Conviction

Jerry woke up in a great mood. Practicing martial arts yesterday had given him such a thrill. He made it a goal to practice martial every day from now on. As he got out of bed he felt his entire body ache. It looked like he wasn't completely recovered from yesterday. He felt like if he increased his Qigong level, he would be able to make a full recovery next time. The soreness didn't faze him, instead it made him more excited to exercise again today.

He checked the system.

[Time Until Next Time Warp: 11 Days]

[Today is a new day! Your daily tasks have been refreshed!]

[Daily Task 1: Run 4 laps around the school track, do 100 pushups, 100 sit ups, and 50 burpees. Reward: 50 points. If failed to complete, make up mission will be given. Time Limit: 8 PM]

[Daily Task 2: Hit the ball in the center of the tennis racket 1000 times while hitting on the wall. Reward: 50 points. If failed to complete, make up mission will be given. Time Limit: 8 PM]

[Daily Task 3 (updated): Draw 100 1-minute figure poses. 0/100 Reward: 100 points. If failed to complete, make up mission will be given. Time Limit: 8 PM]

[Objective: Draw 30 variations of female elves. Ink and Colored. Reward 200 points. Time Limit 4 days.]

[New Quest Received!]

[Warning! Quest is at difficulty level A which means your life could be in danger if you accept it!]

[Quest Objective: ???]

[Reward: ???]

[Location: Abandoned parking lot. Floor 4. Coordinates XXX,XXX]

[Quest will be automatically accepted if user shows up at location.]

Chills crept down Jerry's spine. The second day in and I'm already risking my life? Am I going to witness a murder in that parking lot? Or an arms deal? He searched up the location of the parking lot. It wasn't too far from his school, maybe three miles out. However, the area that the parking lot was located in was in the middle of nowhere. Nobody would even notice that there was an abandoned parking lot there unless someone pointed it out. The roads near that area were nearly always vacant. The surroundings were fenced off for some reason yet the parking lot had a very new look to it.

Why was this parking lot so new yet it was abandoned? He searched up the parking lot online to understand why. He looked at the building images confused, when he stumbled onto the site where it said the apartment complexes were on sale. Previous owners… only one name was listed.

Johnny Nguyen… a Vietnamese name...

He searched up the name online and found a few results.

A MyFace account?

It had the same picture as the reference photo he found.

How was this guy connected to the parking lot? Jerry clicked on his MyFace profile and noticed a few strange pictures. He knew quite a lot about Vietnamese history because Jenny was Vietnamese. He looked at the picture of Johnny Nguyen. He looked like any other rich politician with their black suits and their fake smiles. There was something peculiar about his photos... Jerry's eyes widened.

He had to make sure. He scrolled down all the way and looked at all of the comments.

"So that's why it's abandoned. I hope this is not the direction that the quest is heading towards…" Jerry sweated inwardly.

"Master, I suggest you heed the warning very seriously. A-rank quests are not at all safe. It's better if you gather your strength first before accepting such a high level quest." Reginald's voice rang out in his head.

"I'm aware of the risks Reginald. Have no fear! Your master will figure something out."

Reginald was speechless. "Master please, you can't just go into danger and tie everybody up. There might be actually dangerous characters involved. Last but not least, please don't drag your loyal servant down with you. If you die, I will disappear as well."

I can't just give up a "???" prize though. Huge risks mean huge rewards. He rubbed his hands together thoughtfully.

"Wait aren't you a AI? Why do you have a sense of mortality?"

"Uhhhhh… W-what do you mean by that master. I'm just an AI who doesn't want his master to die."

Jerry didn't say anything else. This dude thinks he's slick, he thought. I'm gonna get him to admit he's not an AI.

Oh well, I have to go do my other quests first before I even think about approaching this quest. He put on his tennis shoes and changed to a looser shirt. Time to complete my tasks!

He drove to the track and completed his first task. His body was still sore but he kept pushing through, using the prizes in the shop to motivate himself. I must buy the whole shop! He proclaimed. My will is unshakeable!

Sweating and panting heavily, he finished the last of his first daily task. He downed his entire water bottle this time.

[Ding! You have completed one daily task.]

[+ 50 points]

Onto the tennis courts!

