At the start of the New Year in 2018, the first thing Li Yichen heard was a ding that rang in his mind. As he woke up to the sound of the system, he heard the howling snow. Looking outside, he saw the white and pure snow. Yawning, he started to stretch to wake himself up.
While doing so, he heard a knock. Clicking out of the system that woke him up, he called out toward the door.
"Come in."
Watching the door open, Li Yichen readily got out of bed. His older sister walked into his room and threw him a bottle of frozen water. He looked at it, confused, and back up at her, just as confused.
"What is this?"
"Your gift. Happy birthday."
"A frozen water bottle?"
"It's the thing inside. I found it while I was out shopping in a vintage store. Although I don't know why it is frozen or in a bottle, just wait for it to melt."
"But what is inside?"
"That's the surprise, idiot."
Leaving his room, Yichen put the frozen water bottle on his desk and left the room, his sister trying to ask more questions despite receiving no reply.
After freshening up, he went downstairs to the kitchen to have breakfast with his family. While walking down, he smelt steamed buns and walked faster, drool pooling in his mouth. Going down the kitchen, he saw the buns on the table and water to the side. With the steamed buns, he saw the sight of rice and delicate meat. Smelling and practically tasting it, he went to his seat at the table. Sitting down and stuffing his mouth, he saw his sister and his father watching him. His sister started to speak. She asked him,
"Are you going out with your friends again?"
With a mouth full of food, Li Yichen nodded. In a hurry, he stuffed his mouth. At the same time, his mother came in, chuckling at the sight. Looking up at his mother, he saw her radiating smile. Slowing down and no longer stuffing his face, he finished eating more slowly.
While he hurried and washed the dishes, he secretly opened the system to check the notifications from the morning. Seeing the notification, he saw that it was a quest. It was a message from the system telling him to finish regaining his shattered memories. Sighing, he hurriedly put the dishes away and the utensils up.
He grabbed his coat and scarf and got ready to go outside, trying to ignore the system's messages. He grabbed his things and a snack from the drawer and said goodbye to his mother. Waving at her, he started to walk toward the road in the distance. He hurried along the road beside the sidewalk as fast as he could.
At the park, he saw the snow and the pond that was frozen solid. Walking toward the bridge in the park, he saw his friend, Bai Zhongshu. Walking up to him trying to surprise him, he turned around and started to sprint toward Yichen. Jumping backward, Yichen tried to dodge him.
Failing to dodge, he fell to the ground covered in snow with him. Slightly dizzy, he looked back up at his best friend. Yichen saw Zhongshu reach out his hand to help him stand up. Sighing, he grabbed his hand and stood up.
Wiping the snow off his pants and looking back at Zhongshu, he saw the proud smile on his face. He started to look around to see if his other friends were there and asked Zhongshu,
"Where is everyone?"
"Did you forget that they said they weren't coming? They got sick, both of them."
"Seriously? We already planned on building snowmen and making snow angels though."
He sat on the snow and started to ponder on what he would do now. Sitting next to Zhongshu on the snow, he started to grab the snow around him. He started to make snowballs. Seeing in the corner of Yichen's eyes, he noticed that and slowly moved away as he prepared his batch of snowballs.
"Hahahaha, not far enough"
Hearing that, Yichen looked up and saw a fast, white, circular figure speeding through the air. Then the snow slammed into his face. Feeling the cold tension of the snow, he shivered, his face turning red from the cold he started to sniffle. He looked back at Zhongshu and threw a snowball at him.
"Hahaha, I got you! Sweet revenge!"
Grabbing another snowball from his pile, Zhongshu threw another snowball at Yichen. Seeing the snowball coming toward him he ducked down to hide his face, the snowball barely missing him. He grabbed the snow, preparing to chuck it at Zhongshu. While seeing how big the snowball was, Zhongshu stood up, trying to convince Yichen to not throw it at him.
"Wait. Wait! No, don't."
Hitting him in the face, the snowball fell and hit the ground. Looking at Yichen, both of them became quiet. Yichen saw a smirk from Zhongshu. It was a death stare.
"You. Are. So. Dead."
Zhongshu grabbed a handful of snow and threw it at Yichen. Freezing from the snow, he shivered and sneezed. Laughing at each other, they both started to grab more snow to make snowballs and throw them at each other.
Adding to the pile of winter activities, they made snow angels while laughing at how much each of them had been covered in snow while shivering.
Almost forgetting the system, Yichen heard the ding and saw the screen in front of him, trying to ignore the system he shooed it away. He muttered in his voice,
"Let me have some fun on my birthday. I don't want to deal with you at the moment."
[Let me say Happy Birthday then! (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻]
[I have a gift, for your birthday, of course.]
"Can I open it later?"
[No. It is important and you have a quest to finish!]
"A quest to finish?"
[You can do the quest later, but please open my present!]
"After I get home I'll open it then."
Standing up, he walked to Zhongshu and reached out his hand. Smiling at him, Zhongshu grabbed his hand and stood up.
"Is this also your payback from before?"
"Was it that obvious?"
"Yes."
Laughing once more, they went back to playing in the snow. Building snowmen and making snow bunnies, the time went on for a while before they got tired and worn out.
Seeing the sun slowly setting, he went to Zhongshu. Zhongshu took a gift from his pocket and gave it to Yichen, smiling as he bent down, grabbed a handful of snow, and threw it into the air. The beautiful scene of the snow falling while the sun slowly set gave him a breathtaking view. Zhongshu walked up to Yichen and spoke with a bountiful smile,
"Happy birthday Yichen!"
