Wayne jolted awake to the sound of knocking.
Rapid. Impatient. Hollow.
His eyes darted to the corner of the room—no system alerts. No quest prompts. Just his bare apartment and a broken wall clock stuck at 3:13 a.m.
"Who—?" he muttered groggily.
The knocking continued.
He cautiously approached the door, heart pounding.
"Who is it?" he called.
No answer.
He opened the door a crack.
No one.
Just a small package resting neatly at the threshold, wrapped in brown paper with no label.
Wayne scanned it—half expecting it to explode. But nothing happened. He picked it up and took it inside.
The moment he closed the door, a system notification lit up.
[Special Delivery Received.]
[System Tutorial: Equipment | Activated]
His fingers trembled slightly as he unwrapped the paper.
Inside was a pair of fingerless gloves. Black. Lightweight. Fitted perfectly.
[Item: Starter Gloves – Tier F]
[+0.2 STR | +0.2 DEX | Enhances grip, minimizes fatigue on repeated action.]
Wayne slid them on. They felt... warm. Like they remembered the shape of his struggle.
[Item Bound: Wayne Pierce..]
Then, another prompt.
[New Feature: System Log Unlocked.]
He blinked.
A new tab opened within his interface—like an inbox mixed with a journal. There, every action he'd taken since acquiring the system was logged in detail.
[Day 1 Log:]
- System Activation
- Tutorial Acceptance
- Walking (+0.002 STR)
- Cold Resistance (+0.001 END)
- First Side Quest Complete (+1 Effort Point)
It even recorded his dialogue, thoughts, and decisions. Not word-for-word, but abstracted impressions.
Wayne scrolled to the end. A final line awaited him.
[Note:] "You've Chosen Action Over Despair. The System Recognizes Your Will."
He stared.
It didn't feel like a machine wrote that.
He closed the log and stood. The gloves tightened faintly around his hands. He flexed his fingers.
"I need tsome air."
---
4:00 A.M.—Morning.
[New Quest: Will of the Dawn]
[Run 2 miles before sunrise. Optional Objective: No stops.]
[Reward: +0.5 END | +0.3 DEX | Skill Unlock Chance ↑]
Wayne didn't question it. He stepped outside, breath misting in the chill, and began jogging down the empty streets of Old Brook.
One block became two. Then ten.
His lungs burned. His legs protested.
But he kept going.
[+0.0012 END]
[+0.0009 DEX]
[+0.0005 STR]
A car passed. A streetlight flickered. A stray cat sprinted across his path.
The city was quiet, yet full of murmurs—the kind only people awake at this hour could understand. He wasn't running to survive now.
He was running to matter.
—
By 5:12 A.M. – He Had Done it.
[Quest Complete: Will of the Dawn]
[+0.5 END | +0.3 DEX | Minor Skill Unlocked: Breath Control Lv. 1]
[You have leveled up!]
Wayne collapsed onto a bench near the bridge.
Level 2.
[+3 Stat Points Available]
[System Shop: Basic Tier Unlocked]
[New Tab: Breath Control – Allows longer endurance during physical activity. Reduces stamina drain by 4%.]
He stared at the early light bleeding into the sky. It was barely dawn.
And he had changed.
"System…" he exhaled. "I don't know what you are. But thank you."
No reply.
Just the sound of birds, and the world waking up around him.
For once, Wayne felt like he might be waking up too.