Tyler was lying on his couch, phone in hand, still riding the high of seeing his first royalty check. His new apartment listing and laptop purchase were locked in, and he was finally feeling like life was starting to make sense. Just as he was about to close his eyes for a quick nap, his phone vibrated in his hand.
The screen flashed, but it wasn't a text or social media notification.
Ding!
A familiar chime echoed in the room. It was the system. Tyler sat up, his pulse quickening as he watched the notification expand across his screen.
"Hidden Quest Complete: Chart Debut"
"Hidden quest?" Tyler muttered to himself, surprised. He hadn't even known this was a possibility. But it made sense. The song blowing up and landing at number 9 on the Top 100 was a huge deal. This was the break he'd been waiting for, and now it seemed like the system was rewarding him.
"Congratulations, Tyler! You've completed the hidden quest: 'Achieve Chart Success.' New features have been unlocked. You now have access to your Rapper Attributes and Experience Bar!"
Tyler stared at the screen, his mind buzzing. This was new. He hadn't seen any of this before. With shaky fingers, he tapped on the notification, and the interface shifted, revealing a detailed breakdown of his progress.
[Rapper Attributes:]
[Bars: B-]
[Creativity: C]
[Delivery: B]
[Flow: B]
[Lyricism: B+]
[Performance: C+]
[Popularity: C+]
[Production Knowledge: D+]
[Street Cred: A]
[Work Ethic: A+]
Tyler's eyes widened as he scrolled through the list. His attributes were ranked from F to SSS+, with most of his scores floating around the B-range, except for Street Cred and Work Ethic, which were higher. The system seemed to have a solid read on where he was at as a rapper, which made the whole thing even more surreal.
"Experience to Next Level: 1500 XP"
At the bottom of the page, he noticed a bar labeled "Rapper Experience". A thin sliver of light stretched across the bar, indicating his current progress. He was hovering just above the base level.
"Damn… so I really gotta grind this out," Tyler thought, running a hand through his hair. He had put in some serious work already, but now that he could see the numbers, the road ahead looked even steeper.
He scrolled back up, studying his attributes more closely. Some of the stats made sense—he knew his Bars and Lyricism were solid, especially after working with Jax. But his Production Knowledge? Yeah, that needed work. And his Popularity was only just starting to climb, but there was still a long way to go.
Tyler's thoughts were racing. The system had been a mystery ever since it appeared, but now it was starting to unfold, revealing more layers of what he needed to do to reach the top. The ranking system gave him a clearer picture of where he stood.
He sat back on the couch, staring at the ceiling. This was good—real good. But the pressure was on now. With "Resurrection" climbing the charts and his connection to Jax opening doors, he had to keep pushing. The next milestone was out there, and he was determined to level up and unlock more of what the system had to offer.
A part of him couldn't help but feel a sense of paranoia creep back in. If the system could track his progress like this, how much more could it control? Was it shaping his journey, or was he still the one in control? The thought crossed his mind, but he pushed it aside for now.
For once, he felt like he had an advantage—something that could keep him ahead of the competition.