Chương 23: Chapter 22

Tiff and Victoria sat in the Camry in the parking lot for the 24-Heaven, eating their ice cream in silence. It was perhaps the most awkward soft serve Tiff had ever eaten, even more than the time Tiff had eaten a scoop of butter pecan in front of Amy, who was staring at her tearfully because she wasn't allowed any since she was grounded. Tiff thought nothing would have ever topped that experience until now.

The clerk behind the counter thrust the bag of laundered money on Victoria, because he was just the middle man and didn't want any part of getting between two Villains fighting for territory. So, in a genius move that would be praised by historians for generations to come, Tiff and Victoria both decided to use said money to buy their ice cream. It wasn't until they were outside that they realized what they did.

"Did we just rob that guy?" Tiff asked.

"I'm…not sure," Victoria frowned.

"I…don't think so?"

"So what do we do with this?" Tiff held up the bag of cash that was sitting between her legs while she focused on her ice cream. There had to be several thousand dollars inside, bundled in stacks of 20s. Victoria glanced at it out of the corner of her eye and slowly savored some soft serve.

"Keep it?" She suggested. It wasn't like they were going to throw it away.

"Should we turn it in?" Tiff asked. Victoria chuckled.

"To who?" She shook her head.

"Not the cops. Could you imagine? I'm sure they'd be happy to take it off our hands. Or, better yet, they'd probably ask where we got it. I'm not sure that's a line we want to be following. I don't know. Maybe we should ask Dad."

"You're probably right," Tiff agreed.

"Though…I guess if we do keep it, maybe we won't have to worry about your job anymore."

"What's this we business, munch?" Victoria laughed.

"You don't need to worry about my employment or finances."

"Except I'm kind of your employer now," Tiff grumbled. Victoria said nothing but continued to eat her ice cream thoughtfully.

All things considered, Tiff and Tori hadn't been gone very long. The "fight" (if it could even be called that) only lasted a handful of seconds, a minute at most, and the clerk seemed entirely unconcerned about it afterward. So, after driving to the corner store, eating ice cream, and going back home, the girls had only been gone for about 30 minutes. Tiff was very surprised to see how much work her dad had done on her TAS.

The old server rack had been replaced with a sleek, low-profile unit that was simultaneously smaller and more powerful. Tiff wouldn't understand the specifics even if Amy or their dad took the time to point everything out, so she was just happy to hear it was "better." The most striking improvement, the first thing Tiff noticed when she walked into her dad's office, was that it was connected to multiple monitors, each displaying something different.

One had the home menu with the root options, one showed a list of emails and announcements (though none were open), and three were devoted to different sections of the map. Rick and Amy were playing a bizarre hybrid of geoguesser and battleship, trying to find and point out various landmarks they had each designated on their own screens. The map still had the same wireframe-esque visuals, but they almost seemed more… defined.

Like not only had the TAS been given an upgrade in the monitor department, but the actual visuals, too. Amy was staring at an old KFC that still had a giant bucket of chicken slowly rotating on a pole above its roof. Most of the chains Tiff had seen had gotten rid of theirs long ago, if they ever had one in the first place, and this one had obvious weather streaks and stains. The noise of the girls stepping into the room drew Rick and Amy's attention, and her dad immediately brightened upon seeing them.

"Tiff! There you are. I gotta say, this map is incredible. Did you know you can zoom all the way in to see street signs?" Tiff rolled her eyes. Yes, she did know that. But as she looked closer, some of the finer details seemed missing. There weren't any cars on the roads, no pedestrians on the sidewalk. As a consequence, there weren't any speech bubbles telling her people's conversations, either. Only, as soon as Tiff drew near, the screens flickered and all those missing elements started populating.

"Huh?" Rick muttered, while Amy looked excited.

"See?! There they are!" She pointed at her screen.

"I'm not crazy!"

"I never said you were," Rick mused.

"So is it proximity-based? Did they show up because Tiff came back? Maybe something to do with permissions…." Rick was busy staring at a section of road leading toward downtown Los Angeles, but Amy had returned to their house and was focused on Rick's study.

"Oh," she said, looking at the small pips-for-people representing their family.

"OH!" As she was talking, the little Amy on-screen mirrored her every move, including a little speech bubble that said"oh" popping up above her head. Rick leaned over and watched his counterpart do the same.

