Chapter 3:

The first real profound crossroads happened to Jung when he was five years old.

Jung had accepted the system as a part of his life by that point. He also discovered, through probing questions and simple observation, that he is the only person who knows about the system. He is one-of-a-kind.

And that irritated him. It distinguishes him. And he disliked being different. He prefers to be normal. A member of a group. A cog in the wheel. Being unique is analogous to the imperfectly buried head of a nail. It destroys harmony.

And it is annoying as hell.

So Jung strives to become normal and hid this special part of him for as long as he remembers. But it is always there and simply cannot be ignored. So Jung tried, in his own way, to understand it.

His very first real recollection of the system is his struggle to learn and understand what it was saying. As far as he knew, he had the system since he is a baby, but of course, he didn’t have those memories, he just assumed that it is there ever since. He didn’t know exactly when he understood the contents of the system, but he knew the struggle he went through to understand it

Even now, Jung remembers exactly what his system looked like then, now that he is six, as if it were etched inside his brain:

Name: Kim Jung Hee

Age: 5

Class: Peasant

Level: 5

Attributes:

Body: 0

Mind: 0

Spirit: 0

Current XP: 11,588

Total XP needed for the next level up: 14,175

Available skill points: 25

For years, he had no idea what the numbers were used for or how to manipulate them. But through a combination of healthy curiosity and dogged perseverance, Jung gradually unwrapped the mysteries of the system layer by layer.

In its most basic form, Jung receives XP from a variety of sources. It can be categorized by its 3 main types, namely: Body, Mind, and Spirit. As the XP is absorbed, a bubble of the corresponding color floats to the surface, which only he can see. The number within the bubble indicates how much XP he receives, and the color of the bubble indicates which of his key attributes triggered it.

For example, if he studies hard, he will occasionally see a cartoon-ish blue-colored bubble appear in front of him with the numbers 2 and 3 indicating the XPs he has gained from the MIND stat. He receives a light red for BODY and a grayish-white for SPIRIT. Although he understood the general idea on how he is getting XP points, there are times when he is studying for days and yet he is not receiving points but at times he is simply reading things and he gets more than the average 2s and 3s. He is relatively sure that by focusing or concentrating on a certain aspect, he gets the necessary points but he just know that there is more to it than that. Unfortunately, he is simply not intelligent enough to understand the underlying need to get more XP points.

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The second method by which he gains experience points is by receiving an XP reward for completing the system's periodic "quest." He probably lost a lot of the rewards because he couldn't understand the wording and kept selecting the "No" button instead of the other one. At the time, all he understood is that by selecting No, the blue box disappears.

He received these small XPs which then pooled somewhere inside of him for months and years. Only when they reach a critical threshold does the system bother him again and tell him he leveled up.

The system awards him 5 skills points per level and for years he has no idea what he can do with it. When he was 5 years old, he reached level 4 just by doing his normal stuff. And by then, he accumulated about 20 skill points.

6 months before he reached his 6th birthday, he achieved level 5. And something new happened to the system. Besides the expected 5 skill points, the system also gave him one option for something called “Perks.”

A sub-window appeared and started offering a list of possible perks to choose from. At five and a half, Jung can barely read anything, much less comprehend it, so it was almost understandable that Jung chose randomly from the 2000 plus selection available for the “Perks” options. Mainly he chooses the perk because of the cartoon drawing that accompanied the text because it was interesting to him.

And that is how he accidentally chose “Daily Quest” for a perk.

Congratulations!

You have chosen the Perk, Daily Quest!

From now on, the system will give a daily quest appropriate for the beginner level, aside from the generated quest typically created by the system. This perk is best taken early on since the XP generation does not level up as you level. When you reach level 10, you have the option to deactivate the daily quest. By level 20, you have the option to choose harder difficulty settings to give you more XP, up to a maximum of level 30 appropriate quests.

Daily Quest:

Complete 10 push-ups by the end of the day

Reward: 25-50 XP

Failure to do the task: Mild electrical shock

Jung frowned. He wasn’t able to read the instructions.

For 3 straight days, Jung hee felt the most direct pain he ever experienced in his young life. There are times he failed the normal quest as well for the same reason that he didn’t know what the message is all about. But the consequences of the typical quests are negligible: from not being able to sleep until 3 in the morning, getting poopy and needing to go to the bathroom more frequently, or feeling under the weather for the entire day. But the electric shocks were a sudden leap in consequences that Jung was not ready for.

For Little Jung hee, this is the first time the system gave him a real punishment. And he felt betrayed. It was like something that is with you for years suddenly bit your hand. Those so-called “mild” electric shocks were something he felt right through his bones and it was only through his sheer will that he didn’t cry out loud every time it happened exactly every midnight when the system consider it the end of the day and Jung failed the daily mission.

That doesn’t mean he did not resent it. Twice, he fell almost catatonic in his room as his entire body convulsed uncontrollably. By then, he knew when the “shock” would take effect, and in his own way, he did what he could to prepare for it. He has a set of replacement clothes and wet rags for wipes nearby, just in case of … err, accidents. The agonizing experience will happen, and there is nothing to it but to endure it. It was the loss of bodily control that hurts him the most and the hardest to endure. It represents quite coldly how he doesn’t have any control over his future, and it gulled him. When it is all over, he will stand back up, grit his teeth, clean himself, and get rid of the evidence. And hide his humiliations.

Sniffling sadly, five-year-old Jung continued to look at his daily mission and hoped he could comprehend and finish the mission offered to him this time. The system believes that he should be able to read by now and is punishing him for being a slow kid. He tried to learn on his own but that didn’t go well. His last recourse was to ask his mother for help in learning how to read. He didn’t want to do it at first because his mother always seems so tired by the end of her day and Jung Hee didn’t want to add to his mother’s troubles.

But he was becoming more and more desperate.

So when he asked his mother reluctantly to help him read, it was a pleasant surprise when his mother smiled at him and said, “Of course, son. Just let me go change my clothes, and I’ll help you read.”

“You- you don’t mind?” Asked Jung, his eyes wide.

She hid a smile as her cute son stared at her in wonder. She patted Jung’s head. “You are my son, I should have done this a long time ago, even before you asked.” His sudden hug of gratitude both confused and exasperated Jung's mother, Kim Jin Ae.

Sometimes, she just can’t understand how this boy thinks.

“Thank you, mom! You’re the best ever!” Jung hee said, sniffling as he continued to hug her. Soon, I will learn how to read, and I can get away from the pain, Jung thought happily.

Jin Ae stared at her young baby’s head, who was still trembling in her arms. “What is wrong, honey?” she asked, now worried.

Jung didn’t tell her. He just hugged her tighter. How could he? Would she understand if she knows her son is a freak? Something different from her? She may understand. But then again, she may not. The thought of him losing her and his father for being different cause him more pain in his heart than any electric shock would ever do. So he kept quiet.

And he resolves to pay her back when he can.

Frowning, his mom held him tight for the rest of the night.