Chương 10: [1.10] Contractually Obligated Motivation (Part 1)

"Alright, let's do this." Angelica put on her sneakers the following morning, daring to go outside for a fourth day in a row. At this rate, maybe she'd even be a normal member of society again in no time, shedding her hermit status. She was planning to go for a run like a person with a healthy lifestyle, someone she used to be and was now pretending to be again. After the tormented night of strange dreams, she had elected to ignore them.

Either this was a side-effect of having inherited the Demon Growth System, or her subconscious was having a hard time accepting her situation. But her main consciousness wouldn't allow such wallowing. Despite the rocky start, her new abilities were a blessing from Vissiem, erm… Ferrul? She still wasn't sure about that. Point being, she was going to use it to get her life back on track.

The weird resistances and Skills she'd gotten were neat and all, but the real power came from the ability to fully control her own actions. So what if she didn't have the motivation to actually commit to self-improvement? That didn't matter now since she could force it upon herself. For starters, she was going to get back into running. It was what she knew, what she was good at, or used to be good at… She hadn't genuinely tried in some time, not since she was a cross-country star.

After how badly her legs had quivered from just walking around all day during the trash fiasco, she expected some serious atrophy she'd have to power through. But that was fine. Her goal for the day was just to get back into the rhythm, to see how far she could go.

"Go for a run at a steady, expected pace until you're reasonably tired but not close to the point of total exhaustion. Take a familiar or obviously okay route, obeying all traffic laws, respecting anyone you come across, and above all, be safe and take care of your body, rehydrating whenever is necessary to maintain a level of decent comfort." [Order accepted without resistance | Current Contract: Go for a run] It was a bit funny to see it all boiled down so simply.

If she wasn't used to it now, she would be worried that all of the caveats of the Contract didn't take. And they were all rather important, not wanting a repeat of past incidents. Since it wasn't a Named Order, she could resist, pausing when needed for breaks or rational adjustments, or she could just cancel it outright whenever she wanted. However, as much as possible going forward, she'd aim to complete all of her Orders so that she could further increase her Summoner Rank.

While she had absolutely no idea what benefits it provided, higher was certainly better, right? Angelica hit the ground running, letting the familiar high take over as her apartment quickly vanished from sight. As unfortunately expected, it wasn't long until she felt a bit winded, and her muscles were already creaking in agony. But she did not slow, did not break stride, keeping a consistent pace and powering through the pains. Because she had no choice.

If she tried to ease up, her body would continue to propel itself forward, and if she pushed harder, the Contract added motivation of its own, making the need to continue gnaw at her instincts. Before she knew it, she found herself out of her usual stomping grounds, trotting down a trail that led to a fancier part of town.

She supposed it fell within the guidelines she'd given herself, since it was very clearly a path that many people would use for jogs just like these, even briefly running along a river which was definitely a highlight. However, when she reached one particular fancy neighborhood, her body reacted in an odd way. It told her that she shouldn't be there, like she was trespassing. It wasn't the same way a poor person felt ostracized by the rich, but rather that there was some sort of force propelling her away.

It didn't last long, just a few meters, so she ruled it out as just some fleeting vibe. Though she could have sworn she briefly saw script similar to the stuff written in her Demon Summoning book, not that her body would let her stop to get a better look. When she really felt the tiredness looming, Angelica veered herself back in the direction of her apartment, though that wasn't her final destination. She charted a course for a grocery store, needing to stock up, having put it off for far too long.

Right when she spotted the supermarket, she was also greeted with a notification. [Vigor increased] Hell yeah. She felt a little boost of endorphins from the bonus. Angelica knew from her past exploits the benefits of exercise, but they could take a while to show, so the instant validation was certainly a win. And despite her boost in energy, when she reached the store's parking lot, the Contract completed itself.

She could have kept running, could have kept pushing herself, but apparently her Summoner side also deemed it a good stopping point and fulfillment of the terms. And it was a good thing that it had come to an end. She had to assume that she'd get no progress to her next Rank if the contract was cancelled, because that would be a failure, right? It was probably the same if she used Order Rejection to break free of it. Frits, that could possibly even be negative points, if such a possibility existed.

But besides that, she wanted to immediately dive straight into another Contract. It was definitely an annoyance that she could only do one at a time. Wait, hadn't that been one of the error messages? She couldn't give more than one order per Contract due to insufficient Rank, right? All the more reason to improve! Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Buy the best, healthiest, but also tasty, items you can to maximize survival based on the allocated grocery budget. You can get yourself one treat that doesn't fit into the previous criteria. Also make sure to account for living necessities and anything Cherub needs. You can get a special treat for him too." Such an Order would probably be seen as overkill for most people, but Angelica really hated shopping. She would just buy stuff online most of the time.

