Min Maxing Life [Tes]

[Lazy Kitsune]

Name: Max Webber
Age: 22
Gender: male
Appearance:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Max has black, slightly locky hair and deep brown eyes adoring his, like the rest of him, chubby caucasian face. He tries his best to dress nicely and look as best as posssible though when he actually leaves his house, going for a modern classy style with saturated colors, yellow and red his favorites. His skin is lighty pale from the low sun exposure.

Personality:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Proponent of the MBTI scale would more than likely classify Max as an INTP. He is introverted but hightly observant, sucking up any information that is of interest to him. Problem being that for things that don't interest him he can't motivate himself to do much of anything. He has very thick walls build around him from being the outcast for the longest time, but people that tried long enough know that he is very kind at heart to those that treat him well. For a good friend there is no length he wouldn't go to help.

Background:

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Finally getting away from highschool and all the pieces of shit there has really changed his life a lot, at least he thought so. Going to University and studying math was really fulfilling and his confidence got boostet as a result. He lived in his own little appartment off campus and life was great. But something was still missing. He never had a girlfriend due to his insane trust issues and while that didn't bother him too much with all the other shit going on, now that he was somewhat at peace, he wanted someone to share that with.

So like any reasonable individual would do, he confessed to his long friend Hanna that he actually had feelings for her. It was a dumpster fire. She also had feelings for him all along but she had a boyfriend now and wouldn't break up with him, telling Max that those feelings were gone and that he also needed to move on. Though in his mind she was just to afraid to commit to such a decision, to scares about the consequences like she always was.

Their friendship took a hard hit and so did Max ego. His prior confidence gone, leaving him stuck in his old ways of staying up all night at his PC and locking himself into his dark room. Like it was the norm for introverted people he had met an extrovert named Tom that liked him and introduced him to most of his other acquaintances hence forth. So he had gathered a few other good friends but no one as close as Hanna was to him.

Base Stats
INT: 7
WIS: 6
CHA: 3
CON: 1
STR: 2
DEX: 7
LCK: 6

Body
Looks: 6/10
Dick Size: 7in x 5in around

Skills
Sheet Editor(Lv1 0% mastery): The ability to read and edit basic stats concerning him and the people around him.
Inventory(Lv1 0% mastery): Storing money and a limited collection of items in a weightless space.
Problem Solving(Lv3 35% mastery): The ability to solve riddles and other logical problems.
Grinding(Lv2 80% mastery): Once motivated and in the flow of a task he becomes hyperfocused and plows through.

Relationships

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Hanna: They met when he was 16 and she 14 and have been friends ever since due to their similarities. She's a small and insecure girl that has trouble comitting to anything. (Rel: 70)

Tom: He is they guy that known pretty much everyone he walks into and gets everybody to laugh. They met at a party Max was dragged into reluctantly and somehow still are friends, complementing each other well in their differences. (Rel:90)

Robin, Lis and Jody: They are a group of best friends he met through Tom. Outgoing and bubbly all together. Of the three of them Max gets along best with the tall but slightly childish blonde Lis, her wide smile always getting to him and their conversations rich as she studies medicine, open to share neat scientific knowledge. (Rel 60)

Robin on the other hand works as a Designer and the conversations drift much more into the politcal spectrum since she was liberal and Max more towards the center leaning right. Nonetheless the debates never got heated for which they mutually respected each other. She has curly red hair and dresses pretty much like you would expect from a designer, her lithe body to die for. (Rel: 50)

Jody is the one Max gets along with the least. It's not that they can't stand each other or such, but they just have nothing to talk about. She works in childcare and is just too outgoing and loud for Max. She's also a redhead but with long and straight hair, her body more curvy than the other two, not scares to show of her big chest which Lis and Robin lacked, if you want to say it like that, since Max was much more into a tight bottom than big tits. (Rel 30)

Maggie: Max's stepsister after his mom had married another man was pretty much the bane of his existence whenever they clashed. She was the bratty chearleader three years younger than him, always laying in his ears for money and to belittle him. Max knew that she only could act this way because she was popular and admittedly hot as hell. (Rel -60)

