《The Chosen》 Chosen Chapter 1 Waking up, my dreams are already escaping my mind''s grasp. I keep my eyes shut in hopes of holding onto them a moment longer. Feeling warmth nestled against my side, I roll to my left trying to keep my arm relaxed. ¡°Good morning, Mia,¡± I say, as I feel her head stir against my left arm. Having obviously woken her up I wrap my other arm around her letting my hand rest on her chest and my other nestles between her legs pulling her closer against me. She lets out a soft breath as I give her a gentle squeeze. I rub my hand across her chest and abdomen occasionally feeling one of her small nipples glance against the palm of my hand. I lean forward and give her a kiss on the back of her head before opening my eyes. ¡°What the fuck!¡± I snap my head back jolting Mia fully awake, I feel her lick my arm a couple of times and then her cold nose as she buries her face in the crook of my elbow. I see her brown and white fur in my peripheral vision as she disappears under the covers. All the while this... thing, is right in my face no matter where I look.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have been chosen! Once every fifty years, five mortals are chosen to receive a gift. This gift is unique to each individual. The purpose of these gifts is to, shakeup, the status quo within both magical and non-magical society as a whole. Those chosen are picked at random, the only prerequisite is that they be, for lack of a better word, loners so as to keep them from being introduced to society at to early a stage in their development.
After several seconds of confusion, I start to actually read it, which only results in even more confusion. As if it can tell I¡¯d finished reading, another pops up.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have been gifted the ¡°Game Character¡± subspecies. This allows you to access game style menus including, but not limited to, a personalized status menu. This menu provides a numerical overview of your physical and mental profile. Being a Game Character gives you the ability to grow beyond the limitations of a normal human being. As the first of your kind, you gain the Limitless Perk Limitless Perk Your potential is without limit Most people have a certain potential or affinity for certain skills and as their skills level it becomes progressively harder to increase them until they reach the limits of their potential You are no longer constrained by affinity At lower levels, skills will come to you with ease As you progress they will still become more difficult to level However, your skill caps will no longer be controlled by your potential but by the work you are willing to put into them Some unique skills may still take more work to level than others
My heart and mind, both, race as I fight between confusion and excitement trying to figure out what this means. What it is saying is fairly obvious, but wrapping my head around it is proving difficult. ¡°So. What... I¡¯m in some sort of game world? Or the world has always been some sort of game and I¡¯m just now finding out about it?
Mmm, sort of? I mean in a way yeah you could look at it like that. The universe is an incredibly complex and supremely advanced game and up until now everyone in it, aside from the creators, of course, were NPCs. And you, you have become the first real ¡°Player¡± in this game called life. Of course, there were others before you that realized this was all a game and like many ¡°gamers¡± they decided to be douchebags and ruin the game for everyone else. Throw everything into chaos for their own personal gain or simply because they like to watch things burn. It is a nice narrative, although not wholly accurate, It is, however, a good analogy, I think, in your situation. I suppose now you simply need to decide, what kind of ¡°gamer¡± will you be?
¡°Uhh, who exactly am I talking to and how the hell are you talking to me through these¡­ game messages? Yeah, game messages. How are you talking to me through these?¡±
Huh? Oh, right. Here this should make things easier. Friend Request Received! Bob has sent you a Friend Request!
Accept
Decline
¡°Hmm, not sure how that is gonna make things easier. Plus, I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll be receiving any more friend requests, but it could get pretty annoying pretty fast if they just pop up like that all the time. And what the hell is up with his name, Bob? Really?¡± After a moment''s contemplation, I try to click ¡°Accept¡± but it disappears before my hand even gets half way and another message box pops up. It seems to have registered my intent, so I don¡¯t actually have to touch it.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Friend Request Accepted! Incoming PM from Bob! . . . Bob: There now we can chat directly :D Bob: As for the whole friend request thing, think ¡°Main Menu¡± then go to HUD and you can make all your ¡°Game Messages¡± appear in different little notification icons on your HUD. Important messages will be highlighted and have an exclamation mark appear, as is usual regular ones will just have a number indicating how many messages you have Jared: uh okay I¡¯ll do that now Jared: I¡¯ve got a little planet icon showing that I have several notifications Bob: Oh, right, you seemed like you needed a minute to process so I held back your incoming notifications... Jared: And your solution was to start talking to me through said notification box¡¯s? Bob: Well yeah, when someone starts talking to themselves you generally walk away quietly or start a conversation, right? You seemed to be having your own little philosophical debate so I figured I¡¯d make it a little less sad and join you. Jared: . . . Thanks, I guess? Bob: np, np, so are you gonna check out your status menu? Jared: uhh yeah.
I quickly thought Status and received another popup.
Name: Jared Thorne Species: Human (Game Character)
Occupation: None Class: None
Level: 6 Experience: 5456/8100
Vitality: 80 Stamina: 60
Age: 22 Money: 937.24 USD (Equivalent*)
Weight: 198 Lbs Height: 5ft 8in
Attribute Points: 55 Constitution: 8
Strength: 8 Endurance: 6
Intellect: 10 Wisdom: 11
Willpower: 8 Charisma: 8
Dexterity: 8 Agility: 7
Luck: -2 Perception: 9
That is kinda disappointing, although not entirely surprising, to be honest. I¡¯m not exactly in the best shape, I look down and pat my belly through the covers feeling the slight jiggle. I¡¯m assuming, of course, that the average attributes for humans would be 10 except maybe in luck. Speaking of luck why the hell is my luck in the negative. I wouldn¡¯t normally consider myself lucky, but I wouldn¡¯t have thought myself terribly unlucky either.
Bob: oh yeah, you should check those notifications they may affect your stats. Oh, and you can change your Private Messaging to telepathic so that we can talk continuously without having these notifications constantly popping up.
I hesitate a moment, not sure I want this guy in my head before I realize that he can probably read my mind seeing as he knew how I was ¡°processing¡± all of this. Plus the notifications seem to be connected to my thoughts and he is connected to those soooo it seems like a reasonable conclusion. I think I am overthinking this, yup definitely overthinking this, now I¡¯m overthinking about overthinking. Whatever, I decide to change it and then go to my notifications. The first one to pop up seems really good.
CONGRATULATIONS! A Feat of Luck has been Performed! Becoming a Chosen is one of the rarest things a mortal can achieve, as such, you have been awarded 5 Luck for your achievement. This award is doubled due to your negative Luck Status.
As I was reading I noticed I received another notification, assuming it was linked to my reward I decided to read it first.
CONGRATULATIONS! The Winner Winner Chicken Dinner Perk has been unlocked Having earned 5 or more points in luck you have gained the Winner Winner Chicken Dinner Perk Luck attribute is doubled when gambling Luck attribute gains +50% when playing games involving RNG The hidden attribute Intuition has been upgraded to the passive skill Lady Luck¡¯s Intuition Lady Luck¡¯s Intuition To most luck is a force of nature, to you, luck is a guiding hand You have an instinctive sense of the flow of chaos Your Luck attribute increases the strength of the hand that guides you and your Perception attribute increases your ability to sense its touch Luck is an ambiguous concept, most only think of it when gambling or playing games, as you level this skill and increase the relating attributes you will find it plays a role in everything you do
I¡¯m fairly startled at all that I gained from one notification, I can¡¯t help but wonder if many of my other notifications will give such boosts. ¡°Not likely, you gained so much from that because it was a ¡®feat¡¯ and because the attribute affected was in the negative making the ¡®feat¡¯ even rarer. The following notification was simply a result of said ¡®feat¡¯ the rest of your notifications are much more mundane.¡± I jump as I hear a voice in my head not my own, it takes me a moment to remember the telepathic connection between me and my new friend Bob. He proves to be right as I read through the other notifications, mostly explaining what it means to be one of the ¡°Chosen¡± and why I am already level 6 and what the levels mean. Apparently, being ¡°Chosen¡± means very little, there is nothing required of me. It¡¯s just as Bob said, we are meant to ¡°stir up the pot¡± as it were, but how we choose to do that is up to us. We can just live our lives how we see fit. It seems merely existing can cause a bit of a stir all on its own. ¡°Mm that''s mostly because we aren¡¯t allowed to interfere with your free will, we can give advice or do absolutely nothing and let you figure it all out on your own if we choose. Almost all Chosen end up influencing the world in some fashion though, it''s just what happens when you give someone power, they use it. Not always for the best I might add.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s just say that some of the Chosen are very well known even in your history books, and many of these are the most hated individuals in said history books.¡± Doing some math in my head I try to think about who he might be talking about, the first thought that comes to mind is Bin Laden, after a quick search I find that he would have only been eleven when he became a ¡°Chosen¡± so that seems unlikely. Plus I have no idea if he was considered a loner. At that thought, I remember someone else who was considered evil and who considered himself a loner when he was young. I look him up and find he would have been twenty-nine. ¡°Hitler? Hitler, was a Chosen?¡± ¡°I¡¯m afraid so, he received a gift for ritual magic, used it to make himself more¡­ Charismatic to certain ilk and less repugnant to those who would see him as such. The Swastika was the reverse rune for good energy, he used it to absorb the energy provided by the pain, hate, and anger of the people, both his own and his enemies.¡± It¡¯s scary to think I have so much in common with someone so¡­ evil. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say he was evil, though I wouldn¡¯t say anyone is truly evil. You are, all of you, who you choose to be, given the cards that are dealt to you. He chose to wallow in the racial hatred of his time and given his influence and power, combined with the people who he let influence him, he became a monster and made monsters of many others. You¡¯ll find that a nearly infinite number of people with the same start in life end up living completely different lives based on how they react to the choices given to them. You simply need to decide if you want to let others make those choices for you or if you want to choose for yourself.¡± The Casino Chapter 2 ¡°Now, enough with all this philosophical meandering, I believe you have some decisions to make.¡± Right, I go back through and finish reading the notifications, it seems I¡¯ve received the estimated experience that I would have received as a game character had it been active my entire life as well as several skills that I¡¯ll have to look through later. I look through my status again and with my new skill I decide to invest some points in luck and perception bringing them both to 12 then I bring my endurance and constitution up to 12 as well. Hopefully, that should make exercise easier and I can gain the other points more naturally saving the rest of my attribute points for later. As I accept the changes I feel a sort of euphoria wash over me for a couple of seconds as slight aches and pains, I didn¡¯t even realize I had, ease. It was almost uncomfortable as my skin sort of rippled and I could feel old scar tissue washing away and dry skin disappear. I could feel my face clearing up as my pores expel the excess oil and dirt that had built up. I took a deep breath and it was like coming up for air after being held underwater, I could feel the oxygen flooding my system, what little fatigue and grogginess I had washing away. I felt alert and present in the moment like I never had before, it was like a fog had been lifted I took another breath and my new found perception kicked in, I could smell everything, and¡­ ¡°Ugh! What the hell is that smell?¡± ¡°That is your body trying to rid itself of contaminants, you¡¯ve put a decent amount of points in your constitution which is essentially your healthfulness and physical makeup, your strength of body if you will. Normally such changes would occur slowly throughout exercise, urination, and¡­ defecation.¡± At that word I felt a rumbling in my stomach, I shot up out of bed and ran to the bathroom just outside my room. I make it to the bathroom just in time to, well, I doubt you want the details. ¡°As I was saying, this normally occurs slowly, but because you have utilized attribute points to make such a substantial increase, getting through a breakthrough, it is occurring rapidly and utilizing the magic of your new subspecies to do so. Some of the toxins are expelled through sweat, which is where most of the smell is coming from so you¡¯ll be wanting to shower after you, uh¡­ finish.¡± ¡°Please tell me it isn¡¯t going to be getting worse than this,¡± I say as, well, as my ass practically explodes into the toilet, the smells only getting worse. ¡°No, after your body has expelled most, if not all, of the toxins the rest should be much more like what you had started to feel just after accepting the changes, if a bit more subtle.¡± I spend an hour on the toilet ¡°expelling¡± toxins, I have to flush half a dozen times to keep it from clogging. Then I hop in the shower. I wash my hair and face as well as I can, getting rid of the excess oils, dirt and, the newly cleared, dry skin. I spend about half an hour cleaning the rest of my body making sure to get every nook and cranny, paying a little bit of extra attention to a certain area that''s been recently abused. Now that I am nice and clean, I get out of the shower and stretch, my muscles feeling far more relaxed and flexible. I find that I no longer feel a tightness in my forearms when I fully extend my arms to the sides and my back no longer cracks and pops when I stretch my shoulders. Now that I am less focused on my cleanliness I notice a slight tingling throughout the rest of my body. It¡¯s not quite as intense as when your foot falls asleep but the sensation is similar. As I focus on it, I notice it seems to feel a bit stronger around my left ankle where I once had a slight fracture. Best guess, the magic is working to heal my bones, I¡¯d occasionally felt a slight twinge in my ankle even after it had healed. After a moment I take another deep breath and wrinkle my nose, I no longer smell terrible but the bathroom could use a cleaning. My enhanced perception allows me to take in the room in a new light now that I was less focused on my own issues. As I look around I see hair and grime where I hadn¡¯t and I smell things my nose had adapted to ignore. I dry off, sidetracked by my newly enhanced senses. I decide to clean up a bit. I go to my room and grab my sheet, comforter and pillowcase and throw them in the washing machine. While they are in the washer I go and clean up the bathroom a bit, grabbing the towels, some dirty clothes and get them ready for the next wash. Sometime during my cleaning spree, I notice I have some notifications and decide to check those out while I work.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have discovered that your attributes are indelibly linked Your constitution is connected to all physical attributes, it is the strength and healthfulness of your body as a whole, as it increases so to do the rest of your physical attributes +1 to all physical attributes for reaching a breakthrough in constitution Bad health can have a negative impact on other attributes CONGRATULATIONS! You are no longer obese +1 to Charisma +1 to Dexterity +1 to Agility Excess fat can restrict the functionality of your body CONGRATULATIONS! +1 to Agility for a breakthrough in Dexterity Greater flexibility and muscle control allow you to move more efficiently, and therefore more quickly
As I read through the notifications I look down at myself, not having gotten dressed yet I can see my entire body and I¡¯m surprised to see a not-insignificant difference. I don¡¯t suddenly have washboard abs or anything but I do appear to have lost a decent amount of weight. My man boobs aren¡¯t gone but they are less prominent, my legs and arms are considerably more defined and as I focus I notice my heart isn¡¯t beating all that fast nor is my breathing even slightly labored despite my slight physical activity. I think ¡°Status¡± and check out the changes.
