The Secret Artifact that gave me a system

Olivia picked up the package and entered her apartment. Once she had closed the door behind her and set down her dinner she gave the box an initial inspection.

It was just a plain cardboard box wrapped in brown paper. Her name and address were written on it and there was a stamp of a logo she didn't recognize stamped in the upper right corner. The logo was of a book and feather quill.

Olivia was very curious. Could this have come from one of the Universities?

Before she ripped into the package Olivia put her dinner away then grabbed a rice ball and bottle of water. She then took everything out to her living room and plopped on the comfy grey couch.

She opened her water and took a large gulp to settle her stomach. After all this could be something that could make or break her future plans.

"I'm not going to find out what's inside just by staring at it." Olivia mumbled to herself before taking a deep breath and ripping into the package.

Inside was a wooden box, a data card, and a piece of folded white paper. Olivia was very confused. Why would a university send her something like this. Paper hadn't been used as a form of communication for over 500 years.

Either way Olivia unfolded the piece of paper and proceeded to read the contents of the letter.

My dearest Olivia,

Today you are a high school graduate. Your father and I are very proud of you and are saddened that we can't be there to congratulate you in person.

Our only wish for you is to be happy, to explore the universe, discover new life, learn about ancient artifacts, and experience everything that you have always been so passionate about.

Remember higher education isn't everything. Having no regrets and keeping joy in your heart is.

Because we knew we couldn't be there for your graduation we arranged for this gift to be delivered to you on your special day.

Think of it as your first step into this amazing new chapter of your life.

With all my love,

Mom

Olivia didn't know what to think. She read the note over again and cried tears of relief, and sadness. He mother's words released so much tension and worry that she had about her future. She didn't want to disappoint her family and here they were, saying she could forge her own path and not worry about getting into the best school in Arcadia.

Olivia then took a bite of her rice ball as she picked up the data card. Then almost spit out that bite when she saw what it was. This was a data card with credits loaded on it. To be exact it had 50 thousand credits on it. Olivia had never seen that many credits at once before. She was only given 150 credits a week for food and all the other expenses for her schooling and housing had been covered by her parents. It was a far cry from what she would have needed for university but it was enough to get someone started on their own.

Olivia put the data card in her bag with her data pad then returned to the couch.

The next item was the wooden box. Olivia picked it up to examine it more closely. The wood was smooth and polished. The lid fit perfectly to the box as there was only a slight seam that showed the box could actually be opened.

Olivia pulled the lid off the wooden box and it slid up smoothly. She's placed the lid on the table as she looked at the contents of the box. It was a perfectly round metal sphere.

Why would her parents give her something like this Olivia thought.

Upon inspection there were no seams, no buttons, or holes. It was smooth and shone with a silver metal finish.

What was she supposed to do with something like this?

Olivia set the metal ball back in its box and finished her rice ball and water while she pondered this puzzle.

She came to the conclusion that it was meant to be some sort of puzzle she was meant to solve.

She read carefully through the note again but there was no mention of this strange artifact. She then picked it back up again and slowly rotated it in her hands to check if maybe she had missed something.

Having no luck with that she shook the ball to see if she could hear something inside. The ball was silent.

She then tried other ideas such as spinning, rolling, and tossing the ball in her hands. She even grabbed a magnet from her fridge to see if that would do anything to it. There was still no change. Other than getting tools and trying to destroy the thing there wasn't really much more one could do with a metal ball.

Olivia was tired and frustrated by this puzzle. The last thing she did was lay the ball in the palm of he left hand and proceeded to poke it with her right index finger.

"Hello is anything in there?" She asked even though she knew not to expect an answer.

[voice activation accepted]

Olivia nearly dropped the sphere when she heard it speak. So it was voice activated after all. She really should have tried that first but felt silly talking to an inanimate object.

[Proceeding with DNA and vitals scan]

"Wait, we are doing what now?" Olivia then felt something stab into the palm of her hand.

"Ouch! What was that for?" She exclaimed as she dropped the ball on the floor.

To her surprise though there was no thunk of a metal object hitting the floor. Instead the object started to float upwards and stopped at eye level.

[Race: human]

[Blood type: O-]

A red beam of light then emanated from from the centre of the sphere and proceeded to scan Olivia.

[vitals: normal]

[subject accepted for system transfer]

[Upload will begin in 3 seconds]

"Wait, what upload? I don't understand what you are talking about. System please explain!" Olivia was scared. This was a piece of technology she didn't know about. Was this something the government had created? Either way Olivia didn't want to have anything to do with it. She backed away slowly until she had enough room to go around it and bolted for the door.

She had only made it a few steps when she felt something stab into the back of her neck.

[Connected - upload started]

Olivia felt pressure in the back of her neck that started to radiate searing pain through her head. It felt like her brain was on fire. She wanted to run but her limbs felt heavy and didn't want to work right.

Olivia let out a scream from the pain then collapsed to the floor. It had all been too much for her and she passed out.

[upload complete]

The silver thread that had shot out of the sphere and plunged into Olivia retracted back into the ball. It then fell to the floor with a soft thud and seemed to dissolve into the ether as if it had never exsisted.