Next Friday, Ryan goes to Gwen's house. It was the first time for him to go there. Upon entering, he greeted Captain George Stacy, and his wife Helen.
There were also a few of Gwen's friends there, as it was a small party. But, all of them are girls. He greeted Khan , an eccentric girl who he had seen before in the university, by waving at her. "There's no chance I'll go to the group of girls", he thought.
They all wait together for Gwen. The birthday girl is still getting ready. Ryan tries to make small talk with the people there, but he gives up completely after 5 minutes."This is torture!", he mutters. Escaping the conversation, he poured some wine for him to drink. George notices , "Kid, you dare to drink in front of a police captain?"
"I'm already at legal age George". He smiles and says teasingly to the Captain. They have met a few times before,such as when George comes to his house to explain about the case involving the crooks and a few times after when he drives Gwen home.
"But you drive here, don't you. Let's see how you take your car back after this." At first George was hostile to him, thinking he's gonna take his daughter away, but seeing Ryan never crosses the line, he became friendly towards the kid. "Nothing to worry about, I have a driver today."
George nodded. "Still, drinking a lot isn't a good thing", the captain said as the kid is already on his third glass. Surprisingly, he isn't blushing or drunk. He also knows that Ryan is a socially reclusive person."The kid must be uncomfortable", he thought.
Gwen talks about that kid a lot,making him more suspicious. George once thought that maybe this is a trait geniuses have. Like Stark becoming a narcissistic dick, while Ryan becomes a loner.
Then Ryan asks George a question he never thought would come out from Ryan's mouth. "George, what do you think about hell's kitchen?" George frowned. His face becomes solemn. "Why do you ask?"
Ryan thought maybe this is a sensitive topic for George, he plays it off by shrugging his shoulder and saying " I don't understand it".
George looks at Ryan's naive face and realises that it was just curiosity. He also thinks he needs to warn Ryan about going there impulsively.
"Hell's kitchen is a hodgepot of criminal activities. I pity the citizens there." George explained. Ryan asks "why doesn't the cop do something?"
George sighs and says," even if we do something, about the gang or the drug, new ones will just take over. We tried multiple times. It all comes out from one thing." George stopped there, looked at Ryan and said "Poverty".He became silent.
Ryan moves away from the depressing topic. More guests came in, it was actually George's former partner, Mr Rodrigue and his wife. George greeted them and introduced Ryan.
"Nice to meet you Ryan," Rodrigue smiles and shakes hands with him. Ryan returned the gestures. After shaking hand, Rodrigue moves away, but his hand stays clamped to Ryan's hand, detaching away from his body.
"Eh", Ryan's eyes widened and he froze on the spot. Rodrigue notices these and laughs out loud. " Hahaha, sorry kid, just messing with ya"
Rodrigue took back his fake hand and said " I lost my hand a few years back".
The old man reattached his fake hand," This one has no function, but it is great to prank people". He laughs in a self - deprecating manner. Ryan looked at Rodrigue amused. "How did you lost it, if I may ask?". The old man didn't mind and start telling his story.
10 minutes later, Gwen comes out from her room with a beautiful blue dress. All the people present wish her a happy birthday. A slice of cake and many drinks later, Ryan goes to talk to Gwen.
"Here, Happy Birthday Gwen," he says and hands her a wrapped gift. "Gwen smiles and take the box. She does the customary " you don't have to" to him. Khan pitched in, " Open it now Gwen, I want to see what a young billionaire's gift is."
Most people here already know who he was, he is not hiding it. Gwen opened the box happily, and there was a smartphone in there. Khan says " This is the IPhone right! I also got one!" Gwen turned to Ryan and said accusingly" You just took it from your company.. right? " She's a little disappointed.
She already got one of the phones." Maybe I can give this to mom or dad", she thought. Khan is also disappointed. She's hoping to see maybe a diamond locket or a gold bar or car key. Ryan cough and takes the phone out of Khan's hand.
" This one is special," he said while explaining himself. The one on sale right now corresponds to an iPhone 5 specification, but the one he gave Gwen has a major upgrade. More storage, more megapixels, 4k display and so on.
"Lastly, there is a new feature specially made for Gwen." Gwen is disbelieving, maybe that's a special phone, but it will be no more than that. Ryan smirks and says "ALBUS, greets Gwen."
