Aiden had just woken up with a refreshed yawn when he noticed the general gloominess of the day.
Despite his system pinging in his mind, he ignored it, a frown forming on his features.
Tossing aside his covers and getting off his bed, he walked over to the window and peeked his head out, his eyes scrutinizing the clouds above.
’Of all the days for a downcast weather...’ he inwardly remarked with a slightly worried expression.
Though Aiden wasn’t all gung-ho about Homecoming like most of his peers and the students at Silverlake High were, he still had a promise to fulfill to a certain lady.
Then there were the annual hijinks of his buddies pulling off their wackiest moves on the dance floor.
Something the old Aiden typically tended to avoid all together for the fear of embarrassing himself. He was pretty shit at dancing after all.
Now though, he honestly didn’t give two hoots. He just wanted to have a good time with the gang.
Still,
"Nature can’t be beat. Let’s hope it subsides before evening." he let out a resigned mutter.
Casually, he backtracked, moved to the middle of his room and seamlessly dropped into his sets, starting with his push-ups.
Just like that, Aiden began going through his daily routines for the day.
Two hours later, he had knocked the other daily quests out and proceeded to invest his time into his side hustles preceding the time he’d have to prepare to leave for school.
First, he pulled up last week’s post to see how it was doing.
-
Ramen_Destroyer: Blood transfusion, dattebayo! Lol!
Ghost_OF_Sparta: Boy! Pick, trait, NOW.
TheHonoredOne: ’Nah. He’d assimilate.’ Now give that rock his new trait!
MustProtecc: I’ll bite anybody who picks anything other option C!
Dommy_Mommy: 25th Hero? So, there are twenty-four people stronger than him? Hohoho! This is getting interesting, young padawan! Give me more lore!
TheThing: Trait! Trait! Trait!
LordOfTheRNG: Kirby! You’ve got some serious competition! Rock’s coming for ya!
RockLee: Training is over! Time to steamroll everyone in this verse!
Geo_Archon: As a geologist... this is scientifically impossible. As a reader... LET HIM COOK!
-
Seeing that option C was the most voted option, Aiden promptly began working on the next post, an amused smile touching his lips after he’d read a bit of the comments.
-
TUES YOUR ADVENTURE
Your scattered fragments pull together rapidly, blood weaving through them until...
FLASH!
A wave of pale emerald light erupts from your body before quickly fading.
Silence follows for brief while.
Then, sentience sweeps and crashes though you!
-------------------------------
{SYSTEM UPDATE}
Evolution complete!
Race Updated!
◈ Rolling Stone
Some rocks are destined to gather moss. Others roam the earth.
-
Sense, Vibration Detectionhas evolved!
◈ Resonance Detection (Lv. 2)
You can now distinguish living beings, structures and lingering energy through vibrations alone.
-
New Trait Acquired!
◈ Echo Assimilation
The earth remembers. As do you.
Effect: By assimilating compatible biological material or residual energy, you may inherit fragments of memories, traits and abilities.
-
Assimilation Successful.
Memory Fragments Obtained.
Ability Acquired.
◈ Solar Burst (Lv. 1)
Effect: Convert stored energy into a concentrated pulse of destructive solar beams.
Current Output: Negligible.
-------------------------------
You have now evolved, and for the first time, you feel some sense of balance, weight, and momentum.
You’re still incapable of walking, clearly.
Thankfully, you don’t need to. Rolling works just fine.
More than that,
Images not of your own, begin flashing through your mind.
A man laughing as cameras flash around him. A ranking screen.
#25: SOLARIS.
Children cheering. A promise spoken to all.
’No matter what happens... I’ll always come back.’
The memories shift violently.
A city in flames. A towering figure suspended above the skyline.
Black armor, a crimson visor, and a deeply unsettling voice grating against the ears.
’Heroes exist because people fear consequences.’
Then, one final image flickers through your mind.
The villain flying away whilst carrying the unconscious hero towards the desert.
The memories fade and you are alone once more.
The wind rolls gently across your newly rounded, majestically gleaming body.
Now, with your very first taste of sentience...
...what do you choose to do with it?
└ A] Roll to the desert to seek revenge!
└ B] Ignore the memories and explore your surroundings.
└ C] Roll towards the distant city.
-
Reviewing the post once more, Aiden nodded to himself as he archived it for the upcoming Tuesday.
Just before he left the app though, he branched to check the total follower count he’d accumulated.
"Twelve thousand plus in total now. Not bad." he muttered to himself with a proud smile, realizing he’d gained an extra two thousand plus followers in four days.
