Locking In With My Life System

Though the rest of the weekend went by rather uneventfully for most teens at Silverlake High, they couldn’t help but look back on the Homecoming Dance fondly.

That feeling bled into the next Monday, the general atmosphere in the hallways cozy and congenial... which was pretty weird to see considering teens typically hated Mondays.

In any case, no sooner had Aiden arrived on school grounds, he was constantly being greeted and high-fived here and there, so was the gang and most especially, Theo.

Clearly not used to such attention, he was finding it rather overwhelming if he was being honest.

But then again, it also felt pretty nice, he’d admit. As a result, he managed to reciprocate the enthusiasm as best as he could.

Back to the man of the hour though, he was currently at his locker, arranging his books for the day in the order of classes he’d need them for.

As he was doing this, a familiar figure walked over and tapped at his shoulder.

Naturally, Aiden turned over to respond... only to end up asking a question instead, a clear hint of amusement in his eyes;

”What’s with the care package?”

”A show of thanks.” Clarissa replied, a light grin on her lips as she handed over the little, flowery-pink pouch.

”For what?” Aiden asked in genuine curiosity, his head tilted slightly.

”Making my last Homecoming a memorable one.” she casually shrugged in response.

Cocking his brow in a slow, lazy arch, his expression bemused, Aiden soon retrieved the pouch from the lady.

No sooner had he, she flashed him a mischievous grin and went on her merry way, her wavy chestnut-brown hair swaying from side-to-side and a lovely hum escaping her lips.

Pulling the little drawstring, Aiden soon pulled out a little, vintage-looking pocket watch with a chain attached to it from the pouch, his olive-green irises getting progressively intrigued by the minute.

Attached to said chain was a little strip of paper with the words;

What’s a gentleman without his trusty pocket watch, hmm?

Shaking his head in amusement, a light chuckle escaping his lips, Aiden soon let out a soft sigh as he glanced over in the lady’s last direction...

...only to see her equally glance at him from afar amidst a conversation with a group of friends, her visage offering a coquettish wink for the briefest of moments before she returned to the convo.

’How cute.’ he simply remarked and then pocketed the stopwatch, a light smile tracing his lips as he closed his locker and walked away.

Soon, Aiden found himself in the administrative block. Casually, he made his way over to the principal’s office.

Having mulled it over for the past couple days, and also asking his Pops for advice, Aiden had finally come to a decision on Principal Walter’s offer.

Meeting up with the secretary and explaining the necessary deets to her, Aiden was soon granted permission into the man’s office after she confirmed with him.

”So, Mr. North. What have you decided on?” Principal Walters asked as he gestured for the youth to take a seat.

”I’ll join.” Aiden’s response came quickly.

Honestly, Aiden had originally been planning to reject the offer.

Given how much was on his plate, he doubted he’d have the space to accommodate another extracurricular activity in his life.

However, after actually thinking it through, he realized that the pros far outweighed the cons.

More so when he was already in his final year and one of the biggest events had already been ticked off the box.

Safe to say, the student council committee wouldn’t be having anything major to do in the coming months, perhaps until graduation week in fact.

Given how well he’d also juggled things during the very hectic Spirit Week amidst all the tests and his side hustles, all whilst still managing to make time for he and his buddies’ shenanigans, he figured it couldn’t be all that bad.

Then there was the fact that it would look extremely good on his college applications, thus solidifying his chances of getting into Pacific Heights University.

All in all, Aiden considered it a worthwhile investment, hence his change of heart.

In response to his decision, Principal Walters softly nodded in acknowledgement, clearly in support of it as a thin smile touched his lips.

”Glad to hear that,” the man said and then retrieved a slip of paper from one of his desk compartments.

”Here. Fill in your details.” he placed the document before Aiden, one the youth promptly retrieved a pen from his bag for.

A few minutes later, Aiden was done with it, his hand sliding the document over to the man who casually picked it and slipped it into one of the many files on his table with a practiced movement.

”With this, I trust you and your buddies will cut back on the pranks.” Principal Walters dismissively remarked.

”I haven’t the faintest idea what you mean.” Aiden innocently blinked, a response that had that thin, almost imperceptible smile touching the man’s lips yet again.

