9 Relaxation

Ensen rushed to take his phone out as if trying to race against something.

'if I call a taxi before the system gives me another task, I will be safe for today at least!' he yelled in his mind, trying to convince himself it was true.

Ensen held up his phone, about to dial a number when he realized... he did not know the number of any taxies in town. Embarrassed by his mistake, he quickly slowed his movements down, acting as if it was just a joke. After a few minutes of googling, he found a reputable taxi company that he promptly called.

While waiting, he walked towards the parking lot of the park, eager to get back to his own car. There were quite a few cars of all kinds parked there. Black, white, silver, and even a strange bright pink sports car parked near the edge. Ensen once again sat down on the grass, waiting for his taxi to arrive.

After around 15 minutes, a yellow-colored car with the word taxi on a plaque above the roof of the car and the company name proudly displayed on the sides pulled into the parking lot. Seeing this, Ensen walked over, excited to finally be back to his car and by extension home.

He quickly approached the taxi, who pulled over slowly to let him in. After opening the back door, he was met with a strong scent of cigarette smoke assaulting his nose. Doing his best to ignore it, he slowly entered the back seat trying to breathe out of his mouth to try to counteract the smell.

After buckling his seatbelt, he quickly told the driver the location he wanted to be dropped off at.

The interior of the car was surprisingly nice, with comfortable grey seats and a cup holder in the back for the customer. The driver himself seemed to be in his mid-40s, if not early 50's. He had slightly greyed hair that seemed like it had been dyed recently and a fresh cigarette in his mouth.

Without further delay, the driver began driving towards the cafe he was previously at. After a few minutes, he lowered the driver's side window and threw the remaining butt of the cigarette out of the window. Ensen's sky blue eyes visibly twitched in annoyance after seeing that. But he was too tired to confront the old man. Plus, he was driving him, not the best idea to anger him.

'On the bright side, at least he isn't smoking anymore.' Ensen said, trying to look at the positive. But he quickly turned speechless when he saw the old man reach over to the glove box and taking out a fresh cigarette.

"Oh, would you like one?" The old man said, noticing Ensen's gaze towards the cigarette and wrongly interpreting his gaze.

With a fake smile Ensen responded, "Oh no thanks, I don't smoke."

The old man shrugged lightly and grabbed a nearby lighter, quickly taking a big puff of smoke.

After around 10 more minutes, they finally arrived at where he first started, The Jasmine Hut. He quickly dug out a few bills from his leather wallet and exited the vehicle, beginning to feel sick to his stomach from all the smoke he inhaled.

'Maybe jogging back wouldn't have been so bad after all. Wait... what am I thinking?' He thought to himself, debating if his lungs or legs were worth more in his own eyes.

Throwing the thought to the back of his mind, he quickly made his way towards his car.

Ensen looked down at his hands. They appeared mostly better now, they still hurt a little bit but it wasn't too bad. He quickly unlocked the car door and entered the driver's seat. After getting himself comfortable he began heading home but ran into quite a bit of traffic along the way.

After nearly 50 minutes, he managed to return to his apartment building. After pulling into his parking space, he slowly got out of the car, still exhausted from his run.

He slowly walked towards the elevator doors, pressing the up button. The doors immediately opened, and Ensen arrived on his floor. After opening the door to his apartment, he had a strong impulse to sleep. But he knew he had something to do first. He first made his way his bedroom and quickly grabbed a pair of pajamas randomly. After that be moved to the bathroom and quickly stripped himself of all his clothing, throwing the sweat-soaked clothes into the nearby bamboo laundry basket, closing it after he was done. He then placed his phone on top of the now-closed basket.

Turning on the shower, he quickly hopped in once the water warmed up. He began turning the handle to increase the temperature until he was nearly bursting into flames.

'Hot showers really are the best.' Ensen thought in satisfaction, his aching body seemingly beginning to gradually recover.

After a relaxing 15 minute shower that seemed to fly by, he exited after ensuring he smelled clean. After lazily drying his body with a towel, he promptly put on his comfortable pajamas and grabbed his phone, making his way to the bedroom.

Ensen launched his body onto the bed as if he was thrown. Trying to resist the temptation of sleep, he unlocked his phone and navigated to the real-estate site. After checking if there were any new messages, he entered his payment information. He put a small amount of money in a deposit for the new land, proving his intent on buying.

After that, he needed to confirm the transaction with both the website and his banking app.

Nearly instantly after he confirmed the payment with the banking app, his body finally ran out of energy and he quickly drifted off to sleep with a satisfied smile remaining on his face.

Unknown to Ensen, a blue box appeared from the void in a very gentle and reserved way before fading away, erasing its existence with it.

[Goodnight, Ensen.]

Ensen slept for a long time, his body and mind both exhausted from such a busy and eventful day. From the unexpected support of Emilia, his newfound dedication towards his dream, the brutal task from the system, and the incident in the park.

After nearly 10 hours of non-stop sleep, Ensen finally awoke. His body was aching in quite a few places, but mainly around his left leg and waist where he was hit before.

When Ensen was drifting off to sleep, he thought he saw a blue box appear. Looking around, he saw nothing. No box, notification, or anything of the sort. Assuming it was just a hallucination, he continued relaxing in bed.

He decided to not leave the house today. After all, he was sore, tired, and just wanted a day to himself after the eventful few days he had recently. But knowing the system, that wouldn't happen.

Ensen began to go about his day, first checking his phone for any notifications. Seeing none, he slowly got out of his warm bed, stretching widely when he was finally on his feet.

He slowly walked towards the kitchen, grabbing a simple vanilla yogurt from the battle-damaged fridge along with a small bottle of apple juice. Without any further hesitation, he returned to his bed, eager to get as much relaxing done as he could before the inevitable mean-hearted system forced him to exercise again.

He waited and waited, but a new mission never came. He simply laid in bed, resting from yesterday while catching up on some novels he was reading. He also checked the real-estate site multiple times, waiting for an update from the seller but there was no update yet.

'If I didn't know better, I would say the system was trying to be nice.' He thought to himself. At this point, Ensen had been lying in bed for several hours and began to get bored. He slowly raised himself to his feet and walked towards the couch, hoping to find something interesting to watch on his rather large tv.

After browsing the catalog for a while, he managed to find a history documentary that piqued his interest. Like this, he spent the rest of the day on the couch.

When he finished his third documentary, he thought curiously, 'I wonder why the system gave me a break today.'

The tv began to suddenly glitch, with random streaks of colors randomly scrambling across the screen. Ensen with shocked by this display but thinking logically it was most likely the system that had done this.

As if responding to his correct guess, the colors began organizing itself to form a clear cohesive message.

[It is not healthy to overstrain yourself. As such, the system decided to give you a day of recovery before resuming the tasks.]

'So, there will be a task tomorrow?' Ensen thought in a grateful tone.

The colors on the screen reshaped themselves to form a new word.

[Correct]

Afterward, the screen began flickering before returning to normal.

'Damn, this system really is weird.' Ensen contemplated while forming a new, slightly kinder opinion towards the system.

Ensen soon returned to bed, this time for more rest. After all, he was guessing he would need as much strength as he could get for tomorrow's task.