Free Web NovelChapter 125: A New Morning
BEEP!
BEEP!
BEEP!
The loud alarm echoed throughout the apartment. Sunlight poured through the curtains, bathing the room in warm golden light. The city outside had already awakened. Cars rolled through the streets. Birds chirped from nearby rooftops.
Inside the bedroom...A tiny action-figure alarm clock stood proudly on the bedside table. It resembled a miniature Crimson Bunny Biker. Complete with a tiny crimson helmet. A tiny black blazer. Its little arm repeatedly pointed forward every time the alarm sounded.
BEEP!
BEEP!
BEEP!
The miniature bunny proudly shouted through its speaker. "Wake up! The city needs you!"
A blanket suddenly shot upward. A sleepy arm emerged.
SMACK.
The alarm stopped.
Several long seconds passed. Nothing moved.
Then...
A muffled voice came from beneath the blanket. "...Five more years..."
The System immediately appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Request Denied]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The blanket slowly lowered. Nobody’s messy black hair appeared first. Half-open eyes. Completely exhausted. He stared blankly at the ceiling. "...Morning already?"
The sunlight answered for him.
He slowly turned toward the miniature Crimson Bunny alarm clock. "...You know..." He picked it up. "I still think this clock I got as an additional reward looks really cool."
The little bunny action figure remained frozen with one arm heroically pointing forward.
Nobody smiled. "You’re probably the only version of me that actually wakes up on time."
The System quietly spoke.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Question]
Did The User Sleep Well?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody slowly looked toward the floating window. "...Seriously?" He rubbed both eyes. "You seriously asked if I slept well?"
The System waited.
Nobody pointed dramatically at himself. "Bruuh...I barely slept. I spent half the night fighting a giant flaming yeti. The other half was paperwork. And somewhere in between...I discovered people think really weird things." He sighed. "So no. I did not sleep well."
The System processed the response.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Sleep Evaluation]
Poor.
Recommended Sleep Time:
Eight Hours.
Estimated User Sleep:
Three Hours.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody nodded. "Sounds about right." He slowly stood up.
Every muscle immediately complained. "...Oww... My shoulders... My back... My legs..." He stretched carefully.
CRACK.
CRACK.
CRACK.
"...Yep...I’m officially paying yesterday’s subscription fee."
The System displayed another notification.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Reminder]
Today’s Main Story Event:
Meet Toma.
Primary Objective:
Investigate Toma’s Forgotten Past.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody looked at the notification. His playful expression softened. "...Right. No more drug ships." He quietly smiled. "Today’s important."
The System answered.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Affirmative]
Story Progress Will Advance Significantly.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody scratched the back of his head. "...Yeah...I’ve been looking forward to this one." He walked toward the bathroom. Several minutes later...
Freshly showered. Hair neatly combed.
Black coat perfectly straightened. White shirt spotless. Black pants neatly pressed. He looked into the mirror.
The reflection smiled back. "...Much better." He adjusted the collar. "Professional NPC mode."
The System interrupted.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Correction]
Current Outfit Contains Zero Bunny Accessories.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"...You’re right." Nobody chuckled.
The System remained silent.
Nobody laughed. He headed toward the kitchen. The apartment remained peaceful. He opened the refrigerator. "...Let’s see..Milk, eggs, bread, orange juice." He stared inside for several seconds. "...Breakfast....The greatest daily side quest."
He quickly toasted two slices of bread. Cracked a couple of eggs into a frying pan.
Within minutes...A simple breakfast sat on the table.
Nobody looked proudly at it. "...Chef me HA HA HA."
The System responded.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Meal Quality]
Average.
Nutritional Balance:
Acceptable.
Presentation:
Questionable.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"...Hey! It’s not average." He took a bite. "Mmm..Not bad."
The System quietly added.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Reminder]
Please Eat Faster.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"...You’re rushing breakfast now?"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Primary Story Event Has Scheduling Requirements]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody raised one eyebrow. "Alright. I’ll hurry." Just as he finished the last bite...
RING!
RING!
His phone vibrated across the table. The screen lit up.
Toma Calling...
Nobody immediately smiled. "Right on time." He answered. "Morning."
On the other end... Toma sounded surprisingly awake. "Morning." Then she immediately asked, "Where are you?"
Nobody stood up while holding the phone to his ear. "I’m still at home."
He slowly walked toward the living room window. The curtains fluttered gently in the morning breeze. He pulled them aside. Bright golden sunlight flooded the apartment. The city stretched endlessly below. People hurried toward work. School buses rolled through the streets. Children laughed on sidewalks.
For a brief moment...
Everything looked peaceful. Nobody smiled while looking outside. "Beautiful morning."
Toma sighed softly. "I wish I could enjoy it."
Nobody understood immediately. "...You’re nervous."
A short silence followed.
"...Yeah. I barely slept. I kept thinking about today." Her voice became quieter. "What if...What if I don’t like what I remember?"
Nobody rested one hand against the window. The sunlight reflected across the glass. He spoke calmly. "The truth doesn’t change because we’re afraid of it." Another pause. "But..." He continued, "...Whatever happened back then...You won’t be facing it alone."
The silence on the other end lasted several seconds.
Finally...Toma smiled softly. "...Thanks."
Then her usual tone returned. "So...Are you planning to admire the weather all morning?"
Nobody laughed. "I was thinking about it."
"No." She answered immediately. "We’ve got somewhere to be. Aiden’s already waiting."
Nobody nodded. "Give me ten minutes. You know where to meet? Same café as yesterday. I’ll be there."
The call ended.
Nobody slipped the phone back into his pocket. He looked outside one final time.
The bright sun illuminated the city.
