Chapter 13

"Life is so unfair. I explained the drug issue perfectly to them but I still got my all my money taken away. EVEN THE CONTRACTS I BOUGHT. AHHHHHH. They tracked my money and even took over my anonymous bank account. I only have less than $500 remaining after everything. Fuck they even made me pay for my own hospital bill. Such cruel parents."

Two days have already passed since the incident. Surprisingly, my story went pretty viral. I was even invited to an interview by some media company and obviously, I presented myself as a glorious hero who was being held hostage by bad guys and had to courageously fight off the bad guys. I expected Kez to be a little famous due to his background, but his reputation exceeded my expectations. Unfortunately, he wasn't seen as a good guy by the public but rather, as an annoying asshole. Many people sent me malicious messages such as 'kys' or 'deserved' but of course that didn't matter to me because shame wasn't an emotion, I was very familiar with. But some did sympathies with my situation. But most importantly, Buber took a big hit from my exaggerated stories and their cybersecurity team discovered a breach in their firewall. As a result, their stocks went down almost 10% total these past few days. It might not seem like much but for an involatile stock like Buber plummeting by 10% is pretty rare. Of course, I predicted that incident and bought some put contracts and now my overall bank balance was at $1254 ap. That insignificant amount almost made me want to cry.

'Looks like I will need to make some money after I get to TROP. Money is everything. Key to the life I want to lead. So, I have decided. I will...major in potionteering in TROP.'

Potions. They were many kinds. Some boosted stats temporarily and some boosted them permanently. Of course, the main kind of potion was healing potion with miraculous abilities. Potions sold for a lot but they required a lot of knowledge to make. Also, the difficulty in brewing them was absolutely insane. But given my stats, I could only choose this major as other majors required mana over E+ at least. Apparently, E+ mana was equal to 50 according to my system and my current mana capacity was 4. So among the majors that required least amount of mana, I chose potionteering. If I could craft and sell them then I could make a ton. That's why I am at a library right now.

'But this is actually incredible.'

[ Scan complete. Sorting new information. Sorted.]

[ Reference found. Creating pointers...]

Suddenly, I felt enlightened. I was going over bunch of science books to compare how advanced this world is compared to my previous world. Interestingly, the AI could find cross-reference of the information existing in the brain and link them with the information from these books. From my understanding, the AI is taking care of memory allocation in my BRAIN manually!!! and can sometimes run some small simulations using my brain as a CPU and add notes of its own understandings. In short, the AI can boost my comprehension by at least two folds. The AI couldn't directly project the information to my brain and force me to comprehend it instantly, but it could find reference to the material I was learning and help me comprehend it in a way that would make sense to me. It was an incredible little thing.

'If only I had this back in college...sigh.'

'Bah I'm bored of this already. Let's do something fun.'

I left the book on the table and walked out. I had already spent several hours in the library learning about this world's history and other essential subjects such as what these people learn in schools. Any information regarding potions and detailed information about mana couldn't be found in these books.

'I guess those aren't accessible to general public, but I bet libraries at Trop will definitely contain them.'

 'As expected, the laws of physics and chemistry in this world are pretty similar to my old one. Also, the theories of physics and chemistry are pretty similar to Earth. But the formula they use are a little different or rather it's in a different format. AI was incredible help to me with that regard. For example, it could use some of my brain's capacity to do calculations and match which formula corresponds to which from Earth. But it still takes a long time to do that. If I have to take calculus in TROP again then I fucking lose it. Calc almost ruined my perfect 4.0 GPA during my second year.'

I entered a new alleyway and checked my surroundings and took out my new burner phone to send Jerome a location for meeting up. I have been a little suspicious of my parents putting people to watch me. 

'I don't want people following me but now that I have confirmed no one is following me, I feel a little disappointed. What if I get kidnapped again? What if I do drugs again? Well not that I have done it before. What irresponsible parents. Well at least they gave me this...'

I looked at my hand and there was a vial made of glass or something. Apparently, this material is edible. Inside it was a green color liquid.

