03 Factory System
Beep Beep, his Alarm wakes him up.
"Yawn, When did I fall asleep? I couldn't remember. Whatever I need to get ready for work," Arc mumbled as he gets up.
For some reason, he felt great since he woke up, and felt refreshed as all his fatigue and stress had gone away.
"Morning, bro, wake up! Breakfast is ready, so come down to eat." Anne shouted from downstairs.
"Yeah, I'm coming, just let me take a shower for a bit."
A few minutes later.
"Hmm, smells good; Your cooking is improving a lot," said Arc.
Anne giggled and replied, "thanks, bro."
"But you know I told you not to bother waking up this early in the morning to cook," said Arc with a rebuking but soft tone.
"Go back to sleep. You still have class today as it's only 4 am, but thanks for the breakfast.," said Arc ginning.
"Sure, no problem I'll go back to sleep but don't forget to lock the door when you leave." Says Anne with a happy smile on her face.
"Ok, no problem, go back to sleep," reply Arc.
"Okay"
***
"Nice, it's been a long time since I felt this refreshed, I wonder what happened? I don't remember what happened last night. The last thing I remember is opening that suspicious link, but I don't remember what happened after. Well, never mind, I'm off to work."
Like usual, Arc worked like a cow in the morning carrying products, in the afternoon, he went to construction for 4 hours, and lastly, he went to the factory to work till late at night.
"This is weird,"
"This whole day, I didn't feel any tiredness at all, even after carrying more than 50 loads. I'm still energetic..."
"Normally, I'll be like a dying dog after carrying around 20 loads."
Carrying more than 50 kilograms of produce back and forth between the shop and the warehouse, traveling around 300 meters, and carrying more than 50 kilograms, he can only do 20 rounds or so before he can no longer move from exhaustion.
He was paid per load or for a round trip.
Twenty loads can earn him around 200 credits, and he gets paid 10 credits per load, as this job pays more than any of his other jobs. In the factory, he only gets paid 5credit an hour, and a single bowl of street noodles is around 10 to 15 credits.
He works around 4 to 6 hours a day in the factory, and he only earns less than 20+ credits a day from the factory. The construction work, however, is different, as he gets paid per job done.
His job at the market pays good money, but it's a tough job, and if by chance he damages the goods he is carrying, he will be responsible for it. And that's why, even though the pay was good, barely anyone wants that job.
Though working in the factory only earns him around 20 credits a day, it was not hard work, at least not for him.
His job is to mainly check the quality of the product made by the machines. The only problem is the pollution released by the machines in the factory, nevertheless, it's still an easy job for him, and that is why even though his boss keeps on taking advantage of him, he can never let go of the job since he considers it a relaxing job.
"It's really weird, did I accidentally consume psychotropic drugsā¦?" Arc said a bit worried.
He was no stranger to psychotropic drugs since he used to take them before because it allows him to party for 3 days without getting tired.
The downside is the after-effects, it was so bad no, it was hell. Not being able to move and not to mention the pain after the drugs wore out is a nightmare. That's why people who took psychotropic drugs keep on taking them, and in the end, they become dependent on them.
He still remembers the day he tried to clean out, the experience is hell. That even today, after two years, it still makes him shiver. That's why he slightly panicked when he thought about accidentally ingesting drugs.
He went straight home after working at the factory.
-I'm home!- shouted Arc.
"Bro, you're home, give me a sec, I'm almost done with the dinner," said Anne.
"Big bro, help me with my homework!" Said Amy looking expectant
"Amy, I told you don't bother big bro about your homework, he's tired from working..." said, Anne.
"It's fine, what's the problem, Amy? I may not look like it, but I was once called a genius during my early school year." Arc replies with a smug look on his face.
He flexes his muscles while saying those lines, making his sister crackle a laugh
"So what's the problem?" ask Arc looking at his sister who was sitting on an old couch holding a textbook.
"Well, I don't understand these equations. I tried what my teacher is telling me, but I still don't understand it." says Amy with knitted brows,
"Hmm, let me see.... this is how you do it..." said Arc while helping his sister.
