Akira's heart raced at the distant, piercing scream that broke the quiet of the night. "What the hell was that?" he muttered, turning towards the direction of the sound.
The E.D.D.S. was quiet for a moment before speaking again, this time without its usual smooth charm. As it spoke, the words appeared in his vision.
[WARNING. EXTERNAL ENTITY DETECTED. MINOR ENERGY SIGNATURE. HOST IS CURRENTLY VULNERABLE.]
Panic flooded through him. He scrambled towards his bed and grabbed the dagger he'd tucked under his mattress.
"Alert," the system said in a more serious tone. "Low-level demon activity within host's immediate vicinity."
"Demon? Here?" Akira's voice cracked.
"Yes, darling. The one you killed wasn't alone. More are coming through."
He crept to his door and locked it, then moved to the window. His hands trembled as he peered through the curtains into the darkness outside. Nothing moved. The street was empty, and the houses were quiet.
But the scream had been real.
He stayed there for several minutes, watching, waiting. Still nothing.
'I can't really stay locked in here all night,' he thought to himself.
Taking a deep breath, he unlocked the door and peered out into the hallway. Shadows shifted in the dim light, but there was nothing unusual.
The scream had stopped, and his house was silent, except for the hum of the refrigerator downstairs.
The fear was real, but so was the curiosity.
He slowly walked out, checking all the rooms in the house. Living room… empty. Kitchen… nothing. Bathroom… clear. His parents' bedroom felt especially lonely with them gone for the week.
As he reached the front door, he heard the soft patter of rain beginning to fall.
Should I really go outside?
"If you're going to hunt demons eventually," the system said, "you need to learn to face them."
"I'm not hunting anything," Akira muttered. "I'm just... checking."
"Of course you are, darling."
He grabbed a jacket and forced himself to step outside, pulling the door shut behind him.
The cool air hit his exposed chest beneath the thin jacket, and rain droplets immediately soaked into his hair. The heat of his fear was stronger than the cold.
He walked slowly, dagger hidden inside his jacket, checking around the house. The street outside was deserted. He felt foolish, jumping at shadows like a scared child. But then he caught it, a faint metallic smell hanging in the wet air… almost like… blood.
"System, do you smell that?"
"I don't have a nose, darling. But yes, I detect it. Animal blood. Something died nearby."
As he reached the corner, he looked over at the public park across the street. That's when he noticed a quick shadow, tall and thin, darting between two big oak trees before disappearing into the darkness.
It moved too quickly and strangely to be a person.
"Did you see that, System?" he muttered, clutching the dagger tighter.
"Affirmative. The shadow belongs to a scout from the realm that the lesser demon you killed escaped from. They are testing the stability of the dimensional barrier. Do not engage; I repeat, do not engage."
[THREAT LEVEL: HIGH FOR CURRENT STATS]
"Dimensional barrier? What the fuck is that?"
The system sighed, as if explaining to a child. "Remember when I told you about the dark forces trying to corrupt this world? The barrier is what keeps our two worlds separate. When demons appear, it means a breach has opened somewhere nearby."
"So... there's a portal? Here?"
"Not yet. But if enough demons gather, they can force one open. That's why scouts are being sent… to find weak points."
"And I'm just supposed to... what? Ignore it?"
"For now, yes. You're far too weak to do anything. You'd be dead in seconds against a real threat."
Akira gritted his teeth but turned back toward his house. The rain was falling harder now, soaking through his jacket.
Suddenly, the screen lit up in his vision:
[DAILY TASKS ACTIVATED]
[TYPE: RECURRING TASK; CYCLE: DAILY; LENGTH: INDEFINITE]
[GOAL: GROW STRONGER AND BECOME PHYSICALLY FIT]
[TASK 1: RUN 500M DAILY]
[TASK 2: 30 PUSH-UPS DAILY]
[TASK 3: 50 SIT-UPS DAILY]
[REWARD: 20 PP + 3 CHARM PER COMPLETION]
"Daily tasks?" Akira asked, now back inside his house, dripping water onto the floor.
"If you want to be better in everything, you need to be stronger. Much stronger. These tasks will help build your foundation."
