Kate's Stat Tree is amazing!
It's a literal tree. Growing so beautifully.
Even in this world, she still manages to multi-task so many things at once.
Now I look at my own Stat Tree and see how unproductive I am even in this world.
She has a variety of skills on her end while I only have a couple that I've been cultivating.
[[ STATS TREE ]]
[ Activity Tree ]
[Drawing Lvl. 24 || Effect: Increases endurance and immunity to hand/wrist pain.]
[Gambling Lvl. 42 || Effect: Increase chances of success when gambling.]
[Gaming Lvl. 46 || Effect: Increase stats of hand-eye coordination.]
[Walking Lvl. 35 || Effect: Increase endurance.]
[ Health Tree ]
[Eating junk food Lvl. 31 || Effect: Increases chance to be immune to toxins and poison.]
[ Passive Tree ]
[Charisma Lvl. 37 || Compelling attractiveness.]
[Perception Lvl. 23 || Ability to see beyond what ordinary eyes see.]
All of the sudden I didn't feel as proud as I originally was when I learned how I became a millionaire in the first place.
In the end, my habits remained the same from the previous world.
I am still a sore loser who knows nothing but the most unproductive abilities in the world.
I probably play all day. Draw sometimes and for some reason I walk a lot.
At least I had the motivation to do a little exercise when necessary.
But I guess now it makes sense why I am so rich and yet still have a terrible lifestyle. I got rich not by hard work but by gambling.
Shockingly I invested a lot in my gambling stats too.
Hah, the only thing in my Health Tree is [Eating junk food]. It gives me a chance to be immune to toxins. Haha. What a funny little ability.
I'm so ashamed of myself.
"Ivan?"
I heard Kate knock on the door. I turn to her and I see both her and Alex standing by the door.
This made me curious. Why would these two be such loyal company to a gambler like me?
A clean and converted Alex would have been better off serving a much productive and honest master.
"Hmm?" I respond.
"We noticed your death has really hit you hard. Probably losing all those stars has made you sulk even more." Alex begins.
"So we talked about it.." Kate continues.
"..and we are happily to tell you that we will help you get those lost stars back." Alex finishes.
I love how they don't get me at all.
They both think I'm this 'Ivan' persona but in reality, it's still me, Nicholas.
I'm not sulking about the stars. I'm trying to cope up with this new world.
"Uhm, wow thanks guys." I tried to sound cheerful but my facial expression failed me.
Kate caught on fast. "Were you disappointed with your [Stats Tree]?"
And she hits a bullseye.
"I just... I didn't think I'd be so... so empty." I don't think that's even the right term to describe how I feel.
If level in this world is age, then I would have been a very, very lazy, unproductive 71-year old grandpa who managed to miraculously survive by eating junk food.
"Then let's fill up those slots!" Alex cheered. "There's a lot of things to do here."
"We can teach you how to cook." Kate offered.
"You can try improving your cleaning skills. Good charisma for the ladies." Alex raised two thumbs up.
"We can study a new language. Being multi-lingual is also beneficial."
"You can also learn to drive a car. The higher the level, the better control you have even at full speed."
I laugh at their attempt to cheer me up.
Of course. This world may seem the same as the previous one but unlike before, all my hard work in this world will pay off as an attribute.
Furthermore, I will not forget what I've learned. It's just going to stack up in my slots and level up every time I remember to do it.
"Well, there's one thing I want to try. Can you guys do a movie marathon for 24 hours straight?"
They stared at me for a moment.
I know it's a ridiculous idea. But if this is a game world, and these stats somehow helps me become above average compared to reality of what humans are.
Then hunger won't kill me so easily.
"It would depend on what Stats we have." Kate says, almost sad.
"You need to have eye protection or a skill that keeps your eyes sharp or you'll lose 20-20 vision."
"That will also affect your [Perception] skill and your vision at night."
"And your butt can be sore from sitting all day and night."
Astrals! This is amazing! So it IS possible to do just that! With the right skills, I can pull it off.
I see why this Ivan persona has invested on only certain areas of his life. Everything is to boost his gambling abilities.
[Perception] to be able to cheat and spot cheating.
[Charisma] so he could fool people, mostly the ladies I bet.
[Walking] to raise his endurance because there is probably some running involved when your cheating failed.
Now it all made sense! Everything is possible. I just need to mix the correct skills together to become who I want to be in this world.
Kate and Alex now smiled at me knowing that my energy had gone up. I'm happier than I was 5 minutes ago.
"Well good to see you understand the basics now."
"Yeah. The [Stats Tree] is the hardest to explain. It has over 50 chapters in our manual." Kate adds.
50 chapters?! That's a lot even for me!
"I- I'm glad it made sense now." I tell them. "This is amazing. We can literally do anything here!"
"You can date, you can fight, you can study all day." Alex encouraged. "Infinite things to do really."
Yes he's right about that. And I'm honestly enjoying it to be in this world more, I don't even want to leave. Kate is here, it's all that matters.
My mind drifts off for a moment to think about Jensen.
Is she also in this world? Alex mentioned dating. Can I ask her out now? She's rich and I'm rich now as well.
With my level and my power I can even protect her from bad people.
But then I glance at the two who are still standing in front of me, watching me burst with inner energy.
"You know, I've been wondering about you two..." I say.
"No we are not dating." they both say at the same time.
"I wasn't gonna ask that!"
Does a lot of people ask them that question then?
"Why would the both of you even serve and follow me?" I continue.
They exchanged looks like they had that same question they are asking themselves.
"Well, in case you don't know or if you forgot. You bought us."
"HA?"
I did what now?