"I... I finally...cleared all five stages!"

Dale heavily panted as sweat dripped from his face, chin, and neck. His tracksuit is covered in sweat stains, and a pungent smell fills the air around his body.

Dale collapses on a bean bag chair and lets out a tired laugh.

"That was...brutal!"

Dale completed all five stages one after the other on the same day. The strain inflicted on his body was enough to cause his body to twitch involuntarily. Nevertheless, his body shape had improved significantly even though there was not much loss in weight.

Dale reached out his right hand to grab a bottle of chilled Miracle-Tonic water from a mini icebox nearby, popped the cap, and gulped it down. Mash Royce had completed the first five stages within the first five days. He sent Dale a box of his company's Miracle-Tonic water as a celebratory gift.

The water tasted good and helped Dale recover after a strenuous workout faster than the crappy tap water in his kitchen.

[Congratulations! I am proud of User Dale]

"Thanks, Lina... although it took longer than I expected. How many days left before the supposed Apocalypse?"

[Fifteen days left]

"I have less than two weeks to clear the last five stages. Not bad!"

[Does User Dale wish to open the Monster App and unlock the rest of the stages?]

Dale grabbed his phone and wiped his sweat off the screen.

"Go ahead! There is still an hour before I should eat dinner and hit the sack."

The familiar Monster App logo projection appears above his phone. Dale used the air touch feature to click the button at the center of the home page. A monster Egg with five lines circling around the lower half appears in front of Dale. Each line appeared when he cleared a stage.

"Display status of Egg fertilization."

Egg - Unfertilized

To fertilize the egg, the user must complete the following stages in any order. Stages 6-10 will unlock if you clear stages 1-5.

Stage 1 - Walk/Run 5 Kilometers daily (5/5)

Stage 2 - 50 consecutive Push-ups daily (5/5)

Stage 3 - 50 consecutive Surya Namaskar/Greet the sun Yoga daily (5/5)

Stage 4 - 50 consecutive squats daily (5/5)

Stage 5 - 50 consecutive Leg Lifts daily (5/5)

Stage 6 - Locked => Unlocked

Stage 7 - Locked => Unlocked

Stage 8 - Locked => Unlocked

Stage 9 - Locked => Unlocked

Stage 10 - Locked => Unlocked

[Message from the Monster App]

[To access Stage 6-10, the user must answer the following questions. Do note that the answers will shape the creature's development inside the egg and affect the requirements of the last five stages. Does the user understand?]

"I understand. Ask away!"

[Question One: Mind over Body or Body over Mind]

"Mind over Body."

[Question Two: Sun, Moon, Sky, Sea or Mountain]

"Sun."

[Question Three: Mana, Intelligence or Dexterity]

"Mana"

[Question Four: Bird, Beast, Reptile, Amphibian, Insect or Dinosaur]

"Bird"

[Question Five: Metal, Ice, Poison, Lightning, Wood]

"Metal"

[All answers have been recorded. In addition, stages 6-10 have been updated]

Egg - Unfertilized

To fertilize the egg, the user must complete the following stages in any order. Stages 6-10 will unlock if you clear stages 1-5.

Stage 1 - Walk/Run 5 Kilometers daily (5/5)

Stage 2 - 50 consecutive Push-ups daily (5/5)

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Stage 3 - 50 consecutive Surya Namaskar/Greet the sun Yoga daily (5/5)

Stage 4 - 50 consecutive squats daily (5/5)

Stage 5 - 50 consecutive Leg Lifts daily (5/5)

Stage 6 - Master 10 Yoga exercises (0/10)

Stage 7 - Memorise 10 Mythologies about the Sun (0/10)

Stage 8 - Meditate continuously for three hours (0/10)

Stage 9 - Memorise the details of 10 species of Birds (0/10)

Stage 10 - Memorise the properties of Metal (0/1)

Dale stared at the requirements of the unlocked stages and started laughing.

[Why is User Dale laughing?]

"I am just happy that the effort I put into following that Reddit community paid off. It gave me a clear picture of what questions to expect and choose my answers. If I had gone with the body-over mind option as Mash Royce did, I would have been stuck with weight lifting and martial arts exercises."

[Is User Dale referring to Question Three: Vitality, Strength, or Toughness if Body over mind was chosen?]

"Ya, that. I can't imagine myself being able to learn martial arts quickly. Knowing that choosing Mana results in doing meditation also helped a lot. I don't see any problem in doing Yoga and meditating."

[What made User Dale choose the other answers?]

"Since all those options require memorization of some facts, I just picked the first option provided by the app. It shouldn't pose a challenge since I have over a week left to study."

[Is User Dale not worried about what those choices might have created?]

"I nor anyone else know how helpful those choices will be in an apocalypse. If those options are literally the elements of what makes up my monster, it would probably end up as some kind of firebird with metal claws, I guess. Anyways, I won't know until it hatches. In every monster game, there are always type advantages, but in the end, it all boils down to how the trainer, tamer, master, or summoner uses them. I will work with what I have when the time comes."

[Incoming Call from Mash Royce]

"Connect it."

