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2024-10-29 19:42:56Seeing no reason to lie, Billy said, "Yeah. Where did you hear it from?"
Jacqueline shrugged as she said, "I heard some of the other people in our department talking about how you were denied a day off for your anniversary even though you put in your request several weeks in advance."
Billy winced. So much for it being confidential. That kind of information shouldn't be allowed to spread. It was a breach of privacy. It didn't take a genius to know who spread it since there had only been a few people involved in the process. The manager immediately came to mind, but he had no proof, so he couldn't accuse him of sharing private information.
"Anyway, do you still want to leave early to get some things for your wife?" she suddenly asked.
He blinked. "Of course. I want to get her a couple things to celebrate our six year anniversary."
"I still can't believe you've been married for so long," she mumbled. "You're only twenty two."
Ignoring her mutterings, he asked, "Why do you ask? You wouldn't be bringing it up for no reason."
She scowled as she crossed her arm and said, "Well, I think I can help cover you so you can leave early to be with your wife."
His eyes widened as he asked, "Are you serious?"
Jacqueline raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't bring it up if I wasn't. Well, do you want me too?"
"Won't you get in trouble?" he asked with a serious expression.
Billy couldn't imagine it would end well for the both of them if it got out that he left work early while Jacqueline covered him. They could both lose their jobs, which was something he wouldn't allow. Jacqueline didn't deserve to lose her job trying to help him out, and he didn't want to disappoint the family by losing the job.
"It's fine. I already have a plan," she said as she pointed at herself with a thumb. "You have nothing to worry about."
"You seem to have everything under control," he said. "Did you maybe plan this ahead of time?"
She looked away and muttered something, but he couldn't hear it. He was tempted to push her for an answer when he heard their number being called. Jacqueline immediately took the opportunity to grab the receipt with the order number on it and rush to the counter. Billy followed after at a slower pace and reached the counter just as she tried to grab everything.
"Here, let me," he said as he grabbed two boxes of coffee, leaving her with only one.
Jacqueline gave him a disgruntled expression. However, she didn't push him to hand one over to her. She seemed to understand that she couldn't carry more than one box at a time. Instead, she followed Billy as they walked out of the cafe to head back to the company.
After several moments, Jacqueline asked, "So what do you think? Should I tell them that something happened and they couldn't stay?"
He was still hesitant to take her offer, but he really wanted to spend time with his wife. Lately, they haven't been able to spend time together. Their schedules just didn't synch up, which frustrated him immensely. After fighting with himself, he finally came to a decision.
"If you're sure nothing bad is going to happen, then I'll gladly accept your help," he said as they stood in front of the company building.
She nodded. "Okay. Follow my lead."
Allowing her to go first, he followed her as they returned back to their section. As soon as they made their appearance, the manager swooped in like a bat, even though he should be doing his job. Billy grimaced as the manager made a show of taking the box of coffee from her.
"You shouldn't strain yourself. Let me take it from you," he said as he reached out to grab the box from her.
Jacqueline shifted the box away from him as she said, "I'm good. You must be really busy, so I can't take too much of your time."
"It's fine. I'm not busy right now," the manager said as he got into her personal space.
Billy had expected her to say something or put up more of a fight. What he didn't expect was for her to smile and shove the box of coffee in the manager's direction. Not expecting the action, the manager stumbled while holding the box. Luckily, he didn't drop it and spill the contents everywhere, but it was a close call.
"Thank you," Jacqueline said, dusting off her hand. "I have a lot of things to do, so please take care of them. Oh, and take the coffee from Billy. He has a lot of things he needs to do."
Bewildered, everyone stared at the duo in confusion as the manager voiced what everyone was thinking. "What are you talking about?"
"Billy was assigned a job to do, so he won't be in the office all day. In fact, he needs to get going right now, or else he'll be late. Let me take those from you," Jacqueline said as she reached out for the boxes.
Going along with what she had planned, he gave her the boxes. She grimaced as she struggled to balance the coffee so none of it would spill. Immediately, several men raced to help her. Billy took a step back to watch the scene as the coffee was quickly taken from her.
Once she finished the coffee, she turned her attention to Billy and said, "What are you doing? Get going already unless you want to get in trouble."
Silently thanking her for the cover, he said, "Right. See you later."
As he turned to leave, he briefly caught the ugly expression on the manager's face. He looked like a wrinkled tomato from just how angry he was. Billy made sure to get out of there before the manager started screaming after him. Once he retrieved his things, he was out the door with thoughts on what to get his lovely wife.
