Buying a new talent

Tristan woke up the next morning and immediately saw a large notification in front of him.

[Ding!]

[You had impressed an audience of 10 thousand people online with your performance. Reward: your CP increased by 3000!]

After a moment of staring at the number, Tristan—still only in his underwear—rushed to his laptop and checked his video.

It blew up overnight!

13 thousand views, almost a thousand likes, and a few dozen comments. A few hundred people subscribed to his channel already.

[Nice cover!]

[Wow that voice… is so dreamy! <3 <3 <3]< p>

[my heart is broken help]

[this is BANGER!!! needs more views!]

This made Tristan giddy. He really, really struck gold here!

13 thousand views was nothing much by YouTube standards, but for the first video, this was great. Tristan planned to make many more videos later on.

But before that, Tristan put on some clothing and opened the system shop.

[===Shop===]

[Partially Sleepless talent: 3000 points (any)]

[Torture skill: 10 CP]

[Make-up skill: 10 PP]

[A driving license: 1000 points (tap to choose identity)]

[======]

As always, the daily SIS shop had a talent, an item, and a couple of skills. This time, it offered the driving license again.

It was tempting to buy it, but Tristan didn't have a car, anyway.

Instead, he tapped the talent to open its description.

[Partially Sleepless: your body requires less sleep to function. Only 4 hours of sleep per day is enough to get all the benefits of 8-hour sleep. Is a prerequisite for the "Sleepless" talent.]

'Incredible,' Tristan realized immediately. 'And that other talent, "Sleepless"—will it let me live without sleep entirely?'

Someone living a double life like Tristan definitely needed extra hours in the day.

He immediately bought the talent, then checked his remaining points.

[Pop-star Points: 0]

[Criminal Points: 1350]

At the sight of 0 Pop-star Points, Tristan sighed.

Becoming famous online was surely easier than becoming a king of the streets.

However, he knew it would give him power no online celebrity could dream about. And more PP, of course.

With that in mind, Tristan planned his routine for the rest of the weekends, and for the next week, too.

These were busy days.

Learning how to promote his YouTube channel and other social pages Tristan was going to make, going to gym, beating up people, and learning piano songs…

Yeah, extra hours without sleep were necessary.

***

A week later.

After a week of his schedule, Tristan's attributes increased a little more, and so did his skills. He had also been monitoring his shop all week for "Sleepless" talent, but didn't see it yet, so he was mostly saving points for it.

The only exception was putting points into video editing skill for his next video—which Tristan didn't post yet. He wanted his next cover to be better. And soon, he planned to move onto original songs.

His status now looked like that:

[======]

[Tristan Gemello (Tristan Hayes)]

[Current identity: Pop-star. Second identity: Criminal.]

[Pop-star rank: Opened The Door.]

[Criminal rank: Nobody.]

[Pop-star Points: 361]

[Criminal Points: 2530]

[===Attributes===]

[Appearance: 34]

[Charisma: 31]

[Fearsomeness: 27]

[Strength: 19]

[Dexterity: 24]

[Toughness: 42]

[===Skills===]

[Singing: 179]

[Dancing: 8]

[Playing guitar: 164]

[Music theory: 21]

[Music production: 8]

[Acting: 20]

[Songwriting: 14]

[Voice control: 53]

[Stage presence: 137]

[Playing piano: 246]

[Video editing: 201]

[Sneaking: 20]

[Close-quarters combat: 456]

[Observation: 160]

[Driving: 16]

[Pickpocketing: 30]

[===Talents===]

[Clark Kent Effect] [Partially Sleepless]

[======]

There was a half an hour walk from the bar where Tristan worked (uneventfully so far) and his apartment. Usually, Tristan used that time to plan more.

He was thinking that he needed to consider learning more criminal skills for the sake of PP at least, when he noticed a suddenly hostile gaze on himself.

"Bastard! Stop right there! You thought I won't recognize you?!"

From the edge of the sidewalk, three people approached Tristan. He saw them before and dismissed them as not a danger—they looked like ordinary blue collar workers.

Now Tristan froze.

'Who are these people? Did they recognize me as Hayes?!'

The first of the trio was red-faced and shaking with anger. He grabbed the collar of Tristan's T-shirt, pulling him close.

Tristan could've easily avoided this, but he was still in his Pop-star identity! He couldn't fight anyone in it!

If he did, and it somehow was put on Tristan Gemello's criminal record, this was going to cripple Tristan's career in the future (and possibly put Tristan in a prison). As a public person, Tristan Gemello won't be able to hide from the law.

"Mister, you must've mistaken me with someone!" Tristan said.

"The pretty boy is right—look at him! The guy your Jessica ran off with looked less handsome, didn't he?"

The guy who was holding Tristan's collar shook.

"THIS IS EVEN WORSE! Look at him, so smug! He's just the same wife-stealing asshole, I bet!"

"Shut up! If your wife ran off, it's because you are a walking potato who doesn't know what a shower is!"

Tristan bit his tongue, but it was too late. He pissed these people off even more.

"YOU shut up! My Jessica loved me for my personality! She was my light, my soulmate! You must've tricked her with your lies and pretty face!"

"I'm NOT the—"

Tristan was interrupted by a punch to the gut. He saw it coming, so he tensed his muscles, absorbing the worst of the damage, but it still hurt!

The potato guy shook his fist and sneered.

"That's right! Ain't so smug now, huh?!"

More punches rained on Tristan after that, from the main offender and his friends. Tristan could only block them with his forearms, protect his face, and search for the moment to act.

The moment his attackers paused to catch their breath, Tristan dashed between them and ran!

A man tried to hold Tristan by his jacket, but he just shook it off and kept running to the nearest alleyway. He heard shouts behind him, but no footsteps—these guys didn't even bother to chase him.

As soon as Tristan was out of sight, he put on his earring.

Now that he had nothing holding him back, Tristan was going to punish these guys as they deserved.