Even though the surgery was a success, Kai was instructed to stay in the hospital for a few days to monitor his progress. Eventually after two days of monitoring, he was given the clean bill of health to leave.
Steven promptly made arrangements to have the boy transported to the villa. Physiotherapy was going to be an essential part of the recovery but the chief had made arrangements to have a physiotherapist come to the house every so often to monitor Kai's progress and make sure everything was going well.
31st July 2022 - Windsor Square - 10:25PM
An exhausted Kai was gently set into the bed by one of the butlers. The post surgery physiotherapy was pretty grueling and the process of relearning to walk was more painful that he initially imagined.
During the start of the physiotherapy session, he even heard a familiar *DING* from the system but due to the pain and discomfort, he decided to wait till he was in his room to check it out. Mentally opening the screen, he was surprised to see it's contents
[New Quest Available]
Quest - Get back in athletic physical condition
Deadline - 8 months
Rewards - Physique Enhancement Roll, Mysterious ticket x3, 500 points
Failure - 7 point deduction from each stat
'Another system quest! Great. And this aligns with my immediate goals as well.' Kai thought giddily. He wanted to immediately accept it but after seeing the failure condition, he hesitated for a second.
A 7 point deduction from each stat sounded like a death sentence to him. And the rewards didn't make a lot of sense to Kai.
'What's a Physique Enhancement Roll? Is it some type of food? Like a roll or something else entirely.' It sounded very silly but Kai wasn't sure at this point. Adding Mysterious Ticket also seemed to keep the rewards enshrouded in mystery. So Kai couldn't exactly weigh the pros and cons of the current situation.
But one thing he did know that risk and reward were too sides of the same coin. The system hadn't let him down yet. Thus, he trusted the it.
"Fu*k it. Higher the risk, higher the reward" muttering this, he quickly accepted the mission.
Kai knew that before going to the public spotlight, he needed to be as close to perfect as possible. Because once you're in the public microscope, every miniscule change is noted and dissected in the industry. Once he did get famous, if he suddenly changed overnight, the amount of tabloids and rumors circulating around him would be enormous. So he wanted his mind, body and heart to be in the best shape possible before he decided to start his music journey.
He knew that the next few months will be difficult but if he persevered, the rewards will be massive too. Without wasting anymore time, he decided to rest and recover. The next few months were going to be brutal.
18th August 2022 - Windsor Square - 9:45 AM
Kai gritted his teeth as he pushed his body during the morning workout session. It had been two weeks since his physiotherapy began, and while the progress was steady, it wasn't as fast as he wanted. By mid-August, he was walking unassisted for short distances, though with a noticeable limp.
Determined to speed things up, he decided to increase the intensity of his exercises without consulting his physiotherapist.
Big mistake.
On this particularly overzealous day, Kai tried jogging on the villa's indoor track. The first few steps felt fine, even good. But as he pushed harder, a sharp, searing pain shot up his recovering legs. His vision blurred as he stumbled forward, narrowly catching himself on the railing.
The physiotherapist, who had just entered the room, rushed to his side. "Kai! I told you not to push yourself like this! You could have seriously injured yourself."
Shame and frustration washed over him as he limped back to the therapy bench. He realized his overconfidence could have set back months of progress—or worse. From that day forward, he promised himself to follow the recovery plan strictly, though he still pushed himself as much as he could without overstepping boundaries.
25th December 2022 - Windsor Square - 7:40PM
These last 5 months were tough on Kai but he wouldn't have traded it for anything else in the world. His physiotherapy finally concluded in the month of October. After his overzealous attempt in August, he kept the pace the doctor's recommended and finally, the doctors had concluded that he was perfectly healthy.
The first two months was very tough for him but he persisted and even during the rest days, did minimal exercise to keep his leg active as prescribed by Dr. Richard. Kai also expressed his wish to exercise his upper body more including lifting weights and after some haggling with the adults, Kai was permitted to use the gym in the mansion but in a limited capacity and with a personal trainer watching his progress for the first few months. So he needed to first let his body acclimatize to this before he could workout with weights in a way that required his legs in any shape or form.
Kai begrudgingly accepted the advice and focused on building his upper body. He spent hours lifting weights and training, gradually building muscle. Thanks to the excellent nutrition provided by the villa's chef, he gained weight and his physique became more defined. By September, the progress was visible—his shoulders were broader, his arms stronger, and his confidence steadily growing.
In mid-September, after a bit of nagging and countless warnings from his doctors, Kai decided to train his lower body moderately. Moderately being the key word. Jogging in the morning, leg workout twice a week and regular massages, helping develop his legs as well.
