Matt continued to think, stuck in his own head. He was completely absorbed in his train of thought due to the weight of the new information he just learned. [Help] was starting to get annoyed at his sudden inner dialog again and so she shouted.

"SNAP OUT OF IT. Are you just gonna stare into the distance all day?"

He was startled out of his thoughts by her sudden outburst. He had even forgotten she was there for a second. Regathering his thoughts, he looked back at her and asked a question that he felt the answer to would change his entire strategy going forward.

"So, how long until it becomes public?"

She flapped her little wings before answering.

"The system doesn't tell me that. All I know is it'll be public."

Matt thought about everything for a second. He realized that even though he should prepare, not knowing how long would make it a lot harder.

'I guess the best thing to do is just level up as much as I can, as fast as I can.'

Without an exact time frame, the system could go public in an hour, a day, a year, or even one hundred years. In the worst-case scenario, getting at least another level would be beneficial.

"Hey, listen! Are you still there!?"

He had just noticed a tiny squeaking sound that he had been zoning out again. It was [Help] and she looked furious. But he had all the info he needed, so he decided to just deactivate the skill again, getting tired of her constant yelling.

She vanished into a point again with a tiny, angry shout.

'So I should probably at least finish a couple more deliveries. I'm not even sure if it'll matter soon, but I still need the money now.'

With that, he set off again. The next deliveries were basically the same. Deliver food from point A to point B. It was pretty repetitive.

'Huh, I guess I'm grinding in real life? I never realized that's what food delivery would be like.'

Though, unlike a game, his legs were starting to kill him. He was getting really sore from all the running, but he still took a couple more deliveries after that.

While he was running his last job, he suddenly got a notification.

__________

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

[Training Successful]

+1 Agility

__________

'Huh, that took a lot longer than last time.'

He had gained 1 agility for running about 2 miles at the start, and then nothing for 6 miles until now. It seemed like the training rate was slowing down.

'I'll have to ask Help about that later.'

He stored the thought and managed to finish his last job. He had made a decent amount that night by just doing delivery. And his agility had kept increasing which only meant that it felt easier and easier. At this point, he might not ever need a bike.

'Wow, I think I'm starting to really feel the effects of stats.'

Exhausted and tired, he started to head home to get a good night's sleep. Though on the way, he decided to ask [Help] about the stat training. He activated the [Help] skill again and then she appeared next to him once more.

She floated in front of him looking grumpy.

"So, I was wondering why did my agility take longer to train after the first time?"

"Huh really aren't using that 14 intelligence huh? Of course, it takes longer. The more you have in a stat, the harder it is to train. Simple."

He forgot how much she got on his nerves. Did she really have to insult his intelligence every time? His eye twitched, as she continued.

"If you want to train strength at a high level, you can't just lift weights. You would need to lift boulders. If you don't want it to take a long time."

"Ok, that's all I needed to know."

With a thought, she vanished into a point again, yelling. He sped home, his entire body sore from running, and it wasn't like he was going to sleep on the street. And so he pushed through. This last stretch felt harder than the entire rest of the night.

It felt like his body would break soon if he attempted even one more delivery. He was still just human of course. He still had a limit even if his stats were above average.

After stepping past the threshold into his apartment, he was almost ready to collapse. But he managed to keep himself up long enough to climb into the shower. The hot water was just what he needed to loosen up his sore muscles.

After taking a nice hot shower, he felt a bit better, but still incredibly tired. He was so tempted to just crash, but before heading to bed, he cashed out from his delivery app and then checked his total balance.

'Just under $70 for 5 jobs, not bad. But is it even enough? I would need to repeat this like 5 more times to even get close to paying my rent.'

He would probably have to do this every night and finish at least 5 deliveries if he wanted to make his rent on time. Again, his part-time job would cover roughly $300 of his rent, but that was if he only ate scraps for the next few days. He had already been eating really lightly his past week.

'But I don't wanna miss out on that mystery reward, or get evicted. I just need to figure something else out.'

After thinking so much, not just his body, but his brain was also tired. He was just going to think about all this tomorrow and leave it for his future self, something he did often. He headed over to the bed and basically passed out on it.

He was fast asleep in seconds.

But as he slept, the door to his apartment unlocked and then slowly opened, creaking slightly, and a figure stepped past the threshold.