If anyone could see Marcus at this moment, they'd witness his eyes staring into empty air, his expressionless face gradually transforming into one of pure delight, his eyes widening as he showed his full teeth in a grin.
"Yes! I actually got a freaking cheat after one week of living here!" He shouted unconsciously, not caring if anyone heard him. "I almost thought I'd have to live an average life like my previous one in this world..."
He remembered the self-insert protagonists from his previous life, and his head felt light as the anxiety from before melted away.
He continued staring at the system interface before him: [Daily Quest: Complete Your Math Assignment. Reward: +1 Point.]
"Hehehehe..." He grinned creepily, but before he could go full crazy, he slapped himself and pulled himself together. "Damn it. Calm down!"
"First, I need to understand what kind of cheat this is—"
Suddenly, a voice rang from just outside the door. "Kid, was that you I heard shouting just now?"
Marcus coughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head as he opened the door, only to see his father looking like he'd been interrupted mid-sleep, his eyes still groggy.
"What the hell are you doing in there, Marcus? Why did you suddenly shout?" Nathan looked alarmed, though his voice carried a hint of concern. "Did you finally lose it just because that woman left us?"
A chuckle escaped Marcus. "No. I just had a dream and shouted something."
Nathan looked at him weirdly. He rubbed his eyes and checked his watch. "It's only five in the damn morning. And you're ruining my beauty sleep."
"Sorry." Marcus smiled awkwardly.
"Anyway, I'm gonna head to the studio to get some work done." Nathan yawned. "You're sixteen now, so you should know how to make your own breakfast and all. Especially now that your mother's gone—you have to be a man and learn to take care of yourself."
"Yes, sir." Marcus nodded.
"Yeah, I'll go take a shower, so don't disturb me." Nathan looked surprisingly chill for an angry dad. "Go sleep some more, but don't be late for school."
Marcus nodded and watched as his "dad" walked away toward the bathroom. He was thoughtful for a moment. 'Honestly, this dad of mine isn't bad. He's at least a bit better than my real one from my previous life.' He considered it further. 'Maybe I could help this poor guy now that I have a cheat...'
He shook his head as he entered his room. Truthfully, he still had mixed feelings about this family—he might look like Marcus Crown, but he wasn't the same Marcus anymore.
He technically had no feelings for either of his broken parents.
"Setting them aside, I want to see what this cheat I suddenly acquired is all about." He focused on the system box before him. "Daily Quest, huh. And I only get one point? Seems like this system is stingy."
He decided to explore what the "point" was for. "Is this system point the common one from those web novels that's gonna be used to increase status points or..."
Before he could finish muttering, he realized he didn't have any "status" or anything like that. He tried to bring up the available system panels, but there were only two: [Quests] and [Store].
He explored [Quests] first. Right now, it only had one quest available—the daily quest. The tasks listed were mundane: finish his assignment, make a nutritious breakfast, prepare for school, interact with people, and other meager chores that didn't give many points. Most only rewarded 0.5 points or even less.
These quests were all labeled under "Misc. Quests," or miscellaneous. Though disappointing, he wasn't discouraged—it could mean there would be minor quests or major quests later on.
"Okay, kind of boring. But I get the gist." Marcus swiped away the Quests panel and opened the Store.
Within the Store, there were sections for "Weekly Items," "Monthly Items," and "Yearly Items."
"Interesting." Marcus scrolled through the Weekly Items. Things like [Energy Potion] that temporarily increased stamina and mental clarity for 2 points. [Focus Potion] that boosted concentration, creativity, and memory for 24 hours, priced at 3 points. There were more useful items, but also useless things like [Sunglasses], which were clearly ordinary.
Then there were the [Monthly Items], and these were definitely more substantial than the weekly ones. [Acting Basics: gain natural intuition in performance. 20 points], [Basic Directing Instincts: gain understanding of camera angles, pacing, and actor coordination. 30 points].
As he read on, Marcus couldn't help but smile foolishly, until he snapped out of his fantasy when he saw an item displaying:
[Advanced Programming Skills: Upgrade your trashy programming knowledge. 15 points]
It immediately pulled him out of his reverie, and he scoffed. "Trashy? I was the best programmer in my company back then." But he couldn't help feeling a bit of shame. It was because of his negligence that he'd gradually been surpassed by junior programmers.
After reading through the Monthly Items, he moved to [Yearly Items], and the items displayed were incredible.
[Negate Cancer Serum: removes cancer from target. 150 points.]
[Permanent Stat Upgrade (+2 Intelligence): lasting increase to mental ability. 200 points.]
[Permanent Stat Upgrade (+2 Strength): lasting increase in physical ability. 100 points.]
[Knowledge Archive: gain partial understanding of a specialized project. 120 points.]
[Increase Lifespan: add 1 year of lifespan to selected target. 180 points.]
And a few more outrageous items.
With the expensive point costs, and the fact that he didn't fully understand how the system's point rewards worked, he couldn't tell if he could buy everything or just a few items. "If I don't accumulate points carefully, maybe I can only buy one or two from those yearly items..." Which was regrettable in itself.
