A difficult choice

Rey sat back up eagerly to hear what the old man had to say.

"Well I can't do anything about your system. Once bonded, it will stick with you until death unless you go the extreme. So getting a new system is out of the question for now."

"Then you can't do anything, right? I got my hopes up for nothing." Rey was extremely disappointed.

"Who said i can't?" the old man now took it as a matter of pride to resolve this, "I only said that getting a new system was out of the way."

Rey eyed the old man like a boss giving his employee the permission to continue.

"The only realistic soulution is to change your system model in the official records."

Rey sprang up into an attentive position as he didn't expect the old man to go such lengths for him.

"But you'll have to convince the other elders which will not be easy and making sure that my system model doesn't overlap another will be even more challenging."

"Hoho! Seems like you know the risks in this and so I assume you also know that this will not come without its price."

"What price?"

"Don't worry for now, just take it as a favour that you owe me."

"Fine, what can an old man even ask and moreover I don't have anything to give."

"Don't be like that, I'm sure you'll be able to give me something I want."

"I'll see when the time comes, but tell me how will you do it?"

"The elders won't be difficult as they all are my subordinates, so no worry. "

"Really, your subordinates?"

"Why do you think they didn't create a scene at the ceremony?"

"I did find that weird and now I know why. Hmmm, and what about the model?"

"You know that most of the children who got their systems will go to level up and train for the upcoming entrance exam in a year." In a more serious tone,

"What if.... what if an unfortunate boy who went to train with below average skill, were to accidentally... accidentally encounter a high level monster and unfortunately got killed. I can exchange your system model with his. "

"…....."

".....…" Rey looked at elder Yan with a pale face.

"Well, what do you think?" elder Yan leaned back in his chair with a domineering look and Rey felt like the pressure in the room suddenly increased.

"That definitely is a great plan, but I'll need to think about it. I'll tell you by tomorrow. Bye gramps!" Rey tried to get up and leave as the pressure was getting unbearable.

He felt the pressure that a high level operator could exude without even moving.

"I would've given you more time had I had any of it. But the official list will go tomorrow to the capital for record keeping and changing your system model will certainly not be an easy thing to do.

So, I need you to make a decision right now."

Rey could now feel the burden that was placed on him. He started sweating as the decision was a very important and difficult one.

On one hand, there was his future which was on the line and on the other side of the scale, there was the future of an innocent person. Should be prioritise his future or become a lab rat to save another.

'What should I do? I can't simply endanger someone else but my future is also at stake. Ughhh.... what is this stupid choice?" Rey looked up and saw a sinister smile on elder Yan's face.

'And that old man is certainly not making it easy for me.'

'Reeeyyy Shhhheeeellldiiinngg!!" Voldemort called out to Rey. Wait, wrong novel!

'Reeeyyy Shhhheeeellldiiinngg!!" Rey seemed to hear a voice in his head.

'Who is it? '

'That's not important. What's important is that you take this opportunity. '

'But that.... '

'But what Rey? What will you do once your system details get out?'

'There has to be another way, surely.' Rey was at a crossroad and his inner voice was only pushing him to make the decision he didn't want to make.

'Think about the past and your promise to yourself.'

'Take it Rey! '

'Take it Rey!! '

"I'll take you up on your offer gramps." elder Yan was shocked, even though he gave him the choice and even related it to his future, he didn't believe Rey to make the choice.

He looked at Rey and saw his eyes which had lost their cheerfulness. Only selfishness and the resolve to do anything for his future was there.

"Hoho! Interesting... very interesting." Rey was brought back to reality in hearing the old man's words.

"What's interesting?"

Elder Yan paused for a moment and after deciding something, "Nothing, you may go now. I have lots of things to do."

"Su.. sure but don't tell anyone, okay gramps!"

"Of course.... of course!"

Rey walked out of the house and the Mayor's residence but he had that uneasy feeling that there could have been another way.

"*sigh* What's done is done. I just hope it doesn't come back to bite me in the ass."

BACK AT THE OLD MAN'S HOUSE,

"Do you think it will be worth the hassle Yan? That boy looked a bit soft to me. "

"Don't worry about that, I saw that look even for a brief moment in his eyes. He may act like this now, but once triggered, I can't even imagine what he'll do."

"I'll trust you on this one and tell the others to start with the operation. "

Elder Yan looked out the window as he saw Rey leaving the Mayor's residence.

------------------------------------------

After an eventful day and a lot of wandering, Rey was back in his room and cheerful self.

"Ah! What a day it has been. So much happened and I couldn't even check my system."

"Status window." Rey was nervous about what will happen with his system and with a simple command, a screen flashed in front of him. But as soon as he saw it, his expression became grim.

"What the hell is this?" Rey asked as he looked at the text on the screen which was written in an unknown language.

"Ehhhhhh!.... just when I thought that maybe it is not that bad, it had to be in an unknown language. My life is ruined because of this old junk." Rey cursed on his misfortune.

[Who are you calling old, you twerp?] a mysterious voice sounded in his ears.

"Who is it? Come out!" Rey was alerted at he looked all around himself to find the source of the mysterious voice.

'Could it be sound transmission? But there isn't any expert except for gramps and I would have definitely known if it was him. Then, who is it?"

As he was thinking, the same voice spoke again,

[Where are you looking? Can't you see me?] Rey again looked around but after finding nothing, he looked at the only present thing worth of doubt, his status window.

'Nah! it's impossible. ' though Rey was having his doubts about the status window, he soon dismissed them as a system that can talk was unheard of in the entire continent.

Though instances of systems that were more receptive than the others were recorded, a talking system was just not possible according to him.

"I must be dreaming. Better go to sleep." Rey was ready to retire for the night as the fatigue was finally kicking in.

[This brat, ignoring me. Fine as you wish, I'll not talk.]

As the voice stopped, he noticed that his status window also closed, but as a consequence his mouth remained open and all his fatigue was gone. He was now sure that it was his system talking.

'Wait, wait, wait! How's this possible? This day just keeps getting weird. '

Rey tried really hard to recover from his initial shock and with a calm head tried to think.

'Is this really happening? ' he now was somewhat accepting of the fact that his system was talking and decided to play a little with the system to test it.