Chapter 5: Blessed with a system
However, the words on the page were written in a strange language that Gon couldn't make sense of.
"What is this?" Gon muttered under his breath, his voice tinged with frustration. He held the scroll up, turning it slightly as if a different angle might unlock its secrets.
His eyes traced the foreign symbols and figures again, searching for anything familiar, anything that might hint at its purpose.
But the more he stared, the more alien it seemed, as though it belonged to a world far removed from his own.
Just as he was about to lower the scroll with a heavy sigh of disappointment, something happened.
Without warning, a glow erupted from the scroll , completely surrounding him.
The next thing Gon could recall was the sensation of his knees buckling beneath him.
His grip on the scroll faltered, and the world around him seemed to blur and tilt as if the ground itself had shifted.
His body felt strangely heavy, as though an unseen force was pressing down on him, pulling him toward the earth.
He fell hard onto the ground, the impact jolting through his body, though it felt distant, as if his senses were muffled.
The air was cool against his face, but it did little to stir the fog that now clouded his mind.
His limbs felt like lead, unresponsive and weighed down by exhaustion.
He tried to fight it, to stay awake, but his vision grew darker with each passing second, like a curtain being slowly drawn over his eyes.
****
Gon woke up much later, the dim light of the evening casting long shadows around him.
His eyes fluttered open slowly, and for a moment, he wasn't sure where he was or how much time had passed.
The world felt hazy, like waking from a deep dream that lingered just out of reach in his memory.
As he shifted, he noticed the cold, clammy feeling of sweat clinging to his skin.
His clothes were damp, and a chill ran through him despite the stillness of the air.
His heart was racing, though he couldn't tell if it was from fear, confusion, or something else entirely.
The scroll was nowhere in sight, and the room seemed eerily quiet, as if the world had been holding its breath while he lay unconscious.
As Gon tried to push himself up, a sharp, searing pain suddenly shot through his head.
It struck without warning, like a bolt of lightning splitting the sky, causing him to freeze mid-motion.
His hands flew to his temples, fingers clutching tightly as if trying to hold his skull together.
Argghh! He groaned.
The pain was overwhelming, radiating from the center of his head and spreading outward in waves that made his vision blur and his thoughts scatter.
Breathing deeply, he tried to steady himself, but the pain made even that a struggle.
Each breath felt shallow, his chest tightening as if his body was fighting against him.
He sat there, hunched over, his hands still gripping his head, as the ache refused to relent.
Then, through the haze of pain and confusion, a beautiful chime reached his ears.
It was followed by something else, a voice.
< Welcome, you have unlocked the life force scroll and have been blessed with the harem system>
Gon slowly released his grip from his head, his fingers trembling as they slid away from his temples.
The headache, though still present, had lessened enough for him to focus on his surroundings.
He blinked several times, trying to shake off the lingering fuzziness in his mind.
He turned his head cautiously, his eyes scanning the space around him in quiet surprise.
The voice he just heard, was it in his head or had everyone else heard?
***
Then a screen glowed in front of him.
Name: Gon Viller
Rank: Body Initiate
Level: Level one
Skills: Basic blade handling
Conquered Women: None
Potential women: Scanning
Gon stared at the screen, the interface seemed to suggest a profile for him.
He was apparently a level one player and he had basic sword handling.
Based on this information alone, a thought occurred to Gon and hope started to bloom in his heart but he shut it down quickly.
He wasn't familiar with this screen and hadn't seen anything like this but he immediately suspected it had to do with magic.
Perhaps this was a gift from his grandma to help him become a mage after all.
That was the thought that occurred to him that he quickly shut down.
It felt too much like a fantasy so he wasn't willing to put his hopes in it.
"What is this?" He asked out loud.
There was a chiming sound, then the system voiced out.
< This is the harem system, to help you become a better mage >
Gon's heart began to pound in his chest excitedly.
His assumption had been correct, it was a system to help him become a better mage.
"Does this mean I have mama?" He asked, waiting with baited breath.