INFINITE SKILLS SYSTEM: DORIAN FLINT'S RISE TO AWESOMENESS.

Chapter 4: LATENESS TO WORK: PENALTY - DEATH!

Dorian approached the last shop on the street his home was located in and he checked his reflection in the shop's glass fitting as he passed.

 

Maybe part of the reason he kept on getting rejected was because of the blood stains still on him, and maybe he shouldn’t have started searching for a job immediately, but the timer was ticking and he had searched for the effects of liver loss on his way here. 

 

The system had assured him that nothing about the procedure of removing his liver would be painless or quick, and for some reason, he wholeheartedly believed the devil system.

 

A job was a job, right? He didn’t have to get any major one just yet. What if the system turned out to be a flop and he failed there too?

 

He wouldn’t be able to handle the surge of emotions that would come next.

 

Instead, he had decided on this. He would get an easy job he knew nothing about. So far he had applied at a bakery, a tannery, and now he was here, a pizza shop.

 

He didn’t know how to make pizza, but he could try and see what came out of this.

 

The minute Dorian stepped in through the doors of the pizzeria he locked eyes with a big burly man.

 

The man had olive skin, a slightly thick mustache, and a cold look in his eyes. Dorian took a step back instinctively because maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. He could always find a job tomorrow, right?

 

[TIMER: 18: 27: 25]

 

Dorian cursed under his breath. He had spent over five hours searching for a job to no avail.

 

“Is there something you want, boy?”

 

Boy?

 

 

Dorian straightened his stance and met the cold eyes of the larger man in front of him.

 

“I want a job.”

 

Those words sounded way cooler in his head but he wasn’t a boy. He was a man. The larger man’s frown was intimidating though, just a bit. The man gave him the once over.

 

“You want a job dressed like that?”

 

“It’s a costume thing” If only “I won’t ever show up like this for work officially. I’d just like to secure a job today. I saw the vacancy notice outside. I’m a hard worker.”

 

Despite the frown on the older man’s face not lessening he asked a question that made some ray of hope appear.

 

“Can you resume at 7 and work for 10-11 hours?”

 

That… was a stretch from normal but he could do it.

 

“Sure.”

 

The man nodded and pointed to the door.

 

“You’re hired. Get out. Don’t bother coming if you’re going to come late.”

 

The system’s lifelike glass screen appeared a few feet away from him again and Dorian felt happiness filling his heart. Of course, this would end up bad if he couldn’t do anything when he resumed tomorrow. He had never worked in a pizza shop in his life and his cooking skills were shit.

 

[DO YOU ACCEPT THE JOB OFFER?]

 

The screen was blinking and Dorian nodded subtly. The glass screen glowed a bright gold and a new message was displayed.

 

[CONGRATULATIONS ON COMPLETING YOUR FIRST QUEST DORIAN FLINT. 

 

UPDATED STATS.

 

FIRST QUEST: COMPLETED.

 

EFFICIENCY: Level 1. MID.

 

REWARD: A CALIBRATION OF POTENTIAL UPON ASSIGNMENT OF DUTIES AND A SKILL SET TO COMPLEMENT.

 

LEVEL OF SKILL SET: EXPERT LEVEL.

 

EXTRA REWARDS: +0.00001 INTELLIGENCE.

          +0.0000001 HEALING.

          +0.0000001 CHARISMA.

 

HOST WILL BE NOTIFIED ON THE AVAILABILITY OF THE NEXT QUEST.

 

AREAS OF POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENT: PERSONAL HYGIENE. PEOPLE SKILLS. LEARNING TO ASK FOR THINGS NICELY.]

 

Dorian resisted the urge to scoff and roll his eyes.

 

“Are you sure you want to keep your job boy?”

 

Dorian’s eyes snapped to the man now glaring at him and he nodded. The man’s scowl deepened further.

 

“Then obey my instructions and get out.”

 

The urge to flip his new boss the middle finger overcame Dorian so unexpectedly that he almost did it.

 

He would have done it if the large almost 5ft glass screen didn’t appear in front of him again and flashed a very malevolent-looking red light in his face.

 

A message appeared.

 

[DOES HOST HAVE ANY PLANS OF DYING SOON? BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF HOST FLIPS HIS NEW BOSS THE MIDDLE FINGER.]

 

A chill raced down Dorian’s spine and he exited the shop before he either lost his job or this psycho system ended his life.

 

~Glad to see we’re on the same page Mr Flint.~

 

Dorian flipped his system the middle finger instead and headed home.

 

Once in his small cheap apartment, he bathed, changed, tied the bloody clothes in a bag, and threw them into the trash fire his neighbors cultivated like a pet. The thing was almost smoking his room and making him cough heavily at night.

 

His eyes also watered from the smoke but the last time he had complained, he was told to either deal with it or move out.

 

Dorian scoffed lightly as he remembered that.

 

At least the trash fire came in handy for once.

 

Once on his bed, he rested up and asked the system a question.

 

“Are there some other penalties I need to know about?”

 

The system promptly responded with a message displayed on the floating 5ft screen.

 

[LATENESS TO WORK.

 

PENALTY: DEATH!]

 

Good to know.

 

“I’ll go to sleep now.”

 

~At 7 pm? Isn’t that too early? You could always check out your taskboard. You have over a hundred pending tasks you can take on to level up.~

 

Dorian chuckled “So I can get 0.00001 intelligence points? I’d rather sleep.”

 

The system grumbled something incoherent about the puny human not knowing the magnificence of its power but Dorian simply drifted off to sleep.

 

By nine he would have to dress up and attend a family dinner at his father’s mansion. Family dinners were never good, but he’d pull through. 

 

Tomorrow awaited new possibilities.

 

**************** Eight hours later.

 

The screen was blinking like crazy!

 

The red glare was like an urgent reminder in Dorian’s mind that his life was on the line. He had barely five minutes to get to the pizza shop and he was still a few blocks away.

 

Running as fast as he could wasn’t doing much to help him, and while he had some speed to him, the world seemed determined to see him die.

 

Dorian’s eyes widened as he saw his girlfriend and her friends just a few feet away from the pizza shop. 

 

Amelia never ceased to make his heart falter when he saw her and the smile she had on her face was radiant today. She was holding a few shopping bags and the sun was hitting her full-on. He had to avoid her if he wanted to live, so maybe if he could dash into the pizza shop without her seeing him…

 

“Dorian?”

 

Dorian froze like a statue encased in ice. Shit.

 

“Dorian?” Amelia sounded curious and her eyes darted around nervously. She smiled lightly when she saw him “What are you doing here? Aren’t you meant to be at work?”

 

The door was so close. Life was so close.

 

“I am at work. I work here now.”

 

Whatever the reaction was in Amelia’s eyes, he didn’t get the chance to see it. He only heard her friend’s mocking snickers, gave a hurried salute to them, and closed the remaining distance between him and the pizza shop.