It's A Beautiful Day
Placing his hand above his eyes, Magnus gazed up at the trees, squinting at the sunshine beaming through the gaps between the leaves. He lightly smiled as the warm summer breeze softly stroke his skin and brought the fresh scent of greenery in the morning. Moments like this made him a bit melancholic; Earth would not be as peaceful for much longer. The gods—no, The Viewers had designed a storyline for The Universe. And in this storyline, just like many other Realms, Earth had to be exposed to the destructive nature of The Abyss, bringing about an apocalyptic era.
Magnus was lucky to be able to feel this temporary peace once again. He had already accepted that it would eventually end soon, and all he could do right now was enjoy it while it lasted. After all, all that blooms must wither.
"You son of a bitch!"
Magnus' peaceful moment was interrupted by a shouting foul mouth coming from behind. He knew without looking, from whom the shout had come from. In fact, he'd already heard the guy's weary footsteps and his ragged breathing from a hundred meters away.
"Well, well. Look who's finally arrived!" said Magnus while grinning from ear to ear.
TJ used his last remaining energy to walk up to where Magnus was standing and resentfully threw an empty plastic bottle at his friend, who caught it with ease. "We didn't agree…to go all the…way here," he started complaining while catching his breath. Without hesitating he dropped down, butt plopping onto the ground. He closed his eyes and bent his head back, his legs extended and his hands propping his body behind his back.
Magnus was glad that his best friend had kept his word and was already seen donning a running outfit when he visited his house again early that morning. However, he had initially not expected much since TJ had the typical feeble body of a shut-in.
Magnus couldn't be more wrong. He had forgotten how much willpower that frail body was hiding. TJ's competitive nature was immediately triggered when he saw Magnus running for so long without sweating or showing a tired expression. A fire had been lit up in TJ's mind, denying him defeat, especially at the hands of his closest friend. He had his pride as a man, too.
The guy was then able to miraculously run without pausing even once. Wanting to see how far he could go, Magnus dragged him all the way to Lincoln Park while bribing him with the promise of a rare and expensive weapon skin on that one FPS game.
"Well done, dude," said Magnus, giving his friend a thumb up. "I honestly didn't expect you to cover that much distance without—"
"Shut the fuck up," TJ cut him off.
Magnus threw his hands up. He then decided to let his friend catch his breath for a bit, walking up to a nearby garbage can while scrunching up the plastic bottle in his hands before throwing it away.
"There's a bench over there," he told TJ while offering a hand, ready to use the skill [Rejuvenate] on him.
Clicking his tongue, TJ accepted Magnus' hand and used it to pull himself up, almost failing to notice the sudden refreshing sensation that ran up his body. However, he was too tired to question anything. They both then approached an empty bench and sat down.
Magnus gave TJ some time to recover. In the meantime, he opened TJ's Status Window. Seeing the numbers, Magnus was pleasantly surprised. The guy's Strength had gone up by one point and his Stamina by three.
Switching the screen to his own Status Window, Magnus saw there was an eighty-point increase in his DP. Seeing that, he tried to figure out how DP worked compared to XP. Basically, when someone made an achievement in regard to circumstances after the Prolog, they would earn XP. On the other hand, one was able to gain DP by making someone else accomplish something. In other words, influencing their actions and achievements, similar to what Atlantis had used to do to Magnus.
'Does that mean I'd get eighty DP every time I drag TJ to do some exercise?'
[That is not correct. Protagonist #2's accomplishment has earned the hosts eighty DP, twenty for each of the Protagonist's stat increase. This happened for two reasons. First is because he is a Protagonist under the host's Authority. Anyone else who makes the same accomplishment will not give the hosts any DP. Second, the hosts have managed to break the Protagonist's routine for the first time, gaining bonus DP. For the next running sessions, the hosts will only be able to gain ten DP for each stat increase.]
At the system's answer, Magnus shrugged. He wasn't disappointed. Earning any DP at all while doing barely anything other than persuading his friend to work out was already good enough. If he could keep up the same routine until the day of the Prolog, he could hopefully gain enough DP to help level up his Divinity.
'Oh, but then again, I can't keep raising his stats from just running. I'm gonna have to make him do a variety of exercises eventually. If it was possible, I'd also like for him to learn some martial arts, but that would be a mighty tall order.'
The moody boy didn't like to be pushed around, after all. But that was fine, as long as Magnus could help him get strong enough before the Prolog. All in all, today's running session had borne some satisfactory results.
---
"Oh, hi! We meet again!" said Magnus while stopping in his track during his 'run'.
Standing before him on the sidewalk was Summer, her eyebrows raised in surprise. "Oh, it's you. Magnus, right?"
