Skill Book

"Mijita come downstairs!" Camilla's mother yelled up to her once more. 

"Ok, I'll be down soon," Camilla responded as she dressed herself for the day. Camilla gave a glance at the system before trapping it in her hands. 

"I can't let my mom see you so I need you to stay up here." She whispered. 

[The system can not be seen or heard by anyone other than the contractor. You do not need to worry.]

Camilla being reassured by the system unclasped her hand walked down the stairs and gave her mother a quick kiss as she sat down to eat the breakfast before her. She was eating her food peacefully when her mother sat beside her. That's when Camilla remembered what happened that day, in the past she and her mother had a small argument. This was one of many that ended up severing their relationship. This argument in particular ended up ruining her mood which made her perform worse at the audition and ultimately fail to get the part. 

Camilla sighed disappointed and ashamed of her past self. Her mother had only said that out of genuine concern for her and yet her past self took it so negatively. But now she knew better, she understood why her mother was so concerned, but unlike in the past, she would be able to rise through the film industry to succeed. 

"Mijita please listen and don't take this the wrong way but I don't think you should pursue acting as a career. I know you love acting it's just that not many make it big in the industry. There is a lot of darkness in that industry and I don't want you to be swept away trying to succeed. You should consider changing careers and getting a more stable job. I just want what is best for you." Camilla's mother softly whispered taking Camilla's hand in her own. 

"Mama I understand that you worried for me but I love acting so much I don't want to stop. But I understand that you're worried for me so how about this? You give me five years to prove myself and if I have become a successful actress then I'll leave it behind to pursue a more stable job." Camilla responded soothing her mother by rubbing circles into her palm. 

"Oh, sweetie when did you get so mature? I love you so much and I don't want you to suffer." 

"I know Mama." 

"OK, I agree. I'll give you five years and I'll do my best to support you. I don't want you to be sad because you never tried." 

"Thanks, Mama," Camilla said giving her mom a deep hug. 

The hug was interrupted by Camilla's phone ringtone going off. Camilla separated from her mom to pick up the phone and read what was on it. 

"Who is it?" Camilla's mother asked. 

"It's Peggy. I asked her to go drive me to the audition today." Camilla responded as she shot a quick text back to Peggy.

"Sweetheart you could've taken the car." 

"No. What if you needed it? We only have one car and I rather you have it so you can get around. It's fine I have plenty of friends who I can carpool with. I got to go now. See you later Mom. Love you." 

"Love you mas mijita." 

After giving her mother another kiss on the cheek Camilla rushed out of the house and into Peggy's CRV. 

"I'm going to take a nap so wake me up when we get there," Camilla remarked and Peggy hummed in acknowledgment. 

Ok, so how do I purchase and use the skill books you showed me earlier? Camilla thought in her mind hoping that the system would respond to her. 

[The user can purchase from the store using Fame Points. Fame Points are acquired when the user is recognized for their acting skill and when the user gains more fame. Being acknowledged by certain people will grant the user more points. For example, when a fan leaves a positive comment the user gains one point but when a famous actor leaves a comment the user gains twelve points.

After purchasing a skill book the user can only use it when in a state of rest, essentially any time the user sleeps. The time difference in this pseudo dimension is different than normal. For every five hours of learning from the skill book, only one hour passes in real-time. 

The user will be shown a progress meter of the mastery of the skill. The user can't purchase higher-level mastery skill books until the previous ones of the set have been completed. The user can have multiple skills books at once but can only actively learn from one at a time.]

Do I even have enough Fame Points to purchase a single Skill Book?

[The user currently has 35 Fame Points. 30 Fame Points were given to the user upon initialization of the contract.]

Where did the other five points come from then? 

The system didn't respond right away and shifted in the air in a manner that Camilla could only describe as embarrassment. Thinking back to the earlier alarm Camilla remembered that she gained points from gaining a new fan. 

Were you the new fan?

The system stopped shimming around for a moment as their soft cloud-like white body turned beet red. Camilla chuckled lightly at this the system was simply too silly sweet. 

Do you have a name I could call you? I would rather use that than call you System over and over.

[The system has no name. If the user wishes the user may call the system by its unit number.]

Camilla grimaced at that. She wasn't too inclined to call this fluffy little ball by a unit number it felt too dehumanizing, even though the system wasn't human. Camilla put a bit of thought into it and after a moment she came up with a name. 

I'm going to call you Marshmallow because you remind me of my old ragdoll cat Marshmallow. 

The system shook frantically in excitement and jubilation which Camilla found to be very cute and endearing. After jumping around the system's form began to shift and change and in its place was a beautiful white cat that immediately went to nuzzle up to Camilla. Camilla's heart was struck by the cute system, it was simply too good at acting coquettish and cute. 

Marshmallow I would like to purchase [Acting Technique Beginner], please.

[Purchase complete you now have 15 Fame points remaining.] 

Camilla let her body collapse against the seat as her consciousness was taken away into the pseudo dimension of the Skill Book. The room of the pseudo dimension was sparsely decorated, it only really consisted of a mirror and a slightly ghostly-looking table where 13 different paper stacks sat. Reading over the papers Camilla realized that these were the thirteen different acting techniques such as method acting, Stanislavsky's system, Stella Adler technique, and so forth. 

Camilla knew that she didn't have enough time to fully master every technique or fully master this skill book as the drive to the audition site would at most take one hour. She had to pick one acting technique to improve on and hope that it would be enough for this audition. 

Camilla took a moment to recall what role she had been auditioning for as it might give her an idea of which acting technique to choose. Camilla recalled that she was auditioning for a role in a disaster film as a tertiary antagonistic character. This character in question was supposed to react extremely negatively to the trauma received and display some of humanity's worst traits that would contrast with the female protagonist. 

Camilla immediately knew which paper stack to pick up and she walked past the other stacks until she stopped in front of the paper stack that read Method Acting. Method acting was very good at giving a raw emotional and sincere feeling performance by almost becoming the character, most actor would use their experiences to assist in this feeling. Camilla knew that even though she had yet to purchase the Physical Expressiveness Skill Book set or the Emotions of the Eye set, she could mostly cheat those by using her experience of being in a devastating plane crash. By using the feelings and memories of the plane crash Camilla believed she would be able to hide her lack of skill giving her enough time to be able to purchase and master those skills at a later date. 

With her choice, a ghostly vestige appeared before her and began instructing her through drills, practice scripts, monologues, and more.