Thinking about it a bit, perhaps she might be useful after all, if he truly makes her believe he is a magician perhaps he would have his test dummy for the manual he got from the immortal.
"Actually, this is real magic, this wand can make things disappear forever"
"Are you trying to get my favor by being mysterious? I am not a child I know its not ma-"
She pulled back a bit and looked at him suspiciously
Alex just shot a chair nearby to shut her up. He was really tired and just wished to get this over with quick. Luckily Ray had already left to pay for the treats he gave otherwise he would have made another mistake
"It also works on humans, but I rather not try since they are banished to the world of necrat"
In the end of the sentence he fumbled on his words a bit, I mean its pretty hard coming up with a original but fancy name for some imaginary place he probably wont talk about again
'The fuck is necrat, never mind too late to change my words, besides its a random word not like it means anything I just need to remember it'
"So you really are telling the truth, why me? do you like me and want me to be your mage partner?"
"For christs sake woman. I. Do. Not. Like. You. I told you cause it will be easier to make you shut up about it if you know. I dont want people to come asking me to perform magic tricks using real magic do I"
The excuse seemed logical, I mean no real magician would like to draw attention to their 'tricks' and Amelia seemed to want to see more of those, thats a formula for others to see it too and ask for the same.
His points seemed logical so Amelia had no doubts but she decided to ask him to teach her some magic to keep her quiet. Alex didnt expect her to be so proactive but it worked out for him cause that is what he intended. He pasted the sticker like slip on her forehead putting her in a daze
"It really was magic, I have no choice but to believe it now. Thank you. Thank you very much. I dont know what to say even after I harassed you. I knew the letters werent from you but I stubbornly insisted they were because I didnt want to look like a fool. Sorry"
Perhaps the favor or the sudden development confused her and made her more honest about it. I mean not every day does someone paste a slip which for some reason adds directly to your memory right on your forehead.
Feeling a bit guilty over using her as a experiment subject now he decided to go through with it regardless because it was already too late. He would wait till it showed some result on her then use it himself and write down a written copy for Laura to memorize or perhaps animate the memory into a video so its even easier to follow using his hightech computer. Future projects aside he needed to finish what was on his plate now his plan with Laura.
He also now had a perfect way to get his first customer provided they finish the program which would take some time for two people regardless of how good they are at making it. Perhaps he could have Ray introduce a fat sheep with the phone as bait. Misfortune really does hide fortune if you turn it into opportunity but for now his priority is monitering Amelia and developing the program as well as figuring out a way to truly protect himself and Laura.
"Its alright, in return please let me observe your progress with the magic art. If it goes wrong I would be in more trouble than you"
A lie of course.
"Alright see you later then"
Finishing up college he headed home, finally walking for the first time in forever. Meanwhile Ray was meeting with his father
"Dad its all true, I saw it myself."
A man excluding the aura of a mafia boss, or someone in a high place sat infront of Ray. He lightly tapped the table while asking.
"And he wouldnt sell huh? Is it that kid we rescued along with you? Isnt that a bit ungrateful of him?"
After all the kidnapping accident ended with saviors from his side. He assumed that Alex owed a debt for being saved after all he didnt know that Ray was the target and Alex just went along so he wouldnt be alone. Then does Ray owe him? perhaps for emotional support but in the end with or without Alex the outcome was like a scripted event, It would have happened anyway.
"Dad dont forget he got caught because of me to begin with, he didnt need to after all so he doesnt owe us."
"That is true, We might even owe him for letting him be kidnapped in the first place but he made that choice himself"
He stopped tapping the table and leaned back to think a bit. He didnt want to ruin one of his sons true friendships but, he knew his son had a desire to go into technology and he fully supported him. Realestate never was as unprofitable as today, people bought things mainly from the internet nowadays, it made shops that operate fully on physical grounds less efficient. Previously the land around popular shopping districts would be pretty pricey as well as land in gated communities but nowadays people have their items conveniently delivered to their doorsteps. A phone and money is all you need and you can literally never go outside. The land prices might be slowly climbing up due to population but its still not quick enough and the technological industry seemed to have more profit with fewer restrictions.
