Jordan sprawled across his couch and pulled out his phone. The System interface glowed soft gold against his face.

💝 CASHBACK SYSTEM

ACTIVE CONNECTIONS

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Chloe Kim 📍

Chemistry: 20% ▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱

Return Rate: 0.4x

Last interaction: 14 minutes ago

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[EMPTY SLOT]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Unlock: Reach 75% chemistry

Current progress: 20/75

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

ACCOUNT SUMMARY

Balance: $1,410.29

Quest Tickets: 18 🎫

Active Quests: 1

Twenty percent. Jordan stared at the number. She’d gone from eight percent at lunch to twenty percent after he sat on her couch and made awkward conversation for fifteen minutes.

That’s a twelve percent jump in like six hours.

Jordan opened his quest screen.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

DAILY QUEST: Path to Becoming Adonis

(System Note: Initial parameters adjusted to prevent user mortality.)

OBJECTIVES:

[✓] Physical: Log 90 minutes of physical activity

[✓] Hygiene Level 1: Shower using actual soap.

[✓] Hygiene Level 2: Brush teeth for a full two minutes. Floss.

[✓] Grooming: Apply basic skincare (Wash. Moisturize. Sunscreen.)

[✗] Social: Speak to three different beauties for two minutes each. (Requirement: Maintain eye contact. Do not apologize for existing. Do not offer to buy them anything.)

PROGRESS: 2/3 beauties contacted

⚠️ RESTRICTION ACTIVE: Axe Body Spray is permanently banned.

REWARDS:

Full Stamina Recovery

3 Quest Tickets 🎟️

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Jordan sat up. His body felt fine now. No soreness. No exhaustion. Like the five hours of cleaning had never happened.

Weird.

He checked the time. Six twenty-three PM. Most restaurants would be serving dinner crowds. Coffee shops would be closing soon. Campus dining halls were probably packed with students who actually attended their classes.

I need to talk to one more girl for two minutes without buying her anything.

Jordan’s brain immediately supplied an image of Chloe sitting on her couch with her knees pulled up, looking at him like he was a puzzle she couldn’t figure out.

Nope. Absolutely not. She literally just told you to pretend she doesn’t exist.

He could knock on her door again. Ask to borrow eggs this time. Mix up the excuse.

Jordan slapped himself across the face.

The sting cleared his head.

Stop it. She’s an OnlyFans girl. You paid three thousand dollars to sit across from her for forty-five minutes. You’ve spent two thousand more over six months watching her take her clothes off on the internet. Do not get attached to a transaction.

His cheek throbbed.

Jordan stood up and walked to the bathroom. His reflection looked back at him with a red handprint on his left cheek and sixty dollars worth of skincare making his face glow under the overhead light.

You’re pathetic.

No. Old Jordan was pathetic. New Jordan just needs to talk to one more girl and then he gets three quest tickets and full stamina recovery, whatever that means.

Jordan left the bathroom and grabbed his keys. He needed to go somewhere public. Somewhere with people. Somewhere that wasn’t Unit 403.

His phone buzzed.

Mom: Honey, your father told me you called! I’m so proud of you! Can we FaceTime tonight? I want to see your face!

Jordan typed back quickly.

Jordan: Can we do it tomorrow? I’m really tired tonight. Long day.

Mom: Of course sweetie! Get some rest. Love you so much!

Jordan pocketed his phone and headed for the door.

The hallway outside his apartment was empty. Unit 403’s door stayed closed. No sounds came from inside.

Good.

Jordan took the stairs down to the lobby because waiting for the elevator felt like tempting fate. The building’s main entrance opened onto the street where his Honda Civic sat parked three spaces down from another white Civic that definitely belonged to Chloe.

He drove without a destination. Just away from the building. Away from the temptation to knock on that door again and say something stupid like "Hey, I know you told me to leave you alone, but I really enjoyed talking to you and also your apartment smells like vanilla and I can’t stop thinking about the freckles on your nose."

Jordan merged onto Pacific Coast Highway and let the traffic carry him north. Streetlights flickered on as the sun dropped toward the ocean. His gas tank read half full. He had fourteen hundred dollars in his account. Three quest tickets wouldn’t be earned until he completed this social objective.

A Target appeared on his right. Jordan pulled into the parking lot and killed the engine.

Target. Full of people. Full of employees. Probably full of college girls buying snacks and cheap furniture for their dorms.

He walked through the automatic doors into bright fluorescent lighting and the smell of popcorn from the in-store Starbucks. The store buzzed with activity. Families pushing carts. Couples browsing electronics. A group of teenage girls giggling near the makeup section.

Jordan headed toward the back of the store where fewer people congregated. He passed through home goods, then sporting goods, then found himself in the book section staring at a wall of bestsellers he’d never read.

A voice spoke behind him. "Can I help you find something?"

Jordan turned.

A girl about his age stood there wearing a red Target vest over a white shirt. Her name tag read "Maya." Dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. Brown eyes behind black-framed glasses. Average height. Cute in that approachable way that made her easy to talk to.

