4 Thunder
I didn't know when the change would happen and since I chose to upgrade my luck i probably wouldn't feel any different playing games anyway.
So, instead, I texted my friend back to tell him I'd be shortly online in the Tank game. By now i completely forgot the wooden box that is waiting for me on my table.
We connected to a voice server and I was greeted by his friendly, warm voice.
"Sup, Deva. Long time no see. How've you been?"
"Ah you know, work stuff, gaming stuff, the usual."
After some basic small talk, we jumped into the game where our speech changed completely.
"Come on Deva, hit your goddamn shots. I'm shooting at 95 / 74. You are close to my position so just use my coordinates and alter them a bit. Can't be that hard to hit."
"I know, Thunder, something just feels off today. I can't get a clear grasp on the distance today."
Sitting in front of my desk I didn't know what to do today. We've been playing for almost an hour and I hit like 4 shots out of the around 80. Super weird.
"Say, Thunder. Do you believe in magic?" I was getting nervous now. I read enough novels and played enough games that secrets of this caliber should rather be kept secret.
He didn't answer me immediately but instead asked me a question back:" Do you, Deva?"
Did I though? Up until yesterday that would have been a clear no. But now I'm not too sure anymore.
"Listen, Thunder. You are one of my best friends and you know how bad I am at keeping important stuff secret so I need you to listen to me."
I took a big gulp as I prepared to tell him the whole story.
"Deva... Did you kill someone? If so, I don't want anything to do with it."
At hearing this question I nearly spit the water out of my mouth.
"No it's not like that at all! Come on, as if I could kill anyone. Okay, hear me out."
And I told him the full story, which wasn't even that long, to begin with. "And so here I am now, waiting for any changes. And oh, the box!"
"What box are you talking about?
You know the quest reward! As soon as I finished the quest my doorbell rang and a box was in front of my door.
Aight, Deva,I choose to believe you for now. But what was in the box?
I didn´t open it yet. I completely forgot about it after reading the Journal. Ill go and open it right now!"
I stood up from my chair, put the headphones away and almost ran over to the table. Upon closer inspection, the box looked exactly like a type of loot crate I got in an MMORPG. After touching the top of it I could feel that the lid is loose.
I slowly open the box and found a Coin in there. The Coin looks really old, golden-brown in color with nothing on it. No insignia, no imprint, no signs, nothing. But what I found was a small letter.
I take the letter with me and go back to my headphones.
"Okay, Thunder, there was only a single Coin in there and a letter"
What´s the Coin for? And what stood in the letter?, inquired Thunder."
"I´ll read the letter out loud now so just give me a sec"
The letter reads as follows:
"Journal"
...
"Well. There´s only one word inside the letter and it refers to my Journal. That´s anticlimactic."
"Go on and read the Journal goddammit! I´m super curious what you can do with this stuff!" Thunder almost yelled at me through the headset. I guess I take all of this way more chill than he does.
I bring the Journal over and start flipping the Pages. I stop and take a look at the stat page and apparently my luck stat already updated.
Luck: 2 + 1, is what stood there now. Maybe I just have to open and close it now. I´d assume it didn´t add up to base 3 is because on the left side it states the base value that I have and after the + is all the modifiers.
I don´t know if there´s be like accessories or anything like that that boosts my stats but that´s all I can deduct for now.
I slide through the pages and when I hit page 9 I found the Shop. That definitely wasn´t there before.
"Yo Thunder, I found the shop.
What does it say? What can you buy?"
I glanced through the pages:
-----
-Shop
Manuel: Tick the items or skills that you want to buy off and insert the appropriate amount of Coins in the back. Manuel will delete itself on the next update.
.Items:
^ Gaming Hardware:
Mouse "Cutter" V1, 9800 dpi, wireless or wired mode. Cost: 1 Coin
RAM "Cutter" V1, 64 GB DDR8. Cost: 1 Coin
Processing Unit "Cutter" V1 20 Ghz. Cost: 1 Coin
Graphical processing Unit "Cutter" V1 32 GB DDR 8 storage. Cost: 1 Coin
Gaming Keyboard "Cutter" V1
...
The list was immensely long, over 100 articles are listed with specs I haven´t even heard of. And apparently, every single item on the list is way better than anything in my PC. Now I have my magical Journal, but so far nothing really happened besides some text changes.
Until now, everything could be some type of clever joke. But if it wasn´t... Then I found something crazy. I kept on reading.
...
.Skills:
Unlock the "Big Spender Achievement" to view the skill list.
-----
Nothing else was there for now. I guess next on the list was to wait for more quests and farm some coins to upgrade my PC. I don´t exactly know what I´d need such a strong PC for but I guess it won´t hurt. My parts are all 4ish years old, so I guess it was time for an upgrade anyway.
"Apparently I can buy some gear for my PC for now. I´m not that much of a technic geek but I´m pretty sure that those parts are really powerful," I told Thunder over the headphones.
"Give me some examples, I´ll tell you exactly what you get for your money."
So I did and Thunder couldn´t get himself together after it anymore.
"Are you fucking serious? This must be a fraud. There is no such thing as a Processing Unit "Cutter" V1 20 GHz. Those specs are insane. Listen, Deva. If you can actually buy this stuff and it works you could make some serious cash with it. We´re talking about hundreds of thousands per item."
"Are you serious Thunder?"
"I´m probably underestimating things even. Now promise me, do not tell anyone about this. People murdered for way less than a hundred thousand euros and you know that.
I´ll be super busy the next 3 weeks but after that I´ll come over. Buy some of those items if you can and I´ll have a look. That shit got me really hyped.
Anyway, I gotta go, Deva. Hang on tight, I´m over at your place in 3 weeks."
And with that, he hung up. Well, Thunder was always a technic freak so that much was a given.
I turn back to the quest page and see that I have 3 new ones. It´s getting late though so I´ll get to those tomorrow.
Off to bed I go.
