Duel of systems

Fourth

I answered the call so as not to drag that matter out any longer.

“Hello!”

“You’re a bastard! You reproach me for Alejandro, but you’re the lover of a bitch!”

I didn’t really like hearing that, but I kept listening to her. Until I got bored with her insults.

“You are a cynic! I see what you spend your money on!”

I paused a little and was as clear as possible with Adriana. I didn’t want to be next to her anymore.

“I’m going to separate. My mistress wants me to go live with her. Monday we’ll talk.”

I hung up on her and turned off my cell phone, I wanted to get some rest. They had been too weird.

I closed and opened my eyes, surprisingly I got a notification from the system, I ignored it, but this time something very strange happened to me.

I was transported to a lonely place full of ice. It was very cold, maybe I was in the North Pole or in the South Pole. I was only in my underwear and I didn’t know what to do, my short black hair started to fill with snow and my black eyes were closing a little.

The system showed me a warning.

[Failure to complete tasks. You will be five hours at this location]

It seemed like a bad joke to me. I couldn’t believe I was experiencing such a situation. I felt vulnerable, my feet were somewhat sensitive, and I could cut myself with any piece of ice and I would get an infection. Worst of all was the cold, it was unbearable, I could get sick, and it all got worse in a matter of minutes. It started to snow.

I had to walk on the ice to keep active and try to keep my temperature from dropping because of the cold.

I didn’t see anyone in that place. Not a village, nor any sign of life. It seemed like an infinite place, I could walk in a day and I would not find anything else.

I resigned myself to my punishment and kept moving forward, counting to sixteen thousand. When I got there, I would be close to the end of my punishment.

I mentally swore to myself not to make the same mistake twice.

[…]

Time moved slowly and

When the five hours were about to expire, I could no longer feel my body. I could no longer feel my body, I was about to freeze, I lost count of what I had done to finish the punishment, I only knew that there were minutes left, but not how many. The air that my body emanated was completely cold.

I felt that my feet were burning, but I couldn’t stop myself from moving forward, I gave each foot a few seconds of rest. That was what I felt and thought at that moment, but my legs could not take it anymore, and I fell kneeling on the snow. I gave up at that moment and when I was about to fall to the ground the system gave me a notification.

(Punishment completed)

I smiled a little wry smile and in a moment I was already in my hotel room, kneeling on the floor and the soles of my feet and hands were burning. I felt like I was freezing.

I tried to get up slowly and crawled to the bathroom, I needed to get some hot water. I had to change my body temperature fast. I wouldn’t die, but I might get an infection.

I looked at another notification from the system.

(REMINDER DO DAILY CHORES)

I got angry when I saw that notification. In the rules they never warned me about this, but there was nothing I could do anymore, I just tried to heal the wounds I had given myself, the punishment I had stupidly earned.

I just tried to warm up my wounded and vulnerable body from the wounds I had. I might not be able to wear shoes for several days.

I turned on the shower faucet and turned on the hot water. I could no longer feel my own body. I realized that the water was almost boiling after a few minutes when I felt my skin is getting very red.

I turned off the shower faucet and started breathing slowly.

[…]

After two days, I managed to recover a little. It was not so serious what I experienced; however, it was difficult to walk, I felt a burning in the soles of my feet that I could only calm down with some creams and medicines, the money that the man had given me helped me a lot. I was just waiting to receive my pay for the month in a few days.

Now I was doing the system’s tasks, which consisted of doing more than fifty sit-ups, arm exercises, squats, I had to be in shape. The system would do a weird count and give me a notification when everything was okay.

I went back to the office and forgot about the disco and Lucia. However, my colleagues did not and the worst thing was that my wife Adriana was there talking to one of my colleagues. I had arrived almost half an hour late, since my body was not well, and it was difficult for me to walk, it was very stressful to come back to reality again.

When she saw me, she came over to where I was standing, not disguising her annoyed face.

She tried to slap me in front of everyone, but I stopped her arm.

“You will get the notification to the apartment. You can keep everything there. Nothing matters to me, I don’t want to see you anymore.”

“You… You cheated on me first!”

“No, I never cheated on you, she’s just an acquaintance. There, you and your ideas!”

