Rewards

Gerald found himself standing in a white space with limitless boundaries. As he sat down, a leather chair appeared underneath him. He reached to his right as a table with a lamb materialized. He lifted a teacup off of the coaster and raised it to his mouth. He gently blew and the steam drifted away before he took a sip.

"Ah."

He involuntarily sighed after enjoying the comforting taste.

[C-class mission completed with 100% removal. All foreign invaders removed with no local casualties and foreign entities had minimal contact with local population.]

[Pass rate: S-]

[Notes for improvement: Explosion in space was noticed by local inhabitants and can't be explained. Government deemed that explosions resulted from alien forces. Although the locals were unable to conclude that interference came from another parallel world, unexplainable events were witnessed. Removal without a trace would have resulted in S+]

[Rewards for C-class mission with S- ranking: 5 points]

Gerald nodded happily, his results were displayed in his mind. He knew that such a large explosion would lower his overall result, but it was a matter of cost compared to required work. It took three months to complete his current plan. Destroying the invaders from a parallel world could have been done without a trace but the only viable plan he came up with would have taken him an extra four years. The difference between S- and S+ was only a single point. Gerald deemed that it wasn't worth four years.

He finished off his tea with a smile. Now it was time for one of his favorite parts.

[Please select rewards]

[Rewards available for purchase are the skills and talents equipped for the mission along with the items used. Since completion ranking reached S class, additional options are available. Skills and talents of enemies personally removed are included.]

[Power armor: 2 points]

[Super power armor: 3 points]

[Power armor battery: 1 point]

[Plasma gun: 1 point]

[Plasma rifle: 2 point]

[Plug in plasma charger: .5 points]

[Technical visor: 1 point]

[Last Stand pack: 2.5 pack]

[High-voltage splicer pick (5pcs) single use: .5 points]

[Gravitational nodes (Feet) (Galactic warrior Skill): 4 points]

[Arc saw: 1 point]

[Perfect memory of maps (User Skill): 2 points]

[Advance spaceship engineering knowledge (User skill): 2 points]

[Master massage and spa knowledge (User skill): 3 points]

The list went on with another fifty options available, but Gerald had already made his decision.

He purchased the Technical visor that acted as a head up display with night vision and thermal capabilities when covering his eyes, it was also capable of covering his ears and offering advance hearing and translation.

This was far from his first mission. He had long ago discovered that auxiliary assist type items were a much better bargain for the points required. The visor could recharge with solar power compared to a plasma pistol that could fire twenty to thirty shorts before it was useless without the accompanying charger. Even with that, the power supply on earth meant it would take way too long to charge, maybe months.

With four points remaining, he bought six packs of the high-voltage splicer picks. They were highly advanced combat stiletto daggers that could unleash a one-time surge of electricity through the point. They could be manually activated or set with a timer. When paired with the Technical visor they could also be remotely activated. They were a favorite of hid, and in Gerald's opinion, he never had enough.

Although the system in his mind didn't mention, from experience, Gerald knew that he couldn't bank points. Anything unspent would be lost.

With his remaining point, he exited out of the rewards and then spent his last point to reskin the technical visor.

[To confirm your selections, exit out of the last menu]

Gerald shut off the system.

[Rewards have been delivered]

On the table next to the chair, a pair of eyeglasses appeared. They were already sized and fit Gerald's preferences. Next to the glasses were two 5packs of the high-voltage splicer picks. He stood up from the chair. He closed the case that contained the glasses and picked up the picks. He turned around and the table and chair had vanished. In its place was a common footlocker that would normally rest at the end of bed.

Gerald placed the items in the footlocker before closing it. When he stood back up, a bed formed behind the footlocker.

He sat on the bed before throwing his legs up onto it and laid on his back with his head comfortably placed on the pillow. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath.

The change happened in an instant. Gerald noticed the familiar smell of his room.

Gerald sat up from his bed in his apartment. Unhurried, he stood up and stretched before walking to the footlocker at the end of his bed. He checked his watch and only sixty seconds had passed since he laid down in his bed. No matter how long his missions lasted, only sixty seconds passed here on the earth he grew up on. He pulled out the eyeglasses case and the six packs of picks from the footlocker.

Opening the cases, he took out the eyeglasses and put them on. He nodded happily. The design was nice, and the system had even grown accustomed to his preferences. The lenses were blue light blockers to help protect his eyes while he sat in front of his computer all day. At the bottom of the lenses, they had a slight magnification, other than that, they didn't do anything to improve his eyesight.

Gerald's awful vision had been fixed after his second mission with one of the rewards provided, but nevertheless, he still enjoyed wearing his glasses.

Walking over to his dresser, Gerald twisted the handle and pulled open the drawer to reveal over thirty different styles of eyeglasses arranged next to two dozen watches. He placed his newest pair next to the others before pushing the drawer shut. He twisted the handle twice and opened it again to reveal a drawer full of knives. He unpackaged the picks and placed them in a line before shutting the drawer and turning the handle before disposing of the packaging.

He walked out of his bedroom and down the hall into his office. Taking a seat at his desk, he opened his laptop.

