After another night at the hospital, it was finally time to be discharged. While moving through the halls, and nearing the exit of the hospital, I spotted the doctor who had been taking care of me during my stay. At first, I planned to go up to him and both thank him for taking care of me, as well as apologize for doing whatever it was that seemed to have made him so mad. 

There was no doubt in my mind that he wasn’t simply angry at me for being ungrateful, nor for being a bit doubtful. There wasn’t much that I knew about the world of medicine, but it had to be common sense for a person who had been unconscious for so long, to raise a few questions about what had happened to them. 

The only issue with the plan was that when our eyes locked, the doctor just gave me a mean look before turning and walking in the other direction. There was a slight fluctuation in my expression, but it returned to normal once I realized it wasn’t that big of a deal. 

He had his reasons for not liking me, but he still did his job as a doctor. So I had no reason to blame him, nor was there any point in trying to force him to like me. 

Once I had walked through the exit doors, a light breeze mixed with the heat from the blazing sun hit me directly. There was no explanation for it, but for some reason this time I took a few more seconds to bask in the elements. 

Standing there, the realization hit me that I was alive. This was no joke, nor dream, but reality. And it was a reality that I wasn’t going to forsake, ever again. 

I walked over to a parking lot near the west side of the hospital, where a nest of taxis lay waiting. Only half a step away from entering the nearest cab to me, I backed off. It was by pure instinct that I was going to jump into a cab and head back home, but thinking back to how I ended up at the hospital in the first place, it didn’t seem like the smartest decision anymore. 

Backing away from the parking lot, I found a small wooden bench to sit on. The bench was too far off from the hospital for it to seem to be hospital property, but seeing as there were no buildings nearby, there weren’t any other potential owners. 

I knew that the number 1 establishments to never hang around were hospitals. Call me superstitious, but something about every hospital just felt eerie. 

‘Stats’ 

< Damon Ewell> 

< Strength: 5> 

< Agility: 5>

<Stamina: 6> 

<Intelligence: 5>

<Endurance: 5> 

The main reason for my opening of my stat page was simply out of boredom. But to my surprise, my stamina stat had gone up by 1 since the previous day, and for some weird reason, the stat page only showed my stats. 

‘Think of your stat page from yesterday as kind of a tutorial. It showed you all the extra buttons as a way of telling you what the other functions are. As for your stat increase, open your daily quests.’ Hadeons voice suddenly popped into my head. 

Doing as he said, I opened the daily quests tab. 

< Daily Quest: Sleep 8 Hours> 

<Status: Complete> 

<Rewards: One Free Stat Point>

[User has failed to allocate stat points in the standard amount of time. Stat points will be randomly allocated.] 

Seeing as one singular daily quest, which according to both the system and Hadeon, were supposed to be the quests that would only help me as a beginner, would give me a whole stat point just for sleeping, it made me think that growing stronger wouldn’t take me very long. 

‘You’re probably thinking that every daily quest from here on out will be like that right? Just consider that one to be a beginner's pity. Once you gain a few levels, these daily quests won’t even be something you look at anymore.’ 

Once again, Hadeon had to be the bearer of bad news. 

It was disappointing to hear, as I thought daily quests were going to be my cheat to grow stronger, but his words did make sense. If I could grow stronger that easily, there was no point in having the system whatsoever. However, his words also ignited another thought inside me. 

‘Hey, so other than naturally raising my stats, which I’ve yet to try, does the system raise my stats by pouring some of your power into my body?’ 

‘Wow, I guess you’re smarter than you look. Yes, to my knowledge, the system can forcefully raise your body's capabilities by letting more and more of my power flow through you. That does, however, have some limits. The first is that since it’s forcefully done, the system won’t do it much, so you can’t rely on getting free stat points. 

The second, which is one I don’t see happening, is should you ever get stronger than me in my prime, you’ll fully be on your own.’ He finished, a little more playful than usual. 

I couldn’t quite tell if he was serious about me getting stronger than him, which was something that the current I couldn’t even imagine. 

Though Hadeon was quite stupid and childish, the pure power that exuded off of him for the very short seconds I saw him with my own eyes, told me that he was someone with unfathomable power. 

Of course, I would never tell him this, as his ego was large enough. 

However, it was a nice thought. The image of me one day being someone powerful. Someone that people bowed their heads to when they saw, not out of fear, but respect. 

‘You’re thinking about something cheesy right now, aren’t you?’ 

‘Shut up!’ I yelled back, my face changing shades rapidly. 

After a moment of silence, and after a moment of taking a look at my stat page, the realization that something was missing finally hit me. 

‘System, why isn’t my level displayed?’ 

[Because you are currently at level 0. It’s a waste of space to display a level stat when you don’t have one, sir.] 

There it is again!

For some reason, the system did seem to have two separate voices. And how it addressed me proved it. One voice called me sir, and the other user. One would talk to me straightforwardly and with respect, and the other was more casual. 

I’ll have to remember to try and find some loophole questions to figure out if I'm right.

Taking in the system's words, however, left a bitter taste in my mouth. It was evident from Hadeons words and from my meager stats that my level was low, and up until that point I was sure that it was 1, which didn’t seem all that awful as it made sense for me to start at level 1, but for me to be so weak that I didn’t even have a level? That was a little insulting. 

