I go home

I hurried home, eager to update my profile with the points I had won. Despite her age, she had to be a seven, or six at least.

While walking, I called my parents to tell them about the A+ grade. Pleased, my father told me they would transfer some money as a present. I thanked them and hung up as I entered my apartment.

Throwing myself onto the bed, I launched the game app.

FOUR points? What?! Come on. She was at least a five!

“Hey Liz, how come Miss Benson was just a four, while the young Norwegian blonde was a six? She's older, but in great shape. I can’t say I found one of them particularly less attractive than the other? I thought they were at least sevens, both of them.

“Good question, Mike,” she replied. “As you know, women are rated on a scale from one to ten in the game. Mainly based on their attractiveness, but the number also depends on other factors such as availability and eagerness. A six can become an eight if she’s particularity hard to get.”

“Ah, so Miss Benson was a bit easier?”

“Yeah, you could say that, Mike,” Liz replied with an overbearing voice.

“Wow… you really bought her story, didn’t you?”

“What?” I was confused.

“Oh, Mike, you may have a {Intelligence} in Intelligence, but you're also kinda stupid sometimes. Well, the good thing is that you both enjoyed it, and you earned points! But honestly, she fucks a lot of students. A lot. Don’t worry, she’s clean. But that letter you found… let’s just say it is... a test.”

I put my phone down and stared at the ceiling. If what Liz said was true, Miss Benson had sort of taken advantage of me, and it annoyed me. I didn’t like being in a outsmarted.

On the other hand, I had in fact gotten what I wanted out of it, and then some. Actually, I had tried to take advantage of her too...

Nobody had gotten hurt. There was no reason to be angry. Four points. OK. It was something, and the day was still young.

I logged back into the game, and started to allocate my new points. My coolness had to be returned to the previous score, it was way too low now. My maxed out intelligence hadn't been any help in understanding Miss Benson's act. Probably there was something else limiting it in certain cases, and I guessed my low coolness could be it. After raising it up by two again, I had two points left, but it was still low. I decided to go all in on coolness.

I clicked apply, and in a blink, my home morphed from a tiny dorm room to a cosy studio apartment in an old factory. My sci-fi stuff was replaced by feinschmecker arthouse movies and classics. All of my furniture had been upgraded, and even the haircut was different. I was a lot cooler now.

The only thing I didn’t like was my pale skin. “Liz, what time is it?” I asked her.

“Half past four,” she said. Still time to hit the beach, then. I looked out of the window. Brilliant.