Hard Time

Present Time

Liam face-palmed.

"I just realized..."

Liam mumbled as he recalled his memories three years ago.

"...I've gone f*cking mad that day."

He then shook his head to forget his memories of that day.

'My skills... Everything started four years ago, but I don't think that I received my regeneration at that time,'

Liam started to think about his regeneration skill again and continued to strip the bandages that were wrapped around his upper body.

'But it's still a good thing to try recalling something with my Hyperthymesia skill cause it's really vivid.'

He was really pleased that he had received a good skill from the system that he can use for great things. Afterward, He started to recall his memories from four years ago.

_______

Four Years Ago

11:20

"Huwaaaah..."

Liam was finally sleeping after his hard time studying and finishing his homework.

"Finally getting to sleep and relax."

He lied down on top of his bed and while looking at the ceiling, he was thinking of something that happened to him and then he let out a heavy sigh.

'It's been a year since mom and dad died. I already accepted their death but... I still feel a bit of sorrow lingering inside my heart... Or something even worse than it.'

He then closed his eyes to be relaxed and be freed from the negative thoughts.

12:00

DING

Liam was sleeping peacefully when a loud chime suddenly sounded.

He immediately got up and looked at his surroundings. He felt an eerie feeling that made him a bit frightened.

'What the hell is that sound. I think it came from my mind but... It was really loud.'

"You will be given a random skill. Be prepared for the side effects later."

Liam trembled for a moment the instance he heard a female yet robotic voice inside his mind.

"Imparting the skill."

"What the f-" Before he even continue his curse an intense pain surged through his head.

"HUWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! GYAAAARGH!"

THUD!

Liam fell over to the floor. He screamed in agony and he clutched his head tightly.

"Keuk! F*ck! Shiiiit! AAAAAAAARGG! AAAH! F*ck! F*ck! F*CK!!"

After a minute of suffering, the pain was still active and continued to erupt all over his head that even blood started to leak from his nose.

Liam stood up even though he was still experiencing the intense pain in his head. The pain was also the reason why he stood up. He looked around his room and stared at a plain wall.

He took one step towards the wall. Then another step. And after another step he started to run with his head bent down and pointing at the wall.

"NO F*CKING PAIN!"

SLAM!

A loud sound was made by a solid thing that hit the wall hard.

It was the head of Liam that had hit the wall.

And now his whole face was soaked in blood. While the headache was starting to fade away, his consciousness was also dissipating.

His body was slowly bending backward and his feet are swayed which showed a sign that it will collapse at any moment.

But before he fell to the ground, the voice earlier spoke inside his mind again.

"The system is currently preparing a skill to give to the host."

And before Liam lost his entire consciousness, he still managed to hear it, although he can't do anything anymore.

He was in the middle of his falling when a voice once again spoke in his mind.

"The system has given you the Athletic skill. It's an active skill and can be activated by..."

THUD!

Liam fell to the ground. And his consciousness completely disappeared.

Later that day.

Liam finally woke up. It was already afternoon and the first thing he did after waking up was to touch his face and check the wound he got from banging his head into a solid wall.

But he didn't feel any liquid on his head and he didn't feel any wounds that could hurt if touched.

"Is it a... Dream? N-no, Definitely not. I can't be feeling any pain from a dream," He was still puzzled of the fact that so many bad things had happened in just a minute or so earlier pass midnight.

"But... Where is the blood? I slammed my head right?" He stood up and looked at himself in the mirror.

There was not even a scratch that can be seen from his head.

'How!? I definitely felt that I got an open wound in my head and a lot of blood gushing down to my face.'

He turned around then walked on his bed and sat on the side of it.

'And that voice. I can still remember it clearly. The skill... That skill... What can it do? Is it even real?'

Liam decided to put the thoughts away for a moment and went downstairs to find something to eat.

He didn't find any food in the kitchen so he went out to the groceries.

Before finding a grocery, he stopped at an ATM and checked his bank account that was previously his parents'. The amount of cash in the bank account was a bit over five hundred dollars.

"The money... It's almost gone now. My parents left me a three thousand dollar cash and now there are only five hundred hundred dollars left. How can I continue to live with this." He let out a sigh then continued to find a grocery.

He really didn't like that he was a Big Spender. No one would.

Half an hour later, Liam got to found a grocery near a park that was almost half a city away from his town.

After buying some things to eat, he went to the park so that he can be quite relaxed since he went out too far away from his home.

He then found a bench to sit on. The bench was in front of a perfect circle pond so its a nice view for him while eating his instant noodles.

After finishing his food, he stood up and walked in front of the pond. It was really beautiful with its perfect circle shape and its bluish color. He suddenly wants to go around the pond just to see its own beauty and to get some fresh air but he thought that he doesn't have good stamina to run for a long time and distance. It's not like that he was an Athlete or something.

'Wait. An Athlete... Athletic...?'

Liam remembered that he have received a skill called Athlete. Well, that's what the voice in his head said to him earlier.

He already got his emotions mixed up by thinking about it.

But he soon got over it.

And only his analytical skill was left in his mind.

'Let's say that I really have the skill and I activated it. Will I become an athlete who has a good stamina and agility or will I know how to be athletic like playing sporting events.'