’At this rate, twenty to thirty thousand before the end of the month shouldn’t be a pipe dream...’ Aiden mused to himself as he exited the app.
At the same time, the youth realized that he’d soon need to begin marketing the game he and the gang were building, even if it was going to be a few tidbits here and there.
More than that, Aiden felt the need to double down on acquiring that {Programming} skill as soon as possible.
And though he could easily buy it from the shop now given all the LPs he’d accumulated over this week, he didn’t want to just brush his efforts thus far aside.
Besides, he was actually enjoying the entire process of working towards learning the new skill on his own so he felt an even stronger need to earn it on his own.
Simply put, Aiden wanted and was enjoying the sense of fulfilment that came with doggedly working towards a goal solely of his own and independent of the system... for the most part, anyway.
For now, though, he’d have to place aside the urge to immediately open up his CodeRPG.dev profile and continue grinding away at it.
Instead, he navigated over to his gig site to check if he had any new orders.
Seeing the single order on it, he promptly replied to the customer, his fingers drumming gently on the table as he awaited a response.
A minute later, a favorable reply came and Aiden adjusted in his chair and it closer to the desk a bit.
Shifting into asking said customer the specifics of what she wanted, both parties eventually sorted it out.
Interlocking his palms and stretching out, Aiden’s lips curled into a thin smile as he proceeded to begin working on the commission.
Afterall, he still had to keep the Benjamins rolling in.
...
...
...
Late afternoon came rather quickly.
By then, the weather seemed to have quit with the sullenness, the skies clear, and the warm, golden sun peeking from behind and faintly highlighting the linings of the clouds in a silver hue.
At the moment, Aiden was stepping out of the bathroom, his towel wrapped around his waist and his hair damp and matted against his forehead.
Casually, he walked over and peeked his head out the windows to asses the weather for the umpteenth time today.
"Perfect--" he remarked... only to stop himself midway as he said to himself with a light smile on his lips whilst stepping away from the window;
"Best not set up any red flags, Aiden."
Drying up properly a few seconds after, he simply began dressing up for the Homecoming.
Soon enough, Aiden was fitted in the sleek navy-blue suit, the outfit neatly pressed against and hugging his body like a second skin.
Accentuating the fit was a sleek wristwatch on his left wrist and a pair of polished, vintage-brown Chelsea boots.
Stretching out his joints in an effort to ensure it wasn’t too tight in any areas he may have missed before, Aiden soon nodded to himself in satisfaction.
Walking over to the mirror, and assessing himself one last time, he snapped his fingers at himself with a charming grin.
Chuckling a moment after, Aiden then casually pulled up his system.
There were a couple things he needed to do.
-
[Aiden North] – Life Points – [6.33]
⸢Stats
› Mind — B-
› Strength — E+
› Stamina — D
› Agility — E-
› Charm — B-
⸢Skills
› {Type Designing - A}, {Digital Illustration - I}, {Drawing - I}, {Cooking - I}, {Brewing - I}, {Singing - I}, {Dancing - N}, {Writing - N}, {Lettering - I}.
⸢Shop
› Browse Catalogue.
⸢Daily Quests
› {Expand}
⸢Exclusive Quests
› {Expand}
⸢Time-limited Quests
› {Expand}
-
⸢FAQ⸥
-
Staring at the panel for a brief moment, Aiden invested his LPs into two things.
-
{Dancing - I}
└ Upgrade to {Intermediate} using 1 LP?
-
Naturally, Aiden accepted, a brief sense of wooziness washing over him for a little over four seconds.
’I’ll never get used to that,’ Aiden inwardly remarked as he swayed a bit, his senses sharply returning a moment after.
One might have assumed Aiden had upgraded the skill solely because he didn’t want to embarrass himself while dancing with his buddies... but that was far from it.
Rather, he was more concerned about stepping on Clarissa’s foot because he sucked at it.
Given how much prep the lady typically tended to put into her fits for homecoming, he didn’t want to be the guy that ended up tripping her over on the dance floor, or worse still, ripping her attire by mistake.
To him, it was just a friendly courtesy that he did right by her... especially since she was always a strong contender to win Hoco Queen.
As for the other thing...
-
[Aiden North] – Life Points – [4.33]
⸢Stats
› Mind — B-
› Strength — E+
› Stamina — D
› Agility — E-
› Charm — B- » B
-
... ’cause well, why not?
There was never any harm in wanting to look more handsome.
Flashing himself yet another charming grin in the mirror, Aiden didn’t even bother to assess the differences the upgrades had made to his features as he walked out the room.
Just like that, he was on his way to school for Homecoming.
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