"I'm dead!" Donny exclaimed, falling to the mat panting.

"Come on, walk it off." Will said, holding out his water bottle.

"I don't know how you can keep this up." Donny grabbed the bottle, taking a long sip before dumping the rest over his head.

"You'll get used to it." Will was already starting to see progress with his workouts. Although it wasn't big, he was already starting to lose some weight and some definition was beginning to take shape in his muscles.

Donny eventually forced himself up.

"Mikey and the boys have been asking me what you've been up to. What do I tell them?" Donny asked at the end of their daily workout as the two of them made their way to the locker room.

A week had passed since the first day back at school, and although Will had completely stopped showing up to school, Donny still attended some classes to keep up appearances.

Will had also spent the week looking at places before he found a small house to rent that would be available to move into immediately. The place would be used as a private workspace where they could get things done without fear of being interrupted or having people ask questions. They then needed to buy furniture, office supplies, and computer equipment—including two high-spec laptops and move them into the house.

As for the plot of land that he had his eye on, Will was already starting talks with the real estate agent in charge of the property. He also had to employ a lawyer to help him with the negotiations and legal work.

All this set him back roughly $6,000, leaving him with about $7,000 in his bank account. Now that the workspace was settled, he needed to work on getting more funds. Which exactly was what they planned to do today.

"It doesn't matter, I'm sure you can make something up. You can tell them what you thought happened to me."

"That you were heartbroken?" Donny received a nod to his question. "Shouldn't we bring them in? They can help us out."

"No." Will refused decisively.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't know if I can trust them."

Donny's steps paused for a moment before he caught up with his friend. He hesitated with his next words. "In the future...do they do something?"

"No, we just lose contact. I think Mikey moved away, his family wanted to move somewhere safer, and I never really heard from the others again. If I recall correctly, you mentioned Calvin going into the army at one point. Either everyone moved on with their lives or they died." Will stopped at his locker and turned to face Donny. "They are basically all strangers to me."

"Bro, that's kind of...sad."

"It's life." Will said. "Everyone has their own thing to do."

"What about...no, never mind." Donny looked like he really wanted to ask something but changed his mind. "Can't we at least bring in Mikey? We can trust him for sure."

"No." Will remained firm, he leaned in and began to speak softly. "But now that you've brought them up, I remember that someone we knew in high school had connections to some people who could get their hands on contraband."

"That would be Mikey." Donny whispered back.

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"Can you ask him if he could get his hands on two pistols for us and a large amount of ammo? You need to learn how to use one, and my skills have gotten rusty."

Donny's eyes widened slightly. "Yeah, I'll ask him, and maybe I can say something to him?"

Will shut his locker and strode towards the shower room, swinging his towel over his shoulder. "Hit the showers."

Looking at his friend's back, Donny couldn't help but feel that it looked a little lonely. He let out a helpless sigh.

----------------------------------------

"What is that?" Donny asked, arriving at the truck and peaking over Will's shoulders. Will shifted his phone so his friend had a better view and to prevent his shoulder from getting wet from Donny's still damp hair.

"It's a Neural-Chip."

"Oh, I heard about those." Donny nodded in recognition. "Is it safe? Putting something in your brain like that."

"Yes, they've been using this for years already. It becomes extremely huge in the future. Especially with all the new capabilities and Parasites in your body, it's very useful for keeping track of all of them and making sure they don't have any negative effects on your body. And if you find yourself in a bad situation, it can send a signal for help. I've been saved a few times by that function."

"But I heard they can like spy on your brain or even control some things your brain does and stuff like that, can't they?" Donny asked as he performed robotic dance moves to add to his point.

"If they can do something like that then they are very good at keeping it a secret because I've never heard of anything like that happening in 15 years." Will couldn't help but think about [Mental Power]. "And I think there are ways to prevent anything like that from happening."

"So you want us to get these things implanted in our brain?" Donny asked.

"Yes, once we have enough extra money, I'll book an appointment and we'll find a weekend to fly over to Japan and get the operation.

"Alright bro..." Donny said, still a little doubtful about having a piece of electronic inserted into his head.

"Trust me. With what's coming, we need all the advantages we can get." Will assured his friend with a hand on his shoulder. "That's what you're wearing today?" Will asked when he finally noticed his friend's clothes.

"What's wrong with my clothes?" Donny held his arms out and looked down at himself. He was wearing the same clothing he always wore. "Up until spring break, you were wearing the exact same style before you went all this on me." Donny waved his hand at Will, who was wearing a tailored suit. He had bought the suit to wear while dealing with the landlord of their workspace and the real estate agent.

"Think of it like this. If you show up outside a dungeon wearing all newbie gear, it'll be harder for you to find a party. As opposed to if you showed up all decked out in a legendary set."

"I suppose you make an argument that is a little hard to refute..."

"I guess we'll just have to go like this." Will sighed. The two of them left the gym and drove off to their next stop. They pulled up at the parking lot of their destination shortly after.

"By the way, why are we at the DA Bank? I'm with the Bank of Ontario, and I could have sworn you were too." Donny asked as they exited the truck.

"We need to switch banks first." Will tilted his head in the direction of the large building they were walking towards. "The Bank of Ontario struggles a bit after, you know. We'll open new accounts and then visit a bunch of schedule II banks after and borrow some money from them. Hopefully, they'll let you submit the loan application early, since your birthday is in a couple of days."

"Schedule II bank?"

"It means they are subsidiaries of foreign banks, and I'm sure you can take a guess at what happens to most of the foreign banks in the future, what with massive power outages and downed communications that lasts for several months in some places—even after things start clearing up, cutting them off from their parent company."

Donny's eyes went wide with comprehension. "Ohhh! They go under...and all the money we owe them conveniently goes away with them. Dude, that's totally cheating. How many places are we going to borrow from?!" He asked in excitement.

"Well, not exactly. Normally, our debt would be inherited by the parent company or sold to another company. But with all the problems that will be going on, it will be months, even years before they get themselves sorted out and start looking for the money owed to them."

"Ahh, that's good too. So we're going to borrow from a whole bunch of schedule II banks to prepare ourselves." Donny concluded as he opened the door.

"Yes." Will gave Donny a conspiratorial smile. "But I do know at least two places where their systems and the data center holding their backup databases are completely ruined or corrupted during the pandemonium."

Donny matched Will's smile with his own. "You should have started off with that first. That is the kind of future knowledge I'd like to know about." Donny said as they walked up to a teller. She smiled at the two in the friendly manner, unaware of the conversation that just took place.

"Welcome to the DA Bank, how may I help you today?"