Prof. Straus: Every student hated her. She was the strict and stuck up Professor that failed you for miniscuel things and seemed to take sick pleasure in making her students squirm. Max himself had a quarrel with her which he took higher up because of the bullshit she tried to pull. The University gave him the better mark but since then he always sees the hate in her eyes as she lookes at him. (Rel -70)

Turn Ons: Reluctance, Experimentation, Public, Dominance
Turn Offs: Male on Male, watersports

---

A sound had been following you the past couple of weeks. It took a while before it started to register, and even once it did you could swear it was just a figment of your imagination. It could ordinarily be heard faintly in the morning, right as you started to wake up - just beneath the sounds around you, whether that's something loud like an alarm clock going off or a car horn blaring in the street, or something quiet like the rain against your window or a letter being fed through the postbox. It was always only just loud enough to be noticed beneath that sound... a faint, mechanical chugging and whirring followed by a short series of electronic beeps. Like an old, barely clung together computer starting up after a long time of inactivity.

If that wasn't weird enough, you started hearing it while out and about. The mechanical whirr would start up, sounding as loud as a stage whisper from across the room, although no one else would ever react. The first couple of times it was just the sound, but then for brief moments you started to see things after the sound ended. Peoples names would appear above their heads. If you focused on someone in particular you could even see their mood, how healthy they were and various traits of theirs, all represented by a series of numbers. Sometimes after being given an instruction or invited by Tom to hang out you would see a prompt appear, reminding you of your 'Current Objective' and sometimes even providing suggests of how best to go about doing this. These visual hallucinations would also flicker out and disappear almost as quickly and suddenly as they came, not reappearing until you next heard that noise. Where you spending too much time in front of your PC? Or where you finally cracking?

Then one day you went to sleep and when you next heard that noise you didn't wake up.

Instead you saw white lettering... some kind of bitmap font pressed against an endless void of darkness.

Tutorial Loading . . .

You could try to blink it away, pinch yourself, will yourself awake... nothing changed. Just the words before you and a slowly progressing bar beneath it filling up.

Interface Access Will Be Increased During Tutorial. All Actions And Adjustments Made During The Tutorial Will Not Influence Yourself, Others Or Past Events. You May Repeat The Tutorial If You So Wish.

This notice appeared long enough for you to read and seemingly knowing once you had it vanished into the abyss. Soon enough the loading bar was full and an instant later... you were somewhere all to familiar. You were outside Hanna's apartment, walking back with her the night you told her your true feelings. The night your friendship all but ended.

Time seems to be standing still. She's looking up at you with a wide grin, her nose scrunched up cutely. She must be in the middle of laughing. The two of you laughed a lot that night. You rarely ever went on nights out, even before things went bad between you and Hannah. The rare occasions you did find yourself out at one you usually either went home early or found yourself in a corner, keeping to yourself unless someone else decided to strike up a conversation with you. However this night... this one was special. For so much of it, it was just you and Hannah hanging out, while her boyfriend was off partying with his friend group. It was a good night out... part of the reason why you thought it was a good time to tell her.

An image appears before your face... although you can see through it. It seems... pixelated somehow, although there's no screen... its just floating in the air. It doesn't take you long to recognise it as a stat sheet. A stat sheet belonging to you.

Five Points To Spend

blinks at the top of the sheet. Five points to spend... on what seem to be a series of seven stats ranging from intelligence to strength to luck, all with numbers attributed to them. It may be a shock to see your personality reduced to mere numbers like this... but on some level you can't help but feel like its an accurate representation. It seemed by tapping a + sign beside each stat would attribute one of you 'points' to that stat. Could that really... change you?

Regardless of your choices, once you finish allocating points, the sheet disappears and time seems to move forward again. The leaves rustle in the wind, cars can be heard a few streets over and Hannah's delightful laugh hits your ears. Once her laughter dies down, however, she glances to the door of her apartment.

"Well, we're here." she says, a little uneasily, although her smile hasn't left her face. "Thanks for walking back with me Max, you're the best." she moves in for a hug, pressing herself against your chest for a few moments as she wraps her arms around you. She holds on for just a little longer than your average hug and then takes a step back. "So... see you tomorrow, then?"

