Chapter 156: Chapter

Will be fix later

The fluorescent lights of the 24-hour convenience store hummed like dying insects. Ray wiped the counter for the third time that hour, staring at the same sticky residue from a spilled energy drink. His shift ended in forty minutes. After that: a cold apartment, instant noodles, and the same loop of videos he pretended counted as living.

He was twenty-four. Broke. Average in every measurable way. The kind of guy the world forgot existed the second he left a room.

Then the message appeared.

Not on his phone. Not in the air. Directly inside his vision, hanging there like a translucent blue window only he could see.

“`

[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]

Host detected: Ray Arden

Age: 24

Status: Substandard Human

Compatibility: 0.3%

Warning: Extremely low potential detected.

Proceed with forced binding? Y/N

“`

Ray froze, cleaning cloth still in his hand. He looked around. The night-shift girl stocking shelves didn’t react. The old man buying cigarettes didn’t flinch. Only he could see it.

He whispered, “What the hell…”

The window pulsed.

“`

Input detected. Binding confirmed.

Welcome, Host.

You have been selected for the Common Sense Override Protocol.

Primary Function: Reality Adjustment via Social Disruption.

Secondary Function: Viral Phenomenon Generation.

Tertiary Function: Physical Optimization (Locked).

“`

A second window snapped open.

“`

[FIRST QUEST ISSUED]

Quest: Slap the Customer

Target: The man currently insulting the cashier.

Condition: Open-hand slap. Full force. Public.

Reward: 50 System Points + Skill Unlock

Failure: Permanent binding removal + memory wipe.

Time Limit: 00:02:47

“`

Ray’s eyes snapped to the counter. A thick-necked guy in a stained work shirt was leaning over the register, voice rising.

“I said the price is wrong, you dumb bitch. Fix it or I’m calling corporate.”

The cashier—a girl maybe nineteen—kept her head down, hands shaking as she tried to scan the same pack of gum again.

Ray’s stomach dropped. He was not the type. He avoided conflict the way other people avoided traffic. His entire life strategy was “don’t get noticed.”

The timer ticked.

“`

00:02:11

“`

He took one step. Then another. His legs felt like they belonged to someone else.

The man turned, already mid-rant. “What the fuck are you looking at—”

Ray’s hand moved.

The sound of the slap cracked through the store like a gunshot. The man’s head snapped sideways. Silence fell so hard it felt physical.

Ray stood there, palm stinging, heart hammering against his ribs like it wanted out.

The system window exploded with light.

“`

[QUEST COMPLETE]

Reward Claimed: 50 System Points

New Skill Unlocked: [Viral Slap]

Effect: Any physical confrontation initiated by Host has a 70% chance to trigger mass recording and online explosion within 3 minutes.

Bonus: Target’s social reputation temporarily reduced by 40% in local network.

“`

The thick-necked man recovered, face already swelling, eyes wide with pure murder. “You little piece of—”

Ray didn’t wait. He turned and walked out of the store. Behind him, phones were already out. Someone was filming. Someone else was already typing.

By the time he reached the bus stop two blocks away, his own phone was vibrating nonstop.

Notifications.

Dozens. Then hundreds.

A video of the slap had already hit three different platforms. The caption on the first one: “RANDOM GUY JUST LEGENDARY SLAPPED A KAREN IN 7-ELEVEN.”

“Bro has no fear.”

“That sound was crisp.”

“I need this man’s confidence.”

Ray sat on the cold metal bench and stared at his hands. The system window floated calmly in the corner of his vision.

“`

[STATUS]

Name: Ray Arden

Level: 1

System Points: 50

Skills:

– Viral Slap (Active)

– Common Sense Hijack (Locked – 200 SP required)

– Physical Optimization (Locked – 500 SP required)

Current Title: None

“`

He laughed once, short and broken. “This is insane.”

The system answered in clean, emotionless text.

“`

Correction: This is opportunity.

Next Quest available in 6 hours.

Recommendation: Sleep. Your body is suboptimal.

“`

Ray went home. He didn’t sleep.

—

Six hours later the second quest arrived while he was brushing his teeth.

“`

[QUEST: PUBLIC DECLARATION]

Objective: Stand in the middle of the busiest intersection in the city at noon.

Speak the following sentence at maximum volume:

“I am the man who slapped a grown adult in public and I will do it again if necessary.”