He needed something to make up for how much he was neglecting her. It needed to be something amazing. That's when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. Retracing his steps, he stared into the story as his eyes focused on a certain item. He had just found what he should give his wife.
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Rise of the Desperate: Billy Wood's Save and Restart System Chapter 10: Heading Out Together
Billy's first instinct was to tell her no. She shouldn't get involved. in his problems. It wasn't any of her business, but that wasn't the case anymore. He had brought her into his affairs the moment he told her everything. That was the plan, after all. The hangup was only because he was used to refusing to let other people get involved in his issues."It's good to have you," he said with a nod.Jacqueline squinted at him as she said, "I would have thought you would tell me not to get involved.""If that was the plan, I wouldn't have told you anything," he dryly said."That makes sense, so what now? Do you have a plan?" she asked as she crossed her arms."With the zombie apocalypse happening not long from now, we need to prepare ourselves. Everything I own is back at my house, so I need to go get them," he said as he started walking again.She followed after him and asked, "Are you sure you can't get them later? I don't mean to be disrespectful, but what do you have that is so importa
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- Rise of the Desperate: Billy Wood's Save and Restart System
Author's Note
Hello everyone. I just want to thank all my readers who have been following along because it sure has been a doozy. Also, there are several things that I want to let you know.Billy's story has ended, and I'll have to admit that I didn't think it would end so soon. I had a lot of things planned, but after some careful consideration, I ultimately decided to end it early.Just like with Rise of the Demon King: Caleb Gonzales's Rat Race, I might do a rewrite or remake of it.If I do go through with this idea, then I'll just immediately go to eBook and paperback, and it would be very different from the one here. We will have to see, and I'll let everyone know.For now, I'll be focusing on finishing Johnny's story in Rise of the Commoner: Johnny Burns's The Lost Heir, which can be found here: https://www.meganovel.com/story/Rise-of-the-Commoner-Johnny-Burns-s-The-Lost-Heir_31000695378 .It's also going to be ending early. I'm not sure by how much. It might even be shorter than this one. We'
- Rise of the Desperate: Billy Wood's Save and Restart System
Chapter 117: Conditions
After hearing what the woman had to say, Billy released her. She took the chance to elbow him in the face, making his nose bleed, before putting some distance between them. There was a dark look on her face. He scowled, but he didn't retaliate for it. Instead, he went over everything he had learned from her. It had been a lot, and that had only been the surface."Well, what are you going to do now?" she asked."Well, I'll be accepting that proposal of yours," he said as he stood up and brushed the front of his pants.The woman huffed. "See. I told you. I don't know why you insisted on picking a fight when there was no need to fight.""However, I have some conditions," he said.She stared at him in disbelief before blurting out, "What?""You heard me. I won't accept your proposal without my own terms," he said."You can't be serious. You can't just add your own terms. You're already lucky enough to be spared in the first place," she said."It's not like you wanted to. You're only doing
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Chapter 116: The Truth
"Hold it," Billy said as he held up a hand."Yes?" she asked."Why are you doing this? Why are you preparing to unleash a zombie apocalypse?" he asked."Why?" She took a moment to consider his question before saying, "It's for entertainment."Billy felt the veins in his head bulge from sheer anger. "What?""All of this is meant for entertainment for our followers. Unforunately, we've been having issues making it work, hence the number of tests we performed," she said."Followers? What are you talking about? Are you saying this is a game?" he demanded."A game? No. I guess you can view it as a game, but it isn't. You don't really need to know the details since you don't have the clearance for that information," she said.He gritted his teeth. "Then what can you tell me?""As stated before, we were running tests when we noticed some things were not progressing properly. One of them happened to be you," she said as she poin
- Rise of the Desperate: Billy Wood's Save and Restart System
Chapter 115: Death(?)
