To avoid becoming too reliant on the life simulator—and to build a better future worth simulating—Tony Snow had finally made up his mind: he would no longer live like a lazy slacker.
Since his current task required him to wake up before 7 AM for ten consecutive days, Tony decided to take advantage of the opportunity and turn it into a habit—early morning runs and disciplined living.
"I just ate breakfast, so running now isn't ideal. I'll move today's jog to the evening. Starting tomorrow, I'll run first thing before eating," Tony told himself as he returned to his dorm.
Once inside, he didn't waste time. The decision he'd just made wasn't something he'd allow himself to reverse so easily.
Instead of heading to the library right away, Tony sat at the desk under his loft bed and powered up his old laptop.
"Your boot-up took 1 minute and 30 seconds. Your computer's speed outperforms 27% of users in your country..." After waiting over a minute, the aging device finally launched the desktop. Tony opened a browser and began searching for information on postgraduate entrance exams, visiting various universities' official sites and the national grad school portal.
Even though he had already taken the postgraduate entrance exam twice in the simulated futures, he'd only acquired knowledge from those lives—never hands-on experience planning for the exam. In reality, Tony knew very little about the logistics of taking it—test subjects, registration dates, exam schedules—his understanding was vague at best.
After half an hour of sifting through fragmented information online, Tony finally started to get a clear picture.
For students in engineering and applied sciences, the exams usually covered Mathematics, English, Political Theory, and a professional subject. Unfortunately, Tony wasn't particularly strong in any of them.
He decided to ignore the core subjects for now and focus on choosing a school first, since professional subjects varied by institution. Tony started combing through university rankings and checking individual program requirements.
By noon, he made his decision.
He would apply to the School of Life Sciences at Polaris University, majoring in Biology.
Although he hadn't nailed down a specific research direction yet, Tony figured this path made the most sense. Despite having access to future knowledge, his past selves hadn't risen far in academia—he was never more than a lab assistant in those timelines. Still, his jobs had always been related to biology.
Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, and Materials Science were known as the "Big Four Traps" in academic circles—low-paying, difficult, and thankless. But Tony didn't choose Biology because of passion; rather, it was his current major, and switching tracks now would be even harder.
He had enrolled as a freshman in the Department of Bioengineering at North Coast Technical University—a mid-tier institution in a mid-sized city. Though it wasn't prestigious, it had been Tony's hard-won ticket through the college entrance system.
Bioengineering was an interdisciplinary field built on biology, especially molecular biology, microbiology, genetics, and biochemistry, paired with engineering techniques. It aimed to use genetically modified organisms to create useful products through large-scale fermentation or cell culture—Tony once imagined it meant doing cool lab work in a white coat all day.
Reality hit hard in his freshman year. His classes weren't just about biology—they included university physics, lab experiments, higher math, linear algebra, and statistics. If not for cramming before exams and lenient professors, he might've flunked half his courses.
Despite the effort required, bio majors faced low pay and few job opportunities. The further one went, the tougher it got. And while many assumed biology was easy and math-free, Tony's simulated lives had shown otherwise. Once you hit advanced fields like biophysics, bioinformatics, and genetic modeling, you needed strong foundations in math, chemistry, and computer science.
He chose biology not because it was easy, but because—at least for him—it was the least hard. Thanks to the simulator, he already had two lives' worth of biology knowledge, and both timelines had led to jobs tied to the field.
Tony was pleasantly surprised to find that Polaris University's School of Life Sciences didn't require Mathematics in their preliminary exams. The subjects tested were: General Studies, English, Biology, and a comprehensive exam covering Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology.
"So the calculus I've been studying for the past few days was pointless?" Tony grumbled, realizing his math review had been unnecessary.
But he quickly caught himself. "I have the simulator. I have more time than anyone else. Studying a few extra subjects—even things like history or law—isn't a waste."
Feeling his stomach rumble, Tony headed to the cafeteria for lunch.
While eating, he pulled out his phone and began searching for exam prep materials.
He quickly realized how expensive it would be to buy everything he needed. He'd already spent a hundred bucks on his last simulation, and he barely had enough left to get through the week. If he bought too many materials now, he might go hungry.
After some internal debate, Tony decided to buy only English materials for now and look for a part-time job to earn more money.
He opened his shopping app, loaded up a cart with everything he would eventually need, then placed an order just for the English books.
Next, he opened his messaging app and clicked on his friend Logan Reed—a mature and hardworking roommate known for hustling part-time gigs since day one of college. While Tony had always stayed back to play games, Logan had been earning cash on weekends and holidays.
Tony: "Hey, do you have any part-time job group chats? Can you add me?"
A reply came back quickly.
Logan: "Look who's finally seen the light. I've been telling you to join me for years—you always ghosted me to play games in your cave. What happened? Ran out of game credit? Or broke after spending everything during the break?"
Tony: "Haha, no. Just want to buy a few things, but I'm short on cash. Thought I'd work a bit to cover it. Nothing long-term."
A minute later, Logan added Tony to a chat called "North Coast Tech | Student Job Board – Group 4."