He was Almost Absorbed by the System

Chapter One - Loading Area

Kyan opened his eyes with a start and saw the white space of the 'loading area' surrounding him. He did not feel comforted by this. In fact, these days he rarely felt anything at all, with perhaps the exception of bone-aching tiredness. From the tips of his virtual toes to the dark roots of his blond streaked hair, an exhaustion beyond compare had pretty much absorbed his will and ability to care. Only one thing kept him going, his Purpose for being here, though there had been moments he had nearly forgotten that too.

He glanced at the lone thing within the space, with the exception of himself, a static, metal Orb, known as the System. It was a smooth silver and had a large blue, glass eye.  It only existed in the loading area and was his guide and source of information prior to each mission. He approached it now to check the statistical data. He had apparently entered 147 worlds, thus far and managed to find and rescue 41 V.I.P's. He wasn't sure how many more he needed to find, nor how many worlds it would take to find the remainder, he wasn't even sure of the original number of V.I.P's he was expected to find. All he knew was that he truly wished this was over.

He'd never dreamed about being a hero or becoming some sort of hope for humanity. In fact, until the shuttle accident, which had left him orphaned and paralysed, he had been happy with mediocrity. One faulty crystal later and he'd been left with nothing. Any inheritance, which for his average family had been a small amount of jewellery, savings and a mortgaged house, had soon vanished into hospital expenses for his stay and initial recuperation. Full spinal restoration was a pipe dream for a forced dropout like him. So when that guy had approached him with his sketchy and vague plans, he hadn't hesitated all that much before agreeing to try help them on the premises that they would cover all his medical expenses and even pay for him to complete his education after the surgery.

As his clouded eyes glanced over the information the System showed him, the System was glancing over the boy in front of it. It was almost time, it decided. One more world ought to be sufficient...

"The information regarding the next mission is now available," the System announced carefully. "Would you like to see it?" 

The boy nodded, uncaringly. The information flashed before his eyes, seeping into his subconsciousness, that he may play his part better. In each new world, he played a new part, not necessarily a cannon fodder or villain, but always a stepping stone for the protagonist(s). Playing his part well meant the protagonist(s) got all benefits of life and the world would release information, skills, energy and the occasional V.I.P. to the System. Well, Kyan wasn't entirely sure how it worked, but he had learnt much from many of his incarnations, which helped him complete more missions and worlds. Though that didn't mean all went well in the end, the last world was particularly brutal and he still felt the phantom pains about his neck. He shuddered, visibly, before refocusing on the System, hoping that in the next world he could forget.

"I'm ready," he stated.

"Good."