Locking In With My Life System

[Ding!]

[Skills updated!]

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Aiden blinked, clearly in disbelief.

Then his eyes widened in stunned shock, his mind snappily pulling up his panel to confirm if he’d in fact gotten the new skill.

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[Aiden North] – Life Points – [5.52]

⸢Stats

› Mind — B-

› Strength — E+

› Stamina — D

› Agility — E-

› Charm — B

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⸢Skills

› {Type Designing - A}, {Digital Illustration - I}, {Drawing - I}, {Cooking - I}, {Brewing - I}, {Singing - I}, {Dancing - N}, {Writing - N}, {Lettering - I}, {Programming - N}.

⸢Shop

› Browse Catalogue.

⸢Daily Quests

› {Expand}

⸢Exclusive Quests

› {Expand}

⸢Time-limited Quests

› {Expand}

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⸢FAQ⸥

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No sooner had Aiden seen that it was indeed the skill he’d been after these past two and a half weeks, he let out a pleasantly surprised laugh.

Honestly, given how many courses he had yet to engage with on the gamified coding platform, he’d assumed he would only manage to get the skill after he’d ticked most of them off the box.

Clearly, that seemed to have been an overestimation on his own end... or that was what Aiden believed anyway.

The truth however, was that Aiden had so strictly stuck to a schedule of his own making, he hadn’t even realized he’d ended up consuming so much content in such a short span of time.

Far more than the average individual on the platform ever would have in months.

In fact, although he remained unaware of it, Aiden was literally in the top percentile of people who actually, utilized the platform as it was intended and then some.

That, in addition to his upgraded Mind attribute which was well above average, had gone a long way in aiding his rapid assimilation of all the basics thus far, one that was further solidified by his very first assessment.

In any case, Aiden was genuinely excited, his palms rubbing together as he proceeded to upgrade the skill;

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{Programming - I}

└ Upgrade to {Intermediate} using 5 LP?

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”Sheesh...” Aiden couldn’t help but recoil his head slightly as he saw the required Life Points to upgrade the skill to the next grade.

Though he’d remarked as such, he wasn’t particularly surprised... more so when he could easily recall that 3LPs had been the trade-off to gain the lowest grade of the skill in the shop last he checked.

And though Aiden was going solely off of pure estimate as he hadn’t bothered to check, he knew for a fact that the intermediate version of the skill would’ve probably cost him more than double the price to gain it.

That, in comparison to this, was a much better outcome. One that essentially made all his hardwork worth it.

Anyhoo, Aiden upgraded the skill.

Yet again, that familiar sense of wooziness washed over him for well over ten seconds this time, his hands gripping at the edges of his desk for stability lest he slumped head first onto his keyboard.

As it did, torrents upon torrents of information were rapidly funneled into his brain, far more than he was typically used to as he closed his eyes shut.

Just as Aiden was wondering when it would stop, his senses suddenly sharpened and a sense of erudition washed over him.

Snapping his eyelids open, the contents of the laptop’s screen reflected on his pupils, a slow exhilarating smile began to spread across his lips.

Without thinking twice, he excitedly navigated over to the CodeHub repository where the latest file of the game was and downloaded the recent build.

Given the internet at his home wasn’t snappily fast, he still had to wait a bit before the whole 1GB file could be downloaded.

As he watched the bar fill up, he leaned back into his chair, placing his palms behind his head as he looked to ceiling as if it would magically hasten it’s locked 100mbs speed.

As he did, it honestly made him wonder how Theo was coping with the internet on his end.

’Should check in on him regarding that...’ Aiden mused to himself, choosing to ask him tomorrow at school.

No sooner had he had that thought, a familiar notification rang.

Aiden promptly sat upright, his excitement returning in full force as he navigated over to the game’s backend and began perusing through its code.

It really was disturbingly easy how easy all the jargon made perfect sense to him in a matter of seconds. Still, the youth was extremely grateful for it.

Gently rubbing his chin whilst musing to himself for a bit, Aiden nodded to himself a couple seconds later and then began working on his idea by creating a new line of code.

One might’ve assumed that Aiden was planning to follow through with all the complex ideas he had for the management/tycoon sim that was swirling in his mind now that he had the skillset.

However, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

For as much as Aiden wanted to wow his buddies and really dial up his ideas to eleven, it would start getting very suspicious if he kept pulling random high-level skill showcases from his pocket.

And though he could manage to deflect those questions for a while, he wouldn’t be able to forever.

As a result, he needed to work within the confines of someone still growing their skills alongside them, hence why he’d decided to focus solely on incorporating one, singular management sim business into the game.

A weed business.

One he would purposefully make quite janky and a just a tad bit tedious, but nonetheless fun to get into.

It would start slow, with the playable character using their little safehouse as the first base of operations, all whilst also handling all the processing and errand work that came with it.

Then, as the game progressed and they got more money, they would be given the opportunities to acquire and purchase bigger establishments, hire errand workers, and gain access to better resources to improve the quality of their product till they eventually took over every underground weed business in the city.

That, for now, was the core gameplay loop that Aiden was going to present to his buddies in the next one month.

That was the deadline he had personally set for himself.

That said, Aiden was rather certain that by the time he did showcase it to them, the gang--Theo especially--would most certainly want to improve upon it.

That, exactly, was when he’d pitch a few other ideas he was keeping in his trunk, one that would inevitably drive them all to not just optimize the sim’s general workflow, but also bake a couple other features into the game.

Features that Aiden couldn’t help but think would truly elevate the game, well above the competition in the market.

*

With a new week, came a new post from Aiden following the adventures of everyone’s favorite sentient rock.

Naturally, his audience were at it yet again, all of them excited to play god as they decided the fate and progression of the story;

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TUES YOUR ADVENTURE

You have spent your entire existence lying motionless on the side of a road.

Now, for the first time...

You have somewhere to go.

At first, you’re rolling slowly.

Tuk.

Tuk.

Tuk.

Then gradually, you pick up the speed!

TUK-TUK-TUK-TUK-TUK!

As the wind brushes over your majestic surface, the distant skyline slowly grows larger.

Buildings, roads, lights, and most especially, civilization. You’re on your way to experiencing them all.

Unfortunately...

You aren’t the only thing moving.

SKRRAAAK!

Your Resonance Detection suddenly spikes and you sense something rapidly approaching.

As you roll to a quick stop...

SCRAPE!

A pair of enormous claws emerge from behind a wrecked car.

It’s a rat... except it isn’t a normal rat!

Its body is the size of a small dog.

Its teeth are long enough to make you reconsider the concept of being edible.

And there is something deeply unnatural pulsing beneath its mangy fur.

It stares at you.

You stare back.

Well...

You assume you’re staring back.

You still don’t have a pair of eyes, so to speak.

The rat suddenly bares its teeth.

SQUEEEEEEEAK!

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{SYSTEM UPDATE}

Mutated Organism Detected!

◈ Rattus Giganticus

Threat Level: Moderate.

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The rat charges!

As it does, your Resonance Detection notices a shadow passing over you, but the rat doesn’t.

Something enormous is descending from above.

WHOOSH!!

You have approximately three seconds to make a decision.

What do you do?

└ A] Stay perfectly still!

└ B] Roll aside to evade the rat’s attack.

└ C] Solar Burst that MF!

(Voting ends in 24 hours. Next post comes up next week.)

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Having uploaded the post much earlier in the day, Aiden was currently at school and making his way over to the student committee room.

No sooner had he entered said room, everyone turning their attention to their newest member in acknowledgement, Damian soon clapped once to draw everyone’s attention back to him as he spoke;

”It’s been a while since we actually did some of the more menial tasks our committee’s known for around these parts,”

”Last we did anything of such, was our first year as sophomores with our seniors at the time,” Damian gestured to which everyone nodded in agreement.

”That’s why this coming weekend, we’ll be dedicating most of our Saturday to helping out around the neighborhood.” the student council president continued, clasping his palms together as he stated immediately after;

”So, clear your schedules, and bring your handyman tools and cleaning gears along. It’s gonna be a rather hectic Saturday.”

As one might’ve expected, Aiden’s system slid into its host’s DM with a new quest of its own.

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[Ding!]

[Exclusive Quests Updated!]

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