After calming himself down and violently brushing his teeth, Rhys was finally ready to look at his rewards. "I'm ready to look at my rewards, where are they?" He mumbled out.
"Look at the big screen in the middle of the room, as soon as you sit down in the chair host you'll be able to see a list of future worlds you can enter at the moment, the difficulty, and more." Kane explained as Rhys took the seat.
As soon as he sat, the big screen turned on and showed him his information once more, the only thing changed were his skills. "Hey, I thought I completed a world!" Rhys whined.
"Host, you completed the tutorial. That doesn't count, it was an easy warm up. If worlds were actually that easy we wouldn't need hosts." Kane deadpanned.
Clicking his tongue, Rhys watched the screen as it changed to a rewards screen. "TUTORIAL COMPLETED, NOW SHOWING REWARDS IN 3...2...1..."
"TUTORIAL COMPLETION REWARDS"
"1500 POINTS"
"2 ATTRIBUTE POINTS"
"1 SKILL"
"1 TITLE"
"1 TALENT"
"SYSTEM UPGRADE"
"What the hell does half of this even mean?" Rhys questioned as Kane perked up, clearly excited.
"I didn't think you'd actually get this much! Thank goodness for your failures, it gained you more experience! Hurry up and accept it!" Kane exclaimed, leaving Rhys to huff.
As he accepted, a bright light enveloped Kane for a moment, before it disappeared. Although it looked like almost nothing was different, in Rhys opinion, Kane had grown a little larger.
"The more upgrades I get, the more power I get, host! This is vital information in the future." Kane explained, although Rhys didn't really care.
"Anyways, what are points and titles?" Rhys asked, getting agitated. As he looked back towards the screen, his attribute screen had popped up.
"Skills are basically things you can buy at the system shop while you're in your safe space! We treat our hosts nicely and give them luxuries. When in your safe space, unlike a world, you don't need things like bathrooms or sleep, or food, so they're considered luxuries."
"Does this mean i can finally clear up my skin?" Rhys asked, putting all of his new attributes into handsomeness.
The nice soothing feeling enveloped Rhys' body as he changed. Although his height remained the same, his face became a bit more defined, and his body a little bit toned, a huge upgrade compared to his previous thin figure.
"At least I won't snap like a twig now." He sighed, already getting used to the cheap way the system works.
"You never explained what titles are or how to open the shop." He said, unsure how to get out of the screen he was on.
"Just ask the system to screen to open that particular thing. All pop ups in system safe space appears on that screen. Second, titles are just superficial. It's just to brag to other hosts about your accomplishments."
Nodding, Rhys opened up his skills on the system screen, looking at the new one he got, Janitor level (0).
"What's with this stupid skill? And you keep mentioning other hosts, will I ever meet them?" He asked, now opening his points shop.
"It's because you cleaned your apartment, host! How generous of the system. Normally you don't get skills from the tutorial." Kane said, tears jokingly streaming down his face as he teased.
"As for other hosts, you'll meet them eventually, when you get into the host's lounge. Sometimes you can be assigned the same world as a different host, depending on difficulty. Though two hosts will never have the same capture targets."
Scrolling through the shop, he finally found what he was looking for and bought two face masks, lotion, and a comb for 1,250. "These are so damn expensive." He muttered, opening the screen to his new title, "The Snail."
"Anyways, what is the host's lounge?" He asked, slightly irked, picking up the lotion that appeared in front of him.
"You get to go there once you've been a host for one hundred years, or after you get to c ranked worlds!" Kane said excitedly, maybe now Rhys would want to be the best host!
"That sounds like too much work, I'm currently in H right? Judging from how long it takes for skills to improve, and one hundred years being the requirement, I'd rather just not concern myself with it." He said nonchalantly, applying lotion all over his skin.
"This beauty stays in the next world, right?" Rhys interrupted Kane's whined and protests. The next hour continued in a similar manner, where Kane would try to talk Rhys into being the best host, while Rhys keep fixing his appearance.
"You've done doing this for an hour! When are you going to your first world?" Kane hissed, finally snapping. This was going to be a long 100 worlds journey.
"Ah that's right. How long can I stay here? I don't want to go back out." Rhys muttered, starting to sound like a good for nothing still depending on his mom.
The system screen changed and showed him a list of available H-1 ranked worlds, seven in total, with his available time before being forced into one.
