Multi-Self / 6

It was early in the morning, 8 am to be exact. And currently, Chai was at the supermarket, wearing baggy pants and a hoodie, her arm resting near her side while it was holding onto the basket that was filled with many food supplies and makeup for herself.

Although she didn't bother separating her stuff which was unusual. She was browsing through the noodles section of the supermarket, trying to find a certain Indonesian noodle pack that had her interest.

"Where is it.."

She muttered to herself while trying to look around, then a voice spoke from behind her.

"If you're trying to look for it. It's out of stock miss."

She turned to see that it was one of the employees that was responsible for stocking the shelves, she would pout with a sigh.

"Aw man.. I wanted those so badly!"

She complained, the employee chuckling lightly before gesturing his arm towards the other shelves.

"How about you choose something different? It won't hurt to change."

"I guess.. But I don't think changing what I like is simple pal."

"My apologies."

The employee would nod, just standing there and staring at her. Chai felt uneasy around this certain employee.

"Not your fault really.."

She said nervously, before she could move an inch, the employee spoke again.

"I'm sure Zodiac would like this."

He was pointing at a certain shelf that was filled with the noodles that Zodiac enjoyed, she stepped back while maintaining a cautious distance around them, her expression angry and worried.

"Who are you? And what do you want from me?!"

The employee would just sigh, taking off the cap they had slowly, for a few seconds, the face they had began glitching and morphing turning into a certain shape-shifter..

"Who else?"

"You're.. You're!.."

Chai paused, trying to remember the name of the guy, Multi just stared blankly at her before putting a hand on his hip.

"Multi."

"Yeah! Multi guy!"

"You're dumb as a rock it seems."

"Takes one to know one! Anyways, what do you want? Just because my bestie isn't here with me.. Doesn't mean I'll go out without a fight."

"Calm down woman. I'm just here to talk. Well, not here specifically, let's go somewhere private."

"Why would I come with you.."

"You know, I could become someone else, follow you to your home, and maybe kill you there without anyone knowing. So it is best that you cooperate."

Multi just smiled with a nod after his sentence, turning around to walk in the opposite direction.

Chai knew that he was right, she had no choice but to listen to him. Although, she didn't forget to pay for her groceries first before the both of them left.

After a couple of minutes passed by with the two of them walking side by side, they ended up at a secluded area outside the supermarket, it was still early in the morning so there was less people.

Multi was leaning his back against the hard wall, his gaze at Chai's while he kept his usual smile.

"Glad that you could cooperate with me."

"More like blackmail."

"Tomato tamato. Anyways, I wanted to talk to you about him."

Chai would raise an eyebrow, her right hand resting on her hip while scoffing.

"Wow, I'm not shocked at all."

"Sarcasm is not helping you at all right now. Although it is true, I'm mostly interested in him, you are of no use to me other than someone I could potentially kill or, use as a hostage."

"I can believe that. But you don't even know where he lives. And you're not getting crap out of me even if you kill me."

"I don't need to."

Multi chuckled, his arms crossing while looking elsewhere, then continuing his sentence.

"You see, he was streamed last night to almost thousands of people worldwide, what he can do and the potential he has is astonishing, to say the least."

"He was streamed? Was he?.."

"Nope, he wasn't killed. From that bastard of a twink.."

Multi's face scrunched up just by thinking of the streamer that had met Zodiac, most likely a rivalry between the two of them. Chai was just confused about his current expression.

Multi would compose himself with a sigh, looking at Chai with a serious expression this time.

"Look, all we wanted is for him to join us. We have our orders that if he does not cooperate. Things will not end well."

"You mean he'll be hunted by you guys?"

"Precisely. Most of us do not want to, but some of them like a challenge. Especially the bloodthirsty ones.. And, it will not be long till he runs into them."

"Them?"

"Classified information for you."

"Whatever then, is that all? Why bother bringing me out here?"

"I want you to convince him to join us. Overnight he had gained the eyes of people from the world in just a few hours. What he can do.. It can help him, and us."

Chai was a bit surprised about Multi's sudden favor, it wasn't a demand, it wasn't a threat, but a request. She wanted to say no so badly because it's not her deal to disturb Zodiac.

"I'm sorry. But I don't think he'll listen to me, even though I am his best friend. He has his standards."

"Unfortunate."

"Couldn't your uh.. Bosses just talk to him?"

"Our bosses and leaders are quite busy fellows. They do not have free time to-"

Suddenly, Multi's phone began ringing from his pocket.

"One moment."

He grabbed it out of his pocket, holding it gently before tapping the call button, bringing it to his ear before answering.

