8 days to live.

Ben had to admit that when the countdown hit single digits, he felt like his heart stopped!

He panicked! But what could he do? He was already doing everything he could!

Ben sat on his bed and thought about recent events.

This past week, he spent every waking moment working on his charisma and pick up skills. He skipped all his classes. He went to the seminar every day. When he wasn't at the seminar, he read everything he could about charisma in the library and online. He even found ongoing university courses related to motivational speaking, and snuck into them!

He searched for techniques to reduce public speaking anxiety and practiced them. When university closed, he hit the streets and did approaches, and even practiced motivational speaking then too.

How? He approached large groups of women instead of individual ones. That felt more like public speaking in front of a large group, which helped him gain experience and reduce his nervousness.

Ben's effort was not in vain!

His first gain was that he completed his weekly challenge yesterday. After many approaches, he became better and better. His studies into charisma and motivational speaking showed genuine dividends in pick up successes. In the end, he got two more phone numbers.

[Congratulations! You've completed the Weekly Challenge: Handful of digits - Acquire phone numbers from 3 women who are interested in you]

[Reward: Stat Point(Random) x1]

[Completion status: 3/3]

[Distributing reward: Stat Point(Random) x1]

[Assigning Stat: Charisma+ 1]

The system rolled the stat point into charisma. Ben didn't love that because he was already working on charisma under a 100x boost of the Mid Level Stat Growth Multiplier. Still, he wouldn't complain about a free stat point.

There wasn't any achievement this time, but that was fine. This was his new weekly challenge:

[Weekly Challenge: A frog's kiss - Kiss 1 new woman who is attracted to you]

[Reward: Stat Point(Random) x1]

[Completion status: 0/1]

Ben wasn't sure how he felt about it. He hadn't kissed a girl since he hit puberty...but this was a necessary stepping stone. If he couldn't even kiss a girl, how could he seduce one within 8 days?

Ben knew he needed to step up. It's a good thing that with his recent gains, he was optimistic about achieving better pick up results. The weekly challenge was only an appetizer. The main course was his stats!

[Looks: 5 - Average]

His looks hadn't changed. Even though Ben continued going to the gym, it would take a long time to see gains now.

[Charisma: 7 - High charisma. Entry-level standard for related professions]

This was Ben's biggest gain! His charisma shot all the way up from 0 to 7! A 100x bonus was no joke! That's two years' worth of results! During the past week, Ben took no time off. The Stat Growth Multiplier made him concentrated and motivated to work on his charisma. He spared no effort and this was the outcome!

Every morning, Ben woke up with enthusiasm for new stat gains! There was only one issue. Over the last few days, he learned more about the stat system. Watching his charisma skyrocket, he understood one unfortunate fact—as stats increased, raising them further became exponentially more difficult!

The stat system wasn't linear but curved. Ben perceived this when his charisma reached 5 after 3 days, then took another 3 whole days to reach 6! That was almost 1 year of results to raise it by 1 point!

Raising each level was harder than all the previous ones combined! The only reason it was 7 now was because of the bonus stat from the weekly challenge. Ben felt if he used another Mid Level Stat Growth Multiplier on charisma, he might not even be able to raise it by 1 point!

The system wouldn't make it easy to become a superman!

Still, Ben had a stupid grin. From 0 to 7? That was a life-changing transformation! Even though growth would be difficult later, how could he complain? He was a human waste 3 weeks ago! This was an evolution!

[Social Status: 2 - Get your life together]

Ben's face fell. The system never let him smile for too long.

[Seduction skills: 1 - Still more proficient in insults than anything else]

"So are you!"

After opening so many women, Ben's seduction skills gained the first point at last. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

[Knowledge: 4 - Entry-level student]

[Manliness: 3 - Barebones qualifications as a breeding slave]

"…Breeding slave? What kind of society does this system come from?"

[Communication: 5 - Average speaker]

His communication had also gone up by 1 from all the practicing. The Stat Growth Multiplier didn't cover communication so a 1 point gain in a week was already a significant result.

[Personal talent: 2 - You're becoming top-heavy on other stats. Still an uncultured swine]

"Did you have to end on an insult?!? I'm trying to stay positive! I have a big speech today!"

Ben took a deep breath. He knew it was pointless to ask for politeness from this damn thing.

Today was a big day. It was the final class of the public speaking seminar. This was the day everyone would give their speech and Ben would face off against Zachary. As Ben looked at his 7 charisma and 5 communication, his face morphed into an evil grin.

Last week, everyone gave him the nickname stuttering Stanley. Today, they'd change it to face-slapping Frank!