"Interesting…." Interesting…. Tiff shook her head.

"Are we really doing this right now?" Are we really doing this right now? Her sister and dad watched the bubble appear over Tiff's head on the screen, and then both turned to stare at her with grins on their faces.

"Enough of this," Tiff sighed, squeezing her way between them to scroll away the camera. Even Victoria was getting in on it, as her large frame was starting to elbow Tiff out as she leaned forward.

"Aww," her sisters groaned sadly, watching the bubbles disappear as the camera floated out of the house into a bird's-eye view of the neighborhood. But that only brought up more questions, as something appeared that Tiff hadn't seen before.

"What's that?" Amy asked, pointing at a building that was brighter, as if it were highlighted.

"Wait a minute," Victoria frowned.

"That's 24-Heaven. We were just there."

"You just went to the corner store?" Amy gasped.

"And you didn't take me?!"

"You were busy," Victoria grinned.

"Tiff, why's it glowing?" Tiff moved the cursor to the shop and clicked on it. The shop magnified on the screen, slowly rotating in a circle. Unlike zooming into a location, the rest of the map had completely vanished. The corner store was floating in a void, with nothing else attached… except Tiff could see all the extra areas, like the bathroom, and places regular customers weren't allowed in, like the break and storage room.

Perhaps more interestingly, or more distressing the longer Tiff looked at it, was a tag in the top corner of the screen that read: area controlled. Tiff clicked on the icon, but instead of changing the screen, a System window popped up in front of her.

"Wah!" Tiff let out a shocked cry, having not expected that.

"What is it?" Victoria quickly asked.

"I got a window," Tiff shook her head.

"I'm okay."

"What's it say?"

"You can't see it?" Victoria gave her a flat look and Tiff blushed. She twirled the screen around and showed it to everybody.

[This section of your Territory is directly under your control.]

"Gee, thanks, System," Tiff said rather crossly.

"I think I could have guessed that myself."

"Sure, but what does controlling something actually mean?" Victoria asked. Tiff concentrated harder.

[Controlled areas grant Influence. Influence affects many things, such as types, quantities, and Affiliation of generated Quests. Aligning Affinities are more likely to receive beneficial quests, and such quests are more likely to succeed, while quests for opposing Affinities will offer greater rewards to shut you down. As your Influence grows, so does your Infamy.]

"That sounds horrible," Tiff complained.

"Why would I ever want to spread my Influence then?"

"That might be," Victoria said cautiously, "But remember what happened the last time you tried ignoring your Class? The last two times, actually?" Tiff thought back and immediately paled. The first time was when the System gave her a quest to put her core down and she ignored it. The System then gave her an ultimatum. Fortunately, the Quest she received had been somewhat benign.

Then there was the matter of not finding out what Victoria's new Class was capable of, and of discovering it potentially derailed her entire life. What would happen if Tiff decided to ignore this new Influence?

"Hey, what's this?" Amy asked. She pointed at the screen, where the 24-Heaven was still revolving. Near the cash register was a floating $ sign. Tiff hadn't given it any thought; since Amy pointed it out, it did seem slightly out of place. She clicked on it. Underneath the area controlled section, a new line appeared. Racket established. Payment collected. Next pickup available in 6 days, 23 hours. Amy and Rick both slowly turned to stare at Tiff and Victoria.

Victoria started whistling and turned away, leaving Tiff to hold the bag. Quite literally.

"Ahaha," Tiff laughed sheepishly, putting the sack of bills onto the desk.

"We, uh, went to get ice cream." Amy peeked inside the sack and squawked, her eyes bulging wide, while Rick stared harder.

"We also got paid?" The second she let the corners of the sack flop down and the money peeked out, something amusing happened. Tiff got a quest, and judging from how Victoria and her dad were also staring into space, they also got quests. After several seconds, Tiff snatched up the sack while her dad and sister faced off.

"Tori," Rick said seriously, though something about his twitching lips gave him away.

"You're under arrest." Victoria scoffed. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"No." Rick sighed and heaved his shoulders in a dramatic way.

"Welp. I tried." He manifested a screen and flipped it around.

