The sounds of sirens blaring filled the streets of Metreona. Ambulances rushed towards Rakuzan. Parents who received news of the incident, swarmed the gate of the school.
"Where's my child?" a mother screamed
"How could you let this happen?" a father queried.
Some parents burst into tears upon seeing their children in injured states. As the commotion unfolded, Levi and his friends stood by watching.
They all felt a familiar chilling presence coming from the gate. It was the first time he had ever seen an actual expression on her face, and it wasn't a positive one.
Emilia walked through the gates followed by a young man with long yellow hair. The lieutenant of squad two, Lance Zevran.
"Please calm down Captain," Lance said while breathing heavily.
"I never pictured Her actually being worried about someone," he thought as he watched Emilia continue to walk while ignoring his presence.
"I already had enough problems on my hands, now this..." Emilia muttered. "Tch..."
As she approached the crowd, her eyes danced around, searching for Levi. She caught a glimpse of him and he noticed immediately.
She stared at him, sizing him up from head to toe before shifting her focus to someone else. Layla. It was only for a short while, but Kyle and Violet felt like a cold drop of water ran down their spines when their eyes met Emilia's.
"Exactly how do you plan on coping with that?" Silver said, exhaling, releasing all the tension in his bones
"I don't think I've ever seen a smile on her face," Violet added, tracing Emilia's movements with her eyes until she was out of sight, blocked by other people around them.
"And this whole thing's definitely made her mood worse" Levi sighed, collapsing to the floor.
"I wonder who that was, with her..." He added, muttering to himself.
"Oh, that's the lieutenant of Squad two," Violet answered.
"Right, Kyle?" She looked at Kyle, aiming to confirm her answer
"Yeah, that's him. Lance..." Kyle nodded.
"I see..." Levi said, trying to get a glimpse of what was happening within the crowd. He saw Emilia approaching their principal, Layla but he couldn't make out the words they were saying.
"Wanna eavesdrop?" Kyle leaned in, wearing a mischievous smile.
"Uhm... Yeah. But aren't we too far to eaves drop or anything like that?"
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"Leave that part to me," Violet said, surprising Levi and Kyle. They'd expected nothing other than a disagreement from her, but even she appeared interested.
"I should be able to hear them if I focus," Violet smiled.
She stared at Layla and Emilia who were currently engaged in a conversation. She was immediately met with Emilia's piercing gaze causing her to stumble backwards.
"Okay you know what guys?" She laughed nervously. "I think this is childish and some things a better left, unheard," Violet said, wiping the sweat from her forehead while breathing heavily.
It was only a gaze, but it felt like she had been held in a strangle for minutes.
"All I can do is wish you luck living with her, Levi," she sighed.
Levi however was already cut off from his environment. Why?
Because something he had completely forgotten had returned to his mind to steal his attention. Before him was the glowing blue screen that had disappeared when he needed it the most.
[System Update Complete]
Suddenly time froze around him, but he was too fixated on it to notice the sudden silence and lack of movement around him.
"What?" He whispered. "Update? So all that time it was—"
[Adaptability to new Environment complete]
[Update features will be presented below]
[1. All skills will now be erased and rebuilt]
[2. Skills shall now be granted according to user's experience level. To measure experience level, user Will be awarded experience points upon completion of each mission given and Users personal development.]
[3. Accumulating 1000 points will raise user's level]
[4. Quest difficulty varies according to level and shall be ranked from D - S]
[5. For battle optimization, a call phrase will no longer be needed to activate the system. It shall respond to the user's thoughts except when initiating a calamity level skill]
Dumbfounded could not do justice to describing Levi's state of mind at the moment.
After the first instance while he waited outside Layla's office, Levi had concluded that the system was still growing and adjusting. Like a game, it was changing for better optimization towards achieving its goal.
If truly it was a teacher, then it was the only sensible thought he could come up with as an explanation. Back then it was merely an assumption, but now he had just confirmed it.
"So all this time, it was just... Studying?" Levi asked himself out loud, disconnected from his surroundings.
Suddenly he laughed shaking his head. "What a joke, he scoffed."
"So that's what this is to you?" He queried the screen before him like it normally would respond. "This is all just a freaking game?!"
"Who—What exactly are you?" He lowered his tone. "What are you trying to do?"
Before he could utter another word, the words on the screen began to rewrite themselves.
[Main Quest: Boy Meets World (Complete)]
[As a reward, some of the erased active and passive skills will be reworked and returned]
[1. Body Enhancement - Vital Surge]
[2. Enemy Detection - Predator's Domain]
[New Quest: Journey to the Dark Forest]
[Reward: Experience level 50]
Upon reading the rest of the new messages delivered from the System, Levi was suddenly overwhelmed with a strange smile.
"It's not there," he chuckled like a man who just escaped from the brink of insanity. "It's not fucking there..."
"The penalty... It's gone!" He yelled like a scientist who had just made a breakthrough.
All this time, Levi was only constrained to following the orders of the System due to one simple reason which was the existence of extreme penalities.
But now, that reason—along with the skills that faded—had completely vanished.
"Finally..." He heaved a heavy sigh of relief.
Before he could say anything else, everything around him began to move again and the flow of time was restored to normal.
Seeing the sudden look of joy on Levi's face, Kyle and Violet pause mid talk, glancing at each other.
"You see, I told you he was going nuts," Kyle whispered to Violet.
Levi heard his words but ignored them, as his current mood had overwhelmed him with relief.
Although he still recalled Lyra's words about the System not being the main issue, he was still relived that one major problem in his life had disappeared.
"Guys..." He looked up at Kyle and Violet who took two steps back from him like he had just grown three heads.
"It's gone..." He chuckled.
"Alright that's it," Kyle began to walk towards him. "You need to see a doctor."