A hologram projection of Mash Royce's face replaces the Monster App's Egg.

"Mash, what's up?"

"Dale, my egg hatched!"

Dale is stunned by the news. He knew Mash had completed the first five stages over a week ago, but he didn't think it would be so easy for him to complete the rest this quickly.

"Already? What came out?"

"It is some kind of mutant baby Turtle. Let me share my screen with you."

Mash Royce's monster app screen takes over the hologram projection. On it, Dale spotted a cute chubby baby Snapping Turtle munching on a soft carrot stick.

Its skin and eyes are in different shades of green, while its hard shell is covered in various shades of brown. A lime green mist emerges from its mouth and stubby limbs whenever they move.

"This little guy reminds me of Turtwig."

"Ah, now that you mentioned it does share a remarkable resemblance. So I think I will name him Twiggy!"

Immediately Twiggy stopped munching on the Carrot and moved towards Mash's hand to nuzzle it fondly.

"Wait, is it doing that because you named it? Does it understand you?"

"I am not sure... Hey Twiggy, do you understand me?"

Twiggy stopped nuzzling to nod its head at Mash.

"Wow, you're a clever little Turtle, aren't you?"

Mash patted the hologram on its bald green head. Twiggy was so happy it tried to affectionately bite Mash's finger.

"Ouch! Hold on, that really hurt me... Dale, I got bit by a hologram. Is that possible?"

"Holograms can't do that. All you can do is interact with their Air Touch buttons. You sure Twiggy is a Hologram?"

Mash used his knuckles to knock on Twiggy's shell, which made a sound one would hear from knocking on a wooden door.

"It sounds real... Ali shut down Monster App."

Twiggy's annoyed face disappeared, and the screen on Sander's projection returned to Mash's face.

"Twiggy definitely is a hologram, Dale."

"Did you notice how emotional and intelligent it was when you touched it?"

"Until I called you, I didn't bother trying to touch it."

"Can he interact with other things?"

"Let's see. Restart the app, Ali!"

Twiggy soon reappeared, but he looked like an abandoned puppy now.

"Hey, sorry about that, Twiggy. I was just testing something out."

Twiggy turned around and faced away from Mash.

"Don't do that... Look, I have another carrot for you."

Mash selected a food dispenser icon and dropped a new Carrot stick. Unfortunately, Twiggy was not impressed by the offer.

"What about some candy?"

Twiggy slowly turned its little head around and nodded.

Mash selected a big blue Jawbreaker and dropped it in front of Twiggy, who could not hold back its tongue from hanging out.

"Nom nom...Gah!" Twiggy bit down hard on the candy.

"How does that food dispenser work? Is it infinite?"

"According to the Monster App guide, there is a limited stock of each item. Thankfully it refreshes the food stocks every 24 hours."

"There is a Monster App guidebook?"

"Ya, you unlock it after clearing stage 10. There is a forty-eight-hour incubation period before the egg hatches, so I looked through it just to be prepared."

"Someone has been busy. Did you take a few days off?"

"Nah, after I cleared the first five stages, I cashed in my vacation days that I was keeping for a rainy day to focus on the last five stages. But hatching this little guy makes me feel like it was all worth it."

"Oh wait, you still haven't checked to see if Twiggy can interact with anything else."

"Ah, wait a sec!" Mash grabs his T.V remote and then offers it to Twiggy.

"Twiggy, bite down on this for me."

The Jawbreaker had been no match against the powerful jaws of Twiggy the adorable. He quickly obeyed Mash and bit the remote, activating the T.V. Channels that kept flipping as Twiggy bit on various buttons.

"Twiggy, stop!"

The little Turtle obeyed without hesitation. The T.V settled on Cartoon Network, which has been airing shows from the early twenty-first century. Twiggy's eyes lasered in on the screen and saw a classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series coincidentally playing on the channel. His eyes remained glued to show as the Turtles beat up Shredder's gang of mutants and ninjas. There was joy in Twiggy's eyes as the Turtles used martial arts in their fight.

"He can see the T.V?"

"This guy is not an ordinary hologram or a game monster."

"Are you the first one to hatch an egg, Mash?"

"How would I know? It's not like people make it public about their interest in this app."

"Actually, there is a forum on Reddit with a few hundred thousand people who play it."

"A few hundred thousand! Why didn't you tell me about them?"

"Ah...well, they kind of believe that the Apocalypse will happen, so I avoided mentioning them to you. I was worried you would think I was going crazy."

"Crazy? Of course, that is crazy. How could you..."

Mash's eyes stared off into the distance as his mind processed the revelation. Then Mash's eyes rested on Twiggy before he reached out his hand and petted him once more on the head.

Twiggy remained calm and did not try to affectionately bite this time. Instead, he nuzzled and made cooing sounds.

"Do you believe in the apocalypse as well, Dale?" He asked after being silent for a minute.

"Well, from what I have seen so far, I think it may happen."

Mash stared hard into Dale's eyes before feeling convinced about his honesty.

"Share me the link to the forum. I want to share Twiggy with them all."