Name: Jared Thorne Species: Human (Game Character)
Occupation: None Class: None
Level: 6 Experience: 5456/8100
Vitality: 120 Stamina: 123/130
Age: 22 Money: 937.24 USD (Equivalent*)
Weight: 187 Lbs Height: 5ft 8in
Attribute points: 40 Constitution: 12
Strength: 9 Endurance: 13
Intellect: 11You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Wisdom: 11
Willpower: 8 Charisma: 10
Dexterity: 10 Agility: 10
Luck: 12 Perception: 12
I laugh, my stats look considerably less pathetic now, my wisdom, willpower, and perception didn¡¯t go up so I¡¯m guessing they aren¡¯t considered physical attributes, although Intellect did go up. Which makes sense, I suppose, a healthier brain likely leads to greater brain functionality. It seems I lost 11 pounds as well, that combined with the increased strength would explain the differences I¡¯m seeing. I quickly finish cleaning up the bathroom and put some clean clothes on before I go to switch the laundry out. I receive a notification that I have finished a weekly quest ¡°Cleaning The Bathroom¡± worth 25 experience. I need to decide what I want to do now, nothing''s really changed in the world around me. I¡¯m in better shape now, but I still don¡¯t have a job and I¡¯m still fairly lazy. I need money of course, and I suppose I should come up with some sort of exercise regimen now that I have the endurance and constitution for it. Just doing pushups and squats a couple of times a week isn¡¯t likely to get me any increases. although, I assume my increased constitution will likely allow me to continue losing weight without any extra fitness, healthy metabolism, and all that. I¡¯m guessing the 10 points in an attribute is actually the average for a healthy individual and not the average for everyone, considering my body''s reaction to getting above 10 in most of my attributes. I wonder if my body will continue to change, even if I don¡¯t increase my stats any further, so as to work towards equilibrium with my current status. ¡°Yes it will, but if you don¡¯t maintain it to an extent it is possible for some of it to revert over time. Only the truly necessary or easy changes were made, immediately, to make your body healthy. Fat around your organs was burned away toxins and excess scar tissue removed, your body was fully hydrated so that it can function at peak efficiency. Assuming you don¡¯t change anything about your lifestyle you will likely lose twice the weight you just lost in fat over the course of the next month.¡± ¡°Oh, I forgot you were there for a bit, haven¡¯t heard from you,¡± I thought back to him, ¡°are you always gonna be there in the background listening in?¡± ¡°Not likely, I may pop in from time to time, I¡¯ll let you know I¡¯m here with a Private Messaging request when I do. I suppose I¡¯ll leave you to your decision making, just a piece of advice, though, before I go. The exercise would be a good idea, you¡¯ll find that your attributes will increase faster now that you are a Game Character, but it will still take some work on your part. If you don¡¯t the fat can and likely will return given enough time. As for the money problems, you received a new skill recently you might find it useful in that respect.¡± ¡°Right, that could work, there is a casino just 20 minutes away I could give that a try, speaking of money though, how do I have 900$ and why does it say ¡®Equivalent*¡¯ next to it?¡± ¡°That is taking into account money you have on you, in your bank, and anything you have that could be exchanged with a bank for cash like checks or bonds.¡± I do the math, I have a little over 100$ on me, a couple hundred in the bank, and the bonds my grandparents bought for me when I was a baby. My status seems a bit high before I see the cup I keep change in and realize that could account for 50-80 dollars. ¡°Okay, thanks for the help. I''ll message you if I have any more questions.¡± I start to look up some exercise regimen¡­ Regimens? Regimenia?... I look up the plural of regimen. I like regimenia. So I start looking up exercise regimenia online before remembering some youtube videos I watched a few months back about 100 pushups a day and 100 squats a day challenges. I figure I could incorporate that. Do simple exercises, with high quantity, we have a pull-up bar around here somewhere. I give it a try, I am able to do about 20 push-ups before I start to feel it burn. I move to squats and push out 30. I notice that they aren¡¯t significantly easier but my form is considerably better, which means I¡¯ll likely get better gains even without the game character cheats. I go to the other room to find the pull-up bar and set it up in the doorway, I¡¯m only able to get 5 real pull-ups so I move on to lunges. I don¡¯t really keep track, I just do them till it starts to burn. 2 reps later I¡¯m fairly sweaty again. I look up some other simple exercises I can do without equipment and bookmark the ones that look interesting before taking another quick shower. Checking the laundry I put my clothes in the dryer and go back up and make my bed, well, as much as I ever do. I basically just throw the sheet on the bed and lay the comforter over top of it, I generally just end up wrapping them both around me like a burrito anyway. After changing into some new clothes I decide to visit the casino and give my new skill a try. I go outside and am blinded for a moment, the house faces the west and the sun is approaching the horizon. As my eyes adjust, surprisingly fast, I am shocked at how vibrant and detailed everything looks. I can see all these little details in the grass and the granite of the street that I never really noticed before. At first, I am in awe at how much the increase in perception has altered the world around me, like an abstract landscape transformed into a detailed work of art with even the most minute detail on display. That is until I remember seeing the world like this once before when I first got glasses back in middle school. At that thought, I reach up to check my glasses and realize I¡¯m not wearing them. I¡¯m fairly nearsighted, it''s not so bad that I usually need them on in the house, but if I¡¯m more than 5-6 feet away from something it starts to blur, at least that used to be the case, now it seems my vision has healed. I do not remember feeling any strange sensations in my eyes throughout the whole process, I¡¯m kind of surprised I did not notice the change earlier. Although I suppose I wasn¡¯t really looking at anything besides the notifications before the changes took place and I guess I just associated any changes, I did notice, to my increased perception. I wonder if my perception has actually just enhanced my eyesight to normal or if increasing my constitution healed whatever was wrong with my eyes in the first place. Seems more likely that it was the constitution boost, but that makes me wonder what it will mean to have a really high perception. Will it enhance my senses beyond human capabilities, causing actual physical changes or will it just increase how sensitive they are, allowing me to perceive changes in the world around me more easily but within human limits. After a moment of contemplation, I realize I¡¯ve just been standing in the grass staring intently at the lawn for several minutes. I look around and sigh in relief as I don¡¯t see anyone observing my little awkward moment. I chuckle at myself and get inside the truck, it''s a 2012 Ford Raptor. My dad, while far from rich, makes pretty good money, one of the few things he spends it on is cars and out of his vehicles the Raptor is the one I drive the most. I get in and back it out... and park it on the curb, I¡¯m not taking the truck to the casino. Opening the garage I smile as the 1970 Chevelle is revealed, it isn¡¯t in the best possible shape but it is still a beautiful old car. It lets out a nice grumbling growl as I start it up and back it out, I¡¯d mention the specs but I honestly don¡¯t know them. I like cars but I admire them like most people admire a beautiful piece of art. I can acknowledge and admire their beauty but I have no real idea about their makeup. My car knowledge is limited to the basics of changing the oil/oil filter, wheels, and giving someone the occasional jump. The drive to the casino is fairly quick and uneventful, I notice a few people checking out the car but beyond that, nothing much happens. I park the car away from other cars, with one side next to the curb. My dad always preached about parking away from others so as to avoid door dings. I brought about 50$ with me, I¡¯m hoping to at least triple it but would be happy to leave with what I came with. I¡¯m not entirely sure what to expect, I think I¡¯ll start with the slots, given the description of my perks I will have the best chances of winning at those. I walk in and, as usual, they card me. I¡¯ve only been here a handful of times, I still don¡¯t understand why it''s required that you be at least 21. As soon as I get past the front door I am surrounded by slot machines, walking towards one of the isles a feeling of elation begins to come over me. It is strange though, I don¡¯t really know how to describe it. It¡¯s like the feeling you get when you¡¯ve just won something, but it is almost focused in a direction. As I focus on it I feel it drawing me in several different directions, as I continue down the line of machines the sensation grows stronger in some directions and weaker in others. Following one of the stronger sensations, I come to one machine called the ¡°Hot Roller.¡± It seems that if you hit a certain spin you play a little mini-game where you roll the dice, the game ends when you roll a 7. All the other numbers are separated into sets of two each with their own point systems determining the payout for the mini-game. I put 20$ in and bid the highest possible, losing the first couple spins before winning back my losses. This continues for a couple of minutes, all the while the elation builds. After several more minutes, I am only up about 15 dollars, which isn¡¯t bad but is still a little underwhelming. The elation is still building but it isn¡¯t as consuming as it started out as. I¡¯ve grown a bit more used to it and am able to think more clearly around it. I start to think about moving to another machine but decide to trust in my new found intuition for a while longer. Sure enough a few seconds later I get three of the Hot Roller symbols allowing me to play the mini-game. I reach out and touch the screen, flinging my fingers to the side to roll the dice. I find it funny how they make it interactive to make you feel more involved in the game. The highest I can win from each roll is 200 credits (2$). I end up playing the mini-game just as long as I had played the regular slot machine game. Rolling over 30 times and winning about 50$. After rolling a 7 and ending the mini-game I was planning on moving on, but the feeling only grew. I continued to play for several minutes longer, one of the casino employees came by at some point offering me a drink. I considered ordering liquor, but, fearing it may interfere with my ability, I just took a coke and continued playing. It seems everything but alcohol and the food is free as well which was a nice bonus, not that I needed to worry about cash at this point seeing as I was already up about 100$ and had only been playing for about 20 minutes. I spin a couple more times when the elation becomes overwhelming just before I hit the button and as the reels come to a stop a louder jingling sound than before rings off, I just won 100,000 credits 1000$. I just stare at the machine for several seconds in shock only to break out of it when someone pats me on the back in congratulations. The artificial elation is quickly replaced by my real excitement at having just won 1100$. I get up from the machine clicking the button to get my ticket stub, as I take the ticket stub I realize I never put my membership card in the machine. I don¡¯t lose anything because of it but I recall the occasional announcements of people winning a raffle from simply having their card in the machines. Something to keep in mind for next time, I go to one of the ATM-like machines and cash out the ticket stub before heading out. Now that I know the ability works I should do a little research to help decide what I can do to maximize profits. Everyday life of a Game Character Chapter 3 I stop by Walmart on the way home grabbing some groceries for the week. Just the usual, chicken, rice, some fruit, stuff for pasta. I try not to buy frozen stuff too much, maybe frozen pizza or breadsticks for the pasta but that''s about it. I¡¯m a bit surprised to notice occasional looks from girls, I wonder if my perception is allowing me to notice them more or if my charisma has simply made me more appealing. I wonder if other people¡¯s minds go off on tangents like this, grabbing food, noticing pretty girls, thinking about the cost of my food. Given my new found wealth I¡¯ll probably splurge a bit. Instead of getting the precut fruit medley, I buy fresh strawberries, oranges, etc. I wonder what I¡¯ll make tonight, Alfredo sounds good or maybe some teriyaki chicken and rice. Oh, those frozen chicken tender things would probably make for good orange chicken. I get some other stuff to make smoothies with the fruit. Ironically my lack of funds in the past led me to eat slightly healthier, cheaper to make my own dinner than to buy frozen stuff, usually at least. On the way home I recognize the tangents my mind usually goes on, intermixing random thoughts with whatever I¡¯m actually doing in the moment. Wondering again if other people do the same or if it is a symptom of too much time alone. I look at the radio to change the station as a song I don¡¯t like comes on when I notice the time. It¡¯s nearly midnight, I just woke up like 3 hours ago, that''s another thing most people probably don¡¯t do. Explains why I didn¡¯t run into dad during my cleaning spree though, he¡¯d likely left for work before I even got up. ¡°I¡¯m too hungry to cook something when I get home,¡± I think out loud. I grab a slice of pizza from the gas station on the way home, it should hold me over for a couple of hours so I can clean up the kitchen and cook. So much for eating healthier¡­ I put the groceries away when I get home, having eaten the pizza on the way. The kitchen isn¡¯t quite as dirty as the bathroom was but it is still a mess. I decide to run the dishwasher while I clean the place up a bit. The new lease on life I¡¯ve been given seems to have put me in a state of mania, I just keep cleaning. I started sweeping and decided it would be easier to just vacuum, then I decided that I might as well do vacuum the rest of the house. An hour later I¡¯ve vacuumed and mopped all of the hardwood flooring in the entire house before moving on to cleaning the counters and reorganizing the cabinets before putting the dishes away. As I¡¯m putting the dishes away I recall how messy and full the freezer was. After I put the last dish away I move on to cleaning the fridge and freezer, I don¡¯t remember the last time we actually cleaned it. I use the grocery bags to move the stuff from the kitchen fridge/freezer to the one in the garage out back. While emptying the freezer I find at least three grocery bags with meat that is at least 2 years old. I¡¯m guessing my dad bought it and buried it under a bunch of other stuff forgetting it was even there. I move it with the other stuff for now. I even emptied the ice maker and unplugged the fridge so that any frozen shit would melt a bit making it easier to clean. The fridge in the garage is overstuffed, luckily it is just under 40 degrees out at the moment so I was able to leave some of the packaged stuff out on the table on the back porch. I start some water boiling while I clean the fridge. After the fridge is clean I cut some chicken up and throw the pasta in the boiling water for chicken alfredo. I watch an episode of Big Bang Theory while I eat, Mia jumped on the recliner and watched with me. After the show, I went to clean the pans and start putting all the food back in the fridge/freezer including the leftovers. Mia came in for some water, so I filled up her bowl and got her some food, I may have given her a couple of bites of chicken as well. I leave most of the old stuff in the garage freezer and reorganize the rest of the stuff so it fits better. Done with all that I go to my room, get on Pandora to listen to some music and start researching how best to maximize profits at the casino. It turns out most casinos don¡¯t register individual winnings under 1200$ with the IRS, which explains why I didn¡¯t have to fill anything out when I cashed out. I suppose that means I should start keeping track of my winnings if I plan to make a living off this. I¡¯ll likely have to report whatever I win as income if I want to avoid trouble with the IRS. If my success tonight is any indicator they may very well get suspicious when I start depositing thousands of dollars a night and don¡¯t report it on my taxes next tax season. I should probably let them withhold taxes on any winnings that do meet their taxable standards as well, less work for me and less money I¡¯ll have to make sure I have set aside for taxes. Thinking about taxes I go ahead and research that a bit, I suppose I will technically be a professional gambler might help to know how to report income as such. I quickly learn that it can be rather complicated, I¡¯ll have to have a diary of my winnings and losses as well as what the ID number for the machine I¡¯m playing on. It may not be truly necessary but I¡¯d rather be safe than sorry. Apparently, I should also list the date and time of said situations. I laugh as, in the middle of my research, the next song starts playing and I notice how my shuffle playlist is very eclectic. It started with Escape the Fate, then Yiruma started playing the piano, and now I¡¯m listening to Spem In Alium. Moving on from the tax information I get more specific with my research, looking up information on slot machines and the best way to make money while playing them. One of the first things I learn is that my ability negates a lot of this advice. I also learn that the higher denomination machines generally have better odds, as much as 10% better. My ability does seem to negate this to an extent because I already get an idea which machine will payout, that being said larger bets mean larger payouts as well so I would likely make money faster and therefore more of it over time. It is also good to know that I should do max bets every time, the amount I bet doesn¡¯t change the odds so betting more maximizes how much I gain on each win. Plus, my ability increases my chances of winning games involving random number generators which is exactly what a slot machine is, I wonder if that will increase the total payout on that machine or if the machine I play will just lose a lot more after I¡¯m done. The way I understand it the machines are essentially set to pay out a certain amount of the money put in them so I doubt my ability will alter that programming just make me the one more likely to win. That being said I wonder if I should cash out in thousand dollar intervals so as to limit how much of the winnings are linked directly to me. I look up how casinos react to people consistently winning large amounts of money. I¡¯m surprised to find that most casinos offer perks to people who win a lot, free rooms/upgrades and free buffet tickets. Actually, I think I read something about this when going over the tax information, I¡¯m supposed to include complimentary stuff as winnings on my taxes. It seems to be a strategy to keep you there gambling, giving them a chance to win their money back. That¡¯s probably why they have the ¡°players club¡± cards it helps them keep track of who is winning and how much they¡¯ve won, they even go so far as to have constant raffles for those who have their card in a machine so as to make sure you put it in. Basically what I learned is I don¡¯t seem to need to worry about winning to much money and getting kicked out unless I¡¯m cheating or whoever runs the place is ¡°stupid.