A quiet chill ran over his spine as his body gave a slight shiver. Staring over the simple sentence on the screen, he felt his heart skip a beat. Panic had begun to overwhelm him, as that looming sense of fear was finally noticed. His mind couldn't help but turn now.
However, no matter how fast it revved its gear, only one thing kept repeating within his mind; 'How did it know?'
He could understand his info, it might've used face recognition to search the internet to find info on him. And maybe he could've even passed off the quest as voice recognition. However, since the beginning when he saw his naked body on the screen, the already thin line of excuses could just about snap at any time. And that's what happened with the quest prompt.
Since the app knew so much about him already, did it know about his family too? Did it know where he lives? It even knew his skills, so anything's possible right?
Just as Connor's paranoia was about to hit its peak, the sharp voice sounded out once more, however this time it carried a slight tone of concern.
"Connor? Why are you just standing there? Is something the matter?" His mom stared at him from the kitchen. He had been frozen to a standstill for a few minutes now.
"Uh... yeah, I'm fine." Connor nervously pocketed his phone and headed for the garage. He needed to know what'll happen next.
Entering the garage, only a lone figure stood by the trunk of the car. It was his dad, and it seems his siblings already ran off without helping any further. But looking into the trunk, there wasn't that much left to carry.
"What happened to you?" His dad's deep voice suddenly sounded out from beside him.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Connor replied as he proceeded to grab hold of several bags with each hand.
His hand lightly pinched the back of his shirt, and from that did he now realize that his back was totally drenched!
Staring at his pale face, Connor's dad grew skeptical; "Did you have a panic attack?"
"Uh, no? I was just doing some exercises earlier." Connor awkwardly laughed as he took the bags back into the kitchen.
After a few more trips into the garage, all of the groceries were put into the kitchen, and Connor's mom began organizing.
"Go take a shower. We ordered take out." His dad passed by him as he headed over to the kitchen to help his wife.
"Kay" Connor sounded out, however, all of his attention was on his phone right now. It had vibrated just now, and pressing on the quest tab, he noticed that the sentence had turned green. Not only that, beside the sentence, a green [Claim] button popped up.
Ding!
[You have received!]
+1 Diligence Point
+1 Skill Fragment
+1 Lottery Ticket Fragment
Heading upstairs to his room, Connor examined his rewards. He went into his inventory, and it showed a bar of grids, as well as his character with several boxes to its side. Two of those had the clothes he was wearing now.
The two tickets showed up in his inventory, as well as his smartphone. He tried to find where the diligence point went, and he found a 1 with a DP coin beside it at the top right corner of his screen.
Curious, Connor clicked on the shop tab. However, he felt a bit disappointed when he saw the message: [The Shop will be available soon after Update v.1.2 commences!].
After seeing this, did Connor finally relaxed. This really was just a super advanced augmented reality game, and he admits that it's pretty enjoyable. It might've been sketchy as to how it gathered all of his information, but the app was trending on the appstore so it must be secure.
Suddenly, a buzz sounded from his phone. Another quest had appeared!
[Quest: Take a shower!]
'It even makes this a quest? What does it take me for?! I'm not that lazy!' Connor smiled wryly, as he looked at the time. It was already 5:56 P.M.
He headed for the shower, but he suddenly thought of something. He held the power button of his smartphone for several seconds, and swiped to shut it off. Then he took some electric tape, and covered the camera, as well as the mics. And to be extra safe, he stuffed his phone deep into his mattress. Only then did he go and take a shower.
Connor didn't take long, and was out within ten minutes. He put on some some sweatpants and a comfortable shirt, before reaching for his phone. Taking off all the tape, he headed downstairs as he heard his mom shouting for everyone to come and eat.
Along the way, he saw his two brothers, and his sister coming out of their rooms. Even though he's the eldest, he wasn't acknowledged by his siblings much, so even if he threw a "Hey!", he'll only get a "Oh...hey." He doesn't blame them though, he wasn't that interesting to hang out with, and he doesn't even have a proper 'elder brother aura', he was just very lazy.
As everyone took their seat, chatter and the opening of their take outs sounded from the dinner table. Connor opened his, and the delicious whiff of chicken katsu and teriyaki made him salivate. Soon, the sound of munching was heard.
There wasn't much conversation at the table, well, none that had anything to do with Connor. The most talkative ones where his two little brothers, they just went on about their day at soccer practice.
Olivia, his sister, was different. She only talked when she was asked how her day was, to which she proceeded to talk about the happenings in her club within a few sentences.
"How about you Connor? How was your day?" His mom stared at him as she smiled.
"It was fine, not much happened today." Connor said as he stuffed some chicken and rice into his mouth.
"You haven't found any club to join yet?" His mom gave a slight frown.
"No, not yet." His head was down, as he picked at his food.
Suddenly within the awkward silence, Olivia's voice calmly sounded out.
"I heard that there was a really good Archery Club at our Highschool. They're still accepting members."
As Connor heard this, he gave a glare at his sister, whose eyes seemed to be radiating with a smile.
"Oh? Why didn't you tell me about this?" His mom looked at him with a side glance.
"Well, I didn't know there was an archery club there." Connor knew what was coming next, and he felt butterflies beginning to swarm in his stomach. He felt like puking.
"Connor, I'm not forcing you to join the archery club, but just give it a try. You can quit at anytime, alright?" His mom understood his reluctance, however, it's already been a long time since that incident happened, he needed to move forward.
Connor looked down at his phone screen which buzzed suddenly. There was another string of words.
[Quest: Join the Archery Club]
His head looked up towards his mom, who stared back at him with concerned eyes. He lowered his head back to his food, and before he scooped another bite, he sounded out a helpless grumble.
"Alright."