As evening approached, Eric was back up in his fourth-floor apartnt, pacing back and forth in front of the coffee table. His eyes were glued to his smartphone screen, which was still displaying his account balance. His balance, which used to max out around $2,500 on a good day, now boasted a number with way more figures.
"How am I supposed to spend this much money... wait a second, this is legal, right? It’s not like so bank error where they’re gonna demand it all back and tell I can’t touch it," Eric thought.
A holographic screen materialized right in front of his face, breaking down the details of the system and the money he had just received at the end:
[The funds you received are a reward for completing the registration process and rging your soul with the system. This money belongs entirely to you. Please use it however you see fit.]
Eric paused, staring at the screen. As a forr gar, a novel enthusiast, and an ex-mber of his high school’s literacy club, he obviously knew what a system was. He just always assud that kind of stuff only existed in fiction and could never actually happen in the real world.
Then, the text on the floating screen shifted back to the quest layout he had seen earlier. Eric sank into his couch, staring thoughtfully at the hologram.
"Record myself playing the guitar... I’ve never even held a guitar... let alone played one. Besides, what kind of song is going to pull in 200,000 viewers?" Eric thought, though his eyes kept drifting down to the massive cash reward.
Eric picked up his phone again, researching where he could post a music video to get the absolute maximum viewership impact. Finally, after analyzing the user bases and traffic trends, he settled on two major streaming platforms that were incredibly popular—platforms he used every single day himself: Spotify and YouTube. Staring at the two app icons, he shook his head.
"This is insane... I usually just listen to music and watch videos on here... now I’m supposed to actually make a video? And what am I even supposed to play? Just so generic cover song?" Eric thought.
He opened YouTube and started searching for guitar videos, specifically looking for heavy instruntal tracks that showcased lightning-fast fingerwork and intricate lodies.
Without him even realizing it, his fingers began tapping against his thigh completely on their own. The more he watched, the more a sudden, intense urge built up inside him, making him desperately want to pick up the very instrunt flashing across his screen.
Finally, Eric stood up and rushed to the elevator. He rode it down to the first floor, grabbed an acoustic guitar off the rack along with a few packs of replacent strings from the retail shelves, and headed right back upstairs. Once he stepped out, he carried the guitar over to his lounge chair.
"Twang." "Plink." "Plunk."
His fingers began dancing across the strings, and every now and then, he tuned and adjusted the string tension by twisting the tuning pegs. Once everything was set up, he reopened the video on his phone. He listened to the song closely, locking his eyes on the guitarist’s finger movents.
Suddenly, sothing bizarre happened inside his brain: he could effortlessly identify every single note being played and completely understood the tempo. He paused the video, stood up, and grabbed a pen and paper from the cabinet. He quickly drew lines across the page, transforming it into a makeshift sheet music template.
Then, he played the song from the beginning one more ti, and this ti, his hand automatically charted the notes onto the paper. On his next listen from the start, he verified his notation and corrected a few minor mistakes. Once the video ended, he lifted his guitar, his eyes scanning the scribbled sheet music resting on the table.
"Twang." "Plink." "Plunk."
Eric instantly played the exact sa lody he had watched in the video, adding a unique personal touch to it. Whenever he felt like adding extra notes or making adjustnts to give the rhythm a sharper edge and a deeper vibe, he wrote them down imdiately. He kept repeating the piece from start to finish, listening intently to the flow of the music.
Since it didn’t quite hit his ears as the definitive version he wanted to hear, Eric ended up adding his own flavor to the draft. When he tested it out, he was completely stunned. The original song had morphed into his own personal rendition—sothing entirely fresh and different, bearing almost no resemblance to the video track.
The lodic rhythm was undeniably superior, so much so that Eric himself couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
"Wow... insane... cool... this is incredible," Eric thought with a massive grin, staring down at his handwritten notes.
Since the original track was an instruntal, Eric played through the lody one more ti, letting out a low hum as he fully imrsed himself in the sound. Suddenly, a spark hit him: he wanted to add lyrics. Because the lody carried a surging, high-energy rhythm, he decided to channel all the raw pain buried in his heart straight into the words.
Without even realizing it, he began telling a story about five kids, one of whom was ultimately driven away due to a massive misunderstanding and false accusations. It captured the agony of being completely ignored by his parents, and the deeply painful betrayal of his girlfriend hooking up with his brother.
But following that darkness, life shifted gears—suddenly inheriting everything and opening up a brand-new horizon to spread his wings as wide as possible. As he penned the lyrics, tears spilled from Eric’s eyes, but he smiled anyway.
It felt like he was finally purging everything weighing down his soul. When he finished and read over the final lyrics, he surprised himself.
"Did I... actually write this? Eric thought." He smiled, tracing the top of the page. "The title of this song is: Wide Horizon Cos After Darkness," he thought as he wrote it down.
He began strumming his guitar and singing the track, his deep, raspy voice sounding incredibly rich and blending flawlessly with the lody. Eric sang with absolute raw emotion, tears streaming down his face, looking exactly like a seasoned artist who lived and breathed for the stage.
When the final chord rang out, Eric set the guitar down beside him and leaned back into his lounge chair. He sat in quiet reflection. He noticed that the crushing pain he usually felt when recalling the events of the past few days was completely gone. He placed a hand over his chest and smiled.
"Thank you. I finally feel a sense of relief, and the ache is gone... well, even if there’s still a tiny bit left... that’s normal. It’s not going to vanish completely overnight," he thought, completely unaware that his sudden emotional control was actually a direct result of the system’s new skill.
"Growl."
Suddenly, his stomach let out a loud rumble. He glanced toward the window and realized it was already pitch black outside. Looking up at the wall clock hanging just above the window, he saw it was already nine pm.
"Wow... I’ve been sitting here playing guitar for a long ti... I’ll record the video later. Let’s head out for a bit, grab so cash, get so food, and hit a convenience store to pick up so supplies," Eric thought, standing up. He quickly changed his clothes and headed over to the freight elevator to ride down to the first floor.
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