One Man Band System

The next morning,

"Ding... ding... ding,"

A rapid-fire burst of notifications chimed from Eric’s phone.

"Ugh," Eric groaned, waking up and slowly blinking his eyes open. He noticed the sunlight streaming through a gap in his curtains, beaming right onto his face until he blocked it with his arm. He then fumbled around on both sides, searching for the phone he had tossed next to his pillow.

When he turned to look at his screen, his sleepy eyes suddenly snapped wide open because a holographic display had materialized right in front of him, floating there who knows how long.

[Quest: compose an instrumental song, collaborate three other people and formed a band, share on social media and get 500,000 views completed.]

[Completion Reward: $750,000.00 and Investment Portfolio - received.]

He was instantly wide awake. He sat up in bed, bedhead wild and pillow creases still pressed into his face. He immediately checked his phone’s notifications, and sure enough, there was an alert from his banking app confirming that a deposit of $750,000.00 had landed in his account, along with an absolute flood of DMs from his streaming app. He opened the app right away to check the video he had posted yesterday.

His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw 30,006 subscribers, 610,031 views, 425,588 likes, and 331,270 shares worldwide. He rubbed his eyes and blinked repeatedly, but the metrics below his video were completely real, even ticking upward in real time. He then checked the comments section, which had already passed the 1,000 mark. Aside from people trying to scout his band, plenty of users were begging Eric to add lyrics and give the track an official title, while others were asking to join the group.

"Whoa... all of this overnight? Insane," Eric muttered to himself.

He looked back at his bank balance, which had now crossed the one-million-dollar mark. His heart started pounding wildly and his hands shook. He couldn’t believe the figure on his screen; to him, a sum like that felt like an impossible dream, yet there it was, printed clear as day on his phone.

Then, he reached his hand out to the side.

"Squeeze,"

Eric froze. There was something incredibly soft and squishy right next to him. He snapped his head around and nearly jumped out of his skin, scrambling to pull his hand back. As it turned out, Emma was sleeping right beside him, and he had just grabbed her chest.

He looked around the rest of the room and realized there were girls scattered absolutely everywhere. Priya was also asleep on his bed, Chloe and Laura were crashed on the sofa, Monica was on a futon on the floor below his bed, and Heidi was passed out on the lounge chair.

"Oh... right. They stayed over last night... man, all because of that absolute disaster of a pizza war," Eric thought to himself, rubbing his face as a wave of exhaustion hit him.

***

The previous afternoon, right after Eric had finished showering and felt refreshed, he had headed back upstairs. He could hear a commotion coming from the roof and assumed it was nothing major, but the second he stepped out onto the deck, he nearly jumped back in shock.

"Whoa... what the hell happened here?" he shouted.

He saw chairs flipped upside down, the table pushed aside, and pizza boxes scattered everywhere along with their contents. To make matters worse, Emma had pepperonis stuck to her face, Priya had threads of mozzarella cheese tangled on hers, Heidi was completely drenched in soda, Laura had tomato sauce and basil leaves smeared across her skin, Monica had a slice of pizza caught in her hair, and Chloe was wearing a pizza box upside down on her head.

Every single one of them was a total mess, their clothes were disheveled, their hair was wild, and they were panting heavily with expressions like they had just survived a brutal war. When they noticed Eric, all six of them marched right up to him. Instantly, Eric was hit with a pungent, bizarre wall of scent, a mix of cheese, tomato sauce, all kind of sauce, and their individual perfumes all blended together.

Their faces were flushed red, but their eyes were locked onto Eric with a fierce glare.

"This is entirely your fault, take responsibility!" the six of them yelled in unison.

"What... I literally just came back up from my shower... uh... you guys... go clean up first, I’ll grab some towels and clothes," Eric said.

Hearing Eric’s words, the six girls finally became aware of what they actually looked like. They looked down at themselves, and their faces instantly exploded into an even deeper crimson from pure embarrassment. Ultimately, Eric led them all downstairs, fetched six sets of t-shirts and boxer shorts, and handed a small towel to each of them one by one.

"Sorry," Emma muttered, looking down.

"Yeah... I think we took the joke a little too far," Monica added, staring at the floor.

"We’re so sorry," Chloe chimed in.

"We don’t normally act like toddlers," Heidi added.

"Please don’t judge us," Priya said.

"Seriously, sorry again," Laura finished.

"Yeah... yeah... I get it. Go ahead, who wants to shower first?" Eric asked, taking a step back.

Immediately, all of them bolted for the bathroom at the same time, sparking yet another noisy argument right outside the door until they finally agreed to go in pairs. Afterward, Eric washed their clothes, and they ended up staying the night because their outfits hadn’t dried yet. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Once everyone finished showering and saw that their clothes weren’t dry yet, they immediately called their respective homes to check in with their parents, naturally leaving Eric completely out of their stories.

After that, they passed the time by ordering more food, watching movies, playing cards at the coffee table, and just having a blast all night long until, without even realizing it, they all just drifted off to sleep.

***

Back to the present,

Eric climbed out of bed and noticed playing cards scattered all over the coffee table, surrounded by a mountain of empty soda cans. He could only shake his head and rub the back of his neck. He then walked over to the side to check the laundry rack, finding the girls’ clothes still a little damp. After that, he headed into the kitchen, opened the fridge, and chugged some water straight from the bottle.

Next, he walked over to the espresso machine and turned it on. While waiting for the machine to brew, he checked the balance on his phone once more, grinning to himself. Then, something clicked in his memory.

"Oh, right. I need to buy a gift for Caleb’s baby girl today... the baby shower is the day after tomorrow," Eric thought to himself.

Once his coffee was ready, he poured it into a mug and brought it over to the dining table. Sitting down, he started searching online for the perfect gift for an unborn baby girl. As more and more results popped up, Eric only grew more confused about what to buy, since this was his very first time dealing with anything like this. He then took another glance at the girls scattered all over his apartment.

"Hmm... maybe I should just invite them along, since their clothes aren’t even dry yet... besides... bringing some girls along will make it way easier to pick out the right thing... we can head out after we clean up everything upstairs... that pizza war left a total disaster zone... ugh," Eric thought, shaking his head.

"Ding,"

A chat notification popped up on Eric’s phone. He picked it up and saw that the sender wasn’t in his contacts and didn’t even have a profile picture. He opened the message.

"Hey... I saw your video. What’s your deal with Priya, Chloe, and Heidi? Don’t think I’m just going to let you slide. I know where you live. Just wait, I’m getting my payback."

Seeing the blatant threat, Eric instantly stood up, his hands balling into fists. His serious gaze remained glued to his phone screen.

"Who the hell is threatening me? And how do they know Priya, Chloe, and Heidi? If they’re looking for payback, it means they know exactly who I am, too," Eric thought to himself, his expression turning deadly serious.