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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANAkI5IrLva0r
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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANANv10wQS2jP
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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANA8vaWO7fMPD
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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANAzudlvVtcx3
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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANAJwAXDjSOGl
"Great... I slept by in my chair again..."
527Please respect copyright.PENANAIH5rCmR1h1
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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANAAxk6xEbjFq
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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANAAclV3Afa14
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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANAPWDr7RWyJe
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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANAO6jpH24EzH
"I thought they would at least put them into my garage..."
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He murmured under his breath as he tried to fight off a yawn.
527Please respect copyright.PENANAZEgGsJwznd
"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?!"
527Please respect copyright.PENANANqwv5NrJeK
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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANAketYMaabbz
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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANAOlb8NPGPbK
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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANAoZxsXABjR8
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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANAjBAKrgrYhg
"What the..."
527Please respect copyright.PENANAJWYslyPB8f
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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANABrHci7hJCb
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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANAiQIvTcSVwg
"The system is starting! Please stand by!"
527Please respect copyright.PENANAM500cO1lwF
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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANAtF3JOsjQht
"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."
527Please respect copyright.PENANAyDivjVofwy
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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANAFBBlpW6em9
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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANAiaGVLLrLms
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.
527Please respect copyright.PENANAhd0HhAfVfk
Just then, two new notifications appeared, overlapping one another.
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"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!"
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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"
527Please respect copyright.PENANAG7WeNmfrG7