AWACS - An American With A Chinese System
Copyright© 2025 by PT Brainum
Chapter 56
It was just after 9 pm when I got back up to my room. I had to check google to see what time it was in Portland. Just after noon also on Saturday. I knew Mo would sing until close. I wasn’t sure what time that was, or when she started. I really wanted to be there, but I was worried about FBI trouble if I just showed up, as well as what she might have to say.
I decided sleep was the answer, and set chicken to wake me in six hours. I managed to make it five and a half, when the points came rolling in, flower gate had made the news in Portland again:
0/180,000,000 (118) Level
1,800,000,000/1,800,000,000 positive points
2,011,001,964 neutral points
98,835,994/1,800,000,000 negative points
35 Active Skills
33 Passive Skills
47,605 Bonus Neutral Points
2,096,536,000 External Positive Bank
Active Skill Upgrades: 3/10
Passive Skill Upgrades: 3/10
The premature wake up meant that I hadn’t gotten the fully rested benefit. I reset the chicken for an hour, and went back to sleep. I woke with an intense desire to level up:
0/180,000,000 (118) Level
1,800,000,000/1,800,000,000 positive points
2,012,521,964 neutral points
100,355,994/1,800,000,000 negative points
35 Active Skills
33 Passive Skills
47,605 Bonus Neutral Points
2,099,576,000 External Positive Bank
Active Skill Upgrades: 3/10
Passive Skill Upgrades: 3/10
I paused at 7 upgrades, as the last couple were causing an imbalance. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to give myself an accidental karmic smite if I was on the news again.
0/450,000,000 (125) Level
2,029,576,000/4,500,000,000 positive points
2,012,521,964 neutral points
100,355,994/4,500,000,000 negative points
35/39 Active Skills
33/36 Passive Skills
47,605 Bonus Neutral Points
Active Skill Upgrades: 3/10
Passive Skill Upgrades: 3/10
1 Free Spin
Levels were costing me 50 million more each level up now. My neutral points were keeping me balanced right now. I tried to calculate what would happen if I got another 3.7 billion points from a news release. I quickly realized I’d spent too much, and another positive gain would overflow and become neutral points, but it would leave 1.2 billion points out of balance.
I really just needed to have 3.7 billion points in my neutral bank. It would make me balanced if it happened again, and if it happened a second time the overflow plus the neutral points would be more than enough to keep me balanced. I moved my negative and positive points together to save on transfer fees first. Then I moved enough to give me 3.7 billion neutral points.
0/450,000,000 (125) Level
542,961,952/4,500,000,000 positive points
3,700,076,000 neutral points
0/4,500,000,000 negative points
35/39 Active Skills
33/36 Passive Skills
47,605 Bonus Neutral Points
Active Skill Upgrades: 3/10
Passive Skill Upgrades: 3/10
1 Free Spin
Seeing that I had the points, I leveled up one more time:
0/500,000,000 (126) Level
92,961,952/5,000,000,000 positive points
3,700,076,000 neutral points
0/5,000,000,000 negative points
35/39 Active Skills
33/37 Passive Skills
47,605 Bonus Neutral Points
Active Skill Upgrades: 3/10
Passive Skill Upgrades: 3/10
1 Free Spin
I double checked my math, and two news reports would not unbalance me. I would have 6.1 billion points to counterweight the 5 billion bank max. I could level up 2 more times and that would still be true, but I’d either need to bank more neutral points or stop the news reports before that happened.
With just mosquito it would be over 80 hours to get sufficient points to level up again. I wasn’t too worried now. If it did happen, I’d just have to bank the points until I did the math again.
Now I had potentially 8 new skills to pick. Scribe though had a different idea:
Available Active Skill Upgrades:
~省吃俭用 economize carefully eat frugally (3/4)
~玉不琢不成器 jade not cut without tools (2/3)
I knew that there were more upgrades than just these two, I quickly grasped that he thought I should use a single point to fully upgrade them instead of using one of my upgrades from the last free spin. I went ahead and used one active and one passive to upgrade the two active skills.
省吃俭用 economize carefully eat frugally (4/4)
- when purchasing food or drink for someone else, get a 90% discount, cost variable 1 point per 10 yuan saved, must pay with cash
- when purchasing daily necessities for someone else, get a 90% discount, cost variable 1 point per 10 yuan saved, must pay with cash
- when purchasing housing or building materials for someone else, get a 90% discount, cost variable 1 point per 10 yuan saved, must pay with cash
- when using any of the above, get one for yourself at the same price, no additional points necessary, cash only limitation removed, new items only, stacks with above
玉不琢不成器 jade not cut without tools (3/3)
- carve with your mind, cut using just your imagination of what you want it to be, cost 5000 points per minute of carving, can cut any solid material, any depth, can only work one piece at a time, no material will be lost in the process, can not use on living things, can pause and restart as needed
- shape with your hands, smooth, pull, push, squish and shape you can modify all solid materials with your hands, no matter how hard it is it will shape like soft clay, cost 5000 points per minute of shaping, item will not heat during shaping, can wear gloves, can work only one piece at a time in each hand, no material will be lost in the process, can not use on living things, can pause and restart as needed
- paint with your breath, breathe or blow on a solid material and it will change to any color you choose, cost 5000 points per minute of coloring, only material surface changes color, color is structural not pigment or paint, can use tools to direct breath, can work only one piece at a time, no material will be lost in the process, can not use on living things, can pause and restart as needed
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