[Tes]

At first I thought I had sleep paralysis, one of my worst nightmares since I was prone to dream lucidly. But even then this felt just too real and I was too concious for it to be a dream. I frantically look around to find anything other than the prompt before me and set my mind racing as to what the fuck is going on, but before I can finish my thoughts on what I should do trapped in this void I'm at the place I pretty much want to be the least out of all right now. Was I really gonna get forced to relive that damn night, where I fucked up everything.

No...I still don't know what's going on, but something is telling me that I'm here for a demonstration much more than a tutorial. Stat points, huh?. How the hell should I decide that without being able to look up the formulars as to which stat affects what in which way? That would have been my thought in every other instant of a stat point choice, but this was different...there were my stats. I feel proud after reading the first two lines, grimacing as I read on. Charisma, Constitution, Strength...all were shit. I couldn't really deny the validity of those numbers, but they sure hurt.

Cogs in my head started turning, Constitution and Strength weren't really important for me anyway. Sure they were nice to have, but not really needed. Charisma on the other hand...That is really something I would like to have. With a bit of uneasyness towards the result I might feel I tap the plus sign next to CHA and seeing that I didn't spontaniously explode I put 3 more into that just to see what would happen, After all it said I could repeat this, so why not experiment at the extreme end of an axis. Before I spend the last, curiousity gets the better of me though and I put it in LCK instead.

The sudden unfreeze startles me a bit, but still I'm really happy to see Hanna look at me like this even though I know how this went the last time. I still don't know why she was so unsure about that last question. Last time I just wrote it up to her general demeanor, maybe that was a mistake, going from the knowledge I have now compared to then. "Do you want me to leave? You sound a bit unsure." I hear myself jokingly tease with smile, somehow a lot more confident than usual and I can't help but wonder why that would have sounded so much more creepy when I imagine myself saying it.

[Lazy Kitsune]

CHA +4
LCK +1

Hoping To Become Quite The Casanova Are We? Want To Win People Over With Charm? It Takes More Than Just Having Raw Charisma To Get What You Want Though...

The prompt fades quickly, allowing you to respond to Hanna. She seems a little surprised by your response, and almost as impressed as you are that it didn't somehow come off as creepy. "Well, you know I like having you around..." she murmurs, looking off to the side as she brushes back some of her hair. Was she blushing? Or were her cheeks just rosy from the cold? "And I feel like we don't get to talk as much, lately, so it I like to savour it when we can. But its not like there'll be much here for you to do and I should probably get some rest..."

You see a message appear above her head as you speak to her, with an indicator moving up underneath it.

Relationship Increased: 92-94

Was your relationship with Hanna that high? As you gaze at the scale you see a tab open up. It takes a moment for you to realise that you're seeing Hanna's relationship ratings, although right now only two relationships are on display. Yours and her boyfriend's.

Josh - Relationship Rating: 78

You were higher than him! Why does she then seem to pick him over you at the end of this night? What were you missing?

Relationship Increased: 94-95

The tab... whatever it is... that's floating infront of your face seems to recognise your confusion and closes down, allowing you to realise that while you were reading the tab, your eyes happened to be trained on Hanna's own, apparently giving her a meaningful enough look to make her like you just a bit more. Lucky you. And apparently you were now charismatic enough to get people to like you just by staring at them the right way.

She opens her mouth to speak, but before she does the world freezes again.

Tutorial: Sheet Editor - You Have Been Granted The Unique Opportunity To Edit The Registered Characteristics Of Yourself And Others. This Is A Rare Opportunity Granted Only To A Minute Percent Of The Population. Your Ability To Modify Will Begin Limited And Often Require Meeting Certain Prerequisites Before Modifications Can Be Made. For Now, However, Enjoy Greater Liberty Of Modifications.

After the prompt vanishes, it is replaced by a character sheet, not too unlike your own. However this one belongs to Hanna. You notice you have been granted five points to apply to her... however another addition has been made to the sheet. A - button beside her stats along side the +. It seems you have the ability to remove stats as well as add them this time around.

Base Stats
INT: 7
WIS: 5
CHA: 4
CON: 1
STR: 1
DEX: 5
LCK: 3

[Tes]

I was about to repond when the second panel popped up and caught my focus. Much like I do in the current time, I wonder how she can like me that much and still not make any moves or yet respond positively to the signals I gave her. I though about it long and hard before and could only come up with the very dissatisfying answer that we both had send signals that the other didn't get and had been to scared to risk our friendship with a direct move.

