Chapter 3. Alive again and System

In a starless void of darkness. Xavier floated away. His mind replayed the events of what had happened over again and over again. He was overwhelmed by the emotions of regrets, anger, loss. He had refused to believe what those men said about his father being behind everything that happened, but deep down he knew it might just be true. Edgar didn't dispute what those men said, and Edgar himself said he was just following orders, that only meant his father planned all these.. but why? Because he was the son of a mistress? Because he had no significant place in the family? Or because his mother was once a maid? Were these reasons enough to kill him? Hadn't he been laying low, taking in all their abuses and insults without any form of retaliation? Why would they still plan to kill him, and without even letting him say goodbye to his mother! If he was allowed to live, perhaps he could become a Mafia Lord one day.

"WHY!?" Xavier screamed to the starless void. The more he thought about it, the more anger his mind brew.

«Ding!

Data collection complete!

Fusion successful!

Host's health is currently in a critical state. Injecting revitalization serum!»

Xavier heard a female mechanical voice. He immediately turned around but saw nothing except infinite darkness.

«Ding!

Host's emotions are a mess! Injecting Ever-Calm serum!»

Xavier felt his mind calm as a cool sensation ran over him. He began to rearrange his thoughts, but first thing first, what exactly was that mechanical voice earlier.

«Welcome Host, I am Erebus. Earlier I detected an attempt of brainwash on the host, thus I made use of the Ever-Calm serum on the host.» the voice spoke again.

"Erebus, huh? Who or what are you?" Xavier asked.

"I am an Artificial Intelligence System, you can think of me as your personal assistant. Needless to say, I am not of this backwater world of yours. I was soaring the data airspace when I felt a pull to you. I felt your unbridled desire to make a change at your life, thus I am here to help.» the mechanical voice said with a hint of glee in its voice.

"And how will you be able to help me?" Xavier questioned the system. In the past he would have been fretting, but now his mind was as calm as the sea.

«I can grant the Host sets of skills and monetary rewards should host walk in the path of accomplishing his goal.» the mechanical voice replied.

"Like those Systems in Lightnovels that make their protagonist so OP? Hmm, fine. But where exactly I'm I?"

«You are in the void, an airspace between the Living and Purgatory. Host should awaken in ten minutes.» the system replied.

"Alright. Since you said you're a system and I'm the host, can you show me my stats?"

«Ding!

STAT (System for Transfer and Analysis of Tactical data):

Host: Xavier Hale

Age: 18

Status: Comatose

Attributes:

Strength (STR); 10

Intelligence (INT); 25

Agility (AGI); 10

Vitality (VIT); 25

Endurance (END); 25

Charisma (CHA); 15

Combat stats:

Attack power (ATK); 10

Defense (DEF); 10

Health points (HP); 100%

Mana points (MP); 100

Accuracy (ACC); 0

Evasion (EVA); 0

Performance metrics:

Experience points (XP); 0

Level; 1

Skills:

Revitalization (passive, upgradable)

Ever-Calm (passive, non upgradable)

Gold or currency; $0

Kills or deaths; 0 kills, 1 death

Win-loss record; 0

Goal: To be a Mafia Lord.

(System suggests host to level up ASAP or host's goal will just be nothing but a pipe dream).»

Xavier was stunned by his stats, he didn't know he was this weak. But when he saw the Mana point and the skills, he got a bit confused.

"Hey system, what's with Mana point? Isn't that part of a game-like stat for mages and spellcasters? Why is it amongst my stat?"

«Host is correct. But in this case, the Mana point helps you to perform certain active skills which you will acquire in time. With the Mana point, you can perform some skills that can enable you dogde bullets, shoot in a curved manner, read lips and other excellent active skills.»

"That's really cool. What about the two skills there, Revitalization, what does it do and why it is upgradable?"

«Ding!

Revitalization will aid the host to recover from any wound, illness, or poisonous state. Also when upgraded to a certain level, host can even regrow a severed limb and recover from even a bomb attack. Nevertheless, that will cost lots of Mana point.»

WHAT!?

"Hold on! Are you saying that with the right amount of Mana point and revitalization level, I can be said to be immortal!?"

«You could say that.»

"This is so damn OP, I feel like I'm a protagonist in a light-novel."

«Ding!

Host will awaken in sixty seconds. Host is currently in a facility. System detected traces of attempted brainwash earlier but terminated it by injecting Host with the Ever-Calm serum. System suggests Host to act brainwashed as Host is currently too weak to defend himself against whatever the unknown individuals will do. Again, System urges the Host to find a way to level up quickly, else host's goal will never be achieved.»

"Huh!? What!?"

«Host to awaken in 5.. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1..»

*

"He's coming around!"

"He's regaining consciousness!"

"Quick, get Doctor Ambrose!"

"Get some guards in case he goes berserk!"

Xavier could hear a cacophony of voices as his brain and eyes tried to adjust to the new surrounding. He felt he was laying on a soft bed and wearing a strange helmet on his head, also there were a lot of tubing attached to needles that had inserted into him.

He didn't know where he was, but he had a feeling this was exactly where the system told him about, and he remembered the system telling him to act brainwashed in order to stay alive.

Sigh!

"Even with after being revived and given a second chance in the same world, I'm still weak. It won't be long though."

Soon Xavier heard hurried footsteps, he could tell there was more than ten persons coming. Then he saw a clean shaven middle-aged man in a white medical coat that came and stood near him.

"Welcome back son, from now on, your name is X, and you serve the Continental."