A Better Man [Pidgeon]

He glanced over at his Character Sheet. The first thing he noted was that the use of this so-called Observe power just now had cost him two points of MP. Did that mean he could do magic? Was Observe an actual, genuine, truly for real magic spell that he’d just randomly unlocked?

Hmm. Ah, so it’s another Skill? John thought to himself as he noticed how Observe was now listed under the Skills section.

John looked between the Quest and his Stats. A slight frown tugged his lips downward as a realization came to mind. Aside from Intellect, Libido was his second highest Stat, and by a fair margin when compared to Wisdom. Was he really almost twice as horny as he was wise?

At that moment, it felt odd that out of all things, masturbation would be considered Quest material. He had no idea where these sudden powers had come from, but did it really deem masturbating to be such a normal part of his morning routine? To the point where even for a Quest titled “get ready for school,” jerking off was considered part of that?

Then there were his boxers. Observe had pointed out how they had been unwashed for the last two weeks, which was something John hadn’t even thought of till now. If someone had asked, he might have thought they’d been worn for the last few days in a row, sure, but two whole weeks? Of course, the final nail in the coffin of shame just had to be the last bit of them smelling heavily of both sweat… and dry semen.

It wasn’t strange for him to be horny. He was a young adult man, after all, who had only just turned 18. But after he read the description for the boxers, John couldn’t help but wonder if things had gone too far. Mountains of tissues must have been sitting in a dump by now, from a routine of masturbating in the morning and then at night just before bed. It was so normalized as just something he did, that he hadn’t even thought about it. If John just happened to be even a little horny and was free, it wasn’t too unusual for him to stop watching a show or pause a game and take a few minutes to just go wank one out.

Finally, there was the simple fact that his horniness had led to him being broke. So today, he would have no lunch money, all because he had made an impulse decision to buy the game because of some skimpy girls in the advertised art. All for the sake of getting Ultimate Dream XXIV as soon as it came out, even if it used up his remaining allowance and left barely two bucks in John’s wallet as all the money in his name.

He couldn't even say that purchase had even been worth the money from a horny perspective. Because while the characters’ clothing was very teasing, they weren’t even fully nude in the game itself, for goodness’ sake! Why hadn’t he just pirated an actual porn game or something instead?

One could compare it to a bad smell in a house. Where, even if it’s awful, the person who lived in that house would become nose blind to that smell eventually. To John, this felt like a sudden wake-up call that the metaphorical smell had been normalized for far too long. Not to say that he planned on living as a eunuch or something from here on out, but that he would at least be more mindful about moderation.

If waking up with strange powers that made life like a video game wasn’t a chance for him to turn things around, then what possibly would? John took a quick look around his room. There was a small trash can under his desk filled with crusty tissues, as well as chip bags and such. It was so full, that more trash was just crumpled as a ball on his desk. John could have prevented that easily by simply changing the bag at any point, but he simply hadn’t due to the neverending self-promise to do something later.

You know what? Screw it. I have time until the bus shows up, so let’s just take care of this now. Won’t take more than a couple of minutes, anyway. With that thought and a determined nod to better himself, the Gamer got to work.

First, he went over to his closet and took the chance to play with his Gamer powers a bit more. As John held some actually clean boxers that had been buried in a drawer with some socks, he tried to equip them from his hands. When that didn’t work, he tried to put the boxers in his Inventory instead.

In an instant, they disappeared from his grasp and showed up as just a line in his Character Sheet instead. From there, John dragged it to the same equipment icon that his previous boxers had occupied. The moment he did so, they appeared on his person. With that mechanic now better understood, John put the boxers back into his Inventory along with the rest of the Ashcroft Academy uniform in his closet.

Almost directly across his bedroom door was the upstairs bathroom. After a quick check to see if his mother was within sight, a fully nude John quickly took the several steps needed to cross the hallway. Once in the bathroom, he first heeded the call of nature and then stepped into the shower. As much as John was one to enjoy a long and hot shower, he decided to be efficient with his time today and hurriedly got himself cleaned up.

