Two hours had passed until Rhys and Kane finally managed to clean out the apartment. For such a small apartment, what a huge mess there was!
Putting the last load of laundry in the dryer, Rhys dusted off his shirt and made his way to the sink, to wash off his hands, with extra soap. "Now that it's finished, how do I evolve my skills?" he questioned.
Kane, looking defeated and out of breath, fell onto Rhys, cursing him. "I'll tell you once," he huffed, struggling, "you finish eating."
"Do I really need to eat if I'm a host now? I thought you said I can't die, so is it necessary? I don't want to look inside the fridge." Rhys questioned, only to get yelled at.
"I want to be the best system! How dare you! I just had to be stuck with you, a fool! I told you that you'd also feel the affects, you just can't physically die! Stupid!" Kane was tired of Rhys. Earlier he felt pity for him, but now all he felt was anger, how dare Rhys use him to clean!
Rolling his eyes, Rhys dried off his hands and made his way to the kitchen. "You're so dramatic, I wonder why you can't be the host instead, your acting is so great." he teased, opening up the fridge.
Before Kane could say anything else, Rhys let out a shriek. "There's almost nothing but leftovers and microwave dinners!" He didn't have any expectations for dinner, but this was seriously cruel!
Checking the time on the clock in the living room, it'd read "6:13" meaning at least a few shops should be open still, he had some hope for dinner!
"Let's go, Kane. I'm going to save my skin!" With that, he ran into the bedroom to change, throwing the old clothes in the laundry basket. It wasn't anything fancy, just a collar up with a black sweat overtop, black pants and white converses.
He combed his messy red hair as best as he could, grabbing his wallet, keys, and phone before making his way to the supermarket a few blocks away.
"In the next world you better make sure I have a clean house and food or else I'll sue!" Rhys threatened, only for Kane to brush it off. The worst thing Rhys could do at the moment was force him to be a cleaning tool, once more.
Finally reaching the supermarket, Rhys left for the produce first, picking up some of the last carrots, before a sudden system mission popped up! But wait... it had absolutely nothing to do with his capture targets!
"OBLIGATORY MISSION"
"An event is about to take place! Make sure to come out as innocent, using the victim card skill! System skill use tutorial beginning. Reward will be provided upon success, failure will result in losing a memory."
Furious, Rhys glared at Kane. "What on earth is this?! This has nothing to do with the targets!" he yelled out in his mind, making Kane snicker.
"Guess I forgot to tell you, but, since you left the apartment you're going to experience an event, since this is the tutorial it's going to teach you how to use skills. Good luck!"
Mentally cursing Kane, Rhys felt a hand on his shoulder, turning around he's met with an elderly woman, who is beginning to berate him.
Her face was red and caked with ugly makeup, just the sight of her made him want to vomit. Not to mention the saliva hitting his face as she growled. "I've called you ten times! Where are your manners!"
As he was about to retort, the system forcibly shut him up. "Host! You're supposed to be a victim, you can't just attack her yet, you're not advanced yet!" Kane shouted, he was now completely serious. If he wanted to evolve, it would depend on Rhys' ability to be a good host, after all.
Not long after, a store employee came to check out what had happened, and the woman gave her statement first. There was really no statement at all, it was just the two of them there, and she yelled at him for withholding products from the public.
This really was a cliche novel plot, huh? Rhys thought. "Quickly, use your skill ugly crying first, I'll help you this once!" Kane began, "To use it just think skill use: ugly crier."
As he said the words in his head, he could feel tears streaming down his face despite not even being sad. Hiccups escape his throat as snot began to dribble out of his nose, causing the employee to hand him a tissue.
With no time to be surprised anymore, Rhys began his act. "I'm sorry! I really didn't do anything, I don't understand why she's yelling at me!" Although his face looked gross and stupid, the employee felt a pang of sympathy, as Rhys still seemed to look young.
Suddenly, a pop up screen appeared, but Rhys had no time to read, due to the event.
"Stop your crying you stupid idiot!" The woman began to curse and screech, as Kane told him to use his next skill now! Using the skill victim card, it took two minutes of back and forth yelling and ugly crying for a witness to pop up.
