Benjamin read the message at the center of the holographic display—visible only to him—and his eyes widened.
"What is this?" He asked himself.
"The system project? What the hell is the system project?" Benjamin wondered.
Just then, a realization came to mind.
"Wait a minute… Aren't this display and the word 'system' the kind of things you see in online novels where the main character unlocks a system and becomes ultra-powerful?"
Benjamin reflected on what he had just thought about and he chuckled.
"That confirms it. Everything happening right now—time stopping and this crazy display about a system project—is a hundred percent a figment of my imagination because none of this makes any sense." Benjamin deluded himself and believed it wholeheartedly.
"I know what to do now. I'll just close my eyes for a few seconds, and this display will disappear as everything else returns to normal", he thought.
Feeling confident that everything would go back to normal once he closed his eyes, Benjamin did just that and kept it close for a few seconds.
"Any moment now, and this craziness should be gone. Then, I'll be back to dealing with the original craziness I was facing," Benjamin told himself.
Deep down, he wished that closing his eyes would also take away what was happening before time stopped, but sadly, he knew that wouldn't happen, as it was reality and not a figment of his imagination.
A couple of seconds passed and Benjamin's confidence started to falter.
He groaned.
"Shouldn't everything be back to normal by now? It should—so why is everything still so quiet? Why isn't this crazy officer who handcuffed me reciting my Miranda rights? Why aren't we moving? Why isn't Mom screaming at them to let me go? And why isn't Gina crying for everyone to stop what they're doing? Don't tell me this impossible situation is actually..." Benjamin thought, then opened his eyes.
To his surprise, time was still frozen and the display about the System Project was still suspended in front of his face— letting him know that what he was experiencing was as real as the clothes on his body.
"So this isn't a figment of my imagination? I can't believe it'" Benjamin thought, then realized that he had to take what was going on seriously.
He read the message on the display again and saw the two options he had underneath the question— one asking him to accept and the other to reject.
"I'm guessing that things won't go back to normal, and I'll remain like this if I don't choose one of them, huh?" He thought and then groaned.
"Which of the two options should I choose then?' he contemplated, then decided to pick "Reject" as that might make everything return to normal the quickest.
He then wondered how he was supposed to select an option, seeing as how he couldn't physically speak or move to touch it.
Just then, he recalled the books he had read where the main character was presented with a system and is able to communicate with it telepathically. If that was the case, all he needed to do was think of the option he wanted to select, and it should choose itself.
"I choose—" Benjamin thought, but then he stopped himself.
"Wait a minute. It can't be a coincidence that this happened the moment I asked the world—and any being who might have been watching—for help, can it?" he pondered.
It was kind of strange that something as impossible as time freezing took place the moment he begged for help from the cosmos.
Maybe this was a response to his plea for help, and he was being given the exact thing he needed to achieve what he begged for. In that case, rejecting would be a grave mistake as an opportunity like that doesn't come twice.
Or maybe it wasn't a response to his plea and this whole thing was just random coincidence. But still, how much would it hurt to find out more about the mysterious System Project he had been deemed a worthy candidate for?
With that, Benjamin knew the right option to pick.
'Accept. I choose Accept', he thought.
Immediately, the display he had previously tried to make disappear, but couldn't, finally changed.
Though the display remained the same, the message on it changed to:
"Welcome to the System Project. You are among one hundred candidates who will be participating in a series of upcoming events."
Underneath the message was the "Next" button.
Benjamin groaned after reading.
'Upcoming events? That's kind of vague. Can I at least know what the events are?' He thought, then wondered if he could ask the display to shed more light on what it was talking about.
"Umm, is it possible to know what the upcoming events are?" He asked.
Unfortunately, the display didn't respond. The message it showed remained the same, waiting for him to tell it to go to the next message.
Benjamin sighed.
"I guess I'll find out in due time. Next" he said, and the message changed.
"Please insert your name", Benjamin read, and underneath was a blank space for him to register his name into the mysterious System Project he was now a part of.
Benjamin thought about what to put.
'Should I use my real name?' He thought and just as he was about to do that he stopped himself.
'Is it wise to do that though? There's so much I don't know about this project—like, who are the other ninety-nine participants, and where are they from? How and why were we all chosen for this? So many unanswered questions... so why risk having my real name out there? I'd better be cautious,' Benjamin said. Then, he thought of a different name to use—and it came to him.
The name was the one he used when creating a video game profile for himself.
"A, X, E, L, space, B, L, A, D, E. Axel Blade" he said.
Immediately, the message changed.
"You shall be referred to as Axel Blade moving forward."
Benjamin looked at the top right corner of the display and saw that he had one more step to carry out before he was done.
Wondering what that step was going to be, he clicked the next and the message changed again.
"Please choose the system you want", Benjamin read, and his eyes widened.
So he got to choose the system he wanted? That's amazing!
Usually, in the books he had read, the main characters are assigned a system with no choice in the matter. The only thing they could do is make the best use of it. Fortunately for them, they are always given a powerful system—otherwise, the story will be terrible and boring.
Benjamin was ready for the system he was going to choose and, without wasting time, he clicked the option to show him the list of systems he was to pick from.
Immediately, a list of one hundred systems in rows of four and twenty-five in each row appeared.
At the bottom of the display were two options. Cancel, which was to terminate the entire process and opt out of the system project entirely, or Confirm, which was to confirm that he agreed with the choice of system he had picked.
Ecstatic about what he was going to choose, Benjamin grinned and then started looking through the list for a system that would be his.
"There! I got it!" Benjamin smirked internally. Unfortunately, that smirk was short-lived.