¡± At least that is what most of these websites are saying, granted they don¡¯t know about my ability which is a kind of cheat. I think I¡¯ll play it cautiously and cashout in thousand dollar intervals when I can. That''s the important stuff out of the way if I decide to try poker I can do some more research later. I don¡¯t think I¡¯d be comfortable playing poker against actual people though, I feel like I¡¯d be taking advantage of them. It is one thing to win money from the casino it''s another to win money from regular people. So if I do decide to get involved in stuff outside of slots I should stick to games where I am against the casino and not against other gamblers. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. The gambling research done I move on to researching some exercises and stretches that don¡¯t require a bunch of equipment. It might be nice to get a gym membership and maybe a trainer but I¡¯m worried they might notice how quickly I improve. I only spend a few minutes on this before deciding to just stick with the basics and seeing how my body reacts given my new abilities or well I guess it''s technically a subspecies. With that in mind, I notice that I don¡¯t really feel sore or tired despite my earlier exercises. Maybe I should try multiple workouts a day, try to do different forms of exercise two or three times a day. I could go workout with the punching bag in the garage. I¡¯m about to get up and do that when Mia starts barking, I watch her run out of my room as I hear the garage door start to open. Looking down at the taskbar on my computer I see it is already nearing 6 am, it seems I was cleaning and cooking even longer than I thought. I¡¯m not sure what I wanna tell him, or if I want to tell him anything. Due to our similar sleeping schedules and him working third shift we don¡¯t see each other a whole lot despite living together, I suppose my abrupt change in appearance wouldn¡¯t be that obvious if you didn¡¯t see me every single day. It has been about a week since we last sat in the same room and saw each other in more than passing. ¡°MIA! You come to see daddy? Have you been a good girl, do you need to go outside, hmm you need to go outside?¡± I hear him talking baby talk to Mia as she runs and dances around him. ¡°Alright there you go,¡± he says as he lets her out. I can hear him moving around the kitchen before putting his keys, wallet, and whatever else is in his pockets on the little table before the front door. ¡°I cooked some chicken alfredo if you want some, it¡¯s in the fridge,¡± I yell out to him. ¡°Alright,¡± he goes and opens the fridge, ¡°did you clean the fridge out?¡± ¡°Yea, I went and got some groceries and there wasn¡¯t enough room in the freezer so I cleaned it and decided to do the fridge as well,¡± I yell back out to him, ¡°There was some meat in the freezer that had been there for a couple of years, not sure if you still wanted it or even knew it was in there so I left it in the garage freezer.¡± ¡°Okay, any idea what it was?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, pork shoulder or pork butt whatever its called I think, it looked like that pork you usually smoke or cook in the crockpot for tacos. I didn¡¯t even really look at the packaging except to see how old they were, they were buried under a bunch of other shit and still wrapped in the grocery bags.¡± ¡°Okay, thanks.¡± And that is sort of the limit of our communication. I grab my headset and decide to play some video games while I wait for him to go to bed, he¡¯ll probably eat and watch tv till about 8 before going downstairs, doing a short workout and going to bed. He is actually in pretty good shape for his age, better shape than me, or at least before now anyway. We¡¯ve both got a bit of a belly on us, me a bit more so than him until now, but his is more from drinking and indulging in candy bars whereas mine is eating too much and a lack of exercise. Speaking of, he has a bike in the garage, I could probably use that for one of my exercises, maybe ride for a couple of miles a day. I¡¯m surprised to find that I am playing better than usual, it shouldn¡¯t really be that much of a surprise, my dexterity and perception are both 25%, or more, higher than they were before. I switch between four or so first-person shooters at the moment. Right now I am playing Apex Legends, I would say that I am average at the game I get a handful of wins every week and I usually get at least one kill a game. Right now, however, I just landed at one of the most popular landing zones called Skull Town with four other teams and we are leaving with a combined eight kills, I have six of them. The first gun I found was a Prowler which had a Select Fire sitting right next to it allowing me to make it full auto. The next room I found an Epic heavy extended mag which allows me to have 35 rounds per magazine as opposed to 20 rounds. One guy ran up behind me as soon as I started to reload the gun, unfortunately, I forgot to switch to full auto as soon as I picked up the Select Fire so I started shooting at him in 5 round bursts. I panicked for a second but my aiming felt far smoother than I was used to and I managed to put all of the first 5 rounds in his chest and head knocking him instantly, I may have fired twice more in panic. I switched it to full auto and continued looting in the next three buildings I found an Epic body shield which doubled my health, a G-7 Scout sniper rifle, a few more blue attachments for both guns and that first guy''s two teammates. I almost immediately knocked one and took a few hits before my teammate came out of nowhere and last hit the second guy. I, graciously, thanked him for stealing my kill before we moved on to kill the rest of the people in our area. We left Skull Town with almost all Epic level gear, attachments and a shit ton of ammo. The rest of the game proceeded in much the same fashion. My aiming felt better than it ever had, and we ended up winning the game with a combined 18 kills. I had 12, which was about 7 more than I think I had ever gotten in the past. The next several games were the same, I got a badge for winning the game as the champion and the kill leader in my second game. There were a couple of games where I ran into a pro-player or got third partied and died but there wasn¡¯t a single game where I had less than 3 kills. I won more games today than I think I have in the last week and I definitely got more kills than I have in the last month. I ended up playing a bit longer than intended, it¡¯s almost 9 now. I¡¯m feeling a bit hungry again, I should have something to eat before I go workout. A smoothie would probably be a good pre-workout meal. One bad thing about getting fresh fruit over the precut stuff is that it takes more prep time, the flavor should be quite a bit better though. The only thing that I bought precut was the pineapple, I have no idea how to cut up a pineapple. So I grab the strawberries, the pineapple, a banana, some ground flaxseed for added fiber, almond milk and unsweetened greek yogurt it makes the smoothie creamy and adds its own health benefits. I cut up the strawberries and banana add them to the blender with a half cup of almond milk and yogurt each. I make enough for two smoothies, I put one in the fridge and drink the other on my way to the garage out back. I spend about half an hour punching on the punching bag, I doubt my form is all that great but my punches feel smoother and more natural now than they have in the past. My arms, shoulders, and upper back are nice and sore, even my legs and hips have a bit of soreness. My knuckles are red and have some friction burns on them, I wrapped my hands and wrists but I don¡¯t like wearing the gloves. I¡¯m honestly not 100% sure I even wrapped them correctly, to begin with, just seems like it¡¯s better to be safe. As I am removing the wrap I notice the redness slowly fading and the slight pain gradually disappearing. I was already surprised that it hadn¡¯t been worse I don¡¯t usually spend more than a few minutes on the punching bag and the friction burns are usually just about as bad as they just were even then, but now they just healed before my eyes in a matter of seconds. I guess I knew that my natural regeneration would be quite a bit faster but actually seeing it happen makes it more real. Now that I¡¯ve seen it I¡¯m realizing I should be really sore from my earlier workout. I would have never wanted to do a second workout after working out as hard as I did earlier today not to mention all the cleaning I did, I would normally be exhausted. Part of me really wants to test this new found regeneration. Another part of me thinks that intentionally hurting myself in order to test new ideas is incredibly stupid. I suppose hurting myself doesn¡¯t necessarily mean it has to be incredibly painful, maybe just a slight scratch or bruise that would take a day or two to heal. I look over at dad''s table where he keeps all his tools, it is a mess and my new found OCD is making me want to clean it. I ignore the subtle compulsion and look for something that''s slightly sharp. I find a relatively new flat-head screwdriver, sharp enough to scratch but not so sharp as to really cut me. I take it and press the tip into my arm and drag it a couple of centimeters, it is just enough to slightly break the skin but doesn¡¯t even really bleed just gets really red at the surface. The skin where I dragged it raises slightly and about 30 seconds later the skin is back to normal. That¡­ was kind of underwhelming, I go inside and grab one of my knives. Taking it I make a quick shallow cut on the back of my hand about half an inch long. This time it actually bleeds but not that much, it is barely worse than a paper cut¡­ hmm, I should have just done that, although that may have actually been more painful. The slight bleeding stops after a few seconds and after a minute there is no evidence that the skin was ever cut. That is¡­ intriguing, I¡¯m not sure what exactly I can do with that but it will be nice to not have long-lasting injuries. It¡¯s already about 10:30, I don¡¯t really have anything else to do today but I¡¯m not really tired yet. I take another quick shower, the third of the day and get back on the computer. I figure I¡¯ll just play Apex for a couple of hours and head to bed. Adulting Chapter 4 I continue my new routine over the next three days. I wake up, let Mia out, workout for about an hour, clean up around the house a bit and take a shower. After my shower, I get something to eat and head to the casino. I¡¯ve been spending a lot more time there, treating it as an actual job. The first day I stayed there for a little over five hours. My Intuition skill continued to work spectacularly, I look over my gambling book to see my winnings these last few days. I¡¯ve won over 100 thousand dollars in these last three days, I won 27k the very first day. Most of the time I took several hundred dollars to a machine I would play one hundred dollars at a time and would cash out whenever I had won more than one thousand dollars and just put in more money to keep playing. Most of the machines I played on had a max bet somewhere between twenty-five and thirty dollars. There were several times I had to call attendants because I had won minor jackpots, I believe they consider anything over 1200 dollars a minor jackpot but each one I had was well over that so I¡¯m not entirely sure. It has been four days since I woke up with the notification telling me my life had changed. I am still in a bit of shock given the changes I¡¯ve gone through, both physically, emotionally, and in life itself. I have over a hundred thousand dollars to my name, that I¡¯ve made in less than a week. I¡¯ve yet to really spend much of it, I¡¯m still trying to decide what to do next. Money isn¡¯t the only big change I¡¯ve faced though. The changes from that first day are still coming on top of the changes that come with all the exercise I¡¯ve been doing. My stats have only progressed minimally but my physical appearance has changed drastically. I¡¯ve lost about thirty more pounds and replaced a lot of that with muscle. My strength attribute has increased by two full points in just four days. Some of that might be my body ratios changing due to the heavy weight loss, I¡¯m not entirely sure how that works but I feel stronger than I¡¯ve ever been. I¡¯m not lifting cars or anything like that but the workouts that started out being rather strenuous are gradually becoming easy. Now that I¡¯m getting stronger I¡¯m slowing down and focusing on doing the exercises correctly rather than just pumping out as many reps as I can as fast as I can. When I started I could barely pull off a handful of pull-ups now I can casually pump out twenty in a slow controlled motion. I haven¡¯t worked out with actual weights in a long time and still haven¡¯t done so since the change so I don¡¯t have a good benchmark for growth in that respect but the fact that I¡¯m noticing a difference and noticing it so quickly is incredibly motivating. I am, however, worried that if I continue at this pace I will burn myself out. Maybe I should slow down a bit, go to the casino every other day, give myself time to find out what I want to do next. I got all this money now maybe I should spend a little of it. I run my fingers through my hair as I walk out the casino. I haven¡¯t been all that focused tonight but I¡¯m still leaving the place with just over twenty grand. As my hand comes down my hair falls in front of my eyes, ¡°hmm it¡¯s been about a year since I got an actual haircut,¡± I think out loud. I glance around, blushing slightly, I really need to stop talking to myself out loud. That is something I could do tomorrow though, I need a haircut and I don¡¯t need to cut it myself anymore. It might even be fun, wake up earlier get a quick workout in, get my haircut, maybe stop by the mall and get some new clothes. I bought some cheap stuff from Walmart the other day to hold me over but with all this weight loss my wardrobe is severely limited at the moment. I also need to figure out what to do about dad, I¡¯m not sure he will even fully recognize me anymore. I suppose the best solution would be to move out, either that or tell him the truth although I doubt that would go over well. I¡¯m not sure he¡¯d even believe it, he might just think I¡¯m on drugs or something. That would probably answer both questions, all three even. How I lost the weight, why I think I was chosen to receive some crazy gift, and how I¡¯ve come into so much money. Although the last one is a bit questionable, I¡¯d have to be some sort of drug kingpin to make over a hundred thousand dollars in a week just selling drugs. I don¡¯t fucking know, the best solution for now I think is to move out, give it a couple of weeks before I see him again and act as if I¡¯ve just had a drastic lifestyle change, which I kind of have. Speaking of weight loss, the number isn¡¯t quite as significant as the actual physical changes, I¡¯ve lost practically all of my obvious body fat. My man boobs have become more pec than boob, I don¡¯t have a visible belly anymore, in fact, I actually have abs now, they aren¡¯t ¡°shredded¡± or ¡°ripped¡± and I don¡¯t have a six-pack but they are visible, and I actually have a visible waistline rather than love handles. I open my status to see the numerical changes of these last few days.
Name: Jared Thorne Species: Human (Game Character)
Occupation: Professional Gambler Class: None
Level: 6 Experience: 5681/8100
Vitality: 120 Mana: 165
Stamina: 124/130 Chi: LOCKED*
Age: 22 Money: 126314.43 USD (Equivalent*)
Weight: 171 Lbs Height: 5ft 8in
Attribute points: 40 Constitution: 12
Strength: 11 Endurance: 13
Intellect: 11 Wisdom: 11
Willpower: 8 Charisma: 10
Dexterity: 10 Agility: 11
Luck: 12 Perception: 12
I¡¯m back up to 171 now, I wonder if I can remove the height, and weight from my status. I don¡¯t really need to see it every time I look at my stats, I¡¯d prefer not to obsess over the small day to day changes. If it weren¡¯t for the Game Character status I would be quite concerned about such rapid changes in weight each day. Part of me still kind of is a bit worried but I think it is mostly overshadowed by my progress.
