He stared at the screen. Nothing happened.
"Really?" Alex muttered, scrolling down, but the app stayed stubbornly silent.
His heart sank slightly, but the night still felt victorious.
When Alex got home, he collapsed on his bed, exhausted but satisfied.
Whatever that reward was, it could wait.
He closed his eyes with a small smile.
Alex woke up to the blaring sound of his alarm, far past its intended time.
The bright sunlight streaming through his window served as a harsh reminder that he had overslept.
He groaned, rubbing his face as he glanced at the clock.
[8:15 AM]
"Oh, come on! Not today!" he yelped, scrambling out of bed like a cat startled by a cucumber.
He had barely managed to catch a few hours of sleep after his escapade last night, chasing down a thief with a stressed-out police officer.
Half-dressed and panicking, Alex scanned his cluttered desk. His textbooks, notebooks, random doodles, and... was that an empty soda can?
"No time to be picky," he muttered, grabbing the stack of books haphazardly and shoving them into his bag.
He burst out the door in record time, almost forgetting to lock it, and sprinted toward the bus stop.
Alex arrived at school sweaty, out of breath, and possibly the definition of "barely presentable."
His hair was uncombed, his shirt slightly wrinkled, but at least he made it before the lecture started. Barely.
Mia, sitting next to Dylan in the lecture hall, raised an eyebrow as Alex plopped into the seat beside them.
"You look like you just got mugged," Mia teased.
"Good morning to you too," Alex mumbled, desperately trying to fix his shirt.
"Morning?"
Dylan added with a grin.
"It's closer to lunch at this point."
Mia giggled, but her playful tone soon shifted.
"Wait, did something happen last night?"
Alex hesitated.
He glanced at Dylan, who caught the look and understood immediately.
Leaning in, Alex whispered in Dylan's ear, making sure Mia couldn't overhear them.
"I finished a quest last night," Alex murmured.
"It was... wild. I helped a cop catch a thief."
Dylan's eyes widened. "No way! Did you—"
"Shhh!" Alex hissed.
Mia, catching their hushed tones and suspicious glances, stared at them with folded arms.
"You two better not be plotting something weird. Wait... Dylan, he's not into that, is he?"
"Into what?" Dylan asked, confused.
"You know... weird late-night stuff," Mia replied with a smirk, wagging her eyebrows suggestively.
"Wha— No!" Alex stammered, his face turning red.
"It's not like that!"
"Sure," she said, unconvinced.
"It's really not like that!"
"I believe you."
"_"
The rest of the morning went by uneventfully—well, as uneventfully as it could when Mia kept teasing Alex every time she caught him whispering to Dylan.
After their second class, Alex finally got some time to look through his bag for notes.
Pulling out the books he had grabbed earlier, he froze.
Among them was a plain, nondescript book he didn't recognize.
It had no title, no designs, not even a fancy texture. Just a dull brown cover that screamed "boring."
"What's this?" Alex muttered, holding it up.
Dylan glanced over. "Didn't know you were into old books."
"I'm not," Alex replied.
He flipped it open, expecting to find some forgotten school notes or maybe a manual for a subject he'd completely ignored. Instead, every single page was blank.
"What the...?" Alex stared at the empty pages, flipping through them faster.
Still blank.
"Maybe it's a notebook?" Dylan suggested.
"Why would I have a notebook that looks like this?" Alex said sarcastically.
"I barely have working pens, let alone stylish stationery."
Mia popped her head over, curious. "Ooo, a secret diary? Who are you crushing on?"
Alex quickly shut the book. "It's not a diary! It's just... blank."
She shrugged, losing interest, and Alex decided to set it aside.
Later that day, during a quiet moment in the library, Alex couldn't help but pull the book out again.
Something about it nagged at him.
He flipped through the pages once more, wondering if he had missed some kind of hidden message.
Then, as he turned the last page, the entire book began to glow faintly.
"Uh-oh," Alex whispered.
The glow intensified, and before Alex could react, the book vanished into thin air, leaving behind a faint golden shimmer that quickly faded.
At the same moment, his phone buzzed.
He grabbed it hurriedly and saw the familiar interface of the Quest App flashing on his screen.
[Congratulations! You have unlocked a new Passive Skill!]
The notification expanded, displaying the skill details:
[Passive Skill: Lucky Bonus]
Description: This passive skill occasionally doubles the stats gained from completed quests. However, it activates randomly.
"Lucky bonus?" Alex muttered, rereading the description.
"Wait... stats can double now? That's insane!"
Dylan, noticing Alex's excitement from across the room, waved at him to keep it down.
Alex grinned sheepishly, but his mind raced. If he could double his rewards, he'd grow even faster.
"It said passive skill , that means active skills also exist."
Thinking of this, he couldn't helped but get excited again.
"HehehehaHAHAHA"
Everyone at the library looked at him laughing evilly.
"Shuush" 10x
Dylan shook his head and ignored him, pretending not know that guy.
As Alex was kicked ou... walked out of the library later that evening, his thoughts were still consumed by the new skill.
He couldn't shake off the feeling that the book's appearance—and disappearance—was tied to something bigger.
What was the purpose of that book? Why did it only appear now?
Suddenly, he thought of the quest last night.
[Quest Complete]
Reward: ???
Otheer than the notification, he didn't received any reward.
"Was that it?"
His phone buzzed again, snapping him out of his thoughts.
This time, it wasn't the Quest App. It was a notification for a new message.
When he opened it, his heart skipped a beat.
[Sender: Unknown]
[Subject: We need to talk about your app.]
Alex's stomach dropped. Who was this? How did they know about the Quest App?
The email ended with a single line:
"Meet me at the old library tomorrow. Alone."
???