Looking around, Ensen realized one thing. He had no idea how to get back home.
Pulling up the status, Ensen looked for a button to return home.
[Ensen Fuentes]
[Education Points: 18]
[Academy Rank: Null]
[Age: 27]
[Math average: C]
[Science average: F-]
[English average: F-]
[Foreign language average: F-]
[Sports average: F-]
[Teaching average: D+]
[administration average: D-]
[Other]
[Skill Market]
[Product Market]
[Auction House]
Confused by the lack of a way to return home, Ensen turned to the system for an answer.
"Hey system, how do I return home? There doesn't seem to be an option to." Ensen asked while observing the people from below funnel towards a door before disappearing from view.
Turning his eyes towards the other private rooms, he realized that the purple-haired girl that had the Supreme Empress System had disappeared at some point during the auction.
A blue box soon notified him of the way to exit the auction house.
[To exit the auction house, you must think about returning to your body. This is true for all of the shops as well. This method is unavailable for Inception rank systems, which is why the hosts below are walking towards the manual exit.]
Ensen nodded his head in acknowledgment and began to follow the instructions of the system. Ensen closed his eyes and focused on his body that was currently collapsed on the couch back at his home. After a few moments, he felt something peculiar he couldn't describe. Opening his eyes, he realized he was still in the private room. Looking down at his body, he noticed it had begun to fade slowly.
Although Ensen had begun to panic a bit from reflex, he knew it was going to be fine. As more and more of his body started to fade away, Ensen grew calmer. A few seconds later his body disappeared from the private room.
Back at Ensen's living room, an odd scene was taking place. Just a few seconds prior a corpse with no sign of life was lying carelessly on the couch as if just thrown there. This was not an illusion, even if somebody investigated the body they would also conclude it was lifeless.
But oddly enough, the tall black-hard corpse had begun to open it's sky blue eyes.
'I'm finally back, that was an odd experience.' Ensen thought to himself in amusement.
Regaining the feeling back in his real body, Ensen felt his muscles slightly sore. Slowly getting up from the couch, Ensen began to give his muscles a nice stretch.
After finishing his stretches began to think about what his plan would be considering that he now knew what the shops could do as well as their general pricing for items.
It didn't seem like he could afford… well, anything really. He could not even afford to get a basic skill upgrade, for a useful skill at least. Not to mention buildings, which were very expensive for him right now, especially considering how little education points he had made for all his recent effort.
But it's not like he could hold off on updating or buying a building from the system. After all, he didn't even have a working schoolhouse. He could work for a little longer to get two more education points, then buy the unfurnished version of the already existing building he had on his property. But that seemed like a colossal waste because just like the system said it was a mess and dysfunctional. Ensen was using selective eyes on the building previously and was mainly just looking at the good parts, with less focus on the bad. But now that he saw how heavily the system criticized the building, he knew that it shouldn't be saved.
But that left him with no obvious options. Running out of ideas, he asked the system for help.
"Is there any way I could get more education points to establish my academy? I can't really go any further without that." Ensen reasoned with the system, hoping for a reply back.
After waiting for a few seconds, he realized the system was playing hard to get again.
"Come on, help me out here. Is there a loan you can give me at least?" Ensen asked as a last-ditch effort. After all, he basically had no leverage he could use against the system to get his way. Although Ensen thought the system cared about him very slightly at the very least, he knew that the system could most likely simply move on if it wanted to.
Surprisingly, the system actually responded this time.
[While no loans or similar things are available ordinarily, the Supreme Academy System would find it an utter disgrace if you use the existing structure. As such the system is willing to give the host a proposition.]
With an excited nod, Ensen stood there waiting for a few seconds before saying "Why did you stop? Keep going please."
Complying with Ensen, the system displayed a new blue box with a deal written on it.
[The system is willing to offer the host a 200 education points loan in return for a 10% interest rate on return. As such, you will be required to pay back 220 education points to the system before being able to properly use them again.]
Looking at the offer written out in front of him, Ensen couldn't decide if the system was being generous or evil. Maybe it was being both.
Voicing his concerns, Ensen raised them to the system. "It took me several weeks to only acquire 8 points. Do you know how long it would take to pay you back? I would probably have to be working on getting education points until I die."
[Due to not having founded an institution yet, there are not many opportunities to gain education points. But with the opening of your academy, there were be several new ways to earn points, you will find that earning points will become more streamlined and straight forward.]
Nodding his head in understanding, he was slightly more comfortable about the amount he would have to pay back. While it would still most likely take a while to fully pay it back, it would not take nearly as long as Ensen initially estimated.
But either way, he still wanted a slightly better deal. Even if it only took off five education points, it would still help him slightly.
"Come on, we're friends, right? How about a 5% interest rate?" Ensen said while giving off a charming smile as if to entice the system to agree with him.
Immediately after Ensen spoke, an ominous message appeared before his eyes. The text was outlined in a blood-red color to try to scare him.
[Revoking the loan offer in 10 seconds.]
"No, wait! I was just… joking, yeah, just joking. " Ensen screamed in a panic, trying to stop the system from taking away his shining light of hope.
[Action canceled. Does the host wish to sign the loan agreement?]
"Wait there's an actual written contract? You didn't hide anything in there did you?" Ensen said with suspicion present in his voice and narrow eyes trying to figure out what the system's plan was.
Without further discussion, a simple blue message box appeared in front of him with two options. There was no section or anything similar to that which showed up with it.
[Agree][Cancel]
Ensen hesitantly pressed down on the Agree button with his right index finger.
"So, the agreement has been made now?" Ensen asked to confirm it with the system.
[That is correct. Check your education points for proof.]
Just as the system said, Ensen decided to double-check just to ensure it was true.
[Ensen Fuentes]
[Education Points: 218]
[Academy Rank: Null]
[Age: 27]
[Math average: C]
[Science average: F-]
[English average: F-]
[Foreign language average: F-]
[Sports average: F-]
[Teaching average: D+]
[administration average: D-]
[Other]
[Skill Market]
[Product Market]
[Auction House]
Satisfied with the proof, Ensen asked a question that was on his mind.
"What was the point of the contract? There doesn't seem to be any I can tell." Ensen asked calmly.
[The contract is simply an analogy used for the host to understand his current situation. The system will uphold the loan without any needed signature.] The system wrote bluntly.
"So the contract is useless then?" Ensen asked with obvious annoyance in his voice.
A new blue box appeared from the void, but this time there was no text. Instead of text, there were many lines around the box that formed an image.
Ensen stared at the image trying to hold back his laughter. A poorly drawn cat with a smug posture and smile was staring at Ensen as if showing it's superiority.
Unable to hold back his laughter any longer, Ensen let out a soft laugh before turning his attention to the next big project he had, he had to design the building he would have his system to construct.
Although he could have the system randomly generate buildings based on parameters he was looking for, he would much rather prefer creating his own for the initial building at least. If he needed to construct later buildings then it would be fine to generate them that way, but he wanted to have direct control over the main building for his future academy.
Because of this, Ensen decided to draw it out to properly design the building so he would have a better understanding of what he wanted. Although he had a general idea of the layout, he wanted it in, he didn't know what kind of style he wanted.
Ensen walked around his apartment to try to find a piece of paper and a pen. After looking for a few minutes, he managed to find both and sit at the dining room table.
Staring at the piece of paper with the pen in his hand, he didn't know what sort of style he wanted to go for.