The next day, Cyrielle was sitting at home after filming her daily guitar covers, including the one with the concert announcement, and having recorded her process of creating a stage outfit. Tomorrow, she would go to the office building and meet the new hires, which included a video editor for her channel, from what Julie had told her. But right now, Cyrielle had her eyes glued to the big golden clock on the wall. Today marked the 6th month of Path of Destiny. Half a year. She wasn’t sure why, but she knew that something would happen. She had told Julie that she could cook her own meal, and that she should stay at the office tonight. As a CEO, she had a lot of things to settle, so it worked well for her. But in reality, Cyrielle wanted to be alone, in case a shocking event happened, like for the first month when she had seen Julie die in a parallel world.

  As she had thought, as soon the evening came, blue characters appeared in front of her eyes.

  [Congratutions ! It’s been exactly six months since you started your journey with Path of Destiny. You have achieved tremendous results ! You are the first to advance so far in half a year !]

  [Path of Destiny rewards you by offering a gift. a gift. a gifftkheittttttttttt]

  Once again, the letters started glitching and Path of Destiny restarted.

  [Congratutions ! It’s been exactly six months since you started your journey with Path of Destiny. You have achieved tremendous results ! You are the first to advance so far in half a year !]

  After spending so much time with this strange system, Cyrielle had a theory as to why this happened. Normally, someone who acquired Path of Destiny did so as soon as they were born, earning their first ability on their birthday. But Cyrielle was an error, the system didn’t start at the right time, so when other owners of Path of Destiny would be six months old, she was already 24. Obviously, the same gifts you hand to a baby wouldn’t work with an adult. It was a glitch of some sort, as if someone level 1 had defeated the mid game boss. The system needed to give you the loot, but also the tutorial’s reward. It was conflicting with the program.

  But even this analogy wasn’t exact, since Path of Destiny had some AI-like parts, but also seemed very human and friendly sometimes. It was confusing. Either way, Cyrielle focused on the blue characters she was expecting.

  [Path of Destiny rewards you by offering a peek into the truth.]

  She looked at the blue characters, awaiting the bck dot that had shown her strange visions st time, but it didn’t come. Instead, a screen appeared, like a computer. It had two tabs opened. The first was named ‘Positive karma - Minor changes’, and the second one ‘Positive karma - Major changes’. On the pages were rows of thumbnails, as if Cyrielle had opened MyTube. The video titles were dates, starting from most recent to older ones.

  ‘What is this… Are these all the times I earned positive karma ?’

  She started with the ‘minor changes’ tab, and mentally chose the first video, dated from yesterday. It immediately started pying. On it, you could see Cyrielle petting the horse she had ridden for the photoshoot, and calming it down when it was afraid of the photographer moving quickly.

  ‘I remember. That gelding was a bit nervous, but he got used to it after an hour. He even became pyful, and it made for some great pictures.’

  But the video didn’t stop here. It continued and showed events that happened today, outside of Cyrielle’s knowledge. It was the horse’s owner, talking with a man in a suit that she recognized as being the executive for the luxury brand.

  “You liked our Aramis ?”

  “Yes, he was really great for the photoshoot ! His mannerisms were funny and went well with our concept. It isn’t much, we just want to know if you would be open to being referenced in our files, so that we would be able to call on you again if we need another horse for the photoshoot.”

  The video stopped here. At least Cyrielle thought so. After a few seconds of bck screen, another image appeared. It was the same photoshoot with the same team, but instead of Cyrielle and Coline, two other models were riding the horses. Aramis was nervous again, but this time the rider panicked instead of calming him down, and she ended up falling. No one was hurt, but the model was angry.

  “This one is crazy, give me another one !”

  The shooting continued with another horse. On the way back, the owner sighed.

  “You’re a good boy, Aramis, but I guess you aren’t made for photoshoots. We’ll just stick to show jumping.”

  The video finally ended and Cyrielle was back to the homepage.

  ‘So… Me being here and calming the horse improved his and the owner’s life ? It was something simple, I didn’t even do it on purpose, I just stayed calm and talked to him ! Is earning positive karma that easy ?’

  Since time had slowed down, she could skim through the videos without any worry. Every single one was the same. It first showed Cyrielle doing something, sometimes just sitting down, what this action provoked, or didn’t provoke, and what it would have been without her. One of those was showing the first photoshoot for Bernadette Dupuit, and how she had dodged the coffee and prevented the assistant from falling. Simply put, this action gave him back a bit of faith in humanity, and he was less depressed the month after that.

  ‘If all of these were the minor changes, what are the major ones ?’

  She opened the other tab and chose the most recent one. It was about Coline’s scandal. She was now receiving a lot of love and support, but without Cyrielle she would have quitted the fashion industry, and finished her days living on her savings until there was nothing left, ending up homeless like Cyrielle once was.