ALBUS : Hello Gwen. My name is albus.
Gwen : (0-0)
Khan :(0o0)
Other girls: (;,,;)
A mascot of an old wizard is dancing on the phone screen. Ryan finishes his presentation by saying " I can guarantee the technology in this phone will not be obsolete for another 10 years". He feels tired. "Why the hell does this turn into a phone unveiling ceremony?", he mutters.
Gwen is shocked, she enters a nervous state. "This is too much for me. ", she said in a worrying voice. "Before, she is dissatisfied, now she is scared." Ryan, who's already tired, blurted out, "I made it specially for you, don't worry about it. There will never be a second one."
She stares blankly at him, her feeling conflicted. He notices this and says "Just say thank you to me. Don't need to think very much". Other girls are a little jealous about the two people's interaction. Khan who is still fiddling with the new phone says, "Hey, what is this app? Facetime?"
The duo's eye contact broke off. Ryan turned to Khan and explained, " that's a new feature of the iPhone, it will be released once the new version of the phone comes out. It's a video call feature." Khan quipped " who she gonna call if it wasn't released yet?"
"Well she can call me, I have it on my phone" Ryan blurted out without realising what he said. Gwen blushes a little, but turns to her usual face. Although she did it quickly, Khan caught her reaction.
The boy doesn't realise what he did. The girls start giggling behind Ryan's back. This gives Khan a lot of new material. Khan teases Gwen" basically he made the phone for you just so he can see your face at all times. Oh so sweet, a young billionaire's love" which in turn she got punched in the shoulder.
When he returned home, he was exhausted. He pours a glass of the iron blood lover liquor, in which he rests in front of the TV and sips it slowly. He wasn't only exhausted because of Gwen's party, but also because of the clone he got yesterday.
Yesterday, during the trading session, The doctor delivered a custom made clone to him. "The clone is controlled by an eye-contact that acts as a neural brain transmission to the clone brain." When he split his consciousness, one to control the clone, troubles come with it. A splitting headache, vertigo, and nausea. It took a few hours to adapt.
"I'm basically two people at once". Usually, this kind of technology needed the user to be asleep to control the other body. "But, sci-fi was added with a magical element. Now, I can do this. ",he said confidently before splitting his consciousness, and regretting it later.
There's a few upgrades he made to the other body. The clone is drinking the gene optimization fluid to make it stronger. He also gives the clone some potions, and body strength dan. Before even leaving, the clone now has 4x body strength.
Also, he bought a storage ring for the clone. It is a low end quality of storage unit, only 1m³, compared to others. But this was the only one that can be accessed with brain signals instead of energy. "It is very hard to find a storage ring. I was hoping to get a bigger space for it like in the novels." The one he got cost him 10,000 tc.
"but it'd still be easier to find compared to the magic circuit." His hunt for a magic circuit is still not successful. He became skeptical a few times, but most members of the group chat already got it. So he's been patient until he gets it.
"Let's put in some identification cards, passport, cash, gold bar, some tech and a change of clothes." He is putting all sorts of things into Kai's storage ring. Oh by the way, he decided the clone's name will be Kai Vera after smacking the keyboard randomly a few times.
It's because he didn't know if the clone could use the system, that he put all the things he thought necessary."Weapons, house deeds, magic scroll, magic potions, etc."He took some time to get used to being a split body. In his mind, he can process 2 separate points of view now. He adapted to the vertigo and he's no longer nauseated.
With ALBUS's help, he forged some documents about Kai's immigration status, his credit score, his previous experiences, his childhood, and more. He knows about Shields' existence, so he shouldn't take it easy.
After making the identity airtight, Ryan controlled Kai to tore open an Invisibility scroll he bought for 200 tc. It can make a person invisible for 100 minutes. Slowly, the clone moves away to the Hell's Kitchen area of New York.
"He'll arrive at the docks in half an hour later. Just in time for the ship to arrive". He even set up the method of Kai coming into the country, by smuggling himself outside to other countries first, and immigrating back using the official channel. The paperwork is already done,as he started weeks ago. He just needed to be there on time.