After his shower was finished, he took the few minutes needed to get himself dried off. He then equipped all the clothing in his Inventory and went back to his room. It only took John another couple of minutes to get his school bag ready and slung over his shoulder. While he had considered putting it into his Inventory, he realized that his mother would find it weird if she saw him leave without it. But he did go ahead and put his phone and wallet in his Inventory, just for safekeeping.

Huh, that’s a good question. Will my phone even work in there? Seems to put my stuff away into some weird subspace or… something like that. Hmm, well, only one way to find out. John took a moment to take his phone back out, set an alarm for one minute from now, and put it back in. He believed that would be as good of a test as any to see if the phone would remain functional while inside his Inventory.

In the meantime, he collected the filled bag of trash from the can and the random stuff scattered across his desk. John then cast a look at his old pair of unwashed boxers, and then at the closet that he knew was filled with more laundry whose cleaning had been procrastinated into oblivion. With the several minutes saved from his quick shower and choice not to masturbate, he decided that he could afford to also take care of this now.

A few minutes later, John walked away from the now active washing machine. It’d been easy to sort through his dirty laundry, since all of it had been left on the closet floor instead of being put away. He climbed the stairs out of the basement, and took a moment to head outside to get rid of the trash currently in his Inventory. As John went past the kitchen, his mother called out to him as she stood in front of the stove.

“Breakfast will be done in just a moment, honey!” his mother, Brenda, exclaimed without looking up from the pan of eggs.

John’s stomach rumbled from the smell of good food as he walked through the hallway by the kitchen. “Thanks, Mom. Just going to step outside for a sec to take out the trash.”

“Okay. Oh! Could you do me a favor and check the mail while you’re out there?”

“Can do,” John affirmed before he exited through the front door. Just a few feet away was the larger bin to be pushed out for trash day, which he promptly used to get rid of all the collected garbage from his room. As he then walked toward their mailbox, he took his phone out from his Inventory.

The Gamer raised a brow. *The alarm’s still ticking down, huh? Does that mean time is frozen in my Inventory, or that everything is held in some kind of stasis? Wonder if that means I could keep a drink cold or a fresh meal hot inside of it. Something to test if there are any leftovers from breakfast I can take as lunch.*

With that intriguing thought, John opened the mailbox. There wasn’t much in the way of mail, just a few letters of which most were obviously junk. But there was one that stood out, and with a sigh, John opened it as he went back inside.

Hey kiddo, he began to read from the letter’s contents. Work’s been a pain with non-stop meetings for this and that. If you’re reading this, it’s because I couldn’t find a way to make it back in time for your 18th. Hopefully, I’ll be home soon with cake for a belated happy birthday. But in the meantime, here’s a gift for you to use on whatever you want. Love, Dad.

Enclosed with the letter was a gift card with a small note that mentioned it had a hundred dollars. The good news was that as the pretty universally usable kind of gift card, the issue of John’s misspent allowance was now solved. However, his lips curled downward into a frown as he passed by the trash bin. John paused by it for a moment, before he put the gift card in his Inventory and threw away the rest of the letter.

John… wasn’t sure how to feel about his father. This wouldn’t be the first birthday that the man had missed due to work, as this had already happened for the last few years in a row. He already knew that when his dad wrote that he would “be home soon”, that really translated to not being back for a few more weeks at the earliest.

On the other hand, the same job that kept him away from home all the time was why his family could afford John‘s attendance at the prestigious Ashcroft Academy. While that still put them at the lower end of the wealth scale when compared to the other elite families of the student body, it was still enough to get in. Even after the tuition cost, it still left enough for John and his mother to live in a big house in a nice neighborhood, where they could enjoy a comfortable lifestyle.

“Nothing interesting in the mail,” John commented as he left the other letters on a kitchen counter. His mom would still want to sort through them herself later. In the meantime, the table had already been set with a full breakfast. He took a seat opposite Brenda as she swallowed down her latest bite of food.

“Mhmm,” Brenda simply acknowledged as she went for another bite. John did the same as he put his frustration about his usually absent father out of his mind, and just enjoyed the always delicious food instead.

Neither of them spoke much as they both just tried to eat rather quickly. John did so because he would have to catch the bus and head to the academy soon. While his mom, despite their family not needing the money, would shortly head to work. He knew that it was because her job was one she actually liked and that his mom would rather do that than be bored at home all day, which John understood and respected. On that note, she was the first one to finish her plate and get up.

