Chapter 15
[Music Producer]
The skill was shining with a golden light that was currently brighter than Ari's future.
Please, please stop on this.
Although he had never gambled before, Ari began praying to the slots gambling gods to stop at the Music Producer slot.
That one!
Absolutely that one!
If you're going to show it to me, then you had better land on it!
If you have any conscience at all, give it to me!
- Krrrrrrrrrrrrr!
The three slots kept spinning, getting slower and slower with each turn.
Finally, as the first slot made its final revolution-
- Click!
It landed on the golden words.
[Music Producer] | [ X ] | [ X ]
Yes! That was one out of three.
Ari couldn't help but pump his fist before putting it down as the priest glanced over before paying attention to traffic.
A bit embarrassed, he brought out his phone and pretended to look at it while the second slot continued spinning.
The middle slot began slowing down as well, almost on the Music Producer skill, before slipping by it several times.
It continued rolling.
And rolling.
And rolling.
Until finally-
- Click!
The second slot finally stopped moving.
[Music Producer] | [Music Producer] | [ X ]
Yes!!!!
Mentally fist pumping and tapping the phone in happiness, Ari watched with laser focus as the last slot spun quickly before slowing down.
He was practically biting his fingers as he watched the slot move without blinking.
- Whoosh-
It passed the golden music producer skill.
Once.
Twice.
On the third time, having slowed to a crawl, it finally landed-
- Cli-
On the Golden Music Producer!
"F*ck Yeah!"
With a muffled shout, Ari stared in excitement for the skill to be delivered to him.
Unfortunately, as he was about to cheer.
The blue screen wobbled up and down, shaking the slot machine and then-
- Krrrrrrrr.
- Click!
The final slot slid down one more section, moving from the coveted golden [Music Producer] to...
[Music Producer] | [Music Producer] | [ Picky Listener ]
A blue skill called [Picky Listener]
As Ari watched, the Picky Listener skill overwrote the Music Producer skill.
[ ̷M̷u̷s̷i̷c̷ ̷P̷r̷o̷d̷u̷c̷e̷r̷] | [ ̷M̷u̷s̷i̷c̷ ̷P̷r̷o̷d̷u̷c̷e̷r̷] | [ Picky Listener ]
[ Picky Listener ] | [ ̷M̷u̷s̷i̷c̷ ̷P̷r̷o̷d̷u̷c̷e̷r̷] | [ Picky Listener ]
[ Picky Listener ] | [ Picky Listener ] | [ Picky Listener ]
[Congratulations on your first skill - Picky Listener (B).]
Immediately feeling scammed, Ari began complaining to NOVA in harsh whispers.
"Oi, what the heck just happened?!!? Give me back my music producer skill!"
[╮(￣▽￣"")╭ ]
[It was never yours.]
"What do you mean by that?!?! It clearly landed on it! And then you shook the screen! And since when did you learn emoji faces?"
[I have found that it is a more effective way of communicating.]
[As for the accusations that I shook the screen to prevent you from getting a particular skill…]
[....]
[Prove it.]
[I bet you can't]
"So you did shake it! Fine. Materialize, and I'll prove it to you. I promise I won't hit you."
[No.]
[Violence is not the answer. Unless you want it to be? Shall I hit first?]
"Can't you take a joke?"
At the threat, Ari mentally flipped it off before making his case.
"Even without your clear interference, 2/3 slots were still the music producer. Mathematically speaking, I should get the skill."
[Loud and Wrong.]
[If all three slots don't match, the Skill Slots Machine works by choosing the lowest-ranked skill.]
[Better luck next time!]
Unwilling to back down, Ari kept arguing.
"You never said that."
[You never asked.]
"Count your days."
[Don't make threats you can't keep.]
With cold words, the system exposed details of the skill.
[Skill: Picky Listener (B) is Acquired]
[Effect: Your ears become sensitive to pitch, tone, melodies, and song components, recognizing them in anything and anywhere. You can recognize a 'good' song and 'good parts of songs', and you can more easily recreate what you hear and pick out distinct sounds and musical arrangements.]
As he read the description of the skill, Ari leaned back and thought for a minute.
While this skill was probably good for a musician, it wasn't directly helpful in making a song.
He couldn't just listen to and copy somebody else's music and call it his own; he had to create something from scratch.
"Sigh, let me see the list of skills once more."
[Say Please.]
"…please"
He gritted his teeth before pleading.
[1. Pen Pal]
[2. Pitch Machine ]
[3. Bendy ]
[4. Circular Breathing ]
[5. No St-st-stuttering]
[6. Not A Robot]
[7. Greedy Fingers ]
[8. Power Hungry]
[9. Sticky]
[10. Needy]
If he had to guess, pitch machine was a vocal correction, bendy and not a robot was dancing, circular breathing for instruments, stuttering was rap.
As for the final four, completely unknown.
Which meant the only reasonable choice that might relate to songwriting was Pen Pal.
It was probably a lyric skill.
Well, it's not like he had a choice.
Ari reached out and boldly selected [1. Pen Pal]
[Are you sure?]
"…yes?"
[Are you positive?]
[This is the one you want to choose?]
[Another one doesn't catch your eye?]
[Think carefully.]
At the repeated questions, Ari began doubting himself temporarily and reread the list, but truly, the only thing that seemed obvious for making music was Pen Pal.
Was he making a mistake, or was the system messing with him?
Remembering the stupid ghost prank at the church and how it had screwed him out of stat points by not completing his mission on time, Ari rolled his eyes and chose what he had originally planned.
This system was probably just trying to psyche him out.
"Yes. Just choose it."
[Remember, you insisted.]
[Skill: Pen Pal (C) is Acquired]
[Effect: Only when holding a pen and paper are you more inclined to write lyrics. However, the lyrics are only about the things you have experienced in your daily life. Limited to the past 30 days of lived experiences. For the skill to activate, the paper must be topped with the words 'TO NOVA'.]
[( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]
[ I look forward to reading lyrics about your dull daily life.]
Reading the effect of the skill, Ari had one thought.
You've got to be kidding me.
Even if he ignored the outdated pen-and-paper situation or the fact that he had to write TO NOVA on top of the paper, that he had to write about his lived experiences limited to the past 30 days?
What kind of useless restriction was that???
Unlike other people who had real lives, his schedule was waking up, doing homework, going to school, tutoring to earn money, working to earn money, hoping his tent was still there, sleeping, and repeating it all over again.
Nowadays, he either walks or takes the city bus to his destination since three of his bikes have been stolen in the past year alone.
Apart from that, there was little to no variation, and it wasn't a fun or pleasant life.
Nobody would be interested in hearing about it, even through song.
The only changes in the past 30 days were his dying and the system.
Could he really write lyrics about that?
TO NOVA
I got killed by a crazy blond kid, yeah yeah yeah
I got stuck by a system that talks in my head and shows me visions only I can see, yeah yeah yeah
My skills magically improve when I do certain things, yeah yeah yeah
I'm being forced to live a superstar dream, yeah yeah yeah
If he dared to come out with a song like that, he would be thrown straight into a mental asylum or booed off stage with tomatoes thrown at him.
But that was really it.
His life was boring.
There was nothing else really fun or relatable that he had lived through in the past 30 days that would make good lyrics to a song.
He was royally screwed.
No wonder the system had been laughing at him and asking if he was sure.
There was probably another skill in that list that had what he wanted, but who could guess it with those shoddy names?
And he certainly hadn't been willing to sacrifice a stat point on a single description when he was sorely lacking them right now.
A bit frustrated, Ari began banging his head against the window.
- Thud.
- Thud.
- Thud.