Locking In With My Life System

Chapter 38: Sadistically

Having sucked all the contents from the now empty juice box, Aiden’s voice came out in a rather odd way as he clarified;

"Why I said ’no’?"

"Yeah, that." Clarissa chuckled, finding his current visage rather cute.

"You know it has nothing to do with you, right?" Aiden clarified again, a candidness to his tone.

"I think you’ve made that pretty clear." she nodded with a thin smile, her legs freely dangling back and forth.

Hearing that, Aiden pondered over how best to deliver his thoughts across. Then, after a brief moment, he removed the empty juice box from his mouth and spoke properly;

"I have something I need to achieve, and anything that isn’t driving me towards that goal right now... I really don’t have the bandwidth for."

"That’s simply it." he concluded.

Yet, every single word he had said had been laced with such an unfathomable depth of resolve, Clarissa had no words to say in response.

Instead, she could only manage to hold his for far longer than she’d have wanted.

Honestly, the queen bee had always believed herself to be rather obstinate whenever she wanted something or had a goal she needed to achieve.

Yet, as she kept peering through Aiden’s eyes, the realization dawned on her that no matter what she did, he was never going to budge.

It was also why she couldn’t help but let out a resigned huff after a while, her breath blowing away her bangs.

"Of all the guys I’d have to go and have the hots for, it just had to be the one guy who happens to not be interested in pursuing a romantic relationship whatsoever..." she frustratingly grumbled.

"Now I can’t even will myself to pursue you ’cause it’d just make me an insensitive bitch if I did!" she continued in exasperation, her arms gesturing vaguely and then loosely dropping to her sides.

"Well, I’ll be damned. A lady with some sense of accountability. I’m impressed." Aiden amusedly remarked.

"Screw you!" she gently slapped his shoulders, a wry smile on her lips.

To that, Aiden genuinely laughed, his mirth drawing the attention of several people in the theatre.

If someone had told him a couple months ago that he’d have not just the guts, but the credence to reject the most popular girl in his school, he’d have called bullshit.

But then again, that was bound to happen from the moment he’d prioritized building a better future for himself and his father.

"Well, for what it’s worth, I think you’ll find your Prince Charming in due time." he then said a few seconds after.

"Yeah? Well, he better hurry his ass over ’cause you’re clearly someone else’s." Clarissa poutily remarked, her elbows dropping to her laps as she propped up her chin up with her palms.

Yet again, Aiden laughed amusedly, clearly drawing the attention of several eyes in the room, most of whom couldn’t help but wonder what the duo was discussing.

"Will you at least help me win Hoco queen? As a friend, of course." she then asked a couple seconds after, her tone hopeful.

For a while, Aiden considered it. Then, with a light shrug, he tilted his head slightly;

"Yeah, sure. Why not?"

...

...

...

Upon arriving home about thirty minutes later, Aiden stared wide-eyed at his phone, his follower count on TweetTalk having ballooned from the previous 2600+ two days ago, to its current 5000+.

That was literally almost double the audience he previously had on the platform.

Added to that, he had also gained an extra two to three hundred followers across his other social media platforms.

Clearly, people seemed to be enjoying ’Tues Your Adventure’ quite a lot, the most recent TweetTalk post having gone fairly viral with a view count of over 544K, 18K likes, 7K retweets and well over three hundred comments.

-

Erwin Taicho: I see you what you did there, you sly devil you!

Dommy_Mommy: I’ll admit, young padawan. You got a good laugh out of me with that last option.

MustProtecc: Who, amongst you sick fucks, voted for ’Stay perfectly still and get crushed.’?!!!

Coffee_and_Chaos: We all chose option C, didn’t we?

TheThing: I swear to God, man, if the rock dies, I’m coming for your ass @AidenDraws.

RPG Lover: This shit is actually getting quite fun. Wonder what sort of world this is set in...

Umu: Option C is absolute cinema and I refuse to believe otherwise! Umu!

LordOfTheRNG: I love how everyone’s voting Tatakae knowing damn well bro has literally zero methods of attack.

DoraTheDestroyer: Why am I not surprised that none of you went with the sane option?

-

Upon seeing the enthusiastic reactions and support from people, and realizing the vote was skewed towards option C, Aiden promptly got down to business and pulled out his drafts.

Seemingly coming to a decision a few minutes later, he made the next post.

-

TUES YOUR ADVENTURE

Fight?

Fight?!

Do you even understand what the concept of ’fighting’ is?!!

Do you even have the limbs, the brains, the mind, to do something so complex?!!

Yet...

Somewhere within your jagged, rocky soul...

You choose violence.

The footsteps draw nearer.

THUD!

THUD!!

THUD!!!

A colossal boot suddenly descends from above, crushing you like the feeble little thing that you are.

CRACK!!