It'd be delivered right to her and was usually cheaper than in-person stores. Groceries were a different issue, though. Either they had delivery fees, or people would get the wrong things. While she wasn't a super picky eater, especially not after being forced to resort to dumpster diving, being stuck with items from the idiocy of others was frustrating on another level. So while she hated it, she'd do it herself, or at least force herself to do it. And hey, more Orders for her progress.

That said, she wasn't exactly jazzed by many of the foods her body picked out for her, mostly cheaper canned, boxed, or frozen foods. The Order was basically avoiding fresh ingredients entirely since they were more expensive. That was fine since she wasn't much of a chef, either. Maybe it was something she could delve into as another way to improve herself once she had more money.

Unfortunately, her body was also avoiding the snack aisle almost religiously, keeping her away from the sugary and fatty treats that usually claimed most of her grocery budget. She was impressed with the overall efficiency of the Contract, though. It managed to spend her $75 budget down to the cent, having her walk out with almost twice the food she usually had, while also getting a mega pack of canned food for Cherub.

The treat she'd gotten for herself was a whole pie that was on clearance for hitting its sell-by date. Good job, "Demon" me. Her Summoner side took a moment to praise her obedient self. One Order to lug it all home later, and she was back to her apartment. Regrettably, Angelica forgot to do a Contract for putting the groceries away, doing so on auto-pilot since it was one of the few ways she still stayed organized. While such an act probably provided miniscule progress at best, she still felt a bit cheated.

Maybe it was best to forgo the notion of ordering every aspect of her life now before it got out of hand and she lost the concept of free will. Otherwise, she'd soon be making Contracts to use the bathroom or to even breathe. Yes, it was best left for actual acts with substance. Speaking of, she wanted to keep the self-improvement train going. While part of her didn't want to do it since Ms. Gate had made the initial demand, Angelica decided it was for the best that she actually cleaned her apartment.

Just clearing out the laundry yesterday had already improved her mental well-being, but it was still very messy. So how much good would a spotless living space do for her mind? She started with a simple Order of disposing of anything that could be unmistakingly identified as trash with no use to her whatsoever. Fortunately, thanks to her clean-up a few days ago when she painted the Summoning Circle, the bulk of the work was already done and just needed to be taken to the dumpster.

But there were still quite a few small pieces all around that had to be pried out, much behind furniture, to her surprise. And there was also a plant she'd gotten when she'd moved in and promptly forgotten about, now very dead. Next came a general reorganization of things. Everything had to go to a space where it belonged. If it didn't belong, it was set aside for further evaluation and possible disposal.

A few pieces of furniture were shifted around, and she decided to completely dispose of the entertainment stand she never used. She had always meant to get a TV for it, but there wasn't nearly enough room to put a couch, and she just watched everything on her computer, anyway. With those two tasks done, her apartment already felt so much better. Now it was just time for the all-important actual cleaning. Or, uhhh, maybe it wasn't. Even if she could Order herself, the idea was still daunting.

No need to do it all in one day, and there were other things she wanted to get to. Time was still the enemy. She did at least opt to clean herself, heading in for a shower now that all the laborious sweaty actions were complete. And maybe it had been her imagination, but Angelica felt like the other shoppers had been giving her a wide berth at the grocery store.

She had just come off a run that left her ragged, so she wouldn't be the most approachable, but that should have been just the normal level of exertion left to permeate from her. So why… Why, now when she smelled herself, did she still reek of trash?! It wasn't her clothes. They were freshly laundered and smelled lovely, she'd inhaled the fragrance deeply before putting them on this morning to be completely sure. No, it was herself, her body that stank. What was going on? Was there something wrong with her water?

Scrub, scrub, scrub. She once again made sure to wash everything properly, lathering herself good in the new soap she'd just bought, smothering her hair in shampoo to the point that it made a giant bubble wig. There was no way she'd smell after that, right? And yet, when she got out of the shower, she was whelmed by the results. The smell of the soap was there, the shampoo was there, but why did it feel like there was still an odorous underlayer to it all? Angelica gave her body a good check.

She wanted to make sure there were no injuries she hadn't noticed that could be causing such a thing, like the blister that had mysteriously vanished. But she felt completely fine. No wounds, no pus, no anything that should make her smell less than marvelous. Perhaps the smell from trash day had just gotten embedded into her nose, and she'd gotten so used to it that she didn't notice it too much anymore unless she focused. To be safe, she rinsed out her nostrils and put on a healthy application of deodorant.

Now it was time to get to work. Because while she had already made great strides in improving herself and her situation, money was still a problem.