2

[Wake up.]

Reed opened his eyes, narrowing them.

He glanced at the clock on his work desk, although it was a bit dark, he could still see the blue glow off 4:00 AM coming off of it from across the small room. His alarm had not even rung yet.

He immediately frowned as he sat up in his bed, Maria, why did you wake me up at 4 in the morning of all times? This is barbaric.'

[I shall wake you up at 4 AM and send you to sleep at 12 PM from this point on. As a figure chasing towards the apex, time is priceless but so too is a carefully maintained sleeping regiment.]

'Yes yes, but listen, how would I sleep well and be expected to perform decently with only 4 hours of sleep a night?' Reed interjected, no matter how he looked at it, his system of his was already setting out to kill him through work.

[Your sleeping condition has been boosted by the system, much less 4 hours a night, you could survive decently well with only 2 hours of sleep a night—although not at peak performance—though, this is only recommended to be used for emergency situations and dissuaded for normal use.] That mechanical force asserted.

Reed raised his brow and took a moment to check his condition.

Maria was right, even though he had been woken up at 4 AM—three hours before his alarm would usually ring—he did not feel the least bit tired. In fact, he was instead invigorated with energy. His mind was clear and his body was light. He felt as if it was the best sleep he had had since he was a baby.

'What you're saying is, I have a full 20 hours of usable time each day now?'

[That would be correct, yes.] Maria affirmed.

Reed smiled, "This is perfect then."

[Mhmm, just like all the other systems, my job is to make sure my user wins. Although I am not allowed to help you through assigned missions, I am allowed to help you through your daily life away from deliberate missions. A preemptive sorry for the future.]

"No no, that's plenty," He shook his head.

He took a deep breath, seeing himself at the edge of his bed. The night's sleep had led him to clear up some confusion and thoughts.

"There is one task I would like to give you as well as one request I would like to make."

[I am listening.]

"Alright, for one, I want you to continually scan the signatures of the other systems and their holders. If any enters the same state, city, or town I am located in, I want to be notified right away. Can you do that?" He asked.

Reed Fraught had always been a cautious individual, some might even call him overly cautious. Not only did he like his environment to be clean and pristine, but he also held the same standards for his preemptive planning in situations. With the revelation that he may have to fight against other users, he wasn't one to look away from it and not at least try and address the issue at hand.

[Affirmative, I can do that much.]

He smiled, elated that he had passed that minuscule hurdle.

"Next...I want to ask you...which of my current skills do you think I would be able to rank up to C in the fastest time possible?"

The room lapsed into momentary silence.

'Maria?' Reed asked.

[I cannot help you with a mission.] Her stern voice answered.

The boy shook his head and grinned, "This isn't helping me with a mission, I've merely just obtained this system and would like to get familiarized with it. Finding out the difficulty of raising a skill as well as efficient paths towards reaching the apex of the world is a must. This is a one time attempt to get to know the system better."

His words flowed out quite finely, each sentence sounding very logical that maybe even a pubescent individual might be able to understand. Truthfully speaking, however, Reed was simply worming his way from the request becoming a 'matter of a mission' to a matter of 'familiarizing himself with the system'. In other words, he was bullshitting.

Once again, he was not exactly stupid.

[I've spoken with the council, they've decided that your request does not violate any inlaid rules. It is your first time officially using the System, indeed, familiarization is a logical step. I will be providing a list of the three most efficient skills to work towards right now, as well as their estimated time stamp, is that alright?]

Reed hummed an approving nod as a screen popped up before him.

[Retrieval] D - 10 Days.

[Drawing] F+ - 10 Days.

[DBQ $ LRQ] D+ - 5 Days.

He had initially thought all three would be of the D rank at least, but an outlier had shown up.

"Ranking up from F rank to C in Drawing will only take 10 days at most? Are you sure this is right? Don't tell me my system has already broke on me on the first day alone?" Reed raised a brow, not buying it in the least.

[Your talent in Art is phenomenal.]

"But I've already tried it before, and yet I'm still at F."

