Leveled Up Love

Chapter 3-1

Quest!

Quest!Quest!Hold a conversation with a woman face-to-face!

Hold a conversation with a woman face-to-face!Restrictions: In-person. Non-VR generated. Unpaid interaction.

Restrictions: In-person. Non-VR generated. Unpaid interaction.Difficulty: Variable

Difficulty: VariableReward: Access to electronics and internet

Reward: Access to electronics and internetZack studied the notification as he rode down the elevator. After a few moments’ thought, he had decided to find a woman at the building’s fitness center. That should be easy enough. Find someone. Talk about the weather or something. Get back to his life.

He pushed the door open and scanned the fitness room. Men and women of all ages were scattered around the gym, using the various types of fitness equipment. Most of them wore sleek workout outfits along with customized armbands to measure their performance and offer suggestions for improvements.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then DaEvo flashed a few pink hearts across his OptiGlasses, and numbers appeared above the women’s heads. Data populated first for those he could see fully or glimpse via the mirrors around the room, then for those hidden from view who had open social connections via their wearable tech. Zack grinned. More stats. Maybe this app would be useful after all.

Please choose difficulty:

Please choose difficulty:Easy / Medium / Hard

Easy / Medium / HardZack considered this. The app didn’t go into details on what rewards he would earn for each level, but he assumed he would get something better for completing more difficult quests. He selected Hard from the menu and watched the quest parameters expand.

Quest!

Quest!Quest!Hold a significant conversation with a woman face-to-face!

Hold a significant conversation with a woman face-to-face!Restrictions: In-person. Non-VR generated. Unpaid interaction.

Restrictions: In-person. Non-VR generated. Unpaid interaction.Difficulty: Hard

Difficulty: HardRequirements: Select a female with an overall level of 75 or higher

Requirements: Select a female with an overall level of 75 or higherBonus Points: Use a sexy growl

Bonus Points: Use a sexy growlBonus Points: Make her laugh

Bonus Points: Make her laughBonus Points: Make physical contact

Bonus Points: Make physical contactZack winced, recalling his own Level of eight. But he knew the app was buggy. There was no way he was a noob. So obviously, Level Seventy-Five would be wrong too. Anyway, he just needed to have a minute of conversation with one of these women. He looked around the room for the best option. His OptiGlasses highlighted all the level Seventy-Five and above women by superimposing a pink heart above their heads. Augmented Reality at its finest. Unfortunately, everyone was focused on their workouts and didn’t look to be in a chatty mood.

knewMaybe he should have started off with easy mode to get an understanding of the baseline difficulty levels. Jumping into a game without understanding the basics was such a noob move. But he wasn’t willing to admit defeat now, and he didn’t have time to waste figuring out how to change the difficulty level.

“Hey,” Zack whispered, trying to figure out how to produce a sexy growl so he could get the bonus points.

His OptiGlass screen remained blank, but Zack couldn’t shake the feeling that the app was laughing at him. A pink heart flashed on his screen.

Quest tip: Try “Hey, babe.”

Quest tip: Try “Hey, babe.”“Hey, babe.”

A man built like a bodybuilder walked past and gave Zack a questioning look.

Zack grimaced and tapped his OptiGlasses. “Sorry. Talking to my girlfriend.”

The bodybuilder rolled his eyes and kept walking. Zack looked at the clock. Ten minutes had passed already. He needed to pick a woman and make this happen.

Zack looked around to make sure no one was within earshot and tried again, looking in a mirror this time to test out facial expressions. His crumpled, overweight reflection stared back at him. “Hey, babe.”

He couldn’t remember ever saying that to a woman, but then again, he had never been particularly successful in relationships. Maybe this app would actually prove useful. A sort of tutorial for life. Did it have save points? Save points would be great.

It had been a while since Zack had dated. He’d had several girlfriends in college, even if none of the relationships had lasted more than a few months. They were always looking for couple time and never agreed that gaming together counted.

The growl wasn’t quite right. Zack searched his memory for some sort of reference point and settled on those old Batman movies. Who didn’t like Batman? He smoothed his tangled mop of brown hair to the side and once again faced the mirror.

“Hey, babe. I’m Batman.” His growl was more of a rasp and tickled the back of his throat. He coughed to clear it.

Would you like to complete a tutorial level to prepare for this quest?

Would you like to complete a tutorial level to prepare for this quest?Zack glared at the screen and dismissed the prompt. Now it offered help? No, he didn’t want to complete a damn tutorial level. He had eight minutes to find a woman, speak to her with his best sexy growl, and spend the rest of the day competing with his team and pretending this had never happened.

He scanned the gym and settled on the highest level woman there. Might as well get as many points as possible, whatever that meant in this context. He selected the heart above her head by staring at it for a few seconds, and DaEvo popped up a notification with the woman’s stats.

