"Task Completed."
"Would you like to use the life simulator?"
The life simulator displayed the option.
"You can go online and check; just a heads-up, don't worship your Tony Ge too much after you've checked!" Tony Snow said to Zack Landon after shutting down and closing his laptop. Then he climbed into bed.
"Inventiones Mathematicae? That should be some foreign site related to math, right? Could Tony be aiming for a graduate program in mathematics?" Liam Cole, already in bed, answered Zack's question. Zack pulled out his phone and searched the name.
"Yes," Tony confirmed, accepting the simulator's prompt as he lay in bed.
Zack quickly found the journal online. As he read more, his voice grew increasingly animated.
"Holy crap! Holy crap, Liam—no, Tony—no, Tony Ge! You're incredible!"
Zack repeated the phrase like a broken record. It was his way of expressing sheer awe.
"What is it? What did you find?" Liam asked from the top bunk, seeing Zack wide-eyed and stunned.
"Do you know what Inventiones Mathematicae is? It's a top-tier international math journal. T0 level. There are only three journals in the world on that level!" Zack said, still in disbelief. "Tony's paper got accepted!"
Even Eric Lang, who'd been video-calling his girlfriend, opened his bed curtain to peek out.
"Are you serious? Tony submitted to a world-class math journal and got accepted?" Eric asked.
"You must be mistaken," Liam added, though he sounded less sure of himself.
For a few moments, the dorm was filled with stunned silence.
"Tony Ge doesn't even need to worry about grad school entrance exams. Top research universities are going to be begging him to join. He can just sit at home and let the offers roll in," Liam said in amazement.
Meanwhile, Tony turned his focus to the new simulation.
The life simulator displayed lines of text:
"Age 22: You successfully publish your first paper and begin work on your second. Invitations pour in from the University of Arcadia and the Royal Institute of Nova Paris, offering full undergraduate-to-doctorate tracks. Your girlfriend gets hit on in the library, but the admirer backs off when you confront them.
The news of your accomplishment spreads across educational and scientific communities. Your status as a bioengineering undergraduate publishing in a top math journal goes viral. More offers come in. Your second paper is accepted and influences a major breakthrough in artificial intelligence.
Age 23: You say goodbye to your family and girlfriend and move abroad. Before leaving, you have published one math paper, two computer science papers, and two biology papers. Three are published in international journals.
You enroll in the graduate biology program at Orion University. Within a year, you publish eight more papers—five in biology, one in mathematics, and two in AI. Your impact reverberates globally.
Age 24: You complete three doctoral degrees in a single year. You notice increasing attention from the opposite sex.
Your life becomes comfortable.
Age 25: You prepare to return to your homeland. On the night before your departure, you're assassinated. The next day, foreign media report it as a 'self-inflicted accident' despite eight gunshot wounds to your back."
Tony stared at the screen.
"Bastards," he muttered. "They really assassinated me."
The idea that he'd 'committed suicide by being shot in the back eight times' was beyond absurd.
Just as he was about to roll his eyes again, the simulator displayed:
"Simulation completed. Choose one reward."
"1: Knowledge at age 25.
2: Experience at age 25.
3: Skills at age 25."
Tony chose Option 3: Skills. It was the first time he had chosen that.
He ruled out Experience, as he didn't need more general life insights. Knowledge seemed limited too—this simulation spanned only three years, and he had already gained most of its academic content in a previous run.
He wanted to test what "Skills" would grant.
"You have acquired experimental skills."
Immediately, Tony's mind began absorbing muscle memory, tactile precision, and mental schemas for conducting biological and scientific experiments.
The process wasn't as mentally exhausting as downloading raw knowledge had been before. It felt natural.
And more importantly, this time, Tony noticed a real effect on his body. His hands felt steadier, more precise. As though years of lab experience had been wired directly into his nervous system.
This was the first time the simulator had made a physical change in the real world.
And it wouldn't be the last.