The apartment was quiet.
Too quiet.
Nicolas Drake sat at the edge of his bed, leaning forward slightly with his elbows resting on his knees. The dim evening light slipped through the window and stretched across the floor, touching the ruined computer on his desk.
The burnt smell was still there.
His computer had taken the full force of the lightning strike. The casing had black marks around the power port, and the motherboard inside was most likely beyond repair.
Months of work.
Gone.
He stared at the machine without moving.
The game he had been developing was nearly finished. Only a few final systems needed polishing. A few bugs left to fix.
Now the entire project was gone.
Normally that would have crushed him.
But strangely, that wasn't the thing occupying his mind.
Instead, he was thinking about the floating text he had seen earlier.
The strange windows.
The quest.
The reward.
And the fact that he had completed it.
Nicolas lifted his right hand and slowly clenched his fist.
His muscles felt... different.
Not stronger in an obvious way. Not something dramatic.
But when he had finished the exercises earlier, he had noticed something strange.
He had recovered faster.
The exhaustion faded quicker than it should have.
For someone who barely exercised before, finishing thirty push-ups and then running two kilometers should have left him completely drained.
But after resting for a few minutes, his breathing had stabilized faster than expected.
He stood up and walked toward the desk.
The chair that sat beside it was heavier than it looked. The metal legs always scraped against the floor whenever he moved it.
Nicolas grabbed the back of the chair and lifted it slightly.
The chair rose from the ground with less effort than he remembered.
He set it back down slowly.
Then he tried again.
The same result.
Not a huge difference.
But enough for him to notice.
He exhaled slowly.
"So it wasn't just in my head."
The moment the words left his mouth, his eyes shifted slightly.
If the thing that gave him the quest was real…
Then the rest of it should also exist.
Nicolas straightened slightly.
His mind switched into a familiar mode.
Problem solving.
Testing.
Experimenting.
He looked forward.
"Status."
Nothing happened.
The room remained completely normal.
Nicolas waited for a few seconds.
Still nothing.
He frowned slightly.
Maybe he had said the wrong word.
"System."
Silence.
His gaze sharpened.
If this thing really behaved like a system, then it should respond to commands.
He tried again.
"Open menu."
Nothing.
"Quest log."
Still nothing.
Nicolas folded his arms.
The behavior reminded him of unfinished software. Programs sometimes refused commands when certain conditions weren't met.
Which meant there was probably a restriction somewhere.
He leaned back slightly.
"Interface."
For a brief moment, nothing happened.
Then suddenly—
Text appeared in front of him.
Not on a screen.
Not reflected on the wall.
It simply existed in the air before his eyes.
Clear.
Sharp.
Impossible to ignore.
[System Notice]
Access Denied
Current Tier: Null
Restricted Functions
• Status Window
• Quest Log
• Attribute Interface
• System Archive
Unlock Condition
• Complete 5 quests
Progress: 1 / 5
Nicolas stared at the message without blinking.
His heart beat slightly faster.
Not out of fear.
But fascination.
He slowly stepped closer to the floating window.
The letters did not distort.
They did not flicker.
They simply stayed there, stable and calm, as if waiting for him to read them.
"Tier Null…" he murmured quietly.
The wording felt deliberate.
Like a system still in its earliest state.
His eyes moved toward the bottom line.
Progress: 1 / 5.
So the exercise earlier had counted as the first quest.
Which meant the rules were clear.
Five quests.
Then something new would unlock.
Nicolas reached forward and slowly waved his hand through the message.
His fingers passed through it as if it were smoke.
The text remained untouched.
He lowered his hand again.
His mind was already working through possibilities.
If this was a hallucination, it was an incredibly detailed one.
But hallucinations didn't usually increase your physical endurance.
And they definitely didn't track quest completion.
Which meant there were only two possibilities left.
Either his brain had somehow broken in a very specific way…
Or something truly strange had happened during the lightning strike.
His gaze drifted briefly toward the burnt computer again.
The memory of that moment flashed in his mind.
The thunder.
The blinding light.
And the strange voice he had heard just before losing consciousness.
Synchronizing with host.
The words still echoed faintly in his memory.
He slowly sat down on the chair.
"If this is real…" he muttered.
Then the message made sense.
Tier Null.
Restricted features.
Unlock conditions.
It was structured.
Organized.
Almost like a tutorial phase in a game.
Nicolas rubbed his forehead.
"If this thing really works like a system..."
Then the most logical approach was simple.
Follow the rules.
Complete the quests.
See what unlocks.
He looked up again.
The floating message slowly faded away.
Leaving the room empty once more.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then suddenly—
Another window appeared.
[Quest]
Daily Physical Conditioning – Day 2
Condition
• 30 Push-ups
• 30 Sit-ups
• 30 Squats
• 1 Minute Plank
• 2 km Run
Reward
• +0.01 Strength
• +0.01 Endurance
Nicolas stared at the quest silently.
Then he leaned back in the chair and sighed.
"You're serious."
Running yesterday had already been exhausting enough.
Now the system was asking him to do it again.
Every day, apparently.
He looked toward the window.
Outside, the sky was slowly turning darker as night approached.
The air beyond the glass looked cold.
Unpleasant.
He remained sitting for a long moment.
Thinking.
If the reward really increased his strength and endurance…
Then repeating the quest would slowly improve his physical condition.
And if completing quests unlocked the next tier…
Then this was only the beginning.
His eyes returned to the floating text.
Five quests.
One already completed.
Four more to go.
Nicolas stood up.
He stretched his shoulders slowly.
His muscles still carried a faint soreness from earlier, but it wasn't unbearable.
Not anymore.
He walked toward the door of his apartment and grabbed his running shoes from the floor.
If the system wanted him to run again…
Then he would run.
Not because he trusted it.
Not because he believed in it.
But because he wanted answers.
And the fastest way to get answers…
Was to keep playing along.
He opened the door and stepped into the hallway.
Behind him, the floating quest window remained visible for a few seconds.
Then it quietly faded away.
Waiting for completion.