After forty minutes, everyone had finished doing their own jobs, as well as getting changed before crowding into the living room.
"Maybe I should buy more blankets to keep down here if this is going to be a regular thing." Rhys thought, before shaking it off.
"I don't even plan to be here that long, anyways. Why do I care?" He replied to himself before picking up a switch Xavier handed to him.
"Well you could always just not secure the last affection point to stay in the world, since there's no deadline on easy worlds." Kane said, resting atop of Rhys' shoulder.
"Like I said, I have no intention to stay in worlds longer than I have to!" Rhys retorted, trying to find any reason to leave.
"But then you'll have to start a new world and the process again, and then progressively get into even bigger harems, you may be a king one day in a world women don't exist except a transmigrating one." Kane replied, thinking of a normal ranked world he saw before being assigned to Rhys.
"What the hell kind of world is that?!" Rhys yelled in his head, wanting to strangle Kane if it weren't for the fact he was with the targets.
"A basic normal one, obviously." Kane sarcastically snapped back at Rhys, who now looked so conflicted on whether he actually wanted to leave or participate in the system anymore.
"You better not give up just because I told you about normal difficult like an F ranked world!" Kane reprimanded Rhys, who only groaned in his head.
"Let's start with something basic, the switch! You can connect it to the tv and play multiplayer." Xavier explained, probably the most excited Rhys had seen him be this far.
As Rhys looked utterly confused, he set up his system along with the rest of the guys, and spent an hour nearly two browsing and purchasing games online, with Xavier's recommendation.
Although they hadn't started, both Rhys and Erin looked exhausted from this. From puzzle games, shooters, multiplayer, rpg, the list goes on and on.
"So what exactly are we doing now?" Erin asked, looking at his now filled up library of games.
"How about Mario Kart? It's easy to learn, even I understood after the first cup." Seth suggested, not that Rhys knew what half it meant.
Erin took over and explained the basics to Rhys, who only nodded along half understanding it, while Xavier set it up to the tv.
Suddenly, a system mission popped up much to Rhys dismay. "It feels like I get a new mission every single time I'm free." He cried.
"OPTIONAL SYSTEM MISSION"
"Within the next two hours, suggest a prize and penalty round. The winner gets to ask the losers for one favour each. A reward will be given upon completion, there is no punishment."
Wasn't this basically him torturing himself? He didn't even know how to play, so how could he win! Well at least this was optional, Rhys thought.
"The system never said you had to win though, host." Kane pointed out watching them start the game.
"It doesn't matter since I'm not doing it anyways." Rhys responded to Kane as he started to customise his kart.
Kane jumped up and got in Rhys' face. "You have too, what if you need gaming knowledge in another world? And isn't this just a free reward!"
Rhys ignored the first part but thought about the second, a free reward. It's true, Rhys couldn't completely trust this system and if he was getting a reward for it, then it couldn't be that bad to owe a favour.
"Alright alright, I'll suggest it once I know how to play." Rhys finally gave in, causing Kane to cheer, even if it was Rhys' mistrust in the system which motivated him.
"Half of these characters look weird. Are they even human?" Rhys questioned as they were all ready to go, just picking a cup.
"No, they're not! Its from the Mario franchise." Xavier responded, trying to hide his laughter, picking the leaf cup.
"Hopefully this won't be too difficult for them." Seth said, determination on his face. Although he was normally relaxed, it seemed like he took any time of competition seriously.
It was now Erin's turn to bully Rhys. "He'd have to be an idiot to mess up 50cc" he said before pressing down on his controller.
"Wait why are you all pressing down?" Rhys asked, suddenly confused. None of them responded as the 1 flashed off screen, and the three made their way through Wario Stadium.
"What, how'd you all get so fast!" Rhys said as he tried to make his way around the course. Although he knew he had to collect the coins, it seemed so hard to move in their direction so quickly.
By the time he finished his first lap, Seth had passed him on by starting his third, the other two not far behind him.
"There's absolutely no way I'm beating them!" Rhys said in his head to which Kane snickered. Funny how the person with a driver's license can't even play racing game.