Given that and the opportunity to edit her stats as well there are a few routes I could take. I don't know if I would want to do that to Hanna permanently, but decreasing her Intelligence a whole bunch would probably make her worry less. On the other hand I could probably archive a similar effect by increasing her Charisma and keep the mind of the girl I loved. Lastly she was always so fragile and cold, had problems with her blood sugar and so on...Maybe giving her a bit of Constitution would make her feel better and as anyone reading something about phsychology knows: We like the people we feel good around. For me the tipping point is, much like the last edit, that I can repeat this if I want to, sating my curiousity for a dumb Hanna then and trying for the best result now seemed like the better option. So I put 2 points into her Charisma and the remaining into Constitution.

Once again the stats vanish and I'm again looking into her beatiful eyes. "Oh, come on Hanna. You know that I will never be bored by spending time with you. If you would like that I would me more than happy to come in with you for old times sake." I reply, once again hearing words flow out of me that wouldn't normally make it out so calmly, eager to see how my changes might affect her.

[Lazy Kitsune]

Relationship Increased: 95-97

So close to hitting a score of 100. Surely that meant something special, right? She smiles once again at your comment, and you can tell she's definitely blushing now. While she was rarely on edge around you, she seemed to relax even more, conversation coming to her with greater ease. "Charmer. You always know what to say." No you don't, but it seems you do now. And it definitely felt good being noticed for it. She even reaches out and lightly pats a hand against your chest. There's nothing all that impressive there to feel, but the touch kept your attention on her - not like it was at risk of wondering anywhere else.

Still, a small boost to charisma isn't about to make her notably more flirtatious and her hand pulls away. A look of unease passes over her again. "I'd love to, but it's really getting late. Besides, we'll have plenty of time to hang out in the future. We could probably even meet up tomorrow if you want." she says with a shrug.

After a few more moments, she seems to reconsider, as if surprised by something. "Although I guess our little walk woke me up. Don't feel as tired as I did a few minutes ago. Maybe we could... stick something on Netflix for a bit. Just so that I don't end up pacing my room trying to get some sleep."

Get Invited Inside: Success. Reward - You Have Two More Points To Spend On Yourself and Two More Points To Spend On Hanna. You Now Have The Option To Modify Josh's Base Stats. Five Points Are Available To Spend

The world freezes once more to allow you to review the sheets now at your disposal. While you have five points to spend on Josh, the minus option is also available for him, just as it is for Hanna.

Max
Base Stats
INT: 7
WIS: 6
CHA: 7
CON: 1
STR: 2
DEX: 7
LCK: 7

Hanna
Base Stats
INT: 7
WIS: 5
CHA: 6
CON: 4
STR: 1
DEX: 5
LCK: 3

Josh
Base Stats
INT: 5
WIS: 3
CHA: 7
CON: 7
STR: 8
DEX: 4
LCK: 8

[Tes]

This was going much much better than last time and I begin to have quite a lot of fun with whatever this was. Then my excitement got amplified by the system also rewarding me. This really started to feel like a game, where I felt so comfortable in and always knew what my next steps should be effortlessly. I panicked a bit inside as she retreated back before but it seems like my plan came along quite nicely. Now I just needed to decide where to spend the two...wait Josh? Why should I edit him, how could he be of any effect right now? I don't remember her saying he was here tonight.

Once again I'm in the thinktank. What could I do that would hurt their relationship the most in the shortest amount of time. Sure taking his strength would probably reduce his superiourity complex long term, but right now I needed immediat effects if I wanted to get anywhere with Hanna while we are up there. I hover over the - button for his charisma thinking it was the clear choice, but then remember...what does Hanna much like I hate the most? Extremely dumb arrogant pricks. Josh sometimes risked that border but had at least a bit of intellect to keep but. What if...And so I reduce his intelligence to 1 taking off a charisma point just for good measure.

As for my own and Hannas points, I seemed to be going a good road, but that message saying I should diversify kept bugging me. What better to do than become a jack of all trades. Seeing as it was my lowest stat I raise my own Constitution by 2. It may come over to Hanna as me being more energetic now, which could help. Plus there was another motivation. If I was playing the long game and wanted to have fun with her tonight, I couldn't be out of breath after 5 minutes, right? For Hanna the thought process was easier, for her I kept going with the approach that seemed to work, putting one more stat in each.

