34 Chapter 34

The sun rose and shone down my window lighting up the room.

I felt the cold of the morning soon to be winter hit my face and I snuggled deeper into my covers.

I came into consciousness after a few seconds and my eyes fluttered open.

Stretching my arms and getting out of bed, I look at the mirror and think to myself,

Good thing it's a Saturday.

I smile at myself in the mirror and am reminded of the ease at how I can do these expressions without having to strain my facial muscles.

Ah, thank you Achievement System.

[Ding!]

I heard the annoying chimes ring and bounce throughout the entirety of my head still a little dull from waking up.

[It is the Achievement System's pleasure to assist the host.]

Of course, thank you.

I move on to my desk and take a look at my journal that I've been writing on since Monday.

I take the pencil and write, mouthing the words as I scribble words on the clean pages.

"...We went to a beach for the first time as a family…" As I wrote, I reminisced my memories of life back on Earth.

A smile was plastered on my face and I felt a warmth from my heart. It's a little sad that my family here doesn't know about these memories, though.

I wrote four more fond memories I had of my friends and family and shut the book after drawing the favorite memory of the five.

[Ding!]

[Drawing has leveled up!]

I've made this habit of writing five memories and a drawing of my favorite memory and it has improved my Drawing with a few levels.

For some reason, my drawing also leveled up when I wrote in the journal. Well, writing is drawing words so I guess…?

My handwriting is pretty elegant now though. I've been writing most of my life in school so it's no surprise that it's added many levels to my Drawing skill.

My handwriting used to be nice, but since the system has added a few levels it has changed the way I hold the pencil and how I apply pressure and stroke the letters.

I've always wanted to learn Calligraphy, it always looked pretty cool. I think I'm satisfied with this nice handwriting, though.

I also used to draw horribly.

Stickmen were my forte and all of the other things I tried to draw were horrific morphed cursed drawings of hell that should never be made again.

The gates of hell probably opened when I drew those atrocious things into existence. I just wanted to draw a box triangle house damnit, not release the undead into the living.

I imagined beautiful things that always came out pretty bad and honestly I never had a good time drawing.

Now though, since Writing and Drawing have combined due to the system I can now properly draw what I imagine.

No longer will I have to live in fear that my drawings will take sentience and murder me in my sleep for creating them.

Cough, moving on.

The beach scenery that I drew just now was pretty decent and could get a passing grade in an art class which I am now very incredibly proud of.

It had details and a little shading which more or less resembled the imagery I had in my brain.

I pump my fist. I'm definitely going to grind this Drawing skill.

I will not fear any Art Class anymore!

Adding that to my list of things to do for 10 hours straight, I head to the bathroom to respond to nature's calls.

…

[Ding!]

[The skill, Singing, has been added to the host's arsenal!]

Woo!

Heck yes!

I cleared my throat with an ahem while still in the bathroom in my pajamas and awesomely started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars.

Oh yeah, the skill doesn't have many levels yet but it clearly sounds a little better than before.

[Skill Singing, has leveled up!]

And since it's really low level, it'll be the easiest thing to grind it up.

[Ding!]

[Levels have been added to the Skill: Singing due to Host's past mastery.]

Oh brother.

Oh.

I sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and with a beautiful voice, the tune came out, albeit a little worse than how I could sing it before.

Oh wow, this is exciting. I just need to strengthen and develop my vocal cords a little more and then I can begin with the techniques. I'm sure there's going to be lessons on the internet that will teach me a few things on how to sing.

Also, I can just grind singing and the system will teach me how to sing better.

I clear my throat and try singing a little louder. To my joy, my voice doesn't crack at all. Oh yeah, I can start singing a little louder now, and louder and powerful sounds good.

Ugh yes, please.

Weirdly though, I feel like my voice here just sounds way better than back on Earth.

Well, it's no surprise though. I have extra points on Charm and the system probably did something better to my voice with the levels in singing and the great body passive.

I walk out of the bathroom and go to my nightstand where my sleek phone is charging.

I've got a few notifications from Reed, surprisingly Natsumi, and a few family friends.

I open up Reed's conversation first.

[Reed: yo watsup bro good morning]

[Charlie: Hey good morning how u doing?]

[Reed: lol im doing good thx can u call rn?]

I tap the call button.

"Hey dude, what's up?"

"Nothing much man. You?"

"Not much bro, did you have something you wanted to talk about?" I said, a little confused about why he wanted to call me.

"Not really haha, I just wanted to call."

Oh, he just wanted to talk. No biggies.

"Hahaha, no problem dude. By the way, have you done the homework yet?"

"OH SHIIII"

…

After freaking out, he scrambled for his papers and we started doing the homework since I too forgot to do it.

I went outside of the call and clicked on Natsumi's conversation

[Natsumi: Heyyyyy Charlie]

[Natsumi: (smiley-face emoji)]

Did she also forget to do the homework and wants to ask me for it?

[Charlie: hey good morning !]

[Natsumi: Good morning Charlieeee.]

She's getting quicker at texting, wow.

I don't have to wait 5 seconds, watching the 'Typing' text before seeing the sentence she was writing.