"You've got to drift with the buttons on top, and use your items more, you can't just collect them and do nothing. Also, bananas and coins are not the same even if they're both yellow." Kane helped Rhys, feeling pity for his host.
With pointers from Kane, Rhys still failed to make it in the top seven, and came dead last at eighth, only for Erin to burst out laughing at him.
"He really is an idiot." He said as Seth and Xavier tried to cheer Rhys up, now telling them what they did exactly.
"Let's see you make fun of me again! I bet I could beat you all on the cup after this one!" Rhys said proudly, only for the three of them now to burst into laughter.
"Of course you will, Reece's." Xavier replied, still remember how Rhys' did almost everything wrong until the end.
"What are you betting, then?" Erin replied, up for the challenge knowing there was absolutely no way Rhys was going to win.
"You don't have to bet anything, Rhys. I'm sorry for laughing at you, when you're trying your best." Seth interjected, trying to mediate the situation before it got out of hand.
"The winner gets a favour from the rest of the losers, how about that?" Rhys ignored Seth for the sake of his mission, and put on his best Im better than you face, which was really impressive, as Rhys seemed to have mastered it already.
"How big is your ego, host." Kane muttered looking up at Rhys, not sure if helping him with pointers was the smartest thing anymore, Erin was likely going to bully him.
"Deal." The two boys said, Seth sighing and agreeing in the end. Now all he had to do was play and wait, and then get his reward.
As long as Erin doesn't get the favour, it really didn't matter. Seth and Xavier probably wouldn't give him a cruel order to fulfil, actually, Xavier might.
As the three played the rest of the cup, they reminded each other of the bet once more, before starting up the same cup to give Rhys a slight advantage.
Rhys was now familiar with the controls, but still had a hard time against the three, in round one he came fifth, with them all ranked in the top three.
The same repeated for round two, and three. The boys all were somewhere in top three against each other randomly, as Rhys was fourth through sixth.
"I really should of waited for an hour." Rhys said to Kane, noticing how much more competitive these three were playing now.
In the fourth round, Rhys managed to come third, thanks to Seth pitying him and stopping, letting Rhys experience his first time in top three.
It was almost as if he didn't know what came over him as he hugged Seth and thanked him, a genuine smile on his face.
"What the hell?!" Rhys cried in his head as he apologised and got off of Seth. This must of been the system forcing him to do that, he concluded.
Kane rolled his eyes as he muttered to himself. "This is called having friends, and experiencing fun. Like any normal person, Rhys."
Coughing to break up their happy moment, Erin pointed to Xavier who had won, with a shit eating grin on his face.
"This means all of you owe me a favour, then! I'll save it for this weekend!" Xavier said, a mischievous grin on his face.
It took Rhys a second to realise what was that weekend, and he internally groaned. "Please don't make me do something embarrassing in front of my parents." Rhys thought.
"MISSION SUCCESS." The voice rang while the world froze, the rewards screen now available for Rhys to receive.
"Rewards upon completing favours please mission, 1 attribute point." The screen read, how cheap, Rhys thought.
"I'll just spend it on handsomeness." Rhys said as his body was enveloped in a light. Once emerging, he couldn't feel anything different.
"It's your eyes, host. They turned a little lighter, sort of prettier." Kane said, noting Rhys' confusion.
"When do I get to become 6'0 again?" Rhys huffed looking at himself through the TV's reflection.
"When you get enough attribute points, of course." Kane replied as he floated around Rhys.
It had only been about a week since Rhys had obtained the system, but he made a lot of growth, Kane thought to himself.
"I'll be the best system ever once I get a ton of upgrades." Kane laughed to himself, causing Rhys to raise a brow at his creepy behaviour.
Brushing it off as nothing, Rhys waited for the world to resume and continued on to play games with the targets.
It wasn't until around 9 pm that Erin had mentioned he was feeling hungry and checked the clock, for the boys to notice how much time had passed by.
Although Rhys had to admit he hated it at first, it was really addictive one he found the right game, which in his case was animal crossing.
"If you eat now the food probably won't digest." Rhys thought out loud, a bit mad at himself for forgetting to feed the targets.
