Chapter 11: Fighting

From what I saw in the comments, a large part of the day's viewership came from the Tweep I made and the replies that the people I tagged made, but there was a small part that came from some girl's stories on InstaBram? Unfortunately, I couldn't tell who had posted it, but if I could I would have thanked her. It helps a lot to have a bit of help in spreading the word.

Out of curiosity, I pressed F5 on the page and the views, which were previously at 401, had now jumped straight to 570. Surprised, I pressed F5 again and now it was 583. Views were rising extremely fast!3

Wondering where these people were coming from, I quickly opened my Tweep to confirm, and just as I'd imagined, the image I'd posted of the artwork that "Jacob" had "done" currently had over 400 likes, and the number of likes was rising rapidly.

I knew that the vast majority of people who saw this Tweep wouldn't listen to the music, but as long as 10% of the people who normally liked the art I posted listened to the music, that would be enough for me to complete the System mission, but seeing how fast the song's views were climbing, I realized that more than 10% were listening to the song! With Tweep's likes reaching 1k in a few minutes, the song's views were already at 848, very close to the 1k I needed, and that was still less than 5 hours since the song was posted.

I was feeling that I was getting too anxious, so to calm myself down I decided to go for a walk and keep my mind occupied. As much as I knew I would reach 1k views, I knew it wouldn't do my head any good to let my anxiety inflate so much in such a short space of time.

To my surprise, when I came out of the bedroom, my father was at home, watching television with my mother. Then I remembered, although he worked on Saturday, he only worked until 4pm, so he had part of the day off today, and the whole day off tomorrow.

"Hey, Champ. Your mom told me that you're also working out at night in the yard. A coworker of mine said he had some old weights and equipment that he used to work out with at his house, and since he wouldn't be needing it, he told me he could sell it to us for a low price. How about it? Do you want it?" He asked with a smile when he saw me.

From the first day I started waking up early and spending time with him before he went to work, I felt that our relationship has improved a lot. Even though we didn't talk about anything specifically, the awkward atmosphere between us from before has improved a lot now.

"Sure, what time can we go?" I asked a little excitedly, since having equipment to work out on would probably speed up the rate at which I would lose weight and gain muscle.

"He said he'd be home in an hour, as he was going to stop by the market before he got home from work. How about we go out in a bit?" he asked, also a little excited.

"No sweat," I replied with a smile as I continued walking out of the house, wanting to take a short walk to calm down.

As I left, I could see the surprise on my mother's face at how my father and I were now.

-------- Lauren's Commentary --------

Sitting on the sofa, lost, Lauren was a little uncomfortable.

"You know... before I felt that the relationships in our family were a mess, but as long as I was dedicated enough we could handle it well, but now I don't know what to do," She said, confused.

"I thought I would need to do the right thing for us to act like a normal family, but from what I've seen of Noah and Jonathan talking, and from what I've remembered of how Noah is acting with Ethan this week, even how Olivia started acting today, it seems they don't need me to do that?"

Staring into the void, Lauren said thoughtfully. "It seems that Noah has started interacting with the family again. Everything has started to go back to the way it should be, as if he can see where each of the family's problems are and can solve them all by himself..."

"Was what he was singing really what they felt?" She said a little sadly. 

-------- Commentary End --------

Leaving the house, I saw my father's old bike in the garage and was tempted to take it for a spin, but thinking about my current weight, even though I'd lost more than 10 kg, my 139.8 kg was still something a low-quality bike like that couldn't handle. So, just to be safe, I started walking down the street at a slow walking speed, feeling the nutrients of the summer sun flow into my body. As it was still late summer, the sun was a little hotter than ideal, but it still felt good to have the rays beating down on my body.

When I turned a corner, I was surprised to see a group of children playing, but I was even more surprised to see that there were two children sitting away from the group that was playing. The two children, far away, were sitting on the sidewalk, just looking at the other children playing with a ball. What puzzled me a little was that one of the estranged children was Ethan!

Just as I was getting close, Ethan quickly noticed me and came running towards me with an excited smile. Behind him came a little girl who was somewhat shorter than him with short blonde hair and very thick glasses on her face, which was probably why she was sitting apart with Ethan.1

"Noah!" Ethan shouted excitedly as he ran to hug me.

Picking him up by his outstretched arms, I smiled as I lifted him up and spun him around a little before placing him on the floor.

[+1 STR]

Although I was surprised by this notification, I quickly ignored it while asking Ethan, "What happened? Why aren't you playing with the other children?"

Hearing my question, Ethan was a little shy about answering, but the little girl who followed him over quickly replied a little sulkily, "They think we get in their way."

Seeing her frustration, I looked at Ethan and realized that although he was a little embarrassed, that was probably the truth and that he was also a little frustrated about it.

"Do you want to stay here and try to play with them?" I asked, looking at them both.

Hearing my question, the little girl looked at Ethan. When she saw him shake his head in denial, she quickly did the same thing, making me let out a laugh.

"How about we go out for ice cream then?" I asked, making them both perk up before Ethan became visibly discouraged again.

"I've already spent my allowance..." he whispered in a low voice.

