Notice: The quality may dip down or go up as you read the chapter, sorry for that.
Nighttime passed by like a breeze; nothing happened except hearing howls of wolves in the woods.
That was probably his best sleep ever since he woke up in the black hole, he stretched his body and bought new sets of clothes from Atlas and wore them immediately.
He went out from the guest room and went to the living room, what greeted him was Liam, who was having tea with a cigarette in hand and Cristine who was cooking breakfast for them.
"Hey." He greeted them and then sat on the chair in the table.
He looked into the void, pondering on what to do next. He couldn't just freeload in Liam's house for the rest of his life.
He basically has an infinite amount of money, so money is not an issue to him; the problem is, what will he do with that money.
Apollo thought about starting a business, but he has no clue how to manage it; he could hire people, but Apollo doesn't know if they can be trusted or not, so he tried to ask Liam.
"Hey, Liam, do you know about starting a business?"
Liam stopped sipping his tea and placed it on the table, he took a puff from his cigarette and said, "I sure don't, but Cristine has a degree in business management so you should ask her."
Liam took his tea and took a sip from it, meanwhile, Apollo stood up from his chair and walked towards the kitchen.
He saw Cristine cutting ingredients, so he thought it was the best time to ask, he knocked on the wooden wall to make his presence known and asked, "Cristine, do you know about starting a business?"
She looked where the sound came from and replied, "I know a little bit, but I only excel in managing a business, so I couldn't help you that much."
Apollo's last option now was to ask Atlas, Atlas still gives him the creeps just by it existing, but Atlas helped him in his hardest times, so why not?
He asked in his thoughts, 'Atlas, is there some sort of skill I could buy so that I could be a professional in a selected course or profession?"
[It is all located in the store.]
Apollo didn't mind Atlas' cold behavior because he's already used to it, so he shrugged it off.
He walked towards the table and continued his search for a business course in the skill tab.
The skill tab contained a lot of skills, from assassination to martial arts, but he sorted it so that only Business would show up.
[Business - Novice 100 Points]
[Business - Advance 1,000 Points]
[Business - Expert 10,000 Points]
The business course doesn't just give him information on how to manage it; it would also transfer all the knowledge about businesses, from Finance and Accounting, Marketing, Economics, etc. So he instantly bought the Expert tier.
While looking at all sorts of skills, he realized one thing, 'What if I could cook the food I bought from Atlas, wouldn't that be a better choice?'
He hurriedly searched for a cooking skill, and what he saw made him so happy.
[Cooking - Novice 100 Points]
[Cooking - Advance 1,000 Points]
[Cooking - Expert 10,000 Points]
[Cooking - Godly 100,000,000 Points]
[Cooking - Divine 1,000,000,000,000 Points]
It did not only have the cooking skill, but it also contained a few ranks above the 'Expert' rank.
He hurriedly exchange the points and bought it; it made his stats lower down by a number.
------------------------------------
User: Apollo Kai Murphy
Str: 4,023,202,920+³⁹
Agi:4,019,110,492+³⁹
Def:4,120,467,583+³⁹
Points: 39,998
Store
Storage
Sell
------------------------------------
After he bought it, the information he never knew got sent directly into his brain, from ingredients and food from other worlds to his current world, he knew all about it; from different types of cooking to how to properly skin an animal to preserve the freshness.
It would be excruciatingly painful if it is done on an average person, but it felt a little orgasmic to Apollo.
'I need to dissect this Atlas...' Not the kind of dissect you guys are thinking though.
As Apollo was busy searching for things he could exchange for points, he didn't really have time to look for every bit and cranny inside Atlas.
As he skimmed through the store, he found a tab that was named [Predecessors]. The tab contained an infinite amount of people or rather, beings that have once used Atlas.
Atlas graded them from 10-D being the lowest and 0-SSS being the highest. The strongest being that has once used Atlas was a being called Azeroth.
Azeroth has ruled the whole Unknown, Unknown being the space that contained an infinite amount of universes, multiverses, and omniverses.
The reason Azeroth didn't have Atlas anymore was that he created an entity much stronger than Atlas and fused it into himself.
