“... And then I fled the cafeteria and conked myself out.” JJ narrated, sitting in Steven's dorm room in one of the many Uni style uniforms he had found already prepared back in his own dorm.
“Mmm... Not bad, I give it a 4/10 on your usual scale” Steven replied, somehow managing to follow his conversation with JJ while simultaneously plowing through a pile of books he'd picked up last night in the campus library.
“Thanks, but I still don't get why you give me a high score when I mess up and a low score when I do well. Shouldn't it be the other way around?”
Steven brushed his worries aside “Don't worry about it, as long as you understand it's okay. But enough about that, have you decided what classes you're going to take, JJ?”
“Well... I was thinking about slacking off like the professor suggested and coasting through on my magical abilities” JJ gave a sheepish grin.
Steven looked up from his pile of books to level an incredibly unamused frown at his friend. “Why would you do that?”
“Well, I'm not a genius like you. Sure, I'm not bad by general standards, but the Uni is completely out of my league. I would have to spend all of my effort just to squeak by with a light course load, and my results would still be poor at best. Instead, I could lean into my new magical abilities and try to find a niche for myself that others can't compete with!”
Steven stared at JJ as though he was looking at an exotic animal “That... actually makes sense?”
“You don't have to look so shocked” JJ grumbled.
“So, what's your plan? How are you going to lean into your new magical abilities?” Steven asked, wondering what JJ had in mind.
“... I haven't gotten that far yet. It's a work in progress”
Steven sighed “I should have known.”
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After leaving the dorm and admiring the beautiful autumn weather, JJ decided to take Steven's advice seriously. Today was Saturday and JJ knew he should spend the next day and a half constructively before his research team convened again.
One option was the library. The Uni's library contained books you couldn't find anywhere else. Books from thousands of years ago about civilizations nobody in the modern day had ever heard of. Books on subjects that were considered “too dangerous” to be freely distributed to the general public. It even held books with dissenting political and philosophical views to the country of Arman, which nominally laid claim to the Uni itself. What the Uni's library didn't contain, however, was cheap works of fiction, or books on magic which had only recently been introduced to Terra and was mostly guesswork at this point, so JJ crossed it off his list first.
His next thought was to go watch all of the viral clips and news media he could find about magic. But JJ did this at least once a week already, and he knew that with most of the clips being purposely taken out of context or outright edited, this was far from the best use of his time.
For a brief moment JJ even considered showing up at Professor Hertz' office and convincing the ornery old woman that he was truly dedicated to discovering the mysteries of magic and asking her to grant him a greater role in the team. Maybe she would appreciate the motivation?
*slap*
“NO!”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Most students were lazing in their rooms or exploring the city with the 2020 term starting soon, but a handful of people still loitered around chatting in small groups or walking to places of interest around campus. These few were granted the rare privilege of watching a young man jog through the halls while slapping himself silly and screaming “NO!” at the top of his lungs.
'How could I have had such a dangerous thought! The professor would definitely kill me!' In his distress, JJ failed to notice the camera phones being pulled out of pockets and pointed in his direction.
'If it's come down to this, there's only one thing left I can do that's truly constructive! The most constructive thing of all! Money!'
Could JJ leverage his magical abilities to make money? He absolutely could, and he knew exactly how to do it. He grinned maniacally while staring at his student ID card which doubled as a credit card within the bounds of Uni City. It currently held his first weekly stipend of $2,000 on it. 'By the time I'm done I'll multiply this by 5, no, 10 times at least!'
JJ whipped out his phone and searched for the nearest casino. With such a large concentration of people in this city who were both exceedingly rich and young, JJ had no doubt he'd find a few casinos in the area.
After gawking at the results, JJ realized that “a few” was a massive understatement. At least three different casinos existed within a 5 minute walk of every major entrance to the Uni campus. He decided to head towards the western exit because it had four separate casinos that would suit his needs.
Despite the mystique of his newfound magical abilities, they wouldn't help him in every game of chance. In fact, his abilities didn't help in games of chance at all. No, what JJ needed were games in which he could remove chance from the equation. His game of choice? Poker!
JJ dared to say that he was likely the most practiced astral projectionist in the world. Outside of any alien visitors from the Pathways, of course.
At first, he could barely stay outside his body for more than a few seconds without getting a headache, and using his ability repeatedly would exhaust him. Plus his body would flop around like a fish while he wasn't in control. But through trial and error, hard work, and determination to exploit his newfound powers, he grew tremendously. He could now sustain his ability for over a minute, take many consecutive peaks into the incorporeal world outside his body before growing weary, and even do so while maintaining a sitting posture and keeping his physical eyes open.
JJ felt incredibly confident in his plans as he approached the aptly named 'Golden Spoon', one of Uni City's predominant gathering spots for young wastrels. He walked in through the giant golden-plated, self-powered doors and headed towards the front counter.
Before he even made it halfway across the floor, a giant of a man with the word 'SECURITY' emblazoned across his shirt cut him off. His aggressive stance as he leered over JJ marked him as more of a bouncer, rather than a stereotypical security guard who sat around and yelled at trespassers.
“Excuse me sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave” the bouncer warned.
“What? I haven't done anything yet! I've never even been here before!” JJ exclaimed incredulously.
The bouncer raised one eyebrow and responded “You're that 'Junior', right? The one who ruined the Rosewood poker tournament? Our establishment prides itself on keeping an eye on trends to stay ahead of the game. You've been blacklisted to prevent abuse of your powers.”
“But... that's not fair! Just because I have some extra skills doesn't mean I should be banned! Aren't you here to provide entertainment? How can you just throw out customers like that!” JJ felt like he was being targeted as some kind of criminal. Was it fair to say he ruined a poker tournament just because he won? He didn't even get to keep the money after the news blew up the story!
The bouncer remained unmoved by his plight. “This is a business and we're here to make money. Your presence is a threat to that business. Now are you going to leave by yourself, or will we have to do this the hard way?” He cracked his knuckles threateningly.
JJ cursed the fact that his magical abilities, and his rather scrawny physique, provided no defense against being physically thrown around as he fled the building. 'This is ridiculous! How can I get thrown out before I even play! Don't they know the news always exaggerates these kinds of stories?'
Refusing to believe that this could be anything other than an outlier, JJ set his sights on the next closest casino. Surely they would be more reasonable.
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5 hours and half a dozen casinos later, JJ slouched back into the Uni, defeated. None of them treated him any kinder than the first. In fact, the proprietor of his last stop threatened to call the police on him before he even made it inside.
JJ felt his eyes glaze over as he remembered a younger JJ proudly declaring 'One day I'll be famous! Everyone will know and fear me! Muwahahaha!' As that mental scene ended, a new one began. He imagined a ghoulish monkey's paw beginning to curl-
“NOOOOOOoooo!” JJ screamed, dropping to his knees in the middle of a shocked crowd of students headed in the general direction of the cafeteria.
“WHY! WHY!” The crowd looked worriedly towards the young man, wondering what could possibly be wrong.
“Why did I even read that book? I don't even like horror stories!” JJ lamented as the crowd quickly pulled away and stared at him as though he had some kind of disease.
After pulling himself together, and noticing the looks thrown his way, JJ skipped the cafeteria and headed back to his dorm instead to eat one of the prepackaged meals that came already stocked.
Sitting down with steaming bowl of Healthy™ brand Ramen noodles, JJ decided to spend the rest of the weekend on what he should have done from the start. He pulled up his video feed and clicked on the highest rated viral video of the day with the hashtag magic, its title being “HOW TO INCREASE YOUR SIZE IN THREE EASY STEPS WITH DRAGON MAGIC!!!”