Reward: 120 System Points + Title Unlock

Failure Penalty: Permanent reduction of social presence (people will subconsciously ignore you for 30 days)

Time Limit: 01:00:00

“`

Ray stared at the mirror. Toothpaste foam dripped down his chin.

He thought about the old version of himself—the one who would have closed the window and gone back to bed. That version was already dead. The slap had killed him.

At 11:47 a.m. he stood at the crosswalk of the busiest intersection downtown. Cars honked. People streamed past. Heat shimmered off the asphalt.

At exactly noon he stepped into the middle of the street during a red light and raised his voice until his throat burned.

“I AM THE MAN WHO SLAPPED A GROWN ADULT IN PUBLIC AND I WILL DO IT AGAIN IF NECESSARY!”

Silence. Then chaos.

Phones rose like a forest. Someone screamed. A taxi driver leaned out of his window and yelled, “Bro is unhinged!” A group of office workers started clapping for no reason. A delivery rider almost crashed into a pole from laughing.

The system window flared gold.

“`

[QUEST COMPLETE]

Reward: 120 System Points

New Title Acquired: [Public Menace]

Effect: All future public actions gain +25% visibility. People are 40% more likely to film you.

Total System Points: 170

“`

Ray walked off the street while horns blared behind him. His heart was racing, but not from fear. Something else. Something that felt dangerously close to power.

—

Over the next three days the system fed him quests like a machine gun.

Slap a rude customer at a coffee shop.

Interrupt a street preacher and ask him why he was yelling about hell while ignoring the homeless man three meters away.

Stand in a packed elevator and announce that the person who just cut in line smelled like regret and cheap cologne.

Each time the cameras appeared. Each time the videos spread. His follower count on every platform climbed like it was possessed. Strangers recognized him on the street. Some wanted photos. Some wanted to fight. One girl asked if he was single while her friend filmed the whole interaction.

The system stayed quiet except for the quests and the occasional cold evaluation.

“`

Host growth rate: Acceptable.

Social disruption index: Rising.

Physical body still rated: Pathetic.

“`

On the fourth night it finally offered something different.

“`

[SPECIAL QUEST AVAILABLE]

Objective: Enter the gym at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow.

Complete the following in one session:

– 50 push-ups

– 50 bodyweight squats

– 10 pull-ups (assisted allowed)

Reward: Unlock Physical Optimization Module

Bonus: If completed without quitting, gain permanent +3 Strength and +2 Endurance.

Failure: Module remains locked for 30 days.

“`

Ray looked at his thin arms in the bathroom mirror. He weighed fifty-something kilos of pure underuse. The last time he exercised was high school.

He set an alarm for 5:15 a.m.

—

The gym smelled like rubber and determination. Early morning regulars moved with quiet purpose. Ray felt like a ghost who had wandered into the wrong afterlife.

He started with push-ups. At twenty his arms shook. At thirty his chest burned. At forty he was making ugly sounds. At forty-eight he collapsed, forehead against the mat, lungs screaming.

The system window hovered, unimpressed.

“`

Progress: 48/50

Encouragement Protocol: Disabled.

Get up.

“`

He got up. Finished the last two.

Squats were worse. His legs trembled like they were made of wet paper. People glanced over. One guy smirked. Ray kept going until the count hit fifty, even when his form collapsed into something closer to a dying frog.

Pull-ups nearly broke him. He used the assisted machine with the highest weight still on. Even then, each rep felt like his shoulders were being torn out of their sockets. On the eighth he hung there, arms locked, vision tunneling.

A voice from nearby: “You good, man?”

Ray didn’t answer. He forced the last two. When he dropped, his hands were raw and shaking.

The system erupted.

“`

[SPECIAL QUEST COMPLETE]

Physical Optimization Module: UNLOCKED

Immediate Stat Increase Applied.

Strength: 7 → 10

Endurance: 6 → 8

New Passive Skill: [Recovery Boost]

Effect: Muscle recovery speed increased by 40%. DOMS reduced.

“`

Ray sat on the floor, sweating through his shirt, laughing under his breath like a madman. For the first time in years his body felt like it belonged to him.

—

That evening the system issued a different kind of notification.

“`

[SYSTEM NOTICE]

Host has reached minimum threshold for advanced functions.

New Feature Unlocked: Common Sense Hijack (Basic)

Description: Once per day, Host may temporarily force a single target to act against their own social conditioning for 10 seconds.

Cooldown: 24 hours.

Warning: Overuse may attract unwanted attention from higher entities.

“`

Ray stared at the description for a long time.

He thought about the cashier girl from the first night.