Chapter 19 - The VIP Services

It was early morning when Leo woke up. He felt a sense of familiarity as his old body clock from Earth seemed to be kicking back in. On Earth, he always woke up early to check his games and collect offline rewards. This was also his sacred time to watch anime shows too. "One episode at a time," he always reminded himself with a chuckle. "I can't let society and its problems beat me," he mused, thinking about the overwhelming negativity brought by the news, people, and everything else around him.

He then remembered his system's rewards. Excitedly, he opened the interface and saw notifications overflowing. Over 90 messages awaited his attention. His eyes scanned the screen for the familiar button that would make sorting through this chaos easier. "There you are," he said with a smile, tapping "Receive all items."

30 great red potions received

30 great blue potions received

"Perfect," he thought, knowing these potions would be invaluable as they began their adventure today. He nodded in satisfaction, making a mental note to check the market value of these potions later.

But something caught his attention. There were more than 90 messages, yet he had only received 30 pairs of potions. The notification messages seemed to align with the days counted in his old world. He recalled being told he was out for three months. Curiosity piqued, he started scrolling through the messages, relaxing as he leaned back against the wall beside his bed.

"It seems rewards expire after 30 days," he realized. "60 days' worth of rewards is a lot, but there's no sense in dwelling on what's lost," he told himself with a resigned sigh. He tapped "Read all messages" and then "Delete all read messages."

Leo then noticed a pulsing circle on the bottom left side of the window. He tapped it, and four icons were displayed, forming a line upwards, each icon just above the other one: a pair of crossed swords, a golden crown (Locked), a gift box, and a shopping cart (Locked). He immediately recognized one of them as the quests list. Tapping it, a window appeared titled "VIP Quests." It had three tabs: daily and weekly.

Under the daily tab, there were three quests listed:

Hunting Quest: Kill 100 slimes.

Material Hunting: Obtain 50 wolf fangs.

Progressive Quest: Kill 100 slimes.

Leo didn't pay much attention to the first two quests for now, as their rewards were quite obvious based on the games he played before. So far, making his past games as oracles has been quite effective. The system interface, its behaviors, his status, and the rewards system were almost identical, with some reservations since he was comparing it to real life now.

In software testing, an oracle refers to a mechanism or set of rules used to determine whether a system's output is correct during the testing phase. Just as a software tester uses known behaviors and expected outcomes to validate software functionality, Leo uses the games he used to play as oracles to navigate this new world and his system.

With that in mind, he proceeded to check the Progressive Quest. He tapped it, and another window opened:

Progressive Quest I

Requirement: Kill 100 slimes

Rewards: Experience points, Progressive Quest II

His mouth opened slightly as he nodded. "So, this is like a chain quest," he thought to himself, a smile lingering on his face as he imagined the potential rewards awaiting him at the end of the quest chain.

He closed the window and tapped the weekly tab next. The quests listed were:

Kill 1000 slimes

Kill 1000 wolves

Complete 5 guild quests

Clear 2 non-VIP dungeons

Leo noticed that the quest to "Clear 2 non-VIP dungeons" showed 1/2 progress. He was thinking about it when Amanda woke up.

He greeted her with a warm smile, and she returned it sleepily. Slowly, she got up from the bed and sat on its edge, still wobbly and only partially awake. She mumbled something incomprehensible, and Leo chuckled as he watched her.

Amanda, still half-awake, made her way to the bathroom and took a shower. Leo decided not to disturb her, letting her go about her morning routine. Meanwhile, he continued checking his daily quests. Navigating back to the quest list, he tapped on the "Kill 100 slimes" quest. A new window popped up, and when he tapped the monster's name, a message appeared:

Move to the Slime Sanctuary?

Leo was visibly shocked to see the message, expecting that it would teleport him to the area where the slimes were. He hesitated, unsure of the location and how long it might take to return. He hadn't told Amanda his plans for the day, and disappearing without a word might cause some inconvenience. Despite his hesitation, curiosity got the better of him. He tapped Yes, but an error message was displayed:

You are not yet subscribed to the VIP Services.

Activate VIP Services?

He remembered reading about VIP services as a listed perk. Intrigued, he tapped Yes, and another message appeared:

Subscribe to VIP Services for 1 month for 100,000 gold coins?

Convinced that the ability to instantly move to quest locations was worth it, he tapped Subscribe. Multiple notification messages appeared in quick succession:

Successfully subscribed to the VIP Services for 1 month!

Professional services activated!

Storage service activated!

VIP dungeon activated!

Warp service activated!

You can now access the VIP store!

1,000 VIP coins received.

Leo's heart raced with excitement. He quickly navigated through the new features, eager to explore the benefits of his VIP subscription. This could be a game-changer for his adventures.

Although he knew that checking all of these in detail would take time, Leo decided to skim through each option and gradually learn about them. He navigated back to the icons and tapped the golden crown icon. A new window titled "VIP Services" appeared, containing only one item: "Personal Assistant: Aether." His mouth curved down slightly as he tapped it. Another window appeared, and he began to skim through it.

Personal Assistant: Aether

Name: Aether (Customizable)

Gender: Select upon summoning

"Summoning?" he thought to himself, intrigued. He continued to scan the description.

Appearance: Aether will appear in a form the user prefers...

He chuckled to himself, thinking it was like creating a new game character. "A character creating a new character—how hilarious," he mused. Skipping the rest of the description, he moved to the abilities and functions section where his eyes almost popped out while skimming its content.

Comprehensive World Knowledge Base

Task Management

Advisory Role

He quickly glanced over more items and stopped at the last one.

Instruction Processing: Aether can receive and execute complex instructions from the user.

He almost choked in surprise. Back in his world, AI services were immensely popular for learning, development, and many other tasks. This Personal Assistant was exactly like that.

He then recalled the word he had caught earlier: summoning. He could summon this assistant, making it like a personified AI! The thought excited him. He wanted to summon it right away, but common sense kicked in—how would he explain if someone suddenly appeared in their room? Calming himself, he decided to do it later, the anticipation building as he thought about the possibilities.

He then heard wet footsteps coming from the side of the room.