[You've only ever tried it before in passing, yet you still reached the F+ rank.] Maria corrected.

Reed was speechless. Though he did understand the system, he had never truly dedicated himself to pursuing art. He had only had a momentary lapse in drawing as a child when he felt happy to see his smiling parents when they hung his work on the fridge. However, was his talent in that area truly as great as Maria said?

[The system tells no lies.]

He sighed. There were now two options, follow his talent and raise his artistic skills or quickly get this over with and choose the last of the three--which would take him only 5 days. He debated briefly and came to the conclusion that artistic skills would help him in the long run, that is, as a cushion to fall back on.

Of course, Reed's eyes were already shining, he thought of another money making strategy if he raised it high enough.

He glanced at the clock, he had been sitting on the bed for a full ten minutes and the time was now 4:10 AM. He decided to start his day right away.

The first step on his journey…

Reed opened his charging laptop, it was never off, and quickly entered the school's student made Discord server. There were over a thousand people within it, though it was currently quiet.

He waltzed his way towards the 'Advertisement' channel and was not the least bit bothered helping himself solicit.

Traveling Toad: [Student Reed Fraught (Small Snail) is selling his services:

(1) $10 to finish any, single, math assignment for you.

(2) $25 to tutor you in a single area.

If anyone needs this, you may contact him through a private message. Act fast, only 25 slots are available for a limited time of 2 weeks.]

Truthfully speaking, not only was he a mod in the server, although not many knew, he had also been the one to make it so he wasted no time in pinning his message! Of course, he didn't stop there and unhesitantly pinged everyone in the server.

"I doubt I won't be able to make some money now!" He laughed, immediately feeling that his past self had been a genius in enticing half the school into the server.

He smiled, switching off his 'alt' account and onto his 'true' account. Now, he only had to wait for the requests to flood in. His reputation might not be the best but he refused to believe that no one would bite this juicy steak within the next two weeks.

Flying Fish: [Holy shiet, did you descend from heaven to save this little Master from hell?]

It hadn't even been a minute before someone sent him a message, and when he saw who it was, he widened his eyes in disbelief as he hurriedly typed.

Small Snail: [What the fuck, have you even slept!?!]

The only reason he was awake was because his system woke him up, Reed refused to believe that Allen had suddenly gained one of his own as well.

Flying Fish: [Of course I haven't! How could I miss a WOW raid?? But enough of that, what's this about doing assignments?]

Small Snail: [It's just like you see ; )]

Flying Fish: [Well goddamn, I still haven't started the packet yet for my class, how much do I need to shove down your throat for five pages? Front and back?]

"Oh?" Reed raised a brow as he stroked his chin, he hadn't thought of something like that.

'How much do you think I should charge, Maria?' He decided to ask.

[I can't help you with a mission.]

Reed rolled his eyes before turning back to the screen, his fingers danced against the keyboard and he replied back to the fatty with a grin.

'I think two pages, front and back, being an assignment should be fair.'

Flying Fish: [What the fuck!?! You want me to pay you $25!?!]

He could imagine the ruddy red-haired boy raging at the other end of the screen.

Small Snail: [Do you want me to just teach it to you for the same amount?]

Flying Fish: [I'll pay.]

Reed laughed, this boy was as open as a book. Although Allen could be considered smart, he was too lazy and would rather spend as much time gaming as possible. Trying to get someone like him to willingly be tutored? He would have more luck with curing cancer.

Furthermore, Allen was really well off, he had no trouble forking out that much.

Small Snail: [Alright, just remember to bring it to me during lunch. I guarantee at least a B or I'll eat my shoe.]

Flying Fish: [I don't even care if I get a C on it, just save me from my mom T.T]

They chatted for a bit longer before both went their separate ways, Allen returned to gaming and Reed closed the laptop.

He sighed, turning towards his closet. He only really had five clothes in there; his school uniform, a pair of casual clothing, and a tracksuit. He unhurriedly chose the black tracksuit; pants and all.

There were still two hours and forty minutes before he really had to prepare for his Monday lessons, he had a basic growth plan in his head and decided it was now time to get to work.