[...]

*...*

"Is he going to wake up?" Someone asked.

"He should... He was very lucky. There was actually a Cleric in this "small" town. And they were even close by, so they made it fairly quickly." Someone else replied.

"Okay..."

"By the way, why are you still here?" The first person asked.

"Although he doesn't have insurance, he's still a Citizen of Dener Town. I was the first Guard to come to him, and although not the first person to come, I still have to make sure that he recovers and ask him if everything's fine with him." The second replied.

"..."

"He is currently blind and deaf, but because you gave him a few Instant Healing Potions his wounds were patched up nicely. He also seems to have a Regeneration Type Skill, and, although it's weak, his eyes and ears will recover."

...

*hgh* Roy woke up.

'Where am I?' he thought. *ack* he moaned in pain.

He couldn't see anything.

He tried looking around, but found it quite difficult to move his head.

*piii* sounded the ringing in his head. It was unpleasant and high pitched. The sort of thing you could hear nearby very old stuff, like a box shaped TV from the late 20th century. Although those TVs weren't around anymore, for around 120 years or so, people still understood the sound it made.

He tried sitting up, but he just couldn't. He found himself very weak and feeble.

He felt the softness of a cloud underneath him.

He breathed in some fresh air. He seemed to be near a forest.

He could feel the sun s.h.i.+ne upon his face, warming him up, ever so slightly.

'What happened?'

'...'

'I remember updating my System, and then... an indescribable pain surged within my body.' but everything after was very hazy to him.

He tried opening his eyes once more.

Nothing.

There was absolutely nothing he could see. Not even blackness, that you would see when you would close your eyes in a dark room. Not even the colors your mind would produce on its own, like deep blue or dark violet.

It was like trying to see out of your elbow or the back of your head. You just couldn't, and you wouldn't even see blackness.

'What the h.e.l.l?!' he asked himself. 'Am I blind? And deaf?!'

Being deaf was... unpleasant to say the least. Apart from the constant high pitched ringing in his head, he couldn't hear anything. Not even his own thoughts!

He knew what he was thinking, but just couldn't hear his thoughts. Imagine, you live with a voice in your head. That voice is always there. When you read, it reads it out for you. When someone talks, it says what they say. When you're thinking "What should I eat for lunch?", it says the question. It does everything, in your mind - to your mind.

Then, someday, it went missing. *puff* and it's gone. For some parts, it wouldn't be that bad. For example, when you for a walk, go to school, drive to work, you wouldn't think "Left leg, lift up, then move forward, then step down.". You would just naturally do it.

But for other things, it would be very bad. If you wanted to say something, you couldn't revise what you were going to say. You would just have to "go with it" or "wing it". You would still know what you wanted to say, but you would have a clear mind, devoid of any thought.

It is nerve wracking to even think about it. Not to mention experiencing these two together, at the same time.

He was terrified. What if he was dead? What would he do? Is this how it felt to die?

"No!" ... is what he wanted to think, but it was very hard. Especially in this situation. You could say "Just be brave!" or "I wouldn't freak out (in this situation).", but it was not that easy. Sort of like when you felt that you have grasped a certain subject and had confidence in yourself, but when it was "your time to s.h.i.+ne", like, to have a presentation, you could just freeze up and forget basically everything.

*hhg hhhg* Roy tried tried to move, but to no avail.

He tried, again and again.

Nothing.

...

Roy was still trying. He had no idea about what time it was, or how long he had been at it. What was keeping him together up 'till now, was his will. More precisely, he was stubborn. But it just couldn't work anymore. He himself wasn't enough.

Suddenly,

[Need for Talents present... Right conditions present for the use of Talents.]

'Huh?'

[Picking Talent...]

[Talent 2 (Strong Willed) is now being activated...]

[Adjusting effects to the Talent Level...]

*shua*

Roy felt himself become more courageous and fearless. He became confident in himself.

He suddenly thought, that it wasn't so "scary". Before, he had somewhat of a feeling of familiarity with the total blindness and deafness, like he was supposed to be like that. But now, there was none of that anymore!

He tried opening his eyes once more... nothing.

He tried yelling for help... nothing.

