The Acknowledgement - Volume One

A Messy Resolve

                She nodded, returning to the driver's seat. With newfound energy, she began driving to Klato, where she originally planned to go before getting herself into something she does not fully understand quite yet. "W-who are you, anyway?" She asks, glancing often at Winter. "Who we are is Winter, but I doubt you could understand what we are," Winter's body explained as he leaned back, his arms crossed at his chest. "W-what are you, then?" She asks, sitting up straight, and far more sober than she liked to be while listening to this news. "There were two voices that spoke to me before I was trapped within this body. 'Protect him and you will find yourself with riches, power, and enough pride from making a boy into a man.' Then, here we are," It explained with Winter's mouth, through the skull mask.

                "I... Don't understand any of this," she was baffled by his words and casual bluntness about this subject. "Good, 'cause I don't either," it replied before going silent, with Winter's head resting against the seat belt. She awkwardly kept looking forward as she drove. From then on, it was silent, so quiet that she could hear her own heartbeat. Winter's body was at rest once more. The scales and white skull mask melted away, returning from which they came. A sound of burning and boiling water sizzled as it returned to Winter's body.

                Before he knew it, he was awake. A bright light on his face, quickly his hand rose up to block the light from his face. He sat himself up with a confused, scrunched-up expression. He found himself in a motel, and the morning sun was shining through the window. Despite it being a motel room, it was better than Winter expected. The room was clean, the sheets soft and the beds comfortable. The room was decorated to make a luxurious look. After his look around, he found someone laying beside him.

                Quickly, he got up and left the comfort of the bed. Despite knowing the person beside him. Aching pain in his chest forced him onto his feet and away from the bed. His body ached and felt heavy. He fell backward onto the floor and got further away from the bed, the pain in his chest slowly faded away. "Are you alright?" She asks, sitting up confused. She went unanswered, as Winter pressed his back against a corner. "Just... Hot," he replied trying to lie himself out. "Okay... As long as you're okay," she stood up, grabbed her own bag, and locked herself in the bathroom.

                Winter propped himself up onto his own two feet, looking around his body for bruises and answers for his pain. There wasn't much, and even what was there was treated in some fashion. This woman seemed far more trustworthy than he first expected. Despite that, he had a feeling that it didn't leave. An instinct told him to leave before it was too late. "It'd be better if we left sooner or later. Trust me, it'll be easier to let go when we don't know them," Ultima suggested.

                With his bag, and the clothes on his back, he left. Moments before she returned from the bathroom. The city was only a couple miles away, better than the hundreds of thousands of miles when he first started. The surrounding towns were quiet and cozy, but even they did not welcome him. He walked and walked. Past people, signs, speeding cars, and even streets. All of these were inconsequential, unimportant, and undeserving of his attention. Work must be done, and the System demands it.

~>System<{" [Daily Quest]: 0/100 Pushups. 0/100 Situps. 0/100 Squats. 0/10 KM Run. Caution, if the [Daily Quest] remains incomplete, penalties will be given accordingly,"}>it explained on a screen<~

                Understandably afraid, and knowing what the system did for him, he was compliant with every demand of the system before his very eyes. With every daily quest completed, he got stronger, his stats rising. It was deliberately addicting, and Winter knew this. He liked the challenge and liked working his body to exhaustion. He was built for this, that much he knew. After several days of working out complete, his inventory was filled with rewards from the system.