”I’m sure you don’t.” the man said, to which he then interlocked his palms as he casually changed topics, an ’amiable’ touching his lips;

”Now, let’s discuss the punishment for singing such crude lyrics at a school event, shall we?”

To that, Aiden inwardly cussed;

’Well... shit.’

*

The rest of the week was as mundane as mundane could get.

Asides from Aiden, Clyde, Benjamin and Larry getting detention--effectively an extra thirty minutes of forced study session that Aiden actually quite liked, nothing particularly interesting happened at school.

Given Spirit Week was now over, Silverlake High had returned its focus solely to its academic endeavors.

As a result, it had all just been classes, home works, and everything else in between.

Thankfully, the gang had enough on their plate to keep them occupied amidst all the mundanity.

To that effect, [Crashout: Sin City] was coming along smoothly.

Casper was pretty much done fleshing out the first arc of the game’s story while Theo had ironed out several kinks and a couple flaws in the core mechanics, allowing for a more seamless mission design structure from the duo.

Larry, Benjamin and Clyde had also made a good amount of progress with the game’s sound design, the trio locking down a few of the game’s BGM’s and SFX.

As for Aiden, he’d been keeping track of everything they were doing and was pretty certain that they would manage to have the complete game ready for release come March next year, if not earlier in fact.

That said, the only person whom he couldn’t help but feel was lagging behind, was none other than he himself.

Given he’d yet to acquire the {Programming} skill, it was only natural he felt that way.

Still, Aiden remained assured that he would manage to acquire the skill before the month’s end as he’d been planning.

Once he’d done that, he believed he would easily catch up to the others.

That said, after over two and a half weeks of learning on CodeRPG.dev, Aiden’s first assessment from the gamified learning platform had finally arrived.

Feeling very confident, and having knocked out all his daily quests earlier in the day, Aiden stretched out his arms and adjusted his chair.

Carefully, and with laser sharp focus, he began attempting the questions.

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[Challenge 1 - The Goblin’s Health]

A Goblin has 100 HP. Write a function that reduces its health by the supplied damage amount.

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Seeing the question, Aiden confidently typed in the code in python;

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›def take_damage(health, damage):

└return health - damage

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No sooner had he done that, he got a ’[Correct!][+100 XP]’ pop-up after the processing icon had rolled a few times. Without bothering to acknowledge it, he moved on to the next question.

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[Challenge 2 - The Potion Shop]

A potion costs 25 gold. Write a function that purchases the potion only if the player has enough gold. Return the player’s remaining gold.

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Yet again, Aiden quickly typed in the code, his fingers rapidly flying across the keyboard;

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› def buy_potion(gold):

└ if gold >= 25:

└ return gold - 25

└ return gold

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Naturally, another notification followed. This time, a ’[Great!][+125 XP]’ pop-up.

Just like that, Aiden continued on. And though the questions had started off easily, it didn’t take long before he started scrunching his nose, his brows furrowing from time to time.

The last question especially, had left him a bit stumped as he stared blankly at the screen for a minute without typing a single thing, the two-minute timer counting down in the corner.

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[Challenge 10 - The Shop System]

Create a function that:

› Accepts the player’s gold and item price;

› Checks whether they can afford it;

› Subtracts the price if they can;

› Returns both the purchase result and remaining gold.

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Mulling it over for a bit, his palms pinching at his forehead in recollection, Aiden began inputting the code a few seconds later as he muttered to himself;

”Here goes... something, I guess...”

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› def purchase(gold, price):

└ if gold >= price:

└ gold -= price

└ return True, gold

└ return False, gold

-

No sooner had he typed in the code, his eyes darted over to the processing icon this time in anticipation.

Upon seeing the ’[Excellent!] [+400 XP]’ pop-up, Aiden pumped his fists into the air in proud exhilaration;

”Lessgo!!”

Immediately after, the total assessment page followed, phasing onto the entire screen.

-

[Assessment Complete!]

Score: 91%

XP Earned: +2,125

Errors: 4

Syntax: Very Good

Concept Mastery: 83%

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Aiden hadn’t even managed to check the results of his handiwork when his system pinged into his field of view.

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[Ding!]

[Skills updated!]

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