All of this was done yesterday before he's going to the party. Finishing season 1 of an anime, he was going to sleep after finishing the drink, when suddenly his phone rang. He checks, someone is facetiming him. He answered the call with a smile. A beautiful voice on the other side of the screen asks "Did you enjoy the party?"
Kai POV. (Ryan as Kai POV)
(Russian accent) "My name is Kai, from Latveria. I came to New York after my family was killed by a dictator in my country. ", Kai practises his introduction in this body.(In normal accent) "No wait, the accent is too corny".
It's been 3 days since he's been in the Clinton area. He wanted to buy a shop at the 6th street, and opened a small clinic there,but instead he had to go deeper into the Hell's Kitchen area. His new shop is on 30th Street.
"This clinic has been shut down before as the owner is shot dead. If you want to set up a clinic, I really recommend an area away from this place. Phil Duncan, the realtor responsible for this sale, advises him.. a lot. Kai smiles at the kind man and says" It's okay, I don't mind it "
Phil is helpless. At first, he's scared when he sees the guy's cold face, and his Russian accent. But, the guy is really nice. He said his last word to Kai after signing the paper." Only tough guys can survive here. Please make sure you are tough".
Kai's heart warmed when he heard that. The man is really nice and his intention is pure. "He reminded me of Uncle Ben". While cleaning his surgical tools and arranging his shop's interior, he checks out the information that he got from [TheDoctor] as prop.
"This is the first intermediate knowledge I got."
When he opened it, his brain almost exploded from the information.
From diseases, surgery, drugs, and many more. In his mind, it's like he's been reading only medical books for 12 years until he becomes a specialist. His control over his body makes him a natural born surgeon.
It can't be denied that he didn't have any experience in treating people, so he uses a simulated environment to do that. Using his training card, he changes the setting from combat to medical. So, every night when he meditated, he's doing surgery to people.
Digesting the knowledge, many drugs he read aren't even developed by the world."It'll be a side project to bring this medication over to this universe."
He can cure many diseases with it, but the equipment for manufacturing is too advanced. He needed to wait till he got the corresponding blueprints, or take a lot of time trying to make it." Of course, the main body is responsible for this"
[TheDoctor] also gave him some medical kits. Such as x-ray glasses, blood testers, stethoscopes, and other equipment . It can greatly help his clinic. He disguises it as items he bought from the Knight industry, and the main body delivers it later.
At night time, he's still renovating the clinic when he hears some gunshot sound from far away. He can hear this because he's hearing is more sensitive from other people as his body strengthens.
Kai finally understands why George said Hell's Kitchen is a cesspool of crime. "There isn't a peaceful moment here. I guess that's the norm in New York, but here there is too much." He's only been here for 3 days, but he was mugged 5 times. He didn't shy away from breaking a few bones or face when they did that.
There's also many people who come to Kai's clinic demanding protection fees.They claim to be a part of a gang. The tattooed gang walks in confidently into the not yet opened clinic, and starts to take stuff."This is a welcome gift you need to give us". Of course, Kai retaliates correspondingly.
He smirks when the people come into his clinic. When they start to become excessive,he gives out some broken bones. "Damn, shoot him!" The thug wanted to, but Kai broke his arm with the hammer he uses for construction."They took out the gun first, so this is self defence".
"Is this enough for the protection fee?", Kai said when all of them are incapacitated. Blood splatter is still on his face, making him look twice as cold. When the thug runs, he screams "Just wait for The Grey Rat gang to kill you."
"As they are rats, it makes sense to use rat poison." he mocks when he sees the rats run away. That night in the gang's lair, all the rats are dead in one night cutting the problem at the source.Police come by to question him as he has an entanglement with the gang, but there's no evidence.
"They didn't come when I got attacked, but if the gang member is attacked, that's when they start scurrying." If he didn't know George, and what the police captain told him about this place, he might think that all the police here are dirty.
The wannabe doctor now has an infamy on the block. People don't dare to mess with him. When he got out, people only gave him the stink eye. "It's been a week, but it's finally done." He wanted to treat 10 people and leave,so he didn't have to make a beautiful clinic that he himself renovated.
"It's because it's so much fun" The building, the sawing, the breaking of the wall, the upgrading. All of it gives him comfort. There's a lot of skill he bought and knowledge he bought for his construction, as he greatly enjoyed it. After a week, Kai finally opened his clinic!