Azeroth doesn't exist anymore due to the fusion failing, hence erasing him from existence.
He clicked Azeroth's profile and what greeted him was a summary of Azeroth's lifetime, his stats were all infinite, beyond infinite even, and the price for Azeroth's memories and skills was just an infinite symbol.
Sweat formed in his head, 'Good thing this guy doesn't exist anymore.'
Apollo exited Atlas and returned back to reality, he didn't notice it before but whenever he uses Atlas, time freezes and when he exits, it returns back to normal.
...
Afternoon, Apollo decided to buy a building just near a famous hill so that he could build his restaurant there; although Apollo doesn't need money, the social interactions are what he is chasing for, so he decided to build a restaurant.
He asked Liam if he knows an Agent that could help him buy a property that could be used both as a house and a restaurant.
Liam replied, "You should ask Cristine; she should have a few colleagues who work that profession."
Apollo nodded and thanked Liam. He walked towards the living room where Cristine and Anne could be seen sitting on a couch, watching TV.
He arrived at the left side of the couch, which was facing the table in which he sat before. Apollo cleared his throat to make his presence known.
Cristine looked at where the sound came from and saw Apollo, "Hey, Apollo."
Apollo smiled and began to speak, "Cristine, Uhm, do you know an agent that could help me buy a property?"
She thought for a bit and then replied, "I could give you her number if you want."
Apollo scratched his head, seemingly embarrassed, "I... don't have a phone..."
She chuckled, Cristine dialed the phone and clicked the call button. She placed the phone in her ear and began to speak, "Hey Sophie."
The call lasted for about five minutes before she hung up the call.
"Sophie said you guys could meet up in a nearby coffee shop at 2:00 pm"
Apollo thanked her and left shortly.
...
2:00 pm, Apollo took a shower and cleaned himself up a bit.
He bought a brand new set of clothes from Atlas and decided to wear them; he wore black jeans, a white shirt, and regular white shoes.
When he arrived at the coffee shop, he saw a petite black-haired woman wearing denim jeans and a brown off-shoulder top with vertical white lines all over the top.
Apollo scanned the coffee shop to find the woman Cristine described.'Hmm, A petite woman with black hair and an average face.'
Suddenly, the woman wearing a brown top called towards the direction of Apollo, "Hey!" she shouted as she waved her hands in the air.
Apollo glanced at the direction of where the voice came from, and sure enough, it's the petite black-haired woman he was finding.
He walked towards the table, which has a built-in giant umbrella.
"Are you... Sophie?"
The girl chuckled and replied, "My name's Sophia, but since big sister Cristine entrusted you to me, I guess you can call me that."
Apollo nodded and sat down at the chair opposite of her, the moment he sat down he immediately felt the girl's aura change, from a harmless girl who has just finished college a few years ago to a professional agent.
This piqued Apollo's interest, but he didn't ponder about it too much and began to speak, "I want to buy a two-story house."
"What's your budget? Where do you want the location of the property to be?"
"I have a budget of USD 1 billion, I want the location to be a quiet place."
Sophia searched her bag and took out a plastic folder; she flipped page after page until she arrived at the part where it only contained two story houses near the area.
Apollo flipped through the pages and finally found a house.
"I want this, but I still have some questions." Apollo pointed at the picture.
Sophia nodded, "Go on."
"Why are they selling the house? When will the sellers move out? How old is the property? How-..."
Sophia listened quietly, and when Apollo finished speaking, she answered all of Apollo's questions. "They are selling the house because they're moving in with their children. They could move out anytime. The property is 10-years-old and newly renovated. Do you want to visit it now?"
Apollo nodded in reply, and they both got up from their seats and took a taxi.
...
They arrived at a house with a wooden exterior, the wood was light brown, so it is visible even in the dark, the door has a dark oak color to it, and it perfectly matched the wooden walls.
The front side of the house has windows not far away from the door's sides. They knocked on the door, and what greeted them was a middle-aged man. The man has a few wrinkles on his forehead, his hair is black, but it seems like time is catching up to him because of the visible white hair slowly growing in his head.
