Appetency

ONE

<NOTIFICATION WARNING>

[CONGRATULATIONS ON COMPLETING THE MAIN STORY ROUTES. YOU HAVE RESTARTED.]

Laurent barely paid attention to the bright pink screen that's been floating around. He's looking straight at the window, eyes fixated on the bright and colorful flowers. The gardeners have done their job well. He can't stop looking at their work and how they began planting new seeds.

He takes a sip of his drink, listless in watching the garden being tended to as the screen begins to form new words.

[YOU HAVE ACHIEVED THREE BAD ENDS. CONGRATULATIONS.]

Laurent doesn't pay it any attention.

[YOU HAVE ACHIEVED ZERO NEUTRAL ENDINGS.]

[YOU HAVE ACHIEVED ZERO GOOD ENDINGS.]

[TASK HAS BEEN CHANGED.]

"I don't understand what you're saying," Laurent sighs and waves it off dismissively. "How could I have achieved any ending at all when I just got here?"

The system doesn't reply to his question. Not that it ever does. It was only here to inform him and give him updates, and after that, it disappears for long periods before popping up again in the most unconventional times.

[TASK HAS BEEN CHANGED: SURVIVE THROUGH THE ROUTE AT ALL COST.]

"How ominous," he snorts.

The system beams a brighter pink.

[THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING. PENALTIES WILL BE CONDUCTED FOR FAILURE.]

Laurent stops drinking, raising an eyebrow. He couldn't help but to give the system a smile despite the growing fury he was harboring.

"Shitty thing... haven't I told you already? I just came. How am I supposed to do anything when I don't know why I'm even here at all?"

The system whirs around Laurent, getting right up in his face to tell him something one last time before it disappears again.

[A CORPSE SHALL BE YOUR REWARD. GOOD LUCK.]

In an instant, Laurent gets up from his seat and throws a scalding hot cup of his tea at the system. Unfortunately, it passes through as if nothing is even there. His system turns bright red and then abruptly vanishes, leaving him all alone with stifling anger coursing through his blood.

What reward is this?

Is his death supposed to be the actual reward?

This shitty system.

Almost instantly, his doors burst open and a wave of attendants swarm around him just as others began to drop to their knees and pick up the mess he had caused.

"Young Master! Please be careful. We know you're angry, but what if you had gotten hurt?"

"Get out."

"Please try to calm down!"

"I said, get out!"

Another servant hurriedly spoke, "Young Master Laurent, you're still unwell."

"That isn't my-"

He cuts himself off with a groan, nearly losing it.

That is not his name.

Laurent Ignacius Estierelli is not his name.

But he can't say it out loud, not when everything about himself has changed the moment he woke up a week ago in this world.

Laurent didn't know what happened at first. He found himself disoriented, trying to sit straight up on the bed and flinched away with how bright the sun was outside. He sat on his bed for a long time, wondering just what was going on until that shitty system popped out of nowhere and told him where he was at and whose body he suddenly came to possess.