Jack West jerked upright in his bed, his lungs burning as if he'd just run a marathon through a furnace. He scrambled to his feet, heart hammering a frantic rhythm against his ribs. "Another weird nightmare," he wheezed, wiping a thick layer of cold sweat from his forehead. "I really have to stop reading comics before bed."
To shake off the lingering dread, he reached for his phone and blasted his favorite phonk playlist. If there was anything that could get a "Nerd" ready for the soul-crushing reality of high school, it was the raw, aggressive energy of phonk. Passo Bem Solto filled the room, the heavy bass vibrating the floorboards and centering his mind.
Jack smiled faintly."Yeah… that's the stuff."
He glanced at the clock. His alarm hadn't gone off. "Crap! I'm gonna be late!"
He bolted out of bed, nearly tripping over a stack of old comics, and rushed toward the bathroom. Toothbrush. Face wash. Speed-run the morning routine.
He scrambled toward the bathroom to splash some water on his face.He flipped on the lights and looked up but as he caught his reflection in the mirror, he nearly had a heart attack. He froze, his breath hitching in his throat.Jack screamed and stumbled back, slamming into the door.The reflection staring back at him looked like he'd crawled out of a grave.
The boy in the mirror wasn't the clean-cut, albeit nerdy, Jack West who had gone to sleep. He was covered in grime and smeared with the stench of death.
His clothes were torn in multiple places, fabric shredded and frayed. His entire body was smeared with filth:dark streaks of grime and dried residue clung to his skin like he'd rolled around in something dead. His hair was stiff, tangled with tiny grains of sand, as if he'd spent the night at the beach and never bothered to wash it off.
His glasses were even worse.The lenses were chipped and cracked, small pieces missing entirely, the frame bent slightly out of shape.
And then there was the smell. Jack gagged.
He smelled like he'd gone swimming in a gutter. Or a garbage pile. Or both.
"What the hell…?" he whispered.
"What... what happened?" he whispered, his hands trembling.
That's when he heard it.
It didn't come from the phonk music. It didn't come from the hallway. It echoed inside the very center of his skull:loud, clear, and cold enough to send him straight to hell.
[System Initialization at 15%...]
Jack froze. His toothbrush slipped from his numb fingers and clattered into the porcelain sink with a hollow ring. Suddenly, a translucent, neon-blue interface flickered into existence, floating right in front of his eyes.
[Host Detected: Jack West]
[Status: Conscious]
[Initialization Progress: 15%]
"AHHHH!" Jack screamed, jumping back and nearly tripping over his own rug. "I've finally lost it! I've gone crazy! The comics finally broke my brain!"
[Woah, woah!] the voice snapped, shifting from robotic to a tone that felt strangely informal. [Take it easy, Jack. Don't go passing out again. We've got a lot of ground to cover.]
Jack's eyes widened behind his broken lenses. "Again? So... last night... the alien? The ship? It wasn't a dream?"
[Last night was very, very, very, very real,] the System replied dryly.
The door to his room burst open. Maya stood there, looking like she'd just been jolted out of a deep sleep. "I heard you scream! It sounded like you were being abducted !"
Jack immediately snapped his mouth shut. He forced himself to look normal, though he was still vibrating with adrenaline. "Yeah! I just... uh... I beat the boss in a chess game! Cleared the final level, so I decided to do a little victory shout-out!"
Maya stared at him, her eyes traveling from his frantic face to his torn, dirty clothes. "That was a shriek of pure terror, Jack. And why do you look like you fell into a landfill?"
"Your ears are probably just fooling you," Jack said quickly, stepping in front of the sink to hide his mess. "And I... I was just cleaning under the bed. Dust, you know?"
Maya turned to leave, then paused, squinting suspiciously. "Did I hear you talking to yourself.I heard voices.?"
"Nah, that was just a voice recording!" Jack stammered. "A reminder to complete my science experiment. I don't want to forget,okay?"
"You are a weird kid," Maya muttered.
"Don't barge into my room and bombard me with questions!" Jack shouted, his nerves fraying. "I didn't commit a murder!" He hesitated, looking at the blue screen still hovering between them. "Maya... can you see anything in front of me? Like a bluish interface or something?"
Maya stared at the empty air two inches from Jack's nose as if he was. "And the weird gets weirder. No, Jack. There's nothing there but your bad breath."
Jack growled, grabbing her arm and pushing her toward the door. "You can't just waltz into my room whenever you want just because our rooms are next to each other! Out!"
"Mmm-hmm, sure." Maya squinted one last time, looking at him like he was a specimen in a jar.
"Wait," Jack said, his voice dropping as she reached the hallway. "Can I tell you something?"
Maya stopped, her expression softening for a split second. "Yeah, of course. You can tell me anything."
Jack looked at her, the words I have a system resting on the tip of his tongue. But he caught himself. If this was real, he didn't trust her to keep it a secret. She'd tell the world in an instant. And if it was fake,if he was actually going mad.Julian would have him locked in an an insane asylum and throw away the key before lunch.
"Actually... never mind," Jack said.
Maya's knowing look returned, even more annoying than before. "Ohhhhh. Yeah. I get it. If it's about all that puberty shit or whatever, you should probably talk to Julian or Mom. They could give you 'The Talk' or something." She shuddered with genuine dread. "I definitely don't want to hear it."
