The next day, the three people I hired were finally all set and ready.
Honestly, just getting to this point already felt weirdly satisfying.
A few days ago, this entire thing was basically just an idea floating around in my head. Now I actually had employees, schedules, responsibilities, and people depending on me to not completely screw everything up. It still felt kind of unreal when I thought about it too hard.
The first one was Denise.
She looked exactly like the kind of girl people would immediately label as a gal the moment they saw her. Tanned skin, flashy style, twin pigtails, as well as the accessories, the whole package. She looked like someone who spent a ridiculous amount of time perfecting her appearance every morning before leaving the house.
Not that I was complaining.
Honestly, she looked good.
Very good.
At the same time, though, she also looked like the type who would casually bully you for wearing outdated shoes while somehow making it sound friendly.
She was going to handle the night shift from 6 P.M. to 11 P.M.
Originally, I wanted the internet cafe to stay open twenty-four hours a day. It sounded cool in my head. The kind of place where people could walk in anytime at night to play games, study, waste their lives online, or cry over ranked matches at three in the morning.
But realistically speaking, I didn't have enough manpower for that yet.
Trying to force a twenty-four-hour schedule right now would probably just end with everyone hating me after a week. Including myself.
So for now, I figured it was smarter to keep things manageable instead of acting like some business genius speedrunning burnout.
The timing actually worked pretty well for Denise too. Her shift started around the same time she usually got home from university, then ended late enough that she could still study afterward if she needed to.
Although honestly, the schedule sounded exhausting when I looked at it properly.
Still, this was apparently the shift she personally wanted.
The reason?
Because she wanted access to the admin computer for her assignments.
Apparently, she didn't have a computer at home herself, so she planned on using the quieter hours during work whenever she needed to finish school stuff.
Which... honestly, I understood.
Not everyone could casually afford decent equipment. Even some cheap laptops nowadays looked like they were priced by criminals.
The second employee was Cassie.
Cassie honestly gave off the strongest introvert aura I'd ever seen.
She always kept her oversized hoodie on, barely spoke unless someone directly talked to her first, and looked like the kind of person who mentally prepared herself before ordering food at restaurants.
Still, despite how shy she looked, she at least understood computers well enough. She wasn't completely clueless about the basics, which already made things easier for me.
I seriously did not have the patience to explain what a browser was to somebody in this day and age.
She was going to work the morning shift from 6 A.M. to 12 P.M.
Apparently, she didn't have classes during those hours, so she specifically chose that schedule herself. She was also going to be the one responsible for opening the internet cafe every morning, meaning she'd be holding one set of keys.
Denise would keep the other set so she could close everything at night after her shift ended.
As for the last employee, that would be Charlotte.
Charlotte was taking the 12 P.M. to 6 P.M. shift because she didn't have afternoon classes and wanted to use the free time to work.
Although if I was being completely honest with myself, I had a strong feeling she was going to spend half her shift scrolling through her phone.
She just had that kind of energy.
The "I'm listening but I'm also texting somebody at the same time" type.
Still, as long as she actually did her job properly, I guessed it didn't really matter too much.
I wasn't expecting military discipline from college students working part-time in an internet cafe.
The official opening would be tomorrow, but for now, I was trying to teach them the basics and show them how everything worked.
Basically throwing them the ropes before the actual suffering began.
"Can we go home now?" Charlotte asked while leaning back in her chair. "I think it's enough that we know the area and how to operate the computers, right? Why are you dragging this out so much?"
"Well, I can't exactly leave you alone when you barely know what needs to be done yet," I replied. "So yeah, I kind of have to explain all this."
Charlotte groaned dramatically like I had just assigned her manual labor in the mines.
Honestly, she was way too expressive.
"Unfortunately, even though I'm a business major, I still haven't gone through the proper training to become some amazing manager or anything," I continued. "But I at least know the basics of handling situations in case something goes wrong."
I crossed my arms before continuing.
"Which is exactly why I'm giving you this briefing now. So none of you accidentally destroy something during actual work."
"Wow. So motivating," Charlotte muttered.
"At least I'm honest."
After hearing that, Charlotte seemed to understand a little better, even if she still looked mildly annoyed about being forced to stay longer.
Honestly, though, I surprised myself a little.
A while ago, I probably would've struggled to explain things properly without sounding awkward halfway through. But now, the words just came out naturally.
It was probably because of my COMMUNICATION stat.
Without it being as high as it is now, I'd probably be standing here stumbling over my words while sounding like a nervous idiot pretending to know business terms.
"You really sound like an actual business owner," Denise said.
She looked genuinely surprised after hearing me talk seriously for that long.
"Well... hopefully that's a good thing," I replied.
Honestly, only time would tell whether any of this was actually going to succeed.
But if I never took risks in the first place, then I'd just stay stuck forever.
Complacent.
Doing the same thing every day while pretending I was satisfied with life.
And honestly?
That sounded depressing as hell.
If I wanted to properly succeed someday, then I needed to keep improving myself too instead of waiting for miracles to magically happen.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
Right now, I was at the library studying with Clara.
Clara seemed genuinely excited about wanting to study together, and since we didn't really end up doing much back when I originally asked her for help, I guessed she was trying to make up for it now.