By late-October Kai was sure that his legs were as strong as if not stronger than before and his user stats confirmed that, boosting his morale.
However, Kai hadn't forgotten the scare from August. Every time he pushed himself, he reminded himself of the risks and made sure to maintain a balance between ambition and caution. This approach kept him on track without jeopardizing his recovery.
He then eased off on the high intensity training and then started doing exercises that included full body movement and balance. Activities like yoga and swimming became a great pass time and slowly and steadily, Kai was starting to achieve his ideal physique.
The system also gave him mini quests sometimes. there wasn't a given pattern though. Once it gave him a mission to learn another instrument and develop it in 7 days. As a result, Kai started learning the guitar from Jeffrey as well and completing the mission, he gained a C-ranked vitality potion which enhanced his already improving physique as well as allowed him to finally update the system!
Flashback
19th September - Windsor Square - 5:25PM
[Congratulations! User has completed the quest]
[Quest - Learn another instrument and upgrade it to Level 2 or higher]
[Rewards - C-rank vitality elixir, 500 points]
[C-rank vitality elixir stored into the system inventory]
*DING*
The system has detected that the user has enough points to upgrade the system. Does the user wish to upgrade the system?
Without wasting time, he immediately clicked [Yes]
*DING*
[The user has chosen to upgrade the system.]
[The system will shut down for six hours during the upgrade process. The user will not be able to use any of the system functions until the eight hours elapse.]
*DING*
After that Kai wasn't able to open the screen at all. Suppressing his panic, he decided to wait for 6 hours before he overthought anything else.
He then decided to spend his time with hanging out with Jeff, meditating and playing the piano to calm his nerves. Eventually six hours passed and Kai heard the now familiar voice.
*DING*
[System upgraded successfully.]
[New version of S.T.A.R system is being initialized]
[Syncing user data]
Kai kept his eyes peeled at the screen. After a few moments of initializing, the system opened showing a familiar scene
[Welcome back user to the S.T.A.R System!]
User - Kai Jones
Age - 20
Talent Assessment - B Rank
System Level - 2 (250/5000)
(Evaluation - User has taken a small step towards becoming a star)
----
USER MENU
User Stats
Pending Missions
Snoop (NEW)
Music Selector (NEW)
******
(*** - Indicates that the user isn't ready to see to see the features. Kindly upgrade the system to know more)
Kai was giddy to check out the new features. There were 2 new features and he wanted to know everything about them. He first clicked on [Snoop]
[Snoop - Allows you to peek into a non user's stats]
Simple but very efficient. Allowing him to look into other people's stats was a busted feature and he couldn't wait to try it out. He then selected the other feature [Music Selector]
[Music Selector - Allows user to pick songs not known to others from a mysterious plane. The user needs to optimize their needs and music selector can select the perfect song for the occasion!]
[0/5 used]
[Cooldown - 30 days]
"This is the most busted thing I've ever seen!" Kai exclaimed as he stared at the feature with a slacked jaw.
Flashback End
Ever since then, every month he extracted songs from the music selector as he did not want to waste so many songs by not utilizing this feature to it's fullest!
As a result, Kai had a number of original songs that he was going to release into the world once he got the opportunity.
Throughout these past months, it wasn't just his health that had dramatically improved. It was his social connections as well. His bond with Jeffrey was closer than ever and people could see that Kai treated his mentor like a grandfather figure and vice versa.
His relationship with Steven and Eliza also improved dramatically over the past few months. They became protective over him like he was their kin which warmed Kai's heart and similarly made him treat them like family .
But it was his bond with the youngest August that have blossomed the most.
In September, the trio of parents and child moved into Jeff's property at his insistence. Ever since then Zach was stuck to Kai like glue. Always accompanying him in whatever he was doing. Whether it be exercising, music or even meditating. It was quite funny to watch an 8 year old trying his best to meditate and fall asleep sitting up.
Kai adored Zach and vice versa. Neither had a blood sibling before and the other filled that void perfectly. So Kai was very happy to include the child in his activities. This made him more beloved in the household as well.
Now sitting with the family on Christmas Eve, drinking hot chocolate and listening to Jeff reciting stories from his time with the adorable Zach on his lap listening with rapt attention and his parents cuddled up in a couch nearby brought a warm feeling in his heart.
Kai looked around, his heart swelling with gratitude. "This," he thought, "is what I've been missing. This is what family feels like."
For the first time in years, he felt truly at peace.