“Leonard! Hurry before the bus leaves!” Mrs Tanner shouted as she stood at the doorway of their small house, staring at the bus that was just some distance away from the house.With how hard their life was, she knew that if her son missed the bus, he was going to spend the next two hours walking to school.“I’m out already, Mom,” Leonard said, pulling her in for a quick hug. After that, he rushed out, meeting with the bus just in time.He looked out the window, watching his mother’s frail figure as she kept on waving at him. As soon as she was out of sight, he sighed, leaning his head back on the seat.Despite having woken up very early and gotten ready for school, Leonard had deliberately stayed till the last moment so that his mother wouldn’t realize that he had left the last meal she had made for him.At the age of seventeen, he has come to see his mom as the most important person to him and with the country’s economy falling, surviving for people like them also got a lot more diff

“Ugh,” Leonard groaned as he struggled to open his eyes. The first thing he did was to try and move, but pain wracked through his body immediately.As he had a job that didn’t even allow them to miss a day, he didn’t give up and tried to stand up again. This time, he had a better result than before and was able to sit up on the floor of the dark alley.“Host bonding completed. Welcome to the world domination system!” A mechanical voice rang out.Leonard looked around, wondering where the voice had come from.Although the area surrounding their school was naturally safe. It was also still an alley. Thinking that someone out there could be watching him, Leonard’s already weak body was fueled up with adrenaline, and he rushed to stand up.Up until he ran out of the alley and into the normal road, he didn’t see anyone or hear anything again.He checked the watch on his left wrist and saw that he was already about ten minutes late for his work.“Think of Mother,” he encouraged himself as h

Susan’s eyes dulled while her face flushed with embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled with her head bowed and her fingers interlocked.Seeing her reaction, Leonard felt a little guilty, but he had not planned to get a phone anytime soon. After all, the most important person to him was his mother.If he needed a phone to communicate with her, it would mean that she would also need a phone also.Their finances couldn’t handle that kind of luxury and, most especially not a brand that was this expensive.He sighed as he looked at Susan’s already dull expression.“Although I don’t have the money now, I’ll work hard to pay you back. So let’s see this as if you are giving me a loan.”As he talked, he tore out a page from his jotting book and started to draft an IOU between them. Since she had used her savings for it, it was only appropriate to pay her back, but as the phone itself was probably more expensive than his entire net worth, this was the best solution.Susan nodded as her eyes r

Ignoring the gossip around school, Leonard left as soon as the first bell rang. Unlike before, he now had a mobile phone and he felt that communicating with Susan would be easier.He wanted to find some odd works to do when he got home and then begin studying for the competition.As he crossed the street, the robotic voice of the system rang out in his mind.[First task assigned to host! Completing this task would award a cash bonus of $1000 and +10 domination points which can be used by the host]Leonard stopped, his legs becoming heavy in the middle of the road from pure shock.Even though he had decided that the system was a bonus trainer this morning when he did the training, there was a little bit of fear left from what happened earlier with the system.But now he heard, $1000?For someone like him, a thousand dollars was an amount that he would spend about a month or two to save up to that amount because they still had things that they couldn’t avoid spending now.But one task w

After dinner ended, Leonard went back inside, his mind full with several thoughts. He had always been determined to make money and take care of his mother. Only that, up until today, he had always imagined that he had to climb up the ladder by gradually working. But with the World Dominating system, he felt that things were different and the heavens were giving him a chance. Now that his mother wanted to work with Susan’s family, he swore to himself not to let that happen for more than two months.He couldn’t convince her now. After all, he didn’t have much, and she was determined to help him out. Leonard sighed at his current helplessness but was also determined to work hard in the next two to three months so that he could at least make them comfortable. After making up his mind and feeling better, he picked up his books, ready to study. He had barely read for half an hour when he remembered that Susan had asked him to send a message so that they could talk about their project