Prime solarās
Blue planet
Lumen urbs
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"Sigh! I can't believe this is the third time lumen urbs are attacked.Does the government not care about us young talents. I just hope father is fine." Thought a young man sitting outside a hospital room waiting for the doctors to give him their diagnosis of his father.
Lumen urbs was considered the prime district for education because many of the best academies had their main branch here.Specially the Marvel academy into which every talent of the blue planet wanted to get admission.But this was the third time lumen urbs had been attacked by a gang but there was peculiarly no response from the government.Only his father and the other nine guardians of light were safeguarding the lumen urbs.
It was just that when they were resisting the attackers this time a nuke like object fell from the sky and the enemies escaped. Although no one died his father took the brunt of the explosion but from what he had heard his condition was still relatively fine.
The thoughts of the youngster were interrupted by the beep of the automatic door opening. Three bizzarely clad humans came out. The young man got up and inquired about his father's wellbeing.
"There's nothing to worry about, sir yang just got some exertenal wounds which had already been healed by the vitality fluid in his
Mecha" said one of the physicians.Shu Zhang,the young man, breathed a sigh of relief. "Can I talk to him?" he asked.
Getting the green signal from the docs he went near the door.
Whuuzz. The door immediately slided open.
As soon as he entered the compartment his father's barritone voice sounded "Glad to see my son still cares about this old man"
Ding!
[New Task: Pretend to be here only on the request of your mother and talk rudely to your father.]
[Punishment for failure : Your sister's scholarship will be cancelled.]
[Reward: None ]
The series of jarring sentences rang out in Shu Zhang's mind."Great just what I needed right now" Those nightmarish sounds reminded him of all the terrors this so called punishment system had caused him.Many a times he would lament what he had done in his past life to be 'gifted' such a system. He really wanted to find out the reason he was being punished and by whom. As his innumerable tests had proved that the system was just an algorithmic AI with no real sentience. Well there was nothing he could do because this AI was too powerful.
"I can't afford to lose my share of the property,can I? You haven't made a will yet." Saying this was heart crushing to say the least but he had no choice for the wretched system often made his family the subject of punishment.
His father opened the ground connected chamber and walked out with a smile on his face.But shu Zhang knew well how much pain that smile was trying to conceal.
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8 years ago.
The little 11 year old Shu Zhang was sitting on a 'chair' . The hologram in front of his eyes displayed a list of children hoverbikes.
As he was pondering about which would be the best for him to go to school with a blinding light ray came from his windows into his eyes.
Ding!
[ Target found ]
[ Universal punishment system {304} assimilating]
[ The system has been successfully embedded]
[ Tasks will begin to be given from tommorow]
This was a moment he would never forget. It was a moment when he transformed from a sweet talented young kid adored by all to a rude sociopath freak. It was the moment his life was turned 180 degrees and the dance of his torture started, slowly becoming more and more frivolous to the point where he felt that he was just a marionette to the system and had his breaths left only due to his love for his family.It was really thought provoking what such a young child had done to deserve a life where even hell seemed like paradise.The ever cruel system would give the still tender child tasks that made his soul tremble with fear.He remembered one such task very clearly.
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Another day where the young Shu Zhang woke up ungreeted.But that sentence soon lost its meaning as he saw the cute face of his ever adorable puppy. It was this puppy that was his source of comfort after the people around him had distanced themselves from him. He would spend most of his leisure time with it and care for him like his baby.After some cuddling, he got up from bed to get ready for school. As the robotic mechanism was cleaning his teeth a sound that begot terror rang in his mind.
[ Today's task: An old man lives near the teleportation station of your sector. He likes puppies and is in dire need of one.Give him your puppy.]
[ Punishment for failure: A gruesome death of your mother by being shredded from spatial cracks in the dimensional travel tunnel.]
[ Reward: None]
Total silence follows but is soon broken by the low sounds of a sob. Shu Zhang soon breaks into tears as he presses his head into his arms unable to do anything else for a long time. The puppy senses his master's melancholy and approaches him eventually hugging his arm. After a long time Shu Zhang stands and sits on the bed . His mind is flooded with a myriad of thoughts but he knows that he has no other choice but to conplete the task. He reassures himself by saying that the old man would take good care of the puppy. He should be a bit strong. It was as if a child had adopted another child. But he had to accept the situation because he remembered a time when he had not completed a task because it was too extreme for him. He saw his family die a most heart wrenching death before his very eyes. Thankfully it was just an emulation but the system warned him that he was forgiven because it was the first time he failed but the next time it won't just be an emulation.
He decides to take a leave and spend the day with his puppy and only give him tonthe old man at the last moment. For the entirety of the day he gives his puppy treats,bathes him,cuddles with him and plays with him. At night he goes out by telling the home AI that he was going to meet a friend of his who lived nearby and wanted to play with his puppy.
Shu Zhang goes to the old man's house by following the system. He meets the old man and at first glance the old man is attracted by his piyuh. When he tells the old man that he wants to give this puppy to him he immediately became ecstatic and there was a glint of adoration,perhaps, in his eyes. After a long time of talking with the old man he decides to steel his heart and leave the house.
As a lot of thoughts are flowing in his minds his pace is very slow.After a minute or se he hears a wail. A wail of a dog, a puppy. Immediately he turns around and rushes into the old man's house but the sight before him leaves him shattered. He sees the old man butchering the puppy and as he runs to stop him , the old man ravenously picks up a leg of his dear puppy and gobbles it up as if he had been starving for a month. As he gets to confront the old man, the system tells him that the aforementioned punishment will be aplicable if he does. So he can't do anthing but stand as his mind is chaoticly sad and his body shaking. Now he understood what the system meant by sayi g that the old man 'loved' puppies and needed one badly.
Later that night Shu Zhang is haunted by the nightmare of his dog who is asking him why he gave it to the old man. After that incident many of the tasks had become redolent of that incident.
To be continued...