Chapter 5: 05 - Money Making

"Why do you sell your comics?" My mother asked confused. "I want a guitar." I said good-naturedly, not really caring about these manga since I didn't really like them anyway. Not to mention that I could read them on the computer if I ever felt like it. But my mother felt differently. "You know we can give you a guitar, right?" she said uncertainly. Seeing the way she looked, I knew she was thinking about what she couldn't afford to buy to get me the guitar, but I knew about the financial problems at home, especially after seeing how my father was worried about the bills this morning, so I just shook my head and answered. "It's okay, I've already read it and I'm not going to read it again, it's a waste of money to have it lying around in the bedroom." She realized I noticed the way she was acting, so she nodded and smiled a little embarrassed. -------- Lauren's comment -------- Sitting on the sofa with her head down, Lauren said in a sad voice, "I think Noah has realized that we're in financial trouble... Jonathan is looking for a better paying job, but even though he's a great stock assistant, the company he works for has no plans to promote him..." With a disapproving smile, Lauren looked into the camera as she sighed. "He's only doing this because I can't work... I've tried everything, but since Ethan was born, I can't take my mind off things for a second, thinking that the kids at home might be in trouble, and I don't know anything about working from home..." "I just hope Jonathan gets a less tiring job that pays better..." She sighed disappointedly to herself. -------- Comment End -------- Negotiating the price of manga has given me a new skill haha. [Negotiator Lv 3 When you negotiate the price of something, you have a 3% higher chance of convincing the other person to accept your price]. Yes, the skill was already at Lv3 because of the time we spent negotiating until I got $136 for my manga collection. That was a lot more than I thought it would be, which made me very happy. With cash in hand, I quickly went to a used instrument store and asked for the cheapest guitar they had. Looking at the faded brown guitar in front of me, which the clerk said was $48, I gained another level in my [Negotiator] skill, raising it to level 4, and managed to buy the guitar + a set of new strings, a capo, and a cover for $50. When I tested the guitar with the new strings, I quickly gained my new skill. [Guitar Lv 14 By playing the guitar, you learn 14% faster and have a 14% higher chance that other people will enjoy listening to you play]. I can save the remaining $86 for an emergency. I thought with satisfaction as I walked out of the store with the guitar on my back. Since my guitar skill was at Lv14, the level was already somewhat acceptable as I could play the songs I liked from my previous world, but it was still nothing impressive and I still made a few mistakes. So my goal was to get my guitar and singing skills up to Lv 20, and as soon as those skills reached Lv 20, I would record my first song to post on MeTube. With my plan set, I returned home satisfied. When I arrived home with my guitar, both my mother and Ethan looked at me in surprise. My mother because she never imagined that I would actually buy a guitar, and Ethan because he was curious to know what was inside such a big case. When I took the guitar out of the case, Ethan was amazed as he looked at it and asked me to play something, while my mother, I could see a little sadness in her eyes that she tried to hide, probably because she had noticed how old the guitar I had bought was. At Ethan's request, I played him the riff from Metal Man, one of the most iconic riffs from my previous world and the main theme of one of the most famous heroes of the time. Of course, this was the first riff I learned to play in my previous world, so it was the one I was most familiar with, so I could play it for my little brother without embarrassing myself. When Ethan heard the riff coming out of the guitar, I could see his eyes light up as he watched my fingers move from place to place on the neck of the guitar. I could even see the surprise in my mother's eyes as she watched me play the riff so masterfully. "Noah, where did you learn to do that?" She asked in shock, never knowing her son could play the guitar so well. "The salesman taught me so I could test how good the guitar was." I lied, saying something I made up on the spot. But that made my mom even more surprised because I had never touched a guitar in my life and here I was playing this one with such ease! When I finished playing, Ethan asked me to play something else, but I pretended that I didn't know another song yet, but that as soon as I learned it, I would play it for him, which made him happy and satisfied, even though he couldn't hear it now. I went up to my room, searched for guitar practice on MeTube, and practiced my guitar while I sang along, humming softly. Within an hour of practicing, my guitar skill had risen to level 15 and my singing skill had risen to level 5. Suddenly, I realized something. Although I had run to the point of exhaustion in the morning, my body wasn't sore at all now. Could it be something to do with the system?' I wondered. I suppose I could use it to train my muscles? Since it was late at night and the neighborhood we lived in wasn't very safe, I didn't think it was a good idea to go for a walk at that time, so I decided to do some weight training in the backyard. Looking for an effective workout on the Internet, I found a simple one, but one that would be very good for my weight. Putting on another pair of workout clothes, I went out into the small