Something ripples through your being.

Is this... pain?

Can rocks, even feel pain?

-------------------------------

{SYSTEM UPDATE}

Title Unlocked!

◈ Coward? Never!!!

When faced with certain destruction, you stupidly chose to throw hands despite having none.

Effect: +15% growth when surviving impossible odds.

-

New Trait Acquired!

◈ Fractured Evolution

What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.

Effect: Upon destruction, re-piece yourself for the chance to evolve into a stronger rock!

-------------------------------

The boot lifts, and you’ve managed to survive.

Broken and shattered into tiny pieces and fine dust, clearly, but not defeated.

However, you can sense that you’re been looked down upon...

What do you do?

└ A] Vow to take revenge!

└ B] Demand a rematch!

└ C] Evolve!

(Voting ends in 24 hours. Next post comes up next week.)

-

No sooner was Aiden done with the post, he nodded to himself, seemingly satisfied with what he’d come up with.

Minimizing the tab after he was done with it, Aiden then proceeded to check his dashboard.

To his surprise, there was a message from a prospective client.

It was only one, sure... but as of now, Aiden was more than glad to see it.

It was an indicator that things were already shifting in his favor, albeit slowly.

Quickly, he messaged said client whom he hoped would get back to him soon.

While waiting for the response, Aiden retrieved his phone and did something he honestly ought to have done the day before.

-

{Theo has been added to ’Four Idiots and One Helicopter Mummy’}

-

Squinting his eyes at the name of the group, one Casper had recently renamed solely to troll him, Aiden proceeded to leave it be...

...only for it to suddenly change in real time.

-

{Casper has renamed the group into ’Four Idiots, One Genius and One Helicopter Mummy’}

-

No sooner had Aiden seen the notification, he immediately dropped a message on the group.

-

Aiden: Fuck you, Casper!

Casper: Eiiiii! What are friends for, amirite?!

Theo: XD

Aiden: Welcome to our great stage of idiots, Theo.

Theo: Glad to be here :).

Clyde: Year 5000.mp3. Give it a listen.

Larry: Not to toot our horns, but dare I say, this is our masterpiece!

Benjamin: It’s gonna blow your minds.

Casper: I swear to God, if it’s not nearly as good as [Young Love], I’ll sue you three.

Aiden: Sweet! I’ll give it a listen now.

-

True to his words, Aiden had grabbed his earbuds, the little things already stuffed into his ears as he hit play.

Two and a half minutes later...

-

Aiden: Guys. You’ve done it. You’ve successfully thrashed every competition in the upcoming talent show.

Casper: Move aside [Young Love]! I have a new ringing tone! Also, you guys are safe. Sleep peacefully tonight, and may both sides of your pillow remain cold for blessing me with peak.

-

Naturally, the trio didn’t take Aiden’s and Casper’s review lightly. For a fact, they were of the belief that the song was just as good as they were giving it credit for.

Still, there was one more person on the group who could now give them a thoroughly objective view of things.

Which was why...

-

Clyde: So, Theo... what’d you think of it?

Theo: Honest opinion?

Clyde: Yeah.

Larry: Definitely.

Benjamin: Don’t pull your punches.

Theo: It’s amazing! And by amazing, I mean AMAZING! I like the playful, upbeat but futuristic, time-travel pop-punk theme its got going for it, though I must say some of the lyrics are... wow! Wow, and definitely detention worthy! I love all the [Back From The Future] references too! I think it’s a really neat addition! You think people would get it, though? Well, I don’t think it’d take away from it though. It really is a great song XD!!

Clyde: Who the hell are you?!

Larry: Who the hell are you?!

Casper: Who the hell are you?!

Benjamin: Who the hell are you?!

-

No sooner had Aiden seen the quartet’s reaction to Theo’s online nature, he couldn’t help but burst into laughter!

A moment after, he got a response from the client.

Then, after hashing the details a couple minutes after, he got down to work.

*

The next day, Aiden and the gang arrived at school, only to attend their first class of the day and their homeroom teacher informed them they’d be having a test in two weeks’ time.

Naturally, they’d assumed Mr. Lazlow was just being the sadistic soul that he was. Afterall, who else would think it was fitting to have a CA for both Mathematics and Calculus in Spirit Week.

Then, came their Chemistry teacher, the kindly middle-aged lady announcing towards the end of the class that they’d be having a CA test in the coming weeks.

No sooner had that happened though, the students naturally began to sense an omen, one they hoped wouldn’t be true.

Unfortunately for them... by the time the closing bell for the day rang, more than half of the senior students were practically sweating buckets.

Afterall, all of their teachers had sadistically unified to keep them in check during Spirit Week by bombarding them with one test after another.

And for Aiden...

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[Ding!]

[Exclusive Quests Updated!]

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