Izick used every ounce of his remaining mental strength to remain calm at this translucent box floating in front of him. Was he hallucinating? Did he fall asleep somehow and was dreaming, or was this some sort of curse?
A floating red exclamation mark in a small red box, like the ones he found on modern wards, appeared on the side of the blue box, causing Izick to shout and jump back.
Pain radiated throughout his body, but pain was the least of his worries at the moment.
Many more small red boxes materialized in front of Izick, causing him to shout at the top of his lungs as every box followed him, no matter how many times he turned away.
Nurses rushed into Izick's room as he fell out of his bed and pointed at the blue box and the many small red boxes floating in front of him.
"W-what are these things? You see these boxes? Does anyone know what's happening to me?" Izick said, turning to the nurses and emphatically pointing in front of him.
The nurses watched Izick strangely before looking at each other and turning back to Izick.
"Sir, there's nothing there."
"What do you mean that there's nothing there? How can you not see all of this?" Izick said as he raised his arms to point at the boxes again, but winced from the pain in his shoulder.
The nurses quickly helped Izick back into his bed. The younger of the two nurses smiled while fluffing Izick's pillows.
"You're probably just tired, sir. Just lie down and rest since you have obviously been through a lot."
"I can't believe this…" Izick said as he stared at the many boxes floating in front of him
The nurses excused themselves and returned to the hall, where the older nurse sighed.
"Don't let that babyface fool you. They say that he was in the Staff Hero's party, which makes me wonder why we have a traitor like that at our hospital. He's probably insane like the rest of them."
"Really? I never would have thought. He looked like such a kind and gentle boy…"
***
Izick took a deep breath as he tried his best to recompose himself.
He stared at the floating red exclamation marks before extending a shaky finger to touch one of the red boxes. The red box flickered green and then disappeared.
"So I can touch these boxes to make them go away?"
Izick waved his left hand at the red boxes. All the boxes, including the larger blue box, disappeared as if they had never been there.
He sighed in relief as he looked around and saw no floating boxes anywhere.
The blue box suddenly reappeared, startling Izick.
"Ugh, I thought this was gone. It has to be a curse! What's it doing now?"
[ INITIALIZING SYSTEM MENU ]
═════════════
【 HERO SYSTEM 】
═════════════
[ STATUS | ATTRIBUTES | SKILLS | INVENTORY ]
─── STATUS ───
NAME: Izick Hajago Featherbelle
AGE: 14
RACE: Humin
TITLE: Staff Hero of Arekia
CLASS: Mage
AFFINITY: Light, Force
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
─── HEALTH & RESOURCES ───
HP: 138/210
MP: 120/120
Stamina: 750/750
Condition: Subpar
[-]
Anxiety came over Izick from the blue box in front of him and the constantly changing letters.
The meanings of "HP" and "MP" were foreign to him, but maybe these were trackers for his health? It did say [Health & Resources], and there was even something named [Stamina].
He had no idea what this creepy blue box was, but he could see that it knew a lot about him, like his name. He rarely ever used his full name for anything.
But why did it keep calling him a Mage and the Staff Hero? Wasn't that Alister's title?
The blue box blinked away and then flickered red as it faded out of existence.
A smaller rectangular blue box appeared in front of the status menu.
[ You have access to the [Honor Rod] as the [Staff Hero] of Arekia. Do you wish to summon the [Honor Rod]? ]
[ YES/NO? ]
Izick grunted as he ruffled his hair in frustration.
"Ugh, I'm not the Staff Hero! I wouldn't want that crude murder weapon anyway!" Izick said as he tried to wave the blue box away, but it didn't go away like last time.
He tried it a few more times before giving up. This thing must want him to tap 'yes' or 'no'.
He wasn't going to humor this thing, even if this was some type of joke, so the choice was obviously no.
Izick reached out slowly, tapped 'no,' and saw the text in the blue box glitch under his finger as it made contact.
The blue box flickered red, then returned to highlight 'yes' even though he had pressed 'no'.
The blue box disappeared as swirling white light appeared out of nowhere in front of Izick, gathering into a ball and elongating into a white shotgun that dropped onto his lap.
His hands began to shake as he stared down. This couldn't be real.
Izick picked up the barrel shotgun with his left hand and began to shake his head.
Alister's Honor Rod was in his hand.
A red box appeared in front of Izick before it quickly turned blue.
[ Congratulations! You have successfully summoned the [Honor Rod]! A message from the former [Staff Hero] is now available to read because you have met the condition of summoning the [Honor Rod] ]
[ Do you wish to read this message? ]
[ YES/NO? ]
Izick didn't get the choice to choose either, as 'yes' blinked white, as if he'd selected it himself.
A sizable message appeared in front of Izick for him to read.
[ Heya, NPC! Surprise! I gave you my old [Hero System]! Pretty nifty, right? It's obviously not as good as my new [Emperor System], but I can't have two Systems at once.
They're mortal enemies or something. The two Systems would have a tug of war inside of me that would kill me from the inside if I keep both of them. Wild right?
Anyway, the individual chosen to wield my old [Hero System] had to be someone I knew, not some stranger off the street (random hobos were out of the question, bummer).
I thought long and hard about this as I was toying with the Heroes. No way I was choosing Klint or a Warrior from my old party because they are actually skilled and might get strong enough to give me headaches one day.
Definitely not Milletta. She's a hot Jhasi woman, but her Mana reserves actually scare me a bit despite being a lowly Healer. I'd sign my death certificate, giving the Hero System to her, lol.
I was stumped. I knew too many strong people who would hate me for what I was about to do.
Then, I remembered you.
You're weak, stupid, small, meek, poor, submissive, insignificant, and best of all, a talentless NPC who's a punching bag with no future.
You're probably confused right now about Systems, hero jargon, and game logic, but that's the point.
I knew you would be clueless and helpless with your tiny brain and without my help. You were the perfect choice as a helpless noob.
I was always getting you to carry my unwanted things anyway, so this shouldn't be too hard for you, right?
There's no reason to be bitter towards me. I gave you so many things out of the kindness of my heart.
I took you in when you were starving on the streets due to your own stupidity.
I paid you well, clothed you, fed you, and even got that old fart to pardon some of your crimes.
I'm so generous that I even prepared a final gift for you as your former employer.
Not only am I giving you my beloved Hero System, but I'm also giving you my Honor Rod!
Let off a few rounds and have some fun with your brand new toy. There aren't too many cool guns in this world, and most of them suck anyway, so you should be grateful.
Just don't shoot your head off, not that I care, lol.
Oh, but don't lose it, though, or you might be in for a shocking surprise.
– sincerely, Alister Black, Death Emperor
P.S. I forgot to mention, you're the Staff Hero now because it comes with the Hero System. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just ignore it like I always did ]
Izick growled as he punched the blue screen in front of him with his left hand, causing it to wobble and fade away.
This was a dream, right? No, a nightmare.
But everything from that apparent message from Alister made sense now that he started piecing it together.
He now remembered that Alister used some type of Skill on him before he lost consciousness.
Did he actually pass his old System down to him? He read that condescending explanation in the message, but it still didn't make much sense for him to do that.
Why would he give him something so powerful to someone who hates him?
Izick gripped the Honor Rod in his hand as the answer was clear as day.
Alister believed that he was inconsequential, with or without the Hero System and Honor Rod.
