System (2)

...Is this even possible?

Looking at the floating holographic screen in front of him, Ian wondered with a dazed expression while stretching his hands out, trying to touch the system screen which just passed through as if nonexistent.

How many times did I try to touch it again? 40? 50?

Looking at the screen that floated above his head, Ian even considered himself mentally unstable and imagining things.

I mean, imagine one day your anime waifu just pops up in front of you and proposes to you. How would you feel? You'd be excited, I'm pretty sure, even though it won't happen. But even if it did, you'd just wonder whether or not it's really not a dream won't you?

Being an avid fan of fiction and a reader of web novels, Ian was very well aware of systems and their abilities, but the sudden appearance of one in reality itself was just too shocking for him.

I don't think I've gone senile just yet, nor does it feel like a dream. So, is this truly real? I've really gotten myself a system?!

A wild smile formed on Ian's face as he imagined the implications of possessing the system, but soon the smiling face was replaced with a frowning one.

With just a command from his brain, the holographic screen changed, and soon the old messages which appeared before he fainted once again opened up, with Ian reading all of them carefully.

[ERROR!!]

[THE HOST ISN'T THE REGRESSOR]

[SYSTEM THEFT DETECTED]

[ACTIVATING PROTOCOL 69]

[SELF-DESTRUCTION HAS BEEN INITIATED]

[INVENTORY HAS BEEN DELETED]

[QUEST BOARD HAS BEEN DELETED]

[SYSTEM GUIDE HAS BEEN DELETED]

[NEWBIE PACKAGE HAS BEEN DELETED]

[CONTROLLED RESTRICTIONS HAVE BEEN DELETED]

[SYSTEM STORE HAS BEEN DELETED]

[ATTEMPTING TO DELETE REWARDS 1%..2%..98%..]

[UNABLE TO DELETE REPLICATOR]

Even without any vocal command and just mental instructions, the screen kept changing, and the messages which Ian missed because of their sudden inflation were slowly read by him.

Regression, system theft, and fuck me?.. Hahaha, what a fucking mess it is.

Reading through all messages clearly, a small laugh escaped Ian's lips as his eyes glowed with excitement and understanding.

Raising his hands, moving his messy black hair from his face, Ian looked at the system screen that floated in front of him with his red eyes filled with excitement.

Regression, system, protagonists... How could Ian be unfamiliar with these terms after being one of the hardcore addicts of anime and novels?

First of all, let's revise everything I gained from these messages. First of all, this system isn't for me. It's clear by the first few messages. I ain't some protagonist who was chosen by the system. Instead, it's the regressor, and if I ain't wrong, it's Alan Lockwood, isn't he?

Even for a child, it's easy to pinpoint all of this, isn't it? How it all began with Ian waking up Alan and the sudden outburst of Alan in class.

Even though I wasn't paying much attention to his words because of the system's appearance, I'm pretty sure he said '10 years ago?.. I am back,' something along those lines, didn't he?

So, this system belonged to Alan, who somehow regressed to his school days with this system, which, by mistake or by the stroke of luck, bound to me when I tried to wake him up?

Did it bind to me because I came in contact with Alan or because I was near him? Well, I don't think that's important right now anyway... so, coming back to Alan, his backstory suits perfectly for a protagonist, doesn't it?

Poor household, sick sister, beautiful childhood friend, embarrassing childhood filled with bullies, cheating girlfriend, rich second generation as enemies..

Haha, perfect protagonist's backstory.

Regressor with a system in a supernatural world... isn't this the plot of half of the novels? What a fucking mess, what world are we living in now? A world of novels or what?

...That's ridiculous.

A chuckle escaped because of the ridiculous thought that crossed Ian's brain. How is it even possible for this world to be a novel?

But I guess the existence of the system is also... similarly ridiculous, isn't it?

Sigh~ let's not bother with this subject anymore...

Ian, who had successfully given himself some existential crises, just grabbed his forehead and massaged it gently while looking at the system screen.

Let's not ponder about it anymore and just think about other things... like what's the origin of this system? How did Alan regress? Why did it bind to him or sigh~ why am I only thinking about these questions now?

Myriads of questions swirled around Ian's head, causing him to sigh, as all these questions are something he can't get answers to now. Though he is curious, these are the questions he can't get answers to as of now.

Okay, let's forget about questions and just check out the system's features as of now.

With that said, Ian, who lay on the bed provided by the school nurse in the infirmary, began his experimentations with the system after noticing how he was the only one able to see the system screen, like almost every system novel, after trying to flash the system screen before the school nurse, just to find it out.

It might be pretty dumb in the opinion of many, but a momentary flash can be confused with just a hallucination, can't it?

So, why not risk it just to check it out? After all, if I'm going to use the system in the future, I need to be sure if it's visible to others or not, wouldn't I?

The school hours were still ongoing, but due to Ian's sudden loss of consciousness and being blasted back on his own, he got the teacher pretty worried and was allowed to stay in the infirmary for the whole day after regaining his consciousness just an hour after the incident... After that, for the next 3 hours or so, Ian just kept on tinkering with his system like a toddler who just got his new toy and noted all of its uses he could discover.

There were a lot of functions in the system originally like store, quests, daily login, and what not, but almost the majority of functions were deleted, including the ones mentioned above as well as inventory and almost all of the awards that the system provided...

Tsk! What a fucking waste!

Ian said to himself inwardly as he was annoyed by losing out on so many good things, but his mood uplifted after checking out the remaining features that weren't deleted.