"Since there's only a thirty percent chance success rate, the tutorial decided to help you, even if it takes awhile!" Kane explained, as the situation unfolded.
The witness had been watching from another aisle and informed the employee of how the woman had just harassed Rhys for simply picking up some vegetables, and another pop up screen appeared.
With the situation settled, the woman scurried off, and he used the last skill he unlocked, by Kane's command.
Rhys used okay smile, but the employee nor the witness were charmed, but rather just looked at him weirdly, causing slight embarrassment to Rhys. A sudden pop up screen appeared, making it three in total.
As the two left, Kane explained. "Okay smile only works on capture target! Although you can practice it to evolve it, I just thought it was pretty funny to make you smile weirdly!" He snickered.
"MISSION SUCCESS" the system voice said. Suddenly, the reward screen appeared, letting Rhys read the contents in the safe pause space.
"Reward upon completing skill tutorial mission, three attribute points, bonus two were rewarded for using extra skills." For once, Rhys thanked Kane for making him use all those skills, as it gave him extra attribute points! But what was the last part?
"System will transform once due to completing one mission successfully." He was about to ask Kane, but got cut off.
"I'm finally gonna have my first transformation! Finally accept it!" He cheered. Accepting the reward, Rhys felt the soothing feeling he once felt earlier. Once again, he was taken to the point distribution screen.
However, Kane's body was enveloped in a light like Rhys' when he transformed, it was a mere few seconds, but he was beyond curious to see the result, though his expectations weren't high considering this terrible system.
As it faded, Kane now looked like a decent hedgehog not having a bad hair day, wait a second! That's so unfair! How come Kane changed drastically?
"I'm a system, so of course I'd benefitting more! Now I look okay, less uglier than you!" Kane bragged, floating in circles admiring himself.
"If you become the best host I can do more, since the first mission was easy, it only improved my looks! Please clear one world or five more missions!" Kane told Rhys, only to get brushed off.
"I'm never completing another mission again if you're going to do this." He spat as he turned back towards the attribute screen, picking handsomeness for all three of his points. Surely now, he looked better than Kane.
After transforming, Rhys' hair now had a slight shine to it, even though it was still a bit messy. His skin also looked clearer, not as dry as before, with his height improving by one inch, to 5'7. "Wait a second why did I only increase one inch!" Rhys mumbled.
"The first time for each attribute is complimentary, afterwards it's halved. At least now you don't look greasy, your okay face isn't for nothing" Although the two could continue bickering back and forth, there was still the issue of the three pop up screens from before.
Turning to them, Rhys began to read it one by one, getting happier as he finished. "Skill ugly crier has been used (1) time, level up. Ugly crier level one out of five. Five more uses before the next level up. Slightly less ugly."
"Skill victim card has been used (1) time, level up. Victim card level one out of two. Two more uses before the next level up. Fifty percent chance to work."
"Skill okay smile has been used (1) time, level up. Okay smile level one out of five. Five more uses before the next level up. A little less creepy."
"So I just need to continue using these to level up, right? And since the skill worked without my capture target here, I can use them by myself then, right?" A cheshire grin now on Rhys' face.
Nodding enthusiastically, Kane took over. "Now you get it! To be the best host, improve your skills, not just in acting or attributes. Your skills will evolve like victim card, at level two! But there are certain circumstances to use them." Kane explained.
Slightly confused, Rhys asked what it was as the safe space pause started to dissipate, and time began to flow once more. "In order to use victim card, you've got to put yourself in a situation in which you can be a victim. And to use okay smile, you need to have an actual person with you."
With that, Rhys began to shop for his produce, and then deli items, using okay smile at people he passed by along the way, too cocky to know how stupid his face looked at people when he smiled at them.
This continued for thirty minutes until he saw the pop up screen say level up, for smiling at five people. The next goal was ten, and by the time he finished shopping at a whopping hour, he achieved the goal.
As the pop up screen read the next requirement of 15 people, he decided to slow down on his walk home, since not many people were out on the streets at eight in the evening.
Kane was giddy the whole time too, muttering about how he was going to be the best future system of that kept up, though Rhys only did it for selfish reasons. Perhaps if his skills improved, the capture targets in the tutorial could be won over with one use of the skill.
