True Happiness Rewards

Ding!

[Calculating evaluation of first venture...evaluation finished...effort B...calculating investments in your first venture...including money,time and other resources, the total amount equals 235 dollars]

Ding!

[System reward settlements...1175 dollars]

Ding!

[For your first successful venture considering the popularity of your book, you are rewarded with a 10× one time purchase cashback]

'Wow' that's crazy.

Ding! My phone buzzed in my pocket. After taking it out I saw a bank message

'Dear customer, your account number ending with ...143 has received a deposit of 1175 dollars. Your current balance is 1175 dollars. Thank you for banking with us'

Omg! I really received over a thousand dollars for writing a book while spending a little over a hundred dollars. I was ecstatic for a while before I calmed down enough to realize I might have skipped over a lot due to happiness. I had to go over the system messages again to finally catch on to the fact that I get ten times the amount I spend for a one time consumption. I started my silly routine all over again until I stopped in my tracks. Wait! Hold on! What did the system mean by the popularity of my book? I took out my phone and logged in to my author's account on the book site and my jaw dropped. Between noon and now, it had only been five hours and my book had over 50 thousand followers and counting with the numbers still rising fast. I became dizzy and short breathed for a second and had to breathe for some time before settling down. I started looking through the comments before I understood the cause and effect . It seems a big author with millions in following came across my book and it resonated with him. He commented with a heartfelt message and tipped me a thousand dollars. This alerted his followers and they came to see what the hype was about hence causing the present situation. More and more people also felt similar sentiments with the author and voluntarily tipped as their own way to express their thanks for writing such 'a wonderful and thoughtful piece of work' in their own words according to the majority of the comments. I felt tangled and conflicted so I went to sit on my bed for a while and tried to understand what I felt at that moment. For them I wrote something that they felt really strongly about and they could relate to. But for me I was only trying to complete a task and make money off it. Noted that I put in a lot of effort and didn't produce anything mediocre but the feelings between them and I were completely different. As I sat and thought on it, I realised that I didn't have to go through the same or similar things that they had to go through to sympathise with them. We all had emotions and just because I wasn't in their shoes didn't mean I was indifferent. At the end of the day, I put in the work and produced a good enough book were they could have a safe space and feel vulnerable and vent these things from the heart. I realised at this moment that, I felt real happiness along with a sense of accomplishment for what I did. It was a form of validation to myself to see the kind of reactions my work of art could bring to the world at large and people that I didn't even know. I was truly happy with myself at this moment.

It was at this moment too that I saw a notification from the system.

Ding!

[The system has detected the host has found his first true happiness since the system bound to host so there are system rewards]

Ding

[You have received 10 attribute points]

[You have have received 10 skill points]

[You have received a rare 100x consumption cashback]

[You have received a unique skill 'Midas' Touch]

'Wft!!!!' I saw the messages and my jaw dropped. Is this real?! For the first time, I became aware of how ridiculous the system was. Like how the hell can I have such great things happening to me when I have been feeling mediocre all my life. I was lost for words and all I could do was thank the system.

[You're welcome host]

Of all things that I could do with the money coming my way, the first thing I wanted to do with the money money was move to a better place. We were living in the deep slums of Philly and aside from the safety issues we had faced since moving here, every thing in this apartment was broken. From the leaking roof right down to the squeaky floors,nothing was worth saving. This was the epitome of living on a budget and if there was anything that I wanted more than anything was a better living condition than this hellhole. As for how to explain where the money was coming from, I had the author's contract in a file and was easy enough to understand. Speaking of the author's contract, since I sighed the exclusive contract starting that I was on putting my works on that platform, the splits for all the money made on the book site was shared sixty to forty with me enjoying sixty percent of all revenues and the platform taking forty. It was a good deal for me because I wasn't going to this as a long term thing and I didn't have any plans of working on several book platforms at a time. It was stressful and unnecessary for someone in my position with a cheat in life called a system, and judging from the extravagant rewards from finding happiness in writing a book, I could tell that rewards for finding true was worth much more than anything else.

It was at this moment that I heard my mom,sis and nephew come in the house.