"System requires host to stay active, no break time available, if host does not choose in two days host will automatically lose one memory and be forced into a randomly selected world." He read, making him jump up.
"What the hell do you mean no break! I worked extremely hard for this, curse you, you dumb system!" He cried out, thinking he had a lot more time after such an exhausting event.
"Well whatever, I'll just pick tomorrow, my skin needs rest, wake me up in eight hours to use the other face mask so I have time before we leave again." He said, making himself comfortable once more.
"Host, you've got work to do, you can't just be lazy!" Kane complained, telling him to at the very least check his new talent.
"Fine fine." He was getting tired of the nagging, almost no one dared to nag him in the past, it was beyond annoying.
As the screen changed, it showed a list of Rhys' talents, from music, cooking, gardening, and try-hard actor.
"Isn't this just an insult?" He hissed, closing his eyes. After a good twenty hours, he was finally done lazing around and 'taking care' of himself to finally start a new world.
"I've never met a less determined host than you. Now let's look through the list!" Pulling open the worlds list, Rhys carefully read through them, trying not to take anything with too many people.
"Some of these aren't even on earth." He muttered, slightly bewildered by the diversity. Hearing that, Kane grinned and began another one of his tangents.
"Why of course, they're novels after all, with such great diversity thanks to their former author's hard work and creative process." Rolling his eyes, Rhys read through them one more time.
"Essentially my top three choices are a world with magic, a world about a struggling assassin, and a simple college life love." Cutting Kane off, Rhys weighed it out.
"If I go to a magical world it does sound cool but I'd maybe have to perform magic and I'm not interested in time consuming missions." He muttered, checking the world off his list.
"A struggling assassin, although I can't die, it does sound dangerous, but there are only two targets, which is the only on the list with the minimum." He considered, moving onto the pros and cons to the college world.
"Finally there's a college life. I did go to college, although for a year before I quit, but I'm still pretty young, right? But then again I don't want to study and there are three targets here. But then again, safety." He mulled.
"I can't believe you're actually thinking this hard, host, I may just cry." Kane said as he wiped a cheeky tear off of his face, only to let out a little yelp when Rhys gave him the middle finger.
"To hell with it, I'll just go with college life. How old am I, anyways?" Rhys asked, raising a brow at Kane.
This caught him off guard, he didn't know the answer too and it took him a minute to get from his system archives. "You were 26 when you died, so I guess mentally 26 and physically unknown? The worlds age you accordingly to whichever you join."
Satisfied enough with that answer, Rhys selected the college world, as the screen changed.
"MY FIRST LOVE LOADING 5 MINUTES." The screen read, causing him to cringe. Was that the name of the world? Just what was he in for.
"Ah host important! Before you go! Quickly turn the rest of your points into pocket money." Kane frantically waved.
Raising a brow, he decided to just listen so he'd shut up. He turned his remaining 250 points into money for his next world. "I better not regret this." He sounded almost sad, as one face mask was two hundred points.
Saying goodbye to his nice and comfortable chair and safe space, Rhys braced himself for the pain the system was about to give him.
As his body was brought to the other world, the sharp pain shot throughout his whole body, causing him to collapse and dig his nails into the carpet underneath.
Gasping, he finally sat up as the pain subsided, rubbing his eyes, tears slightly stinging. "I'm going to kill you one of these days." He hissed.
According to the information dump, there were three targets in this world, and they all went to the same college. He hadn't yet many any targets and they were all at 0. Furthermore, the first day of school doesn't start tomorrow.
"Thank goodness I get prep time." He muttered, dusting himself off. He never wanted to be thrown in an unknown situation making him think quickly again, unlike last time.
"Yes, uhm good thing." Kane said, swallowing thickly. Rhys didn't like the sound of that, as his eyes straight away shot to Kane's figure.
Looking around, Rhys finally got a good look of the room he was in and for goodness sakes! Why was the room always filthy!
It looked like he was in the living room, it was quite spacious and beautiful, with real cherry wood, a few carpets on the floor, a large black leather L-shaped couch with a few ottomans and single chair. The television was large and had modern speakers and bookshelves on the side.
There was a poor aquarium by the staircase near the also modern and open kitchen at the back, the whole place just screamed expensive, but why was it so filthy?!
"Congratulations on having roommates, host. Or should I say congratulations on owning a house despite just being 19?" Kane laughed, scared and starting to gain flashbacks about the last cleaning session.
