Two Months Later
The woman stirred uncomfortably on the bed, finding her whole body stiff. Ugh, she had such a headache, goodness could she just go back to sleep? Rolling onto her side, she discovered her wrist was connected to something. Hm? Shifting and opening her eyes, she blinked several times to clear her vision. Not that it would clear much, anyways, since she needed glasses after all. Lifting her wrist into her view, she saw an IV cord taped to it. Wait, an IV cord? She didn't just have another surgery, did she? Checking her memories, she recalled something a lot more shocking than another surgery. The attack!! The crazy fire, the creature!
Sitting up with a start, Alesha found herself in a large hospital room, where she wasn't alone. Several other beds identical to her own held sleeping patients, railings on either side raised just in case, cloth curtains half-drawn between each bed to provide a minimal amount of privacy. At her sudden movement, a couple nurses in sleek white scrubs turned their heads. One of them hurried over. "You're awake! You're the first one, I'm so glad you woke up! Let me just do a couple tests, alright?"
Alesha nodded absent-mindedly. "I'm… the first to wake up? Of how many?" She asked.
The nurse paused in her preparations, looking up and to the left as she recalled the number. "There were… 37 survivors of the Faxton Tragedy, but only 15 of them are here. The others are in a separate facility."
Shifting her quizzical gaze to meet the nurse's eyes, Alesha inquired, "Wait, a separate facility? Why's that? And, Faxton tragedy? Only 37 survivors?!
The nurse laughed nervously as she resumed her activities. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions. Let's wait to answer those until we make sure everything is normal with your health, alright? And I'll get you some food in a minute, I'm sure you're hungry."
"...Yeah, alright," Alesha relented.
Once the nurse was done, Alesha laid back down in the hospital bed, contemplating. Then she noticed something in the corner of her vision. Sitting up, then looking up and to her left, the thing moved with her eyes, staying just barely out of sight. Frustrated, Alesha returned her gaze forward with a scowl. She unfocused her vision (a skill she wasn't sure she should be proud of) and found that it was a very small short string of purple words surrounded by a rectangle. It was too small for her to read.
As she focused her attention on them in this way, the words suddenly grew in size and drifted to the center of her vision. They read: "Seed of Chaos System." Below that and outside of the box was another string of words, this one in red text: "Press A to Start."
"Press A to Start?" Alesha muttered, confused.
As she spoke, the words "Press A to Start" darkened, then both sets of words disappeared with a pleasant "beep!" Then, several new strings of words appeared in sequence.
"System installation complete… Goals calibrating… Personality randomization complete… System loading… Welcome to the Seed of Chaos System! Please enjoy your new life as a Seed of Chaos. Remember, no one can know you have the System! Penalty: ???."
Alesha watched all this in astonishment, rubbing her eyes, blinking, trying everything she could think of to make it go away. "No freaking way…" she muttered in denial. If her hunch was right, she was about to experience something she'd used to fantasize about not too long ago. But… she didn't want to get her hopes up. It was more likely that she was hallucinating and/or delusional after the attack. Perhaps she had even fallen asleep after the nurse left.
[Nope, none of those are true, you're neither asleep nor delusional nor hallucinating,] a snarky voice replied to her thoughts. It was androgynous, impossible to tell whether it belonged to a male or a female.
Startled, Alesha looked around to see if the voice had come from somewhere.
[Nope, I'm in your head. Muahahahah! You're stuck with me forever!]
Alesha put on a dubious expression. "Well, okay then, do I have to talk to whoever-you-are out loud, or can you read my thoughts as you did just now?" she asked aloud, albeit quietly.
[Ha! You're a quick one at least, yes, I can read your thoughts. All of them, mind you, not just the ones you send me… hehe]
Somewhat disturbed while also relieved, Alesha laid back down. She continued the conversation mentally. "Alright, so I assume you're the Seed of Chaos System? What exactly are you? And why are you a part of me now?"
[Ahh I like you already! Asking the right questions. Yes, I'm the Seed of Chaos System and I'm here to guide you on your glorious journey to becoming the best Servant of Chaos there is! You can call me Rogork, by the way, that is the glorious name I have just given myself. You're welcome.]
"...That doesn't really answer much, but okay, I'll try to remember your name. No promises, though, I'm bad at remembering even simple names… and no offense… but yours makes no sense whatsoever"
Sounding miffed, the System replied, [Excuuuuuuuse you?! My name is glorious and absolutely marvelous and has nothing wrong with it! You WILL remember it, or else!]
[Ding! A new quest has appeared!]
[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 was absolutely shocked by this quest. A quest to … remember the System's self-given name?! Was the System that petty? And what was with that penalty, how painful would the shock be? Should such a simple quest even have a penalty in the first place? "Uhhh System I have some concerns…"
[Quest Failed! Penalty: A Very Painful Shock will now commence]
"Wait! What?!"
The penalty was just like the System had described. A very painful, full-body shock. It didn't last long, but it was a penalty she did not want to experience again.