He thought deeply and imagined some absurd things. He hated thinking something irritating but he really likes thinking something satisfying so he just continuously thought about what happened at midnight earlier.

'Okay. I'm not bad at imagining things but it's just an imagination. However, this time I will try to do my imagination in this real-life even though it sounds crazy.'

Liam then decided to try it. Not just from his imagination, but in this real-life, just as he said.

He thought that nothing can happen if he could just try it.

He was currently at the point of his life where he doesn't know what to believe because he felt like he didn't need to care about anything anymore so he just has to go with the flow as any other people did in their meaningless life.

If it doesn't work he would just forget the things that had happened last night including the voice and the time he hit his head, thinking that it was just a vivid and painful dream.

But if it did work...

"Then it would be really great. And I would be like a player in a game with only one skill. haha."

He released a short laugh before he let out a heavy sigh.

'I must be going crazy to do this.'

Liam soon opened his mouth gently.

"Athletic,"

He said with a faint voice.

As soon as the word 'Athletic' echoed, something happened to his body.

His whole body feels somewhat lighter than earlier and it's still getting lighter. A strange feeling kept arising in all of his muscles. It wasn't numb but like a hundred or so small ants were crawling inside his flesh.

Liam looked all over his body. He was surprised and a bit scared by the fact that his imagination somehow became real.

"W-What is the– No. I... I must try this skill. It will definitely beneficial for me in the future."

Liam said with great really wanted this to happen since he started imagining something like it.

Since his parents passed away, he thought to himself every day that he has to be independent, but his independence has been dragged down by his lack of talent, wisdom, and skills. He was never been good at anything in life.

Finding a part-time job was already hard for him. With his below average stamina, agility, and strength that even a work of moving heavy things easily made him tired.

If not for the fact that he always had to get help from his best friend Ian, who has a wealthy family, he would definitely not be studying at school today.

The cash in his parents' bank account was only enough for the food and some utilities for him to live in a whole year.

It was truly a hard time. He wanted to beat the 'talent' and learn some skills for him to use but...

How could he? He couldn't get a skill just by idling around, studying at his school, and finding jobs, could he? With all of the hard things in his life, he was living with despair in his heart.

But now that he got a skill for only the cost of intense pain. How could he not take it and use it?

WHOOSH

Liam immediately ran. He decided to go around the pond like he had previously wanted and now he was currently running really fast.

In just a second he was now at a distance of approximately 3.5 meters away from where he was earlier, with a single step that moved for over 1 meter and his stamina was barely decreasing. It was an achievement hard enough for even the healthy adults.

With the Athletic skill, He was just as fast as an energetic adult, who always used to jog every day in the morning. And compared to him without the skill, he was just like a weak child running for something stupid.

'I'll definitely use this skill to turn my life better.'

Since that day, Liam always used the Athletic skill every day. When he have free time, he used it to jog in the morning so he can get his stamina better. Sometimes when going to school he frequently used the skill so that he can save money from going to public transportation. He could now also work at some part-time jobs.

He even once used it to run in an event called "Junior Marathon". It was a smaller version of a marathon with a distance of 10km, and he won the 2nd place.

Even though he could not win against an athletic 19 years old, who had gotten the 1st place, he was still pleased because he received a prize money.

Even if it's still a small amount of money that he could grasp from his own hard work, it was enough for him to tell himself that he can live independently.

_______

Present Time

Liam smiled as he recalled the beginning of his comfortable life four years ago.

But he suddenly remembered something.

"Wait! Five years ago. In the warehouse. I was buried under the ruins right?"

Liam thought the time where the warehouse exploded, but he was still sound.

'That means that there was a really high and a frightening chance that I would get pierced, squashed, or get completely burned by something from the whole mess that day. It's not like I have a godly luck that I made it in the below the one percent chance, so it can only mean that... I regenerated at that time.'

Liam just realized that he was so stupid enough to not know about the regeneration skill.

"Hm? So the Project-X that day... It is the godly 'System' that I currently have right now. I really am a living lab rat."

He also recalled the time when he was in the gigantic glass box and the things he had heard from the gigantic monitor. Project-X was already inside him.

PWISH

The bandages that were fully covering Liam earlier were nowhere to be seen in his body. He tossed it at the trash can near the door before he stood up and walked in front of a huge mirror.

He was wearing a patient wear that he saw from under his bed earlier. A sky-blue pajama and long sleeve shirt.

He grabbed the cloth on the shoulder part then he slid it down.

What he saw was a big scar on his shoulder.

"Hm? So serious injuries still leave a scar."

Liam then slid it back.

He looked around the room to find something.

'As expected of a VIP room, there is also a small closet here. I wonder if Ian would pay for this or he would just spout some things that will make the staff frighted. kehe-'

Liam picked out the black sweatshirt and white pants from the closet and immediately wore them.

CREAK

Liam went and opened the door. He looked outside but he didn't see someone. He slowly stepped outside the door.

He changed the door sign inside the room which was exclusive for VIP members to "Do not disturb for 1 hour" so he was sure that no one, not even doctors could possibly be able to go inside his room for 1 hour.

He grabbed the hood from his back then he slid it to the front. Half of his face was now covered with it.

'I will now go to the dead guy and get some skills for myself. Fast and Stealthy...'