Before the system issued a quest, it took into consideration many things, for example… the system took into consideration the level of difficulty. Was the task something its host could do? Was it too simple or was it dangerous?
If a task was way too simple, it wouldn't offer a quest, but if it was hard and had a certain level of danger, something that would make the host push their limits, be it physical, something that would make his muscles go sore and even go numb like the km race he was meant to do every morning.
It could be spiritual, something meant to mold his spirit into something stronger, something bolder.
It could also be psychological, something meant to make his mental strength tougher, his mind clearer.
It would also take into consideration the environment that it was to offer the quest, and who knows, maybe there were also minute details that the system took into consideration that we don't know yet… example: outside interference.
"But no matter the case, it's not like I can actually do anything about it: right now I'm literally broken, with barely 3 HP I might even die from a slight push," Fai thought.
"It's better I let him do it. If I even try to help him with this my state I will only be getting in his way," Fai thought.
He was right. Right now Johnson was fighting for him, protecting him, while he himself could not even lift a finger, so it really didn't matter if he had the quest reward. What he really needed right now was to be alive. If he was alive there would be plenty of other rewards he could get from the system.
So if surviving this meant sacrificing his reward, in a way he was fine with it. After all, what mattered more than life? Nothing. Nothing was more precious than this life we are living, so try your best to make the most of it, make memories with those that matter to you.
And with that, watching his friend fight, his vision became blurry, his eyes rolling back as the world around him became silent, his consciousness slowly slipped out. He wasn't dead, he was unconscious.
Moments later Fai regained consciousness, his eyes slowly opening, his eyelids a little heavier than they usually were. His brain felt slow and dizziness followed, preceded by a little headache forcing him to hold his head, but it didn't last long, only enough time for him to manage to get himself seated.
Once he managed to get seated, he slowly took a look at his surroundings. This area felt unfamiliar.
"Where am I? How did I get here?" he whispered quietly, asking himself, confusion and fear fused in him. He was afraid… afraid of the unknown.
But as soon as he spoke, the moment he said those words, it all hit him at once. The memory of everything started piecing together in his mind at once, almost like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
He was participating in the assessment, and they were now in the second stage, a stage where they were meant to obtain and get coins and win the race to the exit.
Then he remembered his morning grind quest, and how he wanted to complete it to gain more EXP. The feeling of excitement he had then ran through his veins for some time, he could feel it, it was like even his body was getting back pieces of the memory too.
He also remembered the boys that stood in his way, the ones who whooped his ass, the guys who prevented him from completing his morning quest. When he thought of this, he could also feel his body reacting to the memory. It was only one minute, but it surely did something to him, something that him and his body cells will remember.
Then he remembered Johnson, his friend… the one who swung in and saved the day. He could remember his friend's face, the worried look he had when he looked at Fai.
He could also remember his shout of victory. In his mind he could see Johnson standing tall, and all four of the boys who attacked him all on the floor, fallen around him, bitten for their sins, while Johnson himself stood still, heavy breaths escaping his mouth and nose, not breaths of exhaustion, no, breaths of victory.
"BBBLAHHHHHHH!!" Johnson screamed in Fai's mind, a scream of victory.
"BLLAHHHHHH!!" he screamed again.
"BNO BNO BNOOO BNOT BTHERE BPLEASE BBLAAHHHH!!" Johnson screamed again in Fai's mind.
"Wait a minute, this doesn't feel right," Fai thought. He then opened his eyes and took a look around, and then he saw it.
Not far from him he could see Johnson, but this Johnson was unrecognizable. His face was filled with bruises and wounds, so much so that Fai's own paled in comparison.
Johnson had huge lips, a huge eye, and a purple left eye, and seven huge balls could be seen on his head.
But it didn't end there, apparently he had also broken an arm, and that was the arm Sarah was pressing, trying her best to tend to it so that it wouldn't get any worse, like it wasn't already.
"Blady, are you trying to kill me or something?" Johnson asked, his words not even pronounced properly due to the now huge size of his lips. Every time he spoke, the "b" sound would be added here and there, making it sound like a child was trying to learn how to speak properly.
"Don't blady me, this is all your fault. I told you not to go alone and you didn't listen. If you are this way you caused it, you and your hothead decisions," Sarah said.
"I'm just trying to help you heal faster."
"Bthis is bno bhelp, you're btrying bto bbuther me!!!" Johnson said in retaliation.
"Oh really? That's how you see this? What a bad way to say thank you," Sarah said, and the next moment, she hit one of the balls that was on Johnson's head.
"I might as well do that while I'm at it," she said as her hand furiously collided with the little ball.
Now on Johnson's head, one of the seven balls was red and pumping up and down like blood was passing through it at an imaginable speed .
"BLAHHH !!" Johnson screamed again as the pain was sent from his head through the rest of his body .
Rivers of tears running down his eyes .
Fai looked at the situation , finding it confusing and funny at the same time .