"Haeuuuuuffff!"

Richard inhaled sharply as he regained consciousness. However, he was no longer in the stall, but in a hospital.

He looked left and right and saw beds where other patients lay, surrounded by their family members.

"Richard! Thank god you are fine!"

A familiar voice rang on his side, shifted towards the sound of the voice and saw his mother, Theresa. She was in her mid forties, with a plump face and slightly tired eyes that clearly showed years of stress and exhaustion.

Her hair was tied back messily, and Richard could immediately recognize the familiar faded cardigan she always wore whenever she went outside.

Beside her stood his younger sister, Angela, still wearing her senior high school uniform.

Her eyes were red like she had been crying earlier.

Richard blinked slowly.

The bright hospital lights hurt his head slightly.

A dull throbbing pain still lingered near his forehead where the robber struck him.

"What..." Richard muttered weakly.

"You scared us," his mother said immediately while holding his hand tightly.

"The shop owner called us. You suddenly got attacked during the robbery."

Ah right, the robbery.

Richard slowly remembered everything afterward.

Then, before his field of vision, a holographic screen popped out.

He jolted and instinctively pulled himself away from it, moving him only a few inch in his bed.

"What’s happening? Are you okay?" his mother asked.

Richard didn’t answer, he only stared at the screen.

[Divine Grade Reconstruction System Initializing...]

"Aren’t you seeing what I am seeing?" Richard asked.

"What? Where?" his mother looked to where he was staring at. It was only another bed across him with a patient lying on it.

"You mean that old man?"

"No no...something floating screen."

Theresa and Angela exchanged worried glances immediately.

Richard slowly realized something.

They could not see it.

Only he could.

The glowing blue holographic interface remained floating directly before his vision.

[Divine Grade Reconstruction System Initializing... 12%]

His heartbeat slowly accelerated. It was real. In his pastimes, he’d read popular mahwa on a pirate site and was very familiar with this setting.

A system.

Angela stepped closer toward the bed worriedly.

"Brother... are you sure you’re okay?"

Richard quickly forced himself to calm down.

"Y-Yeah... I just got dizzy for a second."

His mother looked unconvinced.

"You should rest first. The doctor said head injuries can make people confused."

Richard only nodded weakly while internally focusing on the floating screen.

The percentage slowly continued increasing.

[24%...]

[37%...]

[51%...]

The system interface flickered slightly while new lines of text occasionally appeared.

[Scanning host neural pathways...]

[Establishing cognitive synchronization...]

[Linking system core...]

A nurse suddenly walked toward their bed while carrying a clipboard.

"Oh, you’re awake already?"

Richard looked toward her.

The nurse appeared exhausted, probably somewhere in her late twenties, with eyebags visible beneath her eyes.

Public hospitals really were brutal workplaces.

"How are you feeling?" she asked while checking his IV line.

"My head hurts."

"That’s normal. You suffered blunt force trauma."

The nurse then shined a small flashlight briefly toward his eyes.

"Any dizziness? Vomiting? Blurred vision?"

Richard almost answered yes while staring directly at a floating holographic AI system in front of him.

Instead he simply said:

"A little dizzy."

The nurse nodded.

"Just rest for now. The CT scan didn’t show internal bleeding, so you’re lucky."

"Oh than—wait what do you mean CT scan? You performed that on me? That sounds expensive."

The nurse paused briefly.

"Well... yes?"

Richard’s expression stiffened immediately.

"How much?"

The nurse looked slightly awkward afterward.

"You were brought to the emergency room unconscious after a head injury. The doctor ordered a CT scan to make sure there wasn’t internal bleeding."

Richard slowly felt his stomach sink.

Public hospital or not, he already knew scans like that were not cheap.

His mother quickly spoke up.

"Don’t worry about it for now."

That alone immediately confirmed his fears.

Because every time poor families said don’t worry about it, it usually meant the exact opposite.

Richard rubbed his forehead weakly.

"How much?" he asked again quietly.

Theresa hesitated for a second.

"...Around twelve thousand total so far."

Richard nearly choked.

"Twelve what?!"

Angela immediately flinched slightly at his reaction.

"The doctor said the scan was necessary," Theresa said quickly.

"And your employer helped pay part of it already."

Even then, Richard could already tell the remaining balance would still hurt them badly.

Twelve thousand pesos.

That was already a massive amount for their family.

That was groceries.

Medicine.

Utility bills.

Just because he got hit in the head by some random thug.

Richard slowly leaned back against the hospital bed while exhaling heavily.

Of course.

Of course life found another way to screw them over.

His mother suddenly forced a smile afterward.

"At least you’re safe. That’s what matters."

Richard looked at her quietly.

Even now, she was still trying to comfort him despite probably stressing internally about hospital expenses.

That honestly made him feel worse.

The floating blue system screen remained in front of him silently.

[Initialization progress completed!]

[Host: Richard Apostol]

[System Name: Divine-Grade Reconstruction System]

[System Level: Level 1]

[Daily Reconstruction Capacity: 1/1]

[Current Reconstruction Restrictions:]

Maximum Reconstruction Weight:

20 kilograms

Maximum Reconstruction Volume:

0.5m × 0.4m × 0.5m

Current Reconstruction Tier:

Basic Reconstruction

[System Level-Up Requirement:]

The host must generate verified reconstruction profits before the system can advance.

Current Profit Quota:

₱0 / ₱5,000,000

[Profit Conditions:]

Only profits earned through reconstructed objects are counted. Illegal counterfeit currency reconstruction is prohibited. Fraudulent transactions may reduce System Evaluation. The host must complete legitimate market transactions.

