Thomas woke up around eleven the next morning, taking a quick shower before heading to the cafeteria for lunch, frowning as he noticed a few people giving him strange looks. He glanced at himself in a nearby window, to make sure he was wearing pants and all that, but he couldn't find anything out of place, so he just shrugged it off. However, the looks didn't stop and even got worse as he entered the cafeteria, people whispering to each other as they shot glances at him. He surreptitiously patted the back of his pants but he didn't feel a giant hole back there or anything, and there wasn't even a sign on his back! *Weird.* Thomas shrugged, dismissing it as he focused on getting his food and grabbing a table. He was sure the reason for the looks would reveal itself eventually, and in the meantime, he was hungry.
"Do you mind if I sit with you?" A girl asked nervously, right as Thomas was about to bite into his burger.
Thomas frowned, lowering the burger, glancing at the girl, then out across the fairly empty cafeteria, and finally back to the girl. "I guess not? But-" She didn't even let him finish, quickly sliding into the seat next to him and scooting closer.
"You probably don't remember me, but I wanted to say thank you for last night." The girl began.
Thomas paused, taking a moment to think of what he could have done before remembering the fight at the party, vaguely placing the girl as one of the girls in the pool. “It was nothing.” He assured her, meaning it too. If anything, he felt like he should be apologizing since he was the one who started the mess in the first place. Without the system, those idiots wouldn't have been able to cause the trouble they did.
"No, it was amazing!” The girl protested. “I would love to thank you properly, if you're willing to come back to the house? The other girls want to thank you too!”
“Sure, I don't mind swinging by real quick.” Thomas agreed, not really questioning it. Why wouldn't they want to thank him for dealing with things last night?
“Great!” The girl beamed, pulling out her phone. “I'll let everyone know, so they can be ready when we get there!”
“Go for it.” Thomas shrugged, vaguely wondering what they had to get ready for. Were they making food? The girl didn't have any food… Should he not be eating? He considered it for a moment before dismissing the thought and taking another bite. If they needed to get ready he needed to waste some time anyway, and he wasn't even sure if he'd like what they prepared. Plus, he'd already gotten the meal, so it'd be a waste not to eat it.
Thomas finished eating fairly quickly, the girl perking up the moment he was done. "Are you ready?"
"Yeah, we can go." Thomas agreed, the girl practically jumping to her feet and dragging him towards the exit.
"Thomas?" A voice called out.
Thomas turned and saw Jessica's friend Stacy. "Oh, hey, what's up?" Thomas waved at her.
"Not much… what's up with…?" Stacy gestured to the girl holding his hand with her finger.
"This? I stopped some guys from wrecking a party last night and she wants to thank me." Thomas shrugged.
"I see…" Stacy muttered, giving him a strange look. "Well, have fun then." She added in a bland, somewhat dismissive tone which Thomas found weird, but then again, he and Jessica had ditched her last night, so he didn't think it was all that unexpected. He waved goodbye to her as the girl dragged him out of the building. Stacy frowned as she watched him go, then pulled out her phone and made a call.
The girl dragged Thomas back towards the house from last night, which he learned was actually her sorority house. “Where's everyone else?” Thomas asked curiously, not seeing anyone as they walked in.
“They're upstairs, don't worry.” The girl assured him with a grin.
“Ah, gotcha.” Thomas nodded, following her up the stairs, figuring they had some kind of event space up there. The girl led him down to the end of a hall, opening the door to reveal… “Why are you all naked?!?” Thomas exclaimed, slapping his hand over his eyes and turning away.
The girl froze. “Is- Isn't this what you wanted?” She asked, looking between him and the room full of naked women posing themselves seductively.
“What- no! When- why would you even think that?!?” Thomas asked incredulously, glaring at her while he used his hand to block his view of the room.
The girl stared back at him wide-eyed. “But- you gave us the task!”
Thomas narrowed his eyes at her. “What task?”
“The task to have sex with you! Why would you give it to us if you didn't want us to do it?!?” The girl asked, looking honestly confused and frustrated.
Thomas groaned, rubbing his face. “Fucking- I don't personally hand out tasks to people! Do you know how tedious that would be?!? It's automated! You get tasks based on what you want to do, so if you got a task to have sex with me, it's because you want to do it, nothing else! I don't want to sleep with anyone!”
The girl stared at him in utter bewilderment. “But- then why did you come here?!?”
“Because I thought you actually wanted to thank me! Maybe throw me a little party or something! With stuff like cake and cookies, not a bed full of naked women! You know, normal shit!” Thomas retorted.