Jack's face turned a shade of red that rivaled a tomato. His eyes darkened with pure fury. "GET OUT, MAYA!"
"Okay! You're welcome, asshole!" she shouted from the hall. "This is the thanks I get for being nice for once!"
Jack waited until her door slammed shut before leaning against his own. "I have finally lost it," he whispered. "Talking to my own myself."
[You weren't talking to yourself,] the System responded instantly. [You were talking to me.]
"This is all in my imagination." Jack insisted.
[Oh, really?] the System snapped, sounding genuinely pissed off. [So how do you explain last night? The alien, The spaceship. The fight with the shadow-clad stalker. The chest full of books. The fact that you appeared in your bed without any form of help? Even your appearance in the mirror isn't gonna fool you.]
"Are you... are you angry?" Jack asked.
[No. How can I be? I am just a highly intelligent robotic system who can't feel any human emotions or have any sense of human feelings.]
"Are you being sarcastic?"
[What's it to you?]
Jack sighed, rubbing his temples. "So, what exactly are you?"
[Consider yourself a host to me. A symbiote.]
"Wonderful," Jack muttered. "A parasite."
[That's not what I said. I can help you get stronger and improve in ways no human can ever imagine.]
"What? How do you mean?"
[I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise.]
"What about the alien and the fight? Tell me about that."
The system went quiet for a moment. [That's a story for another day. Focus on the present, Jack.]
"Fine," Jack said, looking around. "At least tell me about the chest full of books. Where is it?"
[It's in your System Inventory. You can access it through the interface. Just think about the command.]
Jack closed his eyes, imagining the screen. Suddenly, a status screen bloomed in his mind's eye.
<0/100 EXP>
"Wow," Jack breathed. "It's like those ancient RPG games people used to play a lot."
He noticed other tabs at the top of the screen. As he thought about them, the screen swiped to a new page.
<0 Skill Points Available>
Everything was greyed out. He swiped again.
"Can I do anything?!" he shouted in frustration.
He opened the Inventory. Inside, he saw five glowing book icons. "Wait, I thought there were six. How come there are only five?"
[The missing one is the 'System Book',] the voice explained. [It was absorbed to create the interface you're currently complaining about.]
Jack focused on one of the icons, and suddenly, a physical book materialized in his hands. The cover showed a tiger in a martial arts pose. The title read: Kung Fu Beast. It looked like something out of a cartoon. He flipped it open, but the pages were blank. At the bottom, a tiny prompt appeared: Unlocks at Level 10.All the books were the same,locked.
"Great," Jack muttered. "Everything is locked."
He opened the final tab:
Jack opened and closed the interface a few times, a grin slowly spreading across his face. It was real. He finally had something.
"Okay," Jack said, his eyes dancing. "Phase one. Testing. Fire! Fire, come on!" He thrust his palms forward. Nothing. "Water! Out!" He tried again. No results. He spent ten minutes trying to fly, turn invisible, or grow claws.
Again and again;failure.He clenched his fists.
After trying out many different things and all the abilities and superpowers he had seen he was unable to perform any of it.What the hell is this useless thing.
Was is a joke? Another cruel test?
He slumped onto his bed. Was he making a fool of himself again? Was this just another cosmic joke meant to mock his powerlessness?
But then he thought about the game logic. If this was truly like a game.If he completed the quest,he would eventually get stronger and unlock more skills. He looked at his bent, broken glasses. He felt a surge of cold anger. He was going to make Marcus pay for that alleyway incident.
He noticed something then. Despite the dirt and grime, he wasn't hurt. He should have had broken ribs and a concussion,shattered organs,even a headache at least but his body felt... optimized. He was completely unhurt from this fight with Marcus one of the benefits of unlocking the system.He pulled open his drawer and grabbed his back-up back-up back-up back-up back-up back-up glasses.His 38th pair, to be precise.
He slid them on, but immediately jerked them off. "Whoa."
His vision was a blurry mess with the glasses on. He blinked, looking at the wall. He grabbed a pencil and drew a tiny 'J' on the far side of the room. He stepped back until his back hit the opposite wall.
"No way..."
His vision was perfect. After a lifetime of literally blind without his lenses, he could see the texture of the paint on the 'J' from across the room. The System had fixed his eyes.
He couldn't go downstairs without glasses, though. That would be too suspicious and would bring a lot of questions.Questions that he didn't need. He grabbed a pair of non-medicated, clear-lens frames from his cupboard. Problem solved.
He sat on his head and grabbed his journal, his heart bubbling with a joy he hadn't felt in years. He wrote with a flourish:
Day 1831 of Superpower Testing.
Result: SUCCESS.
Powers Gained: Inconclusive.
Reason for success: Aliens and magical books.
Jack lay on his bed with a satisfied expression finally he had succeeded after numerous trials and countless failures he had won he had superpowers or something close to that.
"Eat that, Julian!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.
He looked at the clock. 7:15 AM. Superpowers or not,super heroes or not.He had a physics quiz. He grabbed his bag and dashed out of the room at the speed of light.He took the stairs ten at a time, his feet barely touching the marble. He felt light. He felt dangerous.
As he sprinted down the stairs, he knew this was only the beginning of an adventure of a lifetime. He was going to change the world, and nothing:not Marcus, not his brother, and certainly not the laws of physics was going to stop him