31 You only get to lick life once

Theo ate the food while the ship doctor Blenn, examined his vitals.

There were no wires or anything other than a simple Holo bracelet on Blenn's hand as he monitored everything.

The food was good but Theo had different things on his mind. "By the way," he attempted. 'Should I really ask him?' He was still debating it but he tested the waters. "Is it possible to make a chip so powerful that you can imbed it into your brain and control augmented reality with your thoughts?"

"First of all, you know embedding chips are illegal, and second, how'd you control it with your thoughts? Yes, you can make simple actions with it, but fully controlling augmented reality even with voice commands, is kind of hard."

Theo already knew all that. But he had to make sure. 'Could it be that some intelligent species in the past made this, or perhaps I'm just going mad?' He became a bit quiet as the thought ran across his mind. "Is anything wrong with my vitals?"

"Not necessarily. You do seem to have some irregular immune cells floating around. I haven't seen these before but they're doing an excellent job. My guess is that they formed because of that unknown poison: to save you from it. I'll have to run some tests first before concluding what they truly are."

"I see. Thank you. Wait, unknown?" Theo recalled the incident and he knew there was a scratch on his hand. Maybe that was when he got the venom? But the thing was killed by John and John himself said it was a reptile, then how come the doctor was claiming the poison was unknown?

After all, humans had already found a universal cure to all reptilian venom after the great snakapocalypse.

"You're welcome. Yes, though we found reptilian venom in you, we also found a different kind, but it was already neutralized, meaning your immune system is really good. We're still figuring out where it originated from or what it even did." He snickered. "But man, I thought you were built for speed and all, but seems like you're an all-rounder type."

"What do you mean?"

Theo was average, but average for a non-modified human. In a society of modified humans, he was far from being an all-rounder- one could say- he was the bottom of the barrel.

Blenn chuckled. "I finally understand how you got this job." He controlled his chuckles. "Anyway, rest well. Your immune system is rather strong and with the added drugs, you should be good to go in three- four hours."

"Alright, thanks."

Theo didn't push too much. 'I'm not weak?' That was really odd but maybe the ship doctor was pranking him? That was the only logical thing he could think of.

But why would he?

There was no logical explanation for the cause. At least nothing came to his mind.

And then he remembered. 'Oh wait, he had a thing for mother right…' Theo grimaced as the possibilities came to his mind.

He quickly shut them down.

***

Again Theo was all alone. Without the menu, his vision was normal. Perhaps a bit sharper than before? Or was it just his imagination?

There were no icons, no indicators, no nothing. But-'Menu' The menu opened. It always happened instantaneously, there was no delay.

He had only one unlocked option and a bunch of other greyed-out locked options: he could focus on them and see them clearly but if he focused on things other than the menu, it'd get transparent. Very convenient.

The only thing he could touch, was the quest option and it had a flashing (1) symbol on it. He could either touch or just will it. Again, very convenient.

'How's this possible?'

Status (locked lv5)

Quests (1*)

Equipment (locked lv5)

Magic(locked lv10)

Refinement (locked lv15)

Abilities (locked lv15)

Journal(locked lv5)

Enchantment(locked lv50)

Turbo(locked lv5)

??? (locked lv100)

He opened the quests menu and reread the quest. 'Fine and lick a human's finger.'

He knew he was a human. But was this going to do anything? He checked the details of the quest, and there was something at the far right corner. [Rewards- 1000 exp]

His inner gamer instincts tingled a little.

He spent a lot of time alone in his apartment and in those times he played thousands of VR games. 'Let's give it a shot?' He lifted up his finger and was about to lick it.

But then- [Warning, you cannot undo this action]

'Why? Is licking myself not counted?'

A help menu opened up in the journal. But it was locked before. Something had happened beyond the system.

'So, this thing can rewrite itself?'

[One object can only be used once, within the system. If the user uses his body for this quest, he would not be able to use his body again for quests in the future.]

'User?'

Theo grimaced a little. 'What the hell is up with that? So basically I can only use one thing, once, no matter what?'

The journal disappeared and he was back to his quest menu. He didn't get an answer.

"What should I do?" He looked at his arm and sighed.

He couldn't get up and run around right now. And who in their right mind would let him lick their finger anyway?

'This is not going to work.'

But then he thought more about the whole exchange he had back then, at the cave. The girl, the monster, the system- 'wait, system? What system?' He tried to recall and then finally, he remembered the melancholic voice saying three words 'Licking system unlocked.'

He didn't know what that meant, but he tried something. He grabbed his glass from the table and licked it.

No apparent taste.

Nothing happened for a second and he felt stupid. But then-

[Exp gained 10] a small window appeared in the corner of his eye and disappeared three seconds later.

He licked it again, nothing happened. 'SO, I was right.'

He licked the sheet.

[Exp gained 15]

Next, he tried to lick the table and got 12 while the bed gave 20. Was the exp amount dependent on the size? Or maybe how valuable things were? He didn't know. 'The floor?'

He got down and when he was about to- "What are you doing?"

Someone walked into the room. The last person he wanted to meet today.

He forgot this was a medical room and the doors weren't locked. "Ah- cap-captain." Theo tried to smile like a thief caught red-handed. Actually, he was caught.

'What the hell am I doing?' He might have gotten a bit too carried away in the heat of the moment.

"Just call me Sharon." She looked at him like he was dirt. After what she saw him do, it wasn't that unnatural.

'How the hell am I going to get out this one?'