The sun calmly arose, shedding its broken light into Nick's apartment and letting the rays cascade through the windows and etch on the laminate flooring.
The morning was still very young, and Nick had his eyes wide open already. However, he remained lying on his bed, resting under the sheets and enjoying the warmth it gave him. There were very few things he could enjoy nowadays.
He stared up at the ceiling, where the sounds of a heated argument came from.
"It's early in the morning. Can't they argue in the afternoon or something?" Nick muttered, deeply annoyed. He was referring to Emma and Tony; they lived just right above him and chose to argue on one of the worst mornings ever, making it even worse.
Bad mornings were one of the common themes of Nick's life so far. It was maybe the few good mornings he has had due to Top Idol's emergence in his life that made him feel spoiled.
Nick closed his eyes.
Oh, what he would give for one perfect morning where the problems that awaited him were fairly trivial. It felt like a pipe dream.
Ever since Mr. Singh informed him about the current state of his job, he couldn't stop thinking about the implications of losing his only stable source of income.
First, there was how he would pay rent and other necessary things. Second, there was Boss Falco and his constant pestering, which was bound to become more spearheaded when he eventually became jobless once again and the debt payment increased. Third, there was the consequence of all those things. If he couldn't pay rent, he would have to sleep on the street, because there was no way he was returning home to his mother, and so much more. His life would just spiral into an even more horrid mess than it currently was.
Nick palmed his face.
'What do I do?'
In regards to Top Idol, he hadn't even gotten enough v-points to buy a talent, talk less of using the talent to find an avenue of possible income.
Nick wanted to think time was on his side, but if given a maximum of two weeks before he stopped working and earned his final pay, what could he even do in that short time? He could pay rent for one last month and perform menial jobs like his clowning side gig, washing cars, and accepting video editing commissions, but doing all that all at once was too tasking and even gave fairly poorly in return. If he added more jobs to increase his earnings, his body would give in within the first week.
However, Nick knew. If worst came to worst, those three menial jobs were what he was going to do while saving v-points. But then came the mountainous obstacle named Boss Falco, who would surely kidnap him and…
Nick let out a frigid breath.
Currently, there was only one solution left before having to return to the abandoned building.
Nick stretched his arm to the bedside drawer, reaching for his smartphone, but then felt a strong urge to take a leak.
He sighed and got off his bed, heading for the bathroom.
A trickling noise resounded in the bathroom just when Nick's gaze shone over the bathtub.
Inside, a brown cockroach was moving about.
'Dammit. Where do these things even come from?' He squeezed his face and got a sweeper after he was done urinating.
Not long after, the roach lay dead on the bathroom floor. And just then, Nick heard a familiar voice recite in his head:
[Task: Put the cockroach in your mouth.]
[Difficulty: Easy.]
[Reward: 2 v-points.]
[Ending In: 2 minutes, 59 seconds.]
Nick's face gradually contorted to match the horror and dread he experienced at the moment.
"Wh—What the fuck?!"
Nick couldn't properly express the amount of disgust he felt at the moment.
He glared at the cockroach annoyedly, his face twisted and his mouth pursed.
"My God, of all the tasks," he voiced and knelt beside the dead creature.
At the back of Nick's mind, the timer counted down, urging him on.
He steeled his mind and stretched out his hand to the cockroach, his face expressing his disgust.
'I can do this. I can do this,' he tried encouraging himself but his face just contorted more and more as he proceeded with the action, his throat even croaked once.
Using his index finger and thumb, he picked the cockroach up by its antennae. He wasn't even given enough time to go get a spoon.
Just then, its antennae cut off and the dead roach fell back on the floor.
Pa…
Nick felt his heart sink along with it, but he still reached for it.
There was only slightly over a minute left on the timer. So this time, he grabbed the entire cockroach properly, despite how unnerving that felt.
Convincing himself, and also trying to distract himself at the same time, he put the cockroach on his tongue and slowly closed his mouth shut.
One second, two seconds, three seconds, four seconds… Nick counted the time with his eyes and lips tight shut.
Shortly after a minute, that dreaded feminine voice spoke again in his head:
[Task completed.]
As soon as Nick heard he had completed the task, he calmly took out his tongue again and let the dead cockroach drop on the floor before sprinting to the wash sink.
Nick brushed his teeth and tongue three times before disposing of that toothbrush and leaving the bathroom.
With his hair and face wet, he had a towel draped over his shoulders and used it to wipe his face and mouth.
"Goddammit. That task was sent from the pit of hell."
Nick went over to his bedside drawer and muttered after seeing the notification that he had received 2 v-points, "At least, it didn't say I should swallow. I would rather die."
He navigated to the Leaderboard tab and saw he had gone down to the 20th place with a total of 6 v-points earned. Those above him had 8 v-points earned, some had 6 v-points too, while the first and second positions had 10 v-points earned.
Nick didn't mind, this was to be expected. Other pointers must have gotten optional tasks and also completed their daily tasks already. What mattered was cumulative v-points earnings, meaning, what mattered was completing more tasks than the other guy and hoping they failed more.
From there, he checked his listing in the Marketplace tab, and although it had moved two numbers up, there were still no offers from potential buyers.
'Should I boost it with the 2 v-points I just earned?' Nick pondered.
…
[Rule #8: Failure of a daily task shall result in an instant failure of all optional tasks associated with the daily task.]