NOVEL NEXT Chapter 183: The system ascendant
Twenty minutes later, Gabriella returned to the court hall, now calm enough to not lunge at anyone.
The next events happened just like Xavier predicted—Gabriella's attorney asked for the court case to be postponed until Gabriella's mental health can be evaluated, hinting that her distress might be caused by Tristan and not insanity.
As her attorney spoke, Gabriella stood quietly next to him, staring at her nails. Her shoulders slumped lower and lower with each word from his mouth.
Tristan kept sneaking glances at her, trying to gauge her mood. It was clear she was as unhappy with the verdict as only a truly insane person would.
Sane people more often faked mental illness to avoid prosecution.
Then Gabriella caught Tristan's gaze and suddenly began crying again—loudly, with sniffing and sobbing.
"Your Honor, I'm not insane! This was… this was just emotion. Please, don't send me to the doctors!"
"Ms. Gabriella!" her attorney cried out, then continued quieter, "What are you saying? Please, calm down! Don't create a scene in front of the judge!"
The judge smashed her hammer down.
"Yes, Ms. Gabriella, don't raise havoc in the courthouse. Stop crying." Although the words were stern, the judge said them with a hint of softness. She looked down at Gabriella from her elevated seat with a bit of pity.
"Please don't send me to the doctors…" Gabriella repeated in a whisper.
The judge stared down until the quiet resumed in full, then spoke again.
"Both sides of the case were heard from, and I'm ready to pass down the verdict. With those new developments, a case verdict can't be reached without an evaluation of Ms. Gabriella's mental health. However, it's obvious already that she is, indeed, might pose a danger to Mr. Gemello's health and safety."
The judge frowned and chewed her lip for a moment, as if still unsure, even though she claimed to have a verdict ready. Her eyes flickered between Gabriella and Tristan, before stopping at Tristan. She frowned.
Tristan shifted in his seat, bringing on the charm. He wanted to be seen as someone harmless, someone who might look like a "bad boy", but actually has a heart of gold. It was all the same as his previous performance, which he finely crafted to provoke Gabriella while still appearing to be a "good person" in the eyes of spectators.
"I declare that Ms. Gabriella will be issued a restraining order and forbidden from approaching Tristan by closer than two miles. She will also have to go through a mandatory mental health exam. As for the defamation charges, they are dismissed for the lack of proof of damage and harmful intent."
Tristan smiled inwardly, but lowered his head in a show of being unhappy but pitying, or pitying but unhappy (it all depended on the viewer).
Gabriella cried again.
[Task done: deal with the crazy bitch (and restore your reputation). Reward: your CP increased by 3000.]
***
Tristan didn't even need to publish the court results publicly (in fact, that'd just make him look like an asshole). The court hearing was private only in a sense that journalists weren't allowed in.
There were plenty of witnesses and other people who were eager to spread the tale.
Within days, everybody who didn't already realize it knew that Gabriella was mentally ill—long before she actually went to a psychiatrist.
She got more pity, but whatever credibility she had left was gone. Gabriella kept posting more on her social page, but now half of it was about how much she was protesting being put into therapy and how she hated it there and how it was all Tristan's fault…
If anything, people told her to thank Tristan now.
He was free to lie on a chaise lounge on an edge of his own pool, drink fancy cocktails that looked like something out of a sci-fi movie, and enjoy the sun that came free of mosquitoes and snakes in the grass.
In a few days, Tristan was going to watch Nelson's album premiere. It was going to be a fun opportunity to reconnect with his friend a little. And then his own tour was looming on the horizon.
'I should prepare. Dump more points into stats, all that. System, status.'
[======]
[Tristan Gemello (Tristan Hayes)]
[Current identity: Pop-star. Second identity: Criminal.]
[Pop-star rank: On The Olympus.]
[Criminal rank: King Lion.]
[Pop-star Points: 35500]
[Criminal Points: 10400]
[===Attributes===]
~~~Pop-star~~~
[Appearance: 570 (Top Model)]
[Charisma: 1059 (The Beguiler)]
[Dexterity: 600 (Gymnast)]
~~~Criminal~~~
[Fearsomeness: 1077 (Dark God)]
[Strength: 679 (Weightlifter)]
[Toughness: 800 (Bones of steel)]
[===Skills===]
~~~Pop-star~~~
[Vocals: 1938 (Siren)]
[String instruments: 2097 (Guitar God)]
[Percussion instruments: 0 (Nobody)]
[Wind instruments: 1 (Nobody)]
[Electronic instruments: 0 (Nobody)]
[Keyboard instruments: 801 (Professional Amateur)]
[Exotic instruments: 0 (Nobody)]
[Songwriting: 2404 (New Beethoven)]
[Dancing: 1079 (Dance Floor Legend)]
[Acting: 6538 (Impossible!!)]