[Quest: Stop, Thief!] Apprehend a criminal escaping with ill-gotten goods. Reward: +25 Fame Status: Failed

"I win!" Victoria cackled, displaying her own screen.

[Quest: Shakedown] Provide "protection," collect dues. Escape to your hideout. Reward: +25 Infamy Meanwhile, Tiff's quest was slightly different.

[Quest: Vault] Deposit your valuables into the Dungeon Core. 0 / $4500 banked.

"So I guess this answers the question of what to do with it," Tiff muttered.

The family followed Tiff back into her room and watched her "deposit her valuables" into her dungeon core. It was Rick's first time seeing the floating diamond, but more than the peculiarity of a floating green rock, what made everybody gasp in surprise was how the loot, bag and all, simply got absorbed into it when Tiff threw it at it. Slightly disturbed at how reality seemed to distort around the core as the surface rippled when it ate the bag of money, Tiff quickly checked her System.

Yes, her Quest was complete and now she had added four and a half grand to her net worth. Perhaps the entire family needed a break from System oddities, because they all marched out of Tiff's room in a calm and collected fashion and decided as a group not to think about it any longer. And while that was easy for Tiff's sisters as they helped their dad prepare dinner, Tiff was vexed. Why did the System track how much value her Territory had? Why was Influence a thing?

Was this unique to her, like so much else with her Class? Or were these things she'd someday learn about? One way or another, Tiff was fairly certain the answer to the last one was yes. Hopefully, she could do it before she brought any more harm to her family, just by being who she was. After dinner, Rick helped move Tiff's computer back into her room and he set her up with an extra monitor.

Now she could run two screens at once, and to help her monitor more carefully, Rick was already brainstorming how to integrate more electronics into the TAS. While he didn't want to make any promises, he was hopeful he could load the SystOS onto something more mobile, like a phone or a tablet. Tiff stayed up until the wee hours of the morning scanning over various areas of the map, trying to figure out if she could unravel any more secrets, but mostly ended up spying on her neighborhood.

The 24-Heaven was the only building that she controlled, apparently, and she watched in fascination as a tired businessman made a late-night liquor purchase. It wasn't until she scrolled too far to the side and wandered through the walls of an apartment complex and stumbled upon some… very enthusiastic grunting that she came to her senses, shut down the computer, and went to bed. Her dreams were plagued by nightmares, but fortunately they weren't rated highly on the alphabet.

In fact, as bizarre as they were, once again featuring Victoria in a 1920s gangster outfit while Amy wore a flapper dress, her dreams felt more like work than anything. In it, they were once again making their rounds to collect protection money, among other things, but in the morning Tiff couldn't recall most of the details. The only thing that really stuck with her was that, now that she was supposedly responsible for protecting the corner shop, she had a duty to fulfill.

She and Victoria would have to make another visit soon to ensure all their protection needs were taken care of.

Tiff woke up groggy and sluggish, but by now, more than a week after she Awakened, she was resigned to the fact that this was simply her life now. If she didn't get a solid 8 or 9 (or however many hours her new stamina required to recharge), she was effectively a slug. Amy barged into her room early, pestered her mercilessly until she threw some clothes on, and was otherwise far too loud and cheery for so early in the morning. Victoria was waiting for them by the front door to take them to school.

Now that she wasn't going into work so early, she had more time to spare.

"Tiff, are you-," Victoria began, but as soon as she saw Tiff's face, she froze.

"What the hell happened to you?"

"Didn't sleep well," Tiff yawned. Her jaw stretched until it popped, and as she peered at her big sister, she squinted.

"Tori, what are your thoughts on fedoras?"

"Why do I get the feeling I don't want to ask?"

"It's for the best," Tiff shrugged. She trudged after her sisters to the Camry, where she stole an extra couple of minutes for sleep on the ride to school. Victoria dropped Tiff and Amy off out front, where Tiff received a rude awakening. Colors. Lots and lots of bright, vibrant colors assaulted her eyes. Mostly in blue and yellow… the school's colors.

Banners with a cartoonish-looking, anthropomorphic hawk scowling down upon the students from high on the walls, and a blue-and-yellow banner strung across the entrance proudly proclaimed: homecoming. Tiff groaned.