After exploring the Store, Marcus thought he was done. To be honest, he couldn't help but sigh. "And here I thought the system would at least give me knowledge from my previous life that I could effectively use in this world..."
He'd been expecting something like "song compositions" of famous songs or "movie scripts" of famous movies, or maybe "book manuscripts" from famous novels in the Store. But no. There was no such thing.
"I should be grateful that I have a system—" Before he could finish, he noticed a search bar icon (🔍) in the Store panel. It was easily overlooked.
"What is this?"
When he tapped it, another panel appeared, and this time it was a surprise.
[Quest Search Engine]
Below it was a search bar with a design similar to Google from his previous life.
There was a description: [The System integrated search function that allows user to access knowledge, culture, and technology from host's previous world.]
His eyes went wide. "This is what I'm looking for!"
He grinned. "I can definitely use this right now to search for things I might need." He typed into the search bar.
"Low-budget movies that earned millions."
He rubbed his hands together as the search bar loaded results. "This is it. What I'm looking for—"
But he paused as the top results appeared.
[1: "The Blair Witch Project" - 15 points.]
[2: "Paranormal Activity" - 10 points.]
[3: "Napoleon Dynamite" - 7 points.]
[4: "El Mariachi" - 5 points.]
Etc...
The results appeared, but the unexpected thing for Marcus was that he had to buy the search results with points if he wanted them. "Well, this brings my hopes down a bit, but it's better than nothing." He couldn't complain.
Before he could search again, he noticed the search bar had turned gray and unavailable. He saw it had a limit—only one search use per week.
"Good thing I searched for something actually useful and not just random stuff." He said to himself. He noticed that while there was a limit of one per week, if he didn't use the search bar for weeks, it could accumulate to a maximum of three uses. Which was good.
"Well, now that I know how the system works, it's time to grind for points." Marcus immediately sat at his desk and scribbled in his math notebook.
After five minutes, a notification sounded: [+1 Point!]
He'd completed the quest. Then he went to make himself a good breakfast and earned more points, then prepared for school by showering and getting dressed. He ran to the garage, pulled out his bicycle, and headed to NoHo High School.
There were other people using bicycles as he pedaled along the Chandler Boulevard Bike Path. It went all the way to Burbank, but it also passed close to—if he just kept pedaling—NoHo High School.
After pedaling for a while, he finally arrived at the school gate. Students were already pouring into the school, and it was quite a sight.
There were cars dropping students off, buses pulling up, friends nudging each other and talking, and a senior out there actually teasing a chubby sophomore.
In short, it was loud and colorful at the same time.
Marcus parked his bicycle, adjusted his leather jacket, and slung his bag over his shoulder like one of those cool kids you see on TV shows.
He walked toward the school with a calm, confident expression. He might have seemed like he was simply looking around, but his eyes were actually observing notable girls.
"There's quite a variety here..." he muttered to himself. He spotted one girl, clearly a senior around eighteen, who had a mature, developed figure. She had dark, smooth skin and curly hair that added to her appeal. Her lips were colored pink from lipstick, and she wore light makeup that enhanced her features.
Another was an Asian girl wearing glasses with that classic "smart girl" look, dressed formally, though her clothes couldn't quite hide her graceful figure. She had pale, smooth skin, her face oval-shaped, complementing her Asian features. Her hair was sleek and flowing, with bangs that shifted slightly when she adjusted her glasses. She looked like a senior too, probably eighteen.
"Definitely Korean. She reminds me of Lisa." Marcus rubbed his chin with a grin. He observed all the girls who caught his eye in mere seconds.
A skill he'd developed in his previous life.
Then suddenly, he stopped in his tracks as a girl his age blocked his path.
She was beautiful too. Fair skin with a natural glow, freckles dusted across her cheeks and nose that somehow added to her charm rather than detracting from it. Her hair was a natural light brown, casual shoulder-length, giving off that effortless teen vibe.
Her green eyes were striking—large and alert. She had a slender but healthy frame, wearing casual fitted jeans, a simple t-shirt, and a hoodie.
She looked understated on the surface, but there was something genuinely charming about her. "Really nice..." Marcus couldn't help but admire.
The girl frowned and nudged him. "Hey, you're acting weird again. What are you muttering about?"
Marcus snapped out of his thoughts. He looked at the girl again and remembered... 'Shoot. I forgot. It's Arya.'
Before him was the 'friend' the original Marcus had made. Arya Stone.
"Arya." Marcus coughed awkwardly. "I was just lost in thought. Sorry, I didn't notice you there."
"It's fine. Though I wonder what you were thinking about?" Arya eyed him suspiciously. "I clearly noticed you were checking out other girls..."
"Girls? Ha. Of course not." Marcus denied shamelessly.
Arya rolled her eyes. "You've been acting really weird these past few days... Is it because of your family problems again? How are things going?"
Marcus's eyes lit up as he saw a chance to change the subject. "You see... things aren't going well for poor me..."