System Upgrade

"Man, that was a lot better than I was expecting! She crushed it!"

One of the jazz enjoyers nodded his head to the other man's comment.

"Yea, I was about to leave, but it was definitely more than worth it to stay and listen to that girl's singing. She definitely has a bright future with a voice like that!"

Internally Elric wanted to scoff at their words, but he did agree that she was definitely above average in terms of singing skills.

A few people around Elric continued chatting about Angeline's performance, but he just leaned against the bar stool.

'I should stick around here a bit longer. If my plan works, it might be a bit odd if I'm leaving the bar right at the same time as NexRu's people.'

With nothing else interesting to do aside from wait for the next band to come up on stage, Elric pulled out his phone to check the group chat.

The local general chat was steadily scrolling past as a group of members discussed the viability of a giant egg slicer for chopping onions.

Instead of instantly joining in to propose using a cheese grater instead, Elric's attention was drawn by something else. His profile had been updated.

–

Elric's Stat Page/Chat Group Profile (Assembled by a moderator)

-

SecretlyKind (Rank C) (Up from D ++)

(Regional Access) (Up from Local ++)

-Titles:

SSSU Student.

-Roles:

College Student. Sauce Enthusiast. Villainous. Has Girlfriend. (++)

-Claimed Skills:

Talent Management (C)

Basic Combat (C)

Psychology Expert (A)

Professional Car Driver (A)

-Confirmed Skills:

Basic College Education (B-)

Almost Hit Parked Car (F-)

Talent Management (C) (++)

Scheming (C) (++)

Handsome (C) (++)

Rizz (A) (++)

The Boys (SSS+)

-

'Eh? I got promoted!'

It had taken a few days, but after completing West's mission, Elric's account was bumped up to C rank, giving him access to a few new channels.

The young man excitedly clicked on the villainous channel. What would this new avenue of information show him?

A conversation was running in the chat, similar to the one in general. It didn't seem to have much meaning.

Elric frowned as he scrolled up, but all of the chat history looked to be roughly the same.

Just when he was about to give up on the new channel, he clicked on the pinned messages button and saw a long list of threads, many of them with recent messages.

Many of them had titles such as:

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Destroying my neighbor's chicken enclosure, tips appreciated.

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A Guide to Manipulation- Learn Here!

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Petty Revenge Idea Sharing

-

Elric scratched his chin as he read over the threads.

'Now this is a lot better… but what's up with this first one? Destroying a chicken enclosure? Does this guy really need to ask how to do that?'

With just one click into the thread, he instantly saw the reason behind the question.

-

My neighbor is a ripped ex-con, and I'm pretty sure he'll rip my kidney out with his bare hands and use it to buy new chickens. The damn things wake me up at dawn every morning. I just want to sleep!

-

'Hm, truly a difficult situation. I have to agree with a few of the chatters here saying to just move away.'

Another person had suggested that the original questioner to just go for it, as he would get to sleep either way.

After reading through a bit of the thread's history, Elric decided to put his exploration of the villain channel on hold and went to check out all of the other new things available to him. There was another general chat available now, labeled as - Regional General -.

From what the young man could see, it was pretty similar to his local one, just with a few more people in it.

The biggest and possibly most impactful update from the account level-up was in a tab toward the bottom of the page. The number of job listings available to Elric had increased threefold, and there were a few of them tagged as villain specific.

The young man's eyes lit up as he saw a minor mission that he might be able to complete in the remaining part of the week before the school year started back up.

It wasn't even something that would require him to leave his house.

'Wait, and the poster… Why does Eria care about this?'

It wasn't a villain-specific post he was looking at, but instead a local one. It had just been posted minutes ago, hence why he'd never seen it before.

–Jobs– (Currently Viewing).

…

…

Job Poster: Eria Nes (QuittingCosplayNow)

Request: Need information on all of the top track and field students in the local area. Provide details on daily life, habits, and other useful things.

Rewards: Monetary pay. Depends on the quality of information, but up to a thousand dollars available.

Current applicants: 3/10

-

Elric winced when he saw Eria's real name at the top of the listing. It was required to use it when posting a job to ensure the poster wouldn't try cheating helpers out of their compensation, but it would certainly be tough for her to explain.

This was probably why she had never posted a job in the past.

When he checked on her profile, though, he didn't see any changes.

'How exactly did she manage to sneak past the moderators with this one? She would've had to scan her ID to post this, and they definitely would've seen that she is a girl…'

The only thing Elric could think of is if she photoshopped the image before sending it along to the mods. It wasn't that difficult to change a few details on the document, Eria definitely had the skills to do it.

Even if she did most of her cosplay work with costumes and makeup, she did still sometimes rely on photo editing to put on the final touch.

'Impressive.'

Elric clicked on the accept button, and the applicant count rose by one.

'This'll be a nice little way to gain some money. When Ember comes back, I'll be able to buy something nice for her!'

The young man grinned as he thought of what the beautiful girl would look like when he gave her a gift.

The next band had already long since started playing, and Elric's attention to his phone was interrupted when the bartender tapped on the counter in front of him.

"Hey, buddy. You okay? You're smiling like a dolt at your phone."

It was the same bartender who'd been filling him full of water all night, and the dude looked genuinely concerned about him.

"Haa, yea, I'm good. Just -hic- thinking about buying my girlfriend a nice present!"

The bartender reached over and gave the young man a pat on the shoulder.

"Good man! Don't worry about your tab tonight, I'll take care of it for you. Use the saved money to get something even nicer."

'Yea, you better not try to charge me. This water doesn't even taste very good.'

Elric suppressed his inner thoughts as he smiled drunkenly at the bartender.

The young man stood up, ready to finally leave the bar. He had been sitting around long enough after Angeline's departure.

"Pal, do you have someone to drive you back home?"

The bartender called for Elric to stop, not wanting the drunk-looking young man to make a mistake and hop into the driver's seat.

Instead of arguing at all, Elric just nodded.

"Yep! One of my buddies is sober, he's giving me a ride!"

Elric, of course, wasn't actually drunk. His acting had been good enough to convince the bartender otherwise, though.

As soon as he left the building, he let out a long sigh. Continuously acting for hours was straining, and he was ready to sleep.