The next day, after lunch, Thomas went out to buy a nice water bottle, to complete the task. As soon as he bought it, another surge of the same substance appeared within him, though it was less than he'd gotten for running a mile, and the task disappeared. He frowned as he still didn't feel all that much different, despite the growing amount he had obtained. It was as if it was just sitting there, waiting. Thomas couldn't figure it out though, so he just ignored it. Maybe once he'd completed a few more tasks and gathered some more of it, it'd reach some sort of critical mass and something would happen? One could only hope.

Since it was the weekend, Thomas didn't really have much to do, so he decided to head to the gym for his run. Equipped with his new water bottle, he began his mile long, stationary trek. Much like yesterday, the notification tracked his progress, and just like yesterday, Thomas was in shambles before he'd even gotten ten percent of the way there. *I wish I was in better shape.* Thomas grumbled internally as he ran, when he felt the substance inside him disappear, and suddenly, the exercise wasn't so bad. It was as if from one second to the next, he'd gone from the laziest of couch potatoes, to… well, an average person on a jog. He even felt comfortable increasing his speed a bit, finishing the mile in a little over fifteen minutes this time.

Thomas was astounded by the progress, but as he received the reward, he frowned. The energy he received for this run was less than yesterday. It was even less than he'd gotten for purchasing the water bottle. *Why would it decrease?* Thomas asked himself, thinking it over. It didn't make any sense to him. The only difference between yesterday and today was the fact that he'd had an easier- wait. *Is the reward based on the difficulty of whatever I'm doing? Fuck! I don't want to be fitter if it decreases my reward!* Thomas cursed, but unfortunately, it was too late. Whatever that energy was, it was gone. Thomas sighed, shaking his head, before returning to the locker room to get changed. He headed back to the dorm, and as soon as he got back, he got out a notebook and started writing down what he knew so far.

First - Tasks appear in the upper right corner of vision. Once completed, a reward is given. Related questions: What creates a task? What determines the amount of reward? The amount of reward was definitely related to how difficult the task was, but there may be other factors he should look out for.

Second - The reward can be consumed to enhance fitness. Can it enhance more than fitness? How much does the reward enhance something? How is the reward quantified?

Thomas pondered these questions seriously, tapping the end of his pencil on the notebook. "Ugh, why can't I have a status page, with my strength, or fitness, or something, along with the amount of whatever that stuff is?" Thomas groaned. Suddenly, a screen appeared in his vision, which had four entries: Strength, Fitness, Something, and Whatever That Stuff Is. Each entry had a value of one. "I think I sense sarcasm…" Thomas muttered as he stared at the nonsensical screen with a frown. "What am I supposed to do with this? It doesn't mean anything! None of this is defined! Fuck, this is like…" Suddenly Thomas's face fell and he buried his face in his arms. "Like a fucking computer." He finished with a groan.

He then sat up with a sigh. "Okay then, if it's like a computer, then we just need to define things. Let's start with fitness." He muttered as he turned back to the notebook. "Alright, how do we define fitness…" He thought to himself. "Let's see, we have strength, stamina, and agility. Strength is the amount of force you can exert, stamina is how long you can keep using that force, and agility is how much control you have over that force… yeah that makes sense." Thomas talked to himself as he scribbled in his notebook.

"Now for intelligence… Well, there's memory, problem solving, comprehension, creativity, willpower… hell, agility might be a part of intelligence too. Anyways, memory controls how well you can retain information, obviously. Problem solving would be… logic, right? The ability to form the most appropriate conclusion using a collection of facts. Comprehension would be the ability to understand information and how it relates to other things. Creativity is… induction? Using disparate facts to come to a unique conclusion? Kinda just seems like problem solving… let's forget that for now. Willpower would be the ability to control yourself and resist outside influence. Of course, that could just be stubbornness too… okay, let's forget anything that alters personality. Just pure function. Memory, problem solving, and comprehension." Thomas continued.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Then… it's just like senses, right? The ability to take in information from your surroundings and make sense of it. Lets see… perception will be the ability to take in information from your surroundings, while observation would be the ability to com- wait, why would I separate these? Just make it all one big awareness stat." Thomas finished, shaking his head.

The status screen now had eight entries: Strength, Stamina, Agility, Memory, Problem Solving, Comprehension, Awareness, and Whatever That Stuff Is. However, all the values were still one. Thomas looked over the screen, somewhat satisfied. "Alright then, let's define these values then… okay, let's set my current strength as ten, then, the amount of… okay, let's call it points. The amount of points needed to raise my current strength by ten percent is equal to one point, then the value of each stat is equal to the amount of points needed to double their current effect." The changes took effect and the status page currently looked like this.

Strength: 10

Stamina: 11.28

Agility: 7.83

Memory: 11.1

Problem Solving: 12.45

Comprehension: 14.62

Awareness: 17.03

Points: 1.79

"Oh, god, decimal points." Thomas groaned in geek born frustration. "Okay, round everything to the nearest whole number. Except for points… just keep points like that." He ordered and the status page quickly rearranged itself.

Strength: 10

Stamina: 11

Agility: 8

Memory: 11

Problem Solving: 12

Comprehension: 15

Awareness: 17

Points: 1.79

Thomas breathed a sigh of relief. "Much better. Now, why is my Awareness so high?" He pretty much understood all the other values, but… he was oblivious as hell. It wasn't even funny. "Wait. Right, it's doing both sensitivity and processing, that explains it. Plus there are a lot of senses…" Thomas pondered this. "In all honesty, the stat value is probably less of an evaluation of ability, and more of an evaluation of the complexity of the different stats."

Thomas then went back to the notebook, looking over his questions. "The reward is pretty much figured out, so the main question now is where do these tasks actually come from? Based on the two tasks I've received so far, it should be related to self improvement, but… who would care enough about me to give me something like this? And if that's really the case, shouldn't there be tasks related to push-ups, or studying, or something? Running a mile is like the bare minimum I can do to improve myself." Thomas pondered all this with a frown. "Also, if this came from someone else, why was none of this set up? No points, no stats, no nothing besides the task window. It's like someone just threw it at me and said figure it out your-"

Thomas suddenly paused, as an idea occurred to him. Every time a task had been created, it was right after he'd made the conscious decision that something should be done. The task to walk a mile was created when he decided he should do so to improve his health. The task to get a water bottle appeared right when he decided he needed one if he was going to be running all the time. His experience with the status page made it clear that whatever was happening responded to his will, even if that will was an idle comment made out of frustration. As long as it was solidified into a clear thought, there was a response.

Thomas stared at the task window thoughtfully. "I should do ten pushups a day." He said suddenly.

[Daily Task: 10 pushups (0/10)]