8 Episode 8
After a period of darkness, Jacq woke up and saw the light above him. As he looked around, he realized he was in a white room with no end in sight. Seeing such an odd situation, he couldn't help but become a little scared. His trembling voice called out, "Hello... is anyone there...?" After a minute of silence, he slowly stood up. First thing he noticed was his shoulder. There was supposed to be a hole there but as he touched the spot, there was nothing.
"Welcome to the God System," a light voice entered his mind. The gender of the voice was neutral.
"Who's there?" Jacq called out. Looking around, he realized that he was still alone.
"I am the God System. I have been activated due to the serious injury you received. The injury originally was nothing major, however there was a liquid which was coating the rod. With a few outside factors, the liquid became a poison which caused you to go into deep sleep." The voice responded again.
"God System..? Poison... So am I dead?" Jacq asked in a worried tone. "I mean it makes sense now. I must have died, why else would I be in a white room talking to something that I can't see."
"As I said, you are not dead. You simply fell into a deep sleep so that your body may fight the poison. You are very much alive and still ignorant of the vast universe. Before this, the human race never thought there would be cultivators, yet here we are. Your race's existence hangs in their hand. If that much can be real, then I assure you, I am very real." The voice seemed neither hurt or prideful about the fact that it had to teach Jacq a lesson which he would find useful through the rest of his life. Everything is possible, it is just the matter of it being done in your lifetime or not.
"Since I'm not dead, can you explain what I should be doing next?" Jacq inquired.
"You are currently in the hospital, unconscious. Whether you wake up or not will depend on you. I am not allowed to remove your restrictions to wake up unless you are able to comprehend and accept everything," the voice responded once again.
"So a voice in my head controls my actions now? Yeah, I must be going crazy," Jacq said with a hint of anger.
"The existence of the God System must remain a secret. Any time you try to tell anyone about it will result in a punishment. Once you accept everything then the body will have it's restrictions removed. As for how long that takes will depend on you. Do not worry, you will not die from the said poison. The specialists will assume that it is a toxin which has put you into a coma. Let me know when you decide to move on to the next part," the voice faded afterwards.
"This is crazy... I must be dreaming..." Jacq said to himself before he started pinching his cheeks.
Seeing no difference, he started doing everything he could think of in order to wake up. After spending two hours, Jacq came to terms with himself. This was weird alright, but as the voice said, there are a lot of things which the human race does not know of. Accepting this, he called out, "Mr. Voice, I have to say that this can not possibly be a dream and I am stuck until I accept you, so I do... now what?" he said.
"You may call me The God System or just System. You may not mention me to any existence ever, doing so will bring upon you punishments. The punishments will vary depending on the situation. With that being said, you can become stronger by following the quests that will be generated at random when certain conditions are met. As for these conditions, they will not be told until after a quest has been activated. Is there anything you wish to know?" The voice spoke back in an instant after being asked by Jacq.
"Why me?" The most intriguing question that Jacq had been thinking of slipped off his tongue as soon as he heard the last line.
"That is classified. You will eventually learn everything with the passage of time." Contrary to Jacq's expectations, he did not receive the answer he wished for.
"I see. Kind of disappointing but understandable. I guess this is something that I will learn sooner or later. You said that I was poisoned, how do I remove the poison?" he asked.
"The poison will be removed once we complete our first meeting," the voice answered back, "For now, take a look at your stats by saying "Stats".
"Stats!" Jacq shouted with enthusiasm.
"You know you can do that quietly in your head right? You just think of it and it will happen... along with the other commands which you will learn as time passes." the voice said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Jacq Gremni
Title(s): Holder of The God System, (Unlock more titles by gaining reputation across the universe. Certain actions give certain titles.)
Age: 14
Race: Human
Cultivation: Human (Host has yet to cultivate)
Battle Power: Human (Host has yet to cultivate)
Body Cultivation: Human (Host has yet to cultivate)
Experience Points: 0/1,000 to Spirit Gathering Lower Level
Skills: None
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"So these are my stats huh... How do I gain Experience Points? It would be cool to become a Cultivator!" Jacq asked excitedly. At first, he was not too sure what he could do, but now after looking at his stats, his heart was pounding with the thoughts of flying and being strong. As a person who worked out daily, he couldn't help but wait to become stronger.
"You can gain them by killing things such as animals, Spirit Beasts, Humans and Cultivators." The neutral voice responded.
"Killing... this is something I am not capable of. Is there any other way?"
"Yes, doing certain actions give certain titles. Sometimes the titles give experience as well. The fastest way to gain experience is obviously killing, however you can also gain a decent amount from making pills and equipment. However, if you plan on becoming a cultivator then you should be prepared to kill. There is no such thing as a Saint Cultivator. Every one of those cultivators has killed something or someone, and if you follow the path to become a cultivator, then you will be no different." The God System gave him a good explanation.
"Making pills and equipment? Like becoming an inventor?" Jacq inquired further.
"No. You must become a "Pill Master" to make pills and a "Forging Master" to forge equipment. You will not gain experience for things that are not related to using Spiritual Energy," The God System said as it shot down Jacq's idea of making origami to exploit the experience system.
"And how do I make these pills and equipment?" Jacq asked with a slightly depressed tone after hearing the God System.
Ding! Unlocked Apothecary and Equipment Progress Bars!
Current Apothecary Progress: 0 (Learn about herbs and their uses to increase. When a certain amount of information is obtained along with experience in using the herbs to make pills, the Progress Bar will increase.)
Apothecary Level: Tier 0
Current Blacksmith Progress: 0 (Learn about ores and their uses to increase. When a certain amount of information is obtained along with experience in using the ores to make equipment, the Progress Bar will increase.)
Forging Level: Tier 0
***
"This is how you make equipment and pills. I recommend you not go to school anymore since there is nothing the school can teach you in the next few weeks that will save your life. So instead you should start learning about ores and herbs. Something much more useful." The System gave it's calm review of the situation. "With that being said, you will wake up here shortly. Remember, you can talk to me in your mind. Do NOT mention me to anyone."
After the conversation with The System came to a closure, Jacq closed his eyes in excitement for what awaits him when he wakes up. The surrounding slowly turned black until he was brought out of the white room.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Due to the word restriction, I will post my thoughts here:
Sorry for a super duper late post. As you know, things don't always go according to plan. I will still do my best to update as often as I can. The only thing I can say for certain is that I will never take a contract for this novel (Not like there will even be offers for it in the first place lol). Hopefully you guys like the new twist. And yes, this was always a thing that would have happened... but I didn't want the title of the book to give it away. The chapter lengths are always different depending on the chapter topic. Please drop comments about anything regarding this below! Thank you as always.