Perfect.

"Yeah, actually," Jordan said. "I’m looking for a book."

Maya smiled. "You’re in the right section."

"No, I mean like a specific book. For a class."

"Which class?"

Jordan’s brain scrambled. What classes did he even take?

Math 31B. Econ 2. Management 1A. Sociology 1.

"Sociology," Jordan said. "We’re supposed to read something about social structures."

Maya tilted her head. "Do you remember the author?"

"Not really. My professor just mentioned it in passing and I forgot to write it down."

"What’s the professor’s name?"

"Delgado."

Maya pulled out her phone and tapped the screen a few times. "Professor Delgado teaches at Pacific Crest, right?"

"Yeah. You go there?"

"No. Too expensive. I go to community college and work here part-time." Maya scrolled through her phone. "Let me check the syllabus online. Sometimes professors post them publicly."

She moved closer so Jordan could see her screen. She smelled like coffee and something floral. Probably lotion from the beauty section.

Jordan glanced at her profile. Nice jawline. Clear skin. The glasses worked for her.

Stop it. You’re here to complete a quest, not rate every girl you meet.

Maya’s eyebrows pulled together. "I’m not seeing anything. Are you sure it was Delgado?"

"Pretty sure."

"What’s your major?"

"Business Econ."

"Then why are you taking Sociology?"

"General education requirement."

Maya nodded. "That makes sense. Most of those classes assign pretty generic textbooks though. You could probably find it in your campus bookstore."

"Yeah, probably."

Silence fell between them. Maya looked at Jordan expectantly. Jordan looked back.

Say something. Two minutes. You need two minutes of conversation.

"So you work here full-time?" Jordan asked.

"Part-time. Twenty hours a week. I’m trying to save money for when I transfer to a four-year."

"Where do you want to transfer?"

"Maybe Pacific Crest if I can get enough financial aid. Maybe Cal State Long Beach if I can’t."

"Pacific Crest is cool. Expensive, but cool."

Maya laughed. "That’s what everyone says. Cool but expensive."

"It’s basically Disneyland for rich kids who want to pretend they’re getting an education."

"Do you like it there?"

Jordan considered the question. Did he like Pacific Crest? He’d spent most of his first semester hiding in his apartment and throwing money at a girl who didn’t know he existed. He’d skipped half his classes. He’d eaten nothing but delivery food and energy drinks.

"I don’t know yet," Jordan said honestly. "I kind of wasted my first semester."

"Bad grades?"

"Bad everything."

Maya studied his face. "You seem like you’re doing okay now."

"Today’s the first day I’ve done anything productive in like two weeks."

"What changed?"

Jordan thought about the System. About the golden interface tracking his every move. About Chloe sitting on her couch telling him not to be weird. About his father’s voice on the phone saying he was proud.

"New year, new me." Jordan said.

Maya smiled. "That’s a good reason."

Jordan checked his phone. Six forty-one PM. He’d been talking to Maya for three minutes and twelve seconds.

Quest complete.

"Thanks for the help," Jordan said. "I’ll check the bookstore."

"No problem. Good luck with your classes."

Jordan walked away before his brain could supply any more honest answers to personal questions. He headed for the exit, weaving between carts and displays.

His phone buzzed the moment he stepped outside.

🎊 DAILY QUEST COMPLETED 🎊

"Path to Becoming Adonis"

All objectives complete.

Reward: 3 Quest Tickets

Full Stamina Recovery applied.

Total Tickets: 21 🎟️

[Gacha available: Spend 10 tickets?]

Jordan stopped walking. The parking lot stretched out in front of him. His Civic sat thirty feet away under a streetlight.

Full stamina recovery.

He felt good. Better than good. Like his body had reset to factory settings. No aches. No tiredness. Just clean energy running through every muscle.

The System actually works.

Jordan climbed into his car and sat there staring at his phone. Twenty-one quest tickets. The gacha system cost ten tickets for a bronze pull.

He opened the gacha interface.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🎰 GACHA SYSTEM

TICKET COSTS:

Bronze Gacha: 10 tickets

Silver Gacha: 50 tickets

Gold Gacha: 100 tickets

Platinum Gacha: 250 tickets (milestone rewards only)

AVAILABLE PULLS:

Bronze: 2 available

Silver: 0 available

Gold: 0 available

Platinum: 0 available

CURRENT BALANCE: 21 TICKETS

[Pull Bronze Gacha?]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Jordan’s finger hovered over the button.

What if it’s something useless? What if I waste ten tickets on like a motivational poster or a coupon for Subway?

But what if it’s something good?

He pressed the button.

The screen exploded with light. Gold particles swirled across the display forming a spinning wheel with various icons. The wheel spun faster and faster, blurring the images together until Jordan couldn’t tell what any of them were.

The wheel slowed.

Slowed.

Stopped.

Holy shit! Is this really a bronze gacha pull?

===

[A/N:]

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☜(⌒▽⌒)☞