[Production: 740 (Good)]
[Style: 506 (Good)]
~~~Criminal~~~
[Stealth: 6844 (Impossible!!)]
[Melee combat: 5224 (Impossible!!)]
[Ranged combat: 4836 (Impossible!)]
[Observation: 5076 (Impossible!!)]
[Driving: 2618 (Racer)]
[Athletics: 2419 (Coach Physical Instrument)]
[Medicine: 5203 (Impossible!!)]
[Interfacing: 6003 (Impossible!!)]
[Sleight of hand: 533 (Light Fingers)]
[Tactics: 505 (Good)]
[Strategy: 4958 (Impossible!)]
[Hacking: 6431 (Data Demon)]
[===Talents===]
[Clark Kent Effect] [Sleepless] [Clean Hands] [Bullet Time] [Hypnotic Voice] [Sight Awareness] [Electronic Sight Awareness] [Ambidextrous] [Bilingual (Spanish)] [Freezing Glare] [String Theory] [Copycat] [Detective] [Blind Shot] [Quick Fingers] [Explosive Awareness] [Heat Vision]
[===Tasks===]
~~~Pop-star~~~
[None.]
~~~Criminal~~~
[Make the next leader of Cuatro Angulos your puppet. Value: 1000.]
[======]
Just looking at the numbers made Tristan think two things.
The first went, 'Can I go beyond the "Impossible!!"? How many exclamation points are the limit? Is there some point of qualitative change?'
The fourth thing (since the first thing somehow became three) was, 'I should bring all the skills I actually use to at least "Impossible!!".'
His Pop-star skills were certainly lacking so far. Pop-star Points were harder to gain than Criminal Points. Probably because of the murder often involved in the latter.
'I think the "Impossible!!" happens at 5000 points for most skills, although clearly not the Hacking. And I have been raising everything to 6000, so I might as well keep doing that. Besides this, I will try to spare points this time and just raise the numbers to 6000, even if it means fiddling with the sliders.'
The sliders measuring out points to put into skills were inconvenient for measuring big amounts precisely. It constantly tried to round them up to the nearest zero.
But Tristan was in no hurry today. It was still his vacation time.
[Vocals skill increased from 1938 to 6000.]
[Vocals rank increased from Siren to Impossible!!.] Find more to read at empire
[String instruments skill increased from 2097 to 6000.]
[String instruments rank increased from Guitar God to Impossible.]
[Songwriting skill increased from 2404 to 6000.]
[Songwriting rank increased from New Beethoven to Impossible.]
[Dancing skill increased from 1079 to 6000.]
[Dancing rank increased from Dance Floor Legend to Impossible!!.]
[Production skill increased from 740 to 6000.]
[Production rank increased from Good to Impossible!!.]
[Style skill increased from 506 to 6000.]
[Style rank increased from Good to Impossible!!.]
[New talents are available in the shop!]
The rush of endorphins and knowledge was more dizzying and delicious than the cocktail in Tristan's hand. All kinds of things Tristan would need for his next tour, to perform not just brilliantly, but even beyond that.
With that feeling echoing in his head, Tristan barely paid attention to the last notification, instead staring at his criminal skills.
For some reason, it felt significant to put all his ten thousand points into one skill there.
'The Second Identity System had already changed once when I spent enough points. Maybe it will change again? Hm. Anyway, what skill should I put this many points in?'
A hard choice. They all were useful.
But, if Tristan planned to step away from being directly involved for a while—since he was going on a music tour within the next few months, anyway—then the answer was obviously strategy.
'Well, here it goes.'
[Strategy skill increased from 4958 to 15358.]
[Strategy rank increased from Impossible! to Ascendant.]
[Warning! You have reached the limit of this skill. Further points put into it will bring no effect.]
[You now can ascend the strategy skill! Doing this will create the intelligence attribute, remove all the points within the skill and add 1 point to the intelligence for every 100 points in strategy skill. You can do it at any time from the status menu.]
Tristan read the notification with wide eyes, trying to understand the details of it. The system was more forthcoming than usual here, at least.
'Attributes increase my effectiveness in everything, not like skills, which are more specialized. So if I do this, I will just make myself smarter in general in exchange for all my knowledge about administration and trade organization and so on. It's… Damn, this is so overpowered, but I need my strategy skill for now! I have all that criminal kingdom to manage in the time free from drinking cocktails.'
Tristan frowned at the notification for a moment.
'I know what I need. I need a side-task for myself.'
[New task: ascend the strategy skill and put at least 5000 points into it. Value: 100.]
'Damn, not that one! This is a criminal task…'