The girl flushed in embarrassment, the other girls already scrambling to put on clothes, or at least robes. “We- we could still do that, if you wanted?”
“I got a task to make a cake!” One of the others exclaimed.
“I got cookies!” Another girl cheered.
Thomas frowned at them. “I really need to fix the task system.”
*
Thomas elected not to stick around while the half naked sorority girls rushed around making baked goods, telling them to just give them to him later. As for the rest of the day, it passed fairly normally, except for the fact that more and more people seemed to be giving him strange looks, and if any girl approached him, which was strange in and of itself, he just ignored them and kept doing what he was doing. Once bit, twice shy as they say. It wasn't that Thomas exactly had a problem with casual sex, but… Well, he didn't like the fact that their interest had little to do with him. It made the whole thing feel cheap and unearned. Plus… Well, while they weren't dating, and he wasn't entirely sure Jessica was interested, he did want to be with her, so it felt wrong to sleep with someone else.
After his workout, which took him a bit longer than expected due to various girls getting in his way, one of which even snuck into the damn locker room to get to him, he finally made it back to his dorm. He checked the time, and he still had about fifteen minutes until seven, so he pulled out his phone and pulled up some manga. However, half an hour later, Jessica still hadn't contacted him. Thomas frowned, but decided to give it another fifteen minutes, figuring she might just be late. However, fifteen minutes passed and he still didn't hear from her!
Feeling a little nervous, Thomas pulled out his phone, and shot her a text. [Hey, you said we were meeting up at seven, right? I wasn't supposed to go to your dorm, was I?] However, ten minutes later, she still hadn't gotten back to him. He tried giving her a call, but it just went to voicemail, which was when Thomas really started to get worried. He started to pace, wracking his brain for something he could do to figure out what was going on, his thoughts quickly turning to the system. "Show me Jessica's location." He commanded. Immediately a little minimap appeared, showing his location and a blinking dot off towards the southeast, not moving. Thomas wasn't sure what the measurement was, but he set off, heading towards the dot as fast as he could, practically sprinting across campus, only slowing down as he realized the dot was leading him to Jessica's dorm. He wondered if maybe she'd just fallen asleep as he approached her door and knocked. "Jessica? It's me, Thomas."
The door creaked open to reveal a puffy, red-eyed Jessica who barely even glanced at him. “H-Hey.”
“Are- are you okay? Did something happen?” Thomas asked nervously.
Jessica took in a shaky breath. “I'm- I'm fine. I'm sorry, I just- I don't think I'm up to hang out tonight.”
Thomas hesitated. “Okay… If- if there's anything I can do to help, just let me know, alright?”
Jessica nodded with a slight sniff. “I will.”
“Then… I'll see you tomorrow?” Thomas offered.
Jessica's expression twisted slightly. “Are you sure you aren't busy?”
Thomas blinked. “No? I mean, yes? I mean I know I'm not busy, yeah. I- don't really do anything but system stuff and hang out in my dorm?” She knew that, didn't she?
Jessica scowled at him. “What about this afternoon? With that sorority girl?!?”
Thomas frowned. “The sorority girl?”
“I know you slept with her and who knows how many others today.” Jessica tried not to growl. “You don't have to hide it.”
Thomas blinked. “I- haven't slept with anyone today.”
Jessica glared at him. “Stacy saw you with one of them and I have dozens of tasks that say otherwise!”
[Convince Jessica you didn't have sex with anyone: 0%]
Thomas waved the task notification away in frustration. “Look, I don't know what's going on with these tasks, but I swear I didn't sleep with anyone today! Fuck, I haven't slept with anyone ever! Yes I talked to a sorority girl today, and yes she dragged me back to her sorority house with the intention of sleeping with me, along with a significant portion of the rest of the girls there, but I didn't actually do it! The only reason I went with her was because I thought they were throwing me a thank you party! The cake and cookie kind, not the sex kind! If I'd known what she wanted, I would have told her to fuck off, which I did once I actually figured out what was going on!”
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“And why should I believe you!” Jessica retorted. “I have dozens of tasks to keep you from sleeping with all these women, and not one has been completed! If you haven't slept with them and don't want to sleep with them, then why haven't they been completed?!?”
“How should I know!” Thomas threw up his hands in frustration. “I have zero control over how a task gets completed! All I know is that I haven't had sex with anyone! I- hold on.” Thomas raised a finger as he suddenly remembered something, looking for the sorority girls profiles and pulling up their task pages. “Ah, look, see! None of their tasks to have sex with me are completed either!” He quickly showed Jessica the task pages.