[Beep! Analyzing...Analysis completed]

[Swiftness Potion: Combination of Star Shard, blade glass and unknown materials. 

Benefits: Agility += 4 upon consumption which lasts for 20 minutes

Rank: F+]

I entered the downtown city again to find a ride. Truth be told, I was starting to love this city. People here had sort of a minor desperation vibe which I particularly enjoyed. I have a good part of my previous life being homeless and wandering around cities. I had to learn which alleyway was safe to sleep in and which one would get me killed. I had to learn which city would make me stand out and which city could make disappear without any problem. I had to learn which one had low but too low crime rate so I could at least manage to find food. The cities in between both was the perfect kind to live in and the downtown city of Yezold county was one of them. So naturally, I loved it here. 

"psst over here."

"Huh?"

Before I could even turn around, a hand grabbed me and pulled me in a bush. I tried to resist but I failed embarrassingly. 

"HELP, I--Mmmfggh."

"Shh quiet down. Why are you trying to make a scene here?"

"Who are you? I have 15 karate belts and 3 muay thai belts. Think twice before attempting to kidnap me."

"Huh? What's karate and muay thai?"

"Oh right..."

I didn't have any of that by the way. Wait does muay thai even have belts? I put some distance between us and looked at the person who pulled me. It was a toned dark-skinned tall girl with black straight hair. I kept my hand hidden behind my back inconspicuously, slightly touching the new 9mm I had recently acquired from my parents. I suddenly felt like there was something wrong with the Jolkev family. I mean I was already planning on getting one and I didn't want to acquired it from a random source as guns were moderately regulated by the government here but I never expected my parents to just hand it to me. Do they actually care about me or not? Since I pretty much grew up as an orphan, I have little to no information about how parental affection actually works. Anyways, Guns were pretty effective in this world. If one wasn't at least peak of F rank, they couldn't defend against a gun. Anyone under peak of F rank was just a snack.

"So who are you? What do you want?"

"Jerome sent me. He thought it wouldn't be safe for him to come out. Follow me."

'Sarah Velaska huh? Her voice seems to match and so does her genetics. No wonder I thought I was gonna get mugged again.'

"You coming or not?"

"Sure..."

I followed her to the end of the intersection where a car was parked. Despite having some shameful flashbacks, I got inside the car. An awkward silence continued as Sarah drove through an undeveloped part of the city. 

[Beep. Initiating mapping. Mapping in progress...]

'I'm glad I won't have to do this part manually. Now, let's see. She seems to have no quarrel in showing me where their new base is. Or is she taking me somewhere else? Well even if she is, I have a gun and one need to be at least E rank to effectively fight against someone with a gun. If they had to funds to hire an E rank, then why would you resort to simple scamming and kidnapping? But still, I am confident in my ability to run away. Well, I should probably do something about this awkward silence.'

"Nice weather, right?"

"...was that sarcasm?"

'Right. It's extremely hot today.'

"So umm...what do you even do for Jerome?"

"..."

"Nice weath..oh wait I said that already."

"Can you just shut up for a second."

'Well, I tried at least.'

Bored out of my mind, I start looking around the car and look for anything interesting. I open the glove box and find some cigarettes and bunch of rusty papers.

"Hmm...cigarettes are bad for you, you know."

"..."

"Oh a receipt from Burg-Mart? Lets see. Chips. Fries. Jerkies. Hmm...that's not very healthy. No signs any healthy food here. Ropes and Tapes? I wonder why you would need that. Advanced water? What even is that? How does that work? Water from future? Time-travelling is real?"

"...if you say one more fucking word THEN I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL KICK YOU OUT OF THIS RUNNING CAR."

"Jeez. Okay I get it. Damn Ion know why you're getting so mad."

"..."

"..."

"..."

*Whistle Whistle*

"..."

*Whistle Whistle*

"FUCKING STOP THAT. What is wrong with you????!!!!"

