The Greatest Gift

The next morning; Jimmy woke up to a rather unfamiliar atmosphere. It didn't seem like it was his house or the X-mall's room where he was supposed to sleep. The walls looked old and shabby. However, it looked much cleaner than his own room. Ever since, Jimmy's mother Martha stopped tidying his room, it has never been clean. However, this room was taken care of. "Where the hell… Ow!" Jimmy tried mumbling the words,but felt a sharp pain in his lower jaw. He then recollected the events that occurred last night. Even recollecting those memories were painful… to reminisce about the beating he received in the beginning, to falling unconscious in the end. He failed to do any sort of impact. He failed to protect… "PIERS!" He gasped as he was reminded of the idiot who stood up for him.

"Yea? You called me?" Suddenly, Piers popped out of nowhere, which caused Jimmy to freak out.

"What the! Wait, you're fine?" Jimmy asked as he checked upon Piers' face and body.

"Yea, all thanks to you!" Piers smiled as bright as the sunshine.

"Me? But, I didn't do anything…" Jimmy didn't know what Piers was talking about. The last thing he could remember was someone asking if he wants help and him replying yes. So, he thought that person was the one who saved them. However, it seemed like Piers made some sort of mistake.

"What are you talking about? Don't you remember punching and kicking people like it was nothing? Damn, it was awesome! You were fighting like the awakened beings we usually see on television! However, your mumbling made it a bit weird though." Piers replied.

"Mumbling?" He was interested in what Piers had to say since he was the lone eyewitness of the event. Even though Jimmy had a hard time believing what he told, he did need every bit of information to make a clear picture in his head. From what he just heard, he believed that he might have been controlled by some awakened being with the power of body possession and then he proceeded to defeat them. And if the mumbling was some kind of magic chant, his hypothesis would make total sense.

Piers tried to think of what Jimmy mumbled last night. Since last night was chaotic, he couldn't remember much of it. However, he did remember a thing or two. "Well… You said something like 'Mission Status- successful' or something." Piers replied, trying to replicate the robotic voice that he had back then.

"Mission?" Jimmy asked. However, as soon as he uttered those words, a screen popped up before him.

[System:

Mission- Save Piers

Status- Success

Rewards- Enchanted gear, 1000 XP (-500 XP due to System Override), Piers' loyalty- Unlimited, 100 Stat points]

"What in the world is this?" Jimmy mumbled as he stared at the screen before him.

"Hmm?" Piers wondered what Jimmy was talking about, before suddenly 'realizing'. "Of course, I forgot to properly welcome you to my humble abode. I'll get tea or something! Just wait." Piers jumped up and ran out of the room.

"Ah, no…" Jimmy tried stopping him, but Piers was long gone. It seemed like he misunderstood Jimmy's mumble as a word against his hospitality, even though that wasn't his intention at all. However, now that Piers was gone, he went back to staring at the screen before him. "Now, I still don't know what this screen or how this materialized. It seems like I'm the only one who could see this and I can flick it around to wherever I want! Cool!" He spoke as he flicked around the mission successful screen.

(Are you impressed?)

Jimmy heard a voice, but he couldn't see the person behind the voice. "Who is it?" He asked.

(Wow, little Jimmy! All those letters and you still don't know who I am?)

Jimmy could hear the voice clearly, however he refused to accept it as reality. "Ah, damn! All those punches and kicks are making me hallucinate now… To think that I would conjure up an old guy voice in my hallucination rather than a sexy female voice is… disappointing." He sighed.

(This is not a hallucination, little Jimmy. This is reality!)

The voice tried to reconfirm its existence until Jimmy accepted it as well. However, one thing particularly irked Jimmy. "What's up with the little Jimmy thing? Either call me Jimmy or don't call me at all!" Jimmy barked.

(Damn, you really forgot me, didn't you? You used to sign your name like that when you send those letters to me…)

The voice sounded disappointed at the fact that Jimmy didn't recognize him. Jimmy sighed. "You… All you have to talk about is some damn letter. When did I ever send you a letter?" He asked.

(Well… You sent me this, remember?)

Just as the voice spoke, a letter manifested out of thin air. What was one became two, two became three and so on until hundreds of letters lay around him. Overwhelmed by this amount of letters, Jimmy didn't know where to begin with. So, he braced himself as he took one random one. "This!" After glancing at the content of one, he looked at another one and then another, before finally realizing the common thing about these letters. "These are the letters that I sent when I was a kid, when I used to think Santa was real! What kind of a weird old freak are you to collect these letters sent by a kid, like a madman?" He asked with a disgusted look on his face.

(Ouch, that hurts a bit somehow! But, it seems little Jimmy is curious about my identity… Wait a minute. I'll show you who I am!)

The voice disappeared after that and only the screen and a heapload of letters remained. Exactly a minute later, the mission screen before him started to malfunction. Well, to be precise, the letters were all gone and the screen started to widen in size until it became exactly the same size of a big screen television. A corresponding video came up with the voice this time.

"Tada! You recognize me now, little Jimmy?" The man in the video asked as he showed off his costume.

"You!" Jimmy was shocked. Long white beard and a perfect white mustache, a chubby old man wearing a red suit with white lining. There was no doubt about this man's identity. "I stand corrected. A cosplaying weird old freak, it seems… Goodness, why do I have to deal with this guy now?" Jimmy sighed.

The old man seemed flustered upon hearing this. "Oh, come on little Jimmy! How long are you gonna deny it? You think that some random freak could manifest a screen as grand as this? Make you a system like this?" He asked.

"Hmm, so you don't deny the fact that you're a freak… Interesting." Jimmy replied.

"That's not what I… Ha…" The old man sighed. "Okay, are you still angry about me not replying to you for all these years? I'm sorry! Your letters were lost in transit. I just received it as the bulk you see before you."

"So, you decided to dump it back to me because you don't have the decency to just keep the letters to yourself then…" Jimmy spoke. Although, one might think that the words spoken were emotionless, but if you are keen enough to explore, one could sense deep rooted hatred and fury in them.

"Oooh, so you don't deny my existence and my real nature then!" The old man jumped around in joy.

"I don't know what you're talking about, old man…" However, Jimmy acted as if he said nothing and denied the old man's claim.

"Nah… You just spoke as if those letters were meant for me to safe keep. That means you realize, don't you? You realize that I am Santa Claus! Ha… I finally made you acknowledge me, even though it was due to pure hatred. Why do you hate me so, little Jimmy?" Santa asked.

Jimmy sighed. "Why do I hate you? My entire childhood… I spent my entire childhood believing in the Christmas miracle. I thought that maybe if I wrote a letter to Santa everyday, he might end up giving me power by the time Christmas comes around. I placed my trust in you for so long and now I come to know that you never read a single letter that I sent you! How do you think I feel?" Jimmy asked.

"But that wasn't my fault though! They messed it up in transit. They sent it to Jack Frost in the South Pole instead of me in the North Pole. And that bastard Jack for some reason never handed me those letters for all those years… So, please don't blame me, little Jimmy!" Santa was in tears as he spoke.

"Don't blame you? Even if you didn't get those letters, you have a list of children who have been good and naughty, right? Then, where's my gift? Why did I never get anything from you?" Jimmy asked.

Santa wiped off his tears and smiled. "Fret not Jimmy! I just gave you the greatest gift that any child ever got from me. This system is the gift that I personally built for you!" He proclaimed.

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