My eyes fluttered open slowly, with my dark apartment leaving much to be seen. The moonlight from the windows was the only source of light since I hadn't turned the lights on before I went on with the return.
Pushing myself up, I got up carefully so as to not agitate my already sore body. I was starving, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't maintain rational thinking. The moment I got to the switch for the lights, I flicked them on and moved over to the kitchen area.
'Please...'
I opened the fridge, hopeful that at least I had something quick to eat. There was actually some food I wasn't expecting — a container with leftover pizza that didn't seem too old, and since I didn't really have a good understanding of everything in this new home of mine, I decided to risk it. Scouring through the cabinets, I found the plates and put two slices of pepperoni (or what looked like it) in the microwave to heat up.
As the microwave was set for 50 seconds, I moved my attention briefly to my status to see if anything had changed other than what was obvious.
[Eiren Solis]
- Age: 21 -
- Mana Realm: Middle Vein Opening -
- Body Realm: Entry Marrow Awakening -
- Inheritance: Four Supremes (Divine-Grade)
- Disciples: "Meiomi Nightingale" -
- Loves: N/A -
[...]
'A jump in Mana Realm and Body Realm?' I nodded, as it made sense because I did just go through a literal evolution thanks to the inheritance. It was strange that I didn't see what I received in the main status, but with a mere thought, the panel changed to the inheritance tab where everything was listed. Nothing new was in the inheritance tab, so I closed it and came back at the right time to claim my pizza.
Beep~ Beep~ Beep~
Opening the microwave, I grabbed the ceramic plate with a bottled water out of the fridge, taking it to the couch. The dried blood on the floor made me second-guess eating the slices of pizza, but with nothing else immediately ready, I just ignored it.
'I need to clean that after I finish eating.'
To keep the dried stains out of my sight, I grabbed my phone to just aimlessly scroll and eat. However, my aimless intentions soon vanished as I read the notifications from two people who texted me while I was busy.
[291****942: Hey! This is Elena, make sure to properly add my contact!]
I hearted her text and changed her plain number to a proper contact with her name.
[Me: Done! 👍]
Then, under her text was little Meiomi's.
[291****498: Big brother Ren, um... I fell asleep and now I know lots of things! Is this normal?]
'Pfft~'
Meiomi's reaction was just too funny. I was 99% positive that the inheritance of the ring fused with her while she fell asleep. I gave her a proper contact, then responded to reassure her.
[Me: It's from the ring I gave you. No need to worry, lil sis!]
After finishing that up, I went through my banking app to check my balance. My credit balance was perfectly paid off. My debit card's balance was $210,920 — as for where this came from? I don't think I need to say I had no clue.
'I wonder if money counts as an investment?'
I bought the things earlier for Meiomi, but I didn't get a return prompt for it. If I couldn't invest money, then it was fine, but I would rather figure it out so I knew if I needed to find a proper income source or not.
[Money does count, but it must reach a certain threshold within a 24-hour period.]
'Really?! How much do I need to invest?'
[A small sum of five million.]
'...'
I opened the browser on my phone and searched up jobs in my area—
Okay, not really. I already knew one job I could do thanks to my knowledge of the current era. There were people called adventurers, with groups called guilds that took on a variety of jobs. There were guilds for research and development, guilds for alchemy and medicine, world exploration or dungeon exploration, etc. If one could think of it, then there was a guild for it.
I didn't know any current guilds or the current rules for adventuring, but the knowledge from my newbie gift made sure I knew the concept existed. Well, I actually did know older guilds — ones from history — so if those still existed, then I guess I knew a few. But regardless, I didn't know them all, nor did I know the specific rules for adventurers.
This world was extremely vast, with even more realms upon realms. Adventuring was the only job I knew of that would help me explore this vastness — the very thing I wanted to do in this new, albeit very random, life of mine. Really, I just wanted to live life to the fullest, and staying in one city my whole life wasn't the way to go about it.
Ding~!
The sudden sound from my phone caught my attention.
'Hm?'
[Elena: Ren, want to come do me a favor?]
The time on my phone read 9:32 p.m. My brain couldn't help but wonder what favor she needed help with at such a weird time at night. Letting my curiosity take over, I responded instantly.
[Me: A favor?]
[Elena:...]
[Elena:_]
'Is it that strange of a favor?' The text bubble appeared and disappeared multiple times. This actually kept going on for two whole minutes before I got a response!
[Elena: I am kind of being harassed, and my friends aren't really catching the hint, so I need a fake boyfriend!]
[Me: Couldn't I just be your family member or something? Not that I mind playing fake boyfriend, but I'm just curious.]
[Elena: No, it won't work! I've already tried that with my actual cousin, but this guy just won't back off.]
[Me: The situation's that bad?]
[Elena: It makes me want to puke! 🤮]
"Pfft!" I spat out the little bit of crust of my last slice of pizza. Her use of the emoji there was too funny. Even just meeting her, I could picture her doing some dramatic reaction while typing it out.
[Me: Sure, I don't mind helping out, but I would like to ask a favor myself.]
[Elena: Shoot!]
[Me: Meiomi.Contact*, this girl is like my little sister. She lives on the fourth floor of our complex. It would be nice if you could act like an older sister for her. She definitely needs a woman figure in her life.]
[Elena: Woah... 😲]
[Me: What? 🤨]
[Elena: I thought you were going to ask for my number or something!]
[Me: ...I hate to break it to you, but I already secured it!]
[Elena: W-What?! Impossible!]
My eyes twitched reading her reaction. Of course, she was joking, but I didn't really understand where it was coming from. Rather, the joke itself just seemed so random.
[Elena: Well, you obviously didn't catch on there. But, sure! I don't mind helping you with this!]
[Me: Thank you! When do I need to help you?]
[Elena: We are going to the movies in like an hour, so within the hour.]
[Me: I'll meet you in the lobby then in 45 minutes. 👍]
[Elena: 😉]
I put my phone down to go shower and clean the sweat and faint stench coming off me. My eyes caught the dried blood stains, making me remember to clean them first. If I let them stay any longer, they might actually become permanent stains, which wouldn't be good.
Putting my plate in the sink and searching the cabinets below, Elena's joke came back to mind. I was still thinking about it, slowly piecing it together, when I had a pretty good idea of what she was trying to imply.
'She definitely thought I was going to ask something sexual!'
My face flushed a bit at the thought. As a man, my body definitely wouldn't reject it, but I wouldn't fold! Unless I saw a long-term relationship, then I wouldn't pursue — this was my vow! Flimsy relationships just brought too many problems that I didn't want to ever deal with again.