"Tsk"

Thankfully, the trip doesn't last longer than that. After parking in front of a factory or some sort, she gets out and indicates me follow. The factory seemed...a bit unrefined. Well, I can't be the one to judge given the type of apartment I used live in. Shaking my head slowly, I sneakily put the potion vial in my mouth and follow her to the entrance. I can see a man standing there. He seemed to be in his mid-twenties, wearing an elegant suit with hair combed neatly. Is that a lawyer? I thought out to myself. I was glad to see someone professional in their league and also mentally prepared myself to fight if needed. As we got closer, we caught the man's attention, and he seemed a little shocked and...embarrassed? to find me behind Sarah. 

"Sir...Kez...It's good to see you again. I must say I am deeply ashamed of my actions that I demonstrated yesterday."

With that sentence the man performed a perfectly 90 degrees bow. I was a little taken aback. We met before? Was he one of the NPCs? I swear I don't recall seeing him. Whatever, I'll pretend that I know him.

"...You..YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN JUST APOLOGIZE FOR WHAT YOU FUCKING DID???!!! You have no idea how much I wanna kill you right now, you bastard."

'Nicely done, I can't act submissive here. Look at him recoil back in fear. That was the right decision.'

"PLEASE FORGIVE ME. I, Clinton Prowley, promise to never do such thing ever again."

'C-c-clin..CLINTON???!!!! WHAT THE FU-'

There's no way. Like absolutely no way this guy, in front of me, could be Clinton, the psycho, who was high on some drug. Wait...my god...I think I can start to see some resemblance between the two. Is this guy bipolar???

"...damn it. Lets just get going..."

Sarah shot me a confused look but still proceeded forward. I followed behind with a stern expression on my face. I did make sure to start alert. The factory seemed quite damaged. From the marks on the walls, chemicals and abandoned equipments, I concluded that it was likely a garment factory, one that hasn't been used in likely over a year. 

"Nice place you guys got here. Do you guys actually cook up that drug here?"

"..."

*Whistle Whistle*

Even after all that, I couldn't get a response out of her. After entering one of the interior rooms, I found Jerome, the two npc, a old guy and some random woman arguing loudly. As soon as we were spotted walking in, all eyes pointed at me. Some filled with confusing and others with hatred.

"Hey gang, how's it hanging?" I called out cheerfully.

"YOU! I want my kni-"

"What do you want Kez?" Jerome spoke out.

"Nothing..nothing much. Just thought, I would drop by and introduce myself to everyone since we are all allies. So what are we all discussing?"

"..."

"Dog got your tongue?...wait no that doesn't sound right. Was it a sheep? Nah damn I can't rem-"

Before I could even finish my sentence, I suddenly felt danger. It was weird the fact that I could somehow sense that I was in danger. The woman sitting at the table had suddenly disappeared. Without hesitation, I grabbed Sarah before she could react, pulling out the gun and pointing it to her head. The next moment, a knife halted couple inches in front of my eye.

"Woah there. Heh heh. Running around with a knife is very dangerous. What if my finger accidentally exerts a bit more force because of that?"

"Damn it, bastard...let me go." Sarah tried to break out of my grip but I pushed my gun harder against her head, forcing her to stop.

"YOU BASTARD. LET HER GO!" The girl in front of me was surprisingly loud, making me wonder if she was also part of Jerome's family.

"STOP!!! EVERYONE. SESHA, COME BACK HERE."

"but-"

"I DONT WANT TO HEAR IT. COME BACK HERE."

Begrudgingly, she walked back to her seat and holding Sarah as my hostage, I slowly walked towards them. 

"Well, that got heated soon haha. Let's calm down, shall we?"

"Yes, you are right. Now let Sarah go."

Crunching the vial in my mouth with my teeth, I let Sarah go. Soon I received a notification.

[ Beep. Swiftness Potion consumed. Agility += 4 ]

Suddenly, everything around me became slower. I felt rejuvenated and I felt like my heart rate fastened significantly. The potion was stronger than any coffee or energy drink I ever had.

'...this feeling. I could get addicted to this. With this, I can likely fire my gun before she can have a chance to attack me.'

After taking one of the empty seats at the table, I smiled and looked at everyone.

"Now, let's continue our discussion."