Revisiting a Hospital Visit

I calmed down after a while, though the headache that started to form from the frustration of dealing with the new System AI ended up worsening.

I took slow breaths in and out as I started the car. I decided to drive to clear my head. I needed to go to the hospital to visit Mum anyway. It was about a thirty-minute drive, so I had a bit of time to try and get everything I'd just learnt straight in my head.

I had managed to activate my unique ability: Prestige, just before I was about to die three years in the future. It brought me back to the moment AFTER I Registered.

Each time I use Prestige, I get given 1 Prestige Point or…PP…as a reward, and you can use the PPs you have to invest in an attribute to max that attribute out to your innate limitation. This saves a lot of time and pain, but you need 5PPs to do that. For one — singular — attribute. So, if you're someone like me who is completely lacking in ALL FOUR attributes, that would require 20PPs total.

In other words, I had to use Prestige 20 times.

And even after using Prestige once, I still didn't know what it took to activate the ability. I was a bit too busy seeing my life flash before my eyes as a big dangerous monster was hunting me down in a Dungeon the first time around.

"System," I said, "how much does it cost to reveal the requirements to activate Prestige?"

[Answer: 1PP is required. Would you like to purchase prerequisite explanations?]

I still paused for a little bit when I read the message. There was nothing else I could do with the PP anyway, so I decided quickly.

"Yes."

[Confirmation Required: Would you like to purchase the prerequisite explanations?]

I sighed, but at least the System was accurate when it told me that any purchase with the Prestige Points would need confirmation.

"Yes."

The System chimed in my head and a brand-new description for the Prestige ability popped up to the side of my vision.

I quickly used my mind to bring the box with the description over to float in front of me in front of where the dashboard was and (even though I knew how dangerous it was), I flicked my eyes back and forth to look at the description while I drove.

[To Prestige, the Player must:

1 - Fully improve all Attributes to the Player's innate limitations.

2 - Be at death's door.]

The conditions surprised me so much that I almost lost control of my car. A van overtook me and held down the horn. I could see them flipping the finger at me as they drove past, but I was too preoccupied with what the System just told me.

(Which, was probably not the wisest thing to do while I was driving.)

As I thought it over, the second requirement made a lot of sense to me from what I had already experienced. The System most likely knew that I would have died with my (then) current stats with the Parasitic Hunter chasing me down, so that requirement was fulfilled then.

What hurt my feelings was that I had practised and worked on my four attributes before then, and my stats didn't change at all. At the end of three years of being a Player, and working my butt off, I was still a weakling whose stats didn't even change.

Not anymore though. I looked back at my Status page and looked at the asterisks on there. I was going to get stronger.

But first, let's visit Mum.

I vaguely remembered the visit, though my memories were mostly filled with the humiliating Registration incident. I believe that today was the day that Mum would receive some bad news from the specialist. Her treatments were not working.

I had to steel myself. The bad news caused a lot of heartache the first time around. I don't think it would hurt any less the second time.

I found a free car park off a side street that was a little bit out of the way from the hospital, but I didn't mind the walk. I checked the quest the System provided to me to improve my Fortitude attribute (which is the attribute that dictates anything physical like strength and all that), and I was told that I had to get fitter.

So, like some sort of action anime hero, the System gave me the quest to:

[To improve the Player's Fortitude Attribute, the Player must:

-Run (or walk) 10km — 0.2km/10km

-Do 100 sit-ups — 0/100

-Do 100 pull-ups — 0/100

Note: Not all tasks have to be completed each day to reap the benefits, though if all tasks are completed, the Player will receive a bonus of 0.1PP per day.]

I decided to focus on the 10km task first since I had already started on that, and since I could walk them out. I wasn't what you would call 'Healthy', so it was good to start a bit slow. And from what I remembered, nothing much happened that required me to grow stronger quickly till I had to approach Richard Morewind and borrow money from him for Mum's hospital bills.

I decided not to try and do all the tasks because the reward was a measly 0.1PP. That meant that I would have to do it for nearly two whole months before I could get enough PP to use it on an attribute.

Slow and steady. Yep, that was the way to go.

I made it to the lobby of the hospital soon after that. The distance progress went up to 0.9km. It wasn't much, but I was still a little bit out of breath. There were quite a few hills that I had to walk up to make my way to the hospital.

"Eric is that you?" a loud male voice called out from behind me.

I turned around and my view was almost entirely blocked by the armoured chest of a massive man. I looked up at the giant, and he grinned down at me. Though he now sported a rough, full, and wild beard, I recognised him. It was Alan Fallrow. Dad's best friend after the Event.

Alan was a fellow Tank Player from America who joined forces with Dad in the early days of Tutorial World, and he used to visit our family often until Dad died.

He probably felt a lot of guilt and blamed himself for not being able to bring Dad home safe from the Dungeon Clearing.

"Mr Fallrow, long time no see," I said.

He chuckled loudly, "Oh come on, just call me Alan. 'Mr Fallrow' makes me feel so old."

He patted me on my shoulder, but he was so big and bulky, the pat felt like it almost popped my shoulder blade out of its socket. I grimaced through the pain.

"What are you doing here," I paused as I struggled to bring myself to say, "Alan…?"

"What do you mean?" Fallrow looked at me quizzically, "You knew I was coming today. Today we're getting an update from the specialist and see if your mom's treatment is working."

As someone who lived his whole life in Australia, it always sounded funny to hear words like 'mum' said in another accent. Especially American.

His funny pronunciation of words aside, I frowned as Alan Fallrow was never present at today's appointment the first time around, right?

"Come on, I'll ride the lift with you," Fallrow casually said as he held the door to the elevator for me. I stepped in without saying a word, my mind still racing as I tried to remember whether anybody else was present when we got the bad news last time.

I didn't even care about how uncomfortable it was to be in the elevator with someone whose physiology had seemed to change through the System and was practically a half-giant. Or how funny Fallrow looked as he had to hunch over since he was so tall.

We spent the elevator ride in silence, and when we reached Mum's floor he awkwardly and slowly slid out of the elevator and I behind him. The people who waited were in awe at the fact that someone so big and famous was right in front of them, though he was very polite and friendly as we walked to Mum's room.

When we got there, and opened the door, another surprise shocked me.

Mum was sitting up. And she was happy.

The first time around, she had been so weak, she didn't have the energy to sit. She didn't even cry when we got the bad news. She just lay in silence, facing away from me.

And then she went and KISSED Fallrow.

In the mouth.

"What the hell is happening?" I yelled.