The repeated freezing of time threatened to make me dizzy but I find myself growing accustomed faster than I would have thought, almost seamlessly picking up where we left off. "That sounds great. Any idea what we might wanna watch?" I ask for more than the simple reason of wanting to know what kind of genre she would want, as I too step towards her door now. No, Depending on how she answers I might pick up clues to her intentions, feeling out if netflix was really what she wanted to do from the enthusiasm she has for it or if there was something else behind it.

[Lazy Kitsune]

You felt yourself feel a little more lively, your vitality developing quite a bit with each point you fed into your Constitution. Even though it was only a relatively slight increase, you could feel the improvements instantly. Couple that with handicapping your competition, you felt rather confident right now. Hanna unlocks the door to her place, letting you in. She shares this place with a couple of her friends, although they were out right now, leaving the two of you alone. Though as you enter you can practically smell Josh, his scent ingrained in the building. He didn't live here, but he was clearly around enough to leave a lasting impression and you could spot some of his things scattered around the place. He didn't seem to be here right now, fortunately, but the fact he had seemed to mark his territory so thoroughly left you on edge.

"Um... I don't know. Just a comedy maybe. I've been recommended The Good Place by quite a few people, want to try that?" All in all you weren't sure what to read from that suggestion. It wasn't anything overtly romantic, something comfortable to watch with friends and partners alike. But who just invites someone to watch Netflix with them this late at night? "Would you like something to drink? I'm sure I've got something in the fridge. If not, well, there's always tap water."

A few moments later her phone starts ringing. Its Josh's ringtone. She mutters something under her breath before answering it, giving you an apologetic look as she does so. She goes off to have a brief conversation in private before returning. "So sorry... it seems Josh got a bit drunker than expected and somehow lost the keys to his place. He's not usually this air-headed..." She looks at you sadly before giving you a quick hug. "Rain check on the Netflix binge, OK? I've got to go make sure Josh has some place safe to get back to until he can get some replacement keys tomorrow."

The Sheets opened up in front of you once more, although time didn't freeze. You weren't rewarded with any more points to add to anyone, although you could remove as freely as you wanted to. Hanna was in the middle of leading you back out the door and wishing you a good night when another tab popped open.

Reset Tutorial / End Tutorial

Did you want to try and hastily fiddle with the sheets to somehow fix things, take a second try at everything or just let things end this way? At least Hanna wasn't mad at you right now.

[Tes]

I curse this idiot Josh. Being denied once by Hanna was hard enough. Now failing ever after getting some sort of super power somehow only made it worse. I can only sigh and sink my head as she informs me about the nature of the call. "I guess there's nothing to be done, right?" I begin taking off 1 of her newly aquired constitution that made her feel so energetic despite the time. "I was really looking forward to just cuddle up, watch something and talk like we used to." I go on taking another point.

I reciprocate her hug and trying to salvage the mess I offer "Do you need any help with Josh? If he's that drunk another helping hand might be good to play it save." and having hopefully given her enough of a down I begin taking off more points from Josh, mainly his luck and charisma that probably saved his relationship right now. Maybe if I stretched this out he would still say or do something that dumb that Hanna gets finally fed up with him like she was supposed to long ago. Though that will have to be quite a feat since he can chalk up most stuff to simply being drunk. Well it's not like getting this drunk again gets him any points with Hanna.

As I do so I watch closely for any signs of the replay option going away, not wanting to break off that chance yet. As I could still repeat everything I did before but change me tactics for Josh to see if that changes it for the better.

[Lazy Kitsune]

She starts to yawn and buries her face into your shoulder as you hug, sighing softly. "That would've been lovely right now..." she mumbles, tiredness clearly getting the better of her. Holding her like this, she felt so soft and warm in your arms... and you couldn't help but feel a slight thrill at being this close to her. Having drained her energy, you seem to have stalled Hanna's departure. You don't know what draining Josh's stats has accomplished just yet, but you can't imagine things are going well for him right now. His bad luck might just be good luck for you.

