Leonard Williams ,18 year old University Student

"God, why did I even enter health science as a major? Oh right! I let myself get guilt tripped into it!"

I frowned as the biology book's pages seemed to have both all the knowledge in the world and none of it at the same time.

I had been working a presentation for a while, and it was clear that I was not getting any work done anymore. So I closed the laptop and let myself sink into my bed. Good thing it was Friday and I have the weekend to finish this assignment.

The only sounds in the house were my father's, coming from the kitchen, probably making dinner for himself.

Luna, my older sister by two years, used to make lunch and dinner for the family, but ever since she entered college she was hardly around anymore. Whenever Dad asked if she was coming for the weekend, she said she was busy. She never said with what, and honestly, she deserved the time for herself after looking after Dad, Marcus, and me.

Right, Marcus. He was supposed to get here a few hours ago, but his team won their match and went off to a "celebration" party. It wasn’t that I had a bad relationship with him, we were fine. No, the real problem was Thomas.

Some jerk who’s in most of my classes, always picking on me. Nothing physical, just constant belittling and name-calling for apparently no reason. Honestly, I'd rather stop thinking about him.

How's that a problem? Well that guy is Marcus' buddy on the team so we see each other a bit more than I would prefer and Marcus has been oblivious to most of it.

Sighing, I got up from the bed and decided to check up on Dad in the kitchen.

If he were there.

The only thing waiting in the kitchen were two plates of spaghetti. Dad must have gone to bed already.

I sat down and ate dinner while scrolling through social media and watching YouTube video essays. As I was watching, a notification popped up, an app had just finished installing. Frowning, I tapped the notification.

My antivirus scanned it and let me through, so I figured I was safe. Maybe it was one of those apps that sneak in through free PDF readers? I’d already dealt with that before.

What greeted me was a simple UI with four tabs: [QuestMaster], [Targets], [PerkTree], and [Quests].

The first tab, QuestMaster, was open by default. Its plain black text on a white background displayed crude data.

╔═══════ ╦═══════════════╗
║QuestMaster║Targets│PerkTree│Quests║
╟─────── ╨─────────────── ╢
║Quest Master : Leonard ·················································║
║Surname : Williams ···························································║
║Gender: Male ············································································║
║Age : 18 ···························································································║
║Level 1 (0 / 10 xp) ·······························································║
║Class : None ···············································································║
║Perks : Quest Designer I, Recommended R║
║Perk Points : 0 ········································································║
║✍ ···········································································································║
╚═══════════════════════ ╝

Somehow, my frown deepened.

If the app had access to my data, it would at least ask me first rather than… whatever this is.

Maybe it got the data from the app that installed itself from? but none of the apps I use should have my data, other than my bank one, and that one doesn't have any ads that could install apps of their own.

I noted that the [Perks] cut themselves before displaying all the text so I tapped that and another screen popped up.

╔═══════ ╦═══════════════╗
║QuestMaster║Targets│PerkTree│Quests║
╟─────── ╫─────────────── ╢
║Perks····················║··········································································║
╟─────── ╨───────────────╢
║Quest Designer I·····································································║
║Recommended Reward I···············································║
╚ ═══════════════════════ ╝

Tapping on Quest Designer I and Recommended Reward I gave basic descriptions of something related to the app… or at least that’s what I guessed. To be honest, I was still hung up on how the app had my real name and age. Maybe it pulled that from the Play Store? It did ask for my ID when I downloaded that, uh… game.

I really felt the need to slap my horny self. It was months ago, but still, lust blinded me, and now I’m in this situation.

Before I could switch to the other tabs, I heard the loud bang of the door being pushed open, followed by a cheerful greeting.

“I’m hoooome~!”

That was my brother, barging in and announcing himself for everyone to hear. I could only hope he didn’t wake Dad — he got cranky when woken up.

“In the kitchen,” I called out, my voice barely above indoor level.

Marcus stumbled into the kitchen, eyes glazed and a smug grin plastered on his face. “Hey, Leo,” he slurred “we crushed ’em!” He held up a hand for a high-five, then brought it down toward me, completely missing“’wn low… too slow.”

I rolled my eyes “How much did you drink? You didn’t drive, did you?”

He feigned innocence “What? Me? Nah. A pal drove. I just had a couple to celebrate” He winked and leaned against the table. The smell of beer and sweat hit me, and I couldn’t help feeling a little annoyed. So much for the dependable older brother, Marcus really was all brawn and no brain sometimes.

“Dad made spaghetti. Risotto, I think?” I said, placing a cup of water beside the only serving left.

Marcus’s eyes lit up. “Oh man, I’m starving!” He lunged for the plate, his hunger overpowering his tipsiness. As he scarfed down the pasta, I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of envy at his carefree nature.

While Marcus devoured his dinner, I took the opportunity to explore the [Targets] tab. It showed a list of names, with a search bar at the top, probably to narrow the results?

╔═══════╦════╦═══════════╗
║QuestMaster║Targets║PerkTree│Quests║
╟─────── ╨──── ╨──────────╢
║Target 1 ·························································································║
╟───────────────────────··╢
║SEARCH TARGET(S) ··························································║
╟ ─────────────────────── ╢
║Marcus Williams ···································································║
║Gregory Williams ·································································║
║Ulises Salvador ·······································································║
║Francisca Salvador ·····························································║
║Maria Salvador ·······································································║
║Carlos Salvador ······································································║
║Damian Li ·····················································································║
╚ ═══════════════════════ ╝

As I read through the list of names, I realized it was sorted by proximity.

Marcus was the closest one to me right now, Dad was asleep in his room, the Salvador family were our neighbors, and Damian Li…

I assumed that was the man Dad had complained about, the "Asian guy", as he called him, a man living alone in a suburban house. Well, he said Chinese, but knowing my father, I just took that to mean Asian.

If i had to guess by the name, our new neighbor really was Chinese, or at least of Chinese descent.

Regardless, I decided to entertain this app for now and pick...