《A Guy, A Latte and Status Screen.》Chapter 3
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Wa Lui Qi now was sitting in 24m square room. There was no other decoration that made his apartment so exciting to anyone else, but for Lui Qi; a single bed, an old wooden desk that also acted as a dining table with a laptop and ashtray placed on top of them, a barely functional kitchen, a drawer, and a leaky bathroom was enough.
Without further ado, Lui Qi started saying "Side Snack." But nothing happened, he just thought he could use the spell as long as he said the name, but obviously, that was wrong.
"Abracadabra." He said, nothing happened.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos." He said some other magic word that he knew, but this time he was making some hand gesture and nothing still happened.
"Expelliarmus!" He said, this time with intonation and using his cigarette as the wand replacement, obviously, that wasn't the right spell.
After several trial and error, while feeling foolish, Lui Qi concluded that he must also concentrate on the said skill just like how he did it with his Mini-Map to enter Field of Vision mode. "Side Snack." He said. He knew he didn't need to say it anything to concentrate on the skill, but he just thought this would make it easier.
"Oh, it works." Another new type of screen appeared in front of Lui Qi. It had 4 rows of a table, each of them had one big box on the right and several smaller boxes filled with a picture on the left side.
The first rows were what he assumed as the Sandwich row. The first four smaller boxes were the bread type: White, Wheat, Whole Grain, and Rye. While the next boxes were the fillings and there were a whole lot more of the fillings selection such as ham, cucumber, cheese, tuna and many more unlike what the skill description said, but all of them were greyed out.
"Why though?" Lui Qi muttered as he clicked on the bread type, choosing Wheat bread; a screen popped up, telling him to pick the bread's shape, the thickness and et cetera. "Urgh... I don't want to just eat a slice of empty bread."
As soon as he said that, eight boxes that were greyed out now suddenly had colour. "Oh... I see, so I must choose the bread first before putting the filling huh... that actually makes a lot of sense."
Each time he clicked on the fillings, another screen popped up, showing a different kind of fillings variety, such as the tomato types, how he wanted to slice it, how he spreaded it, the quantity and many more.
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"...Then what?" He just assumed everytime he picked the ingredient, it would automatically show up on the big box just like how he picked the bread, but that didn't seem to be the case. It took some amount of time for Lui Qi to notice he must drag the filling onto the big box to select it.
But Lui Qi scowled as he noticed a problem, a problem so big that it could be the biggest challenge he could ever face. It was dragging his finger on the open air. If he put to much force, his finger would pierce the screen and the dragging process would be cancelled, if he didn't concentrate enough, his finger would slip away and let go the filling box, cancelling the whole process. "How the hell the people in a sci-fi movie can work with this type of screen..." He said while praying in his heart that humanity would never develop any type of holographic technology.
After doing this for some amount of time, with a face and body full of sweats. Lui Qi first magical sandwich was done, he chose: lettuce, onion, pickles (cucumber), lettuce, tomatoes (sliced into two), salad dressing (classic vinaigrette), and another lettuce. By the time he dragged the last lettuce, or the seventh fillings, the filling boxes once again went to grey, and he must choose the top bread.
Repeating the same process with the trail mix, he chose: Cashews, sesame seeds, and cranberries. Next was potato chips, and for the last he chose water. When he finished with all of them, he pressed the big circle and he felt like something was just seeping out from his body. If he must put it into word it was like the sensation of sweat, a lot of sweats falling down from your forehead at the same time, it was tiring but at the same time wasn't tiring.
But before Lui Qi was able to linger on that sensation, another message popped up.
Side Snack Lvl 1: 9 minutes 59 seconds left.
When he tried to use Side Snack once again, it only showed him the screen timer. "I see... I must wait the process time or in the system words, casting time to complete before I am able to use it again huh."
Without nothing much to do, he checked his status screen and noticed his mana dropped to 23. "Yeah, just as I expected."
Stretching his body, Lui Qi stood up and decided to transfer the inside of his refrigerator into Bag of Colding. He already calculated that if he cut the refrigerator power, he would save somewhere around 20$.
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"But I need a big container huh." Lui Qi muttered, then he started rummaging through his room, searching for something big enough to contain all of his foods. And he stopped as he realized something "...I could've just used the refrigerator as the container." He said as he facepalmed himself.
With that in mind, Lui Qi started concentrating and trying to cast Bag of Colding onto his refrigerator.
Using the skill will cancel Side Snack Lvl 1. Do you want to cancel Side Snack Lvl 1? (4 minutes 18 seconds left.) Yes/No.
"Oh..." Lui Qi rubbed his chin. "So I could only use one skill at a time? Or is it because Side Snack has the Casting Time?" Said Lui Qi.
Next, he started concentrating on his Mini-Map, and the same screen popped up to notify him. "Man... if I knew this I should've gone with casting Bag of Colding first... but yeah, skill order, let's not forget about skill order for the next time."
Laying on his bed, Lui Qi decided to just wait while watching Youtube video about film theory. Before he knew it, the four minutes mark from the video had passed away, and surprisingly, unlike what he expected, there was no notification telling him about it.
"Yep... I knew it." He said with a smug face, and secretly thanked the tycoon type games he often played on his phone. Although there were many that notified you to collect the prize, there were also many games that didn't give any notification.
