Patty opened his eyes and felt as refreshed as ever. He felt as energized as if he had just woken up from a 10 hour sleep on a saturday morning with no school. He did have an odd dream about a homing missile or a meteor or something else falling towards him.
As he got his bearings, he saw an unfamiliar room. The general color of the room was green. The walls were painted green, the couch and table beside him was in a shade of green just a little bit lighter than the color of the walls. The paintings on the wall were abstract work with brush strokes of mostly green. Most of all, the room was clean. Too clean. It was as if every corner of the room was doused with disinfectant alcohol.
This was not his house.
Given that he didn't know the color of the walls in his own house, it definitely didn't look as large as this room. Even the white bed he was lying on had a bed frame and the sheets were freshly laundered. This was not his house.
He wasn't even wearing his own clothes. He distinctly remembered only wearing his school uniform because he was too lazy to change. Now, he was wearing a white gown that–Patty looks down under the sheets–yep, it didn't include underwear.
And the final clue was the large rectangular glass window on the right wall. It almost took over the entire wall. With this window, he could see a giant heart sculpture made out of white marble that had real steel chains wrapped around it. There was no base and the sculpture was floating in mid-air.
This was not made by normal humans. This was especially evident by the strange prismatic aura that surrounded each and every crevice. The entire spectrum of light twinkled like diamonds on the arteries, veins, and cavities of the heart, like it was blessed by the universe itself.
But that was not the strangest thing of all. Right in front of Patty's eyes was a floating screen made out of translucent black light that seemed to follow his head movements. He moved his head to the right, and the screen followed him like it was imprinted on his very eyes.
He started to read the big title on the top of the screen
"THE LAZ–"
RING RING
Patty looked to the right and saw that his phone was on a table just beside the bed. It was vibrating just beside the base of a lamp. He looked at the screen and saw someone familiar calling him.
"What's up Sam?"
"What's up?! Dude you almost died!"
"I did? Oh, this must be the hospital then…"
"...YEAH! Where do you think you were?"
Patty looked around the room again and understood why it was mostly green. The color was supposed to have a calming and cooling effect on its patients because green was mostly associated with nature and harmony.
"The paramedics found you lying on the floor with a burning fever. Literally. Your body had second degree burns and the first responders had to wear gloves because your body was too hot to handle. What happened to you?"
"A meteor fell on my head."
Meteor, Teqx, same thing. Patty was sure that Sam would ask a whole ton of questions and wouldn't stop bothering him if he told the true story. Especially with the ominous screen never leaving his sight.
"What? Are you sure? Nobody saw anything like that and I'm sure the authorities would have easily destroyed a meteor before it even got close to our world."
That was true. Because of how fast the 'meteor' fell on his head, Patty forgot to think about the government and how they would have intervened before things got catastrophic. It wouldn't even be hard. The Supreme Beings wouldn't even have to act. It would only take some martial artist to punch the air and destroy the meteor into a million little pieces.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure a meteor fell on my head."
"Hmm…you must have been seeing things because of your fever. It was probably a firecracker that somehow crashed through your house because of some freak accident. It was probably a guy who got too happy after getting his internship. I swear, people just get really reckless when they celebrate. Thank the Supreme Beings that your neighbor heard glass shattering and decided to call the police."
Patty looked at his body and saw that he looked like an egyptian mummy. His whole body was wrapped around in bandages. He touched his face and felt cotton stuck on his entire face, leaving only holes in his nose and eyes.
"I heard you're going to be hospitalized for a week because of your burns. What are you going to do for the physicality tests this week? You know how important that is right?" Sam asked with concern. "Of course you don't."
"The physicality test is an exam that will occur every year that examines the capabilities of the student. It tests their stamina, strength, speed, and agility. This is a benchmark test that most organizations, corporations, and especially dojos, look at when they sift through thousands and thousands of applicants. They will take one look at your physicality tests, see that you skipped the exam, and throw your application in the trash.
Don't you know that physical attributes are important because in order to achieve dreams, you don't just need to have determination and resilience–you also need strength. On the road to the top, you would have to defeat fellow dreamers and monsters," Sam explained.
"..."
"Hey! Are you listening to me?"
"..."
"You're celebrating aren't you? The only word you heard from that was 'hospitalized for a week' didn't you?"
"No I'm not," Patty said as he stopped pumping his fist.
Sam sighed at his helpless best friend. "Look, you have to work hard for your future like I am. It's not like you'll be given a Teqx by the universe for doing nothing."
"...that's exactly what happened."
