Ray finally put his phone away.
He stood up, headed to the bathroom, and splashed his face at the tiny sink. The cold water cleared his head a bit or at least enough to kill whatever laughter was still hanging around. He slapped his cheeks twice, staring at his reflection that looked worn out, but satisfied.
Back in the main room, something caught his eye.
His computer.
On a whim, he sat down and hit the power button.
"Guess I'll look for some entertainment," he muttered. "Tomorrow's a late shift anyway."
Windows booted up. Desktop popped up.
He sat there blank for a few seconds, not really sure what to do. His go-to gacha game launcher was already open and immediately slammed him with an update notice.
Size: 38 GB.
Ray crooked a grin.
"Yeah, nah. No way my low ass PC can handle that."
He closed the launcher and opened his browser. His hand paused on the menu without thinking.
"…might as well clear my history."
Click.
The history list popped up.
Scroll.
Then his eyes stopped.
One entry made his eyebrow lift slightly.
AI Image Generator — Recent Session
Ray frowned.
"When the hell did I open this…?"
He clicked it.
The page loaded—and the interface jumped straight into the last session. No login needed.
And in the prompt box…
the text was still there, not deleted.
The prompt read:
`[masterpiece, high quality, ultra-detailed, photorealistic of 35–40 y.o woman.... valoptous.]`
Then, without another thought, he cleared the browser history for real this time. His body didn't have the energy to perform the Symphony of Solo Slopping tonight.
He shut off the computer.
Screen goes black. The room's quiet again, just the faint hum of the fan and some night sounds drifting in from outside the window. He stands there for a sec, then flops onto the bed without even bothering to get comfy.
He's staring at the ceiling, hands on his chest.
His mind's on the system.
"Interesting," he mutters under his breath.
Today was way too wild to just be a coincidence. Too clean to be some hallucination. Those ten minutes were real. The effects were real.
The night's dead silent. No notifications. No noise. No distractions.
He should be able to fall asleep easy.
But his brain won't shut up.
He tries thinking about the good stuff, the dope future thanks to the system's effects.
But those thoughts always crumble halfway.
Bills. Work hours. Body wrecked. Brain fried. That shitty routine on repeat. Tomorrow feeling exactly like today.
Ray lets out a rough sigh, closes his eyes, then pops 'em open again.
"Shit..." he whispers.
His hands grip the sheets tight.
"I need a cope medicine right now... I know this bullshit but..."
He opened imaginary Cope Menu inside his head.
First on the list:
Nihilism.
Not bad as a philosophy.
Dangerous as a cope-medicine.
Top-tier cope for people who want everything but can't move an inch.
Works like a mental eraser—scrubs out ambition, urgency, and that annoying voice telling you to do something.
"Yeah… nah."
He scrolled past it.
"Last time I overdosed on that shit, I almost logged out of life, too much freedom, zero gravity, brain floating straight into madness."
Second on the list:
Stoicism.
Again—solid philosophy.
Terrible when used as emotional anesthesia.
The premium go-to cope for people who wanna feel tough without actually getting hit.
Teaches you how to stay calm, look wise, and nod slowly while the world chews you up.
In theory, it's about control.
In practice, it's goddamn hard to actually live by
(if you can pull it off, you're probably the greatest dude in your entire family).
Most people who think they're doing it
are really just ego-lifting, wrapping avoidance in discipline,
slapping a Greek font on it,
and calling it wisdom in a deadpan voice.
"Hmmm… too hard."
"…Yeah, screw that."
"I'm not making another majestic plan just to never do shit again."
"It just gives my self-hating a free buff."
His eyes moved further down.
The third option felt different.
Quieter.
Not trying to dominate his head.
Wu Wei.
A solid philosophy.
More chill—sometimes misleading when mistaken for laziness
(and, yeah, lazy people love that part).
As a cope-medicine, it felt safer.
Still had meaning.
Didn't crush him with pressure.
"Hmmm…"
"Yeah. This one's fine. It's been a long time since I used this,
guess I forgot about it along with the last wuxia novel I read."
"Just for tonight."
"At least I won't spiral, go fake-tough, overthink everything—
and still do nothing."
In the end, he picked a cope-medicine.
Not a cure—just enough to stabilize his head
before morning shoved him back into default mode.
He felt calmer.
Better.
Coping came easier.
Any philosophy hits hardest when he's exhausted and hurting.
Once he wakes up refreshed, default mode takes over and all that deep thinking turns into a beautiful memory he can't quite recreate.
Ray finally knocked out, his brain slowly sinking into that calm darkness, helped by the Wu Wei he picked as his cope pill. No fighting it, no forcing shit, just letting everything flow till his eyes fully shut.
Morning rolled in slower than usual.
Ray woke up pretty late, sun already high up, beams sneaking through the gaps in the cheap-ass curtains of his crappy apartment room.
He let out a long, deep sigh, like dumping all the leftover bullshit from last night in one go. His body felt fresh, muscles that usually ached were light now. A solid night's sleep was straight-up a rare little miracle for him.
He sat on the edge of the bed, rubbed his eyes, then cracked a small grin for no damn reason. The vibe... was upbeat again, especially remembering that the system is legit real.
Bare feet hit the cold floor, then he shuffled over to the tiny kitchen corner in his room. Grabbed a glass, filled it with water from the almost-empty dispenser.
After that, he washed his face in the bathroom.
"Mmm.. mmm…" he strolled outta the bathroom door, still humming that cheerful tune.
"Drippy drippy lady come into my P-pee..."
His left hand just kinda drifted up to the lower part of his chest, right above his stomach. Index finger tapped that tiny fingerprint icon only he could see—transparent, floating in the air, lined up dead center with his chest.
Tap.
The system menu popped right in front of his eyes, like a light-blue hologram.
Yesterday he'd picked the Simple daily mission and that shit had already entertained the hell outta him.
Ray squinted, then his lips curled into that sneaky-ass grin.
"Time for the next level,"
He tapped the Medium tab.
[Ding!]
The panel flipped instantly.
---
[Daily Mission — Medium]
Objective:
Alter one common sense in real time.
You MUST actively participate at least once every 2 minutes until the feature duration you're using runs out.
Reward:
* +50 EXP
* +50 Alter Points
Time Limit: 24 Hours
Failure: The common sense you altered will be stuck in YOUR head for a full week straight.
---
"Huh? this is easy as hell."
He chuckled to himself, eyes sparkling with that mischievous vibe.
"Heh heh heh, wonder what'd happen if everybody normalized that word… heh heh heh…"
Time flew by quick. He got ready and headed out to work. He opened up the Global Alter feature:
[Input Required]
Is common sense that: ...
-----
Ray grinned like a madman while typing, face lit up, smiling ear-to-ear.
"Here we go!" He smashed the confirm button.
[Ding!]
[ Global Alter Activated - 00:10:00 ]
[ -10 Alter Points ]
On the street, he spots some dude walking with a grumpy-ass face. Ray immediately hits him with a super cheerful greeting.
"What's up my Nii—"