Chereads / 'Seed of Chaos' System / Chapter 3 - Status Screen

Chapter 3 - Status Screen

[Ding! Penalty complete. Obligatory retry Quest begun!]

[Retry Quest: Remember System's Name!

Goal: Use System's self-given name correctly 10 times

Reward: 10 XP, 1 Chaos Energy

Penalty: A Very Painful Shock

Failure Conditions: call System by anything other than its self-given name once before using it properly 10 times]

Alesha's eyes shot open wide at this. Seriously?! Her body had just barely stopped twitching from the shock which had shot through it only moments before, and the quest was restarting already?! And she had no choice about it?! Panicked, she took a moment to remember the name the System had given itself before mentally addressing it. "Rogork! Are you kidding me?! You can't be serious!"

[I am completely serious, host! Good job, by the way, that's 1/10 proper uses of my name! You catch on quickly, I see!] 

To Alesha, the System sounded far too smug as it said this. She groaned, closing her eyes and settling herself deeper into the bed to console herself. It appeared that the System --Rogork-- had far too much control over the quests she was given, their penalties and rewards. Thinking of this brought something to mind. "Sys-- Rogork, what's Chaos Energy? And what do I need it for? Actually, while we're at it, do I have some sort of Status Screen or something?"

[Excellent, excellent! That's 2/10 proper uses of my name, and since I'm nice, I'll overlook that almost slip-up. You're asking the right questions, too!]

A purple, semi-transparent display pulled up into Alesha's view, bordered with glowing, overlapping rectangles. It displayed a bunch of information about Alesha, beside which the System had written commentary about a bunch of things (recorded in brackets; on the display, the commentary looks like messy handwriting, while the Status Screen's inherent information is in typeface). 

*****

Alesha Williams

Age: 22 [Sol years]

Species: Human [for now... hehehe >:3]

Level: 0 [you pathetic worm]

XP: 0/100 [get ready for the grind, host!]

HP: 10/10 [you're friggin' fragile, human!!]

Strength: 3 [below par]

Agility: 2 [pitiful]

Vitality: 2 [just plain sad]

Intelligence: 9 [host's redeeming attribute]

Psychic: 1 [simply pathetic]

Chaos Energy: 1/10 [you need this ASAP]

*****

[Before you ask, the average stats for a healthy adult human are 5's all around, though for things like Psychic and Chaos Energy, humans don't have those at all so the standard would be 0. The starter HP is usually influenced by Vitality, but yours was overridden so that you wouldn't break with a single sneeze. I noted on your screen that your intelligence is actually quite good, even if your other stats are pretty trash. That's just how it is. As for Chaos Energy, I don't feel like explaining that to you right now, I kinda want to see if you can figure it out as we go along. Gotta keep things interesting somehow, amiright amiright amiright?] 

Alesha was in the middle of thinking to herself that no, she would rather Rogork didn't make things more interesting this way, and that she would really just like to know for sure what Chaos Energy meant and how it related to the "Seed of Chaos" System she now had, when a nurse walked up to her. Closing the status screen with a thought, Alesha looked up to the nurse with a question in her eyes.

"Alesha Williams, right?" the nurse confirmed.

"Yes."

"Your parents are here to pick you up. They had visited you several times while you slept, and now that you're awake and your health appears to be in perfect order they're here to take you home," she said with a smile.

Perking up, Alesha moved to get off the hospital bed, before realizing the only thing she was wearing was a hospital gown. The loose garment made her feel very uncomfortable. "Um… is there anything else I can wear?"

"Ah, yes, sorry," the nurse said, retrieving a bag from a nearby desk. "I'd forgotten to bring this to you. Your clothes from the fire were too damaged, so your parents brought you these."

Alesha gratefully took the clothes and followed as the nurse directed her to a bathroom to change. She could have drawn the curtains around her hospital bed instead, since that's part of what they were there for, but this felt more familiar and therefore more comfortable to her. 

Shortly after, she emerged from the bathroom fully clothed. On top she wore a stylish black shirt sporting her favorite music group's latest album cover (DqOL's "Giddy in the Nines"). On bottom, she wore a flattering pair of modernized light blue jeans, tight around her hips and thighs, loosening up around her calves before cutting off at the ankles, revealing ankle-length socks and an old pair of sneakers that she'd left at her parents' when she moved out. The nurse looked up from her phone, put it away and guided Alesha towards the exit.