Remove your Height and Weight from your status display
Accept
Decline
Hmm, well that''s helpful, I mentally click the accept button and watch the height and weight bars disappear. I finish that just in time to get to my car, or well my dad''s car. Maybe I should look into getting a car of my own as well. The ride home is a bit of a blur, the drive has become a bit routine and with my new enhanced senses, I could probably take the trip blindfolded, excluding traffic and lights at least. I pet and play with Mia for a couple of seconds after getting in, she is always excited to see me. Eventually, I move on to my room and hop on the computer to check out some barbers/hairdressers near me. I quickly run into a slight problem, every place I see is closed around eight pm. I guess I¡¯ll have to tire myself out with a hard workout and pass out a bit early tonight. I decide on the closest one with the best reviews, I¡¯ll make an appointment right after they open in the morning and head to bed after. I bookmark the barber shop website and I start looking into rental places within my price range and what to know about renting a house. Again I run into a slight problem, as far as I can tell most places take at least three days to process your paperwork and contact your references before you can move in. I dig a little deeper, trying to see if there is any way I can move in the same day I find a place. It may already take a couple of days to find a good place I don¡¯t wanna have to wait an additional three days to a week on top of that. I do find one thing stating that if you can pay six months rent in advance then you may be allowed to move in right away. Given all the places I¡¯ve seen so far, I shouldn¡¯t have any issue playing the full six months rent in advance. I¡¯m not sure if I want to get a place in town or if I want to try to get a place further out in the country. I filter the search to only show rentals that are greater than one thousand dollars a month, I¡¯d like a nicer place, it doesn¡¯t necessarily need to be large but I¡¯d like it to be nice. I find several decent looking places in town, I bookmark four different places to look at later and move on to places a bit further out in the country. I¡¯m thinking, given the warning about people who might want to see my life end sooner rather than later, that I might wanna live somewhere at least a bit more secluded. That being said there is also something to be said about hiding in a crowd, so I¡¯ll keep the other places in mind all the same. That is another reason to move out that I hadn¡¯t thought of previously, I¡¯m probably putting my dad in danger the longer I stay here. I zoom out a bit on the rental map listing houses and increase the filter to limit it to places exceeding fifteen hundred dollars, under the assumption that places in the country will probably be larger and therefore more expensive. I almost instantly find a place that I think would be perfect, it is a bit big for my taste but it is on a larger plot of land which makes it relatively secluded and it is surprisingly cheap given the size and amenities. It has a large relatively large kitchen with modern appliances, connected to a large dining area that I don¡¯t really need but that looks really nice. I could probably remove the chandelier and turn that into a large living room. The pictures are a bit hard to interpret but it looks like there is either a large open bedroom or two bedrooms separated by a large open archway. Oh, that''s very nice, there is a rather large room at the center of the house with very high ceilings. It seems to function as the living room but it also has a large indoor pool built in, so I could incorporate swimming into my exercise routine. I¡¯ve always loved to swim but I¡¯ve been too insecure about my weight for the last several years to go swimming in public. The ceiling is covered in beautifully finished wood, uh arches? I look up what the wood supports are called. Ah, beautifully finished wood trusses arching overhead in the high ceiling, with the east wall made up of mostly windows to let the sun in for most of the day. The place is beautiful, there are some places that could use a little work though. One of the bedrooms could use repainted and its flooring could use some work compared to the kitchen, living/dining room, and the other bedrooms beautiful hardwood floors. The bathroom in that part of the house could use a little bit of work as well, the tub and wall tiling just doesn¡¯t look very good with the marble-like floors. I¡¯d honestly kind of like to just buy the place. I¡¯m just not sure getting ¡°lucky¡± at the casino four days in a row will constitute a career, in the bank''s mind, if I were to seek a loan. I suppose I could take a six-month lease for now and in a month or so when I have the cash I could buy it outright. I should probably see how much the place would cost to buy while I¡¯m thinking about it. The price estimator I looked the address up on suggests the place would be worth just under five hundred thousand dollars. If things continue as they have been I should have more than enough by the end of the month. I can¡¯t help but wonder if something is wrong with the place though, they are only asking twenty-five hundred dollars a month. Ironically, a few days ago I probably would have thought that a ridiculous amount, but it is a twenty-nine hundred square foot house on over forty acres of land. However, the fact that it has been listed on the website for nearly half a year may lend credence to my thoughts. I look up how people usually determine rental costs, trying to see if the rent is actually cheap or if I¡¯m just overestimating the value of the house. Apparently, one tool they use is the 1% rule, basically charging one percent of the house''s value per month in rent. Given that, it does seem that the place is extremely cheap, but I read further down and find something saying .5%-.8% is more common and that certain amenities and locations will raise or lower the price. Eh, there are way too many things that go into determining how much they charge I¡¯ll just have to ask about it when I look at the place. I¡¯ll have to call and arrange a time to check the place out before I go to bed, gah I need to change my sleep schedule, being awake almost exclusively at night is making this excessively difficult. Pretty much all of these places close when I wake up or open just a little while before I go to bed. Maybe I¡¯ll just stay up late instead of going to bed early, I can go shopping, get my hair cut, and make an appointment to visit the house before I go to bed today. It¡¯s only a little after three at night, I should check out some stuff about buying a car as well. I¡¯ve got five-plus hours before anything is open, my stomach growling interrupts my thoughts. Okay, food then more research¡­ Yay! Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. I heat up some leftover teriyaki chicken and rice and go back to my room to figure out what I need to do about buying a car. I¡¯m mostly trying to figure out the do¡¯s and don¡¯ts of buying a car. I have easily enough to buy one with cash assuming I don¡¯t try and get something super expensive, I do need to take insurance into account though so I should probably check that out a bit as well although I doubt it is something I really have to worry about, financially speaking. Yeah looks like the average yearly premium is just above thirty-one hundred dollars in my area, for my age at least. As far as I can tell all the other expenses beyond the car should be rather cheap in comparison. There seems to be a bit of contradictory information regarding buying the car outright or financing it. However, the one website I¡¯m seeing that is giving reasons not to buy outright is talking about financing and investing the leftover money because you would make more off the investment than you would save buying outright. I don¡¯t think that really applies to me because I haven¡¯t really built up any credit yet so I likely wouldn¡¯t get a very good interest rate. Sooo yeah kinda pointless that I¡¯m even paying attention to it at this point and that''s without taking into account my current earnings. Hmm, but investing my money is a good thought, I wonder if my intuition might work on stocks. An idea for another time, need to stay focused. One of the biggest and, in my opinion, the best things I¡¯ve learned is that it is good to negotiate over the phone or email instead of going down to the dealership, it makes you less likely to make an impulse buy plus I can look stuff up as I¡¯m going back and forth with them. Most of the other stuff is fairly common sense, don¡¯t let them know I¡¯m planning to pay in cash, do research, and shop around for better deals. Otherwise, the salespeople are likely to take advantage of you, especially first-time buyers like me. Oh, there is a website that helps find the true market value for your the car you¡¯re looking to buy. Now all that''s left is to start looking at cars. There is one problem, I¡¯m pretty sure that most of the cars I am really interested in are fairly expensive. I guess it might take a couple of days to get a lot of the negotiations figured out I could just set aside all my winnings until all of the negotiating is done, for whatever car I choose, and if I¡¯m a little short I can fall back on the money I¡¯ve already saved. I¡¯m probably being overly cautious but I don¡¯t want to start making really stupid decisions just because I have these new abilities and some money in my pocket. The worst thing that could probably happen is that I will have to wait a bit longer to actually buy the house, assuming, of course, they are even willing to sell in the first place. I start with the manufacturer websites, I look at Corvettes, Camaros, a couple of different Nissan¡¯s, the new Mazda Miata, and the BMW M3. They were all fairly expensive, aside from the Mazda Miata and the Nissan 370z Nismo they all cost well over fifty thousand dollars. I also check out the new Tesla Roadster, but that is mostly for fun, I¡¯m not even sure it is for sale yet, plus its base price is like two hundred thousand dollars. I could probably get a used one but the battery range is kind of low and getting an all-electric car would likely require a lot of stuff to be put in at the house which I¡¯m not sure would be allowed when renting so getting one of those would have to wait till I own a home. The most expensive would be the Nissan GT-R at one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, I mostly looked that one up because I thought it was a really cool car but I don¡¯t really see myself getting it. I really like the Corvette, the one I thought looked the coolest has a suggested price of one hundred thirty-seven thousand dollars, the one I think I would actually get if I go for the Corvette is one hundred and six thousand dollars, it is still incredibly cool and thirty thousand dollars cheaper. Plus with the true market value calculator, most of these cars are at least three thousand dollars less than the MSRP. My favorite is between the Corvette and the BMW though, I think I¡¯ll be choosing between those two. The BMW is considerably cheaper as well, the true market value on it is sixty-nine thousand dollars, almost thirty thousand less than the Corvette¡¯s TMV of ninety-eight thousand. Although, if I were to go for the Miata or the 370z I could get an all-terrain vehicle like a Jeep or something and still spend less than on the Corvette. That would probably be smart too, seeing as the place I wanna buy has some forty-plus acres of land. I suppose I could get the BMW and a used all-terrain vehicle and still be good. I look up some Jeep Sahara¡¯s on Carfax, I find a dozen or so certified pre-owned vehicles within about an hours drive. I pick two of the better deals and e-mail their dealerships. The Edmunds website, that I was getting the true market value from, allows me to get dealer quotes from multiple dealerships so I submit a request on the BMW, the Corvette, the Miata, and the 370z. I guess they will e-mail or call me back with the quotes later. With that in mind, I e-mail the company in charge of the rental house to set up a viewing. I figure if it works for cars maybe it will work for renting a house. With that done with, for now, I look at the time, huh, that took over three and a half hours. I get up to see if dad¡¯s home yet, he usually gets home between five and six. As I go into the hallway leading to the living room I don¡¯t hear the TV, I peak around the corner and he isn¡¯t sitting in his recliner. Hmm, I walk over to the little desk he usually leaves his stuff on and I see his wallet, keys, and money sitting there so he is obviously home, he must have gone to bed a bit early today, or maybe he is outside working in the garage or something. I look outside, and of course don¡¯t see him, if he is in the garage I wouldn¡¯t. I call for Mia to see if she is outside, normally she would be outside with him or at the door begging to go if he were out there. I hear her collar twinkle, and I look back into the living room to see her little head poking out from under the blanket we keep on the couch. ¡°Well, hey their, cutie, what''s dad doing,¡± I ask her as if she can answer me. I go over to her and give her a cuddle before getting up and looking around. ¡°I guess I¡¯ll go work out on the punching bag for a bit before the barber opens,¡± I mutter to myself as I walk back toward the back door. With that in mind, I spend the next hour working on the punching bag, taking a break every ten minutes or so. As with my other exercises, I am trying to work on my technique more so than just wailing at the bag and I have received a few levels in the Athleticism skill over the last couple days. I haven¡¯t received a skill in pugilism or boxing so I¡¯m not sure if this all ties into Athleticism or if maybe I have to actually box someone to gain a skill in it. I still don¡¯t wear the gloves, just the cloth wraps, so as I finish unwrapping my hands I look them over. They are getting stronger it seems, my skin barely even pinks up with the slightest abrasions any more. I go grab another bottle of water out of the fridge and take a drink while I fill my other one up. So there I am taking a drink of water wearing nothing but a pair of basketball shorts when I hear footsteps coming up the stairs. In my panic, I suck in a breath and get a lung full of water. I¡¯m so busy coughing up water that I forget what caused the panic in the first place and by the time I start to calm down my dad is standing in the doorway to the basement looking at me. He just stands there for several seconds staring at me his mouth slightly agape. After a good fifteen seconds or so he closes his mouth and asks, ¡°you alright?¡± ¡°Huh? Uh, yeah *cough* yeah I just uh, water went down the wrong pipe.¡± Still standing there he looks me up and down and says, ¡°you uh, look different.¡± I laugh, a bit uncomfortably, trying to think on my feet I ramble out, ¡°yeah I¡¯ve been kinda trying to hide it, wanted it to be a bit of a surprise. I¡¯ve been exercising a lot over the last month, three workouts a day at least an hour a workout. I¡¯m down about twenty-seven pounds of fat now. I was actually planning on going shopping a bit today since most of my clothes don¡¯t really fit anymore. Already got some cheap stuff from Walmart last week but thought I might get some nicer stuff today.¡± So I kind of ramble and overshare when I¡¯m nervous. It¡¯s something I need to work on. ¡°Well, good work you uh, look good. Where were you planning on going, do you need money for clothes or something?¡± ¡°Oh, uh, no I¡¯ve actually been working as well, I¡¯ve saved up quite a bit,¡± I say, continuing to overshare. Although I suppose it will be rather obvious when I move out soon in the next couple days, I guess there is no longer such a rush now. ¡°Alright,¡± he looks me up and down again, ¡°I was just coming up to get a drink,¡± he says. Grabbing a Powerade out of the fridge, he looks at me one last time before heading back downstairs. Well, that went several times better than I expected. I mean things are obviously awkward between us, but that¡¯s normal, they have been since my mom died. She died when I was eight and he didn¡¯t exactly take well. He started drinking too much, he wasn¡¯t abusive or anything but some might say he was neglectful. It came to a head when I was sixteen and he got his second DUI nearly losing his job. He still drinks a little too much for my liking but he restricts himself to the weekends and usually gets a ride to the bar and back. I drove him for a while but he mostly uses a local driving service now. Now I don¡¯t understand what I was so worried about. I guess I just didn¡¯t believe that he would think that I was telling the truth. I mean we don¡¯t see each other that incredibly often but it was only a little more than a week ago that we had a similar interaction to just now. Whatever, if he isn¡¯t overthinking it why should I. I go to the bathroom, take a piss, and start the shower. Adulting - intermission: The Haircut Chapter 5 After the shower, I get dressed, grab a granola bar, and head out to the Barber. The Barber is only a fifteen-minute drive away, a little over five minutes to leave town and about ten minutes into the neighboring city. I currently live in a small town called Shorewick, just south of Valmere City, Texas. Shorewick is technically a city but it is only five or so square miles compared to Valmere which is nearly two-hundred square miles. As I leave my neighborhood, I turn onto the main road that passes through town, it is similar to those old western towns where there is one main road bordered on both sides by the businesses, just a bit more modernized. Instead of one main road, there are two, one slightly shorter than the other, making a sort of plus sign smack in the middle of the town, surrounded by businesses and neighborhoods in all four quadrants. I¡¯m heading East on Grand, the main-main road, and I turn left onto Main St, ironically enough not the main road through town, which is a mostly straight path to Valmere. As I leave town I take the bridge over a small river, technically a floodway, connected to a much larger river several miles further North-West. The Barber is just ten minutes into Valmere on Main St, which turns into Tyler Rd after you leave town. There are a few places in town I could get my haircut at but the last time I cut my hair at one of them I had to clean up quite a bit of missed hair myself. It wasn¡¯t a huge deal but it didn¡¯t instill confidence so I decided to go to a bit of a higher end barber this time. The Barbershop sits in a little shopping mall with a hair salon on one side and a tattoo shop on the other. Entering the place the first thing I notice is a very beautiful girl, probably my age give or take a few years, working at one of the chairs, cutting another guys hair. I stand in the doorway staring for several seconds. She has fairly short hair coming down just below her jawline, layered with purple and silverish accents. I look her up and down quickly, she looks to be average height, at maybe five-feet-four-inches, and in shape. She faces away for a second and I can see she has a slim waist, well-toned legs, and a nice ass. From the side, I can tell she has smaller breasts maybe a B-cup. She is wearing a black apron over a darker purple short sleeve t-shirt and tight denim pants. Turning to look at me she flashes a smile, inciting an instinctive smile back from me, her bluish-purple eyes, I¡¯m guessing contacts, and sensing a theme, sparkling as one of her trim eyebrows raises inquisitively. ¡°I was hoping you guys accept walk-ins,¡± I say with a questioning tone. ¡°Yea, my next appointment isn¡¯t for¡­¡± she looks at the clock ¡°about an hour, and I am almost finished with Mr. Miles here. It should be, about, five minutes.