The Phoenix Rebirth App

"Hmm… I'm bored." Lin Shen yawned as he scrolled through his phone.

No matter what he did, nothing, absolutely nothing could relieve his boredom. He really liked reading but he wasn't in the mood. His next best thing was gaming, but there was no game he wanted to waste his energy on, mainly because the more games he played, the more he started finding common tropes; which got annoying.

As for videos...nah. He knew his limits. The moment he watched one video, it would be one last video before he would decide to put his phone down. Then another video, and another, and another… well you get the gist.

He would be too self-absorbed in videos that he would probably be past his bedtime, and as an official OCD, he did not like that. He actually has school the next day, and these brief nights were all he could muster before the upcoming exams.

His father worked during the day and came home in the afternoon, and his mother died in labor. He was the only child, so there was no one but him to wake himself up.

"Sigh…I'm becoming bored of this world." Lin Shen sighed in the darkness of his room.

He lost interest easily. In his whole life, he had never done things to the end. He once was so hyped for a game and played it all night, but then the next day he didn't even touch the game.

Other times, there were books he read and followed, but as time passed, he also slowly forgot about them.

Thankfully though, there were many books out in the world, giving him an endless supply of boredom reducing stories.

"Hmm...Rebirth App?" While scrolling through the app store and his thoughts, Lin Shen came across an interesting app.

Rebirth App. Change is a desire one seeks.

That was all the app said. A short but profound description. It was really mysterious. He looked at the images of the game, but other than an image of a Phoenix, there was nothing else.

He was about to leave the page, when he suddenly found something interesting.

"Oh, Zero downloads? Interesting, haha, why do I feel like being number 1?" And so his OCD clicked the download option for him.

The app downloaded fast, perks of the modern world. Lin Shen opened up the app and a screen displaying simple data appeared.

[Name: - ]

Talent: 5

Will: 50/100

(System message: Please input nickname for further access.)

Lin Shen felt that this app was simple, so he pinned his hopes on the "further access" that he would receive upon entering a name. Otherwise this app would've wasted his time.

[Name: Dust ]

(Analyzing- - -Success! System successfully bound to player. System now solely belongs to Host, and only Host has access to the system.)

"Huh?" Such a message surprised Lin Shen. What kind of bounding was there? What did it mean by him being the only one who had access to the system? Did that mean he was the only user?

His inner questions quelled and his attention was directed to a new option that appeared.

[Quest: Mental Capacity Upgrade]

System has done numerous calculations to decide the best start for Host, and has decided that your Mental Capacity is the current most useful stats in your upcoming exam.

Since Host is lazy but likes efficiency, the System decided to make him capable of solving his obstacles relating to the brain as quickly as possible to not waste time.

Objective: Obtain at least 100 mental capacity.

[0 / 100]

[Side Quest: Pass the Exam]

(Rewards will depend on the host's ranking in the exam.)

Alright. So he unlocked quests...Lin Shen was starting to become curious. How was he supposed to achieve 100 mental capacity when there were so few options?

As if answering his question, the screen on his phone lit up for a second before a new option appeared on the app.

[Training - Mental Capacity]

He clicked on the option as it directed him to a simple game. In the game there was an orb in the middle of a purple desert.

[Instructions: Collect as many drops as you can in one hour using the orb.]

"This…really.." His eyebrows twitched as he felt a little disappointed at what he was seeing. Such a basic game, I could find many others on the App Store!

However, since he was already this far, and it would almost be his bedtime soon, he decided to just give this simple game a try.

He clicked play and two arrows appeared on his phone. The arrows pointed left and right respectively. These were the controls for this basic game.

As the game began, flame-like drops fell from the sky as he tapped the screen to move the orb to collect it.

The orb shined with light as a +1 appeared in the middle of the orb. At the same time, he felt his boredom alleviate a little. His mood was calmer and refreshed, although just a tiny bit.

The second flame drop appeared, and he tapped again to collect it. Another +1 appeared and the number in the orb changed to 2. His mind felt more refreshed as if an AC showered cool air through his brain.

"Why does it feel like my thoughts are clearer?" Lin Shen was starting to become skeptical. Everytime he collected a flame drop, his mind would feel refreshed. However such effects were so tiny that he felt like he was hallucinating.

Lin Shen however, was not one to be easily fooled, with a strong thirst for answers to anything that made him curious. He always found the answer to things when his interest was attracted, perks to his OCD.

Now that such a phenomenon was happening to him, he felt like he had to find out the reason. He decided to do an experiment. The next drop appeared as he tapped to collect it.

"What a perfect timing. I'll collect drops while I pay attention to my mind." Lin Shen tapped a few times to get closer to the drop.

He could see that the flame drop was different this time though. It was a blue flame drop, different from the ordinary flame drop. He could also feel as if the drop was faster than the ordinary one, but it was not too fast.

He collected the blue-flame drop as a +10 appeared on the screen and the orb number changed to 12.

That was all he could see before his mind blanked out. The rush of energy from the blue-flame drop was much greater than his current mental capacity could handle. With such a huge intake, he was knocked out to protect his mind.