[Natsumi: Have you done the homework yet?]

Before I can reply though, she speedily continues. Damn! Natsumi go off! She's a fast texter now! Almost as if she copy and pasted the words beforehand.

[Ding!]

[Skill: Deduction has been added to the Host's Arsenal!]

Ah. System. Did she actually write the words beforehand and copy and paste it?

[Deduction has gained 1 point!]

Is this for things that happened, or just deducing anything?

Reed is gay!

Nothing.

Reed hates me.

Nothing.

I'm Charlie.

Nothing.

Okay, so I can't just spam questions to get answers by the system. I have to deduce things...

John wanted to recruit me because I'm very handsome.

[Deduction has gained 1 point.]

Hmm, so is that actually true? Or just an assumption?

Well, I'll just ask Natsumi.

[Charlie: Heyyy no i haven't]

[Charlie: have you?]

I send the messages and continue typing, "By the way did you cop…"

[Natsumi: Ooh I haven't done it either.]

Holy she's quick.

Once again another message follows suit.

[Natsumi: You wanna do it together?]

Is she actually copying and pasting the sentences or does she just type at 200 words a second?

I delete the message I was typing.

[Charlie: Yeah sure im in a call with reed rn let me add you rl quick]

This time, she doesn't respond instantly and I see her on 'Typing' as I move to the call to add her.

I see the notification banner above,

[Natsumi: Okeii]

Did she actually copy and paste those words?

"Yo Reed, I'm adding Natsumi to the call."

[Kay.]

I scrolled down to her contact and clicked on her to add her to the call.

[Simp.] I hear him call out in the background.

"Shut up," I say as I laugh.

She responds immediately.

[Natsumi: "Heyyyy Charlie.]

"Hey, Natsumi.

[Reed: "Damn am I interrupting you two?"]

[Natsumi: "Oh hey Reed."]

We laugh.

"Matter of fact, you guys want to make a zoom call and just tell everyone to join?"

[Reed, Natsumi: "Yeah sure."]

[Natsumi: "Who's making it?"]

"I got it."

I open zoom on my computer and send the code in the chat.

(Charlie: join or ur a poopoo head)

(Reed: and a butt face)

[Natsumi: "Hahaha, you guys are idiots."]

I telepathically bump fists with Reed and we chuckle together.

(Catherine: ok)

(Elle has responded to your message with an emoji.)

I saw a thumbs up under my message.

People didn't respond anymore and just tapped the thumbs up to react with a thumbs up as well.

(Arlo: wtf charlie accept me or ur the poopoo head)

(Juniper: charlie butt face)

(Owen: charlie butt head)

(Macy: charlie butt poopoo face)

(Ronan: accept me in butt face)

(Elijah: butt man)

(Callie: poopoo man)

(Lia: butt poopoo guy)

(Lizbeth: egg head)

I laugh.

(Charlie: alright alright chill guys)

(Natsumi: Charlie idiot face.) She finally typed after a few seconds. Okay, so I'm going to assume she did copy and paste the messages from before judging by the fact she took a few seconds to send this.

Or maybe she was considering whether to call me an idiot or an egg face or a poopoo head.

Still in the call, Reed says,

[Reed: "Brutal."]

I laugh and let everyone in the call and I enable my camera.

[Charlie: "I have summoned all of you here because I haven't done my homework and Reed, Natsumi, and I wanted to do a homework party."]

Elle and Lizbeth begin laughing their butts off, for a reason I cannot fathom.

[Reed: "...Homework party…"] He facepalms.

[Catherine: "PFFT- HAHAHAHA HOMEWORK PARTY."] They begin laughing even harder.

[Charlie: "Okay okay, whatever. Study group."]

[Lizbeth: "Nonono, it's cool as a homework party."] She giggled in the middle of saying that.

...

[Ding!]

[Concept: Physics has improved by 10 points]

[Concept: Physics has leveled up!]

Aw, yea.

[Abel: "How do I do this?"]

He began sharing his screen to show us.

It was a complicated math problem that an honors student like me would have absolutely no complications with. Hoh!

[Charlie: "Oh, there you just have to..."]

…

[Catherine: "CHARLIEEE. I don't get this."]

I answered her question.

[Reed: "Charlie what is this?"]

I answered after he began screen sharing.

[Ronan: "Dude what in the frick. Charlie, may I ask for your help please?"]

[Charlie: "Ah, someone with actual manners. Unlike you pigs."]

We laugh together.

Catherine laughed the loudest and snort laughing like a little piglet.

We laughed even harder.

[Natsumi: "I just love how Charlie is our new teacher."]

[Arlo: "Dude I'm literally learning more from this call than this whole month.]

…

[Ding!]

[Skill: Teaching has been added to the host's arsenal!]

Wow. I'm getting so many skills right now. I don't know how useful this skill is going to be but I'll take it.

[Author Note: Dang! Pretty late chapter. Apologies.

I had a rocking headache for a while and since school has been laying off on me I had no time to stock up on chapters for emergency cases like this.

I hope you guys enjoyed this little relationship development with friends and a little slowing down after the HUGE progression from Charlie.

Please leave your comments below! :)]