"Hello? Oh, it's you... So you've saw him? That's convenient.. What?"

Chai was quite curious about the conversation but decided not to pry any longer, just standing still in front of Multi while he continues on with the ongoing call.

"I see. Alright, I'll talk to you later."

He ended the phone call with a sigh of relief, putting his phone back to his pocket before looking at Chai with a smug smile. This just confused her even more.

"What? Do I have something on my nose?"

"Nothing. My job here is done."

Multi would stand straight, stretching his neck around before walking away. Leaving Chai unanswered and confused about what they meant, but she decided not to pry any further. Walking back to the parking lot to her car so she could go home.

"Hope he's okay.."

---

30 minutes ago, before Multi had met up with Chai. Zodiac was out in his neighborhood for a jog, wearing the usual pants and a simple shirt, along with a hoodie jacket so he won't get hot nor cold.

He noticed that his stamina was more than before, and he can endlessly recover his strength with the help of the system.

"Damn. I haven't stopped since I got out of the house. This feels.. Amazing."

He chuckled, feeling relieved at the sight of his body now becoming even better than ever. Mostly due to the system.

He continued jogging at a balanced pace, not wanting to waste energy that quickly or tire himself out, then suddenly, the system screen pops out of nowhere with the options:

[A. Get Faster for 10 seconds]

[B. Restore Stamina]

"Let me see how fast I'm going to be if I choose it."

Zodiac nodded at the Option A, the system screen closed with his body glowing a faint white color.

"I don't feel any different.."

He spoke, stopping himself from jogging, he can feel the white color surrounding his body, it's as if it was some sort of aura. He opened the system's screen to see the countdown still having 10 seconds.

"Maybe I should start running again?"

He shrugged, getting himself ready to run. Only to suddenly run 150,000 miles per hour, arriving at a different country that he was unfamiliar with. Although, he somewhat ran on water and without passing or destroying any buildings in the process. As well as people.

"What the fuck.. Is this?"

Zodiac would look around, he was somewhere bustling and busy, the streets filled with multiple kinds of people, workers, street artists, and just some normal looking people. But the tall buildings and billboards around the area made it clear where he was.

"Am I in fucking America?"

He muttered to himself, since his country was a bit far from America, and for him to reach it by running through water and land to end up here was baffling. Not even the people around him noticed that he got there out of nowhere. Mostly because they're glued to their devices.

The system screen would open again to see that he had only 4 seconds left until the effect of him being fast would run out.

"Shit.. Better get out of here."

He muttered to himself, beginning to sprint 121,000 miles per hour this time to arrive back to where he ran from. The timer ended. Luckily, his hometown was pretty close to the US and back.

He was panting heavily after that, he didn't expect to gain such incredible speed, the system was absolutely scaring him and impressing him at the same time.

"I think.. I shouldn't choose options that aren't specific.. I need a break. Huh?"

From the corner of his eye, he saw something glowing at the next turn of the road. Curious what it was, he walked towards the strange lightning, now hearing some sort of glitching and ruined noise?

After turning to the corner, he would see a glitching red entity, just floating above the ground and at the edge of the path. It seemed pretty weird and he didn't know what it was either.

"This looks a bit weird."

Out of nowhere, the system screen popped up, the words saying:

[Red Glitch found. Quest Unlocked.]

[Beat the Red Glitch's Boss. Reward: System Capability Upgrade.]

"Red.. Glitch?"

He paused, walking forward to the glitching entity then stopping just in front of it, a hand on his chin while looking at the system and the glitch.

"Could this.. Maybe related to the system? If it wasn't then it wouldn't have reacted to this. Then again, if I beat it I'll upgrade the capability.."

Zodiac muttered to himself while having mixed thoughts, but ultimately, he decided to see more for himself.

"Might as well."

He nodded, reaching a hand out towards the glitch, then suddenly absorbing him into it. Along with the glitch disappearing with him.

Unfamiliar footsteps would be heard just from where Zodiac was. An unknown man, looking a bit casual and tired, his white slightly long hair flowing, his normal attire just being a white plain t-shirt and long black pants, a sigh would come out of his mouth before pulling his phone out and contacting Multi. Putting his phone in speaker mode and speaking.

"Hey, just found your guy. And he entered the Red Glitch. Looks like the only problem we have now is if he'll come out alive or not."

He spoke before ending the call immediately, putting his phone back into his pocket then walking away. Leaving to no clue who he was.

---

"Ugh.. Where am I?"

Zodiac would look around, seeing nothing but broken wilted trees, the wood was black as charcoal, almost looked like it at least in his eyes.

"It said that I have to beat the boss. But what the hell does the boss even look like?"