backyard without attracting too much attention and started my workout. First I did 5 minutes of warm-up and stretching, which would be very dangerous with my weight. Then I did 2 sets of pushups on the wall because I couldn't bear to do them on the floor with my weight, squats with a chair, calf raises and finally a few seconds of plank. This may sound easy, but it was so tiring and exhausting that I was exhausted before I finished the first set. When I finished the workout, I got another skill and another buff! [Bodybuilding Skill Lv 1: Effect: When you do strength training, your muscles develop 1% faster and your body tires 1% slower]. [Muscle Exercise Buff Lv 1: Performing muscle exercises increases the user's metabolism speed by 1% for 24 hours]. When I saw that the Muscle Exercise Buff was stacked with Aerobic Exercise, I was very excited because it would probably make me lose weight even faster than I had imagined. When I returned home tired, my mother was once again shocked to see me as sweaty as I was. "Noah... are you okay?" She asked worriedly, especially after seeing so many changes in me in a single day. Looking at her genuine concern, even though she had stressed me out a bit that morning with her overanxiousness, I couldn't be angry with a person who only wanted the best for me. Smiling a little, I explained the same thing I'd told my father: "I'm just unhappy with my body and I've started to exercise, this morning I went for a walk, now I've done some weight training, all very carefully so as not to overload myself, don't worry mom." Seeing the relief on her face, the affection I felt for her grew a little. I had never felt anything like that in my life, it was a very good feeling... When I got to the bathroom and looked in the mirror again, I was shocked to notice another change in myself. Not only was my face a little prettier because of the point I'd gained in Charisma, despite the fat it hid, but I had apparently lost a little fat. When I stepped on the scale, I was surprised to see that my weight had changed again. From the 149.3 kg I weighed myself this morning, I was now 148.6 kg, which was 700 g less, a total of 1.4 kg that I lost today! I'm losing weight much faster than I thought! I thought excitedly as I took a shower and practiced my singing skill, getting it up to level 6. When I got out of the shower, I was surprised to see my father and mother looking at me with pride. My mother must have told him that I was practicing, and he must have told her that he saw me walking in the morning. Ignoring their expression, as I didn't know how to deal with it, I just went back to my room and started practicing my singing skill again, looking for another useful skill to learn on the computer to make quick money. Considering that I needed quick money to stop the copyrights of the songs I wanted to release, I remembered a skill that the old Noah had. Opening PhotoArt, I looked at the illustrations of manga characters that Noah did in his spare time and was quite surprised by the quality, especially considering that he did it all with his computer mouse since he didn't have a tablet to draw on. I decided to try something similar and tried to draw a werewolf. As soon as I finished the drawing, I got the notification I'd been waiting for. [Digital Illustration Lv 27 With Digital Illustration, you get better 27% faster and have a 27% higher chance that other people will like your art]. Level 27?! I was shocked when I looked at this, this was the highest level skill I had so far, and it was 5 levels above Math, which was my highest level skill at the moment! There, now I knew what I had to do to make money fast. If there was one thing I remembered from my previous world that shocked me, it was a girl in my class who made a lot of money just by drawing animal characters to sell on Twitter, apparently she sold each drawing for at least $100... what was it called? Furra, Furre, Furry! I can start selling these artworks for $30, which will help a lot to pay for the things I need in the beginning, but if I gain fame, I can raise this price in the future! Decided, I made a Twitter account for this world, Twipper, and used the werewolf art I made as my profile picture. Of course, I used a pseudonym because I never wanted others to find out that I drew this kind of character to sell, especially considering that if I became famous in the future, it would be a stain that would be hard to erase from my history... So I created the persona @JacobTheWerewolf, something that probably only I would find funny in this world, since no one would know this character since his movie doesn't exist in this world. While writing an ad, I realized that I still lacked a portfolio to convince the public to buy my art. Anyway, I'll publish the ad with just my werewolf drawing as a portfolio, then I'll make more art...' I thought. I thought without worrying too much as I posted. I saw that the furry community in this world was much smaller than in my previous world, as if it was still in its early stages, the other art still had a bit of the amateurishness that my current art no longer had after copying some of the style of art I saw in my previous world. Even though I wasn't part of that community, and even made fun of it with my friends, every now and then some art in that style would pop up in my feed, and after a few years of seeing it, it's hard not to pick up on the style behind it. Seeing that it was bedtime, I turned off the computer and went to sleep, as did Ethan, who was already passed out in his bed. Unbeknownst to me, shortly after I went to bed, a message arrived in my inbox from someone interested in one of my artworks.