You Dare - Chapter 5

**Jay (System)**

NPC’s beware, MC level developments are taking place.

The janitor Mario has just received a higher score than the well acclaimed engineer with many patents under his belt, Chris Oilson.

‘Hehehe, the classic - MC outmatches hidden master trope - one of my favorites of course. It looks like they are going to the back of the building, is the point where the hidden master swiftly eliminates the potential threat? I hope not, let's get on high alert just in case.’

Through Mario’s head I started hearing the conversation between the two:

“Hey, what did you get on question #1? I don’t know what I did wrong.” Chris asked

“Umm, I got 12, can you show me your work so I can see what you did.” Mario answered

“Here..” scribbled sheet of paper was handed to Mario

“Hmmm it looks like you said 3² is 6 instead of 9”

“Aww dammit, of course I always make mistakes like those, well I also wanted to ask how did you do 12?”

…

At the two hour mark I felt like my brain was going to explode and my eyeballs were shriveling, the two kept on going on and on about engineering this– engineering that, talked about why question 10 was weird, about the cool ideas they had, why lightsabers were unrealistic and how to make them anyway. It seems I was wrong about the swift elimination thing, by heart these guys were still engineers and they were passionate about their craft.

But it was not all bad, the hidden master gave an offer to be my subordinate's mentor, and they were going to do the final part of the BBE engineering test - a group build - together.

…

The team with the most passion always (usually) wins, so it was no surprise that the two savants destroyed the competition, and created something that was quite promising for a 2 hour design challenge, promising enough that they decided to continue working on it making sure to keep the details hidden for any potential copy cats.

It was finally time for Mario to get some quality mentorship, also time for me to give him his reward for 100 percenting the practical exam.

I loaded up the reward and before sending it I decided to do a conscious swap to get a better idea of what was going to be happening next.

Consciousness Swap…

**Mario**

Today's events have been like a fever dream, after I took that focus improvement pill in the morning it seems like my life has been in perfect flow; I took the test with utmost concentration, got a 100% percent (even better than that hidden master dude) and then he even offered to mentor me - I mean even if I got a higher score, when we were talking I realized this guy was truly leagues above me.

|Well, I have completed two out of the three quests I had, now I have around 28 hours to finalize this patent - shiz this is going to be hard.|

Before I could think about how to proceed notifications started popping up

[Job Quest, Part 1 ✓, completed]...

Reward: + 10 Syscoins, +1 Engineering

[Side Quest ✓, completed]...

Reward: +10 Blueprint Upgrade tokens

[Alert: Total Syscoins now at net 0]

[Alert: Job-Quest fork opened]

Option 1: Continue with BBE scholarship Option 2: Join with Chris Oilson as Mentor

|Damn, stop spamming me System.. Ok it seems that I can move to a new job path also I got some blueprint upgrade tokens?|

|Hmm, I wonder what the +1 Engineering stat did, it seems like I can visualize the big picture of certain engineering concepts a little better, but I'm going to have to test this out a little more in order to be sure.|

I saw Chris take off towards his office and followed behind him

“Wait a second.. What? This is what you want me to do? Not work on the invention we made??” Mario’s confusion echoed across the open machine shop with all sorts of gadgets lined up out of reach.

“Yes, I mean it is important” Chris said with a serious tone

“You want me to respond to Engineering questions on Qiora, that's it, for 8 hours a day?”

“I mean how else am I supposed to keep my reputation up, Barny the professor of computer science is about to overtake me, and I bet he isn’t even doing it himself probably just getting a bunch of unpaid interns to do it for him, what a bum - don’t worry although you won’t be paid I will give you an office hour where you can come ask any questions, that is better than useless money.”

|Damn this bastard, I thought my luck was finally turning around but now I’m locked up in a room and spending all my time answering stupid questions, although sometimes there are some interesting ones - and since most are easy/fast to answer I have lots of free time|

A schema was laid in front of him with a mesh cover looking design running across it

|Damn only 12 hours left till the punishment, I need to finish fast.|

|Hmm, this mesh part is really hard, I don’t know how to make sure it’s sturdy enough but at the same time need to make sure I’m not using too much material as to make it expensive and bulky; so far all i've got is is this, and this design is definitely not going to win any awards - but I have something other engineers don’t - A System!|

I opened the menu:

[Name: Mario Fixen]

[Quests]