By the time he got home, it was 8:42 pm on the clock, and he begun dinner. He decided on something simple for the night, just some carbonara. After eating, he decided to work on his ugly crier skill and master listener skills, which held no requirement to use, thankfully.
It was 9:23 by the time he started, and he turned on the television as background noise to use his skill master listener, only for Kane to shyly explain a drawback. "I forgot to mention this, but your skills effects only work for some time. Your master listener skill only works for five minutes before the effects run out, and you need to wait half an hour to use it again."
Rhys was about to yell at Kane for leaving out important information but he continued his explanation. "Your okay smile is level 4, meaning it's charm works on a single capture target, for two minutes. If you use it on another, they are charmed instead, so you must wait the full duration! One smile per target every hour." Now this was out of control!
Sighing, Rhys just began to focus upgrading his skills, cursing the damn system once more. What did he do to deserve this?! He thought as ugly tears began to stream down his face for the five minutes, with only one minute breaks.
"It's not my fault someone abused the power of the system in the past! Though I'm sure you'll be better than that cheat one day, host!" Kane said all pumped up.
By the time Rhys finally went to sleep, Kane passed out a long time ago. He spent five hours straight just crying until his eyes were red and swollen, to evolve his skill. Sadly, his master listener skill was only one away from level two, but he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore.
Deciding to read the pop up screen in the morning, Rhys stumbles to turn off the television and goes to his bed, resting at 2:30 am, having to wake up at 7:15 am to arrive at work at 8:30 am.
Finally, morning arrived and Rhys was greeted by Kane stepping on him, forcing him up. "You've got five minutes until you have to get ready! Hurry up!" Kane nagged like a mother would to their child before school.
Groggily, Rhys got up and maneuvered out of bed, and nearly fell over when he reached the bathroom of tiredness. Although he was a musician, he never had that little sleep even if he practiced into the night. So this is the horror average workers go through.
"Ah there's a pop up! Well done Rhys!" Kane cheered as he read it aloud to him. "Ugly crier skill reached level (5). Requirements met, now evolving." As soon as the final word escaped his lips, the pop up screen shone and a new pop up appeared.
Done brushing his teeth, Rhys started drying his mouth and hands with a towel, and looked over to read it. "Ugly crier now crocodile tears, host is able to cry on command, but it seems insincere to bystanders. Does not lose affection points. Using this skill repeatedly allows host to level it up."
He could only sigh, of course the system wouldn't give him a beautiful cry, but one with bad acting. Though it didn't matter as long as there's no more snot coming from his nose.
Taking a quick shower, he dried off and changed all within fifteen minutes, and he took a quick look at his eyes while combing his hair.
"Am I able to improve my looks on my own?" Rhys asked, seemingly unhappy. He had to admit, he still wasn't used to this face, but it was relatively cute. Beautiful cherry red hair and nice blue eyes, if he could improve his looks attribute more, he could definitely be a model.
Though currently there were many factors in his way. His skin before was really dry and it's just starting to clear up a bit, and his hair was still a hard to comb despite its luster.
"If you want, you could buy the kits in the shop when you finish the tutorial! When you finish the tutorial you get points," Kane explained. No surprise there, this system has a million different rules.
"Also, if you just mean regular things like lotion or makeup without the shop system it's removed when you finish the world or returned to safe space!" Kane finished.
Sighing, Rhys went to the kitchen to make a quick toast with avocados, and prepped a quick salad for work. As he read the clock, 7:54 am, he grabbed his bag, and filled it with his necessities and locked the door on his way out.
As he walked across the street he used his skill okay smile on three people, before managing to hail a taxi. Using his skill okay smile on him, a pop up appeared saying he reached level (4), and it just need twenty-five more people, which should be easy at work.
As he asked the taxi driver to turn on the radio, he activated his skill master listener, and waiting for the next pop up to say it was now level (2), with only 20 more until level (3).
Sighing, Rhys closed his eyes the rest of the drive, thinking about what will happen today, in his new life as a host. He didn't take the system seriously before, but now he was determined to succeed and get his life back.