The reset tab disappears... although for some reason you know you can re-summon it if you need to. Hanna murmurs something about thanking you for offering to help, but your attention is drawn to her character sheet opening up some more.

You saw a list of secrets. Most of them were blurred out, censored automatically for some reason, however a couple were revealed to you.

I Used To Imagine Marrying Max. Sometimes I Think Its A Shame We Never Got Together, But I Appreciate Our Friendship Too Much And Have Learned To Move On.

I Love How Roughly Josh Treats Me In Bed. Why Does It Turn Me On So Much To Think About?

Beside both of these was the option to edit... it seemed like you were being given the chance to rewrite Hanna's personal secrets. Another option catches your eye. Memory Refresh. It seems to be a way to clear out here short term memory. You could make her forget all about even getting the call from Josh if you wanted to. Almost like a soft reset.

[Tes]

I get a bit less locked up in my head as things seem to move in the reight direction again. Maybe this was salvagable and it would be good practice to not just give up after such a minor upset. After all thes system said I have more free options right now, which means I need to adapt and will not always be able to rely on simply resetting the scene.

Just as I think about that another door is opened for me. Both of her secret are somewhat known to me. I knew that she also had loved me and imagining us marrying instead of just acting on it seems just like her. And back when skype was still a thing we had talked a lot and one night this site called bdsmtest.org came up. From that day one I knew that she was a sub, fitting perfectly to my dominant results. It was a shame, really.

I see the edit button and can't help but wonder just how drastically I could edit those with a still positive result. Which is why I try to bend them to my intentions rather than change. Going with:

I Used To Imagine Marrying Max. I Think Its A Shame We Never Got Together.

I Love How Roughly Josh Treats Me In Bed. Why Does It Turn Me On So Much To Think About What Max Would Do In His Place?

I hold back on the a memory wipe just yet. Still trying to learn to use the powers effectively instead of nuking my way through. The system was a tool given to me and I want to hone my skill using it. I get the same sick feeling in my stomach as the first time I lived through this night, but this time would be different. "You know...I would never undermine your feelings in any way...But why exactly to you settle with the shit Josh keeps doing." I ask with a concerned voice, easing into opening up the prospect of having me instead which I just enforced in her mind.

[Lazy Kitsune]

Her breath catches for a moment as you alter her desires to suit your own. You can feel her chest rising and falling a little faster against yours as her breath quickens. A pop up above her head notifies you that her status just went from Comfortable to Aroused. A follow up update let you know that her relationship score increased even further with you. 99, just one away from the full one hundred. Her arms sink into holding onto you, seemingly forgetting that this was intended to be a brief hug. You swear you can even hear a shuddered moan pass her lips before she lifts her head up from your shoulder to gaze into your eyes. The look in her eyes... is almost sheepish. She looks cornered, and helpless before you... but seems to be almost liking it.

Then she frowns and takes a step back, ending the hug. "What?" she glares at you, crossing her arms. "You... People make mistakes, OK. That's not shit to put up with... shit to put up with is when people are judgemental about stuff that isn't there business." Her status changes to irritated. You seem to have pushed too far already. Abundant Charisma can't seem to make up for saying the wrong thing... At least, not at the level of Charisma you have. Plus Hanna is smart, smart enough to see what you're getting at before you get there, even if she won't address it right away. "If you don't like Josh, keep that to yourself. He's there for me... and right now I've really got to go be there for him." She storms passed you and the reset button appears, giving you a chance to do-over if you wanted.

Relationship Decrease: 99-80

Ouch.

[Tes]

Sooooo damn close. I could feel it, the way she looked at me, everything I ever wanted...slipping away right as I had it. I was sorely disappointed but knew that I could and wanted to try again. But then it hit me, this was just a image of the real world. No matter how much closer I would get in here, it would change nothing about the outside Hanna. Maybe the system would be so cuel to end the tutorial just when I have her. I couldn't just obsess with this when in actuality I could change my life at this exact moment.

Begrudgingly I end the tutorial wondering just how much my life will change from now on if this was just a taste of what I will be able to do some day. the only thing I did know was that I would grind the living hell out of whatever system this was and get back the real Hanna and not just her illusion.

[Lazy Kitsune]

Interesting. I Would Have Expected You To Keep Going Until You Got To Try Her. I Still Had So Much More To Show You...