[Job Quest: Mentor Path] Contents: Gain recognition from Chris Oilson and collaborate on an market product Reward: Introduction to Formations, +10 Syscoins Failure: Career Path Closure, 10 years of janitor work. [Quest: Humble Beginnings] Contents: Create your first functioning original device and patient Reward: Basic Qi Cultivation Manuel Failure: Harsh Physical Training Time Limit: 48hrs

[Cultivation: None]

[Skills]

Sweeping 1 Engineering Theory 2 Weight Lifting 1 Appraisal 1

Syscoins: 0

Shop:

10 Blueprint Upgrade tokens (100 SC) 10 Qi Method Upgrade tokens (1000 SC) 10 Skill tokens (150 SC) …

Tokens:

10 Blueprint Upgrade [Use? ✓]

[Alert Blueprint Upgrade Comensceing]

|Hmm, what's going on, is the system upgrading my mesh design? I mean nothing is happening, it's almost as if the thing is thinking about what to do or something, it's a super system shouldn’t it work instantly?|

A design came back and a pattern that condensed and expanded in strange ways..

|Hmm, this looks kind of stupid, but it is a god level system it has probably already mastered engineering, there must be something more than what meets the eye|

|Well, I'll ask Chris when office hours come around about what he thinks.|

|Back to answering questions I guess…|

***

(Meanwhile inside a large boardroom in the BEE headquarters a group of CEOs in black suits were sitting around a ominous table)

“Hmm, the quality is a little worse this year, not so many 10-X engineers in the ranks.” one man said

“But that Mario Fixen fellow was quite good, although Chris is not an up-incomer, in fact he's quite the old head, now that he is stepping into the public, maybe we can recruit him?” another replied

“Well there's little chance he will accept, I tried back when he was a freshman but even then he declined the life changing sums, I don't think he is one of those engineers who is willing to sell their soul.” the third man - clearly bigger than the rest - responded.

“Overall their group invention was quite something, if they don’t want to join us then we are going to have to make sure they can’t upset the market - even if we use other means at our disposal.”

“HAHAHAHA –cough-cough- things are getting interesting…” the head honcho said with an awkward smirk.

***

Office hour finally rolled around and I trekked over to the barren room.

“..Holy Shit– You’re a genius, I would have never thought of this design - a mesh pattern that constricts on areas with more pressure and expands in areas with less, optimizing material usage and strength to a T.” Chris exclaimed with glee on his face

“Eeeeh Thank-thank you sir.”

“I think it's kind of a waste to keep answering beginner questions on Qiora, it's time to move up to Engineering Crack Exchange.”

“But sir, don’t you think it's better if we can patent this first while it's still fresh in our minds??” I said, crossing my fingers with burning hope - hope that I would not slave away farming rep for this man.

“Hmm, ok-ok I guess it will be a good idea, I mean reputation points will be sacrificed but I think it's worth it (maybe?)” Chris mumbled with hesitation

“Thank You- Sir, Thanks a lot, I mean It, it will be great to work on this together”

* * *

As Mario hurried over to the workshop to wait Chris Oilson took out a notebook and was writing down plans

“Hmmm, this man is truly incredible, with my soul as an engineer I can’t believe he can come up with ideas like these that are not only elegant but usable in a real market situation; I need to figure out how his brain works, I have encountered a plateau in my projects and if I can copy him maybe I will be able to break through.”

“So far asking those questions on Qiora have given me a good idea about how he thinks and problem solves, although it doesn't seem too out of the ordinary, something might be hidden deeper.”

“I’m going to make sure to test his thought process thoroughly during this trial by fire - creating a patent.”

“Well let me make sure my aloof and dense persona is active the whole time so he doesn't suspect anything.”

* * *

Swapping consciousness..

**Jay (System)**

‘Hmm its working good for now, when he used those blueprint upgrade token I was pretty worried, but I made sure to copy down a design for chainmail armor back at the sect and I think it worked pretty well’

‘I am starting to doubt the intentions of the hidden master now. At first I thought he was the passionate type, but now is he turning into the ‘consume your soul’ type? It is best to be prepared, good thing I am aware of these common developments in the cultivation world, and can plan the best way forward.’

‘Seems like I'm gonna have to get him started cultivation sooner than later, so that he can overpower the influence of this hidden master.’

‘Maybe I can alert him somehow?’

‘Well anyway let's just watch over him for tonight and make sure no fishy things are going to happen.’

I loomed over the body of Mario Fixen watching him sleep from third person with the little Qi I had, as I saw the hidden master sneak in with a couple gadgets and a clipboard.

…

‘You DAREEEEEEEE’