Rebirth

"WAKE UP YOU MAGGOTS!!!"

Ezra heard a loud voice order as a strange sensation came over his body… 'Body.. My body… Wait…'

"My body.." Ezra said out loud as his eyes opened to face a ceiling of rocks and, rocks. It seemed to be a cave at first sight.

There was no way to explain what was happening to him at the moment, to say the least, it felt really strange and unreal. It was simply too good to be true.

Picking out of his memory, all he could remember were the final moments before his death. In the end, he wasn't even sure how he died, but he was certain that it had to be monster's doing. Though that was what he thought, he had his body perfectly fine now, and felt no discomfort in any area as he brought himself to his feet.

The entire experience was surreal for him, and he could also feel something within him at work. It seemed like his emotions were unnaturally under control.

'That's very strange. I'm perfectly fine with no signs of injuries.. Maybe I didn't die?' Ezra thought to himself. Before he could go further though, a thick stench of blood assaulted his nostrils. He looked around, and even in the poorly lit environment, he could tell there was no blood on the floor anywhere, and the smell was quite intense.

In such condition, it didn't take long before his eyes crossed his shirt, and then his trousers. To put it mildly, he was completely soaked in blood and covered with other things that he all too recognized. It was best not think too much about it.

Ezra then looked around his environment again, this time actually doing a thorough scan of the place. Nothing seemed out of place anywhere, except for the fact that he had no idea where he was, or why he was here. Nevertheless, he was grateful for being alive.

'I was sure I heard a voice call out to me, and a disrespectful one too.' Ezra thought to himself. Now though, it seemed that was just an illusion to him. After all, he had no idea of the time he spent floating in the void.

'I wonder which way to go?' He thought to himself, as both of his arms sided two separate directions.

Just before he decided on which, Ezra was hit with another strange phenomenon. Maybe it was an effect from coming from the dead, but he wasn't as surprised as he thought he would be. On second thought, it had to be the same thing suppressing parts of him within.

Lo and behold, before him, was a system interface.

He needed not to ask any questions, as a voice came right after, but this one contained no sense of familiarity in its tone, and almost sounded mechanic. If anything, it was like an artificial intelligent voice that sounded humane, and not the other way around.

[Launching Sequence] […]

[Greetings candidate]

'Candidate?' Ezra said to himself in his mind. The choice of word of the system was a bit troubling. Everything that appeared on the system interface was read out by the voice feminine voice so that Ezra also heard the words while reading them.

[New Mail has arrived… Opening mail]

'Automatic?'

[The system has fully integrated and will assist the candidate in his quest]

'What quest? This is a bit fishy.'

[Daily quest has been received. Open]

This time, the interface remained the same, and the system didn't act on its own. Ezra didn't know exactly what to do, whether he should touch it, or maybe he could control it with his mind. Acting base off instincts, he used his hands to click the open that was highlighted in blue.

When the next window opened, the system didn't read the text contained in it and simply displayed it. Looking at the things written on there, Ezra was a bit speechless. He never expected what was before him to be the answer at all.

..

[DAILY QUEST]

Complete the set goals before the day runs out if not a penalty will be handed out. On completion, rewards will be given.

Push-Ups - [0/100]

Sit-ups - [0/100]

Squats - [0/100]

Running - [0/10km]

Time remaining: - - : - -

..

'Really? The bald head training, huh?' Ezra said to himself in a bit of disbelief. Although he thought that the daily quest sounded ridiculous, he knew better than to ignore it. He wasn't really in so much of a hurry to find out what the penalty would be for not completing it. Also, the area that showed how much time he had left seemed to be broken, as there was no time represented.

'Anyway, I'll do that later.' Thought Ezra, as he ignored the system before taking one more quick glance around. "Where am I supposed to go now? Which direction?" He said to himself. Surprisingly, the system gave him an answer and advised that he went down. He wasn't really sure which way was down, but he soon figured it out and headed that way. Of course, he was bare footed, so it wasn't really too comfortable walking around. The ground wasn't all too convenient to walk on bare footed in most areas.

After walking for a while, he could feel the blisters that were starting to form under his feet, and they were growing numb as time went on. He needed a solution for that. Good thing his shirt was already torn, so he didn't feel like he was exposing his bare skin when he took it off and tore it into shreds to tie around his leg.