2026-01-04 23:13:37Lucky and Randy’s jaws almost fell off ss they stared at the packaged iPhone Nicholas held.
Nicholas stared on almost eagerly as if holding on to dear life just for their approval.
“Did you steal that phone, Nicholas?” Randy was the first to snap out of his trance as he asked in a condescending tone.
“Yes yes. That’s it,” lucky began also waking up from the shock.
“You must have stolen it, Nic!” He added.
“Exactly because what do you mean you have the iPhone 15 pro max when even I can’t afford it,”
A short moment of silence stretched between them when all of a sudden Nicholas bursted into a hearty laughter.
Lucky and Randy exchanged puzzled glances with questions swirling in their minds.
“Has he gone crazy?” Randy finally said out loud.
Lucky was about to answer but Nicholas beat him to it. “You guys are definitely the crazy ones for thinking the world revolves around you. So what if you can’t afford a big iPhone. Does your finances bode on mine?”
Lucky opened his mouth to speak but was cut short again.
“I really don’t want to do this but since you guys are so in disbelief I’ll show you my new phone that I actually bought” Nicholas said as he proceeded to rip open the seal of the box.
The two guys watched on eagerly as Nicholas ripped the carton open. He took his time making sure the anxiousness eats them deep as he finally removed the first layer of protection finally revealing the iPhone.
Lucky gasped and pointed at Nicholas while struggling to find his words.
“It’s…it’s…” Randy sputtered. “There’s really a phone in there…” he said while looking at Lucky.
A grin formed on Nicholas’ face as he felt truly victorious for the first time but his victory didn’t last as the door to the iPhone store bursted open and Evelyn with a face now clad in mucus and strained mascara ran out and dropped at Nicholas’ feet.
“Sir. Sir. You’re still here sir. Please I don’t know what came over me and why I did all that but I am sorry sir. I am so sorry.” She spat out in quick successions before Nicholas could even respond.
Nicholas took a few step back as his brows scrunched into a frown.
“What the hell?” He said loudly throwing a disgusted look toward Evelyn.
“Please sir….” Evelyn hurriedly said attempting to fall at his feet.
Meanwhile Lucky and Randy had been exchanging puzzled glances when they suddenly both bursted into laughter.
“Wow Nic. I can’t believe I almost fell for your trick,” Randy said still laughing uncontrollably.
Nicholas felt weirded out as he stared deadly at Randy.
“What’s funny?” Nicholas asked with annoyance tainting his voice.
“I get it now. I was really wondering but now I get it.” He said, earning an even deeper frown from Nicholas.
“You stole it right?” He added. Nicholas raised his brow in confusion and Randy kept feeding his own humour.
“The phone. You must have stolen it and that’s why this lady is crying at your feet.”
“Lady. Did you get fired from your job because this trash stole something from under your watch?” Lucky was the one talking this time.
Evelyn’s face contorted with embarrassment because just a few moments ago she had also accused Nicholas of being a thief. She quickly shook her head frantically trying to explain.
“No please sir. Don't put me in further trouble sir. This gentleman paid in full,” she said and turned to Nicholas before turning back.
“Actually sir. Please beg your friend for me. Please ask him to beg my boss to take me back. I have no other means of survival. I’m really sorry for accusing him of being a thief.”
“This must be some kind of sick joke!” Lucky lamented but Nicholas who had had enough rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to Evelyn.
“See lady. I'm not the reason you lost your job. You lost it because you were a liar and you lack the necessary skills to be a service representative, one of which includes not discriminating. So change the mindset of it being my fault please.”
“As for you guys, I wonder why I’ve been standing here all along trying to prove myself to you when in reality you’re not even worthy of my time.”
Randy tried to talk but Nicholas didn’t give him the chance.
“At the end of the day I have the new iPhone 15 and you don’t, so leave and go be with people of your standard,” he said before turning around to walk away leaving the stunned Randy and Lucky and the sobbing Evelyn.
As he walked away, he removed the last layer of paper on the iPhone screen and turned it off, his heart beaming with joy.
As he stared at the screen he suddenly paused in his tracks and looked up.
“What the…” he said underneath his breath. He looked ahead ,staring at the system board in front of him. He looked around quickly but everyone was going about their day like nothing happened and realised only he could see it
Words were written boldly and as he tried to read it the system read it to him in his head
[money to be spent: 10 billion dollars]
[money spent: two thousand dollars]
[time left: 69:10:03]
[Punishment for failed task:death]
The realization dawned on Nicholas that he is now seeing the system screen for himself and the iPhone purchase did close to nothing.
Beads of sweat gathered on his forehead as his panic began to surge. Not knowing what to do he turned to the road and stopped a cab but the first driver gave him a dirty look before zooming off.
He took five stops before he finally got a cab.
“Where to?” The driver asked.
“Darlington!” He said staring down at his phone and as a result he couldn’t see the scowl on the driver’s face.
Nicholas was trying to set his new phone up fast so he can start the process of getting the company.
“Are you aware of where you asked to be taken?” The driver finally spoke up when he didn’t get a response to his facial expression.
“Yeah..did I say it wrong? I meant the biggest mall in the city if you didn’t catch that,” he said without looking up.
The driver looked like he had more to say but he kept quiet and began driving.
Nicholas on the other hand was done setting up his phone when a message popped up on the g****e site.
It was a betting ad and an idea struck him because he knew even with the company buying, he still won’t be down to half of the money.
