatbox.
Seeing these mocking , all of the black haired youth's teammates gritted their teeth in anger, unable to say anything.
They just stood around the last tower, and when the black haired youth's respawn timer reached 10 seconds, they immediately ended the game with incessant attack on the last tower.
"Destroyed…"
A desolate and sad voice sounded from the computer speaker, indicating the lost of his team.
The black haired young man felt ashamed that he didn't lower the computer audio volume, thinking that the neighbours would make fun of him.
"Why is it so laggy?! "He shouted in anger, as he clicked the ping indicator that now turned white again, indicating good connection.
He then returned to the lobby where you can start another game along with other 4 players.
"Vencel! why you didn't help us?!" Angry and deep voice sounded, while an echo icon appeared on one of his teammate's avatar.
After hearing this, the black haired young man, Vencel, gritted his teeth and retorted,
"I was lagging dude!"
"Shut up! Look at your ping! It's white, unlike our ping, color green!" The same guy shouted in anger, making Vencel's ear numb.
"I carried you! I am the f**cking MVP!" Vencel angrily shouted back.
"F**k you!" The guy saw the scores and can't retort any meaningful insult, he just cursed and left the game.
The other three teammates were silent, and just quietly listened to their "conversation."
"Guys, let's talk at school tommorow. I am leaving." Vencel said as he felt the awkward silence.
He turned off the computer by just pushing a button in the CPU, making the room darker.
He walked towards an outlet and flicked a switch near the outlet, lighting up the whole room.
Vencel felt the blinding light invading his eyes, and used his forearm to block the bulb from invading his eyes while also lowering his head.
After recovering from the blinding light, his eyes adjusted normally, and he saw the keys, pens, and pencils earlier, scattered throughout the floor.
He picked up all of it and reattached the keyboard pieces again.
It didn't take a lot of time reattaching it, and he placed the pens and pencils to a mesh looking holder.
He walked towards a closed sliding window and slid it to open.
Whoosh…
After he opened it, he felt a cold wind brush past against his average looking face.
He looked at the moon while thinking about something unknown.
He took a deep breath and felt the cold air of the night entering his chest.
After doing this for a full 10 minutes, he closed the window and walked towards his ordinary wooden bed covered with plastic used to prevent bed bugs' bite.
He then sat on it. Feeling the hard wood surface on his butt, he gradually leaned back and hit a pillow gently with his head.
"Hmmm."
His legs are on the floor, while his torso is on the wooden bed.
Feeling sleepy, he didn't change this uncomfortable position and just slept shortly after.
…
Vencel is an orphan who lost his parents after a car accident, leaving his 5 year old self to his grandma's care.
At 18 years of age, his grandma also died from a heart attack, leaving him all alone to fend for himself.
After his grandma died, he inherited money from his parents and grandma, but 5 percent of it was used for the burial of his grandmother, and 30 percent for debts.
After making a hard decision, he considered one of the things that his grandma said to him when she died, "Just sell our house when I die."
Being obedient, he earned quite a few from selling the house.
He is now a senior in high school, but he felt like taking a break soon. Although it is his promise to his grandma that he will finish his study, he felt overwhelmed by the unecessary tasks given by the teachers.
Thus, he wanted to just finish high school and not pursue college immediately.
Although he will stop academically, it doesn't mean he will not pursue college later on, he still long the respect of his peers.
It can be said that Vencel is average on almost every aspect, looks, intelligence, physique, and such.
However, if there is one thing that can be considered remarkable about him is that he has a system, albeit a latent one.
He doesn't even have any idea what to expect about the system as it never told him what he will awaken.
The system only said that once he reach the age of 20, it will use the energy of his body to awaken the system.
Tomorrow is his 20th birthday, but he forgot about it because of the school and stress earlier.
…
Zzzzzz zzz zzz…. Zzzz zzz zZZz… Zzz
An intermittently snoring Vencel was still stuck on the same position, legs on the floor and hanging by the wooden bed edge, whereas he laid his back on the wooden bed.
His legs are now feeling numb because of this uncomfortable position, but he couldn't careless as he is sleeping soundly.
On his right forearm, a cheap digital watch could be seen, indicating a measurement of time that is 11:59 pm.
Suddenly, it blinked and turned 12:00 am!
[Absorbing the host' energy to awaken the system!]
Vencel suddenly woke up because of an information pouring in his mind!
"F**k! It's the system's awakening," Vencel cursed as he forgot that it is actually his birthday.
He can see a floating and round hologram 20 inches away from his face, with a black vortex on the center.
Vencel saw small dark colored particles floating towards it slowly, the origin of which he can't see, because it seems like it is just below his feet.
To see the origin, he raised his torso forward using his arms and looked down below his legs.
"What the f**k was that?!" Vencel saw that he doesn't have any legs anymore, and he can see his legs turning into black particles and suddenly detaching away from his body, entering the vortex…
Vencel tried to move away, but he felt like he lost all control over his body.
Vencel can only watch as the vortex gradually ate his thighs!
'I know you are going to use the energy of my body, but I didn't know you will kill me!' Vencel can only think in his mind as he can't even move his tongue!
Suddenly, he felt pain on his hips as the vortex finished eating up his thighs!
'What should I do?!' Vencel felt like fainting because of the amount of pain that is he now feeling in his belly!
Moments later, only Vencel's head lasted…
His chin is now also being covered in black particles, that is slowly leaving detaching from other particles and getting eaten by the vortex.
Moment's later, his whole body is devoured by the vortex.
But the hologram just stayed there floating next to the wooden bed.
[Host's energy is not enough. The system need auxilliary energy source.]
The hologram turned spherical and spun a single time.
[Source found.]
The hologram approached the computer in the room and also ate it gradually using black particles.
After eating it, it approached an outlet and attempted to eat it up.
As the hologram ate it up, one can see sparks every once in a while, but those sparks will also just turn into a black particle.
It continued to eat up almost everything in the room including the watch, small freezer, batteries, bulbs, and such things.
After a while, when almost nothing was left in the room, a series of sounds emanated from the hologram with a mechanical voice.
[99.99 percent energy absorbed.]
[Finding energy source.]
[No energy source nearby found.]
[Absorbing the energy of the auxiliary system.]
Whoosh!
In an instant, the hologram collapsed on itself, leaving a dark and empty room behind.
…
Whoosh!
A bright hole in a colorless place expanded, throwing out the body of Vencel completely before shrinking into nothingness again.
"What the hell is this place?" Vencel shouted in panic because he found himself in a very unknown place.
This place can't be describe dark, nor very bright.
He felt like he is a completely blind person, trying to describe a color.
It's the same thing that one can see using their toes, nothing.
[Ding! Lag system awakened.]
[Click here to expand to learn more—->]
Suddenly, the same hologram ate him appeared, making him anxious.
He tried to move away from the hologram, but it just kept its distance 40 inches away from his face.
"Lag system?"
After contemplating whether to follow the system's guide, he finally decided to learn more about the Lag system.
'How do I click it if it just keep its distance away from me?' Vencel is confused by such a blunder by the system.
As if prompted, a cursor appeared on the hologram.
"A cursor, huh? Really? You think I can move it without a mouse?" Vencel almost laughed because of the system's stupidity, replacing the initial panic that he felt.
However the system didn't do anything.
When Vencel noticed that the system didn't reply, he focused on the hologram and tried to move it.
He saw the cursor moving to where he wanted to move it with no delays.
"Pretty cool…" Vencel was amazed by it, but still felt confused.
It is possible for the system to not just use cursor, but just make him interact with the interface with his brain.
"Is it connected to my brain?"
After all, it can move without any delays.