The Popularity Index

Felis Basileus, the eighteen year old guy woke up on time as usual. He ran his hand across the hard mattress and a look of self-pity appeared on his flawless face. He lightly kissed his little sister who was sleeping on top of his chest and carefully placed her on the rough bed making sure that her sleep was not disturbed by his actions.

It had been 7 years since the death of his mother Enet Basileus, and since then he had been taking care of his little sister all on his own.

"12400 points..." Felis looked at the transparent number that was floating at the corner of his vision and sighed.

A million points, this was his target and it was also the amount of points required to get on the Index's ranking.

But, over his eighteen year life, Felis was only able accumulate a little over 1% of the required points and this was only possible because he was extremely handsome.

Felis got out of his sleep-wear and changed into one of his four sets of plain clothes.

A set of plain clothes cost about 100 popularity points, while a set of coloured clothes cost 1000 points. Felis was so handsome that it no longer mattered what type of clothes he wore to showcase his charm, so he would obviously choose the cheaper ones.

As for his little sister, he obviously brought her the best quality clothes. Even though she was like a fairy, Felis had never been a cheap-stake when it came to his little sister. Moreover his little sister was forbidden to leave their house making it hard for her to earn her own points.

Once he was dressed, Felis got out of his house and walked down the familiar street. His house was located in city 13's commercial street. Not only was it located in the most popular street in city 13, but it was also the largest house on the street. In fact, it was more of a mansion than a house.

Many strong guys, popular guys, had tried to steal Felis's mansion when his mother had been still alive, but after her death, no one had bothered them anymore making Felis not know what he should do. At least he was relieved that he did not have to deal with it.

Felis walked down the familiar street slowly. As usual, the street was crowded. Men, women, rich, poor, handsome, ugly, black, white... all kinds of humans were roaming down the streets following their own tempos.

*Ding*

[Popularity +1]

[Popularity +1]

[Popularity +1]

A group of young girls wearing grey coloured plain clothes just like Felis threw flirtatious glances at him. Felis smiled and nodded courteously which earned him 3 more points from the young girls.

Moving on, Felis reached a shop that sold bread. Uncle max, the owner of the bakery looked enviously at Felis and muttered. "Ah! How I wish that I am as handsome as you! Look at those girls, they look like they want to eat you raw!!"

Felis chuckled as he knew Uncle Max was just teasing him. Felis was an Senior customer at Uncle Max's bakery even before his mother's death and their relationship had always been harmonious. Uncle Max would often give Felis the expired bread for free which Felis was very thankful about.

"Uncle, Do you have any expired bread." Felis asked as his eyes shined with expectations.

"Tch! This kid!" Uncle Max hit his forehead as if he could not bear to see Felis's misery, but he still took out two loafs of 'expired' bread and passed it to the kid.

Felis smiled thankfully. "Uncle...."

Before Felis could finish his words, Uncle Max stuffed Felis's hands with another two loafs and a transparent screen appeared in front of Felis.

"Hehe! Uncle knows me best!" Felis clicked transfer on the screen that appeared in front of him and 10 points were successfully deducted for these two loafs of fresh bread.

"Have a good day kid!" Uncle Max then snorted and turned away. He took out a pack of cigarettes and started smoking, totally ignoring the youth in front of him.

Felis walked back to his home with the four loafs of bread. He constantly surveyed the street with extreme caution, fearing that his breakfast would be stolen.

Popular streets like his neighbourhood would often have extremely skilled thieves who looked no different from ordinary citizens. Just yesterday, Felis had caught 34 thieves who had tried to steal his bread.

Felis suddenly dodged to his side and glared coldly at the little girl who had her hand outstretched towards his bread.

The girl shivered under his gaze, but she immediately turned sideways and swiftly walked away as if she had not done anything wrong.

*Ding*

[Popularity +1]

[Popularity +1]

Even though Felis had to deal with a lot of thieves every morning, he was not discouraged by them. In fact, he loved it when thieves tried to steal from him. When caught red-handed, these thieves would often give Felis some popularity points making him content.

Of course, this only applied to someone like Felis who could easily see through thieves. As for others, hehe, they would curse the thieves mothers to their deaths everyday.

