Raen didn't sleep.
The rush of that first 290 Lux hadn't faded. If anything, it sharpened into obsession.
"Ten thousand Lux," he muttered, eyes flicking between tabs. "I need ten thousand for Language Mastery…"
His monitor overflowed with freelance listings—obscure jobs, dead forums, direct client requests. No contracts, no security. Just raw grind.
▸ Home AI Integration Bugfix — 140 Lux▸ UI Porting for Modular OS — 180 Lux▸ Legacy Code Refactor (Urgent) — 330 Lux
He took all of them.
"Stack the work. Sleep later."
His eyes turned red. His body protested. But the system had flipped a switch in him. And now, he couldn't stop.
Line after line of code. He moved like a machine. Nothing fancy—just results.
[+180 Lux Received][+330 Lux Received][+140 Lux Received]
His Lux balance ticked upward:
[Total: 1,160 Lux]
Not even close to 10,000—but more than he'd ever seen in a day.
Eighteen hours passed.
His fingers ached. His neck stiffened. But one more job—just one.
He slammed out a firmware patch for a dusty old AI unit, barely readable code tangled in a dozen versions of deprecated syntax.
[+220 Lux Received][Job Complete — 10th Task Logged][Total Lux: 1,160]
The screen dimmed briefly.
A soft blue light rippled across the interface.
What now...
Then, a system message popped up:
Milestone Reached! 10 Jobs Completed
- New Skill Path Unlocked- Mechanical Systems Mastery- Unlock Cost: 20,000 Lux
Raen stared blankly.
"...Twenty. Thousand."
He blinked.
Then blinked again.
"TWO. ZERO. ZERO. ZERO?!"
His chair screeched as he stood up.
"Are you KIDDING ME?!"
"I just busted my back coding for eighteen hours straight—did TEN jobs—and the reward is unlocking something that costs MORE THAN EIGHTEEN HOURS OF WORK TIMES TEN!?"
The system interface simply glowed quietly. No voice. No reply.
"This system is a scam. A beautifully designed, perfectly cruel scam."
He rubbed his face. Then his eyes narrowed.
"Wait…"
He opened the job log. Scanned it.
"10 jobs completed. System unlocked one skill path."
"So… if I hit 20 jobs…"
He looked at the milestone notice again.
"You unlock a new path every time the job count doubles, don't you?"
"...10. Then 20. Then 40. Then 80."
He froze.
"Oh, what the hell does that mean!?"
"If I want the next skill after this, I have to do 20 jobs? Then 40? Then 80!?"
He stared at the screen like it owed him rent.
Then sighed.
Hard.
"Fine."
"Fine! I'll do 20. But this better not unlock 'Toaster Repair Mastery' for 50k."
He sat back down and started cracking his knuckles.
"One thousand one hundred and sixty Lux."
"Only 18,840 to go."