The man knew Sophia, so he invited them in. The interior of the house has an antique feel to it because of the things, but because they planned to sell it, they renovated it to a modern look.
After entering the house, you would immediately see the living room and a lightish blue wall dividing the living room from the kitchen. The living room has a grey couch that is touching the wall, in front of it is a small wood coffee table with a picture of a younger version of the old couple. The right side and left side of the couch has two grey single seat sofa.
For entertainment, a flat-screen tv could be seen not far away from the couch; the tv is placed on a tv stand/cabinet that is full of books.
When they entered, they saw an elderly woman drinking tea on the couch, "Are they here to buy the house?'
The old man, Peter, led them to his wife. Peter sat down on the couch where his wife was sitting on and pointed at the two to sit down on the chairs.
Peter talked first, "Before you buy, do you want to check things first?
Apollo shook his head, "No thanks.", he was gonna renovate the house anyway, so wasting time on checking every nook and cranny is pointless.
...
After talking for a long while, they agreed that they would move out in the morning, they signed the paperwork and then parted.
Apollo got home to Liam's house at about 5:00 pm, when he walked inside, he saw three people in suits sitting on the dinner table with Liam and his wife.
They didn't notice Apollo come in, so they continued to chat.
Apollo didn't want to intervene, so he went towards the living room where Anne happily watched tv.
He sat next to Anne and accompanied her. While sitting on the couch, he went to Atlas's store and decided to test things.
Apollo searched all kinds of fictional items, from vibranium to divine swords.
As he searched, he learned that the fictional items aren't only real, but they also have multiple duplicates. The duplicates aren't fake per se, but from different timelines and different universes.
The 'duplicates' aren't duplicates; they have the same name and same creator but with different designs and different powers.
His next test is how he could increase the str, agi, and def stats; he doesn't play games that often, but he knows what they mean after settling in earth and asking Atlas from time to time.
He was already this strong, but he's still a long way to go to reach Azeroth. He doesn't want to reach Azeroth's strength because of his greed of power; he wants to reach it so that if a powerful enemy showed up, he wouldn't need to be afraid.
Traditional ways of gaining strength really isn't an option. If Apollo did a regular workout for 20 years without a break, he wouldn't even break a sweat.
He pondered for a long time, 'Can't I just... buy stats...?'
Apollo tried, but +1,000 on all stats would shorten his life by 500 years. He doesn't know how many years his lifespan is currently, so he didn't want to risk it.
He returned back to real life and accompanied Anne, the house he bought for $76,000 is ready, and he could move there tomorrow, so the only problems he is facing now is ingredients, 'Would normal ingredients work or do I really need to buy ingredients from Atlas?'
Not long after he arrived, the three men in suits began to pack up their stuff and leave, leaving a worried coupled having a serious chat.
"It hasn't even been two months, and they already want us to leave. They even dare to make the payment higher!" The furious Liam exclaimed as the men in suits left.
Cristine tries to calm down the furious Liam, she held Liam's hand and said, "Liam, calm down. Anger will just lead to nowhere; let's just think of a way for now."
Liam lit a cigarette and walked towards the open window to calm himself down, "Greedy bastards!"
Apollo heard this commotion and walked towards them, "What's making you so angry, uncle Liam?"
Liam took a puff from his cigarette and replied, "Just some greedy corporation trying to steal my land by abusing their power."
The land he is currently protecting came from his grandparents, although he doesn't earn much from the crops these past few years, that doesn't mean he will let some corporation take it away from him and his family. If he sells the land, they will also take the house he built with his blood and sweat.
The power Apollo now isn't something to be ignored, but he feels powerless in front of a mere corporation. He didn't answer Liam's reply; he instead began to think of answers to the problem the Miller family is facing.
As he is thinking, he suddenly facepalmed. 'I am this powerful, yet I am afraid of a mere ant.'
Liam smoked in silence as he is waiting for Apollo's reply, suddenly, Apollo's voice filled the air, Apollo placed his hand on Liam's shoulder and said with a smile on his face, "Don't worry about that anymore, just focus on your family for now. I'll take care of it."
