A Purple Tie Event

"A living one…" Ian looked away from his mother. "I guess I can keep my mouth shut about something I have heard lies about for my entire life."

"You have any idea how nasty those things are?" his mother asked.

"I do. I sort of killed one and brought back the tail."

"I'm glad you are all right." His mother smiled, but the smiles she smiled never quite reached her eyes. "What about your system? Hopefully, you received one and it's not too…"

"Dangerous? No, it's not," Ian lied. "It won't make me much money, though."

"I assume you are asking for some coins. I have none," his mother said sternly, pinching the skin on her temples.

Ian felt bad about stressing her out. She had been in a major facial surgery a few months ago and was still recovering. He was not supposed to ask her for more money.

"I'll see what I can do," Ian said, asking permission to hang up with his eyes.

"You're a good boy, Ian. Stay safe."

"Love you, mom."

Funny how hard it was to say the full thing out loud.

They ended the call, and Ian gave his system the command to check his balance, just in case. Maybe his mother had lied about not being able to help.

"Balance, please."

[CURRENT BALANCE: 5 000 000 EARTH COINS]

Ian went unconscious from the pure, unfiltered shock of seeing and hearing the number.

When he came back to his senses, he could do nothing but laugh, and Lilac stared at him with two sandwiches in her hands. The nurse started to laugh as well.

"What is it?!" Lilac asked. "You look like you just won the lottery."

Ian was really starting to like this ditzy, bubbly young woman.

"Show me Lilac's stats," he thought.

[NAME: LILAC FERREN]

[LEVEL: 20]

[SYSTEM: CONCEALMENT SYSTEM]

[POWER UP POINTS: 250]

[EXPERIENCE POINTS: 300/5000]

[HEALTH POINTS: 1000/1000]

[STRENGTH: 13]

[INTELLIGENCE: 15]

[CONSTITUTION: 10]

[SKILLS: CONCEALMENT, SHADOW VEIL, TOTAL IDENTITY CHANGE]

"Those are some cool skills," Ian said.

Lilac grinned mischievously. "Did you just check out my system?"

"Maybe?" Ian smiled at her, raising his eyebrows. "Would that be a bad thing?"

"Depends. You wanna buy me a coffee and go out and laugh at people together?"

Ian's stomach turned upside down at the thought of a girl asking him out.

Then he remembered his current balance.

"We can go right now, I am feeling fine," he said, got up, and when a wave of extreme nausea washed over him, he vomited all over the medicine tray that the nurse had not cleaned up from the floor.

Lilac's eyes got really wide and she ran out of the room.

Ian shrugged, trying to be less disappointed than he actually was.

He slept a little and woke up to a group of doctors and scientists standing around his bed.

His barf-induced embarrassment quickly subsided. He felt like a real V.I.P. now! He had the top minds of the district swarming around him like flies.

"Are you feeling all right, young man?" an older doctor asked with a smile. "I heard your medication is causing you some side effects."

"I'm all right. I swear." Ian raised himself into a sitting position and noticed that the nausea had gone away.

"Would you be in a mood to talk about your recent accomplishment?" a man that seemed familiar asked Ian. Perhaps this fellow in a nice suit was a friend of Ian's father.

However, Ian did not trust him. The fellow had chosen a funny shade of purple for his tie. Ian had heard that purple was the color of insanity, but then again, lilac was supposedly like watered down purple, and Lilac, the nurse, seemed pretty chill.

"I can talk about it for hours," Ian said confidently.

The purple tie guy laughed. "Excellent. Doctor Ravens, would this be a bad time to take him for a walk in the lab?"

"Honestly?" Doctor Ravens shrugged. "I don't get paid enough to resist you people. I think he will live if nothing bad happens to his arm."

"The lab, really?" Ian was now more excited than ever. He was a millionaire, he had killed that beast and he had, objectively speaking, the best system ever. Of course he wanted to go. He could soon puke in front of any woman and they would merely swoon over his excellence.

This illusion of grandeur was destroyed by his difficulties in keeping himself steady as he walked out of the room, supported at first by Doctor Ravens.

"Word of advice," the older man whispered to him. "Don't check out anyone's system without asking permission first. Most people don't react kindly to that. With Lilac…you got lucky. She's a sweet girl."

"Can I ask what system you have, doc?" Ian asked him.

"Cancer Destroying System. I really have no business being here. Except that I can interpret blood samples like nobody's business." The doctor laughed heartily. "That stuff is an useful side product. Normally, I save people from having to go through chemo and all that costly, soul-destroying business. You know, the cool stuff I had dreams about when I was a bit younger."

They walked through the hospital and into the busy heart of 13. Ian had so many questions, but it took a lot of energy to merely stay upright, and he didn't want to get any confidential information exposed to the general public.

They sat inside a black, smooth car, running on a form of renewable energy that had been harnessed by the humanoids. It was a really cool car, with appliances that could be directly connected into the system of the so called driver. Of course, no one except for absolute hillbillies drove their own cars in this age of technology.

"Where did that money come from?" Ian asked. "Was that a reward?"

The purple tie guy commanded the car to start up and start driving towards the laboratory.

"It was a reward and a threat," the man said sternly. "It is there to assure us that you do exactly as we say from now on."