[[SYSTEM: LIFE GLOW UP 101] at your service! Dear Distinguished Host, prepare for your life to change!]
The black cat had decided to stop scaring Luna with its staring by adopting an adorable expression often seen in cute cat videos, its tail gently waving back and forth.
“Is this a prank?” Luna muttered suspiciously.
[This is not a prank, Distinguished Host.]
“...Then am I having a hallucination?”
[...No.]
Luna narrowed her eyes at the cat. “Then prove it.”
The cat blinked twice, and its smile immediately dropped, replaced by an exasperated expression.
[And how would I do that?]
This cat has an interesting personality… I have such a vivid imagination… Luna, strangely proud of her own subconscious, shrugged. “How would I know?” She tapped her chin in thought for a brief moment and said, “You say you’re a system… right?”
[Yes. In fact, I am one of the most powerful systems currently available.]
Luna eyed the smug expression on the cat’s face and suddenly had an idea. “Then, can you conjure something — like… a stack of hundred dollar bills?”
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[You underestimate me, Human.]
Wow, how did “Distinguished Host” suddenly turn into “Human”... But, Luna didn’t silently complain for long. With a buzz of light the same light blue-purple as the cat’s eyes, her entire desk was instantly covered in stacks of hundred dollar bills.
Luna’s eyes immediately lit up, and she reached out to grab one, completely expecting to feel nothing — since it was merely a hallucination. But to her surprise, what met her touch was physical stacks of crisp hundred dollar bills, each stack easily more than ten thousand dollars.
Her shining eyes turned back to the black cat, who was eyeing the yellow tassel hanging from her desk lamp. But as it felt Luna’s gaze on it, the cat quickly redirected its bluish eyes back to her.
[Do you believe in my power now?]
The cat smirked.
“I’ll believe you if I get to keep all of this,” Luna said, already starting to sort the money out. But the words that the cat spoke next completely diminished her spirit.
[No can do. These entities will disappear in approximately 11 hours, 53 minutes, and 49 seconds.]
Luna collapsed face down into the beanbag couch right next to her desk, heaving a heavy sigh. “I knew it was too good to be true,” she muttered under her breath. She lifted her head briefly to glance at the cat still sitting on her desk. “Yeah, I don’t believe you. I’m gonna take a nap, so disappear as soon as possible, please — I need to finish my homework later.” She would not be able to concentrate on work if she kept hallucinating a talking cat.
After turning off the lights and setting an alarm for 30 minutes, the black cat was now seeming to idle away, distracting itself by playing with the tassel on her lamp. After taking a final glance at the cat’s eerie, light blue-purple eyes, she shook her head, clearing her exhausted mind, and passed out onto the soft, gray beanbag chair.
She woke up, however, to a bigger problem. The cat was still there.
[Have you realized your ignorance yet, Human? You cannot sleep away any system, let alone a system as powerful as myself.]
Luna began to consider knocking herself out by running into a wall as a last resort to fix her brain.
But the black cat suddenly jolted lightly.
[Ah, it seems we are behind schedule. Well, no time for you to doubt my glorious existence — initiating [LIFE GLOW UP 101] on Host 080213 in approximately 5 seconds.]
Luna silently waited for five seconds, but pathetically, nothing happened, to no surprise. She turned to the frustrating, stubbornly-existing cat and —
[{DING!}]
Along with the sound appeared what seemed to be a holographic light blue-purple screen the same shade as the cat’s eyes, on it written:
[[LIFE GLOW UP 101], the most highly advanced self-discipline regulator of life transformation, specially created for glowing up failed human beings!]
“Excuse me?”