"You didn't forget about the game tonight, did you?" A cheery voice from behind her asked. Tiff turned in time to see Candice walking up, her backpack slung jauntily over one shoulder. She was wearing her cheer jacket again, but this time it made sense why. The loose socks, however, were absent…and for the life of her, Tiff couldn't figure out why that made her upset.

"Yes," Tiff answered honestly. Candice stopped dead and her mouth slowly fell open. The lollipop she was sucking on nearly fell out.

"But that's because I'm tired. I remembered yesterday, and I still plan to go tonight."

"Huh," Candice quickly closed her mouth and swirled around the small stick.

"You could have just said no, you know." Tiff shrugged. She didn't have the energy or desire to explain her Quirk right now. Instead, she listened to Candice talk excitedly about cheerleading, tonight's game, and football, which, if Tiff didn't know any better, sounded like a sport dedicated entirely to males parading themselves around for girls to admire.

She was beginning to think her promise to go support Candice may have been given without understanding all the ramifications, but it was too late to back out now. All Tiff had to do was make it through the day, and then the football game would be on them, and then it would be over. Then, she could go back to pretending to be normal while she prepared a speech on the benefits of VanDyne Protection Services and how they might benefit a business near you… trademark. Maybe it needed some… workshopping.

They'd need to test it on the 24-Heaven and get customer feedback. … did other mob bosses offer exit surveys? Surely there had to be resources Tiff could scour. Tiff's mind was dragged away from the ever-present demands of her Class the moment she entered Homeroom. She and Candice weren't running late, but they arrived only moments before the bell and barely had the chance to reach their seats by the time the bell rang. Mr.

Hendricks, punctual as ever, walked inside the moment it finished ringing and called everyone to attention.

"Alright everybody, we've got a real winner today, something I think everybody's looking forward to," he said with a smile. As always, he was met with disbelieving groans.

"Man, I don't want to volunteer for another cleanup day," one of the boys complained, getting several soft laughs from the class in turn.

"Then next time, read the paper before you sign!" Mr. Hendricks grinned.

"But this time, I really mean it. I think everyone will enjoy today's lesson. Now that everybody's got the hang of summoning their System screen, today we're going to be learning about…Quests!"

"Oh?"

"Say what?!"

"Heck yeah!" The class instantly perked up… though, in their excitement, they stopped paying attention. Even Tiff was caught up in the excitement… if slightly subdued compared to her peers. If only Mr. Hendricks had given her this course two weeks ago, Tiff would have been much more grateful. As it stood, she had a good deal of experience with Quests, but she supposed there was no harm in learning what a professional had to say. After all, what could somebody who taught PISS be called if not a pro? Mr.

Hendricks calmed the chatter as he began writing on the board.

"Q…U…E…S…T…," he said out loud as he wrote the word in all caps and underlined it twice.

"Everybody's heard of them. But who can tell me what they actually mean?" To Tiff's surprise, multiple people raised their hands. She wasn't surprised that people knew (or thought they knew), but participation in Homeroom was always a…challenge for Mr. Hendricks to achieve. Getting so many eager volunteers must have been a welcome change.

"Jimmy," he called out to one boy.

"It means you get free stuff!" Several cheers and laughs erupted, and even Mr. Hendricks shared a chuckle.

"That's right! In fact, you, Jimmy, just earned some homework. How to not be a clown, a one-page essay, by Jimmy Belkin, due next Monday!" More laughs rang out and Jimmy himself looked shocked.

"You know what, maybe I'm not being fair," Mr. Hendricks mused.

"Tell you what, Jimmy. I'll waive the essay if you can tell me why you get…'free stuff'."

"I…don't know?" Jimmy said awkwardly. Mr. Hendricks thought about it for a second before coming to a conclusion.

"That's more correct than you might think," he said seriously.

"And for that, you've escaped extra homework this time. For the rest of you, let's expand on Jimmy's explanation. We don't know. Scientists, philosophers, theologians… nobody knows why the System decides to hand out quests. It's been doing it since the dawn of time, and one can only assume the cave-dwellers that came before us scratched their heads as floating screens showed them crude pictures of sticks and stones as it tried to coerce them to do its bidding.

Because, yes, most people would believe that the System, even if it isn't alive like you or I think of life, has needs or wants.

