Benjamin rapped on the door to the Director of Mechanical Engineering. A low deep voice boomed from within: "Come in." Benjamin stepped in to face the director, an overbearing man who looked slightly above 40, with hard eyes, dark tan skin and a luscious beard of black and grey.He was dressed in a casual grey blazer over a white shirt, arranging and scrutinizing his folders unsatisfactorily."Like no one knows how to file an attendance sheet nowadays" he grumbled. Then looked to Benjamin."What are you standing there for? Take a seat and tell me what you want."Benjamin took the seat nearest to the window. He had forgotten the director's name and looked for something nearby to remember. He found it in a plaque that hung above his university diploma. "Hello Sir, I've come to report the actions of a particular student in the department."The Director scoffed."Aren't you a little too old to be tattle-taling?" he asked. "How about you go settle your differences as an adult?""No can do, Si
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
“Make a line! Make a line!” screamed JMONEY as he tried to sort through everybody. There was one person left by Michael’s side. It was Terry, trying to hold him up. Benjamin had been looking at both of them intently.“So, what’s it going to be?” Benjamin asked. Michael spat on the floor.“Fuck you! And get the fuck off me, Terry!” said Michael, heaving himself out of Terry’s support.“Like hell you can save everybody here” Michael continued.“Why would I lie?” asked Benjamin.“To give us hope, and then destroy it. I suppose this is some kind of revenge for you,” said Michael. “True. I suppose it is. But what choice do you have really?” said Benjamin, inching closer towards him. “Do you remember, in my first year here, you passed me by in your Nissan GTR when it was raining? You ran over that puddle three times to watch my expressions, and when I got to class, you told me to be more careful of the rain.""Sometimes you covered your nose in Samira’s presence every time I walked by, and la
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
"Because I'll give you a million dollars," said Benjamin. The woman cocked her head to the right."Goodness. You are touched in the head," she replied. Benjamin laughed. A few drops of sweat ran down JMONEY's face. "That's not what you want to say" stated Benjamin."Are you listening to yourself, child?" she asked."You really think I'm crazy. Have you ever seen a mad person like me before?" asked Benjamin. "More than you might think," she replied. "Then kick me out of your office. Get me out of here. Go to bed and think 'Gee, that kid was really talking a load of gibberish today.' Can you?" asked Benjamin.The woman remained silent but scowled her face. Benjamin leaned in."But you can't, can you? Some part of you, even if it's a fraction of a minuscule amount's thinking, what if this kid is the real deal? What if his parents are actually loaded? What if he can throw a million dollars like it's just spare change?" he grinned.JMONEY stepped into action too. He didn't exactly unde
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
"Is it possible to use this in checking if someone might be lying?" asked Benjamin."It might be possible, but not conclusive," said PAYTON."Interesting.""Next is, Inheritance. Inheritance allows you to pass one skill from the system to to your group members." "Holy Shit. Really?" asked Benjamin."There are two conditions. Inheritance can only be used by one person at a time, and it has to be a member whom you share a close bond with."Benjamin flagged a question."I was thinking about this before, but what are the clauses on telling others about the system? For this inheritance to work, the member has to know about the system, correct?" he asked."Not necessarily. A thin veil exists to protect the mind of the member using inheritance," said PAYTON."But that's a yes on telling others about it?" asked Benjamin. PAYTON paused to think it over."That information is classified," it replied. I thought as much, thought Benjamin. "Finally, there are the penalties. Penalties exist for b
"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