They traded numbers, and as she walked away to the fitting rooms, she waved goodbye. "Sweet~! Thanks for taking the time to speak with me about clothes. I'll see you later, Logan."
"Yeah, see you later, Rina." Logan saw her leave and noticed that her walk had a slight sway to it, as if she knew he was watching.
[Mission progress: 4 out of 5 done. Just one more. You're almost done with your first mission.]
Logan left the clothing store feeling delighted. Four successful conversations, each one building on the last and showing that he could do this.
He could talk to women, keep their attention, and look them in the eye without flinching or feeling like he had to run away. He never thought he could learn that skill, but now it felt like it came naturally to him.
The fifth and last interaction took place in a small outdoor seating area next to a juice bar. Logan was sitting on a bench, scrolling through his phone, and drinking a smoothie when a businesswoman in her late twenties sat down next to him.
She looked as if she had just come from an important meeting because she was wearing a sharp pantsuit and carrying a leather briefcase. She took out her phone and called someone, speaking in short, businesslike tones about contracts and due dates.
Logan didn't want to listen in, but it was hard not to hear her when she was sitting right next to him. She let out a long breath and rubbed her temples when she finally hung up.
"I'm sorry if that was annoying. My boss has the worst timing."
Logan looked over and saw her. "Bad day?"
"More like a bad month... I work in corporate law, which means that every day is like a marathon of paperwork and tough clients." She smiled, but it was clear she was worn out. "I don't know why I'm saying these words to you. You probably have your own issues."
"Everyone does," Logan said. "But occasionally it helps to talk to someone you don't know."
"No judgement nor history"
She looked at him for a moment, her eyes sharp and judging. Thereafter, she seemed to calm down a little.
"You're a lot more grown-up than most people your age. Most college students wouldn't have the time to listen to a tired lawyer complain."
"I'm a good listener," Logan said simply, looking him in the eye. "And everyone needs to let off steam sometimes."
They ended up talking for almost twenty minutes, which was a lot longer than Logan had thought. She told him about the stress of her job and how difficult it is to find a balance between her career and her personal life.
Logan told a carefully edited version of his story about how he changed his life and is about to start college. She seemed truly interested, asking smart questions and nodding along as he spoke.
She took out a business card when she finally looked at her watch and stood up to leave. "I know this is probably strange, but you seem like a really nice person."
"Please feel free to contact me if you ever need help with your career or legal issues. I mean it."
Logan took the card and looked her in the eye one last time. "Oh, uh... thanks for this."
"Logan, good luck with college. I have a feeling that you'll be fine."
[Mission Complete: Mastering Eye Contact achieved. Calculating out rewards.]
Logan felt a surge of energy run through his body as the mission completion message appeared in his vision. The interface flashed for a second, then changed to a new layout that showed updated stats.
[CONFIDENCE: 58 → 60NEW SKILL UNLOCKED: Presence Detection (Passive)]
[Great job, Logan. You've shown that you can talk to women of all ages and backgrounds while keeping eye contact with them.]
[This is a basic skill that will help you in all of your future interactions.]
"What the fuck is a presence detection?" Logan asked in a low voice so that people wouldn't think he was talking to himself.
[It's a passive ability that lets you know when someone is paying attention to you.]
[When someone looks at you with interest, you'll feel a faint awareness, like a tingle at the back of your mind.]
[It helps you find chances and possible connections without having to look around all the time.]
"I see... well, it's kinda good, I guess."
Logan got up and began to walk back to his apartment, thinking about everything that had just happened. In just a few hours, he had five meaningful conversations with women he had never met before.
He had their full attention, kept eye contact, and even traded contact information with a few of them. That would have been impossible two years ago like it would have felt like climbing a mountain.
It felt normal now. Logan felt something new as he walked, just like the system had said he would.
It was subtle, almost unnoticeable at first, but he could feel it when people looked at him. A woman walking by on the sidewalk looked at him and held on for a little longer than she needed to.
Logan felt a soft ping in his mind, a sign that someone was paying attention to him. He tested it out on the way home by walking through busier areas and paying attention to that new sense.
It wasn't always there or too much, but it was just a quiet awareness that came to life when someone looked at him with more than passing interest. It was akin to possessing an intuitive understanding of when to engage with others.
Logan's mind was already racing ahead to what came next by the time he got to his apartment. He had two weeks until college started, and he had just finished his first mission with time to spare.
But more than that, he had shown himself that he could do this. He could talk to people, especially women, without the crippling anxiety and self-doubt that had been a part of his life until now.
He opened the door and went inside. Right away, he could see how small and sad the place looked.
This little apartment had been a good place for him to train and rebuild himself away from the outside world. But if he was really starting over and embracing this new part of his life, he needed a new place to live.
Logan walked to his room and took clothes out of his closet. He put them on the bed. He didn't have much, mostly the new clothes he bought after his body changed and he couldn't wear his old ones anymore. There was still room in the two big duffel bags for everything.
[Are you going to move out?]
"Yeah," Logan said. "I've been thinking about it ever since I got into college."
"There are apartments close to campus where I can start over without all the problems of this neighborhood."
[Good choice. Changing your surroundings will help you become more stable.]
[This place is a part of who you were. A new apartment close to campus shows who you're becoming.]
Logan spent the rest of the afternoon looking for apartments online and comparing their prices and locations. He found one that looked good, which is a studio apartment within walking distance of campus with good reviews and rent that wasn't too high.
He set up a time to see it the next day and began putting his few things into boxes. As Logan was taping up boxes in the evening, the System spoke again.
[You did a fantastic job today, Logan.]
[Honestly, it's better than I thought it would be.]
[Most people have trouble with their tutorial missions, especially the ones that involve talking to other people. You did it with relative ease.]
Logan said, "It wasn't easy, but it was doable. I couldn't have done it two years ago."
"I probably would have had a panic attack just thinking about it."
[That's what you call character development. That's just what I need.]
[You did the work and laid the groundwork. Now we can put the structure on top of it.]
Logan taped up the last box and stood in the middle of his almost empty apartment, looking around at the space that had seen him go from being an invisible loser to someone who could talk to people without wanting to disappear. It felt like the right thing to do to leave it behind.
He would look at the new apartment tomorrow, and if everything went well, he would move in within a few days. In two weeks, college would start, and he would walk onto campus as a very different person than the kid who graduated high school two years ago.
He won't be invisible anymore. No more giving up before he even tries.
He had rebuilt himself once, and now he had a system that helped him go even further. Logan Hart was ready for anything that came next.
[Get some sleep tonight. We will continue your preparation tomorrow.]
Logan nodded, even though the system couldn't see him. He turned off the lights in his apartment and lay down on his bed, looking up at the ceiling in the dark.
He fell asleep quickly, and for once, he didn't dream about the past. Instead, he thought about the future.