Yesterday...He had crossed frozen seas. Defeated a Unique-class monster. Stopped an international smuggling operation.
Today...He somehow felt even more nervous.
He quietly smiled. "...Funny."
The System appeared once again.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Observation]
User Heart Rate Slightly Elevated.
( ᗜ⩊ᗜ )
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody folded his arms. "I’m not nervous."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Detected Statement]
False.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"...Traitor."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Truth Is Required For Accurate Health Monitoring.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody sighed. "...Fine. I am a little nervous." He walked toward the apartment door. His keys jingled softly in his hand.
CLICK.
He locked the door behind him. The hallway was quiet.
Sunlight streamed through the building’s windows. Nobody slipped both hands into his pockets as he walked toward the elevator. "Ding."
The elevator doors opened. He stepped inside. As the doors slowly closed, he looked at his reflection in the polished metal. The playful grin that had carried him through countless battles faded into something more thoughtful.
Today wasn’t about defeating monsters. Today wasn’t about earning rewards. Today was about uncovering the truth hidden inside someone’s forgotten childhood.
Some battles were fought with fists. Others...With memories. And somehow...Nobody had a feeling this one would be much harder.
The elevator descended smoothly. Floor after floor passed by.
15...
14...
13...
Nobody leaned against the wall with both hands inside his pockets. "...Today’s gonna be interesting."
The System quietly appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Probability Analysis]
Current Story Arc Contains High Emotional Importance.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody nodded. "I figured. Usually when the System starts acting serious...something big is about to happen."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Affirmative]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Ding!
The elevator reached the ground floor. The doors slowly slid open. Warm morning sunlight greeted him. Residents walked in and out of the apartment building. Someone walked a dog. A child laughed while chasing a balloon. A delivery truck stopped nearby. Everything felt...normal.
Nobody stepped outside. The cool morning breeze brushed against his face. He stretched both arms. "...Beautiful day."
He began walking toward the nearby café where they had agreed to meet. NPCs occasionally recognized him. Not as the Crimson Bunny. Just as an NPC.
Which honestly made life much easier. As he crossed the sidewalk...
A familiar blue window suddenly appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Main Story Event Beginning]
Objective:
Meet With Toma And Aiden.
Current Progress:
0%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody smiled. "Heh. So the cutscene is about to start."
The System answered.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Please Refrain From Breaking This One]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody looked offended. "...Excuse me. When have I ever broken a cutscene?"
The System paused.
Exactly two seconds.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[History Too Long To Display]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"...Fair enough." He couldn’t even argue.
A few more minutes later...The familiar coffee shop came into view.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[system window] A gentle reminder
[reminder] User’s scene has shifted
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Large glass windows reflected the bright morning sun. Customers sat outside, chatting while enjoying breakfast.
Nobody pushed open the door.
Ding.
The small bell above the entrance rang softly. The smell of freshly brewed coffee immediately filled the air. He looked around.
Near the window...Toma was already waiting. She wore a light-colored jacket and jeans. A cup of coffee sat untouched in front of her. Although she tried to appear calm...Her fingers gently tapped against the table. She was very nervous.
Standing beside her...Was Aiden. He wore a dark blue shirt with a black jacket over it. His posture remained relaxed. But the tired look beneath his eyes suggested he hadn’t slept much either.
Nobody walked over with his usual grin. "Yo, Aiden!" He casually raised a hand. "Waddap? How’s your business business going?"
Aiden looked at him. A small, slightly annoyed smile appeared on his face. "...Business business?"
Nobody nodded confidently. "Business business. You know...The business....Business."
Aiden sighed. "...Good. I guess."
Nobody grinned. "See? I knew the business was businessing."
Toma covered her mouth, trying not to laugh. Even Aiden couldn’t stop the corner of his mouth from lifting slightly. "...You’re impossible."
Nobody proudly pointed at himself. "Professionally."
The waitress walked over. "Would you like anything?"
Nobody looked at the menu for exactly one second. "...Coffee. And..." He looked toward the pastry display. "...That chocolate donut."
The waitress nodded. "I’ll bring it right away."
A few moments later...
Nobody happily took his first sip. "Mmm...Life."
The three of them sat quietly for a brief moment.
Outside...Cars continued passing. Morning sunlight shone through the large windows.
Finally...Aiden placed both hands on the table. His playful expression disappeared. He looked first at Toma. Then at Nobody. "As all of us are here..." He slowly stood up. "...Let’s go."
Toma quietly nodded. Her heartbeat quickened.
Nobody finished the last bite of his donut. "So...We’re finally doing this."
Aiden gave a small nod. "...Yeah. It’s time."
The three of them walked out of the café together. The morning air felt cooler than before. A black SUV was parked along the curb.
Aiden pressed the unlock button.
Beep.
The lights flashed once.
He opened the driver’s door before looking back at them. "Hop in."
Nobody walked toward the passenger side. "So...Where exactly are we going?"
Aiden rested one hand on the roof of the vehicle. He looked into the distance for several silent seconds.
When he finally spoke...His voice carried a mixture of nostalgia and sadness. "...Our old neighborhood."
Toma quietly froze. Those three words alone were enough to make countless forgotten memories stir deep within her mind.
Nobody glanced at her. "...Ready?"
Toma slowly took a deep breath. "...No." Then she managed a small smile. "...But I don’t think I’ll ever be."
Nobody nodded. "Good enough."
The three of them climbed into the SUV. The engine started with a low hum. As Aiden slowly pulled away from the curb, the city drifted past outside the windows.
None of them spoke. Each was lost in their own thoughts. Ahead of them...An old neighborhood waited.
Along with memories that had remained buried for years.
