A System?

SPLASH!

"Wakie, wakie, sleepyhead." A voice said in a singy songy tone, carefully dropping a bucket he had just used beside him and falling back on the seat he had fetched for himself.

'I am not dead,... yet?"

Shaking out the water splashed into his face, Ace tried to move his hands and filter out the water with his fingers, but soon he realized he couldn't move a single muscle in his body.

"What the hell?" He winced, his eyes darting towards the voice that had sung a simple symphony to him.

"You!"

"Yes, yes," He laughed, adjusting his mask while dangling the chair he was sitting on. "The honored one is here."

Trying to struggle a little to free himself from bondage, Ace grunted, still wondering why he was not dead yet.

"Who are you and what have you done to me?" He demanded, his brows narrowing, forcing him to notice a crack in his glasses.

"Don't go too fast, boy. I ask the questions here."

"And what makes you think I will give absolute answers?" Ace questioned, still searching for a devious means to get out the magical spell casted around him.

He placed his hand under his chin, watching Ace through the narrow holes in his mask before speaking.

"You're my hostage, more reasons to give…" He stopped the chair, giving it a balance before he continued. "absolute answers to my questions. How long have you known Tzuyu?"

A quick frown settled on Ace's forehead as he heard the name Tzuyu fueling his curiosity about this certain man who had almost killed him on their first meeting.

"Tzuyu? How do you know her and what do you want from her?"

The man scratched his hair a little, abandoning his seat, he took off towards Ace, casually tucking his hands in his pockets as he walked.

"You were the last human whom she saw before leaving this shop and reading your memory which is a little…" He paused, his eyes squinting underneath his mask. "Clouded, you seem to be more than just friends with her."

A brief silence ensued between them, while Ace tried to flinch a muscle to clench his fists tight at the mention of reading his memory, he couldn't help but admit he was indeed useless even at the face of saving himself.

'How much of my memory has he seen?'

"There's no need to keep to yourself about who Tzuyu is, she is dead anyway or rather, she has been dead for a long time as she was never human when she came to you."

"What?"

The spell chains suddenly broke, shattering into tiny pieces before they evaporated into thin air, setting Ace free again.

"Care to tell me more about this demon girl— Tyuzu?"

[Minutes later…]

"To settle this score," The masked man started, giving a sharp point at the crater he had caused by slamming Ace into the wall. "what do you want as reimbursement?"

As if prepared for this moment, Ace blurted out a few words.

"Take care of my grandmother's medical bills till she fully recovers…"

A ring of shock bolted out of the masked man's head and his legs gave in— almost quivering as they tried to process what they had just heard.

"Isn't that daylight robbery?"

"And…"

"And?!" He exclaimed again. "There's more?"

Ignoring his surprised spirit brutally, Ace continued.

"Find someone for me."

An ocean of silence flooded the shop, forcing Ace to look beyond the mask he was wearing and he could vividly see the emotions that raged in the man's eyes. His eyes squinted in what looked like anger and pain and Ace felt a bit uncomfortable under those piercing eyes as they reminded him of Kai— the master of the awakening ceremony ten years ago.

Finally, a slight grin tore a rift on his lips and he brought up an outstanding offer which seemed to be his main purpose of coming to the shop in the first place, but this ideology was far beneath the surface.

"How about this, you join the Nirvana academy under my guild and get everything else settled?"

Ace frowned at this offer which was brought to him on a golden platter. It sounded too good to be true.

Indeed, the strange man before him was definitely a mage, but how did he find a lowly citizen like him among various potential finds?

"Why am I suddenly not at the receiving end without exchanging favors?"

"Because I can't find that person for you. They might be dead!"

'Dead?'

He clenched his fists beside him, his anger slowly brewing at the mention of death.

'No! Anya is still alive.'

"You will get kicked out of this place anyway. Why don't you accept this offer and come with me? I sure will…"

"For reimbursement, for the broken wall, pay me 1,500 tokens and find your way out!" Ace blurted, forcing the man to stop mid sentence.

The next couple of seconds were heavy as the look in their eyes fought a battle in silence and with a slight chuckle, the man brought out a token card before flipping it to Ace.

"Sure you won't regret this, bud?"

Ace marched towards the door and pushed it open, indicating it was time the man left. Whatever he had blabbed on about Tzuyu was enough. He wasn't just going to believe the words that came out of the mouth of a man that had almost killed him and trying to fight this out was not a good idea.

A fat, bland, half blind kid against a mage?

Maybe a cliché death would be better.

Almost grazing past Ace to bounce back into the cold night, the man stopped, the neck-piece Ace had on catching his attention for the first time.

"A tribrid charm?" He quizzed, his eyes squinting in surprise to see such an item on a commoner's neck. "Where did you find this?"

Glaring at him a little, Ace said; "It's an heirloom."

"And how many siblings do you have?"

"I wouldn't be stupid enough to reveal such info to a stranger who almost killed me."

Taking Ace by surprise, the man suddenly began to laugh out loud, holding the door frame for support as he did. After a moment, he finally stopped, straightening himself before saying;

"Name's Kaito… and I'm no longer a stranger to you, Ace. See you soon!"

***

'Strange stranger…'

The lengthy night stretched its vast shadows across the whole city as Ace scurried home. The rain had stopped a while ago, but the intensity of the cold wave it had brought was still hanging in the air, forcing his teeth to seethe as he ran through the cold mist and after rounding a few corners, he finally got to his home.

A shabby apartment that was etched behind a bakery. Garbage bags littered the whole terrain and a blind cat was sleeping at his doorstep when he arrived.

The helpless cat awoke at the sound of approaching footsteps and it scurried into a dirty bin, singing a shrill sound as Ace busied himself with opening the crooked door.

'Meow~'

Finally pushing the door open, he was greeted by a leaking roof which had caused a mini flood that hugged tight at the sole of his shoes.

A fragile sigh of disappointment escaped his lips at the sight of his wrecked home. He was tired already and all that had been in his mind was coming back home to take a rest, but now…

This?

He forced himself to tidy up, pushed some dirty dishes into the sink by the kitchenette and finally fetched himself some dry bread and expired milk which he heated up briefly for— dinner.

"Only if I had enough money."

Finally settling into his bed after chugging them down, he placed his glasses away to retire for the day, but the event of that evening suddenly began to play in his head all over again.

He squinted his eyes at the loud sound the ferocious hit had caused him, but strangely enough, he couldn't feel any pain.

His finger trailed around his neck-piece continuously till a snap forced him to retract his finger. His finger instinctively plopped between his lips as he tenderly sucked on the cut, failing to notice his blood fill the neck-piece and suddenly, a sharp blinding light flashed out of it, forcing him to shut his eyes at such brute energy.

"What the hell was that?"

For the next five minutes, his mind was fuzzy and troubled as he tried to figure out what had just happened, then he came to a resolve.

"Maybe it was my eyes playing an expensive trick on me since I don't have my glasses on." He mumbled to himself, wiping his blood off the neck-piece slowly.

Then suddenly…

[Congratulations! ### legacy awakened]

With his eyes suddenly widening in surprise as letters floated right in front of them, a few words jugged out of his mouth.

"What is this?" Turning to the left to grab his broken glasses, he didn't hesitate further before plugging them on, but the letters were still there.

Bold and clear!

[Welcome to the ░░░ interface!]

[Initiating system synchronization]

[...]

[System synchronization in progress…]

[...]

[Unlocking the first system tier]

[...]