First Step to Riches

"This is what I am looking for," I say and hold up the prairie yam in front of my eyes.

Cisca squints her eyes.

"What is that? A weird-looking potato?"

"Why are you asking me? Aren't you the one with a degree in botany?"

"Botany? You mean biochemistry? Botany is so useless. Plus, without caffeine, I can't even function during the day. What do expect me to do a few hours from midnight?"

"Ah, whatever. Just do your thing."

"Alright."

Cisca reaches her finger to the screen her camera is attached to. I can't see what she is doing, but a few swipes later, some symbols begin popping up in my vision.

A white square surrounds the yam I am holding in my hand, beside it, a loading bar appears.

"SCANNING CELLULAR STRUCTURE 0%," the loading bar reads.

"50%."

"100%."

"SCANNING COMPLETE."

A huge list of scientific terms is printed onto a table in the corner of my eye. White lines are being drawn all across my view, and more squares pop up here and there.

"Is it done?" I ask.

"Almost. I need you to slowly spin around to capture the entire landscape," Cisca says.

"Okay."

I turn around and more lines begin to fly into the land around me.

After I reorient myself, the loading bar comes back, but this time, it reads, "COMPILING TOPOGRAPHIC VIEW 0%."

"50%."

"100%."

"COMPILATION COMPLETE."

"There we go," Cisca says, "Sending the map over right now."

With another swipe of her finger, an image appears beside Cisca's video.

"638 units are found in the half-mile radius. The area beyond should have very few of that potato you are searching for," Cisca says.

"Thanks. This is just what I wanted."

"Great. What do you even need this for? Are you suddenly craving potatoes?"

I chuckle. "No, I am not craving potatoes. There is an exploit I wanted to try out."

"You and your exploits, Kris. One day you will realize the value of hard work," Cisca says with a sigh.

"Says the person who aced all of her finals with no more than an hour of studying."

"That's still a lot more hours of hard work than you, at least. Well, if you don't need me anymore, I…," she yawns, "… think I am gonna go back to bed."

"Alright. I will tell you how it goes."

"Bye."

She turns off her camera, and the video disappears.

I take a look around. The flashing lines are gone. Now, the ground is littered with white squares from my HUD on the contact lens. Each one should be outlining a yam underground. They are quite spread out. The map in the corner gives me a pretty nice bird's eye view of the locations of the prairie yams in the vicinity.

I have no idea how this is possible, but many things Cisca does are beyond what even Earth's scientists believe to be possible.

600 something? Was that what she said? Well, it looks like I got a long night ahead of me.

I walk to the nearest square and take a dig at it. There it is, another prairie yam.

One by one, I picked every single one of them near the Holy Capital's western gate. It turned out I could call the scan function again without Cisca's help, so that's what I did. I rode around the perimeter of the city looking for more of these yams.

I didn't need to go all the way around the entire Holy Capital, as it's not surrounded by prairies on all sides, but even then, by the time I finished digging up the last one, the first light of dawn was about to break through the horizon.

I was worried that I would have trouble bringing such a huge pile of yams with me, but I tried that telekinesis thing Melanie used on me, and it worked perfectly. I rode back to the western gate with a swarm of yams floating behind me.

At a random place far away from the city walls, I split a hill open using my newly obtained ability and dumped the hundreds of yams down the deep hole. Then I buried the pile so no one would be able to find them.

The first step of this exploit is complete. One more thing, and I should be able to just watch the money flow my way. That's what I thought as I went back into the city.

When I arrived at the stable, the owner wasn't present, so I quietly put the horse back where I got it. I kind of broke the rules a little because I returned it the next morning, but who's gonna know?

I jogged back to the convent in a hurry since I had no idea when the nuns would wake up, and I didn't want to raise any suspicion, again, not that it really matters, because there is nothing anybody can do about it, but it's usually a good idea to keep these things secretive before they actually work out.

I gently push open the front door of the convent. It's silent inside. The darkness of night has yet been completely rescinded, so I can't see very well out of the eye without night vision.

The dark wood and Victorian-like decor make the convent look not as inviting during the night as it did when it was bright. It feels like one of those haunted houses I would see on TV.

As I creep up the stairs, I feel a hand tapping firmly on my shoulder. It startles me, and I spin around in an instant. It's Mia. She's got a scowl on as usual.

"Jesus, Sister Mia. When did you get behind me?" I say while patting my chest.

"What's geezis? Whatever, what were you doing out there, Kris?" She presses her finger onto my collarbone and stares me down with an interrogative glare.

"That's none of your business. What about you? Why are you up so early?" I brush her finger away.

"Today is my turn to prepare the kitchen for breakfast. I heard the door open, and it turns out it was your indecent figure coming back from the red-light district." She puts her finger back.

"The what?'

"The red-light district, where you spent your night just now."

"What the hell is the red-light district?"

Mia gasps.

"Y- How dare you try to make me explain it? Stop acting dumb," she says.

Oh, those places. That's what they are called? The red-light district? That sounds like an old term.

"Well, if you are so innocent and pure, how do you even know about it?" I ask.

"I-" Mia stutters and loses her ability to speak.

This isn't going anywhere. Sooner or later, she is going to tell everybody about it.

"Fine, I admit it, alright?" I say and tap my finger up against her lips. "I was at the red-light district or whatever, but don't tell anyone. It will stay as our little secret."

Mia's eyes widen, and I feel her breath stop for a second, then she slaps my hand away.

"I- We- Se- No! I am not going to k-keep your dirty secret!" She exclaims in a whisper.

I sigh.

"What do you want then? Money?" I ask.

I realize as soon as I said it out loud that bribing a nun might not be the smartest idea, especially Sister Mia.

"Wha- Why would I want money? And it's not like you have any money if you are living here. How about this, as long as you promise to not spread your indecency in the convent, I will keep your stupid little secret," she says.

What does that even mean? Well, no matter.

"Deal," I say and offer her a handshake.

"Get your tainted hand away from me." She turns around and walks back down the stairs.

What a bother this girl is.