Chereads / Climbing Through the Underworld / Chapter 2 - What the Hell is a System?

Chapter 2 - What the Hell is a System?

"Just a little more sleep," Jason thought as he grumpily smacked the snooze button on his phone. He knew he should wake up and find a way out of his situation, but he didn't care sleep was more important.

After a few more minutes his phone started jingling, his alarm went off again. This time Jason sat up in bed and pressed stop on the alarm. "Damn, I am so tired," he thought to himself, as he went to get off the bed, his entire body felt sore. Before he got ready for the day, he grabbed his phone to check if he had any important notifications. As he read down the list, he saw a very odd notification from an unknown sender on messages. He clicked on the notification, and the phone transferred over to the messages app.

The message read, "Do you want to change your life, press this link."

"Jeez, who are these spam messages trying to fool, who the hell would click on that. I'm desperate but I'm not that desperate," Jason thought as he swiped out of the messages app. "What if it's real, though?" thought Jason. Seemingly, Jason was that desperate, because just after thinking about how stupid someone would have to be to click that link, he clicked it.

"I really hope they don't steal my details; I don't think anything could make this week worse, but that definitely would," Jason thought to himself, trying to push past his skepticism and actually look at what the link led his phone to.

The link led him to an app on the app store that had no reviews or downloads. "Odd," he thought to himself, but regardless he pressed download and after that he entered in his phone password, this started the app's download to his phone.

Once the app downloaded, he tapped on his screen where the app was it opened and started displaying text on his phone's screen.

The app displayed this message, "Hello, I am a system, I'm a digital program that can help drastically improve your life!" 

"What the hell is a system," Jason thought to himself as he read the message.

"Oh, you don't know what a system is, silly me, I basically turn your real life into a videogame where you can upgrade your stats and do quests," read Jason's phone screen.

"How the hell is it reading my mind, this is some next level spyware," Jason thought, somewhat scared by the app now.

"Relax, silly, I'm here to help you, please just trust me and agree to the terms and conditions as listed," read the phone screen.

"Now it wants me to agree to the terms and conditions, I don't even know what they are!" Jason thought, dumfounded by this new app on his phone.

"Host has thought the words 'agree to the terms and conditions', thank you for agreeing, we will do great things together," the app read before transforming into a blank white screen.

"What the hell, I never agreed to any terms and conditions," thought Jason, he was enraged by this peculiar app.

With that Jason threw his phone across his room, he had to stop wasting time.

"Alright, I have about two-thirds of the supply left, and I've paid off one half of it, so I'm not doing too bad," Jason thought to himself.

He stood and walked over to the dresser, which was left with its drawers completely opened. He looked through the top drawer and took out a bundle of t-shirts. Under that was a plastic bag filled with white powder and a small semiautomatic handgun with an extra magazine tucked next to it.

"So, they didn't steal the product back, thank God," thought Jason with a sigh of relief.

After he had double checked on his supply, he took a quick shower and changed clothes. He was wearing a black hoodie with black sweatpants, a normal outfit for him.

He walked over to the dresser and grabbed the firearm and the extra mag; he tucked the firearm in his front waistband and covered it with his hoodie. He then put the bag and the extra mag into his right and left pocket respectively.

After he made sure his firearm wasn't noticeable, by checking himself out in the mirror. He walked over to where he threw his phone and grabbed it, then headed out of his apartment.

His goal today was working the corner. He was going to stand at his usual spot and see if anyone walked up to purchase, as he normally did. He also posted on his socials that he was at this corner, to make sure that anyone who needed product knew he was selling it.

After a couple minutes of waiting around, a young man probably around 17 approached him. He recognized this male as Aiden, a common customer. Honestly, Jason felt bad for him, every two or three days he had to come back and buy more, and recently Aiden had been looking extremely unhealthy. To be honest, when he used to go to school, he hung out with Aiden a lot. But when your life is on the line every day, you start losing your morals, which is why he sells to him in the first place.

"Yo, the regular?" said Jason, putting on a tough persona when he talked to Aiden.

"Yeah man, you look rough, what happened to you," said Aiden, with a hint of concern in his voice.

"Nothin' man, just give me the money," said Jason, the less he talked to his customers, the easier it was to sleep at night.

With that Aiden handed Jason fifty dollars, and Jason pulled out a very small plastic bag from the larger bag and handed it to Aiden.

"Good looks, now get outta' here," said Jason.

"Alright, stay safe," said Aiden as he walked away.

After he had finished the transaction, his phone made a dinging sound, indicating he had a notification.

He took his phone out of his pocket and read the screen it was a notification from the weird app.

Curious, he clicked on the notification which brought up a blank white screen with text.

"The system has finished analyzing you, it's decided to become a system that will help you climb through the ranks of the underworld," read the app.

After he had finished reading the text the app took him to a screen that displayed his name.

[Host: Jason]

[Occupation: Dealer]

[Skills: Dealing]

[Dealing Level 1 (50/100XP)]

It didn't display much information, but somehow it knew he was a dealer. "What if this app is monitoring me, and it's the police or something?" Jason thought to himself skeptical that the app gathered information on his illegal activities.

As he went to swipe out of the app and delete it, it displayed new text.

"You have received 50 XP for completing a successful deal"

"How the hell does it know I completed a sale, well, let's keep it for just a little more and then I'll delete it. I want to see what happens when I level up," thought Jason to himself, pushing back his inhibitions.

With that he slid his phone back into his pocket and resumed to business as usual on the street corner.