Dodging suspicion

(Matt’s POV)

After thinking about who to talk to all day, I decided I couldn’t just tell someone randlomly on discord, that would also be a waste of the reward, John will have to do. Who knows maybe the increase in affection will not make him think less of me for following an app instead of doing things by myself.

What I didn’t expect was both of our phones to ring when I finished my quest. We’re stuck looking at each other, he looks stunned for a while, before awkwardly grabbing his phone.

“Wow did you receive a text too? What a coincidence!” He sweats as he talks.

I need to confirm my suspicions before he gets time to think so I ask:

“Really who was it?”

He was just waiting here, opening and closing his mouth a few times, just like he always does when he’s caught lying.

“Haha… It’s Alex… He wanted to know if I got home properly.”

He’s hiding something, and I won’t let it go. Honestly I think there is only one possibility, after all we both received a notification the moment I told him about the app.

“John you can stop lying.” He freeze in place.

“You also downloaded the Life Quest app right? And you just completed a quest right now.”

He stays frozen a few seconds, and he sighs deeply.

He must be relieved he doesn’t have to hide it anymore.

“That’s right… I didn’t want to talk about it but I also have the app.” He says slowly while looking down.

“So what was your quest?” I ask, he pauses. I guess he feels some shame.

“My quest… was to learn someone’s secret.” He admits.

I smile as the tense atmosphere starts to relax.

“Mine was to tell someone about the app, so I guess now we both know about the other. We’re so dumb sometimes.”

Now feeling way less tense, the fatigue from the day catches up with me. I spend all day playing this discussion in my head, but I would have never guessed it would happen that way.

So John also has his own quests to do. I guess they are mostly linked to his day life away from home because I had no idea.

“So what class did you get?” I ask, he seems anxious as he answers.

“Well, I-I don’t have a class yet.” He answers.

What a liar, I’m sure his class is even more embarrassing than mine, that’s why he’s too ashamed to tell me.

---

(John’s POV)

I almost crumble into my bed from the stress. This was terrible and I don’t know how I even handled it so well. Sure Matt thinks I also have the Life Quest app, but I’m sure I can use that to my advantage.

I finally got all the info I wanted from Matt, so he does have an app, but his version is very limited and only displays his profile and his current quest. He also told me he didn’t understand what the perk points were for, which makes sense since I didn’t unlock the Target’s Perk Tree yet.

I stop myself from actually falling asleep to check on the app.

Matt completed a basic quest. [+3 xp]

I check his profile and he actually got a level up from this quest.

Matt is level 3, physical description unlocked.

Name: Matt
Surname : Weaver
Gender: Male
Age : 23
Level 3 (0 / 10 xp)
Class: Housewife
Perks : Cleaning I
Perk Points : 2

Under his profile I see a new button which when pressed, shows a new window that gives a way too complete description of Matt’s body.
As I scroll through I learn he has a beauty mark on his butt, and a small scar on his left foot.

I start thinking about the character editor perk that didn’t make sense earlier. I need to get a target to level 3 before I can see a physical description, maybe I can see even more details at some point.

I want to level up even faster, I’m excited just thinking about what I could do with the app. I just want to be careful. First let’s cut off this app’s notifications, I don’t want to be caught again that was terrifying. If I want to gain more xp, I need to give harder quests, I could also add a 3rd target.

I thought about it for a while, and I think I want to add someone else and give them a weird class to experiment. A few days ago I would have felt guilty but with all this power in hand it would be a waste to not use it. I’m sure I would still help the person I’m adding, Maria is slowly getting healthier after all.

I fall asleep while fantasizing about what’s possible. It’s vague but I remember dreaming about molding people into what I want, making them fit my desires more.

---

I look back at the quest I gave Maria, I’m so stupid, why did I make a cook a meal for someone else when it’s the week-end, obviously she’ll wait until monday. And now I can’t send her any quest for two days straight. I wonder what would happen if I gave a quest that was impossible to achieve, would it stay the current quest forever? Stopping me from using the app on my target?

Fine, I guess I told Alex I was still working on my novel’s revisions, so I should at least work on it for an hour, I have nothing else planned today.

I end up writing for way more than an hour, I rebuilt a whole scene from the beginning, the pacing was slow and my teacher told me I needed to grab the reader, even if characters were a little simple as a result.

It’s okay I’ll just have to move some of the characterization to the later chapters, once the story has really started.

---

By the time I’m done, I’m pretty hungry, and notice I did miss lunch time by two hours. I try to grab something in the fridge, but It’s pretty much empty.

That’s okay, I’ll go buy… no, I don’t want to go alone.

Matt will receive the following quest : “Buy groceries”

Select a reward from the three choices:

• Receive half the money spent back
• Make this quest a permanent basic quest
• A kiss from John

What the hell? This is supposed to be Matt’s reward. A kiss from me would never make him want to do a quest. I think it’s between the first two, I think the first would be appealing to him, but I’m really curious about the second, I don’t know what a permanent quest actually is. I’m guessing you can finish it multiple times and still get rewards?

I’m sorry Matt, but you’ll have to pay full price this time.

Reward: “Make this quest a permanent basic quest”

I’ll wait for him to do it, while I watch a movie. I get cozy on the couch and around half an hour later, I hear him leave his room.

