Locking In With My Life System

The next three weeks passed by without much fanfare for Aiden.

Asides from his AP classes and the occasional committee meetings, things were pretty mellow.

It also helped that his system had been suspiciously quiet for a while now... though if Aiden was being honest, he was sort of expecting it.

With the mundanity of things, it was only natural that there was nothing for it to go by.

Even if there was though, Aiden couldn’t help but feel that his system was becoming more selective of the quests it gave him...

...a thought process he could only assume was as a result of his growing stats.

Afterall, if there was no challenge to be had, what was the point of an exclusive quest... at least that was what Aiden seemed to believe.

More so when his system hadn’t even updated, despite his high school announcing that he and his peers would be having their first-semester finals a month and a half from now.

Nonetheless, he’d been racking up his Life Points, gradually letting them pile up till fall break had arrived.

At the same time, the lack of extra activities in his life had afforded him a whole lot of time to work on the game and his side hustles.

Naturally, that also meant ’Tues Your Adventure’ had progressed from the previous post.

With most people having selected the ’Stay perfectly still!’ option, the sentient rock, had found itself in a rather interesting predicament.

-

TUES YOUR ADVENTURE

You don’t move.

And for a moment, nothing really happens.

Then, two enormous claws wrap around your body.

SNATCH!

You are lifted from the ground.

You have now become a snack.

Or so the rat thinks.

Suddenly--

WHOOSH!

A gigantic shadow descends from above and a mutated hawk strikes!

SKRAAAAAWK!!

Its talons clamp around the rat... and unfortunately, you!

For a brief moment, all three of you are airborne.

The rat is screaming.

The hawk is screaming.

You are... quiet.

Below you, the distant city grows larger.

But the hawk isn’t heading toward it.

It’s heading toward a rocky but lush outcrop overlooking its outskirts.

Soon, you land into a nest with a heavy thud!

The hawk immediately begins tearing into its catch, the rat screaming in gruesome pain.

It doesn’t last long, and you feel its vibrations slowly disappear.

Then, a heavy silence follows.

The hawk has eaten its fill.

For several moments, it simply stands there, smacking its beak.

Then its attention turns toward you.

You sense its heartbeat.

Its breathing. Its curiosity.

In similar fashion, the hawk senses something from you.

The faint energy radiating from your body.

Slowly, its head tilts like an eerie sphinx.

Then...

SNATCH!

The hawk picks you up and you are lifted toward its beak.

Surely it wouldn’t.

Surely it wouldn’t.

CHOMP!

Darkness swallows you whole.

You have been eaten.

-------------------------------

{SYSTEM UPDATE}

Foreign Biological Material Detected...

Analyzing...

Avian Genetic Echo Detected.

Hostile Organism attempting digestion!

Calculating survival probability...

...

Probability:50%.

Do you wish to assimilate?

-------------------------------

What do you do?

└ A] Assimilate the hawk.

└ B] Fight digestion from within.

└ C] Say your prayers.

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

-

This was the most recent post, one that had been segregated over the course of the last three weeks and had garnered a whole lot of attention as usual.

In fact, Aiden had gotten so many new followers in the past three weeks, he was practically nearing a cumulative total 50,000+ and counting.

A number he was genuinely proud of as it was no small feat.

In any case, today was a Friday and the gang was set to come over for a weekend sleepover.

One, was because Aiden had informed them that he had something he wanted to show them that would require all hands on deck.

And though none of them had minded, they were genuinely curious as to what was so important that it would require such. Not that Aiden had answered them when they probed for answers.

When they arrived, they’d see it for themselves.

Two, was because Casper was suffering from a pretty nasty writers’ block.

Though he’d sorted out the general plot and even main acts of the game’s story, he still had to seamlessly connect all the pieces together.

In fact, given he was working around a limited set of in-game mechanics, it was even more surprising that he hadn’t stumbled into this roadblock far earlier.

More so when he was equally juggling his web novel, ’The Last Radiant Knight,’ which was still serializing.