[System Description:]

The system allows the host to decompose and reconstruct non-living objects within the current authority limits.

Reconstructed objects may be:

- repaired.

- enhanced.

- optimized.

- technologically evolved.

The greater the gap between the original object and the reconstructed result, the greater the reconstruction difficulty and energy consumption.

Objects exceeding current system limitations cannot be reconstructed.

[Notice:]

The host is currently in the Beginner Reconstruction Phase.

Reach the required profit quota to unlock:

- higher reconstruction limits.

- increased daily reconstruction count.

- advanced reconstruction precision.

- larger object reconstruction.

There were a lot of screens floating before him right now and looking at his mother and little sister again, he now knew that he was the only one seeing it. This is a clarification.

"How were the robbers? Were they caught?" Richard asked.

"The police are still looking for them," Theresa answered quietly.

"The shop owner already reported everything."

Richard clicked his tongue slightly.

In a place like Divisoria, finding two random robbers in a sea of thousands of people was like finding a needle in a haystack.

Especially if the robbers were experienced.

The police would probably forget about the case after a few weeks.

That was just reality.

His mother sighed afterward.

"The owner said they stole almost three hundred thousand pesos worth of gadgets."

Richard frowned slightly.

That much?

Well, there were a lot of secondhand iPhones and tablets displayed in the stall earlier.

Still, hearing that number made him realize how chaotic the robbery truly was.

The floating holographic screens still hovered before his vision.

His eyes slowly scanned the information carefully again.

Daily Reconstruction Capacity: 1/1.

He still doesn’t know how this thing even works. Intuitively, it says he could reconstruct an object. But what’s so special about this power? He would have really preferred if it’s like a daily sign-in system that he often read where daily, the main character would receive random rewards.

But who is he to complain anyways? The fact that this system appeared for him meant that he could change his life. How poetic it is when he was ranting about it earlier and now he was lucky to have one.

His thoughts were interrupted when someone suddenly approached the hospital bed hurriedly.

"Richard!"

Richard looked up and immediately recognized the familiar overweight figure.

It was his employer.

Mario Lim.

The owner of the repair stall.

The middle-aged man still wore the same polo shirt from earlier, though now it looked messy and drenched slightly in sweat.

His usually smug and business-like expression was replaced with genuine concern.

"You awake already?" Mario asked immediately.

Richard nodded slightly.

"Yeah."

Mario visibly sighed in relief afterward.

"Good. Good."

For a moment, the older man simply stood there quietly before scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

"I’m sorry," he suddenly muttered.

Richard blinked.

"...For what?"

"For letting that happen."

"It’s fine, boss. Though I did hear from my mother that you paid for your part in my hospital expenses. I was wondering if you know, take care of all of it instead?"

"But Richard, I lost a lot of money too from the robbers..." Mario looked genuinely conflicted afterward.

The older man rubbed his forehead tiredly before pulling a plastic chair closer.

"You think I don’t want to?" he replied helplessly.

"But those bastards practically wiped out almost half my inventory."

Richard stayed silent.

Mario sighed heavily.

"I already paid eighty thousand upfront to suppliers last week for incoming units."

"Then the robbers took around three hundred thousand worth of gadgets today."

"And now I still have to pay rent, employee salaries, utilities..."

The middle-aged man looked exhausted while speaking.

For the first time since Richard started working under him, Mario no longer looked like the loud and stingy stall owner everyone knew.

He simply looked like another tired businessman struggling to stay afloat.

"Well, that sucks," Richard sighed.

"Look Richard," Theresa chimed in. "I already talked to the 5-6, they told me they can loan me money for the remaining balance."

Richard immediately frowned.

"The 5-6 again?"

Theresa looked slightly awkward afterward.

"We don’t really have a choice right now."

Richard sighed heavily while leaning back against the hospital bed.

Of course.

The damn 5-6.

One of the most common debt traps for poor people in the Philippines.

Borrow five.

Pay back six.

Twenty percent interest.

And that was usually the "kind" version.

Some lenders became far worse once payments got delayed.

The problem was that banks barely entertained people like them. After all, they have no stable collateral, no large savings, and no formal assets.

Meanwhile emergencies did not wait conveniently for financial approval.

So poor families turned toward informal lenders instead.

Richard still remembered those mornings when collectors arrived outside their tiny home in Tondo riding motorcycles.

Patient at first.

Friendly even.

But once payments got delayed?

Their attitudes changed quickly.

Suddenly the reminders became daily.

Then aggressive.

Then humiliating.

Angela quietly lowered her head afterward.

"I hate those guys," she muttered softly.

Richard agreed internally.

He hated them too.

But at the same time, he also understood why they existed.

Because poor people constantly needed emergency money.

And when formal systems failed ordinary people, informal systems filled the gap instead.

Even if they were predatory.

Theresa rubbed her hands together slightly.

"The lender said we can borrow thirty thousand for now."

Richard instantly calculated it mentally.

Meaning they would eventually pay back thirty-six thousand.

Probably weekly too.

Another chain around their necks.

Another burden added on top of existing debt.

"How long until repayment starts?" Richard asked quietly.

"Next week."

Well he’d admit, his mother is really financially illiterate. That loan plus their existing debt would make them homeless.

So he hoped that this system he had gained right now would turn this shit around.

He couldn’t wait to try it out.

And he hoped that this would finally become his key toward a better future. A future that he had almost given up on due to the current circumstances he was in.

And there’s already an idea forming in his head once he returns home. There was a broken smartphone in his drawer. Perhaps he could use it as his experiment for the system’s capabilities.