  ‘That’s messed up… That content creator is really a bastard !’

  After watching dozens of videos, Cyrielle was sure of one thing : She had done a lot of good things in her life, whether intentionally or not.

  ‘Is this why you chose me ? Because I do good things ? But your standard is really low, I’m sure people do a lot more, and voluntarily at that !’

  [Calcuting positive karma… Using a moderate amount of positive karma to expand Path of Destiny.]

  The blue characters started to grow bigger, then get deformed. It was bizarre and grotesque, as if a creature was taking form in front of Cyrielle. She started to get hot, and her head was hurting. She hadn’t felt any pain or fatigue since she acquired ‘Fortitude’, so the difference was brutal. After some time, the discomfort left her body and something appeared again. It was the original blue characters, but this time they were in a chat bubble.

  [Hello, host. We now have more freedom to speak. However, your authority is still low, so our conversation subjects are limited. You do not need to go to the instructions section anymore, think about me and I will appear.]

  Cyrielle was staring at the chat bubble, dumbfounded.

  ‘We can… talk ? Are you a living thing ? Wait, accumuting karma can make you grow ? How much ? Are there new functionalities ? When you use karma to do things, do I have less ?’

  She felt a hint of annoyance that wasn’t hers, and she gasped internally. She could feel Path of Destiny’s emotions.

  [Yes, we can talk. You do not have the authority to know what I am. Positive karma can be used for a lot of things, in the goal of helping on the path I chose for you. Talking with me is a new functionality, which can be useful in a lot of ways. When I use your karma, you do not possess less, however karma that has been used once cannot be used again, so you still need to accumute more.]

  Cyrielle tried to stuff all the new information in her head. She wanted to run outside right now to accumute as much positive karma as possible, but she had verified with the videos that the action in itself wasn’t important, the consequences were. Sometimes, just standing still could have a better result than actually trying to help someone. She just needed to stay as she was. Which led to another question.

  ‘So… Why me ? Some people have saved the world, stopped conflicts, or are rescuing stray dogs everywhere. I don’t understand why someone like me would get Path of Destiny.’

  The chat bubble appeared again. This time, Cyrielle felt sweet, compassionate, as if she was talking to a loved one. Those were the system’s feelings.

  [Considering your authority, I can disclose one of the criterias. Remember, don’t get hung up on it, it’s only part of the truth. To get Path of Destiny, you must be able to make a lot of living beings’ life better, be it in big or small ways. All the positive things you do must far outweigh the negative ones. So if you kill someone, but then repent and do a lot of good deeds, you still wouldn’t be considered.]

  ‘As I thought, positive karma has something to do with it…’

  Cyrielle stopped to think for a bit. There were some people that saved whales and orcas, but did so by harming the hunters. If she were to follow the system’s logic, those people wouldn’t be considered. It somehow made sense. Cyrielle didn’t have the authority nor the will to fight against governments, or to travel through conflict zones. She couldn’t even fight back the abuse from her stepmother. Did she hurt someone in her life ? Maybe, but never intentionally. Except for that one content creator who insulted Coline, but the guy still had his community, so even if he had lost influence and was ousted from his social ptform, he could always find a new, lesser known one, and start again. Or he could write a book or something. But his career wasn’t over, it was not as if Coline had pressed charges, even though she could. And even then, Cyrielle hadn’t done it on her own, she had simply said to Bil that her career was in trouble because of this one guy who had sndered her colleague. And between that guy still having a career and Coline becoming homeless, her actions brought more positive than negative.

  Cyrielle, nodded, coming to terms with the logic behind Path of Destiny. It wasn’t without fws, but, as the system said, she shouldn’t get hung up on it since it was only one criteria.

  ‘Do I also get a gift this time ? ‘Path knowledge’ was pretty good !’

  [Between a new ability that is very good but won’t be useful right now, and a lesser gift that can help you immediately, what would you prefer ?]

  ‘I can choose, now ? Well… if it’s an ability, I will learn it eventually when the opportunity comes, right ? Then give me the other gift.’

  [Understood. Once again, congratutions on your six months ! Path of Destiny rewards you with an increase in all your gifts.]

  ‘Path knowledge appeared suddenly, dispying the ‘gifts’ section which included the newly acquired ‘Slightly better flexibility’ that she had gained with the ‘lyrics creation’ ability.

  [{Gifts}

  Better skin, Mind and body linked, Moderately better hair, Fortitude, Moderately better nails, Slightly better flexibility]

  Became…

  [{Gifts}

  Fwless skin, Mind and body linked, Better hair, Fortitude, Better nails, Moderately better flexibility]

  ‘Now, that is a reward I really like !’