Chapter 4 Start The Grind

Monday morning at 5:15 am

Theodore unwillingly wakes up to the system notification. Rubbing his eyes and blinking a few times, he grabs his phone to look at the time.

Theodore stood in his bathroom wearing nothing but boxers, facing a full-length mirror, James can see just how skinny he is. Looking at himself in the mirror, James slowly lifted his hand to the right position and took a picture of himself.

nodding his head repeatedly "My transformation is going to unbelievable"

Taking a glance at his stats "system is there no novice packs or roulettes"

[The System has taken pity on the host ant-like existence and has benevolently decided to give the host 10 stat points]

Theodore was unsure whether to be thankful or be angry so he just asks "System are you okay you seem to have a more human personality then yesterday"

[The System changed to suit the host, is there a problem?]

"well I prefer a reply that doesn't undermine my existence, so could you change back to your respectable robotic personality?"

[After the system went through getting to know you through your memories, the system was disappointed at its discovery in doing so has deemed the host not worthy of respect especially when comparing it to the last hosts and has chosen a more direct method of speaking]

Theodore is left speechless by the systems reasonable answer. He can't do much so he just goes back to his stats, he puts 7 points into stamina and 3 in strength. His stats now show 10 stamina and 8 strength.

At the moment stamina is at the utmost importance if he wants to grind skills and stats all day.

He gets changed into a black tracksuit, navy blue hoodie and some old white sneakers. Tying his laces, he dose some simple stretches, putting his hood on he left the house.

He got to his local park and starts his workout. He started with a 20-minute run followed by 20 jumping jacks, 5 press ups, 20 lunges, 10 sit-ups and a ten-minute plank he repeats the process until 6:50 am.

At 6:59 am Theodore is seen on the ground breathing at an uncontrollable rate, with sweat coming out of every pore on his body "hu hu system, I think I'm dying please send an emergency pack "

[The host is only exhausted there is no need for emergency help from the system]

With a complacent smile printed across his face, he replies "So the system will step in when my life is at risk, that's good to know"

[Task: get strength to 20 in a week] {Reward: ???}

{Failure: receding hairline}

"What!" Theodore is baffled by the sudden task "System ummm....can you make it a little easier or make the failure something else"

[No]

Slightly discouraged he looks at his stats after the workout.

Status

+Physical: Exhausted, Muscle Pain

+Mental: PTSD

Intelligence: 13 o

Strength:9

Stamina: 10

Agility: 2

Appearance: 3

Caressing his hair obsessively and doing some simple math "I'll have to do double of what I just did if want to keep my hair". Supporting his body on one knee he clenches his fists and gives himself some words of encouragement "Come on Theodore you can do it, for my beloved hair I shall break my limits ahahaha!" saying this he slowly rose while looking off into the distance.

[Host, please note that this is real life and not anime and your laugh is extremely unsettling]

The passers-by only see a dark hooded figure get off the ground and without warning broke out into a malicious cackle. For a brief moment, a group strangers all came to the same thought "Nope I'm not taking the risk" and hurriedly turned around.

Theodore not the least bit aware of the weird looks he was getting, continues to do his work out till 8:00 where his strength finally hit 10.

He got back home, had a nice cold shower. Got changed into some sweats and made himself eggs with toast for breakfast and a cup of tea, at the same time he searches for a cheap casual suit on the internet.

He eventually found simple black and white suit with other colours. Just in a case bought it with some other suits a few sizes bigger than he is now.

Finishing his breakfast he goes to the living room(lounge), in the corner of the room sat a brown walnut upright piano.

Sitting down he pulls out his phone to go on YouTube, then he searches for piano lessons. Skipping the basics he went straight into practice.

1 hour later he stops to look at his skills.

Skills

Cooking: 130/250

Math: intermediate 63/250

Science: Novice 24/50

English: intermediate 116/250

History: intermediate 47/250

Piano: Advanced 3/500

To Theodore's surprise, his piano skill upgraded "system, isn't the skill progress a little too fast"

[No progress is different for every skill, it all depends on talent]

Theodore is stunned but quickly recollects his thoughts and promptly asks "system add a talent column."

Talents

Piano,???,???,????,????,???.

"The question marks are most likely talents that have not been discovered, hmm system add notification for when a talent is discovered"

[ Done]

Theodore dose another hour of piano practice till lunchtime, for lunch, he has three pot noodles.

Taking out his home school books and textbooks he does some self-study.

Although he wants to be a part of the entertainment industry he doesn't want to throw away the effort that his grandpa put into teaching him.

Thinking about his home school experience left him with a nostalgic feeling.

He thought about going to college in America but then he quickly got a reality check when he thought about how much it cost and put that idea to side.

With lunch done he gets changed into light blue jeans, loose white shirt and black canvas shoes he leaves his house to go to the library.

Entering the library he sees a young brunette woman, wearing a loose grey cardigan, dark jeans and sat behind the front desk with a badge that said "Kings library librarian Megan"

Seeing as she's the librarian he greets her with a smile "afternoon"

Hearing his greetings she raised her head from her book smiles and nods to acknowledge his greeting then she went back to her book.

Going through every shelf, picking up a book every now and then and reading through it. [<Spanish Skill Acquired>] The library is basically a skill tree for him.

He could do this with his phone but where's the fun in that and anyway he picks up skills that he wouldn't think of searching for on his phone.

Skills

Spanish: Novice 45/50

French: Novice 45/50

Italian: Novice 45/50

Computer science: Novice 26/50

Law: Novice 38/50

He also discoverd his talent for languages, law and computer science. His new talents were telling him that he's better off being a business worker.

It got late so he went home to have dinner and sleep.