"What the hell do you mean?" He screeched as he realised just how big the house was according to the information dump. He knew the house was a little bit, but roommates?
"Well uhm," he swallowed again. "I guess the information dump didn't say this, but since this is an easy world the targets live with you, originally it was the three of them together, but they accepted your advertisement of looking for three male roommates to share rent."
"Your parents were a bit worried and bought a house for you near college, and under the guise of wanting you to grow up they suggested roommates to pay rent."
"Just how rich are my parents in this world to be able to afford a house for their child while they're away at college?" Rhys hissed, starting to understand.
"Well it's true you do come from a privileged background in this world, but they aren't completely spoiling you since they want you to pay rent." Kane commented, giving Rhys another worry.
"Wait, does this mean I have to work?!" He exclaimed, clearly annoyed. Great, another worry.
"Well, if you don't finish this world in one month, but on estimate world completion do take a few months. Especially since you're new and failed the tutorial." Kane deadpanned.
Crying to himself, maybe it would of just been better to take on the magic world, he probably wouldn't of had to pay rent there, or live with the targets he had to capture.
"According to the information this house is four bedrooms, if they're all this dirty, does it mean I have to clean them too? When do they come?" Panic arose in his voice, worrying that he could already lose affection by their first encounter.
"I think you just have a cursed to be summoned into dirty houses, host. But they shouldn't come until later tonight." Kane thought, since the novel begins on the first day of college, it'd make sense if they moved in the day before.
"Shit. What's the time?" He hissed making his way through the house to see just how much he had to clean.
"Why not check your phone? It should be in your bedroom." Kane commented, causing Rhys' eyes to shine a little.
Making his way in, he ignored the messed first and decided to save his place for last. Grabbing his phone, he entered checked the time, 8:17 am. Thank goodness he had modern technology back.
"It was never gone though, host? You just never took out your phone in the tutorial from your bag?" Kane questioned, making Rhys look a little stupid.
"Shut up and help me clean! This is a four bedroom house, I can't do this on my own. You start rolling around now with your 'powerful energy' upgrade and work on the bedrooms, I don't care if you have to break your spines off to pick the dirt up." Rhys commanded, throwing him across the hall.
Upon opening the front door there was a small mud room, and a bathroom to the left which also served as the community laundry room. The living room and kitchen were open and downstairs, with a small area build outwards from the kitchen served as the dining room. There was a door leading to the pantry behind kitchen, so he'd have to see if he had anything to make dinner with too.
Just thinking about it made him sigh, remembering he had the janitor skill, he used it and he felt a sudden surge of energy as he felt a little faster.
"Skill janitor level 0. This skill gives the host a helping hand when they are motivated to clean up. Using this skill while cleaning for long amounts of times levels it up." It read, perfect. This was the one skill he actually wanted to evolve at the moment.
Although he cursed the system earlier for such a worthless skill, he loved it now. He would probably kiss the system.
In the end, it took six hours to deep clean the entire house, feed the fish, clean the bedrooms which each had a bathroom and closest space, prepare the backyard, fix up the front of the house, and even check the pantry, if he needed to stock.
"Damn it, nothing, just as I expected." He hissed out, leaving the pantry. The time by now was 2:38 pm, and they were probably going to arrive within the next hour, grocery shopping would take at least two with four different people to feed.
Racking his brain for any solution, he ended up just deciding to grocery shop with them when they came, with the simple excuse of he didn't know what they wanted or bonding activity. Yet again, he would have to play the obnoxiously friendly character.
"Alright, I'll just go take a quick ten minute shower and check out janitor's evolution, then." Rhys said as he ran up to his room, leaving behind a dead tired Kane who could only curse at him between breaths.
"Janitor now reach skill level (3). Requirements met, now evolving." The pop up screen read, it had actually evolved an hour ago, but he had no time to stop cleaning.
As he entered his room, he quickly grabbed his clothes and made his way to the bathroom. "Janitor now housekeeper, host is able to clean at twice the speed of a normal housekeeper, while doing things accurately. Does not gain affection points. Using this skill for long amounts of time allows it to level up." It read.
Hopping into the shower, Rhys let out a sigh of relief. All he had to do now was wait, and prepare his act. Oh what his life had come to, not only did he have to hit on three men and act like he was interested, he was also going to need to deal with school, work, and more!
Although his first world was just beginning, he was far from overjoyed.