Patty blinked and he was standing under the archway in front of the school gate. He was wearing his uniform and had his complete school bag without anything missing.
[Mission Completed]
[Reward]
* 100 Minion Growth Crystal
Even though the skip button seemed dangerous because of the system’s unknown motives, Patty still believed that the benefits outweighed the costs. He didn’t care if the system took control of his body to do some questionable things as long as Patty didn’t have to do chores himself. That was how lazy he was.
In fact, he was a little bit angry that the system stopped taking control of his body as soon as he reached the campus. The least it could have done was guide his body directly to the classroom and his seat.
Now, he had to walk by himself. Ugh. Not only that, Patty would have to spend energy from his system with each meter that he walked.
Trudging through the cobblestone path towards the school doors, with students speed-walking past him, Patty slowly made his way towards the school.
The whole path was about 100 meters, which meant that Patty already lost 10 energy out of 100. Even though he was walking like a zombie by sliding his feet on the ground, not using too much leg muscles, and going as slowly as possible, the energy bar still went down the same.
He thought that if he walked very slowly he would lose less energy, but each meter still cost him 0.1 energy.
“Why is this school so big?!” Patty complained.
As Patty stepped foot on the building, he sighed. The first floor of the building was intended for fundamental school amenities like the sparring rooms, medical centers, isolation prayer booths, and stuff like that. The second floor of the building was for first year students, the third is for sophomores, and the fourth is for juniors.
And for seniors like Patty? His classroom was on the fifth floor. Fifth! It was pure filth.
Thankfully for Patty, there was an elevator that took him directly to the top. If it was one of those days where there was a malfunction in the elevator and it couldn’t be used, Patty would just turn around and take an absence from school.
He didn’t want to go up 5 flights of stairs. Nu uh. No way. That would basically be equivalent to a marathon. With each floor having 10 steps each, it would mean that Patty would have to walk up 50 steps with a pretty deep incline.
Patty looked at his system screen and pulled out the ENERGY tab.
[Energy Cost]
* 60 mins standing = 60 energy
* 60 mins sitting = 6 energy
* 1 meter walk = 0.1 energy
* 1 meter run = 1 energy
* 1 step climb = 0.4 energy
If his calculations were correct, if he walked up 5 flights of stairs, that would be equivalent to 20 energy.
Thank the Supremes for elevators!
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Speaking of which, the elevator finally opened and Patty walked in. He was the only one inside because it was already late in the day, which meant that most of the students were already in their classrooms.
He picked the 5th floor and the doors slid closed. After a few seconds of listening to calming elevator music, Patty arrived at the senior’s floor.
The door slid wide open and Patty walked out like normal. But then, he heard something in his ears.
bzzzzz
The world slowed down once again as Patty’s eyes adjusted to this sudden change. What happened, he thought. The only reason why the Muscava minion would show itself voluntarily was if he was in danger or something. Was he getting attacked?
The answer showed itself when Patty looked to the side and saw a huge stack of white paper just a few seconds away from colliding with him.
The stack of paper was being carried by a student who couldn’t see where he was going. Maybe he didn’t care. Judging from the way he looked like he was running, he was too busy to worry about anything.
Patty quickly slid away from the path of the mad stack of papers and avoided a direct collision.
As he did, Patty got curious. Who was this eager beaver student whose head was stuck in a stack of papers? Only losers who cared for their grades in preparation for a better future would be as enthusiastic in carrying meaningless school work.
When he saw the man’s face, his eyes lit up in recognition. He should have known. There was only one person he knew who would take education as seriously as if his life depended on it.
It was his best friend, Samuel “Eager Beaver” Berysikap.
Sam had his signature worried look on his face that looked like he was holding in a huge load of—
“Sit. You should sit down once in a while, Sam.”
Surprised by this sudden voice that interrupted his concentration, Sam’s right foot was suddenly caught up with his left foot and tangled themselves up. Like a trembling Jenga tower, Sam and his stack of papers surged forward and broke his balance.
Patty, still seeing everything in slow motion, saw all this unfold and did nothing to solve it. How could he? First of all, the stack of papers were already flying and tumbling in the air; there was nothing he could do about that. Second of all, it was too funny.
“Kukuku…”
PARSHHH
Sam knelt down as he saw his important school records fly all over the place. That was 1 hour of organizing all down the drain. He would have to spend another hour to clean this all up.
“Yo,” said Patty nonchalantly as if he didn’t cause Sam to trip.
Sam looked up at Patty and sighed. He looked at his watch and saw that there was no way he was going to the meeting on time.
“Hey…”
“What’s all that for?”
Sam took one piece of paper still slowly falling in the air and showed him a paper with only a large logo of a company on it that would be familiar to anyone who watched television or browsed the internet.
The logo was composed of a fully colored and well detailed drawing of the Earth with a naked man holding it on his shoulders.
The name of the company was Atlas Inc.
This was a company that prided itself on having the strength and power to hold the world on its shoulders. They exterminate monsters, save innocents, and protect your dreams, or so they said in their company motto.
It was a nation-class company that was starting its transition to be a global-class conglomerate. It was a tremendous challenge that will take up a lot of resources.
“You know about their transition, right? Well, in order to compete with other global-class conglomerates, they would need a lot of manpower. But manpower costs a lot of money, unless they want to cheap out and recruit less qualified employees. But that would mean they would be out-classes by their global competition. So they…”
Sam waited for Patty to get the idea.
“…”
But he didn’t.
“So they need to invest in students. Internships are free, so they don’t need to spend a lot of money. And if they recruit talented students who could have a bright future, they could have a loyal and competent employee in the future all for a very low price.”
“…”
Sometimes, Sam didn’t get how Patty could be this ignorant about the ways of the world. How could he take care of himself and his future? It looked like he would have to help his lazy friend even in the future.
“Right now, Atlas Inc. has set their sights on our school. And I am planning on joining their internship because they will give an A-class Power Teqx to those who pass their test. This is a sure fire thing!”
Blah, blah, internships, boring blah, thought Patty.
“But it looks like my chances are dwindling by the second. If they already picked out their interns and I submit my application late, then they wouldn’t even look at my resume. It’s the reason why I was in a hurry.”
“…”
“Sorry, I almost bumped into you.”
Patty knelt down and started to pick up the papers in his vicinity. “Don’t worry about man.” He then patted Sam’s back. “You don’t need them. You can fulfill your dream all on your own!”
Sam forced a smile. Patty was the only one who believed that could happen. That was one of the good things about Patty being the lazy bum that he was.
“Why are you in school again? I thought for sure that you’ll take the day off.”
“Can’t I just go to school like a normal student?”
“…your electricity got cut off didn't it?”
“…”
They continued to pick up the papers.
“Oh, yeah. I remember. Didn’t you say in our call that you would start to work out and exercise more?”
Patty didn’t remember that conversation. It must have been the system. “Huh… I must have been out of my mind.”