¡± She goes back to working on Mr. Miles as I say, ¡°that should be fine, thank you.¡± As I find a seat I notice the other people in the shop. There are three other Barbers all with their own customers all in different stages of their hair cuts. One must have gotten in just a bit before me as he is still telling an older gentleman exactly what it is he wants to be done to his hair. I quickly lose interest in the rest of the room and continue to check out the young woman who will soon be cutting my hair. You might say she is more cute than beautiful, that''s not to say she isn¡¯t beautiful, it¡¯s just that the softness of her features makes cute the more accurate description. Although the description could easily change given different circumstances. If she were dressed differently, or even if she was just looking you in the eye. The confidence in her eyes when she first looked at me gave a more sexy twist to her soft features. Perhaps if she had shier eyes, and hid behind her hair, I would say she looked adorable. My wait is quickly up and I head over to her station as she finishes sweeping up the hair. She smiles at me again, and indicates the chair as she says, ¡°so how are you wanting your haircut today?¡± I smile back as I sit down and describe what I want, ¡°I¡¯d like about an inch off the top, and I¡¯d like the sides and back clipped short getting shorter the further from the top you go. I¡¯m happy to go shorter on the top if you think it would look better but I¡¯d still like to be able to comb it to either side or comb it back. Whatever you think would give me the most options, as far as styling it goes. Uh, I could probably also use a shave around my neck and have my beard cleaned up and evened out a bit.¡± I¡¯ve never had someone else shave or style my beard before, I¡¯m a little uncomfortable with it but it¡¯s why I chose a Barber. It would be nice to have a professional do it then I could just maintain it myself to keep it looking good. It has always ended up a bit scraggly when I try to do it. Another smile shines at me through the mirror as she says, ¡°that should be fairly simple, I¡¯ll start with the sides and back and fade down. You basically want a fade but with a long top. So I¡¯ll find the natural parting lines, where the sides naturally fall and I¡¯ll tie up the top,¡± she goes on to explain what shes gonna do before getting started, to be sure she understands how I want it. ¡°So what do you do,¡± she asks as she gets into the actual haircut. ¡°Uh, right now I¡¯d consider myself a professional gambler,¡± I say, with an amused smile. The only professional gamblers I¡¯d heard of before I did my research were the ones you saw on TV during poker tournaments so I can¡¯t help but wonder what she¡¯ll think of that. ¡°Really? What do you play, Texas Hold¡¯em, Blackjack,¡± she asks. ¡°I actually mostly play the slots right now, I¡¯m thinking about getting more into poker here soon. After I¡¯ve made a bit of a nest egg I¡¯m thinking I might dip my toes into the stock market.¡± I was hesitant to play poker at first because I didn¡¯t like the idea of using my ability to make money off of other people there, but I¡¯ve realized recently that I¡¯m not actually making money off the casino with the slots either, the casino is making just as much as it normally would be even with me making so much off the machines. The money I¡¯m making just cuts off how much those machines will pay out later since they are all set to pay out a certain percentage of what is put in them. ¡°I didn¡¯t realize people actually made money on slot machines, I mean obviously some people win big on occasion, but to be a professional surely you have to win a lot more often than you lose. ¡°True, but in the last week, I¡¯ve made more than ten thousand dollars on slots alone,¡± I lied. I already feel like I¡¯m bragging here. I don¡¯t want anyone to know how much I¡¯ve actually made, but, for some reason, I don¡¯t want her to think I¡¯m not making anything either. ¡°Really, how do you do it? Got any advice for me,¡± she asks shooting me another smile through the mirror. ¡°Ehh, it''s mostly about picking the right machine and knowing when to leave.¡± I end up rattling off some of the advice from the websites I¡¯ve checked out. It¡¯s not wrong it just doesn¡¯t exactly apply because of my skill. We mostly have idle chit-chat after that, how our day is going so far, plans for the rest of the day. As she¡¯s cutting my hair I occasionally feel one of her breasts brushing against my shoulder. It¡¯s incidental but it is still something I¡¯m consciously aware of every time it happens. Having her fingers occasionally running through my hair feels incredible, I don¡¯t know what it is but having someone, especially a girl (I think it¡¯s because of the nails), play with your hair always feels amazing. The haircut itself only takes about fifteen minutes. She leans me back so she can start working on my beard and asks, ¡°what exactly do you want to be done with your beard, do you want it trimmed short or just groomed and shaped a bit.¡±Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°Groomed and shaped a bit, and I¡¯d like to have my neck shaved.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± She starts with the beard combing it out and, using the clippers, evens out my beard fading into my cheeks. She combs my mustache to each side and clips it a bit shorter before combing it down, removing the guard, and trimming the hair that goes over my lips. My beard and mustache finished, she soaps up my neck and uses a straight razor to remove my slight neck-beard and cleans up where my beard meets my cheeks. Everything appearing done she has me get up and leads me to another chair that leans back into a sink. The position is a bit uncomfortable for my neck but as she starts washing the excess hair out I stop caring. Her running her fingers through my hair during the haircut was nothing compared to her washing it. Her fingernails gently scratching at my scalp is one of the best feelings in the world. I honestly have to fight not to get aroused and apparently I didn¡¯t hide my pleasure well because she has an amused smile on her face as she sits me back up. I blush slightly, which brightens her smile further, ¡°it¡¯s alright everyone likes having their hair washed like that,¡± she whispers. Plopping a towel on my head she gives a cute laugh, takes my hand and leads me back to her station. She quickly dries my hair and running her fingers through it asks, ¡°how do you usually style it?¡± ¡°I usually part it to the right or comb it back, I don¡¯t really like to use hair gel though I don¡¯t like how it hardens and makes my hair feel solid.¡± ¡°Alright, if you¡¯d like we can use a pomade, it should be better for your hairstyle than gel and doesn¡¯t harden over time so you can re-shape it later if you want. It will add a bit of a shine to your hair as well.¡± I agree and she quickly adds a bit to my hair and trying a few different styles to see what I prefer. We eventually settle on combing it back and slightly to the right. ¡°OK, how much do I owe you? Oh, and could I get a thing of that pomade as well?¡± ¡°The haircut, the shave, and the pomade come out to fifty-two dollars.¡± I reach into my back pocket and pull out my wallet, I give her two fifty dollar bills, ¡°keep the change and thank you, that was one of the best experiences I¡¯ve had at a barber.¡± I give her a shy smile and walk out the door. Part of me really wanted to ask for her number but despite my recent physical changes I¡¯m still fairly shy and I¡¯m sure she has customers asking her out all the time, I don¡¯t want to be like everyone else. I hear footsteps coming from behind me and turn back around as I hear her say, ¡°wait,¡± I catch the door before it closes on her, she reaches out and hands me something, ¡°my card¡­¡± she blushes the slightest bit, without my increased perception I might not have even noticed, ¡°call me to set up your next haircut.¡± She flashes me one last smile, this one with a surprisingly shy look to it as she looks up at me through her short hair. Definitely adorable as well. Turning around she walks back to her station looking back over her should once before turning to one of her co-workers. I¡¯m probably reading way to much into this but I could swear that she¡¯s at least half as attracted to me as I am to her. I stand there staring a second or two before heading back to my dads truck, remote starting it and hopping in. I¡¯m just about to pull out when I see a notification blinking in my peripheral vision. I mentally click the little notification icon to open it.
Appearance updated! Would you like to save this as your new default appearance
Accept
Decline
Huh, I wonder what that means. If I accept, does that mean I will look like this until I change it or can I just find ¡°Appearance¡± in one of my menu options and revert to this at any time?
Accepting this will limit natural physical alterations to your body, such as muscle definition, fat distribution, and hair growth It can be turned off at any point If turned off your body will continue to change at its natural rate You can revert to one of five saved Appearances at any time Switching between appearances can be very uncomfortable, especially if said appearances are drastically different
That would be hard to explain to¡­ shit, I sat there for nearly half an hour and didn¡¯t even get her name or introduce myself. I reach into my pocket for her card, Amanda her names Amanda. It would be a bit hard to explain to Amanda why my hair didn¡¯t grow in the last month and I didn¡¯t need another haircut. Oh, well I¡¯ll think of something, I already over-thought how I would explain this kind of stuff to my dad. The lack of physical changes likely wouldn¡¯t even come up and I am quite happy with my body at the moment so I accept the prompt. Maybe I¡¯ll let my hair start growing again in a week or so and have her cut it again after it grows back out, it¡¯s not like I need to be overly worried about money right now. The haircut finished, I suppose it is time to go shopping. I look at the time, it¡¯s only a quarter after nine, and the mall doesn¡¯t open till ten, I planned for more of a wait at the barber. I go to check my phone to see if there is anything open nearby so I can at least look around while I wait for the mall to open. As my phone unlocks I notice an email notification, checking it I find an email from the realtor about the rental house. They had a client cancel on them and want to know if I¡¯d be available around eleven to go look at the house. I think about it for a minute and email back saying I could be there around eleven-thirty. It is about a forty-minute drive plus I¡¯d still like to pick up some clothes so that would give me about thirty minutes at the mall and assuming I can find some stuff around here that¡¯s another forty minutes of shopping before the mall opens. With a quick search, I find a thrift store half a mile up the road. A quick drive later I find myself pulling into another little parking lot similar to the barber¡¯s, though the thrift store takes up the entire storefront. I¡¯ve never really checked out a thrift store aside from Goodwill, though I¡¯ve heard they often have pretty good quality clothes for fairly cheap. I look around for a bit and find they have a pretty good selection. I never really cared for skinny jeans or holey jeans so I skip over most of those and look for the slightly faded bootcut and relaxed fit jeans. I grab several pairs of jeans and a handful of shirts to try on. I tend to prefer plain monochromatic over, overly done artwork on a shirt. After trying those on and putting away the ones that didn¡¯t fit I look around a bit longer finding a bit more clothes I like. All told I leave the store with three pairs of jeans, two pairs of Khakis, a pair of nice basketball shorts, three t-shirts, and two surprisingly nice Polo¡¯s and about three hundred dollars shorter. The mall opens in just over five minutes and it¡¯s about a ten-minute drive so I quickly head that way. I don¡¯t need much after the thrift store but I didn¡¯t feel comfortable buying used shoes and maybe some more clothes to work out in. I have a bit less time than I thought because I was measuring time by how far away the rental house is from home, not the mall so I stop quickly by a Champs sports and try on a few different shoes. I end up getting a pair of everyday shoes and a pair of running shoes to work out in. I also got several pairs of athletic shirts and shorts. I ended up spending another five hundred dollars, mostly because the shoes are so damn expensive, but I got out of their fairly fast, only visiting the one store, so I should have time to stop by the house and drop it all off before I head to the rental house. It¡¯s about a twenty-minute drive home, I take my new clothes in, grab the address and put it in my phones GPS before heading back out. I arrive at the rental house fifteen minutes early so I drive around a bit more trying to check out the neighboring houses. I¡¯m surprised to find that the neighbors are significantly further away than I thought. I don¡¯t know the exact measurements obviously but I¡¯d guess the nearest house is just under half a mile away. I guess I didn¡¯t really take the size of their land into consideration, but, if anything, that is kind of a bonus for me. I get back to the house with five minutes to spare and find the realtor getting out of her car in the driveway. Adulting Part 2 Chapter 6 Parking next to the realtorI get out, shake her hand, and introduce myself. She is a rather attractive woman as well, a bit on the older side, maybe early to mid-thirties. With her heels, she is a bit taller than me, and she is wearing a nice white blouse with a professional skirt that accentuates her figure. With a nod and a polite smile, she says, ¡°you can call me Janine, Mr. Hawthorne. Forgive me for asking, but you are a bit younger than I was expecting, are you sure you can afford the rent on this home?¡± ¡°Oh, yes, the rent shouldn¡¯t be a problem I was actually wondering why it was lower than expected, I¡¯ve done a little research and it is within fairly normal ranges for renting a home of this expense, but that is assuming it doesn¡¯t have amenities, that this home has, such as the pool and land. I guess I¡¯m worried that there might be something wrong with the property or that there may be some larger expenses that aren¡¯t covered by the rent.¡± ¡°Oh, no. The home was almost completely rebuilt just last year, unfortunately, the landowner''s wife passed away before they could move in and he chose to stay at his home in the city. When it was put up for rent three months ago we had it inspected and everything was in working order, most of it being brand new. There shouldn¡¯t be any large expenses outside your rent, the landowner has offered to include utilities, with the agreement that if you should go over a specific amount, which will be detailed in the rental agreement, you will be charged the difference. He will also continue to pay for the gardener to ensure that the lawn and garden are maintained. The pool testing is automated and someone comes by once a month to make sure it is working properly and to replace chemical cartridges if necessary. Ultimately, he would like the house to be occupied soon so he was willing to lower the rent and cover those things in order to draw more interest.¡± ¡°I see, that seems reasonable, should we take a look inside?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± she says as she walks up to the porch and unlocks the front door. As we walk in I ask, ¡°do you know if the owner is interested in selling?¡± She looks at me, a bit surprised by my question, ¡°that is a bit more complicated, while the home is only listed as being on forty acres that is for the same reason that the rent was lowered. He actually owns a little over six hundred and forty acres surrounding the house and, from what I understand, the land has been in his family for several generations so I¡¯m not sure how he would feel about selling.¡± ¡°That is rather troubling, I¡¯m sure that would significantly increase the price assuming he would even sell. Perhaps I could explain my thought process and you could tell me what you think or would recommend,¡± I say, and look to her for confirmation. She gives me a nod so I continue, ¡°I don¡¯t currently have enough to buy the house, especially knowing how much land is attached now. I was planning on paying six months rent in advance so that I could move in as soon as possible and I could use that time to get a feel for the house. I should have had enough to buy it in roughly a month so if I fell in love with the place by then, I would look into purchasing the house in full. However, given this new information and the likelihood that he will not wish to sell I may have to look into another house. Which is rather disappointing, because, I quite like this place, so far, it is very beautiful.¡± I look over at her wistfully. ¡°Sorry I rambled a bit there, what do you think, how much would you estimate the house and land to be worth and do you think he would be interested if I were offering to pay in cash?¡± She looks startled by my declaration and it takes her a moment to respond. ¡°I would have to talk to the landowner before I could tell you whether he¡¯d be willing to sell, but, if he were, the house with the land could be valued at anywhere from one to three million dollars.¡±Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I¡¯m not really shocked, land prices here in Texas are usually a couple thousand dollars or more per acre, the land alone is probably worth at least one-point-two million dollars. I¡¯m not sure why but part of me really wants to buy it, another part of me isn¡¯t sure it is worth it. The part of me that wants to buy seems to be winning though, I wonder if my intuition skill is playing a role at all. That thought stops me in my tracks, while I¡¯ve only used the skill for gambling so far, nothing in its description stated that that was all it was good for. Perhaps there is more to this place, or maybe I might need the land in the future. I¡¯m not sure but that leaned me even more towards buying it, I¡¯ll trust my gut for now. ¡°If you could, ask him if he would be willing to sell it to me for one million dollars in full by the end of next month, at the latest.