It was quiet; only the light breathing of the room's owner, Tom, could be heard. It was already almost midday, yet he was still sleeping, although not on the bed, and his position was not at all comfortable.
624Please respect copyright.PENANAzdqHXkVN6Q
Tom was a newly established writer who had just started getting used to the tight schedules and deadlines. Time management was not his strong suit. As a result, he needed to stay up late in order to be able to meet the set deadlines. On rare occasions, he even fell asleep by his computer, just like now.
624Please respect copyright.PENANANHTSnTrRvj
He was leaned back, his hands resting on the arms of his chair. He had his mouth wide open, and a long string of drool had made its way down his chin, staining his shirt.
624Please respect copyright.PENANAlnQtsLSeCg
He would have kept sleeping if it wasn't for a sudden ring. Someone had pressed his doorbell, and a loud, sudden sound woke him up instantly. It was rude, but it needed an awakening.
624Please respect copyright.PENANA0jM20hCkVJ
Feeling his slavia on his face, Tom quickly used his hand to clean it. With a slow movement, he lowered his hand back down; then he stared at his monitor, which had already turned off automatically.
624Please respect copyright.PENANA6Hmviv9o6u
"Great... I slept by in my chair again..."
624Please respect copyright.PENANAC4DIzj8uoU
He muttered as he turned the monitor on again and was about to start focusing on writing again, but his doorbell rang again. Upon hearing its sound, he took a deep breath and stood up.
624Please respect copyright.PENANA8AbTKsqw8B
Since he was so busy, he decided to do his usual grocery shopping online instead of going to the store personally, and it seemed that the delivery had arrived. Tom had a decently sized house with a bedroom, a well-equipped kitchen, a large living room, a study, a bathroom, a storage room, and a garage, which was currently empty as he had lent his car to his friend.
624Please respect copyright.PENANADZ33vHDfre
The moment he got to the door and opened it, he noticed a relatively angry man, though he couldn't be bothered as he was still half asleep. The man pushed him a few documents and then instantly walked away.
624Please respect copyright.PENANAmIcNaAjx0l
Tom slowly stepped outside, rubbing his eyes. He saw how the man got into the truck and quickly drove off. His driveway was full of wooden crates.
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"I thought they would at least put them into my garage..."
624Please respect copyright.PENANA0WO9i0EafE
He murmured under his breath as he tried to fight off a yawn.
624Please respect copyright.PENANAumxPjtHRMK
"At least maybe by moving these boxes, I will be able to wake up... I still need to focus on writing... Why the hell did I not divide my workload up properly?!"
624Please respect copyright.PENANA2AZQu0MD7m
With a loud groan, he opened the door of his garage and started pushing the box inside. He was so frustrated that he didn't even check whether he had everything he had ordered or even opened them to see what should go into the fridge or the freezer.
624Please respect copyright.PENANASDKJCDtBdy
In a few long minutes, he managed to transport the boxes to his garage, so he quickly went inside. From his kitchen, he grabbed a large slice of bread and sat back down to write.
624Please respect copyright.PENANA3GBmc0d0pH
Fortunately for him, after moving the boxes, he felt quite awake and, to some extent, energetic, though it quickly faded as he began to work. From time to time, he slightly moved his head and shoulders; in that process, his long and somewhat unattended black hair got in his way and covered his big blue eyes, but he just shoved his hair out of the way.
624Please respect copyright.PENANAyEyGvWEtEc
Suddenly, as he was immersed in his work, an earthquake shook him. It only lasted strangely for a brief moment, but in that moment, he fell off of his chair.
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"What the..."
624Please respect copyright.PENANAS5QlVMBos4
He muttered angrily, then pushed himself up and sat back on his chair. Just to be safe, he saved his current progress and was about to continue working, but his computer suddenly turned off, and another, but even stronger tremor appeared.
624Please respect copyright.PENANA7Rm2GsU1jy
He hit his head against the cold floor once again, and as he finally registered what had happened, something unexpected started hovering before his eyes. It seemed as if it was a floating piece of text with a strange colour scheme. It had a dark grey background and a yellowish font.
624Please respect copyright.PENANAMq3Er9UNPR
"The system is starting! Please stand by!"
624Please respect copyright.PENANA4WCDvnq8pe
He just shook his head as it still hurt after hitting the ground, and as he once again looked in the direction where he saw the text, it had already vanished.
624Please respect copyright.PENANAdi9SDjkQXv
"I must have hit my head quite hard... There is no way such a thing would really happen; in stories, even in mine, a system only appears after some sort of tragic or strange event... All I did was work."
624Please respect copyright.PENANAf4iMFmEqkA
An audible sigh left his mouth as he once again stood up. As he stared at the now dark screen, he clenched his teeth and fists, but then just relaxed.
624Please respect copyright.PENANA5dKoFxGpNl
His study had quite a large window through which he had learned that the sun was already going down. He had worked for hours without properly eating or drinking. Although he was angry that he was disturbed, at the very least, he realised that it was high time to eat something properly.
624Please respect copyright.PENANAmya4FbEyje
He didn't have the time nor the energy to cook anything at all, so he just grabbed the remainder of the bread and some ham from his fridge and then prepared to eat. However, just as his butt touched the chair by his dining table, he felt tired and almost instantly collapsed onto his food and started snoring.
624Please respect copyright.PENANAtbDNxQPOGz
Just then, two new notifications appeared, overlapping one another.
624Please respect copyright.PENANAJ3ZHVD1rUO
"Notice! System initiated! Proceeding to prepare Host's body!"
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"Notice! A new quest has been issued! Please plant these seeds to begin your journey! Seeds had been transported to Host's inventory!"
624Please respect copyright.PENANAGBvW6kABPC
The first message soon vanished, but the one detailing the quest stayed, and then a third but entirely different panel appeared.
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"Name: Tom Hun
Cultivation: Mortal
Farming: 0
Alchemy: 0
Forging: 0"
624Please respect copyright.PENANAsnLs01LKZj