Investigating the panels

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Mark - Lvl 1

Tier: D

Race: Human

HP: 50/50

SP: 20/20

STATS

Power: 10

Agility: 10

Mind: 10

Defence: 10

Endurance: 10

Luck: 0

Unused Stats Points : 0

SKILLS

None

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As Mark kept reading this strange panel, which looked like one out of a video game, he started rethinking if he was under the influence of some drug.

"Do you want me to help you get to bed?" Lylah said in a concerned voice.

Mark turned towards her, with some confusion in his eyes as he wasn't used to people showing concern towards him. However, he raised his hand a bit to signal her he was ok, as he grabbed the side rail of the bed and used it to get himself on top of the mattress.

He noticed that as he moved, the panel also moved for it to stay in front of him. At that point, he realized it appeared when he had thought of the word 'status,' so he repeated it in his mind.

'Why did I even use that word? Did something control me to do so like before? 'he thought to himself as he remembered how he spoke unwillingly back towards Lylah to let him alone in the bathroom.

An idea popped into his mind, as he thought 'Status off 'and the panel disappeared. So he repeated the word 'status' in his mind, and the panel once more appeared, and he kept it open as he wanted to read its content a bit more extensively.

"Can you bring me some water? "he said as he turned towards nurse Lylah.

She seemed surprised by his request, or maybe that he talked to her without her starting the conversation.

"I can bring you some juice if you want. It can help you get better sooner."

Mark nodded at her as this would work better than what he had in mind. He needed her to leave the room so she wouldn't notice him acting strange while examining this 'Status panel.'

"I will be right back. Just stay in bed and don't try to stand by yourself. If you get nauseated again, use this for now. "

She had a small plastic bucket in her hand, which Mark hadn't noticed until now. His stomach was feeling better, but the last time, that sickness appeared out of nowhere, meaning it could happen again.

As Lylah left the room, Mark turned his attention toward his Status Panel. Since it didn't have too much written on it, it didn't take long to examine it, and being disappointed over the lack of something specific.

'It says nothing about the Voice's standby. Could it be that I need to open some other panel?'

Mark was familiar with video games; even after being exiled by his family, he didn't have that much time or could afford to play any. But he was a fan of RPG Games where the character had a [Status] like that.

'Let's try the basics. Journal?'

As he finished his thought, another panel appeared on top of his [Status]. They had a similar design, the only difference being that this one was gray, and almost nothing was written on it. There was only one sentence with bold red letters in the middle of the panel saying 'NO ENTRIES. '

Mark kept trying some more words to see if he could open another one and succeeded with a couple.

He had found that [Inventory], [Store], and finally [Truck Status] each made a panel appear. He also found out that he could interact with those panels, but mainly he could press a button at their top left, which had an X in them and allowed him to close them without thinking of the corresponding word.

[Inventory] and [Store] were classic ones in most RPG games, which was why Mark found their existence that soon. As for [Truck Status], he thought of trying it after remembering that he had heard the Voice before coming from his truck in that mysterious tunnel.

The [Inventory] was just separated into different boxes that should be slots for items, but all of them were currently empty. Counting them, Mark noticed that there were five rows, each with eight slots, meaning he could put up to forty items in it.

He wasn't sure how he could put any items in it and didn't worry about it for now, as he looked for clues about that mysterious standby mode the Voice spoke about.

The [Store] panel had three buttons on it, each with a different text in them. The buttons had <Driver Skills>, <Truck Upgrades>, and <Items> written in them in that order. The <Truck Upgrades> button was red and a bit transparent, indicating he couldn't press it.

Finally, when he opened [Truck Status], he got a panel similar to his [Status]

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TRUCK-KUN

Driver Sync: 32%

HP: 6/6

SP: 2/2

STATS

Power: 3

Agility: 3

Mind: 3

Defence: 3

Endurance: 3

Luck: 3

TRUCK UPGRADES

Unavailable

CONDITIONS

Standby Mode

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Unfortunately, by the time he finished reading it, Lylah had returned with a plastic cup and a juice bottle. Since Mark didn't want to draw attention to him, so he stopped his investigation until he was alone.

Lylah helped him get more comfortable by bringing one more pillow to put on his back, which Mark was initially reluctant to accept. This wasn't his first visit to a hospital, but he was often here for a checkup or some other examination, so he wasn't staying in a room for long.

He knew that his assurance wasn't the best, and wouldn't cover his stay at a hospital for a long time, so he didn't look forward to the bill. But there was nothing he could do now, as the doctor had told him to rest, and he could feel that he needed it, but for another reason.

His body once more didn't feel tired after getting out of the bathroom, although he could still feel that he didn't have perfect control over his body, especially his legs. But as time passed, he could feel them getting better, like a numbness that needed time to pass, but it didn't feel like that.

An hour of silence passed in the room as Lylah didn't seem the conversationalist kind, even if she was more than ready to be helpful. So Mark did something about it.

"Miss Lylah. Do you know how long do I need to stay? If I have been in a coma for a couple of months, I have many things to do. "

He remembered the explosion on his truck at his last delivery, so he needed to see what had happened to it. He was confident that the Voice had something to do with his truck's situation because of the weird memory in that strange tunnel.

Mark didn't consider it a dream, even though he wasn't sure how he was that certain. Whenever his mind was going in that direction, something inside him 'persuaded' him to think otherwise.

It could be one more side-effect of those drugs he assumed they gave him, which was another reason he made that question. If they were monitoring him because of the administration of drugs, they would need to keep him around for more time unless they already got whatever results they wanted.

"Eeh?!?. Oh… Dr. Kiran is… is quite busy today. But he should come to check you out later tonight."

Mark could tell that, most likely, Dr. had found out about his background, and since Mark was no use to him, Dr. Kiran was focusing on more high-class patients. It wasn't the first time he had a treatment like that, which sometimes seemed better to be with no background at all.

His background was supposed to be a secret, but he knew that his 'parents 'didn't mind others knowing about him unless it negatively impacted them. So when people learned about it, whatever excitement they had at first turned into anger towards him, even if he had done nothing to them. They felt like he deceived them, even if he wasn't the one who told them about his background, but little did they care.

"Do you mind leaving the room until the doctor comes? Don't worry about me; I will just take a nap in the meantime."

Mark yawned to show his tiredness, and after adjusting his pillows a bit, he put his head on them and closed his eyes to sleep. Lylah stayed to stare at him for a few seconds, but then she stood up and quietly left the room.

Mark, of course, didn't plan to sleep, but he wanted her to leave the room. So, after hearing her moving away and as he waited a bit to ensure she didn't return, he opened his eyes and looked around to ensure he was alone in the room.

After not seeing anyone around, he once more took his sleeping position and had his back on the room's door, so once couldn't see his face from outside. Then he opened [Truck Status] and pressed the <Standby> entry under the condition with his finger.

That action, as he presumed, opened another panel.

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STANDBY (CONDITION)

Description: Lack of energy brought the user into a comatose state. As a result, the user can't use any of its abilities until the condition is over.

Duration: Unknown

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