"So dad please dont hurt him. Just scare him, he is a normal person he will give in to a few thugs"
The people at the top are never innocent or naive, debts must be repaid but only if the other side has the power to make you regret it otherwise.
The highest throne is built on the highest pile of corpses.
Ray and his father didnt get to their position simply by being honest.
Alex finally got home and discussed the events with Laura. He found out that she didnt go to school like almost always so her secret was safe. She agreed that they need something to strengthen them so atleast they get kidnapped or tortured. They would use the manual as a last resort but for now they decided to buy things which
a) strengthened their bodies so they can fight
b) techniques to fight so they dont get captured
and they also need to train to be able to use the digital gun accurately, it would probably cost quite a bit as it was electricity powered albiet only as much as a laptop would take, And target practice must be done on shields as anything else would just disappear.
Ideally they wish to be able to find some sort of accuracy gadget on the apocalypse market considering the immortal world wouldnt even have guns but Laura pointed out that archery techniques or something to train the eye and perception would be just as useful.
All of this would cost food items and gadgets, which in small amounts are fine but they dont have the best financial status for what they truly need. In the end Alex remembered that he had an old computer which he wouldnt need anymore thanks to the wonderful laptop he now had. He sold it for 600Mpts and decided to buy some sort of self defense technique, Browsing through he found one named 'perceptionist' which cost 400 points.
[Perceptionist: 400Mpts Trains your perception to its limit. When training using this method one can slow down their perception of time. The actual time is unaffected. This technique raises your processing speed so that you can think quicker giving you the ability to form two or more thoughts in the time it originally took to form one, upto 10x the processing speed]
This technique could be considered a cheat. It wouldnt raise your own speed but your perception would allow you to think of multiple counters when in a fight. Most importantly when paired with the shield bullets would be nothing to fear neither would punches while your own punch would still hurt. Well Alex never intended to punch people anyway for now. Why waste so much effort when a convenient one scratch one kill gun was right besides him?
He bought the skill and like the previous ones happened to be a slip with weird symbols. He pasted it on his forehead but found it was only good for one use the technique was erased from the slip. He took out an empty notebook and began writing it down after all his sister is still his top priority. This would also help him incase he forgot due to a failure in the memory technique or some accident.
Meanwhile Laura thought about selling one of her figurines just to see how much points they would give, surprisingly they gave 40 Mpts. She then sold her old phone for a total of 240 Mpts. Thinking that she would wait till her brother finishes his end of the preparations so they dont end up conflicting each other she spent the remaining time while he was writing simply practicing her coding. The book was pretty miraculous in reality any amount of coding would require days and months of practice to truly develop a web application, same with programming. Although she hadnt mastered it she could claim to know enough to make a simple program which runs as a separate entity.
Alex having finished after a few hours handed her the book which she kept with her and began practicing the technique while she spent her time coding, being a shutin she did not have the same level of urgency as her brother so she chose to focus on the long term goal for now o course she would still practice it later on.
After a while she finally brought up the market and looked up self defense skills. Unlike techniques or manuals skills were infact more expensive but at the same time were learnt instantly. Not just memorized learnt.
She looked up self defense skills and found that the cheapest one was 300Mpts. She still needed 60 more to afford it so she gave up and instead looked up pills. As her brother had told her about them she was curious whether they could help. She knew drugs were bad but were magical drugs bad? 1st Grade strengthening to 4th grade strengthing costed from 20 to 130 she still required 20 more for two batches of 4th grade so she decided to look up 3rd. These were the only pills she knew by name thanks to Alex mentioning them so she tended to prefer them instead of random searches.
[3rd grade strengthening pill: 80Mpts Adds 200KG of force to your punches as well as provides 50 KG of power. For mortal usage]
Punches depend on momentum so they would usually always be heavier than what you can normally lift. This didnt really make them superhuman but considering an average man can lift 61 KG - 70 KG this would still make them significantly stronger. While a professional can easily punch with a force of over 400KG a normal human can only deliver around 20-200KG at their best day. Considering this was an addition this would put Alex and Laura well over average humans but slightly below professionals. Coupled with the cheat shield and perception they might as well try for world championship.
They continued alternating between programming practice and perception practice the rest of their day.