“John, I’m going to buy some groceries, you need anything?”

I tell him what we’re missing and he’s off. He comes back less than an hour later, bags in hands, and I come help him put everything away.
He looks pretty proud of himself so I also compliment him, and he seems to appreciate the praise. Not long after he’s back in his room, snacks in hand.
I finally eat something and check the app.

Matt completed a basic quest. [+3 xp] [+2 bonus xp]

I check my profile, and I’m one quest away from level 5. I really want to level up already, so I decide I want to give Matt another quest. However since I already gave one today, I’d like to avoid suspicion by waiting until tomorrow.

I chat with an online friend for a while, we met playing on a Minecraft server years ago, and I learned he was really into drawing, so I asked him to draw characters from my badly written stories, and that’s how I bought my first art commission when I was 13. We’re still in contact, but It’s been a while since I last saw one of his drawings.

[I’m under NDA so I can’t tell you the details, but I’m drawing concept art for a big game rn]

[Congrats give me more info when it releases]

[Will do ^^]

I spend the rest of the day reading a book I borrowed from my job. I cook a meal big enough for my roommate and I end the day not long afterwards.

---

It’s sunday morning and I finally decided which quest to send Matt.

Matt will receive the following quest : “Give someone a massage”

Select a reward from the three choices:

• Massage I perk
• Lose 10 kg
• A kiss from John

Again with this kiss, does this app think I want to kiss a guy? Whatever, the other two reward are way more interesting, I would take the perk, but I think Matt would be way happier to lose some weight. He’s not obese, but he doesn’t eat very healthy and doesn’t exercise so he did get a lot bigger those last few years. Sure, let’s be less selfish for once.

Reward: “Lose 10 kg”

Not even 10 minutes later, I hear a know on my bedroom door, I let Matt in and he seems very excited.

“Dude, please let me give you a massage!” He hears how weird this sounds and continues.

“I just got a really good quest, I just need to massage someone first. Can you help please?” I didn’t think his weight mattered this much to him but I was clearly wrong, and I’m happy to oblige.

“Sure dude, if that helps. Let me seat on the chair.” I say as I sit facing the desk of my chair and exposing my back to my excited roommate.

He doesn’t wait and puts his hands on my shoulders, and start massaging them slowly, at first he seems to not know what to do, but I guide him, and my sore muscles really start to relax.

God, a massage was the right choice, I didn’t know it would feel this good.
I expected him to stop here but he doesn’t, his hands instead sliding down my back, fuck it, I will asks for more massage in the future. Next time I’ll give him the perk if I can.
It continues like that for a few minutes, until I hear a sound coming from his phone. He stops and as I turn around I can see the reward’s effect.

I can’t actually see it behind his loose t-shirt, but his belly shrinks into him, just like someone pulling it back, however it never comes out. His arms also start slimming down, as his all the fat was sliding away. At the end, he just looks slightly out of shape.

He jumps up and down. “I just lost so much weight! Just like that! This is the best app ever!”

Actually he looks like he lost more than 10 kg, but as I see him jumping around, I can see that his ass got way fatter as well.
So he did lost weight, but some of it also moved around. I honestly can’t believe it. I thought the app needed lots of time to create change, but it seems a few minutes does it.

“Man, I didn’t think you could just change like that.”

“Right! I’m so happy, man I hope I get even more quests soon!” He says, not understanding the power I have on him.
After gloating a little more, he leaves toward the bathroom, certainly to take selfies of his changed self.

Matt completed an advanced quest. [+7 xp] [+2 bonus xp]

Level up

Getting powerful : Arrive to level 5. [+1 perk]

I first check Matt’s profile. And notice he leveled up too.

Name: Matt
Surname : Weaver
Gender: Male
Age : 23
Level 4 (2 / 10 xp)
Class: Housewife
Perks : Cleaning I
Perk Points : 3

I then check my profile.

Quest Master : John
Surname : Moore
Gender: Male
Age : 25
Level 5 (7 / 20 xp)
Class : None
Perks : Quest Designer I, Recommended Reward II, Class Designer, Public Unawareness
Perk Points : 2

I’m quite happy with my progress but my smile disappears when I see the cost of the next level. So this is really getting harder. Okay, I need a 3rd target right now, if I don’t want the increasing cost to slow me down.

I press Add Target and grab a pen and paper.
As I look at the list, I write all the name of people I recognize and are near me.
The list looks smaller than I thought and some I feel like most of them can’t be my targets but I decided to make a full list so I did.

Alex: my best friend, I don’t know if I want to do that to him, but I added Matt after all. I only see him on weekends though.

Mr.Newman: I see him almost everyday, but I don’t know much about him.

Rita : The smart girl that visits the library a lot. It’s mean but I would hesitate less to use the app on someone I’m not attached to.

Jessica: Brad’s girlfriend, she’s kind of collateral damage but I did say I’d make a full list.

Brad: I could add him, but he only came to the library once with his girlfriend, so I might actually end up giving him quest without seeing him much, that’s not very fun.

---

Author's Note: Hope you liked the chapter, I'd like you to comment who you want as a target as well as what class you would give them. Hope you don't mind the slow pace, I'm trying to make it evolve gradually as you can see with Matt's last quest and change.