Entry 11: Avenues of Wealth

Evelyn was positively buzzing as she sat on the bus. She was feeling extremely bubbly this morning, and the radiant smile that was plastered across her face was a testament to that fact.

‘I’m so glad that Samuel did that this morning. Honestly… I don’t know how I could’ve fixed my relationship with him otherwise. I’m not a good mother and I’ve slowly estranged myself from my kids, making their lives even harder.’

Pinning the blame upon herself for not being around to nurture her children, as they went to school and came back to an empty home because she had to work until the late evenings every day, she had not the faintest clue about how to get closer to the two she loved the most in the world again. No one had given her a manual on parenting. No one had told her that she’d have very little support ever since her parents had died. No one had said she’d go on to be a single mother while she was still pregnant with Faith- her daughter.

‘Haa… There’s no point looking at the past now. I’ve got to stay strong for them. Samuel’s put his trust in me and I’m going to fulfil my duty as a parent to him. We’re going to become a happy family again!’

While she was thinking over her family matters, several people were quite entranced by her beautiful smile on their gloomy mornings. One man, however, continued to stare at her in a daze. He made his way over to the seat beside Evelyn and lightly tapped her shoulder when his attempts at calling for her attention weren’t working.

Evelyn, broken out of her train of thought, was slightly annoyed that someone had interrupted her happy and optimistic dreams for the future. Looking to the right where a man stood beside her bag that was placed on the adjacent seat, she warily brought her bag closer to her side, as she looked questioningly at the unkemptly-dressed individual.

“‘Scuse me beautiful, can I take a seat here?”

Evelyn looked around and noticed there were still quite a lot of empty seats around since the bus had yet to reach the busier stops where people tended to flood onto it. She realised the man was just trying to get close to her, but she would be damned if she let another man try to woo her into their deceitful clutches.

“Could you sit down elsewhere?”

“Eh? Yeah, sure, whatever.” The man was stumped at the cold refusal and then sneered out his response. Evelyn could faintly hear him muttering something about ‘arrogant bitches’ but she immediately removed the memory from her mind. She wasn’t as perturbed as she had been years back when shooing men away was a more daunting experience. For Evelyn, she had kids to provide for; she wasn’t willing to give up the time of day for a man.

Slightly disgruntled, she made her way to the hospital in silence while staring out of the window, hoping that the day would pass quickly so she could get back home and talk to her child.

— — —

As Samuel made his way to school, he was mulling over the long work hours his mother had to work to provide for their small family. Despite being 18 years of age, his mother never pestered him to look for a part-time job and had even gone so far as to prevent him from applying a few years prior. Since then, Samuel had just become an ungrateful bum lazing in his room and uncaring of his mother’s woes.

‘In this life, I’m going to retire mum early. I’ll become the breadwinner and give her an easier life. Fuck! It just grates at me when I remember how I acted in my last life.’

Putting aside his annoyance at his young and immature self’s behaviour, knowing that it wouldn’t do him any good thinking of a lifetime that did not exist anymore, Samuel pulled up the system interface.

‘Open the non-sexual store. I want to see if there are any ways to earn money through this system.’

[Non-Sexual Store:]

[Competencies available:]

[Driving]

[Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu]

[Medical]

[Helming]

[Business]

[Hacking]

[Stock Trading]

[Muay Thai]

[Survival]

[Display more]

[Each skill is divided into 3 grades: Average, Proficient, Master]

[Average competency: 1000 SRP]

[Proficient competency: 3000 SRP]

[Master competency: 10000 SRP]

[If Host purchases any grade competency before purchasing a better grade, the previous cost will be deducted from the future grade bought.]

Samuel spent a good few seconds trying to wrap his head around the last message before thinking- ‘So if I bought both an average and proficient competency for driving, the master competency would only cost 7000 SRP? Oh, and at the time of buying the proficient competency, it would cost 2000 SRP?’

[Correct, Host]

‘I see.’ Lost for words at the list of available ‘competencies’ that he could purchase from just shagging, Samuel’s roaming eyes locked in on [Stock Trading] and [Business]. A short while after losing his mother and dropping out of high school in his previous life, Samuel spent most of his mother’s remaining money on pursuing the NEET lifestyle.

