Fame Building System

Chapter 3

The hands of Christopher were wrapped around his head, still trying to discover what was going on as his racing heart shot up even more.

"What are you?" He finally inquired.

Immediately he spat out the words from his mouth; he seemed to have opened a really strange portal before him.

A system that only he could see appeared before him while he continued to stare at it, his face washed up with confusion.

Words began to form on the system while his eyes were transfixed closely on it.

[System adjustment to host]

[Displaying the host's analysis]

[Body Status: weak and malnourished]

[Mind: Good]

[Age: 24]

[Will: Strong]

[Intelligence: 5+]

[Starting Balance: One million dollars but not activated yet]

[Points: Zero]

The words one million dollars that he just read on the system made his eyes shoot out of his eye socket with so much shock.

"One million dollars?" He said it under his breath, still trying to figure things out.

Having been poor, he has never thought about having such a large amount of money under his belt.

"Could this be real?" He could not help but say it to himself.

[But the host monetary reward needs to be activated by the first task.] It reads further.

[How the system works]: The host will be required to perform a task every day in exchange for money or points.

Points in turn can be exchanged for skills, including but not limited to technology, martial arts, and medicine.

In the case of a failed task, the host loses a point in exchange for his punishment, and in the case where the host does not have a point, physical punishment will be allocated to the host, or a villain shall unleash it on the host.

"Can I ask a question?" Christopher, who was already dying with so much curiosity, could no longer help but inquire.

[The host is free to ask any question of their choice.]

"Can you be more specific about the type of punishment allocated in the case of a failed task?" He inquired, running his hands through his hair.

In the case of a failed task, the punishment allocated to the task ranges from death to short-term suffering, depending on the severity of the task, which ranges from easy to difficult.

The words that he read sent cold shivers down his spine, and even though he had more questions to ask, they seemed to be shut in his inner being almost immediately.

[At the end of each task, the host shall be presented with a blind censor to pick through; the task will be blindly chosen by the host.]

With each icy cold word, the steady beating of his racing heart seemed to shoot up even more than it already was.

"What if he was not able to perform the task that he has chosen?" He thought confused thoughts rallied up in his head.

Just then, he heard a cracking sound coming from the door, swaying him away from the thoughts that clouded his mind.

He crept towards the door only to meet with a nurse who scared him out of his pants and frowned, walking slowly towards him.

"We are discharging you already." She said as she tossed a few A4 papers towards him.

"But you will have to sign those papers first. We can't keep having liabilities here, asking for free treatments. This is a specialist hospital." She was saying it under her breath, but her words were loud enough for him to hear.

"We just found out that your medical fee has expired... And you have only two options now, either to repay or to be discarded." She announced, that she was finally deciding to speak louder.

He knew that there was nothing that he could do about it now. He didn't have any money with him, and he was already doing a little bit fine.

"I don't have any more with me, so I think it's going to be the last option." He finally added a long hiss to escape from the mouth of the nurse.

"Just as I thought. Another poor asshole."

After signing the necessary papers, he was discharged from the hospital as soon as possible, bringing him back into the streets.

The scorching heat of the sun poured down its rays upon him until sweat dripped down gradually from the corner of his face.

He wished that he could get some sort of transportation to his documentary, but he already knew that would not be possible.

He walked slowly, but then his stomach made a rumbling sound, and he realized how hungry he was.

Even though he was able to save some money over the years, that money was for his final year's school project, and this made it four years that he had been saving up for it.

He just had 100 dollars to complete, so he had to discipline himself no matter how hungry he was.

"What am I going to do now?" He thought in his head, confused, as all three plagues surrounded him.

Just then, the strange sound that had been bothering him for quite a while came back again.

[Ding]

[Host first task loading completed]

[The host can now choose from the three large black dots to determine the task.]

Once again, the system appeared before him, but this time, he could tell that the interface had a strange background with only three large dots on it.

For reasons that were beyond him, the sound of his racing heart grew even faster.

He stared at the three dots and could not tell the difference.

"I think the first one should be an easy task." He said to himself, touching it.

[Congratulations! The host just unlocked a medium-level task.

The words almost snapped him off of his consciousness.

[Task loading]

The host must use his project money to get a meal from the first-star hotel just a mile away.

[Task Benefit: Increases the host body level by five percent]

Punishment for a failed task: The host will be defeated by his most hated enemy.

[Warning: The task must be completed within an hour or will be determined as a failed task.] The system finally ended the notification.

It was as though everyone else was shut out of this world, and he was the only one left in it, as the only thing that he could hear now was his breath.

All through the statement, Christopher could not even blink as he continued to stare into space.

"This is my savings for four straight years, which is supposed to come in handy tomorrow. What if I never get it  back?"Different possibilities began to go round and round in his head.

He had just two options before him. Either to get this task down, face an invisible enemy, or even die

"Christopher, what the hell have you gotten yourself into?" He said it under his breath, his head gradually tearing apart.

"Or maybe all this is a lie. an illusion that I have created in my mind all this time.

[Don't deceive yourself, host, and your time is counting.]

It came back again.

"So much for helping," Christopher said under his breath.

But if there was anything that he knew, he knew that all of these were true deep down in his heart.

"What do I do now?" He still could not place his thoughts on a single decision.