"What?"
"Nothing, it's an inside joke."
"...Anyway, if you had gotten out of the house and joined any internship, qualifications, interviews, you probably would have gotten a good Teqx and been set up for life. Instead, you almost died."
Patty's only reply to that was…"eh, better than a 2 minute walk."
BIP BIP
Sam finally ended the call, leaving Patty alone in the hospital room. He finally had time to deal with the elephant in the room, or more exactly, the screen in the room. Even as he had the conversation with Sam, his eyes never left the strange translucent box that bore the words…
THE LAZY SYSTEM
Those were the words that were at the top of the screen. Below it seemed to be different menus that he could access. The first one was titled: STATS
Seeing that the screen looked like any other electronic monitor, Patty got the idea to raise his hand and touch this translucent box like it was a touchscreen. And with bated breath, he touched the STATS menu
Like magic, the screen changed and showed a shadow of a man in the middle, with numbers that pointed to his body parts.
[Name: Patrick "Patty" Patterson]
[Energy: 100/100]
[Physique]
[Head: 1/100 - +]
[Left Arm: 1/100 - +]
[Right Arm: 1/100 - +]
[Torso: 1/100 - +]
[Left Leg: 1/100 - +]
[RIght Leg: 1/100 - +]
Judging from the screen, it seemed that those numbers were the numerical value of his respective body parts. Knowing that his daily routine was laying in bed and watching television while eating junk food, it wasn't surprising to see.
That was just one of the menus in this 'system'. Patty's eyes wandered over to the next menu after STAT and saw that it was CULTIVATION. Was that some kind of way to take care of some plants, Patty thought.
With curiosity fueling him, Patty raised his arm and eyed the CULTIVATION menu. But just as he was about to touch it, a new smaller box suddenly appeared in front of the system
[Congratulations! You have accessed the system for the first time! You have been awarded 10 Yi power]
Yi Power? What was that, Patty thought. He didn't know what thing he was given, but by exploring this system, he would hopefully find out what it was. So, he decided to ignore it for now. But then, another box appeared and replaced the new one.
[Congratulations! You have signed-in for Day 1! You have been rewarded 20 Yi Power]
Another reward of this Yi Power stuff. Even if he didn't know what this stuff was for, it was good to know that at least the system wasn't shy in giving him rewards. And judging from the wording of that last congratulations, he would also be given another reward on the second day.
A reward for doing nothing, this exactly what I want, Patty thought.
Suddenly, he had a guess that this Yi Power could be used to upgrade his body parts. After all, there was a + and - sign beside the body parts, indicating that he could add or subtract his strength. With this thought, he decided to test it out. But just as he was about to…
CREAK
The door opened and a female nurse came in, with the signature book and pen in her hands. Her black hair was woven into a bun and hidden in her white nurse cap, giving her a clean and a professional look. She noticed that Patty was awake and gave him a surprised smile.
"Good thing you're awake. We thought you wouldn't wake up till 3 days later given how severe your burns were."
"Yeah, good thing." Damn. Bad thing, Patty thought. He wished that he was still asleep for three days so he would have missed school on monday.
"I'm just going to check your vitals and your burns to see if it's good. But judging how you aren't screaming in pain right now, I would guess that you're fine," she joked. She went over on the foot of his bed and took a piece of paper from it.
Patty saw the outlines of the words behind it and saw that it had numbers and medical jargon that he couldn't understand. He guessed that it was about his current health. He relaxed. He actually hoped that his health would be worse so that he would be stuck in the hospital for more than one week.
And judging from the nurse's furrowed brows, it seemed there was a problem with his health.
"What is it, nurse? Do I have to stay here for longer than one week?"
She looked at Patty and her eyes stayed at him. "You were supposed to be here for one week, given your burns. But from what I'm looking at here…"
Patty crossed his fingers for the good news.
"Looks like you can go home today."
WHAT?!
—-----------------
In the dead of night, when no eyes wake and no ears perked, a shadow tensely glided through corner to corner and from lamp post to lamp post. It moved with no creak and no groan.
When it was sure that it's coast was clear, it showed its true self. The shadow morphed until it turned out that this shadow was no shadow at all. It was a person with dark skin-tight clothes, and out from behind him came multiple others.
They sifted through building to building, surveying it with intensity as if they had to find something that their lives depended on.
Finally, they came across a small house squished in between two larger apartment buildings. It had only one door and one window.
The man who stood taller with a bigger stature stopped and looked around. As he sniffed the air, he said–
"It landed somewhere here…"