¡± Maybe I''ll make a visit to Vegas this weekend, I bet I could win big there and it would be far less noticeable than it would be here. ¡°As for the rent, I¡¯d like to go ahead with it, and if he agrees with the sell he can consider the fifteen thousand, for six months rent, a bonus.¡± Fifteen thousand would be rather inconsequential compared to the potentially million dollar purchase. ¡°There were a couple of rooms I had been concerned about but having seen them in person they seem fine, I think the photos just played tricks on my eyes. I assumed you¡¯ll need to talk to the owner before coming to an agreement with me?¡± By the time I finish talking she has regained her composure, although there was a hint of surprise when I mentioned buying the place for one million. I¡¯m not sure where my confidence has come from all of a sudden. My best guess is that I¡¯m thinking so much, about the money and how I might make it, that I¡¯m not paying overly much attention to the actual conversation, just thinking out loud. Over the next several minutes we continue to talk about the rental agreement, I mention my desire to move in rather soon and my willingness to pay up-front. After we talked she asked me to follow her back to her office where we could fill out some of the paperwork and she would contact the landlord on the way to discuss what we¡¯d talked about and to see if he would be willing to meet us at her office. We arrive twenty minutes later, unfortunately, the landlord is busy and won¡¯t be able to join us, but he is okay with me renting his home and agreed to let me start moving in tomorrow pending a background check, that, Janine says, could be done in minutes but could, potentially, take up to twenty-four hours. She starts the background check and I look over the rental agreement, it is fairly basic and includes everything we discussed with, as far as I can tell, no obvious issues. A few minutes into my reading Janine receives an email with my background check, and she starts to look it over as I finish. We talk a bit longer, her asking about my credit and employment, and me mentioning my recent financial windfall, without going into too much detail. ¡°Okay,¡± she says as I sign the rental agreement. ¡°I¡¯ll email this to the landlord and contact you for payment when he signs later today and we can set a time for me to bring you the keys tomorrow.¡± We stand up to shake hands as I thank her for her help. Over the next three days, I continued my usual routine with a few exceptions. I moved into the rental house. I got furniture for the living room, a couple of nice beds for my room and the two spare bedrooms. I bought a couple of tv¡¯s, one for my room and one for the living room. I also got a new computer and the accompanying accouterments, monitor, mouse, mouse pad, keyboard, and headset all sitting on a nice computer desk. I finished the email negotiations with the car dealerships. I ended up getting the Corvette and a Jeep Wrangler. There for a bit, I was leaning toward the BWM, but one dealership had a used Corvette fitting practically all my specifications for only seventy-two thousand dollars and it only had eight thousand miles on it. I was able to get a used Jeep Wrangler Sahara for twenty-seven thousand and it also only had just under eight thousand miles. After sales tax, I ended up spending just over one-hundred and five thousand dollars on the two vehicles which is about as much as I had originally expected I would pay just for the Corvette. Luckily I made out pretty well at the casino those three days and as of today, even after paying six months of rent and buying the two cars, I¡¯ve made nearly twelve thousand dollars. I also bought a plane ticket to Las Vegas and made hotel reservations, I decided that was probably my best bet for getting the money for the house rather quickly and if the owner decides not to sell I¡¯ll have a nice little nest egg saved up when I do decide on a house. I also gave Amanda a call, I ended up inviting her to go to Vegas with me. It¡¯s a bit extreme for a first date but I wanted to see her again soon and had already decided to go to Vegas so I took a risk, surprisingly she accepted. Vegas Chapter 7 ¡°I can¡¯t believe we¡¯re doing this, I mean I barely know you and we are about to go on a trip together,¡± Amanda says, not quite in hysterics but obviously a bit nervous. ¡°Yeah,¡± I give a soft chuckle before frowning as I come to a decision, ¡°look, I doubt it really needs to be said but if you don¡¯t want to go it''s not too late to change your mind. I would be back Sunday and, if you''re still interested, we could go out for lunch Monday. I didn¡¯t exactly plan this,¡± I say, scoffing at the idea, ¡°it was a spur of the moment decision. I already had it in my mind that I was going to Vegas this weekend; when I called you to see if you might like to go out, one thing led to another and I invited you to come with me. I¡¯d still like you to come, I just don¡¯t want you to think I¡¯d be upset with you if you decided it was too early to go on a weekend trip with me.¡± She looks up at me, an uncertain look on her face, like she''s trying to discern my earnestness. After several seconds a shy smile alights upon her face, ¡°you actually mean that. You wouldn¡¯t be mad if I ditched you at the airport?¡± I laugh, ¡°not a chance, I wouldn¡¯t want to pressure you into doing something that makes you so uncomfortable. Besides, you wouldn¡¯t exactly be ditching me, I¡¯m sure there are many beautiful women in Vegas who would be happy to be with an eligible bachelor such as I,¡± I joke, adopting an overly pompous accent. She laughs, punching me in the arm, surprisingly hard, before her more confident smile returns. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll go, but you better have gotten a room with two beds, mister, don¡¯t be getting any ideas just because I¡¯m spending the weekend with you. Oh, and how much is the room I¡¯ll pay you for my half, it''s bad enough I let you buy my plane ticket.¡± ¡°Uhh,¡± she shoots me a glare and I chuckle,¡± I got us two, adjoining, rooms. I wasn¡¯t sure you¡¯d be comfortable sharing a room. I thought about getting a two-room suite but the cheapest one was triple the price of one regular room so it just made more sense to go for two.¡± ¡°How much are they,¡± she asks. ¡°They¡¯re only one-hundred and fifty a night, it¡¯s no problem.¡± She frowns for a moment, ¡°if they¡¯ll let us we can get one room with two beds, and I¡¯ll pay half.¡± She shoots me a look that tells me I¡¯d better not contradict her, and I honestly had no intention to. It wasn¡¯t my intention behind inviting her, but when we gamble, which I¡¯m positive we will, I plan on helping her win wherever I can. ¡°Besides I¡¯m sure you, being a professional gambler and all, will guide me to the right machines and make sure I don¡¯t lose too much money when we¡¯re gambling. That will more than make up for the cost of the room.¡± I look at her, a bit startled. It¡¯s almost like the woman can read my mind. It was a roughly five-hour trip after a thirty-minute stopover in Salt Lake City. Luckily there were no delays otherwise we might have been late to check-in at the hotel. After a quick Uber ride to the hotel, we arrived, I asked the receptionist to change the reservation from two, one bed, rooms to one, two bed, room. They seemed happy to oblige, and, after a couple of minutes checking in, we headed up to our room. ¡°I was thinking after we settle in, we could go down and gamble for a couple of hours before getting an early dinner and maybe checking out a show. How¡¯s that sound?¡± Smiling, Amanda says, ¡°Okay, just let me get changed really quick and we can head down,¡± before grabbing something out of her suitcase and heading into the bathroom. She comes out ten minutes later dressed in a cute, red, half-sleeve dress, the skirt coming down just above her knees. It doesn¡¯t look like she really did anything else aside from brushing out her hair a bit and maybe touching up her makeup, but she looks absolutely gorgeous. I stared for a moment before smiling and telling her exactly that. Giving me a bright smile she grabs her purse and heads for the door. ¡°Wait,¡± I call out, ¡°you probably shouldn¡¯t bring your purse, just grab the amount you can afford to lose and take that with you that way you don¡¯t have more money on hand to keep gambling if you lose that much. Plus you won¡¯t have to worry about keeping track of your purse as we walk around. You might need your ID as well, they might card us plus if you win big they will ask for ID.¡± Nodding, she grabs her wallet out of her purse and takes out several twenty-dollar bills and her license. ¡°Oh, here.¡± I take the extra keycard out of my pocket and hand it to her as she puts her money in a cute little pocket on the skirt of her dress. ¡°In case we get separated or you need to come and get something from the room.¡± We take the elevator down to the casino and walk around the slot machines exploring a bit. ¡°So how do you pick which machine to sit at?¡± ¡°Well, usually I try to find the higher denomination machines because they have the best payout percentages. After that, I don¡¯t know, I just get a sort of feeling about which machine is best and sit there. If I lose more than I¡¯d like at that machine before receiving a good payout I¡¯ll move on to another.¡± I tell her the truth without getting into too much detail on the ¡°feeling¡± I get. Right now I¡¯m using my intuition to find two machines that should payout well and are side by side. It doesn¡¯t take long to find a row of ten-dollar machines that have two that feel like they will be successful. One of the machines gives off a bit of a stronger feeling than the other and, wanting her to have a good time, I lead her to that one and sit at the one next to it. When she sees how much each bet costs she gives me a slightly apprehensive look. ¡°I don¡¯t think I brought enough money to bet this much for long.¡± Not wanting her to be discouraged I say, ¡°that¡¯s okay, if these machines don¡¯t pay off I¡¯ll cover your losses and we can find different, slightly cheaper, machines.¡± She frowns but nods and puts her money in, after nearly a dozen spins she only has about three spins left and shoots me another apprehensive look. Her next spin brings her into a little mini-game, which it seems most slot machines have these days, which nets her thirty credits, each worth ten dollars. She jumps up and down in her seat clapping and beaming her beautiful smile at me. I laugh, as she looks like a kid who was told they were going to a candy store. In those two hours, we both won several thousand dollars and she had one hand pay, where she had to show her ID and fill out a form before they paid her fifteen hundred dollars in cash, she was ecstatic. ¡°Is this how it always feels,¡± she asks, a little high on the adrenaline of winning so much money. I laugh, ¡°yeah it can be exhilarating when your winning. Are you ready to go eat or were you wanting to play a little more?¡± I¡¯d noticed her stomach growling for a bit now so I thought I¡¯d ask. ¡°Yeah, my stomach¡¯s been yelling at me for the last few minutes. What did you have in mind?¡± ¡°The hotel is supposed to have a really nice buffet, or if you¡¯d rather I¡¯m sure we could find a nice restaurant nearby. Given our winnings, I thought we might go to a more expensive place but most would likely require a reservation which I had forgotten about till now.¡± ¡°The buffet would be fine, after we eat, maybe we could play a little more. I¡¯m having a lot of fun and, to be honest, I¡¯d never gambled before today.¡± ¡°I¡¯d love to, maybe we could try some blackjack or some of the higher limit slot machines. Not to mention other casinos, we could go for a walk and visit some of the others after we eat.¡± ¡°Oh, my father was in Vegas a couple of years ago and talked about this really cool gun range where they have hundreds of guns from different eras and video games, we should check that out tomorrow. I think they will even pick you up in a Hummer for free, and let you run over a car with a tank although that is probably really expensive.¡± ¡°That sounds like a lot of fun, I¡¯ll look into that before we go to bed or in the morning after I get up.¡± We ask for directions to the buffet and go eat. As we eat we talk about random stuff, about her dad, the gun range, etc. Apparently, her dad owns the barbershop that she works at, he was one of the older gentlemen that were cutting hair when she was cutting mine. When we finish eating, we head back into the casino and find the high roller machines with max bets of around two hundred dollars. The hundred dollar machines are similar to the machines we had been playing on earlier but each credit is worth one hundred dollars and you bet two credits with each spin. We get several five to ten credit wins before she gets a forty credit win and five minutes later I get a sixty credit win. We continue to play for another hour making nearly one thousand credits between the two of us. ¡°I think we should go deposit this at the bank, I don¡¯t know about you but I don¡¯t want to be walking around with nearly one hundred grand between us. Then maybe we can go check out some of the other casinos nearby.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± she lets out a slightly hysterical laugh, ¡°I agree, I saw a Wells Fargo down the street when we were on our way in.¡± Hearing us one of the staff members tells us that the banks have closed already but that we can put our money in a safe deposit box at the cage. We both hold on to a couple thousand dollars, leaving the rest in a safe deposit box, and head on out to explore a bit. We¡¯re staying at the Bellagio so we get to see the fountains spraying into the air as we leave, which is very beautiful. Walking north we stop in at a couple of different casinos, making a decent amount at each. Arriving at The Mirage, Amanda and I are just in time to watch the ¡°volcano¡± erupt. It¡¯s a pretty cool little show using light, water, and fire to, sometimes, look like actual lava bursts. When we got in we play a bit of slots but decide to move on to blackjack for a bit. I¡¯m not entirely sure how well my intuition will work on blackjack especially with both of us playing, plus I can¡¯t win too much or it may look like I¡¯m counting cards or something. ¡°So, any advice on playing BlackJack,¡± Amanda asks as we sit down at a table.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ¡°Ehh, I haven¡¯t played a whole lot of BlackJack, I¡¯ve watched some basic strategy videos though. The easiest thing I can tell you is to always split eights and aces. Other than that I can try to give you advice while we play, but I can¡¯t be sure we¡¯ll win. If we lose too much here we can always find something else to play.¡± Given the advice, I got from the videos I watched, the table I chose was a bit expensive but had the best odds. It paid out three to two on blackjacks, allowed double downs before and after splitting and the dealer stands on seventeen. The downside, or upside depending on how you look at it, was that the table minimum was one hundred dollars and each of the three such tables had at least three or four people at them. The previous game having finished just as we sat down I take out one thousand dollars and place it on the table, Amanda doing the same, and the dealer gives us both ten, one hundred dollar, chips. We are the last two on the table and we both bet the minimum. As the cards start getting dealt my intuition kicks in, it isn¡¯t quite the same as it is for slots but the sense is similar enough that I immediately know I should have a good hand. There isn¡¯t a pull or build-up like there is in slots, so much as a feeling telling me what I should do combined with that slight elation that comes with winning. As my hand is dealt I find myself with a pair of aces, and Amanda starts with a blackjack right off the bat. Everyone at the table congratulates her and quickly moves on. The first guy busts, the second guy gets a nineteen and his wife/girlfriend gets an eighteen. Then it¡¯s my turn, I split my aces, and get a ten on one and a king on the other. Apparently, that''s not considered a natural blackjack so I only make two hundred dollars as opposed to three hundred off that hand. The slightly older couple sitting next to us is quite nice, noticing that Amanda and I are fairly new to BlackJack they give us occasional advice. We don¡¯t win every hand, partially by design but mostly because it is nearly impossible to win every hand. I do use the insurance thing a couple of times, even though the basic strategy says not to, it allows me to break even when the dealer is showing an ace and I know I¡¯m going to lose. I do it a couple of times when I know I¡¯ll win so it doesn¡¯t look like I¡¯m counting cards. I don¡¯t take every opportunity to double down, trying to follow what I remember of the basic strategy as much as possible while still winning when I can. Once I get the hang of it and build up a bit of a buffer I gradually increase my bets to one thousand dollars. After we had played several hands Amanda got the hang of it as well and only wanted me to help when she asked for it. She is making out pretty well for herself, not quite as well as me but she doesn¡¯t have the advantage of my intuition skill. We play for nearly an hour and so far I¡¯ve made just under fifty thousand dollars. I decide to go all-in on the last hand betting the maximum of ten grand and betting an additional one grand as the dealer''s tip. I get an ace and a six, and the dealer is showing a four, so I double down on both our bets and receive a four for my last card getting a blackjack. I end up winning thirty thousand on that hand alone and essentially tip the dealer five thousand dollars. Amanda ended up winning her hand as well with an eighteen vs seventeen, but she only bet a grand so she doubled her bet. We end up leaving the table with about one hundred thousand dollars between us, having won just under eighty thousand myself. We head to Treasure Island after cashing out, the casino was nice enough to wire the money to our bank accounts. However, we still had a lot of money on us from winning in the slots and they weren¡¯t willing to take that money and wire it for us because it could look like money laundering. They were, however, nice enough to provide us with some bags to carry the money in. There were a couple of instances where I thought someone might try and pickpocket us but I make eye contact with the few people I see getting a little too close and they subtly back off. We spend two more hours at Treasure Island. At the first table we sit at we lose the first several hands; we end up breaking even before switching tables. We make out much better at the second table, making a little more there than we had at the mirage. It¡¯s getting a little late now so we decide to head back to our hotel. In her excitement, Amanda had given me several light hugs and kisses throughout the night. When we arrive back at our hotel room she jumps into my arms and gives me another kiss. Catching her by the waist I fall back onto her bed. Deepening the kiss as I wrap my arms around her, she starts lightly grinding her hips into me. My eyes widen in surprise, I lower one of the hands-on her back to lightly squeeze her tight little ass. She grinds her hips into me a little harder and lets out a soft moan. Taking this as consent, I sit up with her in my arms and lift her dress up and over her head. Tossing it to the side I wrap my arms around her, roll her onto her back, and continue kissing her. She seems to hesitate a second before getting back into it, grinding herself back up into me as I reach up and gently squeeze one of her breasts through her bra with one hand, unclipping it with the other. I start kissing my way down her neck to one of her breasts, taking one of her little pink nipples into my mouth while I gently fondle and tweak the other, drawing light gasps from her. As I switch attention from one nipple to the other I let my hand trail down her abdomen to gently cup her sex. She lets out another soft moan, grinding herself into my hand as I start to massage her through her panties, mmm she is so wet for me I can feel it through her underwear. My dick straining at the confines of my pants, I stop touching her long enough to unbutton and unzip my pants and tug them off enough that they fall to my ankles. I¡¯m so focused on getting my pants off and getting back to her that I don¡¯t immediately notice her freeze up at the sound of my pants unzipping. Kicking my pants off I go to start peeling her out of her panties when she says, ¡°wait.