He focused on the feeling of a cloud underneath him... and he tried to sit up...

Success!

He felt something behind him. It was hard, and had a rectangular shape. He wanted to identify it, but he just couldn't figure it out. There was too little to go off of. He tried feeling himself up, and found he had some very light and thin clothing on. He had none of his equipment on, except for his ring.

He waved around a little, trying to grasp what was around him, but he didn't find anything.

Suddenly, he felt something cold and slippery touch him. It furiously grabbed him, trying to pin him down no matter what. He resisted. The activated Talent gave him the willpower to push forward and to never give up.

The cold and slippery things were kind of weak compared to him, but they were still something that he couldn't brush off as nothing.

Next, there came another few things that tried to pin him down. They were warm, and one was even greasy. A pair of these things had a leather like feeling to them. All of these new things were stronger than the cold ones, especially the leather like ones.

He thought that the cold ones were probably a weaker species or a child. While the leather ones were some form of Bosses, if they were monsters.

Roy tried resisting, but he was quickly pinned down. But he didn't give up.

He grabbed at one of the cold things, and felt a metal like harness. It was also cold, so he figured it was the monster's skin. He tried squeezing the cold skin of the monster, but it was too hard for him to do anything to it.

'Am I in the Abyss? Or some kind of Mind Realm?' he thought.

If that were the case, it would definitely explain why he was blind and deaf. His memories were very hazy about what happen back then, so maybe he got transported somewhere. It did happen before (just not to him). And with the history of his (very, very) bad luck, he might have even been transported to a Realm of Abyss (there's more of them).

But then, he "heard" something. He actually "heard" something!

[ROY! ROY!] it called out. He recognized it as the System's voice.

[IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, STOP! YOU'RE IN A HOSPITAL! EVERYTHING'S FINE!] it resounded in his head.

'What!?' he yelled back. The so called hearing he had of the System's voice, was actually just knowing (receiving) the information, not actually hearing the voice. So it was different than when he had gotten it.

[THESE ARE !PEOPLE! TRYING TO !CALM! YOU DOWN!]

'Oh!' he thought. He was very confused. Why did they feel so strange then? That wasn't important, he had to calm down.

He stopped resisting, and finally laid down.

[Phew, okay...]

[So here is the gist of things. You are on bed for Citizen's, that's why it's so soft. The things you are feeling are peoples' hands. The cold ones are from a nurse that was was.h.i.+ng her hands in cold water. The greasy ones are of someone was just eating and had stained hands. And the leather pair are of a guard's gloves. Dumm- ... Sorry. You couldn't have known that.]

He now somewhat understood what was happening, somewhat.

"The hands realized" that he had calmed down, and stopped as well. They (the people) were relieved that he calmed down.

[Try sayi-]

'Can you guys hear me?' he asked.

'Yes!' he somehow understood.

[They said that they do.]

'I know.' he told the System.

[Oh I see you're all high and mighty. I ques you don't need me anymore. Fine, I'll just uninstall myself.]

[Uninstalling The System... 37% complete]

'WAIT NO!' he cried out.

[HA!] it laughed.

[That was just me saying that, not an actual notification. You really are a dummy...]

'...'

[Ok, fine. I'll stop it. You're probably wondering why you're blind and deaf, right? It's because the System Stats updating had a too big of a change. When the "update" from Zack came, it was System controlled, erm... Look, before, it was an official update, so you got to not suffer a penalty for such a big change in your Stats. But now, it was your personal update, so you didn't get a free pa.s.s. Anyways... most of your body, like eyes, ears, and veins, bursted open. You were given a few Instant Healing Potions, and you also have the regeneration Skill, so it helped you out and saved you. Your eyes and ears still haven't regenerated yet, so you will be like this for a while.]

'That's a lot of information to take in at once. Can you slow down, please?' he asked (he had to add the please if he wanted a real answer).

[Sure. Sooo, I didn't say anything before, because I didn't want to disturb you. You have to peacefully heal everything first. And although you slightly moving once every few days, I thought that it was just your muscles twitching.]

'Once every few days?' he thought to himself.

[You've been out for 14 days!]