William and Eve helped Sarah take down the Christmas decorations. "You don't have to help me take down, Master William. And you also, Miss Eve."

  Eve smiled at Sarah, "It's because we want to, Sarah. You've been working too hard."

  William continued, "When was the last time you rested properly? I've never seen you properly rest before. So you're gonna relax with us, Sarah."

  After helping her take down the decorations, they dragged her to the living room. Sarah protested, switching to her informal address, "I can't do that, you two."

  William grinned, "Who said you can't? Let Eve at them!"

  Eve gasped, "I would never!" She then turned to look at Sarah, "Anyway, like Will said, let me at them!"

  Sarah felt a warm feeling inside. This wasn't the first time it had happened. This happened last New Year, and the one before that. Not just on New Years, she was dragged to relax with them every holiday! She truly felt that they were her children. She had been taking care of Will for 14 years, and Evie for 10. She didn't expect to grow to enjoy William's company when she accepted the job.

  She sighed and accepted her fate. She sat down on the sofa alongside them and opened the TV.

  "Scientists had found that a mysterious, consistent radio signal has been detected comin-"

  Eve snatched the TV remote out of her hand and switched the channel, "Nope, not listening to any of that conspiracy bullshit."

  William chuckled, "You're just afraid that if it turns out to be true, they wouldn't like your cookies."

  She rolled her eyes and threw a cushion at him, "Well, excuse me! My baking would bring peace to the galaxy."

  William dodged, "Even Darth Vader would agree with me that your cookies are a war crime!"

  She growled as she lunged at William, "You little-!" She was hit in the face with a pillow thrown by William.

  Sarah sighed and put a hand on both of their head, "Stop now, children. I won't be able to rest properly if you keep disturbing me." They had all the energy in the world! She had to step in like that to stop them. Otherwise, they would keep running around the mansion. "How about this? Instead, we'll watch a movie."

  Eve snorted, "Let me guess, William's gonna pick Star Wars again?"

  He shrugged, "What's wrong with that? It's a masterpiece! Anyway, I'm not picking that today! I heard a new good movie came out in July? Forrest Gump, I think."

  Sarah took the escape, "Yeah, children. Let's watch that one. I heard it's great. Let me go grab coffee and tea for you guys while you prepare."

  She quickly escaped before William and Eve lunged at each other again with pillows. She sighed. Ever since they joined that sword club, they have become more and more energetic. In fact, it seemed they truly enjoyed sparring, even though Eve was reluctant to do so at first. But after winning against William in the first match, she was far too eager to continue practicing.

  Sarah brought back the snacks. Eve and William were already at each other's throats. They had pillows in their hands as they clashed, almost making the scene epic. She put down the treats and smacked Eve and William both in the head, "You two rascals, stop already."

  They grinned sheepishly and separated from each other. What am I supposed to do with these two? She rubbed her head as she smiled.

  William fixed his hair and his clothing, "As you wish, Sarah. I shall sit down and watch this movie in peace."

  Eve threw a pillow at his face, "What're you acting dignified for? You're the least dignified person I've ever met."

  He rolled his eyes as he used the pillow she threw at him as a cushion, "That's because you've only met us, my dear Eve."

  As they bickered, Sarah started the movie. Both of them quieted up.

  The movie went by in a flash.

  Eve gushed in the end, "This movie is so... beautiful!"

  William nodded, "I dare say this is one of the best movies this year."

  Eve threw a cushion at him, "Stop acting dignified again, William. It doesn't suit you."

  "What do you mean? Imagine me with a suit, a cane, and a top hat, and tell me I don't look good."

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Sarah was silent as she watched the two of them bicker. She smiled. If she had told her younger self that she would be looking after two brats as if they were her own children, she would have been told that she was insane. New Year's was truly the best day of the year.

  The day passed quickly, in leisure and fun. They watched one more movie, Speed. It was very fun, to say the least. At least, William felt like he enjoyed it. Then, midnight came. They watched the New Year's broadcast together. He sighed as he flopped down onto the bed after the broadcast. While it was fun, it was also quite tiring. It was hard to pretend like he was watching the masterpieces for the first time.

  He stared at his overlay. He now had a somewhat respectable body stat now. And he could feel the immediate benefits. His stamina was greater, his speed was greater, and even his hand-to-hand coordination was improved a lot. He extended his hand above himself and stared at it. He had come far. He had created an operating system, while it wasn't the dominant one, it was still used in a lot of universities and by tech experts.

  He was also very proud of Eve. She had been learning both HEMA, Jujutsu, C, and C++. And she was handling it rather well.

  His eyes slowly closed as he drifted to sleep.

