Divine Celebrity 134 (Patreon)

“What’s the difference,” I murmured dazedly as I dropped a bill on the table and left the cafe, wanting to drive away. I didn’t want to be in a public location if the situation developed dangerously. 

I drove for ten minutes, as fast as I could manage without getting a speeding ticket, and soon, I parked into a desolate emptiness. I closed my eyes and focused on my internal world, trying to understand what was the difference that was tickling me at the intent flow. 

It was a subtle difference, the kind that I would never even notice if I didn’t have my most recent improvement… Even now, it was more of a feeling than anything else. Soon, I realized the difference. The Intent flow was a mixture of two different directions. One was just directly targeting me, flowing in the same usual pattern, which I was used to. 

The second was more interesting. It came from a distance … like it was flowing toward a different target first before bouncing off from there and pulling toward me. I tried to follow the direction, but it soon faded. 

I might have had trouble understanding what was going on, but the timing was too accurate to be related to anything but my most recent achievement of creating a scandal. A scandal that was already picking some national renown as some of the national news picked it. 

Very fascinating, I thought as I realized what was going on, the possibilities significant enough to make me giddy. 

I didn’t care much about the amount of intent I had been getting from it. It was even less than the little scraps I had been collecting from the chess tournament when I had first received the System. 

I was excited by the method I was collecting it. 

The Cloaked Hero. 

A made-up hacker name that had no link to me, and couldn’t be traced to a different source … yet somehow, it still provided Intent for me. “Fascinating,” I thought as I started going through the other videos, and posted a few more — once again through bots that couldn’t be traced back to me. 

It showed several more prominent people from the city, this time including Coach Spencer, intensifying the scandal. With the scale growing, some bigger news agencies soon picked up the news … and the Intent flow got several times higher. 

Still negligible compared to the other sources, but only because the majority was dispersing at a distance. Wasting that was a little frustrating, but. I ignored that loss quickly, focusing on the possibilities. I had always thought that Intent was linked tightly to my identity. 

And, my latest discovery revealed a completely different path for me. Of course, I needed to discover a way to somehow pull more than a fraction of the generation … but still, the possibility itself was enough to add a completely new layer of challenge… 

Truly fascinating. 

Of course, that meant a lot of work, not only to create a legend that allowed others to focus on, but also finding ways to focus on it. 

But maybe, repairing the System would help. 

[Intent Pool: 8.7%]

I turned my attention toward my pool of Intent, wondering if I could trigger the Repair process the second time. But, while I tried to repeat the process several times, it didn’t work as I intended. Stubbornly, I tried again, but this time, I received a warning. 

Not as a notification, but more of a feeling, hard to describe and illusory. It told me that, if I tried to repair the System again, it’ll take much longer. Something that I had no intention of repeating, not when considering even an accidental discovery of a Totem Animal function gave me such an incredible benefit.  

Using the previous example as Benchmark, while I would be able to use the previous functions, I would lose the ability to acquire new abilities, which was not exactly preferable. 

I wanted to explore Acolyte and Domains functions in depth before triggering the Repair and putting the System back to its sleeping state. I hoped that they would be able to help me generate more Intent one way or another. 

And even if they didn’t work as well as I hoped, I would still wait until Megan’s business plan started. I wanted to see if being a model would give me some extra benefit in terms of Intent generation, so that even without any possible advantages from Acolytes and Domains, the repair would take much less. 

“A decision for the future,” I murmured, shrugging as I walked to my car. With the nature of the mysterious Intent flow solved, I didn’t need to stay here for more. 

Instead, I decided to handle what Coach Juana asked of me, and visit the other teams. Maybe I could find a way to generate more intent. 

I wanted to see if the other sports could generate some more Intent. Before starting to drive, I sent a quick message to Megan, to check if it would work for her plans. Normally, I wouldn’t have bothered, at least not if she hadn’t used one of the favors I owed her,  but the fifteen percent cut I would receive from the success of the enterprise made kindness much easier to display.   

Earth didn’t just orbit around the sun, but also around the benefits. 

Megan’s response came almost instantly, calling me. “Tell me, are you going to create another commotion?” she asked, not even bothering to ask for a greeting. 

“Me, a commotion?” I answered, acting like I had been insulted greatly. 