"Yup. Where are you going?" asked Magnus. He approached her and started walking next to her. He tried to look nonchalant, but his excited smile had betrayed that. He was clearly happy to see her again.
Summer, though, didn't mind his carefree and easy-going attitude. For some reason, she wasn't wary of him at all, despite him being a stranger. "I'm heading to the grocery store."
"Alright. I'm helping you carry the bags," Magnus offered.
Summer smiled a little. "Thanks."
Being in the area, Magnus just 'conveniently' ran into Summer. He may or may not have used manual narration to device a tracking method to track down the girl. He needed to get her number one of these days. It was a bit troublesome having to resort to manual narration every time he wanted to meet her without looking suspicious.
He could appoint her as a Protagonist right away, just like what he did with TJ. But he felt like they should at least have a first—no, second date before doing that. She needed to get to the point where she was more comfortable being around him.
It was a silly reasoning for delaying what he would eventually do anyway, but Magnus couldn't give a damn. He wanted to do it right. Moreover, he swore to himself he would only activate her POV after getting her permission or during an emergency.
He could even do the better thing by asking her if he could make her a Protagonist to begin with. But he knew that no matter how believable he tried to make his explanation, she would only believe it after seeing with her own eyes the event that would shake everyone's perception of reality—the Prolog.
However, Magnus didn't want to wait until then to get her under his wing, because the Prolog signified the starting point of the gods' intervention, which meant they would start recruiting Protagonists from then on. Unlike Magnus, they couldn't do that right now, since for some reason the scope of how much they could exact their Divinity on mortals were closely tied to the world-changing events that were scheduled to play out. Meaning, they couldn't do anything until the Prolog happened, aside from possibly 'marking' their targets.
All of that probably had something to do with their plan to please The Viewers. Or maybe it was all by The Viewers' design in the first place. Magnus had no way of knowing that currently.
During their walk, Magnus learned a few things about Summer. Apparently, she lived with her father, who worked at a warehouse. She was also responsible for doing the housework, including buying groceries and cooking. Magnus wanted to know what happened to her mother, but he knew better than to ask. It was only their second time meeting, after all.
"You didn't bring your skateboard," Magnus pointed out.
Summer waved her hands slightly before replying, "I need them both free to carry the groceries."
"Right. I'm here to help now, though," said Magnus, grinning proudly.
Seeing that, Summer chuckled a little. "Yes, my knight in shining armor."
From their last encounter and now, Magnus had noticed that Summer was the type who didn't smile a lot. She only gave him faint smiles from time to time. Which was why, seeing her chuckle for the first time made his heart flutter in glee.
'Oof, can you feel the tip of the love arrow piercing our heart?' commented Magnus 2.0.
'It's one goddamn deadly arrow. One more shot and pretty sure our heart would stop,' replied Magnus.
A few minutes later, they arrived at the grocery store. Magnus helped her by pushing the cart around while she was picking items from the shelves. Almost an hour later, they were ready to queue at the checkout.
Getting out of the store after Summer used up a stack of coupons at the counter, they started heading for her apartment. She had bought the groceries in bulk to cut the costs, so while Magnus ended up carrying most of the bags, Summer still had to carry one. There would've been more if not for the fact that she only lived with her father.
Magnus helped carry them all the way up to the door of her apartment. This also served as an excuse to explain how he knew about her address, for whenever he wanted to visit her in the future.
Summer then let him in to help her set down the groceries. That was the first time he entered her home, and it felt like a monumental moment for him. The apartment was a bit small, with two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a living room that was conjoined with the kitchen. Thankfully, her father wasn't home; Magnus wasn't ready to meet him right now.
After they were done dealing with the groceries, Summer twiddled with her thumbs, unsure if she should invite him for some tea as thanks. It was already a little weird to let a stranger in while she was alone.
Wanting to put her at ease, Magnus decided to make up a little white lie. "I actually need to be somewhere in two hours, and I haven't showered after running. So…" He pointed at the front door while trying not to look awkward.
Summer almost sighed in relief but stopped herself, not wanting to be rude. "Right. Umm…thank you again. Last time you bought me food and today you helped me a lot. I don't know how I can repay you…" her voice trailed off.
Magnus then saw an opportunity. "Hmm…" he hummed, pretending to think. "How about your number?"
Summer was slightly taken aback by his request, but after a bit of deliberation, she thought it wouldn't be a problem at all. Besides, she felt a little flattered that a nice boy wanted her number. "Sure," she said. The girl then spoke her number out loud while Magnus typed it on his phone.
Saying his goodbye, Magnus exited the apartment while on cloud nine. Not only had he successfully dragged TJ out of his house and made him raise his own stats, but he had also managed to get Summer's number.
"It's a beautiful day~" he started singing in the elevator, with the grating sounds coming out of it as the background music. "And I can't stop myself from smiling~"