  1996, April 7th

  William stared at his computer, scratching his head in frustration as the new feature just wouldn't work. Why the fuck isn't this working? He deleted a line. Then, he tested it again. Why the fuck is it working now? That line literally does nothing. He sighed. Even with his LV9 Coding skill, sometimes, the code just refused to cooperate. I need to take a break, he thought. He glanced at the time. It was 10 in the morning. It's time for a run. He opened his closet and took out the sports suit. After changing his clothes, he went into the bathroom and took a deep breath. He washed his face and looked in the mirror. He saw himself staring back at him, with one blue and one brown eye. He had dirty blonde hair and a sharp jawline. I guess working out really does change your looks, huh? He thought to himself.

  He took a stretch and did a warm-up workout by doing some calisthenics. After five minutes, he finished his warm-up and went out of the mansion. After greeting the security guards, he started jogging. He jogged around his usual route, which was around seven miles. According to the overlay, his average speed was around 7.5 miles per hour, and he typically did around two laps. As he jogged, his thoughts turned to his plans.

  I'm about to turn eighteen in two years, and I'll stop getting money from the trust fund. Thankfully, I've managed to convince Sarah to let me manage the funds we get. I've managed to streamline a lot of expenses and invested quite a bit of that excess into some companies I know would take off. And from what I know, the property is legally in the family name. That means I need to get my new place as soon as I turn eighteen. Thankfully, I'm in the 1990s, so property is pretty cheap compared to later. Eve is likely going to come with me, so I'll have to get at least a two-bedroom place. I'll most likely just buy a house instead of renting anything. He continued planning. For my OS, I've implemented most of the early features I want into the OS. I just finished adding virtual machines, so I just need to add a few more features before it finally fits my vision. Even now, the OS is 100MB uncompressed, so it's getting quite bloated. The final version will probably be around 150 MB, and the installation would be around 180MB.

  He finished the lap and continued jogging. His thoughts turned from his plans to the things he had done. I've managed to level up my Language skills to 5 and learned two more languages, Mandarin and Arabic. Level 5 is likely my limit in Language unless I go further into linguistics. While I could do that, I don't really want to. Chromesthesia also leveled up to 5. Now, I see the colors are not only linked with people's tone but also their mood. That's only if I subconsciously or consciously notice their mood. Otherwise, it doesn't really have a difference. Swordsmanship has leveled up to 3, and hand-to-hand combat to 4. What was surprising was that Eve managed to keep up with my swordsmanship progress. She really is a prodigy in that area.

  For some reason, the skill Shut-In leveled up to 8. Am I being too much of a shut-in? And what does the skill even do anyway? Whenever I look at its description, it just says "You are a shut-in." Like, thanks, I guess? It doesn't even have any effects listed.

  He finished the lap and went back to the mansion. He entered the home gym and started working out more. He did the fabled anime workout, one hundred push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and sit-ups.

  [Your stat, Body, has risen by 1 from 5 to 6.]

  He felt all his fatigue fade away and felt stronger. He smiled. After two years of working out daily, he had finally raised the stat by one. He continued his workout until he finished his set and went for a quick shower. After that, he worked on the OS some more before finally going for lunch. After lunch, he helped Eve learn Python. After that, they had a little spar, which ended in a draw for the weapon match and ended in a victory for William at Jujutsu.

  It was around midnight. He sat on the guardrail of the top floor as he stared at the moon and the stars. The city light stretched and scattered in front of him, like fireflies. He swung his foot around and fidgeted with his hands. He had made it his habit to come up here and reflect on himself every night. It relaxed him and helped him learn more about himself. His reflection was disturbed by a noise from behind. "William?"

  He turned around and smiled, "Eve? What're you doing up here?"

  She looked beautiful. "I could ask the same thing. I'm just here to enjoy the view. I can't sleep."

  She jumped over the guardrail and sat beside him. William nodded, "Well, I usually come up here around this time. Isn't this peaceful?"

  Her short bob cut snow-white hair moved a little, one side longer than the other as it lightly swayed in the night wind. "It is. So, what do you usually do here?"

  He thought for a bit, "I just come up here to think. The cold wind and the silence help me think. I like reflecting on what I did during the day and what I'll do in the future."

  Her stormy grey eyes stared at him, "So what is it? Are you satisfied with yourself?"

  He shook his head softly, "No... No, I'm not. I want to reach the top. I want to reach the sky, no, the stars. I want recognition. More than all of that, I want to succeed. I want to see numbers go up and up. I want to be something the world has never seen before and will never see again."

  She nodded and rested her head on his shoulder. His heart quickened, and he realized something in that moment. He realized that he had developed something he had never felt before. And he found it to be quite... distracting.