Jason strolled through the dimly lit streets, hands in his pockets, a faint smirk playing on his lips. The cool night air brushed against his face, bringing clarity to his thoughts.
That day had been crazy. Actually, every day since the day he had hit his head had been crazy.
But he was someone driven and he was never going to let it get to him. Someone with intentions bigger than themselves had to look at life not in the first or second person but in the third person.
After all, Life was a Game.
In the Mentality Book, What he got was an idea about how he could conceptualise life like a Game, and ever since he finally understood something like that, he could finally understand something incredible.
In the game, there is some ultimate mechanism that people use to get what they want and where they want and that is through grinding and working hard. That was true with life too.
You are born with a level 0 character, and you have to work hard, getting higher in level until you finally manage to become someone powerful. But only after overcoming hardship after hardship. Struggle after struggle. And what are these struggles?
The Work!
There was something everyone had to do based on their goals and intentions. Anything that got someone closer to their imagined Goals was the Work. That in a game was the equivalent of battling a Goblin to level up. A Quest. A Task. That was the Work in a game since the overall mechanism of a game was to become high-level.
In life, just like in a game, it is all about making it higher up in status and power, getting more money and finally having the ability to do more things. It was about overcoming struggles, levelling up, and then making it to the highest level where one could finally take on even bigger struggles against those at the same level of business, politics, and power.
Whether in a game or real life, it was the same kind of struggle. Goblins to Ghosts, to Trolls, to Demons, to Dragons. Jason had to work hard and kill everything in his way, to take down everything that tried to stop him from reaching his Goal.
The goons, his work partners, these were nothing more than Goblin Level Tasks. After all, he was a low-level Player right now. He knew that he was going to get even more terrible struggles and difficulties in the future. And when it came he would be able to handle it since he would have been levelling up the entire time.
All of it was for him to get closer to his goals. To level up, explore the Game Map, and see everything. Well, Maybe Jason had a bit of a cheat, but who didn’t?
|————————————
|| Master Programmer System || Stats | Missions | Items | Store |
—————
Your Current Missions:
—> Make your Sexy Boss Fall For You (8% done)
—> Take Revenge on the Grumpy Middle-Aged Landlord (12% done)
—> Take Revenge on the Goons (62% done)
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Staring at his cheat, Jason smiled. He was now all over the place after accepting these missions. And yet, it did not feel like he was all over the place. It felt like he was right where he needed to be.
Smiling, Jason also remembered that he had a new Mission available for him, a mission that he had been unsure to take on, but he was now sure about.
|————————————
| Master Programmer System | Stats || Missions || Items | Store |
—————
1 . Get Your First Subordinate!
————————————|
|————————————
| Get Your First Subordinate! |
—————
Turn your friends into your subjects. You are not normal. You are a king among men. Turn them all into your subjects. Make them take the knee in front of you. Make them kneel!
Rewards:
—> Level up +1 +1
—> 40 MC
—> New Mission: Build a Syndicate!
[Start]
————————————|
Wow… If he completed this, there was going to be another mission waiting for him, huh… Interesting.
Well, Jason was going to take this on. He was going to win. After all, what was the point of playing the game if he could not win? Anyway, this was not a Dragon-level challenge. This was nothing more than a Goblin. And he was sure that he could defeat a Goblin. All he needed to do was grind at it and then he would take it down.
[Start]!
|————————————
|| Master Programmer System || Stats | Missions | Items | Store |
—————
Your Current Missions:
—> Make your Sexy Boss Fall For You (8% done)
—> Take Revenge on the Grumpy Middle-Aged Landlord (12% done)
—> Take Revenge on the Goons (62% done)
—> Get Your First Subordinate! (10% done)
————————————|
Heh! He was already 10% done too. How cool. This was the power of effort and accumulation.
Anyway, this was not going to be too difficult. All he needed to do was to just show Oliver a bit of magic, and the person would be amazed, looking at him like a god descended from the heavens.
Feeling his phone vibrate, Jason opened it up, realising that it was another Text from Isabella. She had sent him three messages. He would check them out later. Putting his phone back in his pocket, Jason looked up into the sky.
The timing was everything.
He imagined her waiting, staring at her phone, wondering. After a few hours, she’d feel a pang of curiosity. A day later, anxiety would creep in. By the second day, self-doubt would bloom… It would be like a whisper in her mind that maybe she wasn’t enough.
That would be the perfect moment. He would come in, saying, "No, you’re enough… But only if I’m around. Only if I’m looking at you." Even without knowing it, she would get hooked. Her self-esteem would be inevitably linked to whether or not he was looking at her.
"Let her stew," Jason murmured, his voice low but tinged with amusement. A grin tugged at the corners of his mouth. He wasn’t cruel—he was calculated. He played his cards with precision.
That was the Game! This was the Work!
When he arrived home, the dim glow of the living room lamp revealed Veronica seated on the couch, phone in hand. She was swiping through something, her brow furrowed in concentration.
Jason paused at the doorway, watching her. Even in a simple T-shirt and jeans, she radiated a quiet elegance that caught him off guard. Those looks, that snow-white skin, and those amazing features… So beautiful.
Should he disturb her? Or should he give her time to miss him? For a moment, he hesitated. But in the next moment, he made a decision. It was easy to decide. She had been missing him for a long time now. Let’s give her something to continue missing.
Then, composing himself, Jason walked in, his steps deliberate.
"Hey," Veronica greeted without looking up, her tone casual.
Jason unbuttoned his shirt slightly as he sat down beside her, loosening up from the day. But he was also making sure that he showed her some skin. Because why not… Just to get her blood pumping a bit at the end of the day.
He did take a good look at her though. She was incredibly stunning, and it made him look at her differently. Jason couldn’t help but think about his life and the direction it had taken. If he was someone who was still in his family, still a Cross. Would he have looked at her?
If he was Jason Cross with the golddigger girlfriend and the fake friends, would he still care about her? It was such an interesting question to think about. Fate was an incredible thing.
Maybe he was fated to have lived the life he had, to be in that moment where he was forced out of his family, forced to live in some small dingy apartment, forced to be someone who went looking for jobs, forced to go and find a job at a convenience store as his last resort...
And now he couldn’t help but wonder if he was being forced to influence her, to force her into a relationship with him.
Was everything in life all about forcing? Was that what it meant? The hand of Fate? It was just a hand that pushed him and people like him into situations they couldn’t control. Did Jason even have any real control of his life?
"What’s up?" Veronica said, having felt eyes on her, only to look up and see Jason looking at her in a daze. When Jason finally came back to himself, he couldn’t help but chuckle, seeing the smirk on her face. "What? Am I too dazzling when I’m in my business face?"
"That’s right, you really are..." Jason said with a smirk and when Veronica heard that she froze and then began giggling, waving her hand in the air.
"Oh, you! Why don’t you go grab yourself a snack so we can chat afterwards? I’m still a bit busy answering work communication texts, so please excuse me."
"It’s okay. I’m glad to finally see you.," he replied, his voice warm yet calm. She glanced at him with a smile and shook her head, her head going low engrossing itself in her phone. Jason let it be, sighing as he rose to get himself a drink from the fridge.
As he poured a glass of water, he took out his phone. He glanced at the screen to see a message from Isabella.
New n𝙤vel chapters are published on freeweɓnøvel.com.
[Hey Jason! I enjoyed our time today.]
[But next time, please don’t do that kind of thing at the hospital. Otherwise, I might just lose my job. And my mind!]
[By the way... When am I seeing you again?]