The Miller family isn't anything special, but they helped Apollo when he needed help the most. Just frequent conversations made Apollo feel at home, where he really belongs. Just this gesture alone would make Apollo protect the Miller family until the end of their lives.
Apollo's recognition isn't easy to obtain, though; the Miller family just helped the right person at the right time. If some family helped him, he would just owe them a favor, and that's the end of it.
...
It's already 7:00 pm and time for dinner, Cristine is about to take out ingredients from the fridge but was stopped by an arm, she looked behind her and felt relieved, "Oh, it's you Apollo."
Apollo removed his arm from Cristine, "Can I cook for you guys?"
As he was curious about the cooking skill and wants to test it, he decided now is a great time; he could check if the quality of the food changes when he cooks it, and he could also cook for the Miller family as a sort of repayment.
Cristine felt embarrassed and tried to stop him, "N-no, no need. You can just leave the cooking to me."
They kept saying the same thing to each other for over a minute until Cristine surrendered and let Apollo cook. "Thanks, aunt, you won't regret this! By the way, what do you guys want to eat?"
Anne replied with 'Fried chicken,' Liam replied with 'Anything', and Cristine said the same thing as Liam.
Anne quickly added, "Big brother! Can you cook french fries too? Pleaseee!"
"Okay, Fried chicken and French fries it is."
What he is going to test now is the ingredients, would the food taste the same even if it's cooked by a godly chef, or would it also taste godly?
To test it, he decided to cook it the same way but with different ingredients. He bought chicken, oil, ingredients for the batter, and french fries of the highest quality from Atlas, and he got chicken, ingredients for the batter, and regular oil in the fridge.
He also bought two deep fryers from Atlas to speed up the process; the deep fryer is the same as seen in normal stores.
He mixed the batter and proceeded to cover the chicken in it after all of it was covered with batter, he poured oil on both deep fryers and placed the chicken one by one.
On the left side, it was the normal ingredients, on the right side, it was the ingredients he bought from Atlas.
If compared, the aroma from the left fryer smells bland, and the aroma coming from the right would make even gods kneel just to have a taste of it.
As time goes by, the fried chickens and the french fries were done cooking. Liam and his family's mouths were already watering.
Anne banged on the table and complained, "Big brother! Are you done yet?!"
Just as she said that, Apollo walked out from the kitchen, holding two plates filled to the brim with fried chicken.
Anne's eyes glowed as the fried chicken arrived, but she felt something was still missing, "Big brother, where are the french fries?"
Cristine intervened, she glared at Anne like a hawk, "Anne!"
Apollo smiled at the cute scene, "I'll go get it from the kitchen."
He already bought ketchup from Atlas, thinking the fries would be bland if there weren't any, he got out from the kitchen holding a big bowl of fries on his right hand and a small bowl filled with ketchup on the left.
He placed it in front of Anne, who is tortured by the aroma of the fries, "Waahh, fries!!"
Cristine looked at the fries, surprised. 'I don't remember buying fries...'
As Anne couldn't hold herself in front of fries she always dreamt of eating, she took out a piece and dipped it in the ketchup, she took a bite, and her eyes suddenly glowed, and her posture straightened like a tree.
The piece of fry in her mouth was crunchy on the outside, but soft on the inside, the flavor of the fry is indescribable. Delicious is an understatement. Not only the fry, but the ketchup is also on par with the fry, but she also doesn't know how to describe it, so she just kept quiet and ate the fries silently with a face full of pleasure.
Apollo sat down on the chair in between Liam and Anne. Liam and Cristine haven't started eating yet, so it's the best time to start a survey.
He took two chickens from both plates and placed it on Liam's and Cristine's plate, he placed his elbow on the table and intertwined his fingers, looking like a villain. "Can you guys tell me which chicken tastes better?"
Both chickens on their plate look the same, but there's a faint golden glow barely visible on one chicken.
They both picked the regular chicken and took a bite from it,
"It's good."
"The crispiness is perfect, and it was cooked perfectly."
They placed down the chicken and picked up the other one, the faint glow scared them, but they kept thinking that Apollo won't do harm.
