Varun woke up, lying between Adi and Sudhanshu on the ground.
They were unconscious too since the lightning had also struck them.
Even if it was just one strike each.
"What the hell happened?... Ugh!... My body?!"
He checked himself hastily, but found no scars, scratches, or wounds.
Like.
He was never hit by the lightning.
And the weird thing was.
He was seeing a system window in front of him, and surrounding him were all the students and staff.
Who presumably couldn't see it.
Staff:"Hey, kid... You alright, bud?"
Varun wasn't sure what to make of the situation.
He just.
Shrugged it off for a moment.
But there was something he couldn't shake off.
The tightness from his hernia.
His groin wasn't tight like usual.
He touched it to see what was wrong.
And.
It was fine.
It was normal, with no inguinal hernia anymore.
And that's when he realized the meaning of what he was reading in the window.
"Full Recovery."
It recovered everything.
This wasn't some bullshit dream or damage to his brain.
It was a real thing.
A real system like in games and those Korean manhwa like: "I Level Up Alone."
"Uh... Yeah... I am... I just... My head spins a bit... I should go home... And... These guys should too."
He, Sudhanshu, and Adi all went back to their homes.
But what Varun couldn't shake off was the "quest" he was reading on the system window.
[Daily Quest: 1000 push-ups, 1000 squats, 1000 sit-ups, and a 100 km run.]
"That's an absurd amount.... No human can do that... Even the manhwa had at least a humanly imaginable amount.... How am I supposed to do this.... F–k it... I am not doing it... Surely there's no way I can.... Even Mom and Dad won't let me do something this straining.... Damn that, I'd praise this system if Mom and Dad even let me go to the park for this training."
Varun said it because his parents didn't let him go anywhere alone.
And surely wouldn't let him do something this straining after knowing that their son had just escaped death twice.
One they could never know about, and the second they didn't get to see.
As he got home, the tension was clear.
There were his parents.
Waiting with their breaths held in their throats.
His mom, a sweet, chubby woman with black hair and brownish eyes, about 5'3 in height and in her late forties.
And a gentle-looking father with black hair and eyes like him, in his fifties.
Mom: "Varun!... You're back... You aren't hurt, right!?... You... You're okay, right!? You don't have any injuries!?"
She didn't give either him or his dad a chance to talk.
Still, his father stepped in.
Dad: "Let him breathe... He just came from an intense situation... He also needs time to understand the situation himself."
He was being understanding, but it was clear that he was concerned about his son's well-being too.
Varun: "I–... I'll go get some sleep first."
Varun's voice trembled.
Not because of seeing them this concerned.
But because they were concerned about a guy who had always wanted to die and leave them.
They didn't know that.
But he did.
He couldn't hide that from himself.
He went to one of the beds, which were placed next to each other because they slept together at night due to having only two rooms with an attached kitchen and bathroom, which was further connected to the toilet.
"I'll just sleep for a bit.... I don't know what will happen if I don't do this daily quest.... I don't think it's real yet.... I might be hallucinating.... There's no way this system is real.... I can't even touch it.... Let's just sleep."
He fell asleep.
And the timer went on.
10 minutes...
30 minutes...
45 minutes...
79 minutes...
120 minutes.
The surroundings started to shake.
Not for anyone but him.
His parents, birds, squirrels, every life form froze.
What shook was the very bed he was on.
And it opened wide.
A portal.
Which he fell into.
And kept falling through the sky.
Not a normal sky.
Something like a dream.
Like heaven and hell colliding.
Weird creatures flying and even weirder creatures walking on the ground he was about to crash into.
"WHAT THE FU–K!?... WHERE THE HELL AM I FALLIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiinnng~!"
He fell on his butt.
"Agh!... My butt... What the hell is this pla–?"
[Penalty Quest Started, survive for 3 hour–...]
The system glitched into broken RGB-colored lighting.
[Penalty Quest Started, survive for 3 days... Don't die.]
"3–... 3 days!!!... Mom doesn't let me stay out for more than 3 hours, and that's also because of coaching... What the hell will I say about being away for 3 days?!... AND WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN 'DON'T DIE'?!?"
The crash-out was valid here.
Anyways, the system seemed to have glitched for Varun.
The very system he was shrugging off as an illusion was now telling him to survive and "don't die."
Like it already knew he would.
Suddenly the ground started to tremble.
At first he thought it was an earthquake, since where he lived never had one this big.
But it wasn't an earthquake.
The ground opened flat.
Like a mouth.
It was a monster of whatever universe he was in.
And just like that, he got eaten alive by the ground.
[Player Died.]
[Respawning Player.]
"MOTHERFU–!... What the hell just happened!?"
He was back where he was before getting eaten alive, with the pop-up window in front of him.
[Player died by being eaten alive by the monster consumer.]
[Monster consumer: "Land Garxial"]
"The name sucks, bro... Who even named this thing?"
[Player has died once. The time has been reset from "2 days 24 hours 1440 minutes and 86390 seconds" to "3 days."]
[Player survived for "10 seconds."]
"Eh!... I... I survived just 10 seconds?"
The ground started to tremble again just like before.
But this time he knew what was coming.
[The "Land Garxial" is coming.]
"I know that..."
He started running toward the forest, since the open ground had this "Garxial" thing under it.
But couldn't make it in time.
He ran as fast as he could.
But couldn't make it in time.
He got blocked by the teeth of the Land Garxial as its jaw closed.
[Player is dead, initiating respawn.]
"... FUUUUUUU–K!!!"
[Player survived for 13 seconds.]
[Player time is reset from 2 da–]
"Yeah, yeah, yeah!... Three days.... Don't need to rub it in my face every second."
He said while running.
[Impatient eh~]
The window was red and glitchy again, but Varun didn't notice as it popped up next to him.
Just as the monster's jaw was about to close.
He jumped out.
Getting a large cut on his thigh from the teeth as they closed.
"AAARGH!.. FU–K!"
[You have left the land of the monster Land Garxial.]
[Entering the land of White Elves.]
[The Eternal Forest.]
[Find your way out without becoming the elves' dinner.]
"...!?"
He didn't know what to say anymore.
For about 7 weeks he spent dying endlessly and coming back just to survive for three days.
Which always got reset by his deaths.
Until finally.
He survived.
Walking across the sand-covered land with a torn expression and a broken mind from constant deaths.
His legs trembling and body limping side to side.
Eyes dull and lifeless from the lack of sleep.
[Player has completed the penalty quest.]
He came back onto his bed.
Time moving again from the moment he entered the portal.
Like not even a second had passed.
[Would you like to use "Full Recovery"?]
"Yes please."
A static current ran through his body and he felt refreshed.
Like nothing had happened.
And.
His body looked slightly different.
Just slightly.
He was a bit more fit instead of chubby.
His double chin was gone and his figure was leaner.
Though still slightly fat.
He fell asleep without noticing the changes.
Since they were too subtle for the naked eye.
And even for himself after dying so many times.
"I need to complete these daily quests from tomorrow... The penalty quest is more terrifying than these daily workout bullsh*t."
"I'll need to complete the daily quests from tomorrow... I can't handle this penalty quest."
[He didn't fall asleep because of physical strain. The system had already recovered all of that. He fell asleep because of the strain on his mind that came from constant deaths, from fast to slow and painful.]