Lucas decided not to sell the item just yet, he didn't want to waste Karma points accessing the dimensional Marketplace when he only had five points left.
He hadn't even upgraded any of his stats yet.
"I should first check to see what other people are doing, system open the crosslink,"
[Sure, would you like to choose your user name or leave it anonymous?]
"Let's leave it anonymous for now," he answered.
The floating translucent screen suddenly switched to a different page.
It was just like an online community where people posted about random things and other people replied. Not surprisingly enough, it already had a considerable amount of active users.
He spent a few minutes simply just surfing through the platform.
"It's just like I'm using a social media app on my phone,"
He could even search for particular tags related to any topic of his choice, although some of it seem to be hidden behind another pay wall and could only be accessible by giving Karma points.
He was also restricted from communicating with people from other worlds, but he still managed to find some useful stuff for free,
"Beginners guide to surviving the Apocalypse"
It was posted by another user just like him but had a lot of positive reviews so he opened it on a whim and read a few lines.
It was saying everything the system already had, only with a few extra words. Focusing mostly on how they all needed to work together and share that Karma Points to stay alive.
But he did manage to learn a few things like the seven different ranks.
–Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Master, Demi-Gods and Gods.
There was the option to share your Karma points with anyone you wanted to, even online, so he could easily tell that this was just an attempt to manipulate even more people to give up their Karma Points.
The person who posted this particular piece of work called himself «Hero-sama», and his rank was being displayed along with his name. He wasn't in the iron rank like Lucas, he was in a higher rank, Bronze.
'That means he must have hit the target of 1000 Karma Points'
It was hard to imagine that someone had already managed to do it, while he was still busy trying to figure out his right from left.
He wasn't even the only one, there were a few other people that had crossed to the next rank. There were even some offering out Karma Points, claiming to be sponsors for Heroes.
These people had built a whole new online ecosystem and were treating it almost like the apocalypse had never really happened. They were making jokes and even posting funny contents and people would reward them with points.
A wide grin tore across his face as he realized he could also do something similar.
He didn't have to go out and complete Daily Missions just to earn points and rank up, he could instead do it from the comfort of his house.
And from the looks of things there actually were people ready to give out their points for basically anything.
"That makes sense because the Daily Missions involve just acquiring random items. I'm sure people trapped in a supermarket or with some guns would have hundreds of points by now. Plus social media influencing isn't new to me,"
Before the apocalypse due to his continued failure, he had tried to be a social media influencer but saw zero success, this time though he was going to get it right.
"I just need to think of the right content," he thought out loud.
At some point, his thoughts drifted back to Stacy.
Now that he'd calmed down, a different kind of anxiety crept in. How were things supposed to be the next time they saw each other?
She would want nothing to do with him. That much was obvious. Even if she couldn't take legal action, there had to be consequences for what he'd done, harassing his own neighbor like that wasn't something you just walked away from.
The next morning, a knock pulled him out of sleep.
He lay still, staring at the ceiling.
Another knock.
He considered ignoring it. Pretending he wasn't home even if it was practically impossible since he obviously couldn't go anywhere.
Then he heard her voice.
"Good morning, Lucas. Care for breakfast?"
He froze.
Of all the things he expected… that wasn't one of them.
After a brief hesitation, he got up and opened the door.
Stacy stood there with a small tray in hand, smiling like nothing had happened.
"This time I made tuna sandwiches," she said brightly.
Lucas stepped aside and let her in.
They sat on the couch by the center table. She set the tray down between them, moving with casual ease and a carefree expression.
Like last night didn't exist.
Lucas picked up a sandwich, forcing a nervous smile.
"Thanks…"
She hummed lightly, already taking a bite of her own. She was acting so normal that he couldn't help it.
"Stacy… about last night," he started carefully. "I really didn't mean to offend you. It's just—"
"Offend me?" she repeated, blinking at him. "What did you do?"
Lucas paused, the words catching in his throat
"You… don't remember?"
She frowned slightly, as if genuinely trying to recall.
"I don't know… after dinner, we got to the door…" She trailed off, her brows knitting together. "The only thing I remember clearly is you telling me to forget everything that happened."
She looked back at him, expectant. "What exactly happened?"
Lucas stared at her, the sandwich forgotten in his hand.
A cold weight settled in his chest.
"N-Nothing," he muttered quickly, stuffing his mouth with the sandwich to avoid saying anything more.
It was then he realized—
He might have vastly underestimated the extent of his ability.