Blood Queen Reborn-Chapter 7: Shared System

Erin was beginning to wake up. Her head shook woozily, and her vision was blurry, but she was easily able to make out the boy she tried to help earlier was standing there next to her.

"Get away from me!" Erin yelled, kicking her foot at his legs.

The black haired boy immediately backed off, clearly sensing the hostility.

"Sorry, I just wanted to know if you were okay," the boy said, sounding genuinely concerned, "Are you okay? Can you get up? I saw your hand and—"

"What did your stupid book do to me?!" she yelled out, before getting up to her feet.

That was when he realized that she was slightly towering over him, which caused him to stumble a little back in fear. She pointed at him accusingly, but when her hand shot out, she noticed the number on her wrist watch said 1, instead of 5. Not only that, but despite trying to use her ability, there wasn’t a single ounce of frost coming out of her hands.

"I—I—" The boy mumbled, just as confused as she was, "I don’t know!"

Erin was not having it, and she too began to grow frustrated, "Well, if you don’t explain that weird text about a— I don’t know— the weird text I saw!"

Suddenly, they both saw a system screen appear right in front of their eyes, immediately causing them to quiet.

[User: Erin Heley]

[Race: Human]

[Level 1]

[0/100 EXP]

[HP 15/15]

[Strength: 15]

[Agility: 15]

[Stamina: 15]

"Y—your name is Erin?" the boy asked.

Slightly flustered that a stranger was suddenly able to see so much information about herself, she grabbed the boy by the collar of his shirt and pinned him to the wall. Somehow, she knew that he was able to see what she saw.

"Tell anyone about this, and you’re dead," Erin threatened.

He quickly raised his hands as a sign of peace, waving them frantically, "I wasn’t planning to anyways!"

Erin let go of the boy and took a few steps to the side. She decided to test out her ability again, just in case it was a fluke earlier. Holding her hand out, she tried to make a simple ice cube, but nothing happened, and her posture slouched.

"It really is gone..." Erin mumbled. Something so important to her was now nowhere to be found.

The boy saw what she was trying to do and figured out that something must’ve happened to her ability.

"Look, I’m sorry about my book doing this to you. The least I could do is promise not tell anyone," Then he decided to add, "If it helps, I think my book did something to me as well. There’s no way I should’ve been able to see that message, or know about your name."

Erin was mad that it was the boy’s fault for doing this to her, but without her ability, she couldn’t freeze him like she wanted to.

"Hey, boy," Erin began with a forceful tone, not knowing what the other’s name was.

"Quinn," he corrected.

"Yeah, Quinn— What am I going to do about this?!" Erin gestured to her watch, "How am I meant to explain this?"

They looked at each other, slightly unsure how to continue.

"... Maybe I could...?" Quinn began thinking about it, but any thoughts he had seemed to be too scary to say out loud. He had a few ideas in mind, but if only he could tell her without actually saying it.

That was when he had accidentally opened a system window in his vision and opened up a tab titled "Messages."

{Quinn} Maybe we can find a hacker? Or find some way to modify the watch?

{Quinn} Yeah, alright, but how am I going to tell her that? Much less find one.

Erin’s face scrunched up.

"Boy, do you have some sort of telepathy ability? I’m hearing your stupid voice."

Quinn looked at her confused before holding up his watch, indicating he was a 1, "No, I don’t have an ability, why are you asking?"

Erin sighed, exhausted, "Great, I lose my ability, and now I’m hearing voices about hackers from a weak nobody."

Quinn gritted his teeth when hearing that last part, but it was something he was unfortunately used to. Instead, he was more focused on something else.

"You heard my thoughts?" Quinn asked, with a hint of concern.

Erin squinted at him, "Uh... yeah?"

"Hold on, gimme a moment..."

{Quinn} Can you hear me say this?

{Quinn} Actually, can you send me messages?

"That’s besides the point!" Erin raised her voice, "I’ll figure out the watch thing later."

It was at that moment that they both looked at their watches almost instinctively. It was nearly curfew, and they gave each other one last look.

"Crap, we gotta go," Quinn looked back at her, "Again, sorry about my book."

Erin crossed her arms again and began walking away.

Quinn watched her go away, and despite being apart now, he felt a sort of connection to her. Some kind of feeling her presence from far away. He too began to walk back to his room, thinking about what he was going to do now without an ability book.

As Erin walked off to her dorm room, she examined more of the system screens that awaited her. She was also curious about the messaging system that Qu... uh... That... that boy was able to do.

’Damn, I already forgot his name," Erin thought. She had a bit of a habit struggling to remember people’s names and faces.

Erin then wondered if she could do the same messaging thing. While thinking about the system screen, numerous tabs were available to look through. There was a daily quest tab, a shop tab, a skills tab, and a messaging tab. The shop tab had a locked symbol on it, and the skill tab was empty. The other two tabs were free to look around in though.

Selecting the messaging tab, she was able to see the message history and remembered that the boy’s name was indeed Quinn. Then she began thinking of her message.

{Erin} Quinn.

{Quinn} I didn’t think I’d hear your voice randomly like that.

{Quinn} It’s weird that I could see what tabs you’re looking at too...

{Erin} Being linked to you is troublesome.

{Quinn} Hold on, I’m in the middle of talking to my roommates.

Erin finally managed to reach her room in the girl’s dorms and entered inside. As she sat down, she could focus all of her attention on the system screen awaiting her. When looking through the tabs, nothing seemed out of the ordinary of a typical video game system, but when clicking on the shop tab, there was a message that stated "Locked to user: Quinn Talen. Unlocks at level 10."

{Quinn} Okay, I’m done.

{Quinn} I went to "sleep" early, so hopefully they won’t bother me.

{Quinn} I see a shop tab, and a few other tabs too, but they state that they’re "locked to user: Erin Heley."

{Erin} I have to talk to you if I want something from the shop?

{Quinn} At least you have everything else unlocked.

{Erin} Ugh...

Erin looked at the quest tab, and there was a daily one for drinking water every day and gaining EXP, which seemed easy enough, along with one for reaching level 10.

Erin got ready for bed and began to lay down, ready to just fall asleep and leave everything for the morning. Thinking about the situation, however, led to some thoughts about the quest tab. She knew of video game mechanics due to the fact that her family was rich enough to afford some of the old vintage consoles. She didn’t actually play them herself, but she watched her mom play some. If Erin was able to level up, then she could grow stronger, faster, more powerful than what she was like before.

Erin’s face grew determined.

"I can work with this."