His sister had disappeared somewhere- the reason for which Samuel had put together eventually- and she did not return to their childhood home for the many years to come. He’d been quite apathetic to this change at the time given the circumstances, but maturity brought along with it an acute understanding of details Samuel wished he had never had the pleasure of recognising. Truly, Ignorance had been bliss and the truth had only brought further agony to the repentant male.

Several years into the sedentary lifestyle with Samuel barely leaving the house unless it was to buy groceries, there was a growing hype around cryptocurrencies on different online forums he was a part of.

Noticing his funds were steadily decreasing, despite the minuscule amount he’d spent every day on food and maintaining his unfailingly boring life, Samuel saw an opportunity in cryptocurrencies. He went on to blindly invest a few hundred dollars in mid-2013 and had almost forgotten about the money. But sudden hype in the online community had brought him back to check in on his online possessions, and to his surprise, he’d made nearly 10000 USD: the equivalent of 30000 Polarian Dollars- the currency of Polaria.

30000 POD was enough to provide for a pretty decent few decades for Samuel according to his annual spending in the years leading up to that time. But Samuel had gained an interest in earning money by playing games having watched YouTubers doing so online, and so he bought the necessary infrastructure to facilitate his newfound ‘work’. He was particularly good at grinding, as he had an unnatural focus and determination to complete what he set out to do.

Besides buying the infrastructure, Samuel still had a considerable amount of money remaining. The man who was in his mid-20s at this point began to look into different ways to make money from cryptocurrencies and eventually chanced upon trading. 2014, however, was not a good year for Samuel, as he had lost all of his remaining possessions, and following a series of unfortunate trades and dealings, he had to move out to a smaller place and eventually stopped dabbling in crypto.

‘Crypto is a double-edged sword.’ Recalling his experience with the extremely volatile and high-risk digital currency, Samuel slightly shuddered. Focusing his attention back on the system panel and the two competencies before him, Samuel had asked the system if cryptocurrency investing or trading could be found in the system. To his chagrin, there were no such skills as the current year was still 2007.

‘The global financial crisis is around the corner now. I don’t know how, but I’ve heard there’s a lot to gain during a recession.’

Samuel’s thoughts however were dampened when he remembered how thick his wallet was.

[Assets: 5.78 Polarian Dollars]

Slightly annoyed at the fact that there was an opportunity to grab but no hands to grab it with because his past self had been such a slob, Samuel put aside the [Stock Trading] and [Business] competencies. He needed money to begin either of those and he had to find a way to do so before thinking about either.

‘I should probably look into a bank loan. Since I essentially have no credit rating right now, I probably won’t be able to loan out much money, but this could be good for me. In this way, I can build a stronger credit rating from nothing to something.’

Given his thin credit file, borrowing large amounts would be impossible for the current him, especially since Samuel imagined there would be a stupidly high interest rate slapped alongside it, making the idea of borrowing quite distasteful to Samuel. But with the ability to buy a competency like stock trading, and not having to dive into the big and bad world blind, he was positive he could make good on his borrowing.

While Samuel could have considered a part-time job or dropping out of school to start earning from a stable job that didn’t require high school qualifications, several things were holding him back.

Firstly, his mother wouldn’t want him working at a job while he was at school since she was the type to provide unconditionally so her children could live easily- something that backfires most of the time when they grow up ignorant and lazy.

Secondly, his mother wouldn’t want him dropping out of school, and nor did Samuel for that matter since he had some business at the school.

Samuel held his mother’s opinions in high regard, and yet they weren’t the defining reasons for his choice. While Samuel understood the worth of his mother’s choices, he also remembered the consequences of such choices in his last life- consequences that lead to her death possibly at Samuel’s neglectful hands. While his mother held the perceived best interests of her children in mind, Samuel- who was older than her in mental age- was keenly aware that an older age did not make one infallible, and even the middle-aged were susceptible to bad decision-making.

And so, most important of all his reasonings, Samuel was looking to get rich quickly. While a stable income provided one with stability and normalcy in one’s day to day, Samuel realised that he was already beyond normal. Additionally, he reckoned that he would soon lose his free time, so high-risk, high-reward strategies appealed to him more.

‘Mhm… It has nothing to do with wanting to spend my free time having sex. Nothing at all. Though, I think the first thing to do to begin my ventures would be to create a bank account.’

— — — — — —