"What is wrong with you? Why do you behave like someone who has some screws loose in the head?" A middle-aged man yelled at a young man, who had his head lowered.
"You know what? Take the rest of the day off. Provide your sales and accounting details for today, and leave," the middle-aged man said and walked out of the casino house.
The young man looked at the receding figure of the middle-aged man, his fist clenched and flames of anger burning in his eyes.
'I behave like someone who has some screws loose in the head, huh? I wonder how I became that way. Working in this goddamn place with no prospects in sight.'
With anger in his heart, he did his
accounting, and after he was done, he gave it to one of his colleagues to give to his boss in his place.
"Silas, you're leaving already?" His colleague asked as he took the book containing Silas' sales and accounting details.
"Yeah… He told me to take the rest of the day off. I can use it to cool off a bit," Silas said, and he made his way out of the casino house.
As Silas left the casino house, his two colleagues looked at each other simultaneously and smiled.
"Hey Roy, what do you think he did this time to get sent home?" one of them asked.
"I don't know, man. You know he and the boss don't always see eye to eye," Roy replied.
"Honestly, I think the problem is with him. I mean, look at him; his clothes are faded and worn out. He barely takes care of himself. Not gonna lie, I'd call him a homeless person if I saw him on the street," the first person said.
"Come on, Dave. He's our colleague, and besides, it's not his fault. This work is mentally taxing as hell, and we barely get time for ourselves," Roy said as he started going through Silas' sales and accounting book.
******
Silas, who was on his way home, knew nothing about him being the topic of discussion between his colleagues.
On the way, still feeling angry, Silas decided to listen to some music to cool off. He plugged in his wired earphones, opened a music streaming platform, selected his playlist, and hit play.
As the song started to play, he closed his eyes briefly and let out a deep breath. After doing that, he felt his chest become lighter, and his anger relieved slightly.
"Feeling so much better," he said with a small smile, and he continued walking home.
******
To Silas, today was just like every other average day in his life.
Yes, just an average day. The argument with his boss happened almost every day.
After graduating from high school two years ago with good results, he decided to start working so that he could save up and go to college, or possibly university.
That was how he started working at a casino house just after graduation.
Silas was a person who always tried to make the most out of life. His life in high school was normal for an introvert and a weakling. He was unable to fight back against his bullies.
His family situation did not help his case, as his single father, a bus captain, cared less about him and his younger brother.
These factors made him take up the responsibility for his younger brother's well-being and the household due to his father's negligence.
Silas was happy with the little things in life. Actually, he tried to be. His mother died after his birth due to complications that arose from it, and he was raised temporarily for some years by his father until he remarried, and his stepmother took over.
His stepmom raised him like her own, and to him, she was like the mother he never had.
Unfortunately, the cruel and cold hands of death took her away. She died two years after giving birth to her son.
At that point, it felt like the whole world was against him. He lost two mothers, and his father was barely in the picture.
After her death, he vowed to take care of his little brother, Alex. To never make the little boy feel the way he did.
A few months after his stepmother's death, his father's behaviour took a downward turn. He started working as a bus captain, coming home late and drunk.
Anytime he came home late, he never failed to blame Silas for everything that had gone wrong for him. From the deaths of his first and second wives, he pinned the blame on the young Silas, calling him names and making his self-confidence hit rock bottom.
Silas was unable to have conversations with people or make friends because of this.
Every time he walked past people, he would always hear words like stupid, dumb, ogre, ugly, cursed...
Maybe it was his imagination, or he was already broken from constantly hearing such words from his father.
He did make some friends, but they treated him as a tool for schoolwork. He finally gave up on people when his girlfriend in high school publicly dumped him in front of the whole school and walked away with another guy.
These experiences made him completely lose his trust in people and hate them, but he hated himself more.
*****
Back to the present.
Silas stopped in front of the building and pressed the doorbell.
A few minutes later, a lady who looked to be in her thirties or forties opened the door.
"Silas, you're back early?" She asked with a curious expression on her face.
"Yeah, I was given the rest of the day off," Silas said and walked into the house. He walked towards the stairs, making his way to his room.
He saw the expression on her face, and he was not in the mood for a Q&A session, nor did he have the strength for it.
Opening the door to his room, he stepped inside and threw himself on the bed before removing his earphones from his ears and looking at the ceiling deep in thought.
"Sigh. What a life! Twenty years and nothing to show for it. I want to go to college, but I have no funds. I'm not even sure I can get by with student loans, and I still have to worry about Alex.
I had so many dreams. So many things that I wanted to do and achieve, but I haven't achieved any of them. I don't even know if I will ever be able to achieve any of them.
High school was hard, but society is even harder. I just wish I could get one of those money systems like those main characters in web novels with urban settings.
What am I thinking? That's fantasy, and this is my reality." He sighed and turned to one side.
Exhaustion and fatigue seemed to have set in, as Silas was slowly drifting into sleep, with his eyelids becoming heavy.
*****
Outside Earth's orbit, a white object hovered briefly before descending downward to Earth.
The object went through the atmosphere, breaking and making all known knowledge of physics irrelevant. It didn't experience the heat that an object would face from entering Earth's atmosphere, and it was not affected by aerodynamic force as it controlled its own direction perfectly.
As the object got closer to the ground, it flickered in and out of existence like a lit candle left outside on a stormy night.
The object went through the roof of Silas' house like a phantom, leaving no sign that something went through it.
The object landed on Silas' head, and a dim white light covered his body, faintly lighting up the room.
The light faded, and the room returned to normal, and the object was nowhere in sight.
*****
In Silas' subconscious, a cyan screen with messages popped up.
[Assimilating System...]
[Assimilation Completed]
[Assessing the host's condition...]
[Host physical and mental condition assessed: mildly serious]
[Fixing host condition... Completed]
[Generating host stats and information... Completed]
[System Activated]
[Name: Silas Kurt]
[Age: 20]
[System Level: 0]
[Level Daily Reward And Perk: Reward of $10 every 24 hours, $10 for every mission completed while the host is still at said level]
_____
[Strength: 3.5]
[Agility: 2]
[Stamina: 2]
[Intelligence: 3]
[Charisma: 0.5]
_____
[Skill(s): None]
_____
[Mission(s):
Daily Mission(s): Improving and Perfecting Body Condition.
Press-up, 100 times: Incomplete (0/100)
Sit-up, 100 times: Incomplete (0/100)
Squat, 100 times: Incomplete (0/100)
Running, 10 km: Incomplete (0/10)
[Mission(s) Reward: $40]
******
Silas, who was still asleep, had no idea what was happening.