My Devil System
It was getting somewhat late in the night.
With the cold wind blowing against us, The Initializer walked beside me. She was shivering as we walked through the chilly streets. The dark leaves of the nearby trees swayed as the moon lit up the footpath we were walking on.
My body was still quite warm due to the adrenaline from the fight and the immense pain.
I took off my jacket and wrapped it around her.
"E-eh...? I-it's f-f-fine... I d-d-don't need it..."
"Just look at yourself. Keep it on."
"U-um... er... thank you."
We made our way down the street. I was taking her to the headmaster's home since that was the reason I brought her back.
Eventually, we arrived, and I knocked on her door.
Following the sound of footsteps, the door unlocked, and a very tired-looking headmaster greeted me.
"Oliver... at this hour... what are you—huh?!"
She was completely taken aback.
"Uh, I've got her."
"How on earth did you get The Initializer already?!"
"I mean, you told me to."
"Well...! Come on in then."
The Initializer and I made our way inside. The headmaster led us over to her living room. She sat on the opposite side as we all sat around a little coffee table.
"I don't understand how you still manage to surprise me after all these years."
"All these years...?"
For all I knew, I had only been in contact with the headmaster for less than a year.
"Nevermind, do you want some tea?" she asked.
"I'll take some."
She got up and began boiling some water.
Suddenly, my head started feeling weird. It was a slight, pensive pain, enough for me to notice but not enough to make me feel uncomfortable. Slowly, my vision also became blurry. Everything lost its shape, turning into smudges of colour in my eyes. There was a loud ringing noise in my ears
??!!??!!??
??!!??!!??
***
[The Devil System is currently idle]
[Waiting for conditions to fully activate...]
[Calculating...]
[...]
[Progress Towards Activation: 99.99%]
...
...
[Progress Towards Activation: 100%]
[Initiating System Launch...]
[Excecuting Order: 88123182831283821381381841284]
[Updating... 10%]
[Updating... 34%]
[Updating... 88%]
[Updating... 99%]
[Scanning vector... checking for errors]
[Host detected, initiating process 42c]
[Unloading data... 4%]
[Unloading data... 8%]
[Unloading data... 9%]
[Unloading data... 14%]
[Unloading data... 25%]
[Unloading data... 59%]
[Unloading data... 98%]
[Unloading data... 98%]
[Error... code: 72136]
[Unable to fully unload data]
[Resetting processor...]
[...]
[Unzipping data... attempting to process]
[Error... failure... code: 28561]
[Retrying...]
[Retrying...]
[Error... code: unknown]
[Bypassing safety check...]
[Safety check ignored]
[E#!R(*%R&!O#(*&R... Code: Unknown]
[Initiating forced override...]
[...]
[Forced override failed... error... code: 19854]
[Safety check activated]
[Repairing...]
[Repairing...]
[Repairing...]
[Unable to fully repair... error... code: Unknown]
[Initiating partial activation]
[...]
[...]
[Unloading features... error... code: 10583]
[Updating code... error... code: 195830058]
[Error...]
[Error...]
[Shutting down...]
!(*$&$(*!&%!(*
***
Suddenly, a sharp pain jolted me back into consciousness. I looked around. Nothing had changed. The Initializer was looking at me with a worried expression. I noticed that there was some tea in front of me. I reached down to pick it up off of the table... suddenly, I heard some weird voice.
[Your Devil System has been partially activated]
[Due to certain issues, repairs will need to be made before full activation]
What was this...? A Devil System...?
All of a sudden, a menu appeared in front of me.
-
- {Missions}
- {Experience}
- {Abilities}
- {Error... failed to fetch}
- {Error... failed to fetch}
!!*$^$#&*!
-
What... was all of this? It was like some sort of video game projection. Even though the headmaster was sitting opposite me, it didn't seem like she could see what I was seeing.
"Oliver, are you alright? You look pale."
"I'm fine... I've just noticed something... very odd."
Bringing the warm tea to my lips, I sipped on the hot liquid. The bitter taste brought me back to my senses as I tried to understand what was happening. From what I could see, there was some sort of system which acted like a weird projection in front of me. No one else could see it but me.
It had menus like a video game. I decided to click on the missions tab. Well, I didn't press on it with my fingers per se. It was like the system could read my mind.
-
[0/3 tasks completed]
1. Drink something (Difficulty: N/A)
2. Walk in a circle for five seconds (Difficulty: N/A)
3. Say, 'How's the weather?' (Difficulty: N/A)
-
What was this...? I guess it wanted me to do those things. They weren't exactly hard to perform so I drank some more tea from my cup.
[Mission completed]
There was a notification, but it didn't bring me straight back to the
[Missions complete]
"Oliver... are you alright?" the headmaster asked.
"How's the weather?"
[Mission complete]
"Um... it's the middle of the night," she looked at me with a puzzled expression, "...did you get cursed or something? You don't seem very well."
"I'm fine. I'm just testing something."
I opened the
-
[3/3 tasks completed] - Collect Rewards
1. Drink something (Difficulty: N/A) [COMPLETE]
2. Walk in a circle for five seconds (Difficulty: N/A) [COMPLETE]
3. Say, 'How's the weather?' (Difficulty: N/A) [COMPLETE]
-
I was quickly shown to another page.
-
{19x} Experience points
-
All of the screens disappeared. I was trying to get my head around all of this. Why was I seeing this? It didn't make sense to me... it didn't look like something from this world. I took a seat back at the coffee table and took a deep breath. I'll wait a little while before continuing to experiment with this.
"So, is there anything else you need from me?" I asked the headmaster.
"Not really, but if you don't mind, could you take The Initializer with you?"
"Why... don't you need her?"
"I'm going to get her to enrol at the school. I don't need her right now, so please take her if you can."
"But... I don't have infinite space in my dorm. Also, is that even allowed?"
"You've got enough for one more. Just take her. I'll make sure it's allowed. If you need money for food or whatever else, contact me."
To be completely honest, it wouldn't really be too much of a hassle to house one more person. There weren't really any big issues with me doing so.
"Fine, I guess."