Jason arrived home rather late after exploring the town, moving from restaurant to restaurant and visiting various places along the way. He saw women everywhere. Despite the continuous walking, he felt little fatigue; his Stamina had dipped only marginally and he knew a short rest would restore it fully.
When he returned, it was already about 8 pm. He went straight to his room after polishing off a spare cake he had found in the fridge, though he did not know who it belonged to and did not pause to ponder that.
"I could simply leave the fridge ajar and pretend I knew nothing about it. I mean, what could go wrong?" Jason muttered to himself nonchalantly as he finished the cake and disposed of any evidence that might identify him as the culprit.
According to his memories, if Angela owned the cake, he might incur a week of her wrath and that could derail his plan, since he was not prepared to waste time before having sex with her. At worst, he allowed five days of fallout. Within three days, he believed he could catch her attention anonymously on social media by budgeting at least $10,000 for promotion.
Although it might seem little compared to what her other fans from across the country and the world had spent on her over time, using that much in just three days would certainly make her notice him.
Of course, it would have been nice to approach her the way he had approached Catherine, but the result would not be the same. His plan to invite her to a hotel after anonymously gaining her attention was far more effective, especially since he had other methods in mind to ensure he got into her good graces.
That particular "other way" could not be attempted at home, under the same roof they all shared. In short, Jason had his own plan.
He sighed wearily, stripped down to his underwear, then threw himself onto the bed and picked up his phone. Placing one hand beneath his head, he used the other to scroll lazily across the screen.
He visited an online mobile store and ordered the Ephone 17. The delivery details stated it would typically take two days to arrive, but Jason wasn’t exactly blessed with patience, waiting that long already felt unbearable.
***
Jason sat on the edge of his bed with his phone in hand. The room was quiet, and the only sound came from the soft tapping of his thumbs as he scrolled across the screen. He had finished everything on his rather empty schedule for the day and felt the creeping boredom that always arrived whenever he had nothing to do. For a moment, he stared blankly at the phone before deciding to take action. He opened Instagram, quickly resolving to begin his plan today and right now.
He tapped on the "Sign Up" button and started filling in the required details. Everything went smoothly until he reached the username section. His fingers hovered over the keyboard, and his brows furrowed in mild frustration.
"This part always ruins everything," he muttered to himself.
He typed Jason_Official, stared at it, and erased it immediately. That would instantly expose his identity to Angela, and it was, of course, a foolish move.
Next, he tried Realason, but that sounded like something an irrelevant influencer would use. He tried JasonTheMan, frowned, and deleted it again. It was practically the same thing as before. There were, of course, many people named Jason, but Angela would quickly catch on that this particular account belonged to him.
He set the phone down for a moment and rubbed his forehead. Naming things had always been his weakness. Even back when he played games as a kid, he would spend more time choosing a name than actually playing.
"Alright, think," he muttered to himself. "Something simple. Something that doesn’t make me sound like a complete idiot or give myself away."
He typed Probably_StillBreathing and stared at it for a few seconds. It was close, but he didn’t like how grim it sounded. He deleted it again and tried Probablyurdick. He stared for another moment, then gave a small nod of satisfaction.
"That’s not a bad one..."
Before hitting confirm, he hesitated again, second-guessing himself.
"No, that’s terrible."
He deleted it once more. After several more failed attempts, he finally typed HalfAwakedick. He looked at it for a long moment, then gave a slight grin.
"Perfect. That’s my level of effort right there."
Once his account was created, he began scrolling through the default feed. Most of it was filled with random influencer content, food photos, and travel videos. After a few minutes, he grew tired and opened the search bar. His fingers paused as a familiar thought crossed his mind. He typed Lavender_princess. The profile appeared instantly.
It was Angela’s. Her page had hundreds of posts, all radiating the same bright energy she always carried. Her profile picture was a cheerful selfie with her signature smile, and a short bio that read, "Breathe. Move. Grow." She had over 1.2 million followers in total. Jason scrolled through a few posts and noticed that most of them were short clips of workout routines, motivational quotes, and pictures from outdoor yoga sessions.
"Still popular, huh," he said softly, pressing the Follow button.
Just as he did, a red circle appeared around her profile picture, indicating that she was live.
Jason hesitated for only a second before tapping it with a wide grin. The screen shifted, and Angela appeared on the livestream, setting up a mat in her room. She was dressed in a pink sports bra that accentuated her ample chest and matching pink leggings that outlined her curves perfectly. Her hair was tied back neatly. The chat section on the side moved so fast that he could barely read the messages. There were more than eighty-nine thousand viewers watching.