¡± So caught up in what I¡¯m doing it takes a couple of seconds for what she said to register. I look up at her, confusion writ on my face, only to see a look of apprehension and fear in her eyes. ¡°What''s wrong, are you okay?¡± I lean toward her and look around the bed trying to figure out what might have upset her when I see her state of undress and my pants sitting over to my right. ¡°I¡¯m moving too fast,¡± I say, running my fingers through my hair, ¡°sorry I got caught up in the moment and took things too far.¡± I pull away, trying to give her a little space. ¡°No, it''s okay, I just¡­ when I heard your pants unzip it cleared my head a little and I realized where this was heading. I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m not ready to go quite that far yet.¡± She blushes and looks down at herself in embarrassment. I give her a guilty smile of reassurance, ¡°It¡¯s okay, I understand.¡± I reach over, grab my pants, and stand up to start putting them back on. ¡°Wait,¡± she sits up onto her knees, ¡°um¡­ I¡¯m okay to keep going, I¡¯m just not quite ready to go quite as far as we were about to go.¡± Crawling to the edge of the bed she reaches out and gently squeezes me through my underwear. I had started softening but with her touch, I¡¯m almost immediately hard again. Reaching into my underwear she fishes my cock out. I¡¯m not huge, by any means, but I¡¯m slightly above average at six and a half inches, not that I¡¯ve ever measured¡­ She gently strokes me for several seconds before looking up at me, and blushing, before leaning down to take me into her mouth. I gasp out a breath as I feel her mouth encompass the head of my cock, her tongue gently twirling around it in circles. I run my fingers through her hair, placing my hand behind her head. She starts taking me deeper, and as I feel my cock approaching her throat I gently pull her hair back guiding her toward what I like. I¡¯ve never cared for gagging/choking sounds during a blowjob so I try to keep her from taking me too far in. She looks up into my eyes, and I feel her lips turn up slightly in one I¡¯d guess is a smile, a slight blush on her face, as she continues to work me into her mouth. Her tongue never stops moving, as she takes me deeper she runs it side to side on the bottom of my cock before twirling it around the head on the backstroke. I see her cute little ass, sticking up behind her and waving side to side, like a cat shaking its tail, while she sucks me off. I lean forward and squeeze one of her butt cheeks, her ass isn¡¯t huge but it is full and well defined, having the perfect amount of give as I fondle it. I don¡¯t end up lasting too long in her mouth, after about two minutes I call out to her to let her know I¡¯m gonna cum soon. She surprises me by taking me down even deeper than I would let her before. I¡¯m not quite long enough to enter her throat but I¡¯m long enough to get just past the entrance and can feel her gentle swallowing motions squeezing my cock. She seems to feel my cock start to swell a little further and pulls out to just the tip, twirling her tongue around the head while I fill her mouth with cum. She smiles up at me as she takes it out of her mouth, her throat moving as she swallows my seed. She gently milks the last little bit out with her hand while licking me clean. Sitting up, she smiles at me like the cat who ate the canary, the only thing missing is the soft purring sound. I smile back, ¡°that was incredible.¡± I lean in and take her into my arms, kissing her again, I lay her back on the bed. Kissing up her jaw to her ear I whisper breathily, ¡°do you mind if I return the favor,¡± before pulling my head back to ensure the seriousness of my question. Blushing, she nods enthusiastically. Deciding to tease her a bit I lean in and give her another peck on the lips before saying, ¡°I¡¯m afraid I¡¯ll need verbal confirmation to continue.¡± Blushing even deeper she says, ¡°yes, you can.¡± ¡°I can what?¡± Catching on, she gives me a smirk while still blushing, and says, ¡°yes, you can return the favor and lick me till I cum.¡± A bit surprised but far from disappointed I smile and comply. I start kissing her again, taking her hands in mine I lift hers above her head as I kiss down her neck and start to work her breasts with my tongue again. Licking around her nipples and down to the underside of her boobs, I let my teeth lightly graze her flesh. Kissing my way down her abdomen, she has very firm abs, not quite a six-pack but she¡¯s definitely keeping in shape. I gently lick her little belly button, it barely qualifies as an inny. I release her hands to gently fondle her breasts while I continue to work my way lower. As I get further down she lets her legs part, granting me access. I smile up at her as I lightly kiss her sex through her wet panties. Keeping eye contact I start to tease her panties down, she thrusts her hips to get them out from under her sexy little butt. I slowly follow her panties down one of her legs trailing kisses behind them. The entire time, she is mewling softly in pleasure. Taking them off I close her legs and she lets out a soft gasp as I gently graze my teeth along the sole of her left foot, from heel to toe. kissing each toe from her left foot to her right. She lets out another gasp as I graze my teeth back down her right foot and slowly spread her legs open as I work my way back to her sex. As I work my way closer I get my first quick glimpse of her pussy and see her wet pink lips parting as I spread her legs further. I tease her a bit further by kissing and licking around her sex before burying my tongue in her vagina and drawing it back out and up to gently flick her clit. Then I purse my lips over her clit letting it rest against my tongue and gently suck, the suction causing it to slightly rub against my tongue as she grinds up into my mouth. It doesn¡¯t take long for her to start shuddering in a small orgasm. Her pussy is incredibly wet now, I gently ease a finger inside her, and as she relaxes after cumming I gently push down, as she tightens I ease up and slide a second finger in. As I get into a rhythm of gently fingering her, I reach up with my other hand and, with a finger on either side of her clit, I squeeze her outer lips together and stroke her clit while gently fingering her tight little pussy. After a couple of minutes, switching it up here and there, she starts to cum again this time far more intensely. Even going so far as to squirt a little. As she comes down from her orgasm I climb back on top of her for another kiss before laying down next to her. We talk a bit more before she quickly falls asleep. I¡¯m about to fall asleep as well when I remember our money. I go grab the bags, put them in the room safe, and then climb back into bed with her passing out soon after. Vegas Part 2
Waking up, I feel Amanda lying next to me, my arm stuck beneath her as she cuddles into me. I immediately start to pull away but stop not wanting to wake her. With that in mind, I ease my arm out from under Amanda, causing her to roll over onto her other side. I¡¯ve noticed, over the last couple of days, that I don¡¯t need quite as much sleep anymore. It has only been about five and a half to six hours since Amanda and I fell asleep but here I am wide awake. I lean in, giving her a light kiss on the back of the head, catching a whiff of her shampoo. It smells quite nice, a sort of earthy-floral scent reminding me of tea tree oil. I should probably go for a workout since I didn¡¯t exercise much yesterday. At that thought, I hop out of bed and write her a quick note letting her know where I went in case she wakes up before I get back.
Downstairs I quickly get directions to the fitness center. They have a surprisingly nice gym that rivals most of the actual gyms back home. It¡¯s been quite some time since I¡¯ve been to a gym so I¡¯m not entirely sure where to start. I eventually decide to warm up on an elliptical machine for thirty minutes before moving on to a diverse weight-lifting workout, my higher endurance and enhanced recovery allowing me to do a bit of everything without having to worry about overworking a muscle group.
I arrive back up to the room, about an hour and a half later, to find Amanda still sound asleep. Though, without me there, she has moved around quite a bit tossing most of the covers off leaving her beautiful body almost completely visible. Admiring her for a couple of minutes caused me to
While washing my hair and face, I hear the rustle of the shower curtain being pulled aside. I still have soap on my face so I can¡¯t open my eyes to look, but as I turn back to wash it off, I feel Amanda press up against me from behind. Her breasts depressing against my back as she kisses my neck. I laugh as her hands trail up and down my chest and abdomen before going a bit lower...We have a quick reenactment of last night''s festivities before washing each other.
¡°Good morning,¡± I say with a bright smile on my face as we dry each other off.
Blushing slightly with an equally bright smile she wishes me a good morning back.
¡°I checked out the website for that shooting range you mentioned. I was thinking we could have a Humvee come pick us up around noon. That gives us a couple of hours to eat and gamble a bit before we go shoot. I think I wanna go for the Sniper package, I¡¯ve shot a bit here and there but I¡¯ve never shot long range before.¡±
¡°That sounds fun, do they have a pretty long range?¡±
¡°Ahh I don¡¯t know, it was listed as long-range when I googled it and they have a sniper experience so I would assume so. I guess we¡¯ll find out when we get there.¡± I use my phone to schedule a pickup as we head downstairs.
We take the elevator down and head to the buffet for breakfast, we got comped a few free buffet tickets last night when we were winning quite a bit. I get a plateful of hashbrowns, half smothering them in ketchup, with some scrambled eggs and bacon on the side. She makes herself a bowl of mixed fruit and grabs a blueberry muffin. She laughs at me when she sees my plate of hashbrowns practically dyed red with ketchup and makes the usual joke about wanting hashbrowns with my ketchup. I, being the mature gentleman I am, give an overly fake laugh before sticking my tongue out at her, getting a giggle in response. We spend the next fifteen minutes bantering while we eat.
Finishing up we continue on to the casino to play slots again. We are on a bit more of a schedule now, and it is a bit easier to leave a slot machine more quickly than it is a poker table. We don¡¯t have quite as much luck this morning, most of the slot machines that I feel good about are already occupied and the few available, while still good, aren¡¯t paying out quite as much as we were getting last night. My phone starts vibrating in my pocket, I set an alarm to remind me of the time. I figured we might want to deposit some of our winnings as well so I set it to go off about forty-five minutes before we were supposed to leave. The bank is just around the corner and if it doesn¡¯t take too long we can always gamble a little more.
¡°We should go grab our money out of the room and deposit most of it before the Humvee gets here, we have about forty-five minutes, I¡¯m not entirely sure how long it will take to deposit this much money though.¡±
¡°Okay, one more roll,¡± I chuckle as she rolls two more times before winning on her third roll getting back the money she bet on the previous two. She shoots me a fake glare before sticking her tongue out at me and cashing out. We both won a little over five grand in the last hour, no hand pays but a handful of four to five hundred dollar wins each and a lot of smaller wins.
When we get up to the room to get the money I check for directions on my phone. ¡°We might have to grab a taxi or an Uber or something the bank is a bit further away than I realized.¡± I get into the safe and grab the bags, handing her her money. ¡°You might want to leave some here for later and keep a little with us for the shooting range.¡± Taking my own advice I grab a stack with ten thousand dollars in hundreds and leave it in the safe. She grabs the same leaving it next to mine. She should have a bit more in her bag than me, I let her get the slot machine that paid out more, and all of our BlackJack winnings were wired straight to our accounts when we cashed in our chips at the cage. When we get back down to the lobby we go to the main entrance and luckily find an empty taxi sitting there waiting for potential customers. I wave at the driver saying hello before opening the door for Amanda, I¡¯m about to close it and go around but she immediately scoots over to the other side. Smiling I hop in beside her.
¡°Where you need to go,¡± the taxi driver asks.
¡°We need to stop by the Well¡¯s Fargo on,¡± I look down at my phone, ¡°Howard Hughes Parkway.¡±
¡°Alright, buckle up,¡± He says pulling out immediately.
It seems we got pretty lucky coming when we did, Vegas is still fairly busy as I¡¯m sure it almost always is but we seem to have come when there were no big events going on which is why our hotel was so cheap and now traffic isn¡¯t too ridiculous. We also get lucky with the intersections hitting every green light, so it¡¯s only a five-minute drive before we pull into the bank.¡±Thanks, would you be willing to stay while we make our deposit?¡±
¡°Sure no problem.¡± Surprisingly he pauses the meter as I open the door. I expected him to keep it running while we were inside. Taking one of the hundreds from my wallet I tap his shoulder and hand it to him, ¡°for your time, we shouldn¡¯t be too long unless there is a huge line.¡± He smiles and thanks me as we hop out of the car.
Luckily the bank isn¡¯t too incredibly busy and we are able to get help after a couple of minutes. It was a surprisingly quick experience, we caught a couple of looks from other customers as we took turns handing over our money, but the bank employees didn¡¯t seem overly shocked. I¡¯d assume, being a bank in Las Vegas, that large cash deposits are a relatively common occurrence. It did take a few minutes to run the money through their machines, counting it and checking for counterfeit bills, but it was fairly routine, and because the money was fairly well organized it went quicker than I had hoped. In the end, I deposited sixty grand and Amanda deposited just under seventy, both of us keeping just over a thousand dollars in our bags for the shooting range and a little more gambling. We get in and out in less than ten minutes, most of the time spent processing our information before they took our money, the money counters being ridiculously quick.
Thanks to the efficiency of the bank and our taxi driver, we deposited our money and got back to the casino in less than twenty-five minutes giving us plenty of time before we were to be picked up by the Humvee.
Instead of going inside to play a bit before they show up, we get directions to the Uber pickup area, which is where we are supposed to get picked up and wait out there. They actually show up several minutes early so it was a nice coincidence. After a ten-minute drive, we pull in to see a number of other military vehicles. Several different tanks, two helicopters, and many others I don¡¯t know the name of. Getting out of the car, we thank our driver give him a small tip, and head on inside.
Talking to one of the employees inside I learn that their range is actually only twenty meters long, which is still decent but not really what I would consider long-range for anything but a pistol. With that information, I decide not to go with the Sniper package, perhaps if it were closer to fifty or one hundred meters but twenty just doesn¡¯t really seem as interesting when talking about shooting a sniper rifle. We look through some of the other packages they offer. When we come to the Operator Experience we smile at each other. It offers seven guns, one of the sniper rifles from the sniper experience included and it lets us shoot a minigun which should be really cool. We had to pay extra to make it a two-person package and it nearly doubled the price to add extra ammo. It is fairly expensive but given our recent ¡°luck¡± I¡¯m alright with paying for it. With that selected they assign us our ¡°Range Safety Officer.¡± We get a nice guy named Andrew, he is quite enthusiastic and kind enough to take us on a little tour of the place. Just outside the vault, there are a couple hundred guns from modern pistols to a series of gold plated guns for their ¡°Warlord Experience¡± which, of course, has to include a gold plated AK. Inside the vault, they have just as many if not more guns, Andrew points out and talks about a lot of the rarer guns but I¡¯m so preoccupied taking it all in that I don¡¯t catch half of what he is saying. Before we enter the actual range he provides us with eye and ear protection and goes over the basic gun safety protocols. Always assume the gun is loaded. Don¡¯t point the gun at anything you don¡¯t intend to shoot. Keep your finger outside the trigger guard until you intend to shoot. Keep the gun unloaded until you are ready to shoot. Mostly common sense stuff but they likely have to say it all for legal and safety reasons.