"Why not just have a few fruits? I'll help Reece's cut them up!" Xavier said as he ran to the kitchen.
"Great idea." Seth said as he continued to talk to his villager, desperate to bring her to his island.
As Rhys made his way to the kitchen, he could of sworn he heard Xavier mumbled something about "don't remind." But brushed it off too.
As they cut up the fruits, they engaged in basic conversation like who they wanted in their islands, or which was Rhys' favourite character so far, and the works.
For the first time, Rhys actually had fun with a large group of people. None of them felt tired or wanted to pause the game, and only wanted to have fun with each other, something he never experienced before.
His fun continued until three in the morning as the boys soon fell asleep at their own times, only Xavier and him remaining awake.
"I think I'll sleep now, but I hope none of you get angry at me for not doing your assignments tomorrow." Xavier said with a yawn, causing Rhys and Kane to jerk slightly.
"Oh no." Rhys thought as he quickly shut off his console and made his way to his room, even if it meant sacrificing his sleep.
"I guess you're pulling an all nighter." Kane tried to joke as he helped Rhys open his bag. Rhys however, did not find it funny as he frantically begin writing stuff down, anything would do at this point. It's the thought that counts.
Although he tried, his sleepiness washed over him at around 5 am, and Kane decided to just turn his alarm off for him, even if he got yelled at for it later.
"You can sleep for now, Rhys. You've done good so far." Kane said nearly sounding like a doting father himself.
This was a slight mistake, as when Rhys woke up it was already noon, and there were two different alarms ringing for who knows how long from Erin's and Seth's room. His internal dialogue was a whole lot of screaming.
Running to shut them both off, he apologised in his head for invading their privacy and made his way downstairs, where everyone else was still dead asleep.
Xavier's foot was kicking Seth in the stomach, who in return was curled in a little ball, while Erin stole half the living room's supplies for himself and snuggled in, the other side of the room. "Even a germaphobe in his sleep, huh? Straying from everyone like that." Rhys thought.
Sighing to himself, Rhys went back upstairs to take a quick shower, crying at the same time to practice his skill. When he was finished, he made his way down where they had barely stirred and began to make breakfast.
It's not like he wanted to attend classes from the start anyways, so it was a huge win. "Wait colleges don't call parents, right?" Rhys asked Kane before continuing his cooking.
"I don't think they do, considering you're an adult." Kane said, chopping up the fruit messily, with his little hands.
"I guess today is an off day, then. 3 days into school and I already became a lazy adult." Rhys sighed, finishing up as the boys slowly woke to the smell of food.
Even though he slept the least, why did it seem like everyone else was just so much more tired than him? He huffed, setting the table.
"At least I didn't have to wake Xavier up today." He thought as he greeted the boys a good afternoon, and told them it was already 1:38 pm.
For good reason, Erin and Seth panicked while Xavier casually ate his breakfast. It took Rhys five minutes to handle it, but he finally managed.
"It's only one day, you guys didn't do the assignments anyways right? We'll be going tomorrow anyways." Rhys finally calmed them, starting to eat his slightly cold breakfast.
It was then he saw a change in his affection points, Xavier now at twenty, Seth at fourteen, and Erin at thirteen.
"What's the for?" Rhys asked Kane, seemingly forgetting all the hard work he put into his affection points last night.
"The system probably didn't update till now but it's from last night and how you handled the situation. It doesn't seem like Seth went up much, though." Kane explained, still proud of Rhys, though.
"At this rate it's better than nothing, I don't know why I expect things from the system, including affection being raised a lot." Rhys sighed, biting into his toast.
"Well maybe if you actually romantically pursued them it'd go up quicker." Kane rolled his eyes.
Nearly choking, Rhys downed his milk and smiled at the targets to calm them down. "I'm not going to try and date three guys at once! Let alone one!" Rhys yelled back in his head.
"This isn't a cheating system, host. It's a target capture system. Flirting while single is different. Or friends with bene-" before Kane could finish, Rhys yelled at him to shut up.
"I've successfully completed two days, now. Just a few more days before the next big mission. It's far too long." Rhys thought as he finished up his breakfast, cleaning off the table.