Rise of the Feline Society Chapter 8 - Restoring Energy
After dealing with the Felix problem, he still had a current problem that he had to deal with and that was he was hungry. He couldn't feel it much before but now he could. He had stomach pains, and they were bad. In the middle of walking to the cafeteria he had a stomach pain that hurt so bad that it caused him to immediately lurch over slamming his hand against the wall to prevent himself from falling to the ground.
"Ow," William whimpered as he bared through the pain.
About thirty seconds later the pain disappeared like it was never there in the first place.
That was unnecessary William thought. I have to go by something before it happens again at a bad time.
He started jogging toward the cafeteria worried about feeling the hunger pain again. William eventually got to the cafeteria and it was packed as usual. High Schoolers sitting in their various groups eating their lunch like normal. Usually, William would go sit next to Jack with a packed lunch because the school lunch was too expensive. Today though was different. Today he didn't pack his lunch because of the incident the night prior, and he had money now. Money he really didn't want to spend on a school lunch.
His cafeteria operated like a fast-food place since his school was big. You go order and then wait for your name to be called. That was the main reason why lunch was an hour long instead of thirty minutes. His school had at least 5,000 kids eating lunch at once.
William walked up and got in line waiting nervously as he was slowly getting closer to the counter. He currently had ten $100 bills in his pocket. He was sure that the school staff was going to give him a look when he pulled out a single $100 bill.
I'm just going to say this was from my mom and it's supposed to last for two weeks. Yeah, William thought trying to calm himself down before another thought entered his mind. He opened the system to confirm what he was thinking.
"Consuming only meat will restore it. Consuming seafood will buff your speed by 10%." The system was reading with him as he read the information.
So, I need meat…but how much? This was the question that William was thinking. I definitely can't order any seafood here and that is much more expensive than regular meat even with the claimed 10% boost in speed. I'll just order a normal amount of chicken tenders that they have and see how much energy I recover.
William reached the front of the line and went to the #12 register. When he got there the cafeteria lady looked at him.
"I don't think I've seen you here before," she said. "What do you want."
William took a deep breath before speaking, "I just want some chicken tenders please."
"How many?" She asked.
"The normal amount that you serve," William said nervously.
She rolled her eyes before speaking. "5 for $6.50."
William reached into his pocket careful to only pull out one of the $100 bills handing it to her. She looked at it surprised that she was handed a $100 bill.
"It's supposed to last for two weeks," William quickly said.
The cafeteria lady brushed it off as she handed him back $93.50 in change back. "I'm glad you're weren't the first one here or we wouldn't have change for you." She said with a smile as she handed William his receipt with the number 184 on it.
William went and stood on the side where everybody else was. About three minutes later his number was called.
"One Hundred and eighty-four!" A different cafeteria lady shouted.
William quickly went up grabbing his food and went to go and sit next to Jack.
"Energy: 16 of 100," The robotic male voice of the system reminded him.
William found Jack at his usual spot along with his two sisters who liked to hang out with their big brother. Miranda who was a Junior had her own friends that she ate lunch with. His younger twin Sophie was in the same year as him just in a different class. His youngest sister Lily was a freshman but she liked to hang out with her older brother during lunch.
William sat down with just his five chicken tenders.
"You bought food," Lily said with a pout. I never could buy food.
"Where did you get the money to buy food?" Sophie questioned.
William paused for a moment before answering. "A friend that owed me a favor."
Sophie's eye raised slightly as she swept her hair to the side. "And what would that be, Will?"
"Felix," William blurted without even thinking about it.
"The Junior with the nice clothes?" Jack asked.
"Yes."
"Well," Jack said. "I guess if you have money, you can make dumb bets."
Sophie didn't know who Felix was but based on how Jack didn't seem too surprised she brushed it off.
William took a bite of the chicken tender and that's when what felt like an instinct took over. Something that felt natural and unnatural at the same time. Something that seemed to take a hold of his body and in no time all five of his chicken tenders were gone.
Jack, Sophie, and Lily all stared at William with their mouths wide open like he had just killed somebody.
"How in the world did you devour that so fast," Jack blurted out.
William looked at them for a moment before looking down at his plate. There was nothing on the plate. There were barely any crumbs.
"Meat has been consumed. You have gained 20 energy. Energy 36 of 100."
Only 20 energy gained! William was very annoyed that only five chicken tenders gave him 20 energy. His journey from now on was going to be expensive. If he wished to fully restore his energy he would have to eat around sixteen more which would cost him $20.80. If he could stretch his energy reserve he'll have to spend $32.50 for every 25 chicken tenders every 20 hours. William guessed that doing anything physical would drain his energy faster and since he was going to be in a gang he would get injured and that costed energy. William started to get depressed that the money he had now couldn't be used to help his family and had to be used for his own survival. He snapped back to reality noticing that his friend and his two sisters was staring at him in shock.
"What you mean?" William asked acting like it was no big deal. "I could always eat this fast I just don't do it often. I'm still hungry."
William left the table to go back in line before the three could say anything more. He stood in line repeating the same process except he used the rest of his money to get 71 chicken tenders for $92.30 leaving him with $1.20 in change. He now had $901.30 left of his transporter money. When William got his two bags of chicken tenders after getting multiple eyebrow raises from the cafeteria ladies, he immediately devoured 16 of the chicken tenders fully restoring his energy reserves.
"Meat has been consumed. You have gained 64 energy. Energy 100 of 100."
William took a deep breath satisfied that his energy was back up. He didn't know where the food was going but he didn't feel bloated or anything. He dismissed it as a byproduct of the technological aspect of his new power. He now had 55 chicken tenders left. Now he had a supply of food that can help make sure that his energy doesn't hit zero. He had no intention in finding out what could happen if he got to that point. He had to come to terms that most likely the money that he had received was going to have to go to his food supply for now.
Well, William was thinking. I don't want my two sisters two find out that I'm spending money so freely like this especially with some of the Carter family bills on the line. So, he decided to go back to the classroom hiding his food in his backpack as he waited for the lunch period to end.
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