Jessica eyed the pages suspiciously. “What if you're faking these? Or what if the tasks reset, like an exercise task?!?”
Thomas deflated with a groan. “God- fucking- fine! I thought you knew me better than this, but I guess not. Just- fuck!” He cursed, turning to leave. How was he supposed to prove he didn't do something?!? It was impossible!
“Wait!” Jessica called out, hesitating slightly before continuing. “I- I want to believe you, I just- why aren't the tasks completed, Thomas?” She asked, tears in her eyes.
Thomas sighed. “I don't know. Maybe because I still could sleep with them? Maybe because you haven't done enough to stop me? I mean, if I leave right now, are we ever going to see each other again? If I go, would there be anything to stop me? If one of those girls is persistent enough, it's certainly possible to get me into bed. At a certain point, I might just do it to get them to leave me alone. But that doesn't mean that's what I want.” Thomas gave her a serious look. “Jessica… the only person I want right now is you. And clearly you feel something towards me too, or we wouldn't even be having this conversation! I can't prove I didn't sleep with anyone. Hell, I went to the damn sorority house, so I don't even have an alibi! But just trust me. Please. I- I don't want to lose this before we've even figured out what it is.”
The two of them stood there silently for a long moment as Jessica struggled with her feelings. She wanted to believe Thomas, but she couldn't help but doubt. She had proof that there were dozens of women after him! Ones that he could potentially sleep with according to the tasks! Maybe he wanted her now, but what about later? Would he change his mind? Decide she wasn't worth it? Why would he choose her when he could choose anyone? “Why me?” She finally managed to croak out. “You're- you're basically a god now. Why- why would you limit yourself to me?”
“I- don't know.” Thomas admitted honestly. “Because you're good for me? Because you actually care about me? I just- don't know. But I do know that it is what I want. I don't know if that will change over time, since relationships do change, but I can promise you that I'll never do anything to hurt you. On purpose, at least. If things change, I'll be upfront and honest about it. I may not be the person you end up falling in love with, but I will always be a person you can trust.”
Tears began to drip down Jessica's cheeks. “I-” She cut off as something broke inside her and she rushed out the door, slamming into Thomas and squeezing him tight. “I already love you, you idiot!”
Thomas froze, the surge of points that rushed into him having nothing to do with it. “You- you do?”
Jessica choked out a laugh. “I do. I don't know why, and I don't know how, but… I do.” She hesitated. “Do you?”
“I- don't know.” Thomas admitted nervously. “I know I like you, and I know I care about you, I just- I don't know if it's enough to qualify as love.”
Jessica frowned, not exactly happy to hear something so… noncommittal, but then she remembered something and she quickly checked her system, a beaming smile breaking across her face as she did. “I think your system knows for you, because every single one of my tasks just completed!”
“I'm- not sure that's how it works.” Thomas muttered.
“Well I am.” Jessica assured him. “Now wait here, I need to get changed real quick so we can get to our date! We're late enough as it is!” She exclaimed, rushing back into her dorm and slamming the door.
*What was wrong with what she was wearing?* Thomas wondered as he stared at the door. He shook his head, turning his thoughts back to love. Did he really love Jessica? He wasn't as confident as Jessica seemed to be, but he couldn't say he wasn't in love with her either. He could even say he wanted to be in love with her, he just… Wasn't sure if it was true.
Sighing he turned his focus to a different issue, namely why had he gotten a crap ton of points when Jessica admitted she loved him? Sure, he'd convinced Jessica he hadn't slept with anyone, but how many points was that actually worth? He checked his logs and confirmed that the task had only given him six and half points, which was significant but not enough to explain the surge. No, what explained the surge was almost a hundred points he'd gotten for causing dozens of other people to fail their own tasks! Thomas blinked. *You get points for that?*
"Waiting for someone?" A voice called out, interrupting his thoughts.
Thomas looked up to see an attractive woman walking over, stopping to lean against the railing next to him. "Yeah, she's just getting changed." Thomas answered shortly. He didn't think Jessica was going to start doubting him again, but he didn't exactly want to test it right now, so he was hoping the woman would just move on.
"Ah, yes, the eternal occupation of today's modern male, waiting on a woman." The woman nodded knowingly. "Are you two heading to a party together?"
"Nah, just hanging out at my dorm, watching stupid TV and playing games." Thomas answered with a sigh, cursing the entire female gender, except for Jessica.
"Oh, you're getting a girl to get changed for that? Prepare to get lucky, man." The woman replied with a knowing laugh.
