Farid, a strange kid

...

-Sigh...-

"Really, kids are too lively... I wish I could go back in time and enjoy my free time like that..."

A woman with black hair tied into a ponytail was currently sitting under the shadow of a tree watching a group of kids play happily without a care in the world, her eyes filled with exhaustion and nostalgia.

She was Elena, the caretaker of one of the orphanages from Alubarna, the capital of the Kingdom of Alabasta. Elena had been running the orphanage for around five years ever since it was founded, and although she liked taking care of the kids, it was indeed a profession that made her think several times about her own childhood.

"Adult life is simply too annoying... Hmm?"

Suddenly while she was contemplating the choices of her life, she noticed the figure of another child staying far from the other kids, seemingly watching the air with a confused expression.

'What's wrong with that kid? Doesn't he want to play with the others...?'

Confused, Elena stood up rapidly and walked calmly towards the child. Her eyes inspected the little kid trying to remember who he was, as there were too many orphans in her establishment for her to remember them all without a problem. However, fortunately, she managed to remember the identity of the child in front of her right away as a small memory passed through her mind, and made her raise an eyebrow in wonder.

'I remember now... Farid... That kid arrived just a day ago... Is he having problems socializing with the other kids? Strange, that has never happened before...'

Soon, she arrived next to the kid and touched his shoulder before asking him with a concerned tone in her voice: "What's wrong Farid? Aren't you going to play with the other kids?"

The kid, who was still watching the air until then, turned to look at her and shook his head briefly before he smiled calmly.

"I will play with them now, I was just looking at this thing"

...

'This thing?'

Elena's eyebrow twitched in confusion, as she soon turned to look in the direction where Farid was looking a second ago, only to find nothing but the blue sky hovering over them.

Sighing at the kid's antics of calling the sky "that thing", Elena soon pointed towards the sky and smiled warmly at Farid before correcting him. "That thing is called the sky, Farid"

However, as the kid looked in the direction where Elena pointed, he furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head in confusion.

"No miss Elena, not that thing, this thing" Farid pointed once again above him as if there was something there and looked at her strangely.

'What is he pointing at...???'

Elena moved left and right trying to see if there was really something there, maybe it was some kind of perspective problem. However, no matter how much she looked where Farid pointed at, there was nothing there.

'Is it too hot today? Maybe the kid is having hallucinations... I should probably make all the kids play away from the sun...'

"Let's go, Farid, I think the sun is so hot today that is making you see things"

"No miss Elena, this thing has always been there... I was just looking at it"

"What? Then what does it looks like?" Elena looked back at Farid with a confused face and asked him while kneeling to look directly at his face.

'Maybe the kid has some kind of illness that they didn't notice when they sent him here...? How troublesome...'

However, the next words of the kid only made her more speechless.

"It's rectangular and it's always floating next to me. It also has some words written on it, but I still don't know how to read so..."

...

'This might be more serious than what I thought...' After looking at Farid for some seconds, Elena's expression worsened as she soon grabbed his hand and dragged him away ignoring the other children's curious gazes.

°

°

°

|A few years later...|

-Farid's POV:

...

I'm Farid, no surname because I never knew my parents, and my name was the only thing that they left for me.

I was raised in an orphanage in Nanohana until I became 5 years old and got moved to another orphanage here in Alubarna.

Currently, I was looking at the screen in front of me with a astonished expression on my face. Today, something amazing had happened... And I couldn't really believe it yet. It was too surreal to be true.

I don't know where this screen had come from... However, ever since I have memory, this screen has been beside me following me around as if it was a part of me.

At first, I thought that it was completely normal since no one reacted to it, despite me being the only one having it. Also, the screen did nothing and also didn't really affect my daily life at all, so I never really cared about it.

However, after talking with my caretaker about it one day when I was just letting my mind wander, I was diagnosed with some kind of mental illness that displayed a hallucination of a screen in front of me but didn't do anything besides that.

I also thought that the problem was with me in the first place, as whenever I tried touching the screen with my hand, it would just go through as if there was nothing but the air there, confirming that it didn't really exist and it was all the product of my imagination.