"What are those needs? Those wants? Nobody knows. It's impossible to know. But what we do know is that it talks to us, for a certain definition of 'talk', via Quests. For most people, Quests aren't very important to their daily lives. They don't come up at every interval, inserting themselves into every interaction or conversation. At most, a regular Citizen will see a Quest once or twice a week. Maybe less." Tiff shifted in her seat. That…was not her experience at all.

"Once a Citizen branches out into a more defined Class, Quests might become more frequent. They might be once a day; Dailies, if you will. But even then, much to people like Jimmy's chagrin, most Quests aren't there to 'give you free stuff.' No matter how awesome that sounds, it's just not how Quests work. So how do they work?" He asked, raising his hand to his ear as if the entire class just demanded it of him.

"I'm glad you asked! And for that, we have a demonstration! For I am a [Teacher]!" It might have sounded obvious, but Tiff was invested and knew at this point not to underestimate System shenanigans. In her brain, it made sense that a [Teacher] could be a real Class. And Mr. Hendricks demonstrated exactly what it did. He stared into his System interface and moments later, a screen popped up in front of her. Judging from the gasps coming from around the room, everyone else got a screen just like hers.

Or maybe not exactly like hers.

[Quest: Quest, the search for Quests] Receive a pointless Quest. Do a pointless Quest. Or…give a pointless Quest. Reward: Insight to Futility How…was she supposed to handle this? Tiff glanced at her neighbor out of the corner of her eye. Candice was staring at the air in front of her with stars in her eyes, as if she'd been given enlightenment, received nirvana. Or she'd seen the world's biggest jelly donut, judging from how she was starting to drool, but it was hard for Tiff to know.

"Psssst," Tiff hissed, stealthily reaching over and poking the girl with her pencil. Candice yelped and nearly jumped out of her seat, quickly looking around for the interloper. Her eyes fell on Tiff and they narrowed.

"Hey," Tiff whispered, "What does yours say?"

"What do you mean what does mine say?" Candice hissed back.

"It's the starter Quest. Everybody got it. You got the same one!"

"I think mine's bugged!" Tiff leaned closer.

"Come on! What's yours say?" Candice narrowed her eyes.

"Show me yours and I'll show you mine!" For a brief second, Tiff thought about denying the girl… but that might look more suspicious than she already was, and that was saying something. She spared a glance for her screen and determined there wasn't anything to give her away, so she quickly flipped it around. If Candice was surprised at the speed and efficiency at which Tiff handled her System, she didn't let it show. There had to be other people besides Tiff who practiced summoning it out of boredom.

Candice's eyes rapidly shifted left and right as she scanned Tiff's Quest, and the more she read, the more her scowl faded. It was a quick read, but by the time she'd seen it all, she was simply confused.

"That's really weird," Candice said.

"Look at mine."

[Quest: My First Quest] Receive your first quest. This Quest will auto-complete in 10 minutes. No Reward

"Ahh," a voice said from directly in front of their desks. Both girls jumped in their seats, spooked, and turned to find Mr. Hendricks staring at them.

"I see. Which one of you does this quest belong to?" He asked both girls the question, but he looked at Tiff while doing so. Tiff wasn't stupid, and she knew Mr. Hendricks wasn't a stupid person either. He obviously knew, but she was grateful for the courtesy, no matter how small.

"Mine," Tiff said. She didn't see the harm in saying so.

"Interesting," Mr. Hendricks replied.

"Tiff, I'm sure you're wondering why yours is different. I won't say it's common; it doesn't happen every year, but I've seen this once or twice. Apparently, My First Quest is only given out by the System when it truly is somebody's first Quest. If I try, or any [Teacher] tries to give out the introductory Quest to somebody who's already received a Quest by the System, it instead gives them…this." He pointed to Tiff's floating screen and frowned.

"Nobody knows why it gives this specific Quest instead. The System isn't known for its sense of humor. Most of the time, it's very serious, but every once in a while, you get something like this." Mr. Hendricks said nothing else, walking to a nearby pair of students who were having trouble manifesting their System screens. Candice spared a few more glances at Tiff's screen, looking at it like it was a knockoff brand of makeup from the dollar store, before concentrating on her own again.

At the very least, she didn't ask Tiff why she'd been given this alternate Quest, now that she understood what it meant. And to Tiff, that was the makings of a real friend.