Thomas frowned at her. "Okay, look, I don't know what your deal is, but I literally just dealt with a whole thing involving my association with other girls, and while I don't believe she's going to think anything happened in the short time it takes her to get changed, it's a rather fresh wound, and I'd rather not rub salt in it, so could you just… go?"
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I'll go right away!" The woman apologized, standing up and backing away. "I'm still not quite used to this… I just wanted to thank you."
Thomas's frown deepened as he backed away slightly. "Thank me how?”
"Like- Like this?" The woman stammered, looking severely confused. "Look, I'm a system user! You made it right?"
"Yeah? Who told you that?" Thomas asked, raising an eyebrow.
"What do you mean? It's practically common knowledge by now. Everyone's been talking about it. Someone caught your take down last night on video and it's been going viral." She explained.
"Wait, shit, really?" Thomas replied. "Man, no wonder people have been looking at me weird all day!"
"Anyway, that isn't the point. I- well, let's just say my name used to be Stephan… so, thank you." The woman stammered awkwardly, quickly leaving the moment she finished.
Thomas watched her go with a blank look. "Man, this day just keeps throwing curveballs at me." He muttered, shaking his head.
"What was that?" Jessica asked, as she opened her door, having barely heard him.
"It's been a weird day. I just got thanked by a woman who used to be named Stephan… I wonder if she goes by Stephanie now? Also, does she have a roommate, and how is that working? Wait, my roommate's name is Stephan… oh she better not be, I swear to god!" Thomas quickly pulled up the minimap and had the system find his roommate Stephan, which showed a small dot quite close, slowly getting farther away. "Motherfucker! Where are you sleeping!?!" He shouted into the distance. The dot paused for a second, before moving away again, faster. Thomas turned to Jessica, who was looking extremely startled and confused. "I think I just lost my roommate. Though… this does explain why he's been gone even more than usual the last few days. Or she, I guess."
"That… I wasn't even away for ten minutes!" Jessica exclaimed.
"Right? It's a weird fucking day!" Thomas groaned. "Oh, and apparently everyone knows I created the system now, which does explain about half of it."
Jessica's eyes widened in surprise. "Really?"
"Yeah, apparently someone caught me on video last night, and… well, looking back at what I said, it does sort of become obvious that it's my system." Thomas sighed.
Jessica nodded. “True… Anyway, shall we head over to your place?”
"Yeah.” Thomas agreed and the two of them headed over to Thomas's dorm.
"So, this is your dorm…" Jessica commented as she walked in, doing a little twirl in the middle of the room to take it all in.
"Indeed it is, but mostly it's about that big screen right there. Best buy I ever made." Thomas responded, gesturing to the large TV sitting on his dresser.
"I'm guessing this is your side of the room then?" Jessica asked, gesturing towards what was indeed his side.
"Yup. Anything in particular you want to watch?" Thomas asked as he turned on the TV and the gaming console he used as a media player.
"It doesn't really matter to me." Jessica shrugged, taking a seat on his bed and moving in towards the wall, leaving him a spot beside her.
Thomas slid in next to her, navigating to a TV show he'd been meaning to check out, but hadn't actually started yet, hesitating for a moment before actually starting it. “Should- we talk about our relationship first?”
Jessica paused. “I think we've already said everything that needs to be said? I love you, you love me. What else do we need to say?”
Thomas frowned. “Disregarding the fact that I'm still not sure the tasks being completed means I love you, shouldn't we talk about what our relationship is going to look like? What are our goals? What do we want to get out of it? What roles are we willing to play? I mean, what if we jump into this then suddenly find out we want two completely different things out of life?”
Jessica paused thoughtfully. “Well… what do you want out of life?”
Thomas cocked his head. “I want kids at least, but otherwise… I really just want to see how far the system can go, I guess. How much it can do, how the world will change as it spreads, working to make sure there are more beneficial changes than not… That's it, really.”
“So basically what we were already doing?” Jessica pointed out.
“Pretty much, yeah.” Thomas agreed. “How about you? What are your goals?”
“To help you.” Jessica smiled. “I probably would have had a different answer before all this, but your system is literally the single most important thing to happen ever! That's why we don't need to talk about our relationship, because no matter what, it's all going to revolve around your system.”
“You don't want anything else?” Thomas asked skeptically.
“Of course that isn't all I want, but beyond also wanting kids, nothing else I want has much relevance to our relationship, because it will always be secondary to improving the system.” Jessica shrugged.
“Hm.” Thomas grunted. “I guess that makes sense…”
Jessica grinned. “Of course it does. Now come on, let's watch some dumb TV!”