28 Realization 1 (1/2)
Gio somehow learned about the school incident from his people who were monitoring the school and other places where Floyd Cruz could appear. When the news of the death came into his ears, he knew the academy would be dismissing the students right away. Due to this, he arranged his family driver to pick up Sofony from school while he ordered Sofony to wait for the car.
”You don't actually have to do this. I know where your place is. Golden Residences is famous. I could have just commuted there.”
Sofony complained a bit over the phone because it had been quite a hassle when she had had to sneak into a car without letting other eyes see her. She also felt that she was a bother so she gave the old driver an apologetic smile.
”Are you alright?”
Sofony sighed from the backseat, her eyes on the road ahead, ”I'm fine. It's just quite unbelievable for me. Oops, you still don't know but a huge incident happened at school and that's the reason why we are asked to go home.”
Gio pretended to not know, he asked. ” What happened?”
Sofony replied in a sad voice. ”One of my favorite teachers suddenly died in the faculty's restroom. I'm not supposed to tell others because our principal forbade us. But I just want to share this to you. It really made me upset.”
”That's really sad news.”
”Yeah...”
”I think you are not in the mood, so I suggest you take a break from going to your cafe. You can take a day off.”
Sofony wrinkled her brows. ”I don't think that's good. You gave me the cafe. I don't know how to run it but I want to learn how. Being on site helps.”
”It will run even without you being there. You can first start reading books and learn theoretical knowledge about managing while at home. It's just today.”
Sofony no longer argued and thought that she was not really feeling well today to watch people at the cafe. She ended the call and let the phone sit on her lap.
<System: How's the feeling of being pampered?>
'... I don't want to talk to you.'
<System: But I want to. Hehe. I'm waiting for you to ask.>
'About what?'
<System: Maybe about why your acting is still bad despite raising the skill a few grades?>
She frowned. 'I think I know the reason. E+ is not a high level for a skill. Though I have an easier time pulling off an act, it's still nowhere as smooth as a novice TV actress... I'm aware of my bad acting. And I'm okay with it.'
<System: I'm frustrated with you. When will you realize that you're still a good for nothing with only appearance and studying skill as merits?>
'But I'm just a student...'
<System: You think you can be one forever?>
She looked away. '...I'm perfectly happy being normal. Why are we even talking about this? Is this because we met another host?'
Sofony thought it was weird that the system was acting like this. Normally it would be throwing her insults and teasing her in a rated SPG manner. Was something triggered by the appearance of another host?
'Hey, system. Is something the matter?'
<System: I've been with you for almost a month. And your stats, items, and skills barely improved. What the heck is wrong with you?>
'Hey, it's not like I have enough points to make a massive upgrade!'
<System: ...While stockpiling, can't you even try to increase them manually? Like knowing more makeup and dress-up techniques to increase your charm? Or challenging more difficult positions or places, like an open park and underwater, to increase Lovemaking?>
Sofony felt like she received great enlightenment. The idea really did not cross her mind and now that the system pointed it out, she blushed in shame. How did she not think of this method before? Did she become too dependent on the system, or too lax after the initial upgrade? By the way, don't be mistaken, she was thinking about the concept of manually upgrading and not the last example given by the thing in her head.
<System: And the stats? Increasing them are less expensive than skills so why the heck is your stats still very low?>
She didn't know why the system said the stats are low when she felt that they are all okay, so she asked. 'Why did you say so? I thought 10 is the standard, and two of my stats clearly surpassed that.'
The system then went to rant that 10 is actually just the average. For example, 10 in Intelligence was only enough for her to score 75 in a 100 item test. It drilled to her mind that she should strive for the best. The system nagged her to at least make her body comparable to athletes, whose stats when quantified should be around 15 to 20. The difference made her confused.
She inquired what is the cap, and the system told her, it was 50... She had a hard time believing it and the outcome that she imagined exceeded even Superman's. It was very ridiculous... and definitely unscientific.