Matt searched around the shelves of the store for books that sounded like they could give him a skill. The store was full of basically every type of book since the owner wanted to keep a diverse stock for any type of customer.
He knew this because he was usually the one sorting them. Matt went over the different sections in his mind and remembered that there was a section of the store that was full of "how-to" books and he thought that would be a good place to start.
He headed there and started reading the titles. There were many about crafting, like woodwork and knitting. But he didn't think those skills would really come in handy, at least any time soon.
He thought about how he could potentially make money using them and selling what he made, but that would take a long time, and he would need to figure out where to sell them or who to sell them to.
He could always come back here if he needed them. But for now, he looked through the section to see if there was anything immediately useful.
He remembered he also had a book already stored that was about wilderness survival, but he wanted something that would actually apply to living in a city. Wilderness survival was not applicable at all to his daily life.
While looking around, he mainly only found language-learning books, fishing guides, and a lot of niche things that weren't too beneficial for him. He thought about moving to another section but then noticed one book in particular.
[Commanding Conversations]
He was instantly interested and started reading through it. He didn't just commit it to memory because he wanted to see if the content of the book would be helpful or not first.
It seemed to explain not only how to converse properly with people, but also seemed to discuss how to move conversations in the direction you want them to go. There was even a section about appearing more confident in conversation.
It seemed to be one of those instant charisma books but it actually had some good advice, unlike a lot of those clickbait videos that seemed to be popular.
'This one might come in handy, especially for that one quest.'
He remembered how one of the new quests wanted him to convince someone he was a celebrity. It seemed like an annoying and difficult task, let alone embarrassing.
But he thought with an actual skill based on controlling a conversation, it might be more feasible. Though he didn't need to control a conversation, he needed to flat-out lie. He wondered if it would still apply though.
He saved the book to his mental space by once again going through it and glancing at every page. After that, he decided it wouldn't hurt to save a few of the other how-to books that weren't instantly helpful but could be good to learn later, in case he ever needed them.
He finished collecting the books to his mental space and went around saving more random books that were unrelated to learning skills, just to have more. Once he had a decent amount, he clocked out of work for the day.
'It's time for my plan!'
Matt headed toward downtown and tried to find an area that was busy. For this to work, he needed enough people walking by so that at least a few people would try it out.
He found a nice-looking plaza with a lot of people going about their days. Once he found a spot, he just needed supplies.
'Ok, so I'll need a table, a big piece of paper, maybe some tape, and something to write with.'
He went to a general supply store nearby and bought everything he needed. He ended up getting one of those folding plastic tables, but it was still a little expensive. Overall, everything cost a total of $59. It was a little more than he was expecting to spend, but he couldn't do anything about it. He also went to an ATM and withdrew $100 from his bank account.
He set up the table in the plaza area, but off to one side, so it wouldn't be blocking the way where people walked. Using the paper, he wrote on it to make a bit of a sign. Finally, he used the tape to attach it to the front of the table, hanging it down where people could see it clearly when they passed by.
Matt stood on the other side of the table, a bit self conscious. But he knew this could be a great way to make money, so he put up with it for now.
After a few minutes, a tough-looking guy approached the table. He smiled and looked very confident. He looked directly at Matt and spoke.
"Are you for real? If I beat you in arm wrestling, you'll just give me $100?"
Matt cleared his throat.
"Yes, but remember it costs $10 to challenge me."
The guy stared at Matt like he was looking at a fool. From the outside Matt looked like an average guy with barely any muscles. He had intentionally worn a long-sleeved shirt, to hide his muscle definition. Due to the system, his muscles were strong, but not big, and so no one could clearly see that he was fit at all.
The guy who had approached the table had a decent build. He looked like he went to the gym a ton. Matt was honestly a bit nervous. He still hadn't adjusted to the fact that he was strong, His whole life he had been weak.
Also, sure he could lift a heavy weight, but those numbers didn't mean much to him. He had never actually applied his new strength in the real world yet. Due to this, he wasn't sure if he should hold back or go full strength.
He didn't want to hurt the guy, but he also didn't want to underestimate him and lose $100 in a flash. So he decided he would try to exert roughly half of his strength and adjust from there.
The buff man paid him without hesitation, thinking it was a steal. He was going to get $90 for free.
"Well, if you're just giving away money, I might as well take it."
The guy confidently laughed as stepped up to the table. They both positioned their arms on the table, and Matt counted down.
"3, 2, 1, go!"
Matt had tried to exert around 50% of his strength, and he was glad he did, because the moment he said go, he pushed the other guy's arm down, slamming it into the table with no resistance at all.