The pop up doesn't explain further, nor does it give you a chance to change your choice as you see Hanna walking off into the abyss before the darkness consumes the world around you as well. Moments later you're waking up in bed. There's that faint whirring noise again, although it sounds smoother this time, no longer struggling to run, before it fades to silence.

You are presented with your character sheet in front of you, seemingly as it was before you were able to modify it in the tutorial. You notice a section that flashes to catch your attention. "Skills". After taking a moment to familiarise yourself with these, another message pops up.

You Will Find It More Difficult To Modify Sheets Outside Of The Tutorial. In The Beginning You Will Have To Complete Certain Tasks to gain Stat Points That You Can Use To Boost Your Own Stats. You Must Also Earn Modification Points Which You Can Use To Add To Or Detract From The Stats Of Others. The More You Modify Sheets, The More Your Skill To Do So Will Increase And Modifications Will Become More Successful.

Current Objectives

Get Ready For The Day - Make Yourself Presentable And Prepared For The Day. An Easy One To Start You Off. Reward: 5 Modification Points

Helping Hand - Increase Another Person's Stats. Reward: 1 Stat Point

Less Is More - Decrease Another Person's Stats. Reward: 50% Training Boost To Next Level Of Sheet Editor

A New Friend - Raise Someone's Relationship Rating From 10% Or Below to 30% Reward: 5 Modification Points And 1 Stat Point

[Tes]

And there it was. One simple response and the letter 'I'. So it was someone that gave him this. Even trying to understand who exactly might be able to do something like this breaking many assumptions I thought of as facts. I feel quite dumb for doing this, but at this point it was my best shot at communication. Trying to find out if they hear me I sit up in my bed and murmur "And then? Go back to not having her. No! I've had enough of that night. Why did you do this? Why me?"

I never was someone who talked to themselves and it felt weird. As I read through the information presented to me my brain goes into the usual pattern of prioritazing quests, but I still had so many questions and really hoped that entity was talkitive to say the least. Get ready, huh . It would be an easy start to test how this was going to work. Eager to do so I get out of bed, rub the sand out of my eyes and make my way to the bathroom to start getting presentable as the system put it.

[Lazy Kitsune]

No more messages appeared which seemed to be directly conversing with you, although as you went through your morning routine you noticed a bar appear, signifying your progress through your first 'quest'. As if recognising itself as visual clutter, the bar disappeared shortly after making you aware of itself, however you still seemed to have some general awareness of its progress in the back of your mind. Sure enough, once you were ready you heard that whirring noise again and another pop up appeared.

Congratulations - You Have Gained 5 Modification Points For Completing Your First Quest. You Can Use These To Modify The Base Stats Of People In Your Line Of Sight. Each Modification Point Can Be Spent To Detract Or Add To The Stats Of Others. Try It Out! Practice Using Them To Discover Greater Uses For Modification Points.

This announcement seemed much more generic than some of the earlier ones that you experienced during the 'Tutorial'. Maybe sometimes you were receiving automated feedback and other times... someone was watching and communicating with you directly. Still, you felt you had renewed vigour for going about your day. Being able to practice these abilities might actually just be the nudge you need to try to socialise more. Maybe you could meet up with friends to see what options become available to you, or maybe try and get in touch with someone you dislike and take them down a peg? Or maybe its best to practice on strangers? Or did you even need to practice that much, maybe just having this power was all you needed to finally get Hanna?

[Tes]

All good. That was the first task. All the others were now unlocked, but one particular had peaked my interest. If I wanted to be as efficient as possible 'Less is More' would surely be the way to start off, collecting the boost as soon as possible. As luck would have it a certain lecture awaited me at Uni...with a certain professor that could really take a hit for once. Suddenly I was more motivated to attend class than I ever was. Even though I understood very little about the situation I was in I could very well see the capabilities it offered and the fun to be had.

Equipped with my notepad and writing utensils I go on my way to campus, spending my time with looking at the sheets of strangers, testing the range I had to use my skill on them and how it worked in general. In my mind I argue with myself about how I should responsively save up points to complete as many tasks as possible. But that devil on my shoulder just keeps telling me to take as much of her Intelligence as I can when I have the opportunity, which was very tempting indeed.

