CH4: A SYSTEM!

Max eventually woke up after the incident last night. He was feeling, hot and his entire body felt like it was boiling so he went and took a cold shower but nothing was happening. He tried putting a couple of ice cubes in his shirt but they were melting to fast. " Oh man....what's happening to my body." He wondered.

  Max went back to his room and crouched on the floor. He still had three hours before school started so he had a little time to try and figure out what was happening to his body. As he was still on the floor, Max saw a red dot beeping at the bottom corner of his eye. Thinking it was probably some tiny particle that got in his eye, he gently tried to remove it. As soon as he touched his eye, a flaming red notification screen showed up right before his eyes. Max was startled and quickly sat up before realizing the screen had the words  Mutant System on the very top.

  Unlike the system novels he read where the MC gets a blue notification panel, Max's system panel was flaming red. It looked like fire was moving on the screen and all the words on it were either blood red or fiery yellow. " What the...is this like the same system novels from long ago?" As Max was still perplexed about this 'system', a pop-up screen showed up. It read:

[ CONGRATULATIONS. YOU HAVE RECEIVED THE MUTANT SYSTEM. SELECT THE FOLLOWING MUTANT SPECIES OF YOUR CHOICE. NOTE? THE SYSTEM HAS FOUR MUTANT VARIANTS FROM A WHOLE VAST COLLECTION. TWO ARE COMMON AND TWO HAVE NEVER BEEN HEARD OF. SELECT WISELY.]

"Mutant system!" Max shouted. " Is that what the briefcase had?" Max finally remembered what happened to him last night. The excruciating pain that came after touching the small red box and the message he read before passing out.

[ !WARNING! You have two hours left before the system chooses for you. Select the following Mutant species of your choice]

Seeing that he only had two hours left to make a decision, Max first closed the system panel and went on his laptop to do a little research. His body was still burning and although he was a little weak, he wanted to research more about mutants. Checking on the web, Max types *mutants* and they had many sites that talked about mutants, explained about them and even some sites allowed users to meet mutants, for a small fee of course.

" Wait what am I looking for again." Max opened the system panel again and looked at the four mutant species the system had to offer.

[Select from the following species:

1. Animal trait Mutant. Description; ( whoever possesses this form will be able to alter any part of their body into the animal that their body is compatible with.)

2. Body-altered mutant. Description; ( whoever possesses this form will be able to alter any part of their body at any given time.)

3. Fire Mutant. Description; (mutant traits unknown.)

4. Dead Mutant. Description;(???)

" What the hell is a fire and dead mutant?" Max asked himself. He heard of animal trait mutants and body-altered mutants, like Pharaoh, but he never heard of a fire altered. He searched on the web and the closest he got were a couple of people who could make fire out of their hands, nothing less, nothing more. He also searched for dead mutants but they only showed pictures of mutants that were killed. " Damn this stupid search engine. Well, there's no way I'd choose a dead mutant so an animal and body-altered mutants are the only options I've got."

Max selected the animal trait mutant because it seemed cool to him. He imagined having the strength of a gorilla or the speed of a cheetah. However, when he chose it, the system said:

[ !ERROR! The host's body is not compatible with this form. Select another form.]

" WHAT!" Max complained. He was looking forward to getting the animal traits but now that his body was incompatible with them, he was furious. After cooling off, Max decided to go with the next best thing, the body-altered mutant. Sure he'd end up like Pharaoh but he had no choice. If he didn't choose, the system would pick something for him and he thought it would go with either fire or dead mutant, which he didn't know of and therefore didn't want to select them. He selected the body altered mutant tab but once again, the system showed the same annoying message:

[ !ERROR! The host's body is too weak to be compatible with this form. Select another form.]

" The actual freaking hell!! Why would it say I'm too weak? I'm not weak." Max looked at his arm and flexed but there wasn't much muscle showing. He fumed again but then the scary bit finally kicked in. He was left with two choices, either the Fire mutant or the Dead Mutant. " This cursed system. It's like it only wants me to select the fire mutant. What the hell's wrong with it? What idiot designed this thing?" After complaining his heart out, Max finally came down and said to himself, "I hope the fire mutant just means I get to throw fireballs and not literally be made of fire." Max gulped as he slowly moved his finger to the system menu. When he selected the fire mutant, the words slowly burned away into fiery dust. Another message showed up that said:

[ CONGRATULATIONS; YOU HAVE SELECTED THE FIRE MUTANT. TRANSFORMATION WILL BEGIN NOW]

  Time froze and Max's felt like he lost control of his body. Max's legs stopped touching the ground as he was slowly lifted into the air. Two small yellow lines coiled around his body like snakes until they went over his head. After reaching his head, the small yellow lines grew and they started becoming hotter and larger. From small yellow lines to large fire lines, the heat radiating off of them was burning Max alive. He tried to scream but his skin fused together. His lips, nostrils, eyes, and ears fused together like melted rubber. The pain in his body didn't stop there. Like a fire sword, the yellow lines pierced into his body, cutting all of his bones and restructuring them again. Max couldn't cry for help, he couldn't see and he couldn't hear. All he could do was go through the excruciating pain until it would end.

  As fast as it happened, it all disappeared and his body went back to normal. His lips, nostrils, eyes, and ears de-fused but his body temperature was still high. Max rushed to the mirror to check if there were any noticeable changes. The only thing that slightly changed was his hair color, which was now a brighter red, so bright it looked like it was glowing. He slowly touched his hair, thinking it was hot, only to realize it was just...hair.

" System, what happened to my body?" As soon as Max said those words, the system screen popped up and showed three notifications.

[ CONGRATULATIONS. YOU ARE NOW A FIRE MUTANT. YOU HAVE MORE THAN THE ABILITY TO SHOOT FIREBALLS.]

[!WARNING! YOU ARE BURNING UP. IF YOU DON'T COOL DOWN, YOU'LL SLOWLY BURN OUT AND DIE.]

CURRENT STATS.

[Name: Max Lin]

[EXP 0/10]

LEVEL:1

[HEALTH 50/50]

[ENERGY 20/50]

[STATE: NORMAL]

BASE STATS

STRENGTH 5

STAMINA 5

DEXTERITY 5

ENDURANCE 2

FIRE RAGE STATE: 100

" Just as I thought. It is like a system from those system novels." Max said as he read his stats. Looking at his base stats, he became disappointed in himself. He knew he wasn't the strongest but the system made him look incredibly weak. As he was scrolling, he felt the energy leave his body very fast. He checked his energy stat and saw it at 15.

[ !WARNING! YOUR TEMPERATURE IS RISING AT AN ALARMING RATE. COOL YOURSELF OR YOU'LL BURN OUT]

Max got dressed and grabbed a small snack to eat as he went to school. The second the sun hit his body, his body began to feel better. He didn't know why but when he got under the sun, all the energy he lost came back. The way it worked was simple. If he didn't get any warmth from natural sunlight, his fire mutant cells would burn out, just as his system notified him. If the cells burned out, he would enter into an energy-reserving state and would probably never wake up.

[ Your temperature has subsided, and your energy is being replenished. Keep yourself warm and you'll not burn out.

[ Quest available].....