Kayla Taylor (Social Level 86)

Kayla Taylor (Social Level 86)Kayla Taylor (Social Level 86)Physique: 89

Physique: 89Style: 82

Style: 82Reputation: 89

Reputation: 89Occupation: 85

Occupation: 85A flood of social media posts followed the stats. Mostly pictures from Kayla’s career as a model. Advertisement spreads, red carpet events, and selfies with an endless stream of celebrities, including a few with Zoe Cross. All of them showed “KayTay,” as her fans called her, in gorgeous gowns on the runway or swimsuits on exotic beaches. She was always perfectly styled, with just the right amount of makeup to highlight her blue eyes and strawberry-blond hair.

She looked significantly less polished now, with a dusting of freckles not visible in her modeling portfolio and her hair pulled back into a messy bun. But she was still hot, her tight workout gear showing off her body just as much as the formal gowns did.

Zack pushed aside his nerves and forced himself to smile as he walked over to Kayla’s elliptical. Maybe DaEvo wouldn’t be so bad. Kayla was no Zoe, but she was still a hot model. And thanks to the game, he was going to talk to her.

“Hey, babe.”

The sexy growl was more of a wheeze, and Kayla didn’t seem to hear him over the whir of the machine and whatever she was listening to with her earbuds. She stared straight ahead, running on her elliptical with an intensity that Zack found a little intimidating. Apparently, that body required some maintenance to stay swimsuit-ready.

“Kayla?” Zack tried again.

Kayla looked down at him, frowned a little, and redoubled her efforts on the elliptical as if she were actually moving and could run away from him.

If she did decide to run, Zack would have no chance of catching her. DaEvo now displayed a sixty-second timer in the corner of his OptiGlasses, but it hadn’t started yet.

“Hey! Kayla!”

“Can’t. Stop. Now.”

She said the words on an exhale, breathing deeply between them. Sweat poured down her face as she ran even faster. DaEvo chimed and started the timer. Success! Apparently, he just had to get her to respond. Now he could stand there for a minute and let the timer run down.

But when Kayla said nothing else for ten seconds, the timer flashed red and reset.

Crap.

“Hey.”

Zack whirled around and found himself face to face with the bodybuilder from earlier. He swallowed. “Yeah?”

“You’re interrupting our workouts.”

The muscled man gestured to the gym, and Zack realized that everyone but Kayla had stopped what they were doing to stare at him.

Reputation -0.1

Reputation -0.1Reputation -0.1“What the hell?”

Had DaEvo really docked his reputation just because some muscled jocks were annoyed?

DaEvo calculates user Reputation using an in-person, real-time algorithm as well as other proprietary calculations for baseline information.

DaEvo calculates user Reputation using an in-person, real-time algorithm as well as other proprietary calculations for baseline information.“What did you say to me?” The bodybuilder leaned closer, looming over Zack.

Behind them, Kayla Taylor was still sprinting on the elliptical, seemingly oblivious to it all.

“Oh, I wasn’t talking to you,” Zack said. “I, uh—”

“Maybe you should leave,” the bodybuilder said. “You don’t look like you belong here anyway.”

He laughed, looking at Zack from head to toe and apparently finding his flab amusing. Zack felt his cheeks burning red. Who cared about muscles? It wasn’t as if they helped you win game tournaments or get a job. Not that he had a job himself, but most manual jobs these days were done by machines. What was the point of putting so much effort into physical activity?

“Look, I’m not causing any trouble. I just need to talk to—”

“And I think you’re done here. She doesn’t want to talk to you.”

Zack and the bodybuilder looked back at Kayla, who was still ignoring their conversation.

“Is there a problem over here?” Another muscled gym user came over. This one was even bigger than the first, which Zack would not have thought possible.

DaEvo flashed again.

Reputation -0.1

Reputation -0.1Reputation -0.1“Fine. Whatever,” Zack said, raising his hands in surrender as he backed away and made a hurried exit from the gym, checking the clock as he did so.

Damn. He was two minutes late for the rendezvous with his team and no closer to getting back his electronics privileges. If this kept up, he would miss warmups entirely. And that was unacceptable.

Zack gritted his teeth as he steeled his resolve. Find a woman. Have a conversation. He had to do this for Star Fury and his team.

Maybe he should have made an effort to get to know his neighbors when he moved in. He didn’t know a single person in the building, male or female. He had toured the facilities when purchasing the condo, then promptly forgotten about them. Knowing his neighbors wasn’t exactly a priority—not like the new triple redundancy fiber optic cable they had laid during the condo’s development. It was one of the fastest networks in the nation, perfect for gaming.

But not even lightning fast internet would save him now. He needed a woman.

Zack took the elevator to the ground floor. Maybe he could catch someone in the lobby.

No luck. The lobby was empty. He would have to take this outside if he wanted to get his gaming system back.

That was just unfair. Firing Phil moved up Zack’s list of priorities as he took a deep breath and walked out of the apartment building for the first time in weeks. Heat wafted up from the sidewalk and washed over him in waves. Apparently, his decision to stay inside had been a good one. Walking into the Oklahoma summer was like walking into an oven. But weather had been low on his priorities when he moved from New York. He had been far more interested in fiber optic lines, the innovative green tech in the apartment building, and the new Star Fury main servers located downtown.