*He muttered annoyed, starting to walk forward to see if he can find anyone. But nothing, no monsters, entities or weird creatures entirely.*

"This is getting weirder and weirder.. Maybe I shouldn't-"

A faint noise could be heard behind him. His awareness heightening as he turned to look what it was. It was a black figure, almost like a person, but at the same it wasn't.

Then they began shaking and twitching. Their body changing entirely. Zodiac raised his guard up, putting his hands up into a defensive stance while waiting for something to happen.

"Wait.. What am I doing here waiting for it to change? Fuck it!"

He grinned cockily, before speed blitzing towards the unknown creature, throwing a hard punch directly at the face. For a brief second, he saw the creature's eyes open. Then a large pile of smoke would cover around them, leaving no vision to whatever happened.

Once the smoke faded away, Zodiac's hand was caught by the creature, they had finished changing. The hand that had caught his resembled a human's. But it wasn't just any human, it was himself.

"You.. You're.."

Zodiac was in shock, he found himself, but this one was different, their eyes had a different color. The original having the normal color, whilst the other had a pair of ruby eyes, glowing brightly.

The other Zodiac smirked, letting go of their fist. Getting the chance, Zodiac jumped away from them, making enough distance so that he won't get caught from a sudden attack.

"Who are you? What are you?"

The other Zodiac sighed, dusting off the pile of dirt on their clothes. Even the clothes he was wearing currently was identical. Before the other spoke, his voice the same as his.

"I am you. But not entirely, I am a part of you. A thought that's shaped into your image."

"A thought? I don't understand what you're getting at.." Zodiac said, getting his hands back up into a defensive stance, his expression now serious and curious.

"Oh please. Don't act like you haven't thought about it. You obtained something great, something amazing! A System. I know what you had in mind the first moment you got it." The other Zodiac laughed maniacally, as if teasing his original self.

"Yeah. The first thought I had is how I should get rid of this."

The other Zodiac would scoff, while waving their finger. "No no nope! Not really. When you saw what it can do. A part of you thought that you can use this to conquer the world! Do whatever you want! Be rich, have power. Popularity!" He said while opening his arms, gesturing it in a very weird manner.

"You're.. Not wrong. Wait, you're my.."

The other Zodiac smirked, finishing their original self's sentence.

"Intrusive thought. It was pretty obvious the moment you saw me you know?"

"Not really, I didn't expect my intrusive thought to be this annoying." Zodiac said letting out a laugh, it wasn't to provoke his other self but for some reason. It worked?

Other Zodiac or, I-Zodiac is what we'll call it for now, formed a nerve at the side of their head, his expression now being entirely pissed off and annoyed.

"Really now.. Well then. Maybe I'll just kill you and escape this place."

"I'd like to see you try."

"So be it."

Before Zodiac could move, the system screen would appear at his side, granting an option to be chosen. The choices were:

[Danger. Boss Fight Engaged.]

[A. Boost Physical Prowess]

[B. Obtain a Mithril Dagger]

[C. Predict every attack]

(So many choices.. A dagger wouldn't help because I don't have any experience using it. But the C and A choices are good.. Man, what am I going to choose?)

Zodiac thought to himself, his defensive stance still up while his eyes kept looking directly at his other self, the both of them not making a move.

I-Zodiac would chuckle, before speaking something out of the random.

"Oh right, I forgot to mention. Because I am a part of you, I can hear, and see whatever you're doing. Especially that system."

"You think I didn't know that?"

"Maybe!"

I-Zodiac shrugged, with Zodiac clicking his tongue in an annoyed manner. His eyes would look back to the system before picking:

"Boost Physical Prowess."

A faint lightish aura would emit around him. His strength would gradually get boosted and enhanced, along with his vulnerability, stamina, endurance and speed. He felt relief when he chose this. But something felt odd.

He looked at I-Zodiac to see them smirking.

"For someone that can see my system but not able to use it, you're confident about winning this."

"Oh yes, I can't use it. Only you can. But I did mention about me being a part of you right? So.."

I-Zodiac suddenly started glowing a faint light emitting around his body, obtaining the same enhancements that Zodiac had just obtained a moment ago.

"That means I get whatever you chose as well."

Zodiac realized that he actually chose the right option. If he had chosen B, then maybe both of them wouldn't know how to use it. But the option C was the worse option. Choosing that would not only get a hit on himself, but on I-Zodiac.

Heck, the battle would even last for days or weeks until one of them gets tired.

"Good thing I didn't choose C.. That option may have gotten me killed."

"Enough chit chat! It's time for you to die!"

"Not unless I kill myself- Well, my thought, first!"