"You know that I will, but are you sure? I'm not that cheap," Linus said.
There was no real reason for Linus to refuse the offer, especially when he really enjoyed working with Michael. They were a team. A very good team.
"Could have fooled me, but yes, I am sure," Michael responded, referring to the cheap part. "Drop by my apartment tomorrow. I will tell you more about the job then. Oh yeah, my boss is Deus. Yes, that Deus. Told you he was real."
"What!?"
Michael hanged up then and pocketed his phone. He could have withheld that information, but since Linus did not believe him, he thought he might let Linus have a night of restless sleep or two.
Knowing there was someone out there who could end the world at their whim was pretty scary.
Michael headed towards his apartment afterwards. He dropped by a convenience store on the way to pick up a few necessary things. He also grabbed something to eat at the store since he had not eaten anything since morning.
"That will be $9.50," the girl in her teen said. She should still be in high school.
Michael looked at the $20 dollar note in his hand. It was all that he had left. He actually had $40 in the afternoon, but he digitalized one of the bills when hunting for ants. It was to see what would happen, and as expected, it became an item that he could spawn in his world as well as the outside world.
Sadly, Michael had no mana to spawn the $20 bill. Unlike spawning things in his world, it actually cost magical energy to spawn thing into the outside world. This was simply due to the outside world not being part of his Domain.
This was belonged to Biblical God even if that God was missing. Or dead. Whichever.
There were ways to get mana. The easiest would be acquiring a magical core. Any kind of magical core would do. Actually, it was not that easy. Michael wasn't even sure if magic existed in the outside world, but from his understanding of magic, it should. Or had existed.
"On a second thought, I want to buy a scratch card," Michael said and examined the available scratch cards in the store. Unlike the lottery, which was purely random based on multiple systems, these cards were not.
The prize on them were fixed the moment they were produced, and Michael via his ability, could see which of the cards were worth buying. Of course, he checked all of them before settling on one. It was not the best possible prize to win, but it was enough.
"This one," Michael said before handing over the $20. He also took the time to check her name tag. It was unnecessary before, but he wanted to test something.
"What about these items? You still want them?" Rebecca asked.
"Yes, but I don't have any money to pay for them… yet," Michael said as he proceeded to scratch the card, not paying any attention to the teenage girl. He did take a peek at her history as it was hard not to notice. "Here you go. This should cover it, right?"
Rebecca picked up the card and had a look. "$200? Really? How did you know you're going to win?"
"Lucky, I guess," Michael said before picking up his items as well as accepting $190.50 in change. Since the win was not that big, the store could pay him immediately.
"Lucky huh? How about trying your luck again?" Rebecca invited.
Michael looked at her before eyeing the pile of scratch cards. There were still quite a few prizes to be won, including the jackpot. But Michael did not want to grab more than necessary. Being greedy would cause unwanted attention, especially when he was not prepared yet.
He only did what he did in order to have some money in his pocket, and now he had money, he didn't need to risk exposing himself. There were much better ways to make money.
But after checking the store and looking at the surroundings, he decided otherwise. It wasn't too much of a big deal, considering that no one was going to believe it.
"Alright. Let me try my luck again," Michael said and picked out one more card from the pile. It had a much better prize than what the previous card. Far better. "I'm feeling pretty good about this one."
Michael placed the card before the girl before turning away, readying to head out of the store.
"Hey? Aren't you going to buy it?" Rebecca asked after a moment of confusion. She did not understand what Michael had meant when he left the card there for her.
Michael gestured his hand dismissively before leaving the store completely.
"Hey!" Rebecca called out again before looking at the scratch card on the counter in front of her. She wasn't sure what to do with it. She obviously wasn't going to waste $20 to see if Michael was lucky or not. At least at first. Her curiosity won out in the end.
Out of the four slots, the first one was a dud. However, when the next two revealed to be $10,000,000 prize, her eyes went wide. Her heart raced as she slowly scratched the final slot. The first digit revealed to be a "1" and the last digit revealed to be "0".
Rebecca counted the number of zero in between before shrieking in delight. She could not believe her eyes, but it was there. It was all there. $10 million jackpot!
Michael heard Rebecca from all the way down the street, and he wished her the best. From examining her information, he understood that she was quite a smart girl and that she wanted to get into a good college. Unfortunately, her family was not doing well financially, and therefore, she had taken a part time job instead of studying for her future.
That was noble enough for Michael to help her. It did not cost him anything in the end, but it did give him a good understanding of the underlying systems that govern reality.
It also opened his eyes, telling him that destiny wasn't set in stone.