Megan chuckled at the other end. “Yes, I can’t imagine why I suddenly have that impression. You’re a man of humility and perseverance. Like a monk. I can’t even imagine you raising your voice.”  

“As long as you understand it,” I responded, then continued seriously. “You don’t mind if I go around a bit, right?” 

“Depends.” 

“On what?”  

“Whether you can actually make an impact or be defeated. You might not know just how exaggerated your reputation became. I’m sure the players would challenge you to a game while making their friends stream it…” 

“And, considering my general reputation among the coaching staff, I doubt the coaches would do anything to intervene,,” I completed. 

“Exactly, so don’t go and ruin my marketing campaign if you’re not confident.” 

“What if I’m confident,” I countered. 

Megan paused. “Are you serious?” she asked, her voice sharp. I just chuckled. “Then, wait half an hour, and I’ll ask Kim to visit you. She’ll make sure to get a better recording of the show, and bring some samples. Make sure to wear them while playing. It’ll help a lot for the campaign.” 

“So, we’re launching faster than you first predicted,” I asked. 

“Yes,” Megan said, her voice cheerful. “The scandal couldn’t have happened at a better time. Normally, even under the best of circumstances, it would have taken a couple weeks for me to get into the production schedule, but the scandal made Marl’s company cancel their production orders immediately, leaving the workshop in a lurch. They are willing to give me a deep discount as long as I start the production today.” 

“Excellent news,” I answered with a chuckle. 

“One more thing,” Megan added, sounding hesitant. “We have to break up.” 

“Oh, already discarding your poor boy toy,” I said with a chuckle. 

Megan chuckled as well, responding to my jovial tone. “Exactly,” she said. 

“As long as you don’t get a boyfriend for a month or so, it’s alright,” I said. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have cared that much considering ours had been a deal of convenience in the first place, but my reputation for virility was an official part of my System, and I didn’t want to deal with some gossip about not being enough. “I have a reputation to maintain, after all,” I added.  

“No worries,” Megan answered. “I can’t be dealing with rumors of a reputation now that I’m going to change my outlook to a serious businesswoman. I’ll even make sure that everyone knows the only reason I broke up with you because it’s not appropriate to date while we work together.” 

“Therefore distinguishing further yourself from the current scandal, maybe even turn that into your own marketing, smart,” I said. 

“It’s good that you know,” Megan said smugly, ending the call, clearly happy with the way her business ambitions were developing. 

I was as well. At this point, breaking up with Megan was better for me. Not that it stopped me when it came to having fun … but it had limited my actions seriously when it came to making some public spectacles. And, those, I needed to test Lust Domain further. 

Still, the progress was fun… Especially since that progress came with some significant earning potential.  

I wished that I could take full credit for the smooth development, but it was just vindictive revenge against a man who tried to insult me by trying to tow my car … the rest was just a beautiful coincidence. 

As I drove back, I felt a flicker in the backseat. I checked the mirror, only to see my tortoise pet looking at me. “Are you bored?” I asked, ignoring the ridiculous feeling coming from talking to an animal. Considering he nodded seriously,  it was not a particularly big misunderstanding. 

“Good, come watch me play some ball, then,” I asked. He made a subtle movement, one that was hard to decipher, but from the feeling it gave, it felt like the tortoise equivalent of a shrug. I looked at him, then paused. “I didn’t give you a name yet, did I?” I said. “Do you want one?” 

He nodded. 

“Excellent, how about Death, Destroyer of the Worlds,” I said, and exploded in laughter. The sight of a tortoise in the back seat, giving me a deadpan stare was too amusing. “How about George?” I followed. Negative. “Mike?” Negative. “Rex?”

This time, I received a frustrated glare as he leaned forward, put his front leg on one of my books, and flickered. I saw him outside of the car before he blinked back, but the book ended up discarded. A strong protest. 

“Okay, no dog names,” I said, raising one hand in surrender. Then, I looked at him, and noticed a detail. His shell had darkened considerably since yesterday. “How about Mr. Black?” I asked.  

This time, he paused a bit before nodding. He found the name satisfactory. A beast of simple tastes… 

And, just like that, a notification popped into my sight. 

[Totem Animals, category updated. (Black Tortoise [1])]

Interesting, I thought. It felt like a significant change, one that needed to be analyzed more.  

I added it to my ever-growing mental list of tasks to be done…