A moment of silence passed. Then Akira asked, "Why are you helping me?"
"I help you rise from your current state to become someone powerful, and you help me keep the demons in their world. It's a Win-Win."
He towelled off his hair and collapsed onto his bed. "Fine. Seems we'll be stuck with each other for a while."
"Sounds like, yeah."
"Then, I will need to call you something other than 'System.' It's weird."
"Oh?" The voice sounded amused. "What did you have in mind?"
"I don't know... any name got your attention?"
"Ai… call me Ai."
"Alright, Ai. Now let me do my homework."
He opened his laptop, pulling up his assignments. But as the screen loaded, a notification popped up… a tag on his social media account. Against his better judgment, he clicked it.
The video from two nights before was still there. Still viral. The engagement had tripled since yesterday. Thousands of comments, most of them mocking him.
"Still can't believe he thought he had a chance lmaooo"
"Update: Creep King was seen harassing another girl today. When will he learn?"
"Someone needs to put this guy in his place"
Akira's jaw clenched. His hands balled into fists, knuckles white against the laptop's edge. "They're still laughing," he whispered. "They're still fucking laughing."
"Let them," Ai purred. "Their laughter will turn to screams soon enough."
He slammed the laptop shut. "I'm going for a run."
"Now? In the rain?"
"Now… I might as well start my daily task now."
He switched into his workout clothes and stepped outside. The rain was cold and pouring hard, but he brushed it off. He just had to move, had to release the anger that was boiling inside him.
[DAILY TASK 1: RUN 500M - STARTED]
—
The next morning, Akira woke to sunlight streaming through his window. His legs ached, his arms were sore, and his chest felt tight. But when he checked his stats, he grinned.
[PREVIOUS DAY TASKS COMPLETED]
[REWARD GRANTED: 20 PP + 3 CHARM]
[CURRENT STATS:]
[CHARM: 7/100]
[POWER: 5/100]
[PERV-POINTS: 90]
"Not bad for one night," he muttered.
It was Saturday, meaning no school. He spent the morning doing his tasks again: running through the neighbourhood, doing push-ups in his room, and doing sit-ups until his stomach burned.
By afternoon, he'd gathered all his savings and headed to the phone store downtown. The new phone was expensive, but necessary.
As the clerk configured it, transferring what little data he could recover from the cloud, Akira felt a strange sense of control returning to his life.
The day blurred past. Homework, training, and eating whatever he could find in the fridge. Before he knew it, evening had arrived.
Time for his session with Mia.
He grabbed his gym bag and headed out, hiding the dagger at the bottom just in case. The gym was only a ten-minute walk from his house, and the streets were busy with weekend crowds.
When he arrived, he headed straight for the changing room. But as he opened his locker, he noticed something off… there was a new scent in the air. It smelled like ozone mixed with something sickly sweet, like rotting flowers.
His instincts immediately screamed danger.
Then, in his peripheral vision, he saw it: a small, shadowy figure, roughly the size of a large dog, scuttling across the floor. It resembled a squat gargoyle, with leathery skin and glowing yellow eyes, darting into an unused storage closet near the janitor's sink.
His vision lit up.
[WARNING. EXTERNAL ENTITY DETECTED. IMP-CLASS ENTITY, LOCAL SCOUT THREAT LEVEL: LOW]
"In the gym?" Akira whispered, his heart racing.
"Yes. It's hunting for energy signatures. Probably sensed you."
"What do I do?"
[ALERT: NEW CHOICE AVAILABLE]
[OPTION A: RUN AND HIDE. REWARD: NIL]
[OPTION B: FIGHT AND RISK INJURY. REWARD: +3 POWER]
"You really are stingy with those points."
Akira looked around. The changing room was empty for now, but people would be coming in soon. If that thing attacked someone...
He reached into his bag and pulled out the dagger.
"I can't just leave it. I choose Option B."
[CHOICE DETECTED: OPTION B]
"Brave. Stupid, but brave." Ai's voice held a hint of approval. "If you're going to fight, do it fast. Imps are weak individually but vicious."
Akira approached the storage closet slowly, dagger ready. "Here goes nothing," he muttered, and kicked the door open.