Fuck!"
Hal screamed as he endlessly ran through the cave-like passage with the Craptor hot on his heels.
He had been running for over one hour now, and the monster didn't seem keen on giving up.
At least the matter wouldn't have been this worse if he had the Teknovo-T71 on him. Even though he could only draw very little of its powers, it would still have helped alleviate the issue of running about a little.
"Hey system, can't you at least give me a hand?"
Hal called out to the system but got no reply.
"You stupid system, is this how you plan on increasing my strength? Sending me to my death?"
"Well, I don't want your system again. Just get me out of this hellhole and leave my life!"
Hal continued screaming as he ran like a deer while continuously nearly managing to evade the monster's attack.
"Ptoii!"
A green substance was shot from the Craptor's mouth as it gave chase.
Hal, who had slightly turned to look behind him, saw the green substance just in time to evade it.
As he jumped out of the way, the path he was running on before suddenly began to corrode immediately the green substance touched it.
"Fuck, that thing's corrosive? And it's capable of melting rocks, just how effective is it?"
Hal had no intention of finding out so he increased his speed and bolted away.
"Ah, when will this stop?"
He had been running for nearly two hours now and was totally out of juice. To make matters worse, his legs were aching badly due to the squat he had done last night.
So it was taking all his willpower just to continue running.
As he continued running, he saw a crevice in the walls of the cave.
"Ahh, at last, a safe heaven!"
Hal cried out in elation as he ran straight into the hole.
*****
Hal reappeared in the room exactly two hours later.
Plop.
He keeled over on the floor and painfully wheezed out.
"Cough, cough!!"
"Pant...pant... what...in...the... name...of...the...blights was that...? you friggin system."
Hal whimpered and groaned for a long time before powerlessly falling flat on his back, too weak to even lift a finger.
As Hal continued to pant heavily a new message appeared before him.
Tti-ring
[You have completed the 'penalty quest'.]
[Rewards for completing the Penalty quest are now available.]
[Would you like to confirm?]
[Yes.] [No.]
'Rewards...?'
Was the system telling him that it was rewarding him for the terrifying situation it had put him in?
Well, never mind rewards...he needed to take a break first...
And with that, his sight gradually blurred as he fell into a deep slumber.
*****
Tti-ring
[Daily Quest is now available.]
Hal's eyes shot right open as he heard the annoying feminine voice in his head.
He quickly jumped off the bed and the first thing he did was to check the time. The needles of the clock were just a little past 15:30 and were approaching 16:00.
Meaning there was a leeway of almost 9 hours before midnight.
'Ah, thank the blessed heavens'
Hal thought he had overslept again and the voice he heard was that of the 'penalty quest' waiting to throw him right into that hellhole again.
Luckily enough for him, he still had enough time.
'Good'
Hal opened the mailbox.
Tti-ring
[Daily quest: Preparations to become strong.]
Running, 10Km: Incomplete (0/100)
Sit-up, 100 times: Incomplete (0/100)
Press-up, 100 times: Incomplete (0/100)
Squat, 100 times: Incomplete (0/100)
*Warning: Incompletion of daily quest will result in appropriate levels of punishment.
"It's the same thing, again?"
Hal bitterly complained while getting off the bed to start the quest.
But, perhaps this was all for the best, cause the quest exercises still seemed possible rather than something impossible or hard to understand. Hal thought.
This time around he started with the press-up, as his legs were still aching from the squat of the previous day.
"One, two, three"
He continued like that till he got to fifty.
"Fifty-one"
"Ahh, this can be quite strenuous, eh?"
Just what the hell was the system thinking, to have given him a quest of 100 press-ups per day....?
But, he didn't have much of a choice here, so he just had to do it.
He wasn't planning on being dragged to yet another suspicious place and getting killed there.
He got lucky the previous night and managed to survive, but there was no guarantee that such would repeat itself.
As he was deep in thought, he suddenly heard the system's voice.
Tti-ring.
Press-up, 100 times: Complete (100/100)
"Ahh, at last"
Hal was happy he had completed the press-up, but unfortunately for him, he still had three more quests to complete.
After that, he followed up with sit-ups and then squats, and, lastly, running.
Four hours later.
Running, 10 Km: Complete (10/10)
Sit-up, 100 times: Complete (100/100)
Press-up, 100 times: Complete (100/100)
Squat, 100 times: Complete (100/100)
"Pant, pant, pant...."
Hal panted heavily, as he had just finished running round the entire perimeter of the hospital.
He was so tired that his heart felt like it might explode at any second, but he was happy he got to complete the quest.
Well now, the system wouldn't throw him inside some friggin penalty zone for not completing a quest.
Hal dragged himself back to his room before falling flat as soon as he entered.
"Pant, pant, pant...."
"It's finally over. I worked so crazy hard just to please some annoying system and avoid getting thrown into a death zone."
As Hal tried to catch his breath while thick drops of sweat lazily rolled down his face, he heard the familiar tone of the system.
Tti-ring.
[You've completed 'Daily quest: Preparations to become strong'.]
[Completion rewards are now available.]
[Would you like to confirm?]
[Yes.] [No.]
Hal lay staring at the screen for some while before managing to summon the strength to speak.
"Confirm."
[The following rewards are available.]
Reward 1. Five additional stats points.
Reward 2. Full recovery of current physical condition.
Reward 3. One random box.
[Would you like to collect them all?]
Hal let out a chuckle.
"Oh, oh, definitely. Not after working so hard will I leave my hard-earned rewards to you, you friggin system."
Hal planned on collecting all the rewards, but for now, one of those rewards seemed rather useful for his present situation.
Therefore he chose the second reward first.
"Confirm the second reward."
As soon as he said those words, a gentle blue aura suddenly enveloped him.
Hal felt a cool sensation akin to being deeped into a warm bath during a cold season rush through him. It was just like the sensation he'd get whenever Freya healed him.
Shrr....
He felt the blue aura slowly dissipating, and for some reason, he felt kind of sad.
"Ahh, that was absolutely refreshing."
Hal got up and lightly jumped around the room as he stretched his body this way and that.
"Wow, how can this be? I feel like I could do a whole round of press-ups without breaking a sweat."
His heart that felt like it might explode and his breath which was ragged just a few moments ago all felt perfectly normal as if some kind of weird mumbo-jumbo magic had been worked on it.
"This is friggin awesome!"
If this reward felt this way, was that how the others would feel?
Hal couldn't wait to find out and quickly called out to the system.
"Confirm all rewards."