"There. That's about everything." retired Joaquin. "That's about three incidents. You guys have been up to some naughty businesses. And you're sure you're not holding out on me?" asked Benjamin."What more do you want, huh? The boys will literally stab me if they heard me saying any of it out loud." wheezed Joaquin.Without the aid of Bow Down To Me, this was as pristine of an interrogation as Benjamin was going to get. He checked his watch. At least an hour had passed. 15 more to go. How was JMONEY fairing? "Alright. That'll do. One last thing." said Benjamin."And that is?""What do you guys call yourselves?" Benjamin asked. "What?" retorted Joaquin."Come on, when you're all together. You guys must call yourselves something. The Rowdy Buys, The Tough Bunch, The Growling Grifters??" Benjamin pondered."This isn't some high-school Netflix drama, Benjamin." Joaquin clarified. "We just hang out around Michael. And we're all adults. Who's going to start thinking of names like that?"Ben

Michael didn't slow down even when he was only 10 feet away from Benjamin. Benjamin backed up into the McLaren."You fucker!" Michael screamed."You should know that a single gorilla glass pane on this car costs about $3000, and an extra $600 for the man hours to repair it" said Benjamin, who just looked it up a few minutes ago, "So do with that information what you will."Michael spun his hips and still swung anyway. Benjamin activated Martial Arts in the nick of time, but his instincts reverted to blocking the punch rather than countering it. Michael's arm slid across Benjamins, his fist finding the top right corner of the driver's seat window, where a small crack sprung into sight."Shit. Why didn't I counter that?" Benjamin whispered to PAYTON."Need I remind you that the Martial Arts skill is only at Level 1 still?" replied PAYTON. Michael shook his fist. The blow to the double-paned glass had been excruciating."Great. Now you owe me $3600" said Benjamin."You think I'm just going

The university library was at the other end of Campus, so they had to spend more time on the roads before arriving. Not to mention, there was also no parking lot, so they had to settle for parking just by the entrance curb leading into the library.“They’re going to tow it,” warned JMONEY. “We’ll be out quickly” replied Benjamin. They hurried past the quiet students on the ground floor, past the computer archives on the second, past more students on the third, before they arrived at the Administrative offices at the mouth of the fourth floor.“Elevator would’ve been quicker” panted JMONEY under his breath as they opened the doors. The lights were off. And from what they could tell, there was no movement. JMONEY checked his watch. “It’s past 07:00. The day shift should’ve closed.” noticed JMONEY.Benjamin was seemingly at a loss for words. He could only think about the seconds ticking away at the countdown timer. There was barely 2 hours left to complete the scenario. “When do you thi

It had begun to drizzle outside. Benjamin crumpled the paper that held the certification to his club inside his shirt. There was no telling what would happen if it got wet, and destroyed. Would the system revoke his rewards? It was better not to find out.He was waiting for JMONEY at the door, something about forgetting his phone upstairs and checking his new statistics.“Open Martial Arts,” he told PAYTON.“Would you like to level up Martial Arts to level 2? It would cost +100 EXP,” asked PAYTON. "Do it,” instructed Benjamin.“Notice: Martial Arts Level 2. Countering Unlocked.”“Is that it?” asked Benjamin. “Martial Arts is currently at the TAEKWENDO LEVEL of Strong Defense and Light Offense. Countering Attacks is a useful addition,” said PAYTON.“I want to beat as many people as possible in one go. I could feel my weakness when Michael’s goons approached me. Not sure, I could’ve dealt with that many of them.” replied Benjamin. “In that case, the next level of Martial Arts involves Ji

"Well?!" barked Joanne Black. Claire's face flushed red."Why the hell are you asking me?!" she yelled back."You - Don't tell me you did something?!" mused Joanne. "If not, Mardo should've proposed by now! We should've been talking about wedding dates!""How the fuck is any of this my fault?" Claire protested again. "I should've known. You were the one that dated that pauper's boy, in the first place." said Joanne."You're fucking unbelievable!" said Claire, marching upstairs."You better pray that man is still interested in you! If not, you're going to find a way to start paying for the bills around here!" called Joanne after her. She left the stairway to pace about the living room again. Simon remained seated on one of the couches, like an obedient sheep."Mom, I'm--" he started. "Quiet, you! I'm trying to think." Joanne paced about some more, before she sat on one of the longer sofas, defeated."I didn't know things were that bad." Simon stated. Joanne grunted."How would you? Te