With that taken care of Andrew brings us out to the range, they have a little pushcart with our guns and the loaded magazines ready for us. ¡°Let''s start with the Glock 17,¡± Andrew says. He takes the Glock off the cart racks the slide a couple of times and says, ¡°so, the Glock 17 doesn¡¯t really have an external safety outside of the person shooting it. It has two internal safeties and a trigger safety but there isn¡¯t anything to actually switch off, if you pull the trigger it will fire. This means muzzle awareness and keeping your finger off the trigger until you¡¯re ready to shoot is very important with this gun. Now, with that said whose shooting first.¡±
Amanda and I look at each other, and I can see the excitement in her eyes so I smile, nod to her, and tell her to go ahead. She smiles back and walks over to Andrew, Taking the gun she looks it over for a second, and just before Andrew goes to explain loading the magazine she quickly takes it inserts the magazine, and racks the slide with practiced ease. He looks at her for a second and just smiles and waves her on to proceed. She gets into a good shooting stance and lines up her shot before squeezing the trigger. Her first shot is up and to the right several inches from the torso bullseye. She quickly squeezes a second and then a third shot. The second is much closer only a handful of centimeters from the bullseye. Her third shot hit the bottom-right edge of the bullseye. Having gotten a feel for the gun she empties the remaining fourteen bullets in a matter of seconds, all of the remaining bullets joining her third shot in and around the bullseye. Placing the empty gun on the bench in front of her she turns around to look at us with a knowing smirk on her face. ¡°I bet you can¡¯t beat that,¡± she says smiling up at me.
I bark out a laugh, ¡°I see, you¡¯re a competitive little thing, aren''t you?¡±
Letting out a cute laugh she says, ¡°yup, at least when it comes to shooting anyway; my dad and I go at least once a month and compete to decide who is paying for dinner.¡±
¡°So what does that mean I get if I win?¡±
She laughs at my suggestively quirked eyebrow and is about to answer when gunshots from a couple lanes over start ringing out. We look over real quick then she smiles and yells, ¡°I guess we¡¯ll have to decide what we win later,¡± and waves toward the gun telling me to go ahead.
Smiling I walk up, take the gun and look it over. I hit the mag release buttons on either side catching it and placing it next to the fresh magazine, I then insert it but with not quite the same finesse as Amanda before flicking the slide release, loading a bullet into the chamber. I got a decent idea of how the gun shoots while watching her so, aiming at the head, I hit just inside the bullseye with my first shot. I look back at her and smirk, she has a bit of a surprised look on her face but smiles back at me when she notices my look. I quickly empty the magazine almost all my shots go in or just outside of the bullseye.
¡°Very nice,¡± Amanda says, ¡°do you go shooting pretty often?¡±
¡°Not too much anymore, I used to shoot quite a bit when I was younger but this is the first time I¡¯ve been in several months, but I got to see you shoot first so I had an idea of how the gun shoots. You want me to shoot the next gun first so that it''s fair?¡±
¡°Sure, sure,¡± she says, ¡°what are we shooting next Andrew?¡±
He walks over to the cart and grabs a submachine gun and says, ¡°Next is the Heckler and Koch MP5K,¡± he unfolds the buttstock, ¡°with a collapsible buttstock.¡± he goes on to describe the gun and how it is used before placing it on the table ready to load and fire. It has three firing modes if you include safety, then semi-auto, and full-auto. We switch out the targets so we can keep better track of who is hitting where. Taking the gun I insert the magazine and slap the cocking lever down to load a bullet into the chamber. I start with semi-auto taking a couple of shots then switch and squeeze out some bursts of full-auto. It¡¯s a lot harder to control on full-auto but I still manage to get most of my shots within a couple of inches of the bullseye. Since I was shooting at the head there were a couple of shots that hit the white space surrounding it, missing the outlined part of the target completely. She shoots just about as well, shooting at the torso, all of her shots hitting the target most outside the bullseye.
We continue like this with the rest of the guns, after the MP5 we shoot an Uzi, then the Colt M4, and after that, we shoot an AK-74. We moved the target back to the fifteen-meter mark when we started shooting the ARs, we had it at the ten-meter mark for the pistol and sub-machine guns. Amanda gave me the win at this point since it was obvious that my shots had all hit in a smaller spread and more of the bullseye was missing on the heads of our targets. I hadn¡¯t really needed it at this range, but as we were shooting I began to get a sense of when to pull the trigger and when to let off. I¡¯m guessing that when we made it a bet my luck stat took effect and started to help guide me. We decided to save the M249 and the Minigun for last, so, after the rifles, Andrew grabbed the M107A1 Barrett sniper rifle and set it up for us. I paid quite a bit extra to get a full ten-round magazine for it.
I got a chair so I could sit and shoot. As I set up to take the shot I start to get pretty excited so, wanting to do well, I take a couple deep breaths to settle my nerves before leaning in to look through the scope. I could feel each beat of my heart as I lined up the shot on the target''s head, the target''s only twenty meters out so with the sight it¡¯s like they are only ten or so feet in front of me. I honestly don¡¯t know why I¡¯m taking it so seriously, there¡¯s just something about shooting a 50-caliber rifle that makes it feel more real to me. As I start to squeeze the trigger time seems to slow to the point where several seconds seem to pass between each heartbeat. I can see that I started to squeeze a bit too quickly and pulled my shot slightly off-target of the bullseye. I make the slightest correction just before the trigger is pulled that last little bit. I feel a kick to my shoulder and the bullet tears through the air and rips through the target so fast that it leaves a surprisingly small hole dead center in the bullseye. The air is practically visible as it shoots out of the muzzle brake, diffusing most of the kick. Even with my slowed perception of time, it seemed to all happen in an instant. I let one more beat of my heart pass and then between that thump and the next I fire four more rounds all within millimeters of the first, most, partially, overlapping each other. I take in one more deep breath, and let it back out as time starts to speed back up to normal. ¡°WOOO, that is a fucking rush,¡± I exclaim, flip the safety, and turn to look back at Amanda and Andrew with a huge smile on my face.
Andrew and Amanda stare at the target with surprised looks on their faces. ¡°What,¡± I ask, looking back at the target. I see that there is one fairly large hole where the bullseye used to be. ¡°Oh, come on, it''s not
Clearing his throat Andrew says, ¡°It''s not that you hit the bullseye, it''s that you hit the bullseye with each shot while firing that fast. I¡¯m pretty sure you shot all five shots in less than a second and, from what I can tell, none of them strayed more than a centimeter from where your first shot hit.¡± I look back at the target, thinking about what he said for a minute then I shrug and say, ¡°Just some lucky shots I guess, in the moment it felt a lot longer than one second though, felt like I had all the time in the world for each shot.¡± After that Amanda goes up to take her five shots, getting all of hers in the bullseye as well, though she took her time on each shot. We moved on to the M249 which was pretty fun, then to the Minigun which was kind of crazy. You see how fast it shoots in games and movies but that doesn¡¯t really prepare you for what it''s like shooting it yourself. We had one hundred rounds each and it took less than three seconds of actually holding the trigger down to go through them all. As we are leaving the range Amanda says, ¡°You are a far better shot than I expected.¡±
¡°So what you¡¯re really saying is that you expected to kick my ass,¡± I say with a chuckle, ¡°And that you are surprised I held my own.¡±
¡°Ha, I wouldn¡¯t say you held your own, I¡¯d say it was my ass that got kicked. I think that means you won our little bet, so what exactly would you like for winning?¡±
I look over at her and, with a smile, I say, ¡°Well, as much as I¡¯d like to take advantage of you, perhaps we should do something simple. How about you pamper me with a nice meal. I believe there is a nice steakhouse near our hotel, perhaps we can go do a little shopping and then go out to eat. I think it is a bit pricey but given our recent luck I have no doubt we can afford it.¡± As I¡¯m looking at her she seems both happy and a bit disappointed that my request wasn¡¯t of a more sexual nature, although I could just be projecting.
The Bellagio has a number of stores inside so we just walk around and explore for a bit. The clothes are extremely expensive but we have money to burn at the moment so we both get a few things. I end up spending far too much money on one outfit, I get a nice t-shirt, some pants, underwear, and socks for over two thousand dollars. Amanda spends around the same on a cute dress. One thing they have going for them is that the employees are incredibly nice, that being said I¡¯ll likely never pay this much for casual clothing ever again. I might be willing to spend this much on a tailored suit or something but not a t-shirt and pants, it was more of an ¡°in the moment¡± purchase.
Luckily after we finished shopping Amanda decided she wanted to go do some more gambling while we waited for the steakhouse to open, so we had the chance to get back all that money we¡¯d just spent. We basically just followed the same route we followed last night but incorporated a bit more poker and fewer slot machines into the night''s festivities. We still play some slots and end up making quite a bit of money at them but not quite as much as yesterday. At the BlackJack and Texas Hold¡¯em tables, however, we end up making quite a bit more and we play it a bit smarter this time transferring our winnings from the slots into chips for the poker tables so that we aren¡¯t walking around with tens of thousands of dollars on us. I¡¯m still playing it a bit cautious, making sure I lose here and there but I make higher bets so that overall I¡¯m still winning more money in roughly the same amount of time. She is a bit more reserved and bets similarly to what I was betting yesterday. I don¡¯t keep an exact count between casinos but I¡¯d estimate that by the time we were heading back to our hotel I¡¯d won somewhere along the lines of three hundred thousand, I¡¯d guess Amanda got at least half to two-thirds of that. We arrive back at the hotel just in time for the walk-in reservation I made at the restaurant. Obviously, we both end up ordering steak and spend most of the meal just enjoying the food and each other''s company. There are snippets of conversation here and there. About our day¡­ about last night and her hesitancy to go further than we had, but it¡¯s not long until we finish eating and it¡¯s time to figure out what to do next.
I¡¯d kind of like to go see a show or something but at the same time, I haven¡¯t really met my quota for how much I need to earn if I want to buy my house and we have our flight home fairly early tomorrow morning. Luckily she is more than happy to go back to gambling and I still haven¡¯t tried playing roulette. Apparently, it has some of the worst odds but has the potential for some of the greatest payouts. Our hotel-casino has one of the highest limit tables in Vegas at ten thousand dollars. I go up to our room to grab the money we left in the safe before heading back down and cashing it in for chips each of us getting ten thousand dollars. As we arrive at the table there is a little sign listing the max bets, inside and outside. The inside max bet is one thousand dollars and the outside/table max is of course ten thousand. (Where the inside is the individual numbers 1 to 36 and includes 0 and 00. The outside includes 1-12, 13-24, 25-36, 1-18, 19-36, even, odd, red, black, and the columns.) I had read up a little about this but to be sure I ask the dealer, ¡°if the inside max is one thousand but the table max is ten thousand does that mean I can make ten inside bets of one thousand?¡±
¡°Yes sir,¡± she quickly replies
¡°Okay thank you,¡± I say as I look down at the table and try to get a feel for which number might win. As my eyes pass over the numbers they always seem to get glued to fourteen so I quickly place a one hundred dollar chip on 14 then I place four split bets, bets on two numbers, around the 14 covering the 11, 13, 15, and 17 surrounding the fourteen. I do the same for the four quadrants, or corner bets, surrounding the 14 and then a street bet which covers the row the 14 is on. This doesn¡¯t make for the best odds but it ensures the biggest payout if the ball lands on the fourteen. I look up from my bet and notice everyone giving me a weird look, including Amanda and the dealer as she raises her hands and calls out ¡°no more bets.¡± As she starts the ball spinning a spike of adrenaline flashes through me and my nerves skyrocket. I take a deep breath and as I let it out time appears to slow again, as it did at the gun range, and I watch as the ball bounces around on its last legs spiking my adrenaline further as it bounces over the fourteen only to tap the edge of the next number and bounce back, settling on the fourteen. Everyone stares in surprise for a second as the dealer calls out, ¡°Fourteen-Red,¡± before breaking out in applause and cheering as she starts divvying up chips. Because all of the individual bets I made include the 14 I get a far greater payout than if I¡¯d just bet on the 14 itself. I get paid 35 to 1 for my first bet, so thirty-five hundred. 17 to 1 for each split bet adding up to sixty-eight hundred. 11 to 1 for the street bet adding another eleven hundred. Then 8 to 1 for each corner bet for thirty-two hundred. All coming together for a total of fourteen thousand six hundred dollars.
¡°Why not just put one thousand down on 14,¡± Amanda asks, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you have won more that way?¡±
¡°Yeah, if I had just taken the thousand dollars that I bet there and placed it on the 14 I could have gotten thirty-five thousand dollars, but this was more of a test to see if my strategy would work. Betting ten thousand dollars on a single number would be ideal, but the highest inside bet I can make is one thousand dollars, so by making ten individual thousand dollar bets I maximize the amount of money I can make in a single spin given the limit. Outside bets have better odds but the most you can possibly win on a single bet is twenty thousand. Plus, this way, if I guess the wrong number I have eight other chances of getting the right one, four of which would let me come close to breaking even, and with the other four I would still win at least some money. It¡¯s definitely not the strategy with the best odds but it has the biggest payouts when luck is on your side, and luck has certainly been on
She blushes and gives me a light punch to the ribs causing me to burst out a short laugh as the dealer calls out ¡°no more bets¡±. It seems we got distracted talking to each other and missed the next spin. Not that it really matters, we end up spending most of the rest of the night at that table. I steadily increase my bets, I take a number of losses here and there but I stay in the positive the whole time. I make sure several of my wins are on the side bets so I¡¯m not winning quite as much as I could be, and so that it lasts. I imagine if I won a million dollars in less than half an hour they might kick me out and possibly ban me. It was around six pm when we started and by eight we both had won nearly a million dollars. Amanda had been a bit skeptical at first and so it took her longer to start betting the highest amount possible but in the end, she had just under seven hundred thousand dollars in chips and I had just over nine hundred thousand. At this point we had drawn a surprisingly large crowd, luckily the casino was kind enough to provide a security escort to the cashier''s window where we have the money sent to our bank accounts. It took a bit of time having the chips counted and filling out the paperwork and by the time we finished the manager showed up.
¡°Hello, Mr. Hawthorne, Ms. Craig,¡± the manager says nodding to us in turn, ¡°On behalf of the Bellagio we would like to offer you a complimentary upgrade to one of our Queen Suites.¡±
¡°That¡¯s very kind of you, but we¡¯ll be checking out fairly early tomorrow morning. It just wouldn¡¯t make sense to pack all our stuff up and move to that room only to go to bed and pack up again in the morning.¡±
¡°I understand, perhaps we could offer you¡­¡± He goes on to offer us a complimentary stay for our next visit and asks if they could take our photo, obviously for marketing purposes, and after we finish filling out the tax forms and talking to him we head up to our room.
Amanda seems a bit shell-shocked after the events of the night. We won a lot of money yesterday but that was roughly a tenth of what we ended up winning tonight. So instead of fooling around once we get to our room she quickly gets changed out of her new dress and into some sweat pants and a cute shirt before climbing into bed. Watching her get changed, then seeing her look so adorable in her pajamas I can¡¯t help but want to climb into bed with her and fool around, but she seems a bit out of it at the moment so I feel like I should just give her her space for now. We can talk a bit in the morning after she¡¯s had time to process everything that''s happened tonight and this weekend in general.
I get changed as well but it¡¯s still fairly early so I change into some swim trunks and, taking some spare clothes and a towel, go back downstairs for a workout and a dip in the pool before going to bed myself.