As a result, Aiden had come up with an idea, one he hoped might help him get over it when they all arrived later today.

As for Aiden himself though...

-

[Stats updated!]

-

Clearly glad to see it, he slowly trudged into his house, his breathing heavy as he pushed open the door.

”Pops, I’m home--” Aiden suddenly paused, then let out a sheepish smile as he muttered to himself;

”Right. Business trip. Should give him a call.”

Grabbing a bottle of mineral water from the fridge, he casually made his way out as he chugged the bottle of water and retrieved his phone from his pockets.

Dialing his father’s line, it didn’t take long before the videocall went through;

”Morning, Champ!” the man’s beaming face lit up the screen from the other end, the low din and buzz of the street behind echoing.

”Morning Pops!” Aiden reciprocated to which he then asked, his tone warm;

”How’s New Jersey?”

”Busy. I’ve barely got any time to do much else asides work so that’s about as much as I can say about things here.” Richard replied as he kept walking down the street to which he then asked;

”How’s your fall break coming along?”

”Swimmingly. The gang’s coming over for the weekend.” Aiden replied to which his father joked;

”And here I was expecting you to throw a big party. What with me being gone for all of your fall break?”

”Don’t tempt me, Pops. Next thing you know, I’ll be making the news for teaching students how to brew their very own homemade alcohol.” Aiden played along, earning a chuckle from his father who replied in mock wariness;

”Dear god, no. Anything but that.”

This time, Aiden was the one who chuckled in amusement. Immediately after though, Richard spoke;

”Anyway champ, I’ll catch you later. Just arrived at the site.”

”Sure. Take care of yourself, Pops.” Aiden replied in understanding.

”I will. You do the same too.” he winked at him and promptly cut the call.

”Sure thing.” Aiden smiled to himself as he tucked the phone into his pocket and made his way up the stairs.

Arriving at his room, he tossed his clothes into the laundry basket and went ahead to freshen up.

A couple minutes later, he was done with his personal hygiene and proceeded to dress casually.

Making his way down the stairs, Aiden headed straight for the kitchen and proceeded to begin cooking.

Just before he started though, he pulled up his system’s panel.

Though Aiden had decided to begin balancing out his stats, he had waited a while to see if he could get his Agility attribute up a bit on his own before he wastefully dumped a point into it.

Afterall, with his Strength stat ticking up just three weeks ago, he had figured it wouldn’t take long before the former would improve... more so when it was one of his weakest stats.

Thankfully, it did, hence why Aiden proceeded to do as he’d initially planned.

-

[Aiden North] – Life Points – [3.34]

⸢Stats

› Mind — B-

› Strength — D- » D

› Stamina — D

› Agility — E » D-

› Charm — B

⸢Skills

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

⸢Shop

› Browse Catalogue.

⸢Daily Quests

› {Expand}

⸢Exclusive Quests

› {Expand}

⸢Time-limited Quests

› {Expand}

-

⸢FAQ⸥

-

Staring at the measly 0.34LPs left, Aiden was just about to let out a resigned sigh when a new panel phased onto the screen.

-

[Quest Updated!]

› How To Be Stronger!

└ 25 push-ups! 25 pull-ups! 25 sit-ups! 25 squats! 15km run! – [0.05 LP].

-

Seeing that, Aiden’s resigned expression morphed, a satisfied smile tugging on his lips.

”Alright. I can work with that.” he muttered as he dismissed the system and began preparing breakfast.

Now, he would be earning 0.1LPs per day from his daily quest, all of which would eventually cumulate in 3LPs per month.

That alone, was set to keep his store of Life Points afloat in case there were any emergencies and would also afford him that much more flexibility to improve his stats.

That said, Aiden was a bit curious about something... something he’d been rather curious for a while now if he was being honest.

Given how much points he was set to be raking in on a monthly basis, would there ever come a time where he would have an overabundance of it with nothing to spend it on?

Just as he was about to tug on the ⸢FAQ⸥ function to get some answers, he heard the doorbell ring.