Mike: "Zzzzzz ... Zzzzz ... Zzzz ... krrk-huh? Wha?" I woke up from my short sleep. I look around to see that I'm still in the hospital room. Shoot, did I just sleep? I look at my watch to see it's almost midnight. Thank God I didn't oversleep. In the bed, I see Jack is already sleeping soundly. Beside him, there's his physics book still wide open. I see he's already done a couple more numbers after I left him sleeping. Even without me, he's able to do some numbers with minimal error. Not bad Jack, not bad. After I finish looking at his answer, I take his book and put it on the table on the side so he could sleep freely on his bed. Brrt, my flip phone suddenly vibrates. There's a message from Kevin. 'Dude, are you going to my place or not?' Kevin asked me. 'I'm on my way' I replied to him. Before I got out of the room I looked at my bro. "Get well soon, bro." I said before I closed the door.
(Robert Parker - The Cosmopolitan Connection) The midnight breeze hits my face as I ride through the city that abounds with towers of lights. The street is illuminated by various light sources from street lights, skyscrapers, cars, advertisement signposts, and some neon on a few buildings. On the sidewalk, there are people walking around. There are not many thugs and hobos here. Most of the people that can be seen here are salarymen and white collars who work at the many companies that reside in this skyscraper complex. I'm thankful that Kevin's place isn't that far from the hospital, because I don't really want to linger in this place that much since there are many cops here. If I were in my car, I could probably get the hell out of sticky situations really fast. But right now, what I need to do is stay cool and try not to draw any of their attention.
I stop at a red light and just act normal while I see a cop car right across the street. I can see the two officers inside are busy eating donuts. Thankfully the lights quickly turned green for them and they went off passing me in the other direction. I slowly exhale to calm myself down. Oh man, I never thought being a fugitive could be this stressful. I know I should've taken my car. I turn my attention back to the road, A sense of calm slowly fills me as I stare down the street, looking at the endless road decorated by highrises and skyscrapers on both sides. I can never be bored looking at this city. It's a shame that a city this beautiful has citizens whose morals are as low as my history subject grades. I wonder how it feels like if the people who live here are not a bunch of sleazebags. The light turns yellow.
"Move peasant!" A guy shouted at me while honking his Lamborghini from behind me. The hell man, the lights haven't even turned green yet. When the traffic light finally turns green, I quickly pull the gas.
"Dumbass." the guy shouted as he passed me in his Lamborghini. Sigh* I wonder. It would be a literal paradise I imagine.
After a quick ride, I finally arrived at Kevin's place. It's a low-class suburb. The majority of people who live in this neighborhood are "southerns". Stars and stripes on the front porch, trucks on the driveway, and a no trespassing sign. Well, this neighborhood really reflects what culture we have here. I parked my Vespa in front of Kevin's house and proceeded to ring the bell beside the intercom. Not long, a familiar voice can be heard from the intercom.
"Who's there?" the voice asked.
"It's me, man." I said while pressing the intercom button. I took off my cap and waved at the CCTV camera at the corner ceiling of the porch. The door suddenly unlocked and opened by itself. Without any hesitation, I go inside the house. I can hear a small whining of an electric motor when the door closes and locks by itself. Inside, the house looks a little too dim and a tad bit dirty. It wasn't messy, it's just that there's a lot of places that should've been cleaned. There's a couple of furniture that have dust on them. While walking inside the house, I accidentally stepped on a Roomba. The Roomba continues to clean the floor. Well, at least the floor is clean. I can hear muffled (S3RL - Escape) blasting from a room in front of me. I open the door of the room to see my friend Kevin sitting on his gaming chair in front of the computer. He adjusts his square sunglasses and concentrates on the monitor screen. I see he is playing his favorite MMORPG with his online friends.
Kevin: "CRIT It! Quick! We almost got that bitch!" he shouted to his headset. I just stood there right at the door looking at his room. There are anime posters, figurines, a dakimakura, a shelf full of manga, and a katana. Welp, I didn't expect anything less from Kevin.
Kevin: "FUCK YES! That's what I'm talking about. Finally, we get that shit. Ah, that was though. Fuck. I think I'm done, see you tomorrow faggots." Kevin takes off his headset, lowers the volume of his speaker, and turns around to see me.
