One Man Band System

After parking in the garage, Emma opened her door and glanced over, noticing Eric just sitting there in a daze, one hand still resting on the steering wheel. She climbed back in, leaning across the console until her face was inches from his.

"What’s wrong? Are you still thrown off from seeing Jade earlier?" Emma asked, a look of worry crossing her face.

"Oh, no... go on ahead. I’ll grab the food from the back and head inside in a minute. Go keep them company," Eric replied, turning to look at Emma with a reassuring smile.

Emma paused for a moment. She studied his face intently, as if searching for any hidden tension. But since Eric looked completely relaxed, calm, and composed, even as he smiled at her, she let out a sigh, turned around, and got out. Before closing her door, she leaned back in.

"Don’t be too long, okay?" Emma said.

"Will do," Eric replied.

The door clicked shut, and Eric watched Emma disappear through the back entrance. Turning his gaze forward again, he closed his eyes. When he opened them, he pulled up his system inventory. He tapped on the text that read: Pass Copied Skills to Others Card x1. A second later, a flurry of glowing particles materialized in his palm, coalescing into a blank voucher-like card.

Holding the card, Eric shut his eyes once more. He visualized his skill list behind his eyelids, selected Drum Skill (Max), and transferred the skill as if copying text from one document to another. When he opened his eyes, a soft light burst from the card, etching the name of the skill into the surface in elegant, gold-inked lettering.

A smile crept onto Eric’s face. He slipped the card into his pants pocket, got out of the car, and opened the back door to gather all the bags. Shutting the car door behind him, he walked inside and took the freight elevator down to the basement. Stepping out into the hallway, the faint sound of music drifted from the venue. It sounded like Emma and the others were gathered there.

As he cleared the hallway and looked toward the stage, he spotted Chloe, Priya, Heidi, Monica, and Laura all at their respective instruments. Emma was standing off to the side of the stage. Eric walked over to her.

"Hey... brought the food. Why don’t we take a break and eat? Go tell the others," Eric said, lifting the bags.

"Awesome," Emma replied.

She hopped up onto the stage to talk to the rest of the group, and everyone started heading down. Emma took the bags from Eric’s hands and led the group inside. Just then, Eric noticed Laura lagging behind the rest, looking totally dejected as she clutched her drumsticks. Seeing her expression, Eric stopped her.

"Hey... what’s up? Why the long face, Laura?" Eric asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Turns out playing the drums is really hard. I’m still not getting the hang of what you taught me yesterday," Laura admitted, sounding completely defeated.

"Hmm, I see. Hold out your hand," Eric said with a smile.

Laura looked confused, but she gathered both drumsticks in one hand, opened her other palm, and held it up. Eric pulled the card from his pocket and placed it in her hand. The moment it made contact with her skin, the card dissolved into a shimmer of light and absorbed directly into her body. Laura, however, didn’t notice a thing because she was looking down at her empty palm.

"Hmm? What did you put there?" Laura asked.

"Oh... you didn’t see me place a card there?" Eric asked, a bit puzzled.

"No... it just felt like you touched my palm with your finger," Laura answered.

"Hmm... interesting. Well, why don’t you get back behind the kit and give it a shot right now," Eric suggested.

Hearing his words, Laura lifted her head and stared at Eric, looking so thoroughly baffled that her eyebrows knit together. Despite her confusion, she turned around and headed back up onto the stage with Eric following close behind. She took her seat on the drum throne and looked back at him. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"You want to see how much progress I’ve made?" Laura asked.

"Yep... I want to see. Just play any song you know," Eric replied, smiling as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Hmm... alright, just don’t laugh," Laura said.

Laura took a deep breath and exhaled to shake off the nerves of playing right in front of Eric. Then, she brought her sticks down.

"Thud... blam... blam... blam... cresssss."

Instantly, Laura looked like a seasoned studio veteran. Her hands were a blur of speed, her feet moving with fluid agility on the pedals. She even threw in a slick stick-spin, her hands crashing against the drums and cymbals in perfect, driving rhythm. The tension melted off her face, replaced by a massive grin as she lost herself in the groove, even though a hint of disbelief still lingered in her eyes.

A moment later, Emma, Chloe, Priya, Monica, and Heidi trotted back out, likely realizing Eric and Laura hadn’t followed them inside. They crowded onto the stage, watching Laura’s drumming up close with a mix of awe and sheer bewilderment. Laura, who could barely hold a beat moments ago, suddenly looked like a seasoned pro.

"Blam... cresss."

When Laura hit the final crash and lifted her sticks, she was sweating and breathing heavily. She looked completely dazed by what had just happened, but her smile made it obvious she was thrilled with the result.

"Wow... what just happened... how did you suddenly get this good?" Priya asked, stepping up to Laura and eyeing her with deep suspicion.

"I have no idea... I can’t even believe it myself," Laura answered, shifting a highly suspicious gaze over to Eric.

"Hey... I just gave you a pep talk and wanted to watch you play, so don’t look at me like that," Eric said, raising his palms and shrugging his shoulders with a smile.

"Incredible! This means you can play with us now. Come on, let’s try a song," Chloe said, immediately picking up her bass.

"Yeah... yeah... let’s do it," Heidi added, already walking back over to her keyboard.

"Hmm... mic check... check... okay... my voice is good to go... let’s start," Monica said, stepping up to the microphone.

"Hey... wait... eat first, then practice later," Emma shouted.

"Oh," everyone muttered, turning to look at Emma as she held up the bags, though none of them actually moved.

"Yeah... exactly, let’s just eat first. But we don’t have to go upstairs, right? How about we just eat down here?" Eric suggested.

"Works for me," Priya, Chloe, Heidi, Monica, and Laura agreed.

"Hey... why do you guys only listen to Eric? You’re unbelievable," Emma muttered, clearly annoyed.

With that, they put down their instruments and sat in a circle right there on the stage. Emma opened the bag and pulled out the Tupperware containing the sandwiches Avery had packed, followed by the second Tupperware filled with the roasted turkey and coleslaw.

While they were all quietly and happily digging into their food, Eric continued munching on his sandwich, looking around at the faces of the six girls sitting in front of him. A smile spread across his face, and then, suddenly,

"Vwoooong."

A holographic screen materialized right in front of his face.

[Quest: Compose a song, train the group to perform it, have them wear matching uniforms, record the performance, and upload it to streaming services. Reach 1,250,000 views.]

[Completion Reward: $1,000,000.00 and a Building Renovation Blueprint for a one-time instant renovation.]

After reading the screen, Eric smiled to himself. He looked over at Priya, Chloe, Heidi, Monica, and Laura, who were all happily enjoying their food. But suddenly,

"Thud."

Emma nudged his arm so hard he almost dropped his sandwich. Eric turned to see Emma pouting.

"If I knew you were going to pay more attention to them than me, we shouldn’t have even come home," Emma grumbled.

"Oh... hahaha... sorry, I wasn’t staring at them, don’t worry," Eric said, taking another bite of his sandwich.

"Pay attention to me too... or else I’m going to cry," Emma said playfully, sliding closer until she was pressed against his side.

"Alright... alright... don’t cry," Eric replied, stroking Emma’s hair, even though he didn’t quite understand why she was acting so pouty.

They all went back to eating happily, while Eric started racking his brain for a theme for the new song his newly formed band would perform.