As the chicken entered their mouths, they began to chew on it. As they eat, two soft moans could be heard from them.
They immediately covered their mouths with their vacant hands; Liam laughed and slapped his thigh because he too also moaned from the taste of the chicken, "I don't know what you did, but this chicken is damn good!"
Cristine also laughed, but it wasn't as loud as Liam's; she quietly ate the fried chicken as she couldn't stop from eating them. The fried chicken's texture is so crispy on the outside but not to the point of being brittle, when it is cut open, the aroma would immediately cover the whole room. Meanwhile, the chicken skin that is covered with ingredients from Atlas tasted so good that if it were introduced to the public, giving the chicken skin to one's partner would be the same as asking someone for marriage.
To Apollo, this is just like the old days from when he was in the black hole where he was eating food on this level every day, the taste the chicken gave him is normal, he didn't moan or did any embarrassing things while eating the godly fried chicken as he was already used to it.
"It would be perfect if we had beer," Liam said as he regretted not buying beer.
Cristine also frowned, although she stopped drinking beer when she got pregnant with Anne in her tummy, it would be nice to drink beer with fried chicken in this caliber.
Apollo smiled and bought beer from Atlas, although it's only a few dozen points, the taste would make the highest quality beer on earth taste like dirt.
He bought a box of beer which has 20 cans in it that are already cold when he took it out.
The beers aren't cold to the point of freezing the tongue, the coldness is just perfect, and the coldness is preserved by the specially designed box.
Apollo doesn't drink beer that often, but he likes the taste of some beers, and Atlas's beer was one of them. He honestly doesn't know where all these items came from, but he doesn't bother to care about it.
He placed the beer on the table, "Let's enjoy."
The box of the beer doesn't really have a design, the color of the box is light blue with the words 'Atlas' and 'beer' below it; the words are white in both sides.
The eyes of Liam and Cristine shined as they saw the box.
"Haha, this kid is really something," Liam said as he kept eating the fried chicken.
Apollo opened the box and opened three cans then handed it to Liam and Cristine.
Liam took a big gulp from the can and is now in cloud nine, Cristine just took a sip from the can so that she won't get drunk quickly but the taste of the beer still made her moan a little.
Anne looked at her parents' faces which were filled with pleasure from the taste of the beer, she pouted and said with her cute voice, "I want to drink too." she looked at Apollo with her two adorable eyes and said, "Can I drink too big brother?"
Cristine got back to her senses because of Anne's voice, so she immediately said with a stern tone, "No, Anne. Children aren't allowed to drink beer."
Apollo was enjoying the atmosphere this house gave, so what if he has god-like powers? Would that power make him feel this feeling again? God-like powers couldn't compare to a family that makes you feel at home, a family that treats you like family even if you're a stranger to them, a family that you could be yourself without hearing judgments from them. This was the feeling Apollo craved when he was inside the black hole for years. The feeling that he longed for for so long.
Apollo stopped daydreaming and answered Anne, who was sulking beside him, "What do you want to drink then?"
Her eyes shined, but she looked at her mother first, "Can I drink juice, mom?"
Cristine nodded as she took another fried chicken from the plate.
"What flavor do you want?"
Anne thought for a bit and replied, "I want an apple-flavored juicee!"
Her mouth is already watering at the thought of drinking juice.
Apollo bought it from Atlas and took it out from his storage, the box holding the juice is the same as milk cartons, the design is the same as the beer box, but instead of 'Beer' written on it, it is 'Apple juice.'
She hopped from her chair and went to the kitchen to get a cup; she returned with a clear glass cup in her hands.
Anne placed the cup on the table and hopped back on her chair, she looked at Apollo who is eating while drinking and asked, "Could you pour me juice, big brother?"
Apollo stopped eating and took the juice and poured it on her cup until it was half full.
She thanked him with a massive smile on her face; the smile made her look as if she was glowing brightly.
Apollo patted her head with his clean hand and continued eating.
This night is a night that will forever be remembered by the Miller family. A night that made both Apollo and the Miller family feel happy and contented.