Her eyes showed that she didn’t believe me. She still thought I had a thing for the girl who was on the news, but I wasn’t going to discuss anything with her. I just asked her to leave.

“Please leave the office, we’ve made everything clear.”

“Well no! Everyone is looking at me with pity because of you. I’ll see you in court!”

Those shouts were kind of embarrassing. Everyone was looking at us because of what was going on. I was trying to stay calm. I was supposed to sell something this week to stay with the company if Lucia would help me. I just had to finish this month.

However, my day was going to be difficult. One of my coworkers came up to me to bother me, it was the same hypocrite who stole several clients from me.

“You slept with a rich girl. You’re a Casanova.”

I didn’t respond, nor did I tell him. I wasn’t going to talk to that man. He was a liar, I didn’t like his comment at all, I hadn’t spoken to him in a while, I ignored him and went back to my post. I had forgotten to report the damage to the keyboard and reprint the client list, because I missed a day of work due to the accident. I didn’t even go to the hospital to bring the evidence and clarify the situation.

I went to the office of the supervisor of that area and tried to talk to her. She was a somewhat serious woman. She was almost fifty years old, had black hair, somewhat short and brown eyes, with wrinkles showing a little.

When I got there, I spoke to her in a somewhat low tone.

“Good morning, my keyboard was sabotaged last Thursday. Someone spilled coffee on it, maybe on purpose, they even got the papers containing the clients’ sheets wet.”

“And the papers to prove that it was a sabotage?

“I threw them in the trash that same day, but in the camera room you can see what happened.”

“Leandro Medina?”

“Yes.”

“You are one of the worst employees this month. Don’t look for an excuse for your lousy performance. This is the third time this year that something like this has happened to you. Stop damaging company property.

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t play dumb.”

From her words she had investigated my work in this company, but the few times I talked to that woman, she never said anything to me. Maybe it’s all because of the gossip that was going around the office.

“So am I getting another keyboard or not?”

“Mr. Medina. It was decided to remove you from the company because of your lousy performance this month and the damage to the computer. The maintenance people discovered that you also had coffee inside and the machine became unusable”.

“But I don’t drink coffee!”

“Management and I believe that you sabotaged your computer. Also, your wife said some things that we have taken seriously for now.”

I was shocked to hear that. Adriana had done everything she could to get me fired, and maybe she could make up anything worse. I was afraid, she might say I was hitting her or doing anything to her.

“It’s okay. I’ll go, I just need my settlement.”

“That will cover the damage to the computer, your settlement will have to wait.”

It was all very unfair, just because of a false rumor they had already damaged my life.

I just tried to leave the office, without making a fuss. I looked at the floor, I just didn’t want to look anyone in the eye after all this. Maybe my wife had told the rest of my colleagues all those lies and the best thing I could do was to leave.

[…]

When I came down the stairs I saw Adriana again, she was still here, but she was talking to the watchman. I continued walking to the street, however, my exwife followed me.

“They kicked you out?

“Because of you! Don’t follow me!

“You deserve it, you’re a bully!”

I turned and looked her in the eyes.

“Did I ever hit you?

She was silent, I never hit her, we just argued. However, she lifted up the blouse she was wearing. She showed me the bruises, maybe it was her lover or herself.

“The judge won’t think so, who will he believe, you or me?”

Adriana was mad. She was very angry about the disco gossip. I didn’t keep talking to her, I kept walking to the subway station that was near here. However, I felt that she had thrown something at my head.

I turned around, and she had thrown something at me, it was a padlock. At that moment, I couldn’t do anything, just leave and avoid a verbal fight in a place like that. I already had my reputation on the floor and Adriana could say anything, it was my word for her against mine.

I just got up from the floor and tried to walk, however blood started coming out of my head. I had to go to a hospital. I thought about going back to the place where the doctor treated me a few days ago, but I started to see blurry and felt dizzy.

I heard a car horn honking next to me, but because of my poor vision I couldn’t recognize who it was.

The system sent me a warning.

(Danger vital signs are dropping, danger vital signs are dropping)

Everything started to go black until I heard nothing. I just felt someone holding me and kept me from falling.