When Jerry arrived at the tennis courts, he found a very enticing scene ahead of him. A flock of the women's tennis team were practicing with each other. They all wore different outfits but they were all relatively similar to each other. They all had some kind of spandex shorts on so that they'd also be able to hold tennis balls by tucking it under the sides of their shorts. The colored spandex tightly outlined the curves of their butts, especially when they bent over in their ready position. Their slender waists arched up and their bountiful chests were jutted out, magnificently framed through their inch-strap tank tops. Their tanned thighs, which were only hidden by their spandex shorts, were out in the open. Any man witnessing this sight would even forget that he was staring for so long as if he was entranced by a beautiful scenery.

Thankfully, for Jerry, he didn't stare long enough for the girls to notice. When they recognized his presence, he had already opened the other side of courts to practice on the wall.

It was uncommon for males and females to practice at the same time in tennis. However, it wasn't restricted. He silently made his way over to the wall and set his stuff down where the wall was shady. He could feel the girls' stares at him as he took out his tennis racket from his tennis bag.

Truthfully, the men's tennis knew how contemptuous the women's team looked at them. A lot of them didn't even practice consistently and slacked off. A lot of them would show up to women's tennis games to check out the members. In the eyes of women's tennis, they were sloppy and perverted barbarians. But it is what it is. Jerry wasn't going to argue against them because he knew it was mostly true.

"J-jerry?" a soft voice rang out from behind him. He jolted up, almost dropping his racket because of the voice that startled him out of nowhere. "Wha-?"

He turned around to find a beautiful girl with golden locks looking at him with her big blue eyes. They made a moment's eye contact before both parties averted their eyes shyly. She nervously fidgeting with her racket, her face reddened the longer the awkward silence lasted. Jerry's face went red as well. He hadn't been this close to a girl since middle school. He subconsciously backed up a bit but found out the wall was directly behind him. He was cornered.

"Hello… Alicia."

"I-I noticed that you came here to practice tennis..." Alicia's heart fluttered. She took a deep breath before speaking again, with slightly more conviction. " Would you like to rally with me?"

Clover was taken totally by surprise. What do I do? What do I say? Should I run? He started calculating what type of distraction to deploy before climbing over the 14 foot fence. He was always so calm and composed, but now it felt like his heart was stuck in his neck. He could almost feel it palpitating with just his neck.

"Master please calm down! Your heart is at 160 beats per minute right now!" Reginald was frantically trying to calm his master down before he went into cardiac arrest.

"Don't worry, it doesn't look like she's gonna assault you or anything. Why don't you accept her invitation to rally?"

"What? How? What do I say!" Jerry was practically screaming in his head.

"Calm down…. Breathe. Do exactly as I say. Don't worry master, I've done this before."

"What? You've talked to lady AI's?"

"Shut up and listen!"

…..

Alicia's heart was still beating like a war drum as she waited for a reply from Jerry. The other girls noticed something was up when they saw their captain walking over to talk to a boy. She had never talked to any guys at school yet, there she was. Many of them had seen the boy before. They knew he was only a junior varsity player, which was among the group of the worst tennis players in school. Why would their captain talk to such a loser? Alicia realized the girls were giving her strange stares as she stood there waiting for a reply and her face got even redder.

Jerry's eyes focused back to Alicia. He smiled gently as his hand gestured toward a nearby court. "Ladies first."

Alicia nodded shyly. Once they both reached the court, Jerry placed his hand on her shoulder to stop her. She looked at him confused.

"You can have the shady side, I've been trying to get tanner lately." Before she could protest, he had already went to his side.

Alicia felt bad, usually the person facing the sun had the handicap. She felt like she was bullying him since her was only a beginner. His gesture made her heart warm, he was just as considerate as she remembered him to be, always taking the short end of the stick for her.

"You sure this is going to work?" Jerry asked Reginald.

"Look at her! She's totally buying it. Why is my master so useless with girls. How are you supposed to tie anyone up if you're this cowardly."

"Shut up! I'm your master, so why are you bashing on me so much! Jeez… That's insubordination!" Jerry's hand was shaking a little bit as he recalled touching Alicia's shoulders. He was about to pass out from the amount of stress accumulated in the past five minutes.

He balled up his hand into a fist, before relaxing his hand open again. He reminded himself of his lifelong passions, the system and his ultimate goal.

"I must overcome this by myself!" he said to himself, a fire began burning in his eyes. He slapped his cheeks hard to keep himself focused.

"Alright Reginald, leave the rest to me."

"As you wish master."