Especially since she was the one who approached me first this time.
Even though we'd basically become sex friends at this point, things surprisingly weren't awkward between us at all.
Actually, it felt weirdly natural.
There was no weird tension. No dramatic "what are we?" conversations like in romance dramas where people somehow manage to overcomplicate literally everything.
We just... got along.
I guessed that was simply how things worked between us now.
While she was explaining something from her notes, I ended up staring at her without realizing it.
"And then, if you solve this part first..." Clara paused before looking at me suspiciously. "Hey, Leon? Are you even listening?"
"Of course I am," I replied immediately. "I'm trying to save myself from the horrifying nightmare known as midterm exams, so why wouldn't I listen?"
"I still feel like you're distracted."
"Nah..."
I paused for a second.
"Okay, maybe a little."
Clara narrowed her eyes slightly.
"And why exactly are you distracted?"
"Probably because of your beauty, I guess."
The moment I said that, Clara immediately blushed and looked away for a second.
Honestly, seeing her react like that was kind of fun.
"You've become quite the smooth talker lately," she said.
"Have I?"
Honestly... maybe I really had.
The system was probably affecting me more than I realized.
"Yup," Clara replied while fixing her hair slightly. "You sound way more confident when you talk now too."
I guess that really was true.
At some point without me even noticing, my stats had started affecting more than just numbers on a screen. My confidence had definitely gone up too. The way I talked now felt completely different compared to before. I sounded more sure of myself without having to force it, and honestly, that alone already felt like a massive improvement.
Back then, I probably would've spent half the conversation overthinking every single word coming out of my mouth.
Now?
Things just flowed naturally.
Or at least more naturally than before.
Honestly, it was kind of scary how much of a difference the system was making in my life already.
During the study session with Clara, I ended up gaining another +10 INTELLIGENCE. After that, we eventually decided to part ways for the day.
We didn't really do anything physical this time since we already agreed beforehand that we'd keep things to the weekends. That was basically the arrangement we had going on now.
Weekdays for normal life.
Weekends for sex.
Simple.
Honestly, the fact that we somehow managed to establish that kind of relationship without making things awkward still surprised me a little. Most people would probably turn something like this into a complete emotional disaster after five minutes.
Meanwhile, we were over here casually planning sex schedules like it was a business meeting.
Still, there wasn't any awkwardness between us at all.
Things just felt... comfortable.
I also told her she could come over to my place anytime if she needed to.
We were already planning to do it again next weekend too, and honestly, just thinking about that already had me excited.
Well... obviously.
Being promised sex in advance was the kind of thing your brain naturally locked onto whether you wanted it to or not. It just stayed sitting in the back of your mind the entire time like some kind of mental notification you couldn't swipe away.
Not that I was complaining.
If anything, it gave me something to look forward to besides assignments and responsibilities trying to kill me every week.
After saying goodbye to Clara, I headed over to the gym.
And once I got there, I immediately spotted Lisa.
"You're here," she said with a smile the moment she noticed me.
"Well, I wanted to see you, so..." I replied casually.
Lisa stared at me for a second before letting out a small laugh.
"You really are good with words, huh?" she said.
Even though her tone sounded a little offended, it didn't really seem like she hated hearing it. Especially since she was blushing slightly while trying not to look directly at me for too long.
Honestly, reactions like that were becoming weirdly satisfying lately.
Not in an arrogant way.
Well... maybe a little.
Still, I probably never would've been able to casually flirt like this before the system showed up. My old self would've folded halfway through the sentence and started sounding like a malfunctioning NPC.
Now it just came naturally somehow.
Maybe my CHARISMA and COMMUNICATION stats were seriously carrying my social life harder than expected.
"After this, do you want to grab dinner together?" I asked her.
"Sure," Lisa replied. "After my shift ends."
Her shift ends at seven, so that meant I still had time to train for a while before then.
Honestly, I might as well use the opportunity to grind some stats while waiting.
At this point, increasing my stats was becoming weirdly addictive.
Every time I saw the numbers go up, I felt more motivated to keep going. It was almost like my brain had gotten hooked on visible progress. Every workout suddenly felt meaningful because there was actual proof that I was improving.
Not gonna lie, if someone told the old me that I'd willingly spend time at the gym and actually enjoy it, I probably would've laughed in their face.
Before getting the system, I didn't really have motivation for stuff like this.
Everything felt tiring before I even started.
Going to the gym sounded exhausting.
Studying sounded exhausting.
Trying to improve myself in general sounded exhausting.
Back then, it was way easier to just sit around and waste time while pretending I'd "start tomorrow."
Which, honestly, usually meant never.
But now that I could physically see results every time I put effort into something, my mindset had started changing too.
Every improvement felt rewarding.
Every stat increase made me want to keep pushing harder.
And honestly, because of that, it felt like I was becoming better at actually doing things instead of endlessly thinking about doing them.
Which was probably the biggest difference.
Hopefully, if I kept this up, I'd eventually become someone who could actually achieve the kind of life I wanted.
While I was thinking about all of that, I glanced over at Lisa again.
Right after that, the system suddenly appeared in front of me.
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NEW QUEST!
Lisa wants to get to know you more
Convince her to go on a date tomorrow
Reward: +30♥︎ Mood
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