Leaving that fact aside, he used Side Snack once again and there was a picture of his sandwich, and what kind of paper bag he wanted to use. There were the striped paper bag, the light brown paper bag, the white one, the one with handles and many more.
Choosing light brown paper bag as the packaging... He waited for 2...5...10...20 seconds and nothing happened.
"Now what?" Lui Qi tilted his head. He thought the sandwich would appear out of thin, but that didn't seem to be the case.
"Unless..." Lui Qi started moving his hand and he smiled when his guess was right. His palm was now inside the screen as if he was putting his palm through the water surface, and with a single attempt, he managed to pull out the brown bag from the blue screen.
Lui Qi opened the bag and happily humming as he took out the sandwich, directing it into his mouth without any hesitation.
"..." He only made complicated expression when he munched the sandwich, then slowly gulped it down. "...This somewhat tastes normal... this isn't bad but this isn't good either." He frowned at the sandwich.
He started dissecting the sandwich and tasting them one by one. "...The ingredient itself doesn't taste that bad, in fact, they are on the almost-fresh side... so the problem is in my composition huh." Lui Qi muttered as he started snacking the potato chips. "This one needs more seasoning... well, considering it doesn't have any seasoning option, I guess I should've expected the chips will taste bland."
Aside from those two, Lui Qi didn't find any problem with the trail mix as for the water... it might kinda weird to drink from waterskin on this day and age, but aside from that, the water itself tasted fresh and a little cold.
Making mental Note, Lui Qi moved toward the refrigerator and cast Bag of Colding. As he cast it, a shining white bluish line of some sort slowly appeared on the refrigerator. It took a couple amount of seconds before he realized the line was forming a magic circle and it took another couple dozen of seconds for it to complete. As soon as the magic circle completed, it bright shone for a second and was gone from the refrigerator.
Without any hesitation, Lui Qi took the cable off and opened the refrigerator door. He stood in front of it for some amount of minutes. "Yep, it still cold but," He paused for a moment and waved his hand in front of the freezer section. "...The freezer section doesn't get affected huh. Is it because it is a separate box? And what are Bag of Colding upper and lower temperature limit?" He thought for a while but decided to just take it easy as he realized he didn't have enough Mana to do anything and put the cable back.
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To Play With Magic
My name is Alexis Everette. I'm the only daughter of Earth's greatest hero. My dad is a normal man, but he's still my greatest hero. While he may be normal, I can bend the elements to my whim and have power over space and time. Of course, that's who I am at the end of the story. There's a lot I have to go through to get there. And even with all the power I gain... The world ends on a Tuesday. ... This is currently a completed story arc, though it's not the end. New updates are starting March 28, 2022. Actively updating. Mostly on Mondays/Thursdays. WARNING: FLAWED MC and not great early writing. Edits are on the list. ... *LitRPG-Isekai start with a return to Earth to stop the System apocalypse goal. Still a first draft, but with a bunch of edits from you guys thrown in. Thanks for that. Guaranteed updates on Monday and Thursday. This story is only available on RoyalRoad and my Patreon. If you find it anywhere else, please reach out to me. Thank you. Old cover provided by Asviloka. She's also does werds!Current cover provided by Fuyudust. Old synopsis "Hi, my name is Alexis," I say into the camera, as I attempt to calm my nerves."And I'm Sab," I hear my best friend add from beside me. It's good to have her there, it's been far too long."I'm trying to focus," I tell Sab as I look into the camera. Will anyone even watch this?"What, just cause I didn't get sent to another world, where magic and dragons are real, I don't get to be a part of this?" she questions me. I can hear the hurt in her voice. I wish she'd been there. Things might have been... different. I can't believe I thought it was a game. If it had been, she'd have been the better choice."I said I was sorry. It's not like I knew I was going to be kidnapped by the system," I lamely apologize. She deserves more, but this is important."Coming soon, to an earth near you," she might be making light, but I can hear the fear in her voice."It's not funny Sab. It really is coming," I can't help but reply to her words, even though I know she didn't mean it."Come on Lexi, it's a little funny." she tries while chuckling nervously."Sigh. Look, can we just get back to telling them?" I ask, pointing at the laptop."Sure, but first you should show them some magic," Sab declares while waving her arms around."I told you. It's not that simple. I only showed you because you could tell it wasn't fake. They'd just think it was special effects," or come after me to try to lock me in a basement."Yeah, well they're not going to believe you anyway. It sounds pretty crazy, even to me. And I've seen what you can do," she proclaims. I didn't think it was that special, but she was super impressed by my magical abilities."Maybe, but I have to try. We don't have much time," I state as I stop the recording, before starting a new one."Hello, my name is Alexis," I pronounce, projecting as much confidence as I can at the little camera."Remember, the world ends on a Tuesday."
8 195The Rising of a God
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Dear Diary, The popular boy beat me up again. He and his friends. I deserved it. For being fat and ugly. And It's true. Everyone says that, including my alcoholic father. All I want, is to have one peaceful day to myself where no one will be able to remind me of how ugly I look. I guess that'll be nice. Sincerely, broken girl.▣ short story - #31-------Amazing cover by @bubbleblast27
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