“I’ll be heading off now; got everything you need for school?” Brenda asked.

“Yeah, Mom, already ready… for a change.”

Despite the less-than-jovial tone he used after that brief pause, his mother still smiled a bit. She walked around the kitchen table to give him a peck on the cheek. As she then half-stepped into the hallway that led to the front door, Brenda turned back around.

“Every good habit has to start from somewhere, right? But even if you’re late to school sometimes, you’re still doing so well with your grades, honey. Just remember that I’m already proud of you, alright?”

John only nodded as he wasn’t sure what to say in response. He just ate his breakfast as his mother grabbed the car keys hung by the door and then left for work. When he soon finished his plate and downed the last gulp from his cup of water, a new batch of text appeared before him.

Quest Complete!
Quest: Get ready for school
Optional Objective: Incomplete
Reward: +20 Experience

New Achievement unlocked!
Achievement: First step toward self-betterment
Description: Chose to not do the optional objective for ‘get ready for school’ to instead take the first steps to better yourself.
Reward: +2 Wisdom

John blinked. He’d been willing to miss out on the optional reward, but hadn’t expected to just be rewarded in a different way. One could wonder if doing such basic tasks as cleaning his room and starting a load of laundry was enough to be called an achievement, but he wouldn’t complain. Curious to see what those two points in Wisdom might have done, he pulled his Character Sheet back up. Upon doing so, however, John suddenly wasn’t sure if he liked the screen he had changed it to earlier.

He believed that for most video games, a fancy UI wasn’t necessary. As long as the information presented was both easy to find and understand, that was all one really needed. With that in mind, John decided to play around with his Character Sheet a bit. With just his thoughts alone, he reverted it to a purely text-based format, but still made sure that it showed all the information that he deemed to be generally important.

Once it was ready, John took a moment to stand back and take a look at his adjusted Character Sheet in full.

General Info:
Name: John Newman
Class: The Gamer
Level: 3
Experience: 262/600
Money: $102.54
Inventory Slots: 2/24

Resources:
HP: 45/45
HP Regen: 0.265 per hour
MP: 60/60
MP Regen: 2.892 per minute

Stats:
Strength: 8 (+0)
Agility: 15 (+0)
Endurance: 6 (+0)
Intellect: 25 (+0)
Wisdom: 12 (+0)
Charisma: 5 (+0)
Libido: 19 (+0)
Free Points: 0

Skills:
Gamer’s Body: Max
Gamer’s Spirit: Max
Observe: Level 1

First of all, John noted that his MP Regen had gone up a bit. Not by much, as it was a difference of less than half a point compared to before. So far, Observe was the only thing he had that used MP. But since he had unlocked that by accident, maybe there were more Skills he could potentially discover. Just then, however, the Gamer noticed the change to Money.

“A hundred bucks… wait.” John took his wallet out from his Inventory. Lo and behold, the couple of bucks he still had in cash were now missing. When he checked it next, the gift card had also just vanished entirely from his Inventory.

“Okay, but how am I going to pay for things in cash now?” he asked himself. “If the money’s just in the Inventory now, can I just take it back out?”

He tried to imagine a twenty-dollar bill in his hand. Just a second later, one popped into existence. John did a doubletake as he hadn’t expected it to genuinely work that way. But now that he’d confirmed it, he could already see the possibilities.

John looked at his Money, and confirmed that it had indeed been reduced by the expected amount. With just another thought, the bill was instantly returned to his Inventory. Before he could get too deep into more tests, however, the rumble of a loud vehicle could be heard from down the street. With just a glance at his watch, John confirmed that it was time for the bus to Ashcroft Academy to arrive.

Under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t be something for him to look forward to. His mother knew very little of his school life, and that was intentional. John had worked hard to at least keep his grades up, so she wouldn’t know if anything was amiss. But the truth was that the measly five points his Charisma was listed at was something he couldn’t genuinely argue against.

Not when he was indisputably the lowest person in the social pecking order of Ashcroft Academy, and regularly bullied by those at the very top.