Thirty minutes later, his sister Anne called out from the kitchen.
"Dinner is ready!" Anne shouted.
"Okay!" Arc and Amy said together...
"Bro, you're better than my teacher in explaining things, why don't you work as a teacher instead," said Amy with a bright smile on her face.
"Haha, of course, who do you think I am," says Arc while grinning and winking at his sister...
"My secret is back then, I hate studying so in order not to fail, I learned how to make shortcuts in studying, for example, to solve math, I've read and read many books related to it to understand it better."
"I allocated one week to completely study one subject in order to understand it better, and when I did. Well, after that, the rest is easy."
"Once you understand the core of things, no matter how much they twist the outside, you can still untwist it, that's my secret," says Arc while walking to the kitchen with his sister Amy.
"Though I mainly do that, so I could have more time doing other things besides studying. Because after all, my goal at that time is not the top, but mainly to pass and not fail. I'll give you some tips on how to do that, but don't copy me and waste your time with other things," He continues.
His two sisters looked at him in shock.
"Big bro, what the hell! Why didn't you tell us this sooner?" Ask Anne in shock when she heard Arc talking to Amy.
"Eh hehe well.... you didn't ask?" said Arc innocently.
"Ahhh, stop, stop tickling me, stop."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
He begs his sister to stop...
"Our dinner is getting cold," said Arc Gasping for air
"Ah, I forgot,'' said Anne grinning. "Okay, let's eat first; we will continue this later." Arc said with a happy look on his face.
"Right," agreed Amy.
"What! Do you still plan to continue?" asked Arc with a fake fear on his face.
His face paled, and his sister giggled and hopped towards the kitchen laughing.
He looks at the back of his sister and smiles.
After dinner, he tutored his two sisters on his so-called Shortcut in studying, it took them two hours before they get most of it because even though he calls it a shortcut, it's useless until you completely understand it.
"It's harder than we thought," says Amy and Anne.
"But I'm beginning to understand it, I think, but it will take a while to understand it completely," said Anne while massaging her glabella.
"Yeah!" Said Amy, still looking a bit confused.
"Haha, I never said it's easy, back then, I tried to teach this to my buddies. But none of them have the patience to do it," said Arc.
"Then how did you do it? Who told you this method?" Ask Amy curiously.
"No one! I came up with it," said Arc with a smug look on his face.
"Don't underestimate the man who will do anything, just to have more time to party, ahem. I mean to do other things," said Arc with a proud and smug look on his face
His sister looks at him like he is an alien.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" ask Arc.
"Nothing." Amy and Anne say together while laughing
"Well, whatever I'm going to bed, I'll teach you two again tomorrow if you still have more questions, ask them tomorrow," said Arc changing the subject he was still worried about the current state of his body.
He turns around and walks upstairs. His sisters look at each other and said,
"I think our big bro is really a genius," said Amy.
"I think so, too. Back then, mom and dad said that big brother is a genius if only he takes his studying seriously. I never believed it, mainly because his grades sucks." Says Anne
"But now I think I'm starting to believe it," Amy and Anne nodded at each other they continue to chat as Arc went upstairs to his room.
All this talk happens without Arc knowing anything.
In his bedroom, he sat on his bed, thinking.
"I didn't think I would still be able to remember my Shortcut," Arc said smiling.
He reminisces a little, and then be begun to remember the situation that he might have ingested psychotropic drugs accidentally.
He checks for any symptoms of being drugged, he knows them too well, but no matter how he checked, he didn't find any signs of being drugged.
"What the hell is going on?" He asks himself.
"Right! Last night, I tried to open an unknown link." of course he also thinks that a web link has nothing to do about being drugged, but since he can't think of any other things, he might as well checks it out.
He checks his email and sees the blank sender mail.
He clicks it open, but to his surprise, the link wasn't there anymore, and the mail was also empty, which left him confused.
"Did I just imagine it? But the mail is here; only the content is gone. Well, no use thinking about it, I need to sleep."
He lay on his bed and suddenly...
DING!
Then he hears a synthetic voice rank in his mind
"Factory System booting complete"