"Alright everyone, today’s focus is flexibility and posture," she said brightly. Her voice carried easily through the speakers as she moved fluidly through each position, explaining posture and breathing techniques along the way.
The comment section, however, was a mix of chaos and distraction.
@muscleKing92: Marry me, Angela!
@assAddict: You’re perfect, queen!
@TotallyNormalGuy: Notice me just once, I’ve been here since last year!
@SupportivepusFan01: Doing great! Thanks for these sessions!
@blunt_truth: Who even listens to the yoga part?
Jason stared at the endless stream of words. It was clear that most of them weren’t there for the yoga.
He leaned back slightly and muttered,
"Unbelievable. We are all here for the same thing, cultured men."
He continued watching, quietly following the flow of the chat as Angela went through her routine.
As she shifted into another position that made her backside lift higher, she glanced at the camera with a smile and said:
"Alright everyone, before we wrap up, I have a small announcement."
The comments immediately flooded with emojis and question marks.
"We’re going to move the rest of today’s live session over to my secondary platform, Kao Live. It’s a bit more interactive, and you can support the stream there if you’d like. Also, I’ll be responding to messages from the top supporters after the session, and maybe even meeting up with whoever claims the top spot. So, see you in five minutes."
Jason’s eyes widened slightly.
"Meet up?" he repeated under his breath. That was exactly his goal. Hopefully, she wouldn’t be too shocked to see her younger stepbrother.
His mind began working quickly. He opened the app store, typed Kao Live, and started downloading it immediately. The installation bar felt slower than usual, but within minutes, the app was ready.
He opened it, created an account swiftly using the same name, and searched for Lavender_princess. Her profile appeared, and the notification bell signalled that she had just gone live again. He tapped the stream.
Within moments, the viewer count rose from two thousand to twenty-eight thousand and continued climbing rapidly. The screen filled with colourful gifts and vivid animations, each one worth a particular number of points. Jason read through the list of items and their corresponding prices. The most expensive one, The Magic Box, cost three thousand dollars.
As Angela greeted her audience and began interacting, Jason watched as usernames started appearing on the leaderboard. One of them, @KingLion, sent two Magic Boxes in quick succession, earning nineteen thousand points and instantly claiming the number one spot. The chat erupted with reactions.
@Viewer17: Two Magic Boxes already? What kind of money is that?
@Spilledcum: This man is out for blood.
@AngelaFan: Respect. He knows what he wants.
Jason stared at the screen, feeling the first spark of competition stir within him.
"This guy thinks he’s winning? We’ll see about that."
He swiftly opened the top-up page and credited his balance with ten thousand dollars. His thumb hovered for half a second before confirming the payment. Returning to the stream, he selected The Magic Box and sent three of them in quick succession.
The chat went wild.
@User51: Who just did that?!
@IAmBroke: That’s nine thousand dollars! What in the world!
@DataMan: @HalfAwakedick just jumped to number one. Who is this cock?
Jason watched as his name climbed to the top of the leaderboard with twenty-seven thousand points. He leaned back slightly, a faint sense of satisfaction tugging at his lips.
"That should do it," he said softly.
Yet his victory was short-lived. A notification flashed across the screen, and @KingLion sent another wave of gifts — eight Magic Boxes in total. The total points soared to fifty-eight thousand, and the leaderboard shifted once again.
Jason stared blankly at the screen, his mouth slightly agape.
"That’s... that’s twenty-four thousand dollars!" he exclaimed in disbelief. "Who spends that much on a live stream?"
He rubbed his forehead, attempting to process the figure.
"What kind of person is this? Some bored billionaire? A celebrity?"
Jason gazed at the phone for a long moment, uncertain whether to laugh or hurl it against the wall. He did a quick calculation in his head, realising that even if he doubled his current spending, he would still fall short. The thought of losing to someone so effortlessly irritated him, yet he was reluctant to spend any more.
He sighed and muttered,
"Alright, fine. You win, rich guy."
Just as he spoke, the system screen suddenly appeared before his eyes.
[New Quest]
[Conquer the social media beauty, Angela, within three days]
[Reward: $1,000,000]
[Failure penalty: none]
Jason instantly grinned maniacally the moment he read the new quest. If he could receive such a high reward in exchange for conquering Angela, marking his first step toward becoming a millionaire, then he could not resist. It was time to spend every dollar he had.
A notification popped up on his phone:
"Your account has been credited with $58,000."