After a few more moments of silence, I stood up and began to walk off. As the taxi driver whose taxi I’d previously backed off watched me approaching, he began to roll down his window. 

He began to say something, and from his stupid grin I could tell it was going to be something along the lines of ‘Took you long enough’, but it was a little hard to hear as I walked past. 

‘Just what are you doing? I know he seems kind of like a dick, but getting to your house by walking will take at least an hour or two. And with your stamina stat, my estimation is incredibly generous.’ 

‘I don’t plan on going home. I’m not ready. Plus, there’s somewhere else I need to go.’ 

‘Oh? Please enlighten me with your master plan then.’ 

‘You’ll see once we get there.’ 

⭄

‘You know what you were right, this is the place to be. Hey while you’re at, you think you could get my clothes too?’ 

The walk over to our destination had been so quiet, that I had almost forgotten Hadeon even existed. But now, standing in front of our destination, the old and rundown laundromat near the hospital, he decided that he’d been quiet for long enough. 

There were a few insults I could have flung at him, but in all honesty, no blame could be placed on Hadeon for thinking what he did. It did seem like an odd place to go to, right out of the hospital.

 Places like laundromats, and other service-based stores had essentially all been run out of business. And the one we stood in front of didn’t seem much different. 

However, with my limited life experience, I knew that looks could be deceiving. 

Taking a large inhale, I walked through the entrance and was immediately hit by the most disgusting and foul stench humanly possible. 

There weren’t many times that I had come to the laundromat, but every time I did, the smell only seemed to get worse and worse. 

While inside, we both took note of how deserted the laundromat was. Usually, there would be at least 1 or 2, normal-looking people walking around, just as a cover. And seeing as how not a soul was present inside, a sense of worry started to build up inside me.

Did they shut down? 

Inching closer and closer to the back entrance, we were finally greeted by the store's owner. The words to describe his overall appearance weren’t available in any language, and calling him funny or weird-looking did not do him justice whatsoever. 

His green hair was tied up into a bun to reveal the shaved sides of his head, and on them two matching tattoos depicting a cartoon robot peeing on a cop. His face was similarly littered with tattoos but also featured more piercings than I could count. The most surprising aspect about him, however, was his paper-white smile.

 His clothes were tattered and had holes in places most people wouldn’t want others looking at, and his shoes revealed five little holes at the ends, acting as little slot holes for his toes to peek out of. 

He met us with his usual greeting. 

“Welcome to Ken’s laundromat, where your stink is our kink. How may I help you today?”

His words, albeit unsettling and borderline creepy, were masked under his childish smile. It was hard to choose whether you wanted to comment on his weird choice of slogans or just awkwardly smile until he stopped peering into your soul. 

I chose the latter. 

After some moments of silence went by, I finally remembered my true purpose of going to the laundromat. 

“Hmph.” I cleared my throat, trying to keep my voice quiet, despite the severe lack of any living matter in the store. Now that I think about it, there was always the possibility of Ken's words holding true, but I preferred to not think about it. 

“We’re here for the chicken show,” I mumbled under my breath, trying to both be mysterious and hold in my laughter. 

Ken’s smile faded as my words reached his ears, and he took a step back near the door whence he came. He looked me up and down, and after moments of feeling visually violated by the comic book supervillain, his smile returned. 

“Then you’re at the right place.” He turned to press a button near the bottom of the door. 

The sound of metallic creaking mixed with the intense vibration of the ground cleared my previous worries entirely. After all the movement had ceased, Ken turned to me and held out his arm. A gesture to indicate that I was free to go. 

As I walked through the door and entered the creepy and dark hallway ahead of me, there were a few moments of doubt. Previously, I had absolute confidence in my plan, believing it to be a smart one. But now watching the door shut behind me and the single light bulb in the hallway go quiet, I began to rethink my previous certainty. 

Some seconds passed before my mind was made up. Transitioning from a brisk walk to a fast jog, I arrived at the end of the hallway in a matter of minutes.

 And then I could hear it. 

The loud cheering, swearing, and booing. Once at the end of the tunnel, we’d reached my true destination. The blinding multicolor lights hit me almost immediately as I entered the large circular stadium. Hundreds of drunk and angry people stood in the crowds, some cheering and booing, but all of them had their eyes glued on the same thing. 

In the middle of the stadium, an octagon ring was placed, and inside two men were engaged in an intense battle. Both men wore masks, one a clown's mask and the other some kind of superhero mask with pointy ears. The men were exchanging blows back and forth, their hits sending shockwaves through the entire stadium. 

‘Well, there’s no turning back now.’ 

‘Wait, wait, hold on a minute. Are you going to tell me what’s going on? Why is there an underground fighting ring inside a laundromat, and what exactly are you not turning back from.’ Hadeon interjected. 

‘OK, first of all, this stadium is underneath. But I guess all the downhill running doesn’t affect freeloading inner spirits. Secondly, I have no idea why, but when my dad used to bring me here, he told me it was one of the few places that reminded people of what life was like before the war. 

From what I'd heard, combat sports in that specific type of ring were pretty popular. And if I remember your words correctly, I need to get stronger right?’ 

‘Firstly, you’re a nerd. Secondly, yes I did.’ 

‘Well, there’s no better way to build strength than to take a punch and then send one back!’ 

… 

‘Are you crazy?!’