[Mission]
[Requirement: Spend Yi Power on any body part]
[Reward: 10 Yi Power]
Patty ignored the pop-up ad from the system. He couldn't care less about this new mission and the reward it gave. He was more focused on the most important fact that he found out. He can go home.
Patrick couldn't believe that his one-week home run of no school was taken out just like that with no warning. He was already planning his activities for the whole week; consisting mainly of being slower than a snail, only moving an inch a day.
He was even counting on his recovery to be slower than normal humans. His instincts were slow, his thinking was delayed, and his movements were sluggish—couldn't his healing also take its leisure time?
How could that even happen, Patty thought. It was beyond human explanation.
But then, his eyes focused on the screen in front of him, this enigmatic power that crash-landed on him without his consent.
"Eh tu, syste?" he said, feeling betrayed. Like its namesake, it should have helped him be more lazy, not push him into action a week earlier than he was supposed to be.
The nurse was bewildered by her patient's backward reaction. Shouldn't he be overjoyed that he was much healthier than he should have been, especially since it was internship week?
She even saw a student walk out of a car accident, his body bloody and bruised, with his tibia bones crushed into bits and his left hand bent in the other direction, saying "I don't need surgery. We can do it after I run the track and field tryouts."
So Patty's reaction was completely out of the ordinary. Was he already from an established family with inherited Teqx, she pondered. But if that was true, he wouldn't have come to a public hospital.
"Are you sure?" he asked, desperate.
"Yes, probably. The health result wouldn't have made a mistake like this," she answered confidently.
Patty slapped his face in horror. He shook his head like a madman and punched his chest repeatedly. It's all the Teqx's fault, he thought. That selfish power-up was unwelcome. He didn't ask for it.
Now, he wasn't even sure that it was a Teqx at all. He had never heard of a Teqx that could accurately turn his physical attributes into numbers and then give rewards that would enhance that physical attribute.
It could evaluate, strengthen, and heal the body. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. He hadn't even touched the other menus from the system like STORE, FARM, SUMMON, EVENTS, and many more.
And the final nail in the coffin was its color. There had been different shades of red, blue, and yellow Teqx discovered around the world, but never black.
"It must be a mistake. I'm still hurt, right?"
"…" The nurse didn't know how to answer that question given that she just saw the patient slap his face and bump his chest with force multiple times and still be okay. A true burn victim wouldn't even be able to sit up without being in pain.
But seeing the student's desperate plea, she decided to ask for a second opinion. After all, a student without any Teqx healing his second-degree burns in just one day was more than unusual.
"I'll ask my superiors," she said as she left the room.
With the nurse gone, Patty decided to confront the culprit of this robbery, this cheating scam, this unjust case on a universal scale.
[Mission]
[Requirement: Spend Yi Power on any body part]
[Reward: 10 Yi Power]
The screen popped up again, reminding him of an unfinished mission. He looked at it with disdain. The system acted all innocent as if it didn't even know what it did wrong.
"You really think I'm going to do that? HAH."
He ignored the persistent popup box of the system. Luckily enough, it was translucent enough to see through it and not have his vision obstructed. He could ignore it for the rest of his life.
[Mission]
[Requirement: Spend Yi Power on any body part]
[Reward: 10 Yi Power]
The mission popped up again. If he increased the strength of any part of his body, he had a sinking feeling that it would heal his whole body even more than before. There was no way he was going to increase his strength and become more sturdy and healthy, especially for now.
He still wanted to use his burns, present or not, as an excuse to be absent from school for at least one more day. He didn't want to look too healthy when lying to the Professor.
[Mission]
[Requirement: Spend Yi Power on any body part]
[Reward: 20 Yi Power, 20 Ether, 100 Minion Growth Crystal, 500 credits ]
Patty was a little bit surprised that the system could alter the rewards of the mission just like that. It almost seemed as if the system itself was incentivizing him to complete the missions more actively. This seemed to suggest the fact that the system was intelligent enough to understand its user.
Was it just comparable to a very advanced AI system or did it have its own conscious thought? Either way, both possibilities were impossible using the current understanding of Teqx and their capabilities.
Impressive and enticing as it may, Patty had no plans of completing any mission from the system. He just wanted to lay in bed and lament at the lost best no-school week of his life.
A week of binging shows and eating junk food!
No extra rewards would make up for that fact. He didn't even know what the ether and the minion growth crystal were for. He didn't care; he wasn't tempted.
[Mission]
[Requirement: Spend Yi Power on any body part]
[Reward: 50 Yi Power, 40 Ether, 200 Minion Growth Crystal, 1000 credits ]
As if it read his mind, the system popped up once again and added even more rewards, doubling all of them. But multiply them however way it wanted, Patty ignored them all the same. For all he knew, these rewards could be as useless as a treadmill in his house.
The door opened.
The nurse came in again, with even more health papers in her hand and an even more confused look on her face. "The test results weren't wrong. You're as healthy as a bull."
Patty hung his head low. The last dredge of his hope was crushed just like that.
"You can go home now if you'd like. Your clothes are right there on the cabinet," she said.
{Surprise Double Mission}
{Requirements}
Change your clothes.
Spend Yi Power on any body part.
{Rewards}
50 Yi Power
40 Ether
200 Minion Growth Crystal
1000 Credits
1x Summon Crystal
Patty was going to ignore this mission again, but something caught his eye. It was at the very bottom of the screen, with a noticeable graphic like those of a website-wide sale with 50 percent-off all items.
{Skip: Y/N}
{Cost}
Old price: 10 Energy
New all time low price: 0 Energy
Skip? Was it what he thought it was? Could it be true? Would his dream of skipping chores and mundane tasks with just one click of a button be fulfilled today? Would his luck finally turn around?
Every lazy person has thought of this cheat as their most wanted superpower in the world. The power of completing work without actually doing anything was nothing short of godlike. What's more, he would actually get rewarded for doing nothing.
If this was actually a valid skip that fulfilled all his dreams, all the transgressions that the system did would all be forgiven. He would welcome it with open arms again.
With great anticipation, Patty raised his hand and pushed the skip button on the screen.
Nothing changed at first, and he started to get really pissed thinking that the system scammed him once again. But then, he closed his eyes and everything changed.
He opened his eyes and saw that he was standing in the middle of the hospital hallway, with nurses calling out medical jargon and doctors talking to patients filling his ears while disinfectant alcohol filled his nose.
The smooth breeze of air because of the freeing hospital gown was no longer present. He looked down and saw that he was wearing his school uniform—the same clothes he wore when he had the accident. It had some burned holes and charred ends, but it did its job in covering his body.
The skip worked! He didn't know what happened, but one second he was laying down on the hospital bed and the next, he was already clothed and standing outside the room.
He didn't remember doing anything of the sort and didn't feel like he was tired out from changing his clothes.
This was the outcome he was hoping for.
"Oh, you're finally done freshening up?" the nurse asked.
Patty nodded with a perk in his step. "Freshed up, made up, and pepped up."
"Look who's finally happy," commented the nurse. "I thought you were getting depressed because of your burns. Don't worry, you look okay!" She gave him a thumbs up, and Patty responded with a thumbs up of his own.
He was no longer sad about the missed week. After all, he could just skip any chore that came his way. Go to school? Skip. Clean the classroom? Skip. Cook a meal? Skip.
His whole life was revolutionized with this miraculous button called skip.
Where have you been all my life, Patty complained.