The bookstore was quiet and barely anyone was browsing the aisles. In a corner sitting in one of the lounge chairs was Matt, head buried in a quantum physics book. He scanned the page with his eyes at a decent speed and then flipped to the next one. This repeated until he finally finished the last page and closed the book.
'Whew, that took a while, but at least I got through it.'
He glanced around for a second before looking disappointed.
'That wasn't enough to train my intelligence? Well, I guess it is 15 now.'
He grabbed up another book from the same section labeled:
[3 Controversial Quantum Theories]
He used [Inspect] on it like he always did with everything he picked up. He often used [Inspect] on anything he passed by as well. He had kept using it frequently with the hope of leveling it up soon.
He continued the same process as he did the first book, scanning all of the relevant information on a page, and then flipping to the next. Though this time, halfway through reading, he heard a notification.
__________
[Training Successful]
+1 Intelligence
__________
His mind surged again, at this point the world just felt clear. Like a filter had been removed from when he used to have 12 intelligence, but now had 16.
'Finally! That one sure took a while. How am I supposed to keep leveling this when I'm at like 50 intelligence? Oh well, I'll worry about that when I get there.'
Satisfied with his stat increase, he closed the book and then checked back in with his boss, finishing his work for the day.
After stepping out onto the busy sidewalk, he stretched and started walking while using [Inspect] on everything.
'So, today is Tuesday, I'll be paid on Friday, and my rent is due on Sunday. So I have five more days. My paycheck will cover exactly $320, I have $112 in my bank right now which adds up to $432.'
Matt kept walking as he brainstormed. People often gave him weird looks since he looked a bit crazy.
'With those added, I just need $368 more, not including food which I will need to buy soon, so that would be probably around $75 more if I want to eat healthily. Eh, I'll just risk the nutrition debuff. So it'll cost me like $40 for junk food.'
His thoughts almost left a dark trail behind him and people kept looking at him a bit scared as they passed.
'So to factor in unexpected expenses and taxes, I'll need to earn around $450 in 5 days. So split in 5, each day I need to earn an extra $90. If I do food delivery, each order usually pays between $5 and $30 depending on the distance. If I take the average and then I can earn $17.5 each. So about 6 deliveries per night are needed to reach $90 on average. Which means that-'
BAM
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He had run straight into a street light while thinking.
[-1 HP]
[19/20]
'Shit! That hurt!'
He rubbed his head which now started to grow a small red bump.
'I got a little too caught up in my thoughts. But basically, I need to do a lot of deliveries every day if I want to get that mystery reward.'
He opened his delivery app and then checked the available orders. There were about 8 right now, but of course, it would change throughout the night.
'Well, I better get started. I can train my agility at the same time too.'
Matt ran through the streets at a decent speed. At this point, he could probably start a career as an amateur athlete. His speed was 20% faster than the average person, which was a good start if he really considered that career.
If all of his stats got to 20, he could probably be able to have a solid career in any he chose. Though, with the system going public, he didn't know if careers would even matter soon.
He finished delivery after delivery but of course, no new quests started since he had already finished a quest for this. As the sun was starting to set, his agility finally leveled up on the third order.
__________
[Training Successful]
+1 Agility
__________
As this notification showed up, his speed picked up slightly as his legs felt less tired.
'Not bad. I've been getting a decent amount of stats lately.'
He glanced down at his legs noticing how they looked a little stronger as well as he continued to his next drop off.
'I'm not really tired. If I can do a ton of deliveries tonight, then that'll just mean I won't have to do as many in the next few days. And my agility will only keep increasing, which means it should get easier.'
As he was running, he suddenly heard another ding which surprised him.
__________
[Training Successful]
+1 Strength
__________
His muscles became a little more defined and the weight of the food he was carrying became lighter.
'Oh damn. I guess carrying enough food last night and tonight was enough to give me a strength. I was only really thinking about agility. Well, it probably won't be as easy to get another one, since the food isn't really that heavy.'
Matt finished his 7th delivery and decided to sit on a park bench to regather some of his energy. With his strength and agility, he wasn't too tired, but resting couldn't hurt anything.
He casually browsed through his stats again and noticed his health was back to full.
'Regeneration! I kinda forgot completely about health, since I never got hurt. I wonder if that was just my natural regeneration, or is it accelerated? Maybe I should test it at some point. It would be useful to know.'
He swiped through his menu, looking at his quests and skills, before closing his menu.
'I might as well cash out on my delivery money. I think 7 deliveries are enough for now. It's getting a bit late.'
He yawned and then checked his phone.
[10:34 PM]
'Yeah, I should probably go home. Maybe one more delivery though.'
He clicked the cash-out button on his app and then saw his rent quest update:
[$223/800]
'That was a good haul, but I think I'll do one more!'
He sat up from the bench, excited. He was filled with energy again and ready to go.
CLICK
He felt something cold pressing against the back of his head.
"Give me everything you have, kid."