Systematic Survival

3 - Run

As he walked through town, he was brimming with energy due to his mood which contrasted strangely with his weak and fatigued appearance. He made his way to a cafe near his house which usually had some healthier options that he never ordered before. He only occasionally grabbed a coffee from there on his way to his part-time job.

As he reached the cafe, he checked his quests to see how much of a mile he'd gone. But what he saw ruined his mood slightly.

[0/1mi]

No progress was made in the quest and he knew why, he just didn't like it.

'Go for a run.'

'So because I was walking, not running, it didn't give me any progress? Can I even run for a whole mile? That's ridiculous! The reward makes more sense now.'

A bit bummed but still in a good mood, Matt headed into the cafe and sat down. It was brimming with people going about their day, some on laptops, others chatting. It was a very lively atmosphere but he wasn't here to mess around, he needed to test something.

'I wonder if a sandwich counts as healthy. Maybe if I get lettuce on it? Does it need to be on a plate?'

Without much else on the menu, he decided to order a basic club sandwich with lettuce and tomatoes included. After the waiter left with his order he looked around the cafe and at all the people around him. This was the first time he felt different.

Usually, he felt like he was worse off than them and pitied himself. Whenever he saw someone happy, it just made him feel worse, like they had something he didn't. Now he actually had something and it was way better than anything he could've imagined.

After a few minutes, the waiter came back with his sandwich. He didn't hesitate and tried to eat it as fast as he could. He was no competitive eater so it took him a few minutes. Once he finished, he was happy to hear the 'ding' of the quest finishing.

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[Quest Complete]

Eat a Healthy Breakfast [1/1 Plate]

+6xp [XP 24/100]

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'Looks like it didn't need to be on a plate and just a sandwich with vegetables worked. I guess it just needs to be healthier than what I usually eat.'

Matt looked around the cafe and at the people one more time before leaving. He looked at his remaining quest with reluctance. He hated exercise and so this was going to be awful. But he had to do it.

There was no way he was going to turn down a whole stat point just because he didn't feel like it. He didn't want to waste this. It wasn't just about the quest, he didn't want to fall back to his old habits. He wanted to become better and the system was a perfect way to do that. Now was the time more than ever to try.

With one last look at the quest, he prepared himself and launched forward into a run. Even though it had only been a few seconds, he was already feeling the stress that it was doing on his body but he persevered.

He tried to keep a balance between actually running but not going too fast to wear himself out anytime soon. But even with that strategy, it didn't last long.

Matt crouched panting on the sidewalk. If it wasn't obvious from his stats, he wasn't fit. He barely had any muscle on him which only made exercise exponentially harder. He pulled up his quest screen and stared with a disgusted expression.

[0.1/1mi]

It felt like he had been running forever and all of his energy was gone but he had only run 1/10th of a mile. When he looked behind him, he could even still see the cafe a few blocks in the distance. With a sigh, he sheered his determination and started to run again.

Sweat was running down Matt's face and his whole body was burning with pain. His heart was beating fast in his chest and it felt hard to take a breath. But he kept going. He had to stop every once in a while to regain some of his lost energy but he continued forward.

After about an hour, Matt collapsed onto a bench as he caught his breath. He looked at the progress bar with excitement but he also wore an ugly expression.

[0.5/1mi]

What would've taken someone with a normal fitness 10 minutes, had taken him over an hour so far. It was mainly due to how many breaks he took in between runs since his body just couldn't keep that pace for long. Now that it was pretty much guaranteed that he had to run for another hour, he complained in his mind.

'What sadist made this system! Who expects someone with low physical stats to run a mile?! If it gave me a quiz, I would've been done in a couple of minutes!'

Matt was never good at physical activities but often excelled at tasks that required more thought than brawn. He wasn't a straight-A student but he definitely wasn't lacking intelligence. If he tried hard enough, he could probably ace his tests, but he just didn't feel like trying that hard for something he didn't care about.

'Maybe I should just give up?'

This thought briefly flashed through his mind. It was what he always defaulted to when something was too hard.

'No, how can I even think about giving up? I just got this system. I'm not going to let another chance go. I'm done doing that.'

Even though he dreaded running for another hour, he wasn't going to give up. For his entire life, all he did was just give up. Every time he hated himself for it.

'This time, it's gonna be different.'

He was determined. Not to mention he was still curious about seeing what would happen when one of his stats increased. Would he instantly feel the effects? And by how much?

Even if he wanted to abandon the quest, the system didn't give him any others. Who knows if it would just stop giving them to him until he completed this one? He still wasn't sure what caused the quests to generate, but he unlocked new ones the next morning when the others were completed.

With the reward in his mind, he set off again down the street with newfound energy. His life was about to change forever and it would start with this one agility point. All that stood in his way was one more painful hour of exercise.

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||Stats||

Name: Matt Peterson

Age: 18

LVL: 1 [XP 24/100] (+6)

HP | 10/10

MP | 0/0

Status Effects: (Sleep Deprivation) [Lesser], (Physical Strain) [Moderate]

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||Attributes||

[Str] - 6

[Con] - 8

[Agi] - 8

[Dex] - 11

[Int] - 12

[Luk] - 10

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