Chapter 7
[ "Food?"]
"Yes, food."
["Do you want to start a restaurant?"]
"No, I mean like, packaged food, something along the lines of wrapped up nutritious snacks- maybe nutrient bars."]
["Okay, who are you selling them to? "]
Alva immediately put on a dumbfounded expression- it was as if he didn't expect the system to actually be so stupid!
"People, of course! Who else should I sell to?"
The system immediately wished it could face palm itself or at least hit Alva. Thankfully, he had the tasing app extension installed or it really didn't know how it would handle Alva!
Hmmmmmm. A light humming sound permeated the atmosphere. It was, almost, melodic.
"Owww, what did you do that for?"
["Don't tell me you are really that stupid. When selling, you have to sell to a specific group of people. Do you think you would be able to sell toy laser guns to officers? Or shoes to a man with no feet? Get real!"]
It finally dawned on Alva. It all made sense now. Is that why he got tased?
"Even so, you didn't have to tase me, did you? I really feel as if you get some sort of sick kick out of this."
["..."]
"Whatever. Can we just get back to planning my future? I said I want to make nutrient bars.
["Fine,but that is only a means to an end right?"]
"Of course! The industry I most want to be in is the tech and computational science sector."
["Alright, well then, you have to research on how to start up your business and how to keep it running."]
"Yeah, yeah, of course... wait. You're not telling me how to do it?
["I just did."]
What I meant was-
[" I know what you meant but, that's not how this works. Why do you think that I gave you the <
"To spite me?", Alva grumbled.
["Not even close. I'm going to help you fulfill your ambitions, true. But, I'm not going to do everything for you. Think of it like this; I can only give you the ingredients and the recipe but, I'm not going to make the food for you."]
"Fine, I understand."
["I'm glad they didn't give me a completely stupid and hard-headed host"]
"I don't even care at this point, and who are 'they'?"
["..."]
"..."
["Get some sleep. It's 2:50 AM and you've got to be at work by 6:00 AM."]
"Sure, sure." He quickly put the mug down on the floor, beside the couch and laid down before covering himself up with a free old blanket from Chefy. He gave it to Alva yesterday. He had already known about Fred's habits but, there was no way in hell he was correcting Fred about it. The last time he tried that, Fred went back into
the house and brought out his blankets for him to see how 'clean' they were. He smelled it before he saw it and, what he saw still traumatized him to do this day.
___
Wednesday, 4:30 AM
'Tick', 'Tick', 'Tick', 'Tick', 'Ting'!
Alva suddenly woke up. He felt as if cold air had just been blown up his nose. He was sneezing a lot because of it.
Achoo! "Why did you wake me up so early? In Alva's head he was thinking, 'This system better be glad it doesn't have a body else I'd have beaten
him up thoroughly by now.' When you grow up in the slums, you learn a few tricks and Alva wasn't averse to trying them out on the system if he could.
["..."]
He quickly got up off the couch and got ready to leave. Part of the reason he was up at 1:00 AM was because he was cleaning the house. Even though Fred's bedroom was where he mostly stayed, the rest of the house was still filthy. Even the couch! He had found some packs of cleaning detergents and solutions in the small, dilapidated garage that the house had. It looked like that was Chefy's subtle way of telling Fred to clean up the house. Obviously, it didn't work but, at least Alva was able to get his hands on them. The whole house was squeaky clean by about 00: 30 AM. He even swept outside! Overall the house looked amazing. Well as amazing as an old, beaten down house could look. Now, when you saw the house, you wouldn't automatically think it was some sort of drug lab.
After Alva finished cleaning himself and getting dressed, he headed to Chefy's restaurant, The Chef.
"Hello, Good morning, Mr Chefy sir!" Chefy barely nodded and looked at him with distrust and disgust in his eyes.
"Listen sir, please, about yesterday-"
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey," He waved his hands in a hurried and agitated manner, "We don't need to discuss about that. All I need you to do is to get inside and clean up. Just don't do any funky stuff and we'll be good."
"Sir, it was a misunderstanding, I wasn't-"
" I don't care and I don't want to know. Just get in and do your work." If not for how good Alva cleaned up the place, he would have fired him long ago.
Alva sighed and walked in reluctantly. It felt like a long, long, walk of shame for him as he passed Chefy at the entrance of the back door for employees. He quickly got to cleaning up the place and worked extra hard on it. It would be best if he could clean so good, Chefy would totally forget about the whole toilet kissing incident. Unfortunately, even after the end of the day, Chefy still looked at him with disgust, albeit less disgust but, disgust all the same.
Now, he was heading to the internet café not too far from here. Even though there was a laptop at home, Fred was using it and, he didn't want to bother Fred about it. He had asked directions from one of the employees. They all treated him like family since Chefy treated them like family. He had taken all of them from the streets and enabled them to live a better life. How could they not love him?
----
Alva was sitting on a plush cushion as he surfed the interplanetary web. He was using an outdated 'Koi' Computer. With a new era came many new tech companies. He even searched on 'Lookup', a search engine that was 'hot' at the moment.
"Alright now... how... to... make..."
["Can't you type any faster?"]
"It's a creative process okay? Chill."
["..."]
- 3 hours later-
As Alva walked back home, "Ahhh, I'm going to die! How could things cost so much?"
Alva had been searching online for a while now and even knew how to start his business but, goodness, who knew it could be so expensive to start your own company?
" Hey, hey, system this should be where you come in, right?"
[" You need money."]
"Of course I need money. What did you think? Aren't you supposed to tell me how to make money?"
[" Do something that produces income."]
Alva was breathing heavily now. It was like he had just ran a marathon. He was so angry and annoyed with the system that he wanted to beat it up!
"Obviously, but how?"
["Aren't you working a job?"]
"Yes?? Even with that It'll take me a long time to make that amount."
The system gave an exasperated sigh. [" Then work some extra jobs or do a couple side hustles to get some extra money. That way you can keep your job at the restaurant and make more money"]
"Oh,. I see but, why do I have to keep my restaurant job?"
["Do you have somewhere else to live?"]
It had really slipped Alva's mind. Without that restaurant job, he would have no place to live in.
["Isn't there a laptop at your place? You can do lots of side hustles from there."]
"Oh yeah."
Chefy had really hooked them up. He gave them a place to stay, a job, and even a laptop! This guy was really something. Of course, it was an old model, even in the slums which often got goods after they were out of fashion, or no longer 'poppin' anymore. Chefy had installed it when he used to live there but, after he moved out, he had left a majority of the things he used to have there. At that time, he had started to make more money so, he just bought whatever new thing he thought he needed or might need.
"By the way, what do I call you. I don't want to have to call you system, or it all the time."
["I don't have a name."]
"Can I name you?"
["..."]
"Alright then, from now on, drum role please, I'll call you... Veelo. How's that? Are you amazed? Hmm? Hmm? Hmm?"
After Alva's incessant chatter, it finally conceded.
["Fine, call me Veelo. I'm amazed."]
They were already at the house now, so Alva just got ready for bed.
So, how do I start a side hustle...