Lost in thought, Matt walked through the bookstore, occasionally reading the titles of books on the shelves he passed. Matt opened a random book out of boredom, even though he wasn't much of a reader. However, he found himself getting lost in this science book, which contained diagrams of gravitational fields, theories on black holes, and even a section on quantum physics.

Science was the only class that Matt took seriously in high school, and this book reminded him of why he enjoyed it so much. But as he was reading, a noise suddenly chimed.

__________

[Training Successful]

+1 Intelligence

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His jaw dropped in surprise as he felt a sudden wave of focus wash over him. His thoughts seemed to become faster and clearer as if a weight had been lifted from his mind. It was a sensation similar to the alertness that follows a cup of coffee.

'I can raise my stats by doing things?'

He almost dropped the book he was holding.

'I guess it makes sense since that's how people raise their real "stats". But this is way too fast!'

Without thinking he picked up another book, this one was history. He sat in the corner of the bookstore reading for a while, but nothing popped up again.

'Was it a fluke? Maybe I just need to read more.'

As he was nose-deep in the history book he heard a loud voice directly in front of him, startling him out of his trance.

"Matt!"

It was his boss.

"I uh, was just taking a break. I finished everything."

"You did? That fast? You usually take forever and I wonder if you even want this job."

Obviously, he couldn't tell her that XP was the reason for his newfound job efficiency.

"I guess I just got faster after working here so long."

She gave him a look again and then headed for the door.

"Help me close up."

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[New Quest]

Close up the shop [Reward: +2xp, ]

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'Ok come on. Only 2 XP?!'

Matt sighed and followed behind her and finished up his work for the day. He turned of the lights in the back and dumped out the trash cans.

__________

[Quest Complete]

Close up the shop

+2xp [XP 88/100]

__________

'Why even give me a quest? Well, I guess it's still free XP.'

As he left the bookstore, Matt couldn't help but grin with excitement. The cool air outside only added to his good mood as he made his way home.

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Matt jogged down the sidewalk, skipping a step every so often.

'This system is awesome. I can't wait to see what else it can do. It seems like I can gain XP from training. But I didn't get free agility points by running, I only got the quest reward. I wonder what the conditions are for training?'

He looked around and noticed he was almost home. There were people walking past in all directions seemingly with places to be.

But suddenly he stopped in his tracks.

'Wait, what if I went to the gym? That would be a gold mine for strength points!'

He turned around and quickly headed for the local gym.

'Wait, where's the gym?'

He suddenly realized that he had no idea. It's not like he ever planned on using it before. He pulled out his phone but saw it was dead.

'Damn, I feel so lucky and unlucky at the same time recently.'

Then he had a thought.

'Wait can I use my system map? I guess it wouldn't hurt to try.'

'Map!'

A map of the surroundings popped up in front of him. Though it only showed his icon and icons for anyone around him.

'I wonder if this will work.'

'Show me the route to the gym!'

__________

[Error]

Map level does not meet the requirements.

__________

'Ok, so I need to level it up? Too bad I forgot to turn it on this morning, I was in such a rush. At least I had it on all day yesterday.'

He turned on the map and walked down the street in a random direction, hoping he was close to leveling it up. He had never really done this before. He always had someplace he needed to be and never walked aimlessly. But it was surprisingly refreshing and it was fun to take note of the people around him and the buildings he passed.

About an hour had already passed but he had yet to receive a level-up notification.

'If it doesn't level up soon, I'll just use my phone to find the gym. I don't wanna waste all day on this.'

He used also inspect on anything he passed. Interestingly, using it on people seemed to make it error. Although [Inspect] didn't level up, he did hear a ping.

__________

[Map] has leveled up!

[Lv.1] -> [Lv.2]

__________

'Awesome! I wasn't sure if it was actually gonna happen today. Ok, let's try this.'

'Map!'

The map appeared in front of him again, but this time it was bigger. It showed the section of town he was in and there were red dots all over it which had names. One of them said "Gym."

'Nice the map is actually useful now.'

He tapped on the gym's dot but nothing happened.

'Oh I guess no auto routing yet. So I'll just use the map to find my way.'

He headed towards the gym, leaving the map on to orient himself and also to level it up. After 15 minutes, he arrived in front of the gym.

Matt stepped through the threshold and saw lots of equipment and a bunch of buff dudes doing their daily workouts. He walked towards the equipment nearest to him but before he could reach it, he heard a shout.

"Hey, you need to pay for a pass!"

It was the receptionist.

"Oh, sorry, I've never been to a gym."

He walked up to the counter and smiled awkwardly.

"So you want a monthly or a yearly?"

"Uh, how much is the monthly pass?"

"$60"

"That's way too much!"

He suddenly looked embarrassed. He didn't mean to shout that aloud. He looked back at her.

"Don't you have a day pass or something?"

"No, can't have randos making the equipment dirty."

"Ok, well I'll think about it, thanks."

He stepped out of the gym with a glum look.

'Shit, I really need money.'

Just thinking about how much rent he owed made him sick. He even had one of the cheapest apartments he could find in the city. If he was kicked out, he would just be homeless and that was that.

Matt needed money, and soon.

He already made about $300 a week from his part-time job but it wasn't enough after bills, taxes, food, and his spending habits. Adding what he had in his wallet, he still needed over $400 more for his rent as well.

Lost in thought, Matt didn't notice a huge figure slowly approaching him.