3 | Rebirth and the System

"Are you sick?" A cold hand touched Sage's forehead. She opened her eyes and everything looked hazy. Her eyes felt warm and teary. She tried to mutter an answer but a high-pitch whistle rang in her ears. She felt as if someone was dribbling her brains and lost consciousness. 

[System successfully optimized for host needs.]

Sage finally woke up after hearing a mechanical gender-neutral voice. It was so loud that her brains trembled. "Can you lower it down?"

[Replying to the host. What should I lower down?]

Sage was shocked and fumbled on the bed to sit down. "What, who the hell is speaking?" She looked around and saw no one. But what shocked her the most was that the place was familiar. 

"This looked like my high school…"

"Darling? How are you doing now?" An old lady's voice suddenly resounded in her ears. Question marks appeared inside her head when she saw the old high school teacher who loved her in 8th grade. Teacher Luvim was one of the few teachers who trusted her too much. 

"Hello Teacher Luvim?" Sage asked questioningly, still unsure of what was happening. 

"What happened to you, darling?" Teacher Luvim sat on the bed and checked Sage's temperature. Meanwhile, Sage slightly backed down while staring warily at the teacher. 

"Well, I don't know." 

'Except I was sure I was already dead and a ghost was talking to me. Or is this a glimpse of my past before dying completely?'

"She collapsed in her classroom because of high fever." The science head teacher, who was also the school nurse, replied. 

Teacher Luvim felt that Sage was fine now, but she said otherwise. "Sir, can you give her an excuse letter, so she can go home? I felt that her fever has not yet gone down,"

Teacher Luvim continues to murmur, "What if she won't be able to graduate on time or attend the ceremony?"

Sage stared at the caring teacher in front of her. Teacher Luvim was her Home Economics teacher in 8th grade. She had no memory of collapsing because of high fever, nor the teacher paying so much attention to her. 

Luckily, the loud ghost that had been bothering her like an annoying alarm clock fell silent. 

[The system is not a ghost, host.]

Sage flinched in surprise but quickly hid it. System?

[Yes, I am a System, host.]

Sage interacted with the teachers, got the nurse's permit to let her go home, and sent the letter to her classroom. 

Sage was looking around while talking with the System. "What does a system do?"

[The system will assist the host to achieve your goals and complete the system missions.]

Sage went to the school gate and encountered the guard she was friendly with. 

"Little Sage, where are you going?"

Sage smiled weakly and replied, "Sir Guard, the nurse told me to go home since I'm sick and need rest. They don't want me in the clinic because my house is just 250m away from this gate." She pouted.

Neither the nurse nor Teacher Luvim said any of those words. Sage just added those scenarios to let the guard pity her. 

[Compulsory Task: Tell the Guard the truth about your lie and apologize. 

Destiny Credits: +5,000

Duration: 00:00:57

Punishment: Disappearance of the System]

Sage did not hesitate and said, "I'm sorry, I was lying. Teacher Luvim asked me to go home out of care."

Between curiosity about the system and apologizing, the former weighed more in her heart. She could not let the system go just like that without knowing what it really was. 

The Guard only chuckled and did not mind what was going on with Sage. He unlocked the gate and let her out. But before that, the guard grabbed a few coins and handed it over to her. "Buy some medicine for the cold. I know your family isn't there."

Beads of tears ran down Sage's cheeks. Her two hands were holding the coins as she sobbed heartbreakingly. She slowly turned around while still crying. 

The passersby were curious while she was crying while walking. Her lips perfectly appeared with a down arc. The heaving of her lungs made fragile mothers feel sorry for her without knowing why. 

Was there really no one kind to her? From the looks of it, she was ignoring the kindness that people gave her. She thought that getting privileges out of pity was a natural human response. She had not seen it but from the nurse's words, her classmates quickly came to the rescue to bring her to the clinic. Then, there was Teacher Luvim who worried about her unnaturally, and the guard who gave her some coins to buy medicine. 

[Compulsory Mission Completed.

+ 5,000 Destiny Credits.]

[Wisdom +3]

[Upgrade EXP +500

System Upgraded to Level 2!

Unlocked the Past Archive]

[Congratulations to the host for achieving a title!

<WISE NOVICE (Passive)>

Description: The host has simultaneously received rewards from the system more than five times and increased wisdom stat to 3 without basic knowledge of the system.

Increase 5% chance of receiving a random Chance Encounter.]

Sage wiped her tears with her blue blouse. She also rummaged through her bag to find her water bottle to stop herself from hiccuping. The cashier might not understand what she would say later. 

"Do you know why my classmates, Teacher Luvim, and the Guard are acting weird today?"

 [Replying to the host. The individuals mentioned have natural affection towards you. The chance that they will do the same thing in your written past is more than 90%. This means that the host had not allowed them to do those things in the written past.]

"My fault again," Sage sniffed and wiped the tears on her eyes. "What is destiny credits?"

[Destiny Credits is the currency of the System. It is also known as the karma point of every living human. The host's destiny credits is different from other people. The host can trade, convert, and buy items using this currency.

The host can only earn Destiny Credits from missions, trading, converting, selling services, encounters, and system bonuses.]

"So I am reliving my past to learn life lessons before dying? How old am I right now?"

[System detected that the host has no memory of what transpired before regression.]

[A physical part of the system accidentally landed on the host in the year 20xx during the disassembling process of the 01000100² body. During the process of assimilating with the host, you have regressed to 20 years back. The natural order has aligned the dimensional difference between the system and the host's timeline which matched to 20xx. The system has scanned all information of the past timeline to be able to assist the host's needs.]

Sage was speechless. "You mean I am currently 16 years old?"

[Yes, host.]

[The system can provide you with tasks that are divided into three categories: Compulsory Mission, Chance Encounter, and Main Mission. 

A Compulsory Mission is a mission you cannot skip and has a corresponding punishment if failed to complete it. Compulsory Missions are directly related to the host's decision-making capability.

Chance Encounters are random missions that only provide excellent rewards. However, the chances of this type of mission coming out are only 50%. The only way to increase the percentage is by getting titles such as the <WISE NOVICE> that the host has equipped, and increasing luck points. 

The Main Mission is a fate-changing task that can affect the host, the future, and those around the host. The highlight of the Main Mission is the capability to choose varying difficulty between easy, normal, and hard. However, I advise the host to choose wisely.]

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Sage approached the small pharmacy and asked, "Can I buy one paracetamol?"

"How many?"

Sage secretly rolled her eyes when she looked down to count her money. She already told her she would buy one. Is the pharmacist deaf? Sage flashed an impatient smile and replied, "One."

"Do I have something like a status panel?" Sage whispered while waiting for the slow pharmacist to complete her order. 

[Yes, host.]

A flash of green light startled Sage, and a transparent panel with intricate borders appeared in front of her. 

[Sage Everest <WISE NOVICE>

System Lv. 2

VIT: 2 /5 WIS: 7/5 LUCK: 1.5 

Personal Assets: Earring, Socks, White T-shirt

Shop / Search

Destiny Credits: 5,001]