But, compared to yesterday, the number of thieves who came to rob him today seemed to have decreased by half.

'Did I scare them too much yesterday?' Felis felt that it was pity. To make others enthusiastically come and steal from him, Felis took out the expired bread and licked his lips as if the bread was a supreme delicacy.

He then gulped his saliva exaggeratedly and took a large bite of the bread. His expression immediately turned into a shock, it was as if the bread was at the pinnacle of gourmet industry.

*Ding*

[Popularity +1]

[Popularity +1]

[Popularity +1]

Even though Felis had exaggerated his expression, he was truly shocked by the bread's freshness. It did not appear expired at all. After some thought, Felis smiled knowingly.

Uncle Max was such a kind guy.

Felis happily ate the rest of the bread and licked his fingers sexily.

*Ding*

[Popularity +1]

[Popularity +1]

"Tch! He is doing that on purpose!" A random thief gulped on his saliva. His eyes were staring fixedly at the remaining three loafs on Felis's hands.

"Ahh!..."

"Ohhh!....."

"Mhh!...."

"Wiggle!...."

All kinds of voices echoed around Felis as he walked down towards his home while dodging and blocking numerous evil hands. By the time he returned, he had gathered around 50 points.

"Consor! Wake up! It's time for breakfast!" Felis heated a packet of high quality milk he had brought from the street at 12 points and called out to his little sister.

"Muhh..." He received a mumbled reply in response.

"Sigh! This girl..." Felis smiled helplessly and dragged her outside of her bed. He first made her brush her teeth which effectively brought her out her sleep before she was brought to the dining table.

"Here!" Felis gave her the bread and the milk as he sat opposite and watched her with a smile.

"3 loafs of bread? I will get fat eating so much! Felis, help me eat two of them!" Consor pushed two loafs of bread towards Felis with a grave expression. It could be seen that she really hated getting fat.

"Fat? Hump! Can you even get fat? When you were little you used to be such a cute and chubby baby, but did you ever look in the mirror recently and see how thin you have become? People are spitting on me because you are not fat! They keep saying that even their cats are fatter than you! So go and get extremely fat! Your big brother will take care of you for the rest of your life anyway!"

Felis's words made Consor speechless. She lowered her head and pouted. "Hump! Shameless brother! Wanting to keep me all to himself." She muttered under her breath and ate the bread quietly.

"Felis, I want new clothes! The one they advertised on City 13's fashion channel yesterday!" After eating her breakfast, Consor washed her hands and leaned on Felis intimately.

"The one that cost 3999 points?" Felis was already used to her 'fake' intimate actions.

"Yes! My brother knows me best!" Consor smiled happily and kissed his cheeks.

"I will get it by afternoon." Felis nodded and got up. The shop which sold the dress was far and it would take him sometime to reach there. It was better to get it done as soon as possible.

......

As Felis left the house, Consor skipped along the house and took a tour around it. She first visited the garden and smiled brightly at the vast number of flowers growing there.

She then skipped along to the warehouse and unlocked the dusted door. There, she took out the comics and manga she had hid from her brother's sight and hugged them happily.

One must know that Manga, comics, novels and those of this kind were banned all over the world and possessing a single copy could very well bring destruction to the nine generations of the said party.

This ban was implemented to avoid the birth of unreal characters into real life. After all, the popularity of the main characters of these comics and Manga was so high that these unreal existences could very well manifest into the real world.

To avoid this kind of birth of the unreal characters, the whole world (the higher authority) implemented the rule to never impersonate or create fake characters.

Even with the strict implemention of this ban, some famous fake existences were still able to manifest into the real world. The most popular and known characters among them were the Gods.

No one knew wether the Gods were existent before the appearance of Index or not, but after its appearance, even if they were not existent before, they 'became' existent.

Naturally, with their physical presence, the Gods became even more popular and soon they comfortably sat at the top of the Index with no rivals.

This was a world that was filled with Ancient Gods, Dinosaurs, Superheroes, Powerful Villains, Historic figures, basically as long as they were popular they were existent.

Consor happily read through her collection. She had planned for a long time to get Felis away from her so that's she could read these gems! she was not going to waste these precious moments of freedom.