When I opened my eyes, I couldn't see anything because of the darkness. I then realized that it was because it was already night. I tried to check the time on my smart watch but was shocked to see several messages and missed calls.
Most of the messages were from my sister, Cathy. I remembered that we had planned to have dinner tonight, but I totally missed it. Maybe she saw that I just read her messages because I received another call from her.
"Al, where are you? I have been calling you for hours. Did something happen? Why can't I see you?"
"Calm down, Cat. I'm fine. I'm in my room in the first-year dormitory building. I just woke up and didn't have the time to switch the light on before you called. Wait a second."
Immediately after saying that, I lifted my body and went to light up the room.
"Can you see me now?"
"Yes. I'm glad you're fine. You need to stop scaring me like that." I could see some tears around Cathy's eyes. It didn't really matter to me how she was feeling, but since I was using her brother's body, I had to be a little more responsible toward her.
"Alright, I'm sorry. Are you free right now? I know it's already late, but do you want to have dinner?"
"Yes, stay where you are. I will find some food and come directly to your place." I could feel how excited she was; her previous gloomy face was nowhere to be found.
"Alright, see you soon." I then disconnected the call and went to the kitchen.
On my way to the kitchen, I noticed some boxes in my living room. I realized that those were my things from my old apartment. Sylvia already brought everything while I was sleeping. Then I immediately called her.
"Master Alex, do you need anything?"
"My sister will be coming to see me in a few minutes. Could you wait in the elevator room for her? She has white hair just like me." I didn't specify her appearance too much since I knew Sylvia already had a detailed report about me, and my sister had to be included.
"Of course, Master Alex. I will bring her to your room as soon as she arrives."
'Now, while waiting for Cathy, I should check my other messages.'
It took me a few seconds to go through the hundreds of messages Cathy left me. I saw a message from Sylvia saying she had already delivered all of my stuff, then finally found the most important message from the academy: the result of the physical exam and final ranking.
——————————————————
=1st Alex Fawn
=1st Lucas Astram
3rd Nxy Exla
4th Silas Avongus
5th Freya Destdemona
6th Anastasia Storm
•
10th Melina Sloane
——————————————————
I was only interested in the rank of the main characters. I was surprised to see that Melina's rank increased from her original 14th. 'I just had a small interaction with her, and that completely changed the original plot.'
While I was scheming a few interesting plans in my head, my doorbell rang. I opened the door, and instantly a white-haired girl hugged me. It took me a few minutes to break free from her embrace and invite her inside. She saw all the boxes in the living room and scolded me.
I was then subjected to an interrogation about my written exam and theory. It was hard to convince her that I was always working secretly on that theory and just completed it last week. She was really angry that I never told her anything about it before, but after a lot of persuasion and brotherly charms, she finally yielded.
After we ate, she helped me unpack all of my stuff. We talked about various things, and seeing that it was nearly midnight, she decided to leave.
Finally, being alone again, I decided to try my new private gym. It was filled with a lot of training machines of the highest quality.
I decided to take full advantage of this to grow my strength, but unfortunately, because of my poor stamina, I had to stop in less than an hour.
'If only I could increase my G+ stamina quickly.'
The difference between G+ and F- is enormous. With G+ stamina, someone can run at full speed for less than 10 whole minutes. But with F- stamina, the same person could run for an hour at full speed without stopping.
'I have to acquire this item soon. If everything goes well tomorrow, soon all my stats will increase, and I will be able to train correctly.'
***
The next day, I was in an office in the Alliance Research Building. I was currently waiting for an advisor to discuss the reward for my theory.
Soon, an old dwarf man came inside the office. He was carrying a mountain of papers that were longer than his actual height.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Mr.Fawn. I'm Alrik Belegar, but you can just call me Alrik. I was assigned as the advisor for your theory yesterday, and since then I haven't been able to sleep a single second. You see this mountain of papers; those are all requests I received from different people around the world to use your theory, and I have to review each of them."
The old dwarf looked at me angrily. I stayed silent and looked back at him. My expression was enough to show that I didn't care about him at all.
"Alright, you are here right now for the reward, but before that, let's discuss the profit distribution. The academy proposed an 80/20 distribution, but I was able to convince them to increase it to 85/15: 85% of the profit for you and 15% for the academy. Are you fine with that?"
"No, I don't like this distribution. I will generously give you and the academy 1% of the profit, but I will keep 99%. That's my final offer."
The old dwarf was completely shocked by this absurd proposition. Before he could argue back, I raised my hand to show him the mountain of papers that he brought. "You have been working on it since yesterday, so you know exactly the worth of this theory. 1% of the profit should be more than what the Alliance Research Building earned last year."
I could see the dwarf making a lot of funny faces. He didn't expect me to know the exact worth of my theory, so he tried to exploit me openly. He made me wait for half an hour, then when he came inside the office, he brought a mountain of papers with him, and finally he told me he suffered a lot because of me. All of this was carefully planned to raise my guilt, which will make me agree with his proposition without question. Unfortunately for him, you can't manipulate a master of manipulation.
"If you can't accept my proposition, then I will ask the academy to assign a new advisor for my theory." That was the last nail in the coffin for him.
"Umh… How about we increase it to 2%, and I will immediately agree to it?"
I stood up and was ready to leave the office, but the dwarf's sudden jump from his chair made the mountain of papers he brought scattered everywhere, and I was forced to stop.
"Alright, I agree. 1% should be more than enough for me." I could see some tears around his eyes when he said that.
He reluctantly prepared a contract, which I carefully read before signing it with my mana. Then I gave him my bank information, and he immediately transferred 99% of the profit they had already made to my account.
—————————————————————
[BANK ACCOUNT]
9,850 gold + 128,700 gold
New balance: 138,550 gold
—————————————————————
I couldn't help but smile while looking at all the money in my bank account. Money won't become a problem in the future. Earning more than 100,000 gold in a single day as a freshman should be impossible. Even while playing, gamers were restricted by the amount they could earn. In a few months, I could even consider myself among the richest people in this country.
"Now let's talk about your reward. The academy agreed to give you either a skill or an artifact. The choice is yours."
The sad dwarf brought me back to reality with the mention of the reward. The reason I planned everything up until now was for this reward. A skill or an artifact will definitely be useful to me, but now that I am rich, it won't be difficult to acquire them myself. I needed something else to increase my abilities maximum potential.
"Instead of a skill or artifact, I would like to request permission to enter and explore the F-grade Scholar dungeon that was recently formed inside the academy."
The dwarf was surprised after hearing my request. "That should be possible, but why would you want to go there? It's already been a week since it was formed, and it has already been fully explored. All the useful resources have already been taken out, so I don't think you will find anything there except for the monsters that respawn daily."
"I know, and I'm not interested in the monsters. I'm actually working on another theory, and I would like to do some experiments there." This reason should be enough for the academy to allow me to go there, and I could already see the dwarf becoming curious about what type of theory I was working on.
"Alright. I will send your request to the academy. As soon as it is approved, you will be able to go there."
I was sure the academy would approve it as soon as they received the request. Since the reason was for a theory I was supposedly working on, the elf director would definitely accelerate the process.
'I already have enough connections and money. Now it's time for me to acquire the first cheat item of this world.'