My spirit animal is a F–Rank gecko-Chapter 38: Reunion (1)

Jaster’s soul left his body; his mouth was gaping so wide he could suck all the air in the room.

The nurse was stunned, seeing Jaster’s sudden reaction.

"Uhh.... Is this what they taught me before?... Is the patient experiencing shell shock?"

After no response from Jaster, she waved her hand in front of him a couple times.

I..... I’ve been gone for.... a really long time... Jaster thought.

He finally snapped out of it and shook all the clutter from his mind.

"Ok, I have a load of questions!" Jaster pointed towards one of the chairs in the room.

"Go take a seat!" The nurse reluctantly did as Jaster asked.

He took a deep breath and began talking.

"First. What happened to the school? What even happened to all the first years?"

The nurse’s eyes shot up; she started searching on her tablet.

"Uhh.... Ok, let me search first. Please wait."

Her hands scrolled past all the latest news, going back to the day of the Broker massacre.

"So, according to this news article, about 380 students unfortunately passed away..." The nurse stopped after realizing what she said.

Jaster’s soul not only left his body—it instead exploded to smithereens.

"380.... There’s about 480 first-year students. And you’re telling me only 100 survived that night?"

The nurse nodded. Jaster could tell she was also shocked by the number of casualties.

Jaster all of a sudden remembered Marcus.

"Do you know what happened to the student council?"

The nurse’s eyes lit up; she started rubbing her chin.

"Actually, yeah! I’m pretty sure the president only suffered minor injuries, and two more of the members only needed a couple days’ rest... But..."

The nurse’s eyes shifted; she frowned.

"I heard one of the members of the student council is still in a coma...."

Jaster’s eyes widened. He was sure it wasn’t Marcus, since he only suffered minor injuries.

Kai definitely wouldn’t get hurt with his defensive passive,

and Coral is immune to poison. So that only leaves one person....

Jaster felt a sharp pain in his head. He grunted while holding his forehead.

"Are you okay, sir?" The nurse was about to get up to check on him, but Jaster stopped her.

"I’m fine.... It’s just."

Jaster started getting lost in his own thoughts.

The Broker... They’re definitely one of the main antagonists in this story. But in the game, they were never mentioned, nor were there people like Alexander.

Jaster gripped his bedsheet; he felt nervous about what would come next.

The nurse noticed Jaster gripping the sheet so tightly.

She then remembered something.

"Oh yeah, sir!" Jaster looked at the woman.

"I’m pretty sure there are some people who wanted to see you!"

Jaster’s face went blank.

Who could have wanted to visit Jaster in the hospital?

Back on Earth, Adam always had no one visiting him when he was in the hospital. The only things that accompanied him were his phone and Wi-Fi.

Jaster almost felt nervous, but he smiled at the nurse.

"Who... is it?"

---

"LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!!"

Karina burst into Jaster’s hospital room, holding a couple buckets of chicken.

Reza joined in as well, holding a lot of soda in his hands.

"Karina, you’re so loud!" He scolded her.

Jaster watched the two lunatics as they settled all their food on the table.

Karina looked at Jaster.

"JASTER!!" She ran up to him and hugged him tight.

Jaster was locked in Karina’s crushing hug.

Reza soon followed her, joining in the hug as well.

"I’m glad you’re okay!" Reza said.

"Ok.... Ok— guys. I’m gonna die!"

"Whoops!" Karina let go of the hug, her face as red as a tomato.

"Sorry, there are also many more people!"

Jaster’s jaw dropped. Not one, not two, but even more people wanted to see Jaster.

Adam could never get this kind of treatment back on Earth.

Ivy peeked from the door; her eyes lit up when she saw Jaster.

"JASTER... I WAS SO WORRIED!!" She ran towards him and hugged his body, sobbing into his hospital gown.

"Oh, uhh... Ivy, you’re gonna dirty my gown.."

Jay walked in as well; he immediately smirked looking at Jaster.

"Hey dude!"

He offered Jaster a fist bump, which Jaster reluctantly accepted.

He still didn’t trust Jay, but the fact that he took the time to visit Jaster made him feel a little better.

The four of them surrounded Jaster on his bed, all of them with warm smiles directed at him.

At this point, Adam thought he was hallucinating. Or maybe he was in a dream, since he couldn’t fathom that anyone would ever visit him.

"Oh yeah!" Jaster’s eyes immediately shot up.

"Karina, do you still have Purple?!"

Karina smirked at Jaster.

"You mean this little fella?" She pointed towards her empty shoulder.

This made Jaster confused until—

"KRRK!!!" He finally heard it.

Purple stopped camouflaging, and its eyes were shaking, seeing its owner in such an awful state.

"KRRK KRRK!!"

"PURPLEBERRY!!!"

Purple jumped off Karina’s shoulder and into Jaster’s embrace.

They both shared a heartwarming hug together.

"Aww!!" Ivy looked like she was gonna explode from seeing the cute scene.

Jaster whispered in Purple’s ears.

"I’m so sorry... For being gone for a month. I’m so glad you’re okay, though!"

"Krrk...."

The two of them savored this moment for a long time.

Then a window appeared in front of Jaster.

[ Bond level reached 20%. A quest has been completed....]

Jaster’s eyes lit up.

[ CONGRATULATIONS, ASPIRANT!! You’ve completed the prologue quest.]

Many more mini windows started appearing under the main one.

[ 10+ Blueberries have been added to your inventory ]

[ Purpleberry has received his first origin aspect! Go check it out! ]

[ Purpleberry has obtained 100+ Exp. Only 1000 exp more to evolve! ]

Jaster almost made a cringe expression, seeing the system’s weird choice of writing.

It was definitely normal for games, but it was weird seeing it in real life.

Also....

Jaster noticed Purpleberry had obtained his first origin aspect.

But Jaster put that aside, since the only thing that mattered right now were the people surrounding him.

"Thank you guys... For visiting me!"

Jaster looked at all his teammates. He didn’t wanna admit it, but Adam thought he could finally call them his... friends now.

That’s what he wanted to do, but as if the gods wanted to pressure Jaster more, the smaller screens disappeared.

[ System Act 1 initiated ]

Instead, it was replaced with a much bigger one.

——————•●•———————

『Act 1: Blue vs Red 』

◇ Objective: Help one of the student council candidates too win the next selection.

◇ Condition:

• You may support only one candidate.

• The final vote cannot be manipulated by force or ability.

◇ Requirement:

• Reach Bond Level 40% with your chosen candidate

• Complete 3 candidate support tasks

• Gain academy reputation: Known

◇ Duration: 3 Months

『Reward』

☆ A random passive skill Unlocked

☆ 1 Tide runes

☆ Spirit EXP +500

※ Failure will lead to the unstable hierarchy in bondspire

——————•●•———————