Mike: "Dude, when was the last time you cleaned up your room?"
Kevin: "About 2 weeks ago. I barely have time to clean since there's a lot of in-game events this time of the year."
Mike: "Seriously dude, you really need to set your priorities straight. Taking care of yourself should be your number one priority right now."
Kevin: "Relax Mike, I'll be fine as long as you keep selling me those slin." he said before he chugs a mountain dew.
Mike: "You still gotta go out once in a while man, those drugs ain't gonna cut it if you don't work out or do something to burn those fats."
Kevin: "Don't worry, I'll do that right away after I finish these events."
I just shake my head knowing that there's no way telling Kevin to put himself first above his favorite MMO. I guess now I feel how my mom feels when she yells at me for not taking care of myself. Oh well.
Kevin: "Btw, what the hell happened to you? Did you get gangbanged or something?"
Mike: "Pretty much."
Kevin: "By who?"
Mike: "Nah, it's just some retards from the school."
Kevin: "hmmm, you wanna do something about them?"
Mike: "Well, I haven't thought of anything yet."
Kevin: "Let me know ok? If you need my help just tell me."
Mike: "Oh sure man. Thx."
Kevin: "No problem ... So, what brings you here? It's been a while since you came to visit."
Mike: "I wanna check on my crypto."
Kevin: "Oh, of course." Kevin quickly turns to his computer and starts clicking and typing.
Kevin: "Well, as of now, the money you already put in to help me mine these things with your drug money since 2015 has given us a total of 300k dollars worth of satoshis. If we put the cost for maintaining the ASICs, the electricity bills, and all other stuff, the net result we get is around 280k. Since we agreed to split it 60-40, that means you have around 112k on me."
Mike: "112k huh? That's fantastic."
Kevin: "-As of right now, I remind you that prices for these things can go up and down at any time."
Mike: "Hmm, in that case, can you sell some of it and give me 50k tomorrow?"
Kevin: "You want to sell it now?"
Mike: "Yeah."
Kevin: "Why? Didn't you say that you were planning to save all of this until you have enough to pay for you and your bro college?"
Mike: "Some problems came up, and I really need some money to take care of it."
Kevin: "What problem?"
Mike: "It's complicated man, I'll tell you another day."
Kevin: "Are you really sure you want to pull all of your money right now? You're going to miss a lot you know. Your coin may be worth only 112k right now, but it might be worth even more in a couple of months."
Mike: "How can you say that?"
Kevin: "Well, If you look at the graph, these crypto prices have really gone up since the last couple of months and I predict it will grow even further."
Mike: "I still really need that money, man."
Kevin: "How about this. You keep your coins and I'll lend you that 50k. cash."
Mike: "You're buying my coins?"
Kevin: "Well, not really, your coins are still yours, I'm just lending you some hard cash money so you don't have to sell it. With that, If the price for the coin does go up, you'll still be able to sell it and pay me back with it, while also getting some money from it."
Mike: "What if the prices go down?"
Kevin: "Well, you have to still pay your losses to me then."
Mike: "For real?"
Kevin: "Money doesn't grow on trees Mike, it may come from plugging a rock into a power outlet and telling it to do some math work but still, it's not free."
Mike: "sigh* I don't know man ..."
Kevin: "C'mon Mike, you know you can trust me with these kinds of things."
Mike: "sigh* ... Alright, I'll take your suggestion."
Kevin: "Great! I'll message you when I have the cash. It may take a day or two to prepare them."
Mike: "I'll be waiting. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. There's something I want to ask you if you can help me."
Kevin: "What is it?"
Mike: "You see, there are these girls that I really despise in school and they've been causing me a lot of trouble lately. There, I already sent you their social media accounts."
Kevin quickly turns to his computer and sees the girl's account.
Kevin: "These girls seem quite popular."
Mike: "Indeed, as you can see, they are some of the top 'influencers'."
Kevin: "What are you planning to do with these whence?"
Mike: "Well, at first, I tried to skors them or possibly expel them from the school using this video that I got." I hand my phone to Kevin and him the video of the girls beating Lucy.
