“It stinks.” I muttered.

  I was back in my world, and standing in front of me were the still-smoldering ashes of a fire I had set the day before. It had been set for a single purpose, and that was to destroy all evidence of the mutated beast I had brought back from the apocalyptic world. There were many things about bringing such a creature over than had terrified me, but now that there was nothing but a pile of ash I felt a bit better about that impulsive decision.

  “There are no signs of contamination,” Cecelia assured me.

  I sighed and then kicked the ashes. That’s when I noticed something shiny in the ashes. I put on a glove, and then dug in them for a moment until I found a rather rge crystal. This one was the rgest crystal I had ever seen. Although crystals differed based on the mutant killed, they usually fell into three csses. There were small crystals, rge crystals, and great crystals. This one fell into the great category. It was one hundred rge for a great crystal.

  I couldn’t help but make a bitter expression. “I wouldn’t need to be doing that quest had I known I had this.”

  All of the pain I had been feeling the st twenty-four hours as I walked around with no crystals had been meaningless. If I had just been patient or thought to dig through the abomination after I killed it, all of that stress and worry would have been for nothing. I felt foolish.

  “We can go back now.” Cecelia offered.

  “No…” I shook my head. “I might as well do his task. There were other reasons beyond the crystals. Besides, he’s already paid me some, and I just spent half of it.”

  The mere act of World Travel wasn’t free. Crystals acted not just as a source of money, but as a source of energy, and World Travel could be considered a type of magic that used a lot of energy. Every trip used a handful of crystals, and that was assuming I wasn’t carrying anything else with me. That trip with the abomination had cost me around five rge crystals, which turned to dust just like that.

  In the past, I had used magic without much thought. I left the crystals in my inventory where the Perco automatically pulled from them without my input. It wasn’t until I started running low that I realized just how vital they could be. This world ran on crystals in one way or another, and without them, I could throw away my idea of creating a mercantile empire.

  I tossed the great crystal into my inventory and then changed into my regur street clothes. After jumping back and forth between worlds so many times, I had started to turn it into a routine. I didn’t want to wander around in a way that looked suspicious in either world, so I had put out clothing that I used in that world, and clothing that I used in this world. Of course, I did the changing in this world, where I considered the environment rather secure and safe.

  Once I was in my normal clothing, I set out and left my factory. As I did so, I had Cecelia scrap through any messages. I had only been gone a single day since I had st transferred. As much as I had traveled across the wastend, returning to my own home whenever I wanted causing it to feel like I hadn’t gone anywhere.

  “You’ve received another call from your Mother,” Cecelia decred.

  “That can wait for some other time.” I coughed.

  “You’re the one who demanded that I not keep messages from you.”

  “I understand! I have no compint. Just keep going.” I edged her on, not wanting to argue about insignificant things.

  “There is one message that sounds important.” She decred.

  “Oh?”

  “It’s a single text. It was sent by Lily. All she wrote was ‘We need to talk.’”

  I frowned slightly at those words. It could just be Lily speaking with a business tone, or it could be something that meant more. The st time I had seen her was when she had dumped that apartment on me. Well, I had willingly signed the lease. My only regret was that I had such a nice pce and I hadn’t even been able to stay a single night in it. I was sleeping in an apocalyptic hellhole when such a posh location was avaible for me.

  “Schedule something with Lily,” I responded.

  “Why do I feel like I’ve become your secretary or something…” Cecelia grumbled.

  Isn’t she?

  Cecelia was an artificial intelligence designed to facilitate human beings interfacing with machines. Wasn’t that a secretary? I wisely decided not to say such words to her though. Despite being an AI, Cecelia could be shockingly sensitive sometimes.

  “Lily says she is avaible now,” Cecelia responded.

  “Now?” I stopped in my tracks. “It’s like 10 at night!”

  “Should I tell her no?” Cecelia asked.

  I shook my head as I thought about it more. Businesses had no bedtime. I was still thinking like a kid. Being out at 10 pm probably wasn’t that strange for people Lily’s age. Didn’t that make this feel like a date?

  I swallowed hard and quickly answered Cecelia. “No, I’ll meet her. Schedule the location and get me a car share.”

  Cecelia let out a long sigh, but I knew she’d do what I instructed. She didn’t have a choice. She was affected by the Master code, so she could only follow my commands. It was the only reason I trusted her in my world with the internet. Otherwise, I’d fear she’d go rogue and turn into some world-ending artificial intelligence.

  I waited on the street until the car share arrived, thinking once again that it’d be nice if I had a car to call my own, but first I needed to know how to drive it. Maybe I could just hire a driver. I heard those rich people hired personal drivers. Rather than getting rides from random people in their smelly cars, I could buy a car and pay someone to chauffeur me around at my leisure. If I was going to be a big businessman, maybe it was time I started thinking like one. First, I needed to make sure I had a stable level of income.

  I checked the Perco to keep track of the time. It was nice that the time in both words was the same. It got darker a little earlier there because of the sky pollution, but the two pces were otherwise the same. The car ride was pretty quick, and we were soon pulling up in front of a pce with neon lights. When I got out, I could hear the thrumming of music and realized that it was some kind of club.

  As I got out of the car, I was gd that I had a forged license that had my age at 21. Caleb had done something useful for me. Did Lily forget was younger, or was this some kind of test? I was worried the bouncer would be giving me trouble, but as soon as I approached, he unclipped the velvet rope and gave me a nod to continue. I didn’t ask questions and walked right into the dark, loud room.

  The pce wasn’t particurly crowded, but that was probably because it was the middle of the week. I looked around absently until I heard someone calling out.

  “Daniel, I’m over here!” I turned and then froze for a moment.

  The woman sitting at one of the tables was naturally Lily, but it was a Lily I had never seen before. I had seen her in her business attire a few times. When I had gone to her apartment, I had seen her in more rexed attire. This time, I was seeing her dressed up to go out casually. It was a completely different look than the other two times. Her hair was done up in a sexy and exotic way, as was her makeup. Her eyeshes looked extremely long, and her lips were full and red. Her dress was short, making her long legs even more exaggerated, and her breasts nearly popped out of the top of her dress. It was an extremely alluring look.

  I realized as I was heading toward her that I was getting hostile looks from other men. It appeared like she was the desire and goal of many of the men that night, yet she had ended up calling me over while waving with a smile on her face. I was just a seventeen-year-old boy, and I hadn’t dressed up nice at all. I was wearing a shirt and jeans that were not at all appropriate for the atmosphere. I could already see the thoughts running through all of those angry guys’ minds. Who is this little punk who has the attention of our goddess?

  I didn’t let any of that show on my face and did my best to walk toward her without needing to slouch or trip over my own two feet. I cleared my throat when I finally stopped at the table across from her.

  “You…” I cleared my throat. “You look good.”

  Her smile grew. “Come, sit down and stay awhile.” She patted right next to her.

  Where she was sitting and where she patted for me to sit left no room. If I sat there, I’d be right next to her, and I’d have to be pressed against her. However, if I chose to sit on the other side and put distance away from her, I might insult her. It looked like I had to go all in.

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