"I knew you'd still be here," Grammo opened the door to the classroom and saw still Patty in his seat. Patty was so predictable that Grammo knew that he didn't go home yet.
"Grammo, my butler!" Patty happily exclaimed. He could finally go home.
He would have gone home a long time ago, but he was busy playing the chicken game with the system. Usually, Patty would get a mission like 'go home' or something. Then, he would choose the skip option so that he didn't have to go through the very exhausting routine of going to the bus and going home. He especially didn't want to stand in line on the bus at this bust hour. But for some reason, the system refused to give him any 'skips' or missions of any sort.
After Patty won the bet with the professor, classes were quickly canceled and everybody could go home early, except for Patty. What was he doing, you ask? Well, he was missing the times he had a butler like Grammo.
"Who knew signing hundreds of documents took hours…" Grammo said with his eyes drooping from exhaustion.
"Sucks to be you," Patty commented. "But man! How did you do that earlier? You were like a total rockstar!"
Grammo rubbed the back of his head shyly. He didn't know exactly what happened to him, but the only thing he knew was that it was all thanks to Patty. He just followed Patty's motto of 'I'll do what I want no matter what'. If Patty wanted to be lazy, then he would be lazy without thinking about the consequences. And somehow, things would always work out for him. Grammo just tried to copy him, and the result was even better than he expected.
"Ask yourself," Grammo answered. "But either way, you helped me tremendously. If it weren't for you, I would have never reached this point in my life. If I didn't meet you, I would probably be starving out in the streets right now."
Grammo then reached out his hand. "You helped me. I don't know what I'm going to do to repay you, but I know that I will remember you for my whole life. I owe you everything."
As soon as Grammo said that, he had another pop-up from the system
[Mission Completed]
Help Grammo
[Rewards]
100 Yi Power
1000 Credits
500 Minion Growth Crystal
15x Summon Scrolls
600 Ether
And just as he shook hands with Grammo, his skill automatically activated
[SSS+class Gluttonous Adephagia skill activated]
[Sensing Teqx Power by direct contact…]
[Initializing…]
[C-class Poisoned Lyricism Teqx identified!]
[You have gained 90 Yi Power for discovering a new Fame Teqx]
[DNA information about C-class Poisoned Lyricism Teqx available to sell in the System Store]
[Will you sell this information for 5000 Credits?]
[Y/N]
[You have received 5000 Credits]
[You have received an additional 125 Credits due to your Interdimensional Merchant minion's skill]
[Teqx successfully copied!]
[C-class Poisoned Lyricism added to skill repertoire]
[You are now able to use this power at any time]
Wait a minute, Patty thought. He distinctly remembered Griff saying that he gave Grammo a D-class Poisoned Breath Teqx. Why did it suddenly change into a C-class Teqx with a completely different ability? Those two might have 'poison' in their names, but they didn't have the same meaning.
The D-class Poisoned Breath should be a literal breath of poison, which was used as a physical attack. The C-class Poisoned Lyricism didn't mean a literal poisonous lyric, but something more of a figurative term. It could mean an insult of a diss, which was not a literal attack like what it was supposed to be.
Not only that, the Teqx changed from a Power Teqx to a Fame Teqx. That was the most surprising part. He didn't know that Teqx could change routes just like that. Heck, he didn't even know that Teqx could evolve from D-class to C-class at all! Was that normal?
This must have been the reason why Grammo suddenly became a great singer who could move the emotions of his audience. How Grammo achieved this, Patty had no idea.
"I don't think I can thank you enough for this, but I want to be as sincere as possible." Grammo then took out a rectangular box that looked to be a remnant of the past–an antique. "This is an old digital recorder that my sister gave me…before she died. It's a compilation of all the songs that she sang."
Patty looked at Grammo's precious recorder. It looked really old, with signs of deterioration on the black casing, but he could tell that Grammo preserved it with love. Antiques like these shouldn't even last this long, but Grammo somehow preserved it to be functional even now. He must have treasured this for a long time.
"This is the last memento of my sister. She must have recorded millions of songs here. She always said that she wouldn't stop until she sang every song made in the history of humanity." Grammo took one last moment alone with the recorder. "I want you to have this."
Patty didn't know what to say. If this was such an important memory of his sister, then he should keep it for himself. After Griff destroyed his guitar, Grammo didn't have anything left that was from his sister.
"Why do you want to give this to me?"
Grammo gave a quaint smile. "It's the most priceless thing I own. This is the only thing that I can give you right now to show my thanks. If I ever make it and become a global singer, then I will buy that recorder from you with all the riches you ever want."
Patty took the recorder in his hands and held it up awkwardly. Truthfully, he didn't need this because he always listened to songs on his phone. "Thanks, I guess." If Grammo did become a big singer and came back to get this recorder, then Patty would get all the money he could from him. No friend discount.
"I don't think I'll be seeing you in a while because I'll be spending most of my time in the Atlas Company."
"Guess I'll have to hire a new butler, then."
Grammo laughed. "I'll have to go now." He turned around and faced the door. "Thanks, friend. Promise me you'll never change and always be lazy!"
And with that, Grammo walked to the door and left, leaving Patty all alone with the recorder. The two friends didn't meet each other for very long, but both of them became fast friends because of their impossible dreams. Now, one of them was pursuing that dream and was now ready to part ways. It was bittersweet. But Grammo had to improve himself even further so that he doesn't waste the opportunity that Patty gave him. He needed to show that impossible dreamers like him and Patty were not crazy, and that they too can fulfill their dreams
And so ended the misadventures of Patty and Grammo. These two like-minded friends will not meet for a while as they both go through different routes to their dreams. Wish Grammo luck.
—----------
[Mission]
[Requirement]
Play the recorder
[Reward]
1x summon scroll
Patty then suddenly saw an odd mission from the system. As usual, it was arbitrary in its rewards. Such an easy mission should not be worth as much as a 1x summon scroll, and should only be worth a few Yi Power. But Patty knew that the system long enough to know that it really wanted Patty to do something to the recorder. It only used this reward when it wanted to make sure that Patty wouldn't reject the mission.
Although he was suspicious, Patty wasn't the kind of guy to refuse a gift. If the system wanted to give him a summon scroll, then by all means it should. He didn't think something wrong could happen when he played the recorder.
Patty looked at the rectangular recorder and saw the play button on the side. It was such an old piece of technology that there were still physical buttons on the side. Even the cheapest phones today were all touch screens or holograms–some were even connected to the brain so that the user didn't have to touch anything at all.
He pressed the play button, and the quality of the sound proved to be quite clear despite its age. Soon enough, an angelic voice that could only be described as the most pleasant voice he ever heard started to sing. This was Grammo's sister?! She was the complete opposite of him!
But just as he was getting comfortable with the song, the system suddenly broke out of his body. It showed its black, luminescent sphere that had clouds swirling inside like a beautiful storm. Patty was speechless. He didn't know the system could do that. But that's not the most surprising part.
The black sphere suddenly enveloped the recorder and dragged it back to Patty's body!