Mike: "This poor girl is a new student in my school. They were beating her because they were jealous of her stealing all of their play toys. I already showed this video to my trusted teacher. But alas, she can't help me to punish these whore just because they were doing this act of barbarians outside of the school."
Kevin: "Ah I see. Don't worry my fellow brethren, I will definitely help you with this problem. Just send me that video. I will assure you, your problem will be gone in no time."
Mike: "Oh gee, Thanks man, I really appreciate your help."
Kevin: "No problem dude."
Mike: "Welp, I guess that's all I need to do here. I better be going."
Kevin: "Just wait for my message alright?"
Mike: "Sure, see you again man, take care."
Outside, I look at my watch to see that it's already 1 A.M. Shoot. At this kind of hour, I will definitely get mugged on the streets. Oh well, I didn't really have anything valuable on me anyway. I guess I'll just gun it. I got onto the Vespa and quickly got on my way to the restaurant. Halfway through my ride, I got sleepy and kind of exhausted. I need some adrenaline to keep me awake. unfortunately, riding in this slow junk won't give me that. I stopped at a red light. My eye starts to get heavier and heavier. Gosh, I wish there's something that can keep me awake at times like this.
Robber: "Don't move, gringo, put your hands up or I'll blow your spine." said someone from behind me. I can feel a gun barrel on my back.
I think I spoke too soon. I slowly put my hands-off.
Robber: "Turn off de bike." he orders me. So I did.
Robber: "Give me ur wallet and ur phone." I pull out my wallet slowly from my jacket and give it to him. He quickly checks the money just to be sure I don't give him a decoy wallet. Inside, there's no atm or credit card. There's only my fake ID card, my fake driver's license, and a single five-dollar bill that I borrow from TIna.
Robber: "Heh, u think I'm dumb e? Where's your real wallet?" he asked me after throwing my wallet away.
Mike: "It's my only wallet man."
Robber: "Don't fuk with me. Take out your real wallet or I'll put a lead in your fucking spine."
Mike: "I swear man, I don't have any more wallet other than the one I just gave you."
Robber: "You really are stubborn e gringo. Get off de bike." he orders me to get off the bike. So I did.
Mike: "Stand still and don't do anything stupid. You still want to meet your girl right?" He said to me as he searched all over my clothes to find my 'real' wallet while keeping his gun pointed towards me.
Mike: "Yeah, right." as if I had any.
From the way this guy operates, I can tell that he's not as experienced as he looks. If I were him, I would probably just take the wallet and leave without checking it. I mean, it's such a risky thing to do to hold your victim like this. If I had the strength, I could probably knock this guy out while he's busy searching my clothes. Not long, the guy found a bump on my jacket. He quickly reached it. It's my flip phone. He then looks at me disappointed.
Mike: "How can I say man, I'm just a high school student. You should've robbed someone who actually has an income."
Robber: "sigh* fuck this shit." he said as he points his gun towards me.
Mike: "Whoa-whoa-whoa chill man. You don't have to do this. Those bullets inside your gun are definitely worth more than my life. You shouldn't waste it just to vent your frustration."
Robber: "Shut up gringo! You can't tell me what to do."
Mike: "I know I'm not your mom. But for real, man. Just think about it. If you save those bullets right now, you could use them for much better things. For instance, you could use it to shoot the cops if you ever find yourself trying to scram from them. Or, if you want to, you could even try to rob that quiet store right there with that bullet." I said to him while pointing the dollar store down the street. He looks around to see the store. He realizes that it looks quiet there. There's only an old guy behind the cashier.
Mike: "Just cover your face with that bandana you got in your pocket, and you're good to go."
Robber: " ... you're pretty good with words, are you e gringo?" he said to me as he squinted his eyes looking at me.
Mike: "W-well, you could say that." I said nervously. He's still pointing his gun at me.
Robber: "You know what? This bullet does worth more than your stupid life. And that store does look pretty tempting. Guess you'll live for another day, gringo." The guy puts his gun back into his pants. Fiuh. thank god.
Robber: "So long Gringo." he said as he left me and walked towards the dollar store.
Mike: "Are you not going to take my bike?"
Robber: "No thanks. you can keep that junk to yourself." he said.
That turns out pretty well. I just pick back my wallet that the guy threw on the ground and quickly get on the road.