Billy coughed up blood as he struggled against the giant zombie's grip. He could hear the others screaming as they fought off the other zombies that surrounded them down below. Unfortunately, he was in no condition to help them as he fought to stay alive. Billy couldn't believe how quickly things had gone horribly wrong.One moment, they were trying to stealthily sneak away. Then the next day, the giant zombie was rushing towards them like a maniac. They had tried to run away when they realized the giant zombie was coming for them, but it easily outpaced them. Whether it was because of its long legs or because it was simply faster than them, it easily caught up to them in no time.If Billy hadn't shoved Jacqueline away, she would have turned into paste beneath the giant zombie's foot. However, the force from its mere step had knocked everyone off their feet, giving the giant zombie time to grab him. The giant zombie's grip tightened, and he could feel his bomes creak i
- Rise of the Desperate: Billy Wood's Save and Restart System
Chapter 114: Moving On
A sound caught everyone's attention, and all eyes turned to the doorway. They didn't see anyone or anything, but after what they had seen from the system, none of them were calm. The tied up woman was even more frantic to get out of the ropes. Unfortunately for her, they held fast, keeping her from getting away. Billy vaguely wondered why she didn't use her power."We're going," Billy declared."Wait," the woman wailed. "Don't leave me."Billy didn't give her a second glance as he walked away from her. He didn't want to stick around to see if the noise was actually something to be worried about. Jacqueline's gaze shifted between the two of them. She clearly didn't want to leave the woman behind, but she could also tell that Billy wasn't going to do that. Then the last person any of them expected to protest spoke up."I think we should let her go," Joshua said.Everyone turned to him as Billy said, "What?""We should let her go," Joshua said.
- Rise of the Desperate: Billy Wood's Save and Restart System
Chapter 113: New Feature
"Are you kidding me?" the tied up woman shrieked, voicing what was on everyone's minds.What was the system thinking? This was basically telling everyone to die. Billy had no clue how many awakened there were, but their group had three awakened, if he still counted as one. That meant the zombies would receive a boost three times greater than if none of them were awakened, and what did they mean by boost? It was so vague that it could mean anything.Were the zombies stronger, faster, smarter, or what? It was impossible for anyone to counteract it without more information, which the system didn't seem to care to give. Billy could feel everyone's gaze on him, as if looking to him for answers that he didn't have. He could understand why Jacqueline and Joshua were doing that, but why was the tied up woman also looking at him?If anything, he should be the last person she should be looking to, considering how he had just threatened her. Well, he supposed that there we
- Rise of the Desperate: Billy Wood's Save and Restart System
Chapter 112: Interrogating the Prisoner (2)
Billy studied the woman's face as the others stared dabsmacked with their jaws hanging. He was just as shocked as they were, but he was better at keeping it off his face. Out of all the things he expected her to say, he didn't expect the woman to tell him that things had gotten off the rails for everyone who had gotten a system and power."Are you really telling the truth?" Billy asked.The woman frantically nodded her head. "Yes, I am. You've got to believe me. I have no reason to lie. When I realized that I could hide from everyone, a screen appeared in front of me, telling me I was one of the awakened."Something had seriously changed this time. In previous lives, no one could receive their power until after their first wave was over. He wasn't sure what had made such a huge difference, but that meant the system had no right to take his power away from him. If anyone could get their power before the first wave ended, he shouldn't have his power removed.<
- Rise of the Desperate: Billy Wood's Save and Restart System
Chapter 111: Interrogating the Prisoner (1)
"Billy?" Jacqueline called out.Billy frowned as he recalled telling her to stay quiet and out of sight until he said the coast was clear. She must have heard his knocking out the woman and got worried, but that didn't change how dumb it was. Jacqueline was basically announcing her presence to whoever was nearby. If he had been the one who had been taken out, she would have been in trouble.Even now, it wasn't a guarantee that they were in the clear just yet. He remained silent as he dragged the unconscious woman away while keeping an eye on his surroundings. After dragging her into another part of the house, he found some rope to tie her up with and searched her for anything valuable. Unfortunately, she didn't have anything on her except for a knife.He narrowed his eyes. It didn't make sense for someone to only go around with a tiny knife. Just imagining someone trying to fight a bunch of zombies with it was ridiculous. Even against another person was a joke.
- Rise of the Desperate: Billy Wood's Save and Restart System
Chapter 110: Escaping the Zombies
Billy stared as his mind whirled with indecision. A morally good person would run back to save them because that was the right thing to do. Leaving a woman who was someone close to him and two children to the zombies would be a monsterous thing to do. On the other hand, a realistic person or someone with self preservation would immediately leave them behind.Honestly, if it wasn't for Jacqueline, he would have hightailed out of there without even looking back. However, this was Jacqueline. If he left, he didn't think she would follow him. As she was now, she wouldn't abandon the kid to save herself. She would die. There would be no second chance for her since this was his only life left. On the flip side, because it was his only life, he had to be even more careful."Billy!" Jacqueline screamed again as she knocked another zombie away.He gritted his teeth and made his choice. Billy rushed over and grabbed Jacqueline's arm before shoving her away. She stumbled b
