My Avatar Can Do The Work, I'll Rake In The Benefits!

My name is Galahad Moon, and I am a loser.

I am fat, ugly, and worst of all, broke. I was in my room drowning my problems with alcohol. I used the last little bit of money I had left from the money my parents left me when they died. I was resolute in making this night, my last. 

But fate had different plans.

As I was hunched over throwing up, feeling a terrible pain in my liver, a message like in a video game appeared.

[Avatar App installed!]

[Check your phone to prompt your avatar to do something!]

Suddenly the pain in my liver went away, and it felt as though I had been sober the entire time. With a clear mind, I knew that this Avatar App on my phone was anything but ordinary, because I was pretty sure I was just dying from alcohol poisoning. 

When I opened my phone, there indeed was a new app installed, called the Avatar App. It opened just like a video game, and I was prompted to choose an avatar. The list of Avatars was long.

[Doctor]

[Bartender]

[Software Engineer]

[Miner]

[Soldier]

[Architect]

...

and the list when on. However I already decided on one, which might be aa little shallow, but who cares.

[Body Builder]

Was the one I selected. Once I did, I watched as my screen change into a small gym with a pixel treadmill and weights. I watched as a little pixel version of myself got on the treadmill and began running. There was a progress bar of 0/100. The progress bar began to move, however it was incredibly slow. It took a whole 30 minutes to fill all the way up, and when it did the number on the bar changed.

[1/100]

There was the option to change my avatar, but seeing as how I hadn't gotten any progress yet I decided to stick with the Body Builder avatar. I didn't know why, but watching the little pixel version of myself working so hard made me not want to give up on him.

I didn't know why, but I got up suddenly. I looked around the room and realized how pathetic I was. I grabbed a trash bag, and began to pick up all the trash laying around my apartment. It took me an entire hour to clean up the apartment to the point of looking halfway decent, but I couldn't vacuum until the morning. If I were to vacuum now I could see myself getting beat up by my neighbors. 

I lived in the middle of the city, in an incredibly cheap apartment, but even then I could barely afford the dump. I checked my phone, and noticed that my avatar was still making slow progress, with only 3/100 I decided I would just go to sleep. I did just attempt to take my own life, and while I was excited about my avatar, I was still not in the right mindset. 

I would try and tackle that in the morning, but for now I needed to rest so bad that I actually passed out the moment I got on the bed.

****

When I woke up, I was still feeling the wave of motivation to change myself, so I made my bed and handled my hygiene. It was surprising how much those two simple things helped my mood. I was feeling good seeing a clean room and feeling like I was clean too. Maybe those self help books were onto something. I always thought that there was no way making my bed could make me feel better. 

I checked my avatar real quick.

[19/100]

I closed my phone and headed out for the day. I decided to look for a job to make some money, because I was not in a position where I could laze around. I thought of how people in my position in novels would always have money or a golden finger that let them make money to get by.

However I wasn't able to do that, also the Avatar on my phone was still in his early stages, he didn't know how to do anything yet. 

Maybe when it reached 100 I would be able to switch to an Avatar who could make money.

I walked around from business to business before I found a job that I had the qualifications for.

Washing dishes in a Chinese restaurant. 

Yeah, it wasn't grand, and even the pay was shit. However I knew, maybe more than anyone else in the world, that I didn't offer a single thing to any businesses other than menial labor. I swore to change that in the future, but for now I couldn't even afford to go to college. 

With no skills, I had to settle for washing dishes in the busiest Chinese restaurant in the city. The owner however was really nice, even though they did crack jokes about my weight, but I knew Asians were famously known to be blunt. So I just smiled and thanked him for taking me in. I would start the next day, so I had the rest of today to myself. 

I had the rest of the day, so I decided to do some things to better myself. I went home and changed into some basketball shorts. I then put on running shoes and went out for a jog. I grabbed my headphones and turned on my favorite workout playlist. It wasn't long before I was drenched in sweat, out of breath, and my legs were about to give out at any moment. 

I decided if I went any further, I might actually pass out on the side of the road, so I sat sprawled on a bench at a park nearby. I was fighting for my life when I heard someone giggle next to me. 

I sat up, and saw a cute girl holding a book, trying her best not to laugh at me. 

She saw me sit up and coughed once before controlling her expression.

"I wasn't mocking you, I just thought that the way you looked like you enjoyed the grueling exercise was funny. You were smiling despite gasping for air." she explained, letting out a little laugh at the end.

"My name is Elaine. I've never seen you at this park."

I was still having trouble breathing, but I managed to choke out a reply.

"I'm... Gal... ahad... I... Live.. That... Way." I then gasped in the precious air I needed to keep my brain functioning so I didn't pass out.

Elaine giggled again, before getting up with her book.

"Well, I have to bring my brother home for dinner. It was nice meeting you Gal. Ahad." she then waved a boy over from the playground and left the park.

I watched her leaving and felt that maybe I should run everyday... I might get a chance to talk to her again.

I looked at my phone and realized I was almost four miles away from home, which meant I had to walk four miles back, and that was dreadful to think about. However I got up and began walking home.

When I eventually got home I collapsed on the couch, however I was still soaked in sweat, and I had to keep being hard on myself if I were to change.

I forced myself off the couch, and into the shower. I say shower, but I simply lay on the floor of the bath, too tired to stand. I still used soap, and shampoo, but I couldn't do the standing. After that, I simply laid in bed recovering from the intense exercise from today, and watched my avatar close in on 100. 

It was 11:55 PM, and in five minutes it would reach 100/100. I was sitting with full anticipation because I had no clue what would happen when the progress bar reached 100, but I knew it had to be otherworldly. No normal app just appears on your phone, and a game screen appears in real life without something life changing happening.

I watched with bated breath, as I saw my avatar stop exercising and make his way to the large wall mirror in the little gym he called home for the past 24 hours. 

I watched as he stood tall, proud for his accomplishments, and took off his hood. 

There stood me, an exact depiction, but I saw a stark difference. I had extremely well defined cheekbones, and a jawline that shaped my face perfectly while accenting my sharp features. I saw the glimpses of that kid I saw when I was younger and had yet to put on much weight. 

I had to say, with the loss of weight I was a modest 4 maybe even a 5 if I were to cut my long hair. Oh, about the long hair, I wasn't going for a look, I just couldn't be bothered to take care of my appearance. As sad as that sounds. However perhaps this Avatar App was the beginning of something new...

At the strike of midnight, my Avatar began removing his hoodie. Now don't take this the wrong way, but I have never been as excited to see a man take off his shirt as I was right now. The hoodie came off, and there stood a lean fellow. My avatar had shaven off all that excess fat of mine, and managed to let my little muscles begin to peak out. He had even put on some chest muscles from the looks of it, as I knew I hadn't done a push up since middle school. 

I smiled at the satisfaction of seeing my avatar achieve a wish of mine, however I waited for another five minutes without any change. I looked down at the slab of fat on my stomach and started to cry silently.

I didn't deserve to let out my sadness. I was so stupid to think that an app would make me skinny. I felt I was so stupid to have even tried for once in my life. That elation I received from my run earlier dissipated. 

As I was crying, I noticed the screen on my phone had changed. 

I saw my avatar standing in place, posing, and pointing at a button that wasn't there before.

[Assimilate?]

[Yes/No]

I wiped the tears from my face and slowly reached towards the Yes button. My thick finger came slowly down and pressed hard on the [Yes] button. I had never felt such an instinct to do something in my entire life. I just knew I had to press this button, or I would regret it my entire life. 

After I lifted my finger, I felt my whole world go black, and my avatar began to pump iron right before I lost my consciousness.