Everybody's system

"The point of a system is to make its user the strongest isn't it?" Asher asked himself staring listlessly out the window of a grungy bus. "why in the hell did my life turn out like this then?" he popped open his system window just to confirm his daily quests had not changed, they never had but Asher never gave up hope.

[1. go to %%%%%]

[2. learn something new]

[3. help Ms. Jenkins.]

the same three quests over and over, he had been living in the same house since high-school when the system had first introduced itself to the world almost seven years ago, and had been doing the same quests and riding the same bus ever since though his prospects just seemed to get worse and worse.

the system that had inserted itself into his head had also inserted itself into every other human being in the world, from toddlers to bicentennials. Asher was the only person he knew who's system didn't function properly, as others his age had completed quests and graduated from school their quests had changed, difficulty had increased and so had rewards. Asher's system never changed, even worse his quests seemed to be laid out for an elementary schooler, the only change had been on the day of his graduation when his first quest changed from "school" to "%%%%%" which could mean literally anything he considered a destination out of his house.

Asher sighed as he watched children using their "childsafe" skill to throw a pitched magical battle in the park as he rolled past, the system had truly thought of everything, children got a skill that made them immune to serious wounds from magic or other skills until age 12, and fatal wounds until age 18, employees got quests that worked on job performance, students on grades, ceos got boosts to strength based on the wealth of their company, everybody had a slightly unique twist to the system based on their profession, goals, and personality except Asher.

Asher had been stuck on child quests since the system had revealed itself, getting tiny exp rewards and doing almost nothing to complete his objectives each day (though he secretly enjoyed helping old Ms Jenkens with her various needs each day) he even committed to doing tasks that would be quests for those seeking strength, sit ups, push ups, running, but nothing worked.

Asher, still lamenting his fate stared out of the window of the bus with he blank eyed apathy of someone seeing another person achieve their dream, because in reality he was. he had been a former reader of web novels and comics and always used to dream of transcending his boring life.

A moment later something caught his eye, a fireball was speeding towards the bus from the direction of the children's area, a tiny thing about the size of a grape nonetheless Asher watched it curiously. it was faster then the bus but only by a tiny margin and was moving in an erratic corkscrew as it came closer. After a close inspection of the piddling fireball Asher was less then impressed and concluded it would pitter out before reaching the bus. Thanks to the ill timed distraction Asher was not expecting the bus to lurch to a sudden stop. someone with a speed skill had run a red light in front of the bus, which made the little fireball catch up rapidly, the shorter distance traveled and higher relative speed caused the fireball (in spite of being fired by a child) to shatter the glass of the window directly into Asher's face. Asher screamed, which scared the bus driver into slamming on the gas. The driver quickly swapped back to the brake, but not fast enough. Glass shards spun around the passenger area as ashers head slammed hard against the back of the seat in front of him, and he had just enough time to hear his own neck break before the world stopped.