[Lazy Kitsune]

Heading into campus, you're able to use the journey as a good exercise to figure out the exact range of your abilities at the moment. You seem to be able to open up these profiles of people as soon as you were close enough to make out the details of their face. Even when the sheet wasn't open, you could see their name and current mood being represented above their head if you focused on them. With the sheets of strangers open you could see their base stats, a brief description of their personality and even some general information about their background and profession. You notice this information is more detailed when you spot people you recognise once you're on campus, so familiarity somehow affects how much you can find out about someone. Occasionally you spot someone you know well enough to recognise their skills, although it doesn't seem like you can access that section beyond viewing it and at no point do you see anyone's secrets the same way you could with Hanna during the tutorial. Everyone you see seems to have some Relationship Rating with you. Most lie around 0, with those with slightly more positive or negative dispositions leaning in either direction regardless of whether or not they've actually spoken to you before. People you're vaguely familiar with seem to drift around 5 or 10.

And then there's Professor Straus with a rating of -70. You were in a Master's course and these particular lectures only had a relatively small group attending. This was mostly because of how high level it was, but you strongly suspected that students were actively avoiding anything involving Straus. Fortunately for you, it meant you weren't going to have any trouble sitting close enough to be able to use your abilities on her. Now it was just a matter of deciding what to do with her... Hold up... The interface seems to be trying to highlight one of her skills in particular for you. Now that is unexpected...

Name: Irma Straus
Gender: Female
Base Stats
INT: 8
WIS: 5
CHA: 1
CON: 3
STR: 2
DEX: 8
LCK: 5

Skills
Pole Dancing (lvl 5)

[Tes]

I pick up every useful deatail I can, perfecting the model of the system in my head with every new piece. That mood indicator in particular will be very useful I think. On my way to the small seminar room I briefly greet the people I know noticing the range these aquaintances live in being perfest for my next task, even though it was the one I dreaded the most...'A New Friend'. I knew that I really needed to work on my social skills, but being told that from a supernatural gaming system was something else to get down.

Nonetheless I focus on the task at hand sitting close to the whiteboard to make sure the skill would work. Professor Straus came in and rolled her eyes seeing me sitting so close to her, but I only smiled, knowing that for a change I had the potential to ruin her life and not the other way around. I have to stop myself from laughing out loud as the lecture begins and I see her special talent, my hand shooting to my mouth to cover the bit I couldn't hold.

Definitely a thing to remember about her, but I had a plan at hand and so I try to deduce one point from her intelligence, seeing what that would do and more importantly if it would even work.

[Lazy Kitsune]

The haughty Professor sets about her lecture with very little set up time to allow the students to get comfortable. Jumping right into the topic, its almost like she's trying to show off how much smarter she thinks she is than everyone else, rather than actually teach. With all that in mind, you can't help but feel a sense of wicked glee as she stalls mid ramble the moment you pluck a piece of her intelligence away. She furrows her brow and quickly scans her notes, but then is able to continue on as before. It seems loosing the one point of intelligence isn't enough to throw her off just yet, although you notice her going through her points slightly slower than she normally does.

You're rewarded with another congratulations, letting you know your reward has been activated. You can feel yourself... understanding the system, a little more easily. You think if you practice adding and deducting points a little more you might just be able to do more with the points you have at your disposal.

Then another pop up appears. A continuation of the quest you just finished, it would seem.

Less Is More II - Bring A Stat Below 5 points. Reward: 5 Modifier Points And A Unique Unlock Based On Stat Affected

[Tes]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Prefessor Straus (in her younger years)

Expectedly one point doesn't make a huge difference, but this was only the beginning and the set up for my next quest was nearly perfect, playing right into me not wanting to stop messing with her just now. Though that unique unlock changed the plan a bit. If that unlock had something to do with the stat I deduced I had to think about it. Then her luck came back into my view. A unique unlock around luck could only be fun and hers was at the perfect level of five.

So from my remaining 4 points I use another one on her, not really listening to the lecture for a change but completely captivated by the system, excited to see what unlock I might get. And making her a bit more unlucky seemed like the closest equivalent to karma for me. Making her a complete idiot could wait until I can actually make use of that and not just get her into a crisis.