Returning the smile he was given, Yichen gave a big thanks and a hug.
After waving goodbye to each other, Zhongshu started to walk back home first. Watching the scene of his friend walking away and staring at his back, Yichen chuckles. Finally, he opened the system that was bothering him the whole day.
[Open. My. Gift. (‵□′)╯]
"What's the gift?"
[It's a Surprise. (￣Д￣)ﾉ]
Opening the system and checking out the menu for the gift, he clicked on the option 'Open Gift'. After clicking the option, he saw a bright light before him. Looking away from the light, he tried to cover his eyes. After a bit, the light dimmed and he looked back at the screen before him.
[Ring of Fragments of Distant Stars]
-Strength: + 20
-Stealth: + 10
-Hp +40
-Knowledge +30
-Charm: + 10
[Did you like it?☆*:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆]
Seeing the shocking artifact bestowed upon him by the system, he looked at it with awe. He tried to wipe his eyes to see if he was seeing the stats of the artifact wrong. Seeing how nothing changed, he pinched his cheeks to check if he was dreaming.
"Ouch!"
Touching his cheeks that were aching, he looked back at the system unable to say anything.
This is crazy.
He thought to himself, thanking the system for giving him such an amazing artifact. He smiled at the system with utmost gratitude. Seeing his smile, the system gave another message to Yichen saying that he appreciated his player's gratitude.
On his way back to his house, Yichen opened the quest that the system kept talking about while he was at the park.
[Quest]
Description: Obtain all your fragmented memories from the last regression.
Award:
-Knowledge: +10
-Hp +40
Walking through the snow, he noticed that the sun was setting. He looked at his watch, noticing the time was getting close to 7 in the afternoon. Feeling a bit uncomfortable, he felt that his intuition was telling him something was amiss.
He walked faster, trying to get to his house as fast as possible. Running, he barely reached the street corner to his house. Seeing his house so close, he let out a sigh, believing he was safe. Suddenly, he heard a sound from behind him, a loud thud. He was afraid to look back.
Yichen walked as fast as he could away from the house so that the person behind him would not know where he lived. Thinking that he was being chased by someone dangerous, he did not want him to know where he and his family were living.
Walking slowly to the next neighborhood two blocks over, he turned to the neighborhood and walked straight. Hearing the footsteps behind him get closer, he started to sprint toward a random house. Trying to ask for help, he ran up to the door and rang the doorbell in a panic.
With the doorbell ringing, he noticed a hand and a cloth in front of him that came from behind. Slowly losing consciousness, his body drooped and everything turned black.
The man with black hair and drooping eyes, wearing all black, held onto the boy and started carrying him into a van. Without being noticed by anyone, the man took him and drove away.
As the car was driving away, the door opened in response to the doorbell rang by Yichen. The old man looked around in confusion and closed the door, seeing how no one was outside.
While the man was driving the van Yichen was woken up by a ding from the system.
[Are you crazy? How did you get kidnapped for the first 12 years after regressing?╭(°A°`)╮]
[Wake up! (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`)]
Noticing the ding, Yichen saw the system within the darkness of the van. Although the van was dark, it was not completely pitch black. He could hear the road and the sound of cars swirling around him. In A panic, he tried to move, realizing his arms and legs were tied up. He tried to scream so someone could hear him.
Hearing himself only mumbling, he realized that he had been kidnapped and the kidnapper had taped his mouth and tied him up. Unable to do anything, he became scared. Thinking back to when he was alone in space, he felt the darkness to be familiar. Thinking back on it, he remembered the messages that had popped up and woken him.
Trying to open the system to reply, he heard another ding. Seeing the ding, he notices a message. It was the system asking if he was ok and being more considerate of him. Seeing the system was functioning as it always was, he relaxed a little bit. Trying to signal the system to help him see the surroundings, he looks around and looks back at it.
The system realized this and sent another message, trying to help him out.
[My functions changed when you turned 12, so I can't read your thoughts anymore.]
[So I have an idea. Nod for yes and shake your head for no!]
[Do you want to use me as a light so you can see?]
Seeing how the system was trying to help, he nodded his head and tried to face the direction that the light from the system shined in. Seeing this, the system shined the blue light in that direction. Seeing the dark mirror light up, he saw a man on the other side. He thought to himself, this must have been the person who kidnapped him. Distraught, he couldn't think of any way to escape.
Looking at the system, he tried to give a hint that he needed a way to escape the rope that had tied him up. Looking at the system, he looked down at his hand quickly. The system also noticed this and wondered why he was doing that.
[What are you doing? ( ･᷄ὢ･᷅ )]
Sighing, he tried once again by looking at his tied feet and hands while muffled. The system started to think once more and not give a reply. Yichen, almost losing hope, heard a sound from the black window of the car. Suddenly, the car stopped. Hearing the car had stopped, he saw a light from inside of the car. The man who had kidnapped him had shown himself.
Noticing the vehicle sounds around him before disappeared, he became worried.
Once he noticed these changes, he became scared of what might happen to him. His mind racing and his heart pounding, he heard the ding once more in his mind. Looking toward the direction the light from the system had come from, he saw a message
[Knife of Cosmic Wolfbane Claw has been added to your inventory temporarily.]
[Quest]
Description: Escape and eliminate the man who had kidnapped "Player Abyss"
Clear: Aura of Abyss
Knife of Cosmic Wolfbane claw
Strength +10
Hp +40
Stealth +20
Failure: Death
What? Eliminate and Escape? Does that mean I have to kill him?