Taking the smartphone from his pocket he dialed the number of his editor.

"It's Gerald."

"I have just had an idea for a new story."

"No not a full-length novel, it is a short story, fifty to sixty pages."

"You don't need to worry about that, it will be exciting enough. It's a science fiction story about an alien invasion. We can use it to round out the collection of sci-fi short stories. It will be a good end point."

"Yeah, yeah, give me a week and I will send it to you. Don't change that content, just edit grammar and punctuation, then you can publish the collection."

"I am fine with a digital release, but like normal, I want you to print at least one hardcopy for myself."

"Just get whoever for the cover illustration. No wait… use that guy you hired for my last three fantasy pieces. When I was looking him up, he did a lot of sci-fi illustrations previously. He did good work."

"No, no, no, your publishing company can't purchase the rights. I will retain the copywrite. Just use my normal contract. The company get's 30% of sales, and you get 5%."

"…"

"…"

"No, just use the normal contract. If your bosses don't like it, I know other publishers. Its not even a print, don't let them BS you with cost, my name will sell far more copies than any advertisements your company purchases."

"Good. I will email you the story in a week."

"So, how are you doing?"

"Ah, sorry, I didn't realize you are busy."

"Mmm, goodbye."

Gerald hung up his phone and started to type. His latest mission would make an entertaining short story. He would give the main character a fleshed-out backstory that would make him part of the local population and romanticize the plot a bit.

*Click* *Clack* *Click* *Clack*

The sound of typing echoed through the apartment.

***

Two weeks later.

*Ding* *Dong*

Gerald got up from the kitchen table and headed towards his front door. On his welcome mat was a package that had just been delivered.

Opening it up, he found a hardcopy of his latest publication.

With a faint smile he looked over the cover. It was well done and eye catching. He thumbed open the book while taking a seat on his couch. He crossed his legs and began to read through it.

It was well past midnight when he finished. He closed it with a satisfied smile. Everything was good. He had been working with this new editor for a few years. She was much better than his last one. His first editor had been assigned to him when he was just a newbie writer. In the beginning the man didn't pay enough attention to cause him issues, but after he made a name for himself, his editor started demanding more money and even made changes to his work after he submitted it.

The stupid editor even had the stones to say that he knew better, and that Gerald's action fiction wasn't realistic enough. Needless to say, he left that publishing company and moved to his new company. This time, he wasn't the newbie, but his editor was. But that was a good thing. She didn't have any bad habits and she didn't dare to offend her biggest client. Everything was to Gerald's liking.

He closed the book and stood up from his couch. Walking into his office, he stood behind his desk but didn't sit down. He instead turned to the bookshelf behind the desk.

He placed his newest book on the shelf and stepped back, while placing his hands on his hips. He nodded happily as he looked at the shelves that were filling up. This was his 92 publication and his 11 this year.

Although Gerald was an author by trade, he didn't need to go through the normal struggles. He found it quite easy to write. But that was mainly because even though he published fiction, everyone one of his stories was really non-fiction. But his readers would never actually believe that. But it didn't matter to him.

With most of his books being online publications now, Gerald only needed to wait for the end of the month till he got his cut of each stories sales. He looked around his apartment. His old editor had always told him that he was living way below his means, but just because he had money, it didn't mean that he had to give up the place that he found most comfortable.

Gerald put aside the thought of moving and decided to head to bed.

In the morning he went to the market. It was Thursday and today was the day that his favorite vendor received his stock of tea. While his ordinary slacks and ordinary button up shirt made him look like he barely had money, that couldn't be further from the truth. He didn't hesitate to spend over five thousand dollars for fifty grams of his favorite brand of tea.

He didn't care about showing off or living in a fancy penthouse. What mattered to Gerald was that he was comfortable and enjoyed himself.

With his purchases for the day completed, he left started to head home.

Gerald could tell that people were watching him. It wasn't fans off his writing that recognized him. No, this was much more intense. And there were multiple people watching him. Once one set of eyes turned away, another would turn towards him. Even though they were watching him from behind or above, it was easy for someone with his experiences to detect their surveillance. Gerald stopped messing with his phone and put it in his pocket.

He wasn't concerned for his safety. Gerald scoffed at the idea that there was something that could threaten him. He wasn't so arrogant that he thought himself invincible. But since in this world, he was just a fiction writer, that is who he would be. There was no need to chase down his stalkers, they would reveal themselves when the timing was appropriate.

Gerald turned down an empty alley that didn't have an security cameras.

He smirked when a garbage tucked pulled out and blocked the far end of the alley.

Footsteps that attempted to quietly move towards him from behind rushed his way, but no matter how they tried to conceal themselves, to him it was as loud as pounding drums.

The man that rushed from behind grabbed his arms and took the grocere out of his hands, while the woman put a bag over his head.

His wrists were zip tied together. And his pockets were searched.

The man whispered. "I can't find his phone."

"He probably tossed it, don't worry." The woman said before turning him around. "Get in the car." She said.

Gerald heard a door open in front of him and he was guided towards it.

He entered the back of the car and then felt a person sit on either side of him.

*Vroom*

The car was started by a third person and then it pulled out of the alley.