Because of that, I simply began ignoring the screen, and at some point in life, it simply became like air to me. I even stopped glaring at it, trying to fit among everyone like a normal person for the rest of my years living inside the orphanage.

Today was just another day of learning how to read and write, I was already 8 years old, so it was really fun to understand the words that were everywhere around. It wasn't that I really liked going to classes, but I really wanted to be able to read the wanted posters of every pirate around.

It was my only way of knowing what was happening in the outside world... And how powerful the people outside Alabasta were.

It took me a while before I was able to understand properly every word in my surroundings, and now that I knew how to read, it was really fun to go through the posters of every wanted pirate on the seas. It made me imagine myself having epic fights against them, becoming a legendary marine or bounty hunter that would catch them all with ease by defeating them with only one punch, just like the Marine Hero Garp did.

However, just as I was going through the posters, as usual, my eyes moved accidentally toward the screen in front of me.

At first, I just ignored it and looked back at the papers in my hand, not caring in the slightest about the screen. However, soon the image of words being there came back to my mind and made me curious about what the supposed hallucination would have written on it.

For the first time in a long time, my eyes moved back towards the screen and glared at it with curiosity. However, despite the fact that I now knew how to read, I couldn't understand a single thing of what the words meant.

It wasn't that I couldn't read them... But I simply couldn't understand what they were supposed to mean together.

『Welcome to the Idle system interface, user』

I mean, what was an Idle system supposed to be? Those words didn't make any sense... What is a system in the first place? And why is it idle?

And why am I getting called a user? What am I using in the first place to gain that nickname?

However, despite me being unable to understand what the words on the screen meant, I was still somewhat curious about the next part of the screen that was somewhat more understandable... Though not that much.

『Do you wish to display your Personal status?』

『Yes』『No』

While I couldn't understand what it meant by personal status, I was still curious about what could happen if I answered it... I've never done that after all, I didn't even know it was asking me something in the first place.

So disregarding the fact that this was all probably my imagination, I simply said the word "Yes", my mind concentrating solely on answering the screen.

As if answering my words, the screen blinked for a moment, before it closed.

"Huh?"

Before I was even able to understand what was happening, suddenly the screen reappeared and showed me a great number of things that left me perplexed.

『...Opening user's status...』

『Beep!』

▽

『Name: Farid』

-Age: 8

-Species: Human

-〈STATUS〉-

『User characteristics:』

▸Strength: [2]〈0/10〉

▸Defense: [4]〈0/10〉

▸Stamina: [5]〈0/10〉

▸Internal Defense: [0]〈0/100〉

▸Soul Power: [0]〈0/1000〉

『Body abilities:』

▸Psychomotor ability: [Lvl 0/1000]〈0/1000〉

▸Healing speed: [Lvl 0/1000]〈0/1000〉

▸Cerebral power: [Lvl 0/1000]〈0/1000〉

『Senses:』

▸Eyesight: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/10,000〉

▸Hearing: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/10,000〉

▸Touch: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/10,000〉

▸Smell: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/10,000〉

▸Taste: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/10,000〉

▸Gut's feeling: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/10,000〉

『Special skills:』

▸Armament Haki: [Lvl 0]〈0/1000〉

▸Observation Haki: [Lvl 0]〈0/1000〉

▸Conqueror's Haki: [Lvl 0]〈0/1000〉

▸Voice: [Lvl 0/100]〈0/100,000〉

___________________

Status points remaining: [0]

...

-〈Please select an opponent for the system to start collecting status points〉-

☠ [List of enemies available for status points collecting] ☠

▸[Ant] Status points given = 0.000001~0,000002

▸[Fly] Status points given = 0.001~0,002

▸[Human: Rayhan Shieda] Status points given = 0.01~0.1

△

What I saw once the status opened was incredible... I couldn't understand anything inside it, but it was still incredible nevertheless.

Was what I had really an illness? It was too surreal to be simply called a hallucination made up by my mind... There were even some words here that I didn't even know existed!

Maybe... Just maybe... There was actually something else to the screen?

...

-To be continued...-