Eye Candy - My Superstar System

Let Me Enjoy My Breakfast

Tuesday, 21st February 2017 1045hrs

I left the shelter earlier and had gone to the Barclays Bank and had made a bank account just by using my name alone. No other credentials needed and I had successfully deposited all the balance of £200 and had been given a Barclays Debit MasterCard.

I checked the time at the bank’s counter and I realised that I have about 15 minutes to report for work and for lunch! With the Debit Card in my back pocket, I felt more secured than ever since if I drop my cash, I would not be able to retrieve it all.

Unlike with this Debit MasterCard, I had somehow linked it to my no-existing mobile number for the 2 step verification. So in case, someone picked up my card, they were unable to use the Debit Card no matter what and could not even make online purchases!

Am I clever or what? Furthermore, the NPCs would not be doing all the looting and stealing around here in this virtual world, right? Only the players would have that kind of mind to perform such deeds.

Nothing much happened during work and throughout my usual shift as I ended the work as normal at 1 am thereafter. As I was sitting down for supper, Sue updated to me my usual stats and informed me to be up and about tomorrow morning as there would be some footwork that I need to perform.

“Where do you want me to go, Sue? I just deposited in the bank and wanted to watch it grow! Can I wait for another week or so? Besides, by the end of the week, I would have £900 already and that would make me earn at least £3,600 in a month! That’s pretty neat if compared to those dishwashers in the real world where they would earn less than half of the amount for lesser hours of work, I presume.”

“I want you to go downtown and look for second-hand book stores. That’s where NPCs are hoarding the Basic Skill Books and not all shops have books. Here, let me guide you through since you are a newbie to games such as this.”

Sue opened up the interface and this is the first time I had seen it being assessed since Sue is the one who locked the option up. I could see the following:

Basic Keyboard 0% / 500%

Basic Piano 0% / 500%

Basic Vocals 0% / 500%

Basic Acting 0% / 500%

Basic Charisma 0% / 500%

Basic Showmanship 0% / 500%

Basic Leadership 0% / 500%

Basic Composing 0% / 500%

Basic Melody 0% / 500%

Basic Poetry 0% / 500%

Basic Music Production 0% / 500%

(*)Basic Social Skills 10% / 500%

Set status - Nothing

Everything in the Skills Tab is empty except for Basic Social Skills that had an asterisk within a parenthesis. There’s a 10% increase and I think its due to the communications I had with Laura, Mr Aziz, the coppers and the old man in the milk truck. Even though they are NPCs but they seemed decent enough to pass as humans. (Is there such a sentence?!?!)

“As you can see, Matthew, your stats are truly abysmal at this moment. If let us say you go and buy a book on Basic Charisma, all you have to do is to perform in front of a mirror for 1 hour a day _OR_ you can set the status as learn Basic Charisma and let nature takes its course, which would be 5 days before it attained one star or 100%.”

“Given that you may not have the privacy to practise Charisma in front of a mirror for one full hour, then I think we could let the system takes control of it autonomously. Besides, not everything could be done on the fly given your busy schedule. So tomorrow, we are going downtown, alright?”

Geez, I felt like as if Sue is right here with me and we would be physically be going shopping downtown. She mentioned downtown, but where would she want me to go?

“There are two ways of doing so. First, you look at your search icon there and you key in Basic Charisma. Then a list would be shown to you, both brand new and second-hand ones.”

“If the books are considered as rare, then the possibility of the Skill Book’s price to be raised to as much as 400% is considered normal. So if it is not, then you can hunt for the second-hand ones. Here, I found one. It is in Skoob Books on 66 Brunswick off, just across the Russell Square Station past Tesco.”

“There are over 55,000 used books there so basically everything is not in order as expected and you need to spend some time to go and rummage through the mountainous pile of books that were all mixed up, fiction, non-fiction, educational et cetera.”

“Another method is to look for one being auctioned by players. If they purchase at £500 they would want to sell it a bit higher to gain a profit. Some of them would not charge a penny but there would be so many players chasing after a single Skill Book! Its just a publicity stunt to show the popularity of one’s band, that’s all.”

I nodded my head as if Sue was talking to me right in front of me and it drew stares when I was having my supper and at the same time headbanging!

“Alright, understood Sue. I would attend to it once I had finished my supper and on the way back to the shelter. At least I would be able to concentrate properly and not while I am eating, showering or even pooping. Hahaha…!”

“That sounds fair, Matthew. Alright then. I would be here when you need me and just holler my name and I would respond to you. Remember, 66 Brunswick off, right at Russell Square Station. I am sure that you would want to spend time over there. They are open at 9 am so it gives you 2 hours to rummage through the pile over there. Maybe you could find other Skill Books that are considered as museum quality and I am sure you would want to take a miss at them.”

“There is no point for one to go through a Skills Book that was deemed redundant and I am sure there would be more Skill Books that suits you. The Skill Books have a gold band all around it at the perimeter so its quite easy to find, whether its Basic right up to Professional, the book cover is the same throughout.”

“Once you find one, you let me know, see if it suits you and then check out the price. Try to haggle the price down to as much as 50% of what is being offered on the price tag and I am sure you would be able to stretch your budget this way.”

Once again Sue was being long-winded just like Laura. I believe NPC and system are alike. Once they start talking they would be filling you with all kinds of information that you seemed that your brain would overload at times.

“Err, thanks, Sue. I would like you to go offline for a while since I need to enjoy this Mutton Keema with the plain Chapati. This is great stuff! I could eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And compared to rice, if I downed 2 pieces with the Mutton Keema, it would keep me full till breakfast!”