"Why hello there, son!"
The resonant baritone of his father's greeting brought a smile to Michael's face as he stepped through the door. His parents were both currently in the kitchen wrapping up the preparations for dinner, so he quickly decided to help them. The work was mostly finished, so they were soon joined by his sisters at the dinner table.
The usual process of regaling each other with their days went by pretty quickly - mostly housework and games on the part of the family, though Anne did share quite a bit about the most recent book she'd been reading.
Eventually it came around to Michael's turn, and he began by describing his morning at Greyscale.
"Oh! I've heard of them. I didn't know they'd opened one in town. I've been to their location in the capital a couple of times," Rowena commented.
Flavius nodded. "They've got a pretty good collection of rare used books, from what I recall. Is the librarian part of the owner's family?"
Michael shrugged. "I didn't see anyone else around, so I think they might have just opened. He seemed to know his way around, though, so maybe he's the local manager?"
"He must be, if he can sign off on work hours for credit. Were you there all day?"
Michael shook his head. "Afterwards, I went to get set up at the gym through the cafe. It was pretty huge!"
"Oh? Which gym is it?"
"It's called Atlas."
"Atlas! That's a pretty big name! At that's the gym they have a deal with?"
"Well, apparently Jeremy's family also runs them, so..."
Rowena's face turned thoughtful before asking, "What's Jeremy's family name?"
"Ben-David, I think?", Michael said after a moment's recollection.
Flavius and Rowena shared a quick look that escaped their son's notice before Flavius continued. "Well, it's good that you're making friends, dear. Just be sure that you're not taking advantage, alright? You're a young man now, and it's not right to mooch of other people, even if they offer. You're a Prout. Don't forget the family motto."
Michael nodded, his face turning solemn. "'Ego enim accepi'. I give what I receive."
Flavius grunted, a satisfied smile on his face. "That's right. We may not have a lot, but what we have, we work hard for. We return both the grace and indignities of others as best we can."
Michael stayed calm above the table, but his fists clenched tightly out of sight. Once again he resolved to work harder than ever to relieve the burden on his parents and the family, and to make sure that Jeremy and Ben didn't regret the contract - both at the cafe and at Atlas. Michael didn't mention the Challenger program to his parents, as he didn't want to worry them with the details.
"I still need to get stronger," he thought to himself.
"That's the plan, isn't it?", the System chimed in. "So hurry up and finish dinner so we can go take a look at the recipes."
---
The rest of dinner and the cleanup went by uneventfully, and after bowing out from a family movie with the excuse of homework, Michael went downstairs. The aura of the ordered mind immediately gave him a refreshing sensation.
"Excellent! Now, recipes!", the System said excitedly.
"Well, first I should really do a quick check on my homework. Am I missing anything?", Michael interceded.
The System huffed. "Seriously? Putting it off again? Ugh. Whatever. Check it yourself, then. I'm not your secretary."
Michael chuckled and went over to his desk. "I know. Not my secretary, butler, or taskmaster."
"That's right, hmph!"
As Michael sat down, he looked at the various notebooks and textbooks from his classes. He had Algebra and Chemistry homework to do, in the end, so he started with Algebra. He began going through the problems, and only after a few minutes of writing out problems and answers did he notice something odd.
"...Huh."
"What is it?"
"Is it just me, or is this... really easy?"
"Well, this is the first time you've done any of this basic work since your cybernetic enhancement Friday night. So, yeah, it's just you. Or the new you, rather."
"But the answers are coming out as soon as I finish reading them."
"Well, technically that isn't the case. What's happening is that by the time your conscious brain has finished 'reading' the problem, the part of the brain responsible for solving it has already finished its work. This was already possible for easier problems - think of filling out basic multiplication or addition tables. That's something you could have done this fast previously. You're just a bit faster now, so slightly more complicated problems are now solvable in the same amount of time."
"... This is going to save me so much time in homework."
"There was a reason I wanted you to pick this enhancement, after all."
Michael gleefully continued with his problems, completing the hefty assignment in half the time it would have taken him originally. Each problem was only resolved a few seconds more quickly than it would have been, but over the course of the entire set it added up to a non-insignificant amount of time. This process repeated itself when it came to his Chemistry work and balancing various equations. In just under half an hour, he was completely ready for the next day. Taking a moment to revel in his improvements once more, he leaned back in his chair and stretched.
"Now then. Let's take a look at those formulas. How should I go about this?"
"Hmm... I suppose you could just close your eyes for now."
"...Alright."
Soon, the ever-present prompt at the corner of his eye took over his entire visual scope. Line after line of text appeared, looking very much like the outline of experiments he would see in chemistry class. An awed expression appeared on Michael's face as he continued to see streams of information appear behind his closed eyelids. That look changed to one of confusion, however, as he started to read into the details.
"Silver-laced Wolfsbane? A night-stalker's gallbladder? What the heck, System?", Michael exclaimed, his expression worsening as he continued to read. "I have no idea what most of these things are."
"This is what I have in the packet. Maybe they're known under different names?"
Micheal opened his eyes, frowning. "Also, what's with those names? Basic Strengthening Liquid? Meridian Refinement Paste? Minor Healing? I know I said it was kind of like an RPG before, but this is ridiculous."
"You might recall that one of the playbacks mentioned that you shouldn't share this with anyone? Maybe now you're understanding why. The stuff you have access to right now is limited, but even some of this could get governments and corporations ready to kill you."
Michael blanched. "Well, what am I supposed to do? It's not like I can pick up these ingredients at the grocery store. The equipment should be fine, I can find that in the kitchen or borrow it from school, but I don't even know where to start with most of these ingredients."
"You know, when in doubt..."
Michael rolled his eyes. "Yeah, read a book. Guess I have yet another thing to check out at the library. Or maybe I should look online."
"I don't know, it's a weird search history for a 14 year old," the System interjected.
Michael smirked. "It's not my first day online, you know. Yours truly has some security skills. "
"Still, offline records might be better as a first approach."
"Can't argue with that. Is this really worth it, though?"
"If you want to beat those kids in class and the other Challengers?"
"... Fair enough. Tomorrow at the library, then," Michael sighed as he stood up and got changed for bed.