Ruffling his hair, I replied, "No fuss Buddy. I'll pay for the ice cream for the three of us."

Hearing that I was going to pay, both Ethan and his little friend got excited as they started talking about which flavor of ice cream they were going to eat.

When we left, the other children apparently overheard the three of us talking about the ice cream they were going to choose, and I could see some of them getting jealous, but no one had the courage to come over to us, so I just ignored them and went with the two of them to the nearest ice cream parlor.

Although I felt bad that Ethan didn't have many real friends, I wouldn't try to buy these children to be Ethan's friends either, as that would probably do him more harm than good. So I just went with the two of them to the ice cream parlor and bought three ice creams for us.

Looking at the ice cream cone with three scoops of ice cream in my hand and calculating how many calories it had, I figured it was probably around 500 and got a bit worried, but considering the high amount of calories I was burning daily, I quickly ignored this and ate my ice cream happily with the two children.

While I was listening to the two of them talk about which ice cream tasted best, a notification popped up in front of me.

[Mission Completed!]

[Mission: Get your song 1,000 views in the first 24 hours.

Reward: +1 CHA, Mysterious Title].

[+1 CHA]

As soon as the mission was completed, I felt a slight tingling sensation on my face for a second, but this passed and it returned to normal. This feeling was a little strange, but with curiosity, I quickly took out my cell phone and looked at the image of my face projected from the cell phone camera.

The change was less significant now than it had been the first time, since my charisma went up from 7 to 8 points, which was only a 14% increase. It was definitely a smaller change compared to the 33% increase I had the first time, but it was still something very nice to see my face getting 14% better looking. Was it even possible to notice that I've become exactly 14% prettier by looking at my face? Definitely not. But with my 8 points in charisma, even though I was so overweight, I was now only slightly below average in looks, which was scored by the system as 10, so this would probably no longer be something that would get in the way of me meeting new people.

Now for the main part: I went to look at my new title.

[Tuned Ear: Achieved by those who take the time to tune their listening skills.

Effect: +15% ability to identify musical nuances, making it easier to quickly learn new songs and improvise during performances].

As soon as I activated this title, I was surprised to realize that the music that was playing in a distant store, which had previously seemed like just ordinary music, was now slightly unfolding in my ears and slowly separating each of the instruments so that I could focus on each one to learn! The process was a bit slow, but considering that I wasn't even close to this level before acquiring the title, I was shocked to see how useful it was! I knew that the title was the best reward I could have gotten.

If I were to train to get a Skill as good as this title, I would probably need weeks, if not months of training in my musical Skills before this could develop. Too bad the titles only appear as rewards for missions. Perhaps there's a way to get them naturally, but I haven't figured it out yet...

While I was walking with the children, suddenly Ethan, who was distracted while talking to his little friend, bumped into someone.

Seeing him fall, I quickly went over to him, worried.

"Hey buddy, are you okay?" I asked as I looked at him.

He didn't even seem to hear what I was saying and just focused on the ice cream that had fallen on the floor, trying to control his crying.

Seeing what he was worried about, I smiled as I handed him my ice cream.

"Here, eat mine. I've had enough," I said while messing up his hair.

"Really?" He asked with shining eyes looking at my ice cream.

"Sure," I laughed as I handed him the ice cream.

While he was distracted, I saw that he only had a slight scratch on his arm, which was no big deal for a kid his age, so I just distracted him again with the ice cream and was getting ready to leave until an angry voice spoke to me.

"Hey, aren't you going to make up for the shit that kid did, Black Whale?"

As soon as I heard the nickname this person called me, I knew who Ethan had bumped into. Unfortunately I didn't have my backpack now, and my metal bar had been left in it, so the only thing I could use to protect myself now were my fists.

Fortunately, I had raised the level of my Krav Maga Skill to Lv5, which was probably the same as the average person who trained in that martial art for a few months - far from being a master, but already better than the average person.

[Krav Maga Mastery Lv5:

Effect: Develops an enhanced understanding of Krav Maga, accelerating learning by 5% and promoting more efficient body adaptation by 5%. Also improves retention of techniques and practical application during practice or combat. Gain a tangible advantage by absorbing the fundamental principles of Krav Maga].

Turning around and looking at this fucker's face, I knew that at some point I had heard his name, but I couldn't really remember it, so I started staring at him, trying to remember his name.

"What? You want to blame a 7-year-old while you're walking around like an imbecile without worrying about your surroundings?" I replied sarcastically while trying to remember his name to think of an insult, but his name didn't really come to mind.4

When he heard what I said, he was furious.

"That brat must be your brother, right? That explains why he looks like a retard, being the brother of-" He was starting to laugh as he insulted Ethan, but this time I didn't sit still and listen. I just ignored the urge to remember his name and ran up to him, punching him in the face.2

That little shit could insult me and I could pretend I didn't hear anything, but talking about my brother? Calling him retarded?

My brother may have ADHD, and occasionally he might act like a doofus, but insulting his intelligence like that was not going to go unanswered. After all, he's MY little brother!14

////NunuNote/////

Every 1k Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter :)

discord.gg/NunuXD

I really need your support for this competition!!