Awakening Starting With The Villain System

==== Daily Quest ====

Quest Info:

Push-ups — 0/100

Sit-ups — 0/100

Squats — 0/100

Running — 0/10 km

Note: If the daily quest isn't completed, you will be punished.

========

"…You've gotta be kidding me."

My voice was flat, but my heart was anything but calm.

This… was a joke, right?

A hundred push-ups?

Sit-ups?

Squats?

Ten kilometers of running?

On an empty stomach?!

For what.

And what was this.

And that last line...

'You will be punished.'

That was what got me.

I stood there in stunned silence, rereading the words again and again as if they'd somehow disappear.

They didn't.

"F*ck," I muttered at last.

Because really, what else was I supposed to say?

Welcome to Day One, Ryan.

The academy's barely started, and already, I was being hunted down by a sadistic blue screen from hell.

So much for easing into things.

So much for surviving the first day.

But then, suddenly it hit me like a punch to the chest, sharp, jarring, and completely uninvited.

The screen.

That glowing, vibrant-blue rectangle that had materialized out of thin air, hovering before me like it owned the place.

I stared at it, and for a moment, I couldn't breathe.

Because I'd seen this before.

Not just something like it, this exact thing.

My thoughts scrambled to make sense of it.

The blue screen.

It wasn't just a glitch or a trick of the light.

No, it was the same kind of screen that had appeared when I first awakened.

And now that I really thought about it…

This wasn't just a "blue screen."

This, this was a system.

Like the ones in games.

Like the ones in fictions I used to read, web novels, light novels, those cheesy ones where some guy wakes up with powers and a UI floating in front of him, telling him to do impossible things for incredible rewards.

I swallowed slowly, mind working double-time now.

The interface… it wasn't random.

It had structure.

Purpose.

Design.

Status windows.

Stats.

Skills.

Customization menus.

Inventory management.

Quest logs.

Systems in those stories were always multi-functional tools used by the protagonist to grow stronger, faster, better.

And quests, yeah, quests were a big part of it.

My heart beat faster.

Quests.

Missions.

Challenges.

That's what this was, wasn't it?

The blue screen floating before me wasn't just a hallucination or a high-tech prank.

It was issuing a quest.

I frowned, leaning in to reread the words again.

Push-ups.

Sit-ups.

Squats.

Running.

All at zero.

All part of a… daily quest?

And below it, the words that truly stuck out like a thorn:

"Note: If the daily quest isn't completed, you will be punished."

Punishment.

That one word dragged all the air out of my lungs.

Sure, in most of those stories, failing a quest usually just meant missing out on some shiny reward.

No item, no stat boost, no gold.

Just disappointment.

But this?

This didn't say "you get nothing."

It said "you will be punished."

The air around me felt colder now, despite the morning sunlight leaking through the window behind me.

I stared at the screen in silence for a while longer.

Then I blinked.

Then again.

And finally, I let out a breath and chuckled, dry, disbelieving.

"Oh, damn," I muttered, shaking my head, "I never knew hunger could hit this hard."

Because really, what else could it be?

There was no other logical explanation.

I hadn't eaten since yesterday afternoon.

My stomach was so empty it had practically started echoing.

I was running on fumes, and apparently now, vivid hallucinations.

A system?

A daily quest?

A punishment for not doing squats?

Ridiculous.

Yeah.

That had to be it.

Hunger was playing games with my mind, creating this elaborate, game-like illusion to make fun of me.

But even as I tried to convince myself… something inside me didn't fully buy it.

But still, I clung to the explanation.

Because to accept the alternative, to accept that this thing was real, meant stepping into something far bigger than I was ready for.

Something I didn't understand.

And I wasn't ready for that.

I sighed, hard and loud, and finally turned my back on the floating screen.

"Whatever. I've got class."

Because as wild as this whole thing was, I had more pressing matters to deal with.

The first day of class at the most prestigious academy I'd ever stepped foot in.

I opened the door to my room and stepped into the hallway.

My stomach growled again, defiant and loud, but I ignored it.

Class came first.

Whatever this "system" was, hallucination, prank, or reality, it would have to wait.

And if it was real... well, how bad could the punishment really be?

Right?