He created fake pages and began betting starting at ten thousand dollars but immediately he placed the first bet, the system flashed a red light.
[Warning: spending must be traceable!]
Nicholas’ heartbeat surged as he quickly retracted the net payment, his energy damping. He realised he had to find legitimate ways to spend the money.
“Driver, turn around and take me to Berminborough instead,” he said without thinking too much. Afterall,designers were legitimate buys.
“Are you sure you know what you’re saying?” The driver asked, his expression now totally perplexed.
Nicholas was about to answer when the system flashed again.
[WARNING: Host has not established a spending pattern. Punishment incoming soon]
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Chapter 126
Chapter 126Agnes called on a Thursday morning.Not a message first.A call.Which meant it was not something she wanted to put in writing before she had spoken to him.Nicholas was between the hostel and the library when his phone rang.He stepped off the main path and picked up."There is something you need to know about," Agnes said.Her voice was in the operational register.Controlled.Not alarmed.But with the particular quality of control that meant she was managing something she had assessed as significant before calling him."Go ahead," Nicholas said."A contact of mine flagged something this morning," she said. "A private investor forum. Members only, reasonably vetted, but not airtight." A pause. "A photograph has been circulating."Nicholas said nothing."The back of someone's head," Agnes said. "In a meeting room. The caption reads: Anyone knows who Mr. K is. Sat across from TerraCycle CEO last month."The campus moved around him.Students on the path.Someone's bag catch
Chapter 125
Chapter 125Mikey called on a Tuesday evening.Not the urgent kind of call.The kind that started with a longer than usual pause before he said anything, which meant he had been deciding whether to make it for a while before he picked up the phone.Nicholas was reading when it came.He marked his page and picked up."Talk," he said."It is not urgent," Mikey said."Okay.""I just wanted to say that before I started," Mikey said. "Because it has been sitting on me for a few days and I did not want you thinking it was a crisis.""It is not a crisis," Nicholas said."No," Mikey said."Go ahead," Nicholas said.Mikey had been talking to people.Not in an official capacity.Not as Mr. K's operations manager or as the property manager of the 5B block.Just as Mikey.As someone who had grown up in the neighborhood and had come back to it and was now operating inside it in a way that gave him access to the kind of conversations that did not happen in formal contexts.Conversations at the mark
Chapter 124
Chapter 124The documents arrived on a Sunday.Nicholas was at his desk working through the post-finals gap in the way he had decided to use it, not as rest exactly, more as the kind of slow productive quiet that came after sustained pressure released.He was reading ahead on next semester's Business Strategy syllabus.Not because he had to.Because it was the kind of thing that felt right in a quiet Sunday with no immediate deadline attached to it.His phone buzzed.Harrison.Not a call.A message.Some documents coming through to your email. No pressure, no timeline. Just want a candid read if you have a moment.Nicholas looked at the message.He opened his email.Three attachments.A company overview.A financial summary.A market position report.The subject line said simply: Logistics - your thoughts.He opened the company overview first.A mid-sized logistics company.Regional operation, primarily serving manufacturers in a three state corridor.Fourteen years in operation.Seco
Chapter 123
Chapter 123She had set the table.That was the first thing Nicholas noticed when he came through the door.Not just food on the counter, not plates pulled out at the last minute.The table was actually set.Two placemats.The good glasses she had found in the apartment when she moved in and had kept on the shelf above the sink without using until now.A small thing in the center of the table that was not quite a centerpiece but was clearly placed with intention, a candle she had not lit and a few sprigs of something green he could not name.Rebecca was at the stove with her back to him."You set the table," he said."Obviously I set the table," she said without turning around. "I am hosting.""You do not usually set the table.""I am choosing to set the table tonight," she said. "Sit down."He sat down.The food was good.He had not been certain it would be.Not because Rebecca could not cook.She had been getting steadily better across the Wednesday lessons, picking things up quickl
Chapter 122
Chapter 122He was halfway back to the hostel when it came.Not at his desk.Not in the quiet of the room before David woke up.On the footpath between the business faculty building and the main path that ran through the center of campus, students moving around him in both directions, bags on shoulders, the particular noise of a corridor of people who had just finished something and were releasing the held breath of it.The colors bled in at the edges of his vision the way they always did.He kept walking for a few steps.Then he stopped.TASK 6: COMPLETEK Foundation - Verified. Endowment: $20,000,000. Independence Criteria: METAssets Retained.Next Directive: Pending - Estimated 2 weeksHe read it once.Students moved around him on both sides.Someone said something to their friend about the extra credit question.Someone else walked past close enough that their bag brushed his arm.The campus went on at its ordinary post-exam volume.Nicholas stood in the middle of it and read the
Chapter 121
Chapter 121The first exam was Monday morning.Financial Accounting.Nicholas was in his seat twelve minutes before the room opened.Not because he was anxious.Because arriving early was part of the fixed block structure he had built and he had decided in October that the structure was not negotiable and he had kept that decision.He sat outside the exam room on the bench in the corridor and did not review his notes.He had reviewed them the night before in the final study block.What was there was there.Looking at it again now would not add anything.He sat and watched the other students arrive and did not think about anything in particular.The paper was distributed at nine.Nicholas read through it once before picking up his pen.That was something Beckham had told the class in the first week of semester.Read the whole paper before you answer anything.Know what you are dealing with before you commit.Nicholas had done it at every exam since.He read through.He picked up his pe
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