Getting jacked

Later, when he sat on a bus and slowly drove through a congested highway, Tristan found that every skill he used to record his song improved by 1-3 points. His charisma also increased by a point, and all that gave him 210 new Criminal Points.

Now he had 1420 Criminal Points waiting to be spent.

The bus brought Tristan to the Good Lion Bar only ten minutes before his shift. Barely enough to not get dirty looks from the bar's administrator.

***

Next day.

[Ding!]

[Music production skill increased by 1. Reward: your CP increased by 10.]

[Ding!]

[Video editing skill increased by 1. Reward: your CP increased by 10.]

Tristan got these notifications after spending half a day on editing the song record from yesterday. The result from yesterday was already good enough, so today Tristan only did the finishing touches.

He composed a contest application for the Californian Young Star contest, checked twice that everything was alright, and sent it.

Tristan didn't let himself hesitate or worry.

But the application was only a half of it. After all, the contest's rules didn't forbid songs for contests being posted elsewhere, as long as this happened after the date when the contest began accepting applications.

Tristan found a free-to-use photo of a dragonfly online, edited a flame effect over it in a video editor, and attached his song to the result.

He posted the video on his YouTube channel—his second video there.

[ Dragonfly | original single ]

Tristan hoped this video will do better than the first one.

That video, although it got 10k views at the start, didn't get a lot of new views afterward. Now it was sitting at 15k views, but Tristan didn't get any new CP from that.

He wasn't sure if only the first impression mattered for the Second Identity System, or if it was because most of the people just re-watched the video over and over.

***

Next day.

[Ding!]

[You had impressed an audience of 23 thousand people online with your performance. Reward: your CP increased by 4500!]

[Ding!]

[You had impressed an audience of 4 thousand people online with your performance. Reward: your CP increased by 500!]

Tristan had been washing dishes after lunch when he got the notifications. After that, he immediately went to check on his YouTube channel.

30k views, and 10k more views to his previous video! He also got several hundred subscribers.

Tristan grinned, scrolling through the new comments he got.

[omg I loooove this! please dont stop posting!]

[so intense. insects are metal now, I suppose]

[I'm going to play this for actual dragonflies, will comment with results]

[this is so epic, I want an entire album from you please! I'd go to your concerts!]

[this dragonfly is just fire lol]

[will you make a music video? I love to see you sing, it was so cool on your other video!]

Tristan paused to reply to this comment.

[I'm planning to, just wait ;)]

Short, sweet, a bit mischievous. Perfect for his Pop-star persona.

He scrolled farther, then paused.

[This is terrible. Idk why the algorithm decided to suggest this to me. Try better]

Tristan smirked.

If he was seeing haters like these, it meant he was really becoming popular. 

Tristan gave that comment a dislike and moved on.

After replying to a few other comments he particularly liked, Tristan went to his status window.

He had 6430 Criminal Points to spend.

'System, open today's shop.'

[======]

[===Shop===]

[Skill refund: 100 points]

[Logistics skill: 10 Criminal Points.]

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

[A foreign bank deposit card: 3000 Criminal Points]

[======]

That was an interesting, but still useless, selection. Tristan sighed.

He actually saw "Sleepless" talent a few days ago, but it cost 4000 points. Now that he could afford it, it was a lottery when it would appear in the shop again.

He didn't want to refund any of his skills, anyway. And having so many Criminal Points just stored and waiting was a waste of points.

Tristan pondered about this for a moment, then opened the status window and reached for his attributes.

Before, he didn't spend anything on them because of their expensiveness. But now he had the points.

[Ding!]

[Strength attribute increased from 20 to 120.]

[Ding!]

[Dexterity attribute increased from 25 to 125.]

[Ding!]

[As a result of attribute changes, your appearance attribute increased by 20, and your fearsomeness attribute increased by 5.]

The next moment, Tristan's body was overwhelmed by a tingling sensation. Suddenly, his shirt and pants sat slightly tighter on his body.

He hurriedly went to his bathroom mirror and looked at himself in various poses.

Although Tristan never was entirely out of shape, even after a month of going to gym, his muscles weren't really visible.

However, now he had a 6-pack! At least, when Tristan tensed his muscles. He also felt like his movements were much more coordinated.

He still had a healthy amount of fat over them, so Tristan's muscles weren't as defined as those of Hollywood stars. He knew that he'd need a carefully structured diet to achieve that level.

Still, now Tristan looked like a person who went to a gym for years, and could probably lift 60 or even 80 kilograms without too much effort!

He looked at his status, too.

[======]

[Tristan Hayes (Tristan Gemello)]

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

[Pop-star rank: Opened The Door.]

[Criminal rank: Rook.]

[Pop-star Points: 0]

[Criminal Points: 4430]

[===Attributes===]

[Appearance: 54]

[Charisma: 33]

[Fearsomeness: 33]

[Strength: 120]

[Dexterity: 125]

[Toughness: 42]

[===Skills===]

[Singing: 432]

[Dancing: 8]

[Playing guitar: 669]

[Music theory: 274]

[Music production: 511]

[Acting: 392]

[Songwriting: 517]

[Voice control: 284]

[Stage presence: 139]

[Playing piano: 679]

[Video editing: 202]

[Sneaking: 628]

[Close-quarters combat: 457]

[Observation: 673]

[Driving: 16]

[Pickpocketing: 530]

[Firearms shooting: 1]

[===Talents===]

[Clark Kent Effect] [Partially Sleepless]

[======]

'If Sleepless talent appears in the shop, I can still buy it,' Tristan thought.

Then he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. Someone was calling him!