Locking In With My Life System

[Aiden North] – Life Points – [4.09]

⸢Stats

› Mind — A+

› Strength — C-

› Stamina — C

› Agility — C-

› Charm — B

⸢Skills

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

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⸢FAQ⸥

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Aiden would’ve had 4.3LPs, if he hadn’t wrecked his sleep schedule so much these past three weeks... all because he had wanted to capitalize on the momentum of [Crashout: Sin City].

Though the game was doing well on the mobile market and had now reached close to 450K+ downloads in total, Aiden knew well enough that if they really wanted to make the big bucks with their next game, they had to enter the PC gaming market--which was obviously the biggest.

Not only would they have a new wave of eyes on their game, but it would also ensure that their community expanded, if only by a small margin.

That alone, if they could use it to the advantage well enough, could potentially net them a small but loyal community whom would look forward to their next games with their wallets at the ready.

That, in its own right, could go a long way in spreading awareness by word of mouth... far more than standard marketing practices would.

As a result, Aiden had consistently failed to log in the required amount of sleep to knock out his ’Wakey, wakey’ quest on a regular basis.

Instead, he had allocated half of the time to crunching codes late into the night, and an extra hour memorizing any study material pertaining to the academic decathlon.

Besides, he’d decided he’d reward himself by taking things a bit slower in the months just after said decathlon, hence why he was even more incentivized to make the port work and knock out the exclusive quest.

Now, he was about to earn that reward with a long, long, slumber.

But first...

’One point into strength, one into agility, one into charm, and finally, the last into Mind--’

Aiden had barely followed through with the action when his eyes suddenly glazed over and he collapsed onto the bed, his entire being shutting down instantly.

As for his system, its translucent green panel continued hovering over his closed eyes, a hue of green emanating from it as it enveloped its host’s body.

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| Master control activated... |

| Locked features accessible... |

| Integrating... |

|› 0.1% integrated... |

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Just two months ago, Aiden had utilized his system’s ⸢FAQ⸥ to satisfy a certain concern et curiosity he had.

One that had stemmed from wondering what he would use his leftover LPs for if the day ever came where he maxed out all his stats and presumably had no worthwhile skill he needed to purchase.

One that had ended up evolving into a rabbit hole of questions and answers that had left him genuinely stunned.

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What happens when I max out any of my stats?

└ New features are unlocked, but remain pending until update.

Update? Pending? New features? What kind of new features?

└ Unlock Master Control to access information.

Master Control? How do I unlock that?

└ Take Mind attribute to max grade.

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Normally, Aiden would’ve gone right ahead and asked why it had to be his Mind attribute specifically that he needed to max out as opposed to his other stats to unlock the Master Control.

After all, his Charm attribute had been the highest at that point and would’ve been the fastest route for him to get there.

However, with the improvements he’d noticed in how quickly he assimilated a new skill every time he bumped up his Mind stat, he had effectively come to a belief of his own.

Whatever the system was running on, clearly, it was closely linked to his soul, rather than his body.

It then made perfect sense then, that his Mind attribute--the most metaphysical of his stats--bridged the gap between both body and soul, and was what his system essentially interfaced off of.

He’d also assumed it to be the reason why he was the only one capable of seeing his panel as it was a projection of said metaphysicality...

...or maybe he’d just been overthinking it. Aiden could honestly care less if he was being honest.

Not when a gremlin-looking old man whom might’ve very well been a wizard of old or an existence he probably couldn’t even fathom was the sole cause of it.

As at the time, he’d simply seen it as a new goal he had to reach.

One that was now playing out in real time as he peacefully continued to slumber way.

Richard arrived home roughly five hours later, the man tiredly trudging into his house.

When he wasn’t met with the scent of his son’s homemade cooking, or his usual greetings, his expression suddenly switched into concern, all of his fatigue vanishing in an instant.

Dad mode kicked in for him in full-force, especially since he had been trying to get across to his son all day to ask how the decathlon went but to no avail.

”Aiden!” he called out for perhaps the first time in a very long while as he made his way across the room and headed upstairs, a visible sense of worry taking ahold of his features.

Upon arriving at his son’s room though, seeing him peacefully sleeping, his chest gently rising and falling with every breath, the man’s tense shoulders visibly sagged in relief.

”You had me worried for a moment there, Champ...” Richard remarked with a relieved smile as he slowly walked over to him.

Seeing that he had no reaction to his words nonetheless, the man lowered onto and sat on the edge of his bed whilst staring at his son’s peaceful face for a brief while.

Then he looked over to the bedside table, the phone buzzing atop and vibrating with a new notification.

Noticing the fifteen missed calls on its interface, seven of which were his, alongside three e-mails from a sender called ’Portal’, Richard simply ignored it and then said;

”Figures you’d been knocked out cold given all the all-nighters you’ve been pulling these past few weeks.”

”We’ll catch up tomorrow, Champ.” he added warmly as he tucked the youth in, patted him gently on the arm and switched off the lights in his room as he made his way out.

Making himself dinner a couple minutes later, the man proceeded to head to bed afterwards--but not before dropping a text to his son’s friends that he was okay and was just getting some much-needed rest.

Afterall, the other missed calls he had seen on the youth’s phone had been from all five of them.

As for Aiden...

|› 43.7% integrated... |

...

...

...

Morning came and Richard found himself waking up first.

Currently standing in his son’s room yet again, clearly surprised that he was still sleeping like a log of wood, the man tried tapping him gently to get him to wake up, all to no avail.

Despite this, Richard knew that his son was perfectly fine.

Besides, before he’d decided to switch up his mindset during his last high school summer break, his son perpetually woke up late to school.

That alone, in addition to what he’d been getting up to these past three weeks, gave Richard every reason to believe his son was just in a state of deep rest.

He would know. He’d been in situations where he worked for two days straight without any proper rest in between, only to spend most of the weekend sleeping.

It was also why, Richard rang up Aiden’s homeroom teacher a couple minutes after, informing the man that his son wouldn’t be able to make it to school today as he was a bit under the weather.

Mr. Lazlow, having noticed how generally sleep-deprived Aiden had been throughout yesterday, replied with understanding, opting to simply accept the vague excuse without going into the deets.

Hanging up the call seconds later, Richard quickly made himself some breakfast afterwards, put his son’s portion aside, and then promptly began to prepare to head to work.

Just before he left the house, he grabbed a sticky pad, jotted a note on a piece, and slapped it onto his son’s phone.

Only after did he make his way out the door and head to work.

Naturally, Aiden slept though it all, his snore quiet and peaceful.

|› 80.2% integrated... |

The next hours that followed went by quietly, the occasional sound of vehicles and horns down the street cascading into the house.

At exactly 3:47pm though...

|› 100% integrated. |

... Aiden’s eyes snapped open, the ceiling of his room and its overhead fan reflected in his olive-green irises.

Then he slowly rose up from the bed, yawning and stretching with a genuinely refreshed hum.

Blinking his eyes a few times, noticing the enhanced tactility of his environment and how much sharper everything seemed to be as the colors of the world popped, his eyes naturally caught the sticky note on his phone.

Reading its content...

Called in sick at school on your behalf.

You can just take the rest of the day off and laze around when you’re finally up.

Food’s in the fridge. Microwave it.

Love, Pops.

...Aiden’s eyes widened, his pupils dilating in sync as he tossed aside his blanket!

At the same time, he suddenly remembered what he’d been up to before he suddenly dozed off.

Then there was his phone whose battery was almost dead, a plethora of notifications and missed calls on its interface.

Yet, before he could bother attending to any of them, he heard the doorbell ring.