Once Sam left his house, Patty felt comfortable in his own house again. Even though it was still 15:00 in the afternoon, Patty felt as though he had gone through a day of tough work in the fields. There were quite a few times in the morning when he didn't have anyone to help him in the rolling chair, so he was forced to move by himself. Does no one get how exhausting that was?
[Name: Patrick "Patty" Patterson]
[Energy: 95.31/200]
[Yi Power: 276]
[Credits: 59,250]
[Ether: 2150]
[Minion Growth Crystal: 8535]
[Resistances]
• Heat Resistance - B class
• Explosion Resistance - B class
• Fire Resistance - D class
[Extra Skills]
• Enhanced Puzzle Solving
• Mushroom Food Production
• Healing Bark
[Master Skill]
• SSS+ class Gluttonous Adephagia
• SSS+ class Supreme Spirit Physique
[First Stage ASPIRANT]
[SSS+class Supreme Spirit Physique]
[Earth Aura: 772/1000]
[Water Aura: 23/1000]
[Fire Aura: 22/1000]
[Air Aura: 22/1000]
[Light Aura: 22/1000]
[Dark Aura: 22/1000]
[Summon Scrolls: 35]
[Patty's Do-Everything Coupon: 0]
Patty was just out for half a day, yet his energy was already in the 90s. It would just be enough to buy 9 summon scrolls, leaving him enough energy for the night as long as he doesn't do anything else. And since he wasn't planning on going anywhere tonight, Patty felt that it was safe to buy another 9x summon scroll.
Why would Patty buy another 9 more scrolls when he still had 35 summon scrolls, you ask? Well, the answer to that was simple. Patty was a hoarder. Now that he knew the powers and benefits that minions could give him, he couldn't bear to live knowing that he didn't have enough scrolls to summon more minions.
What if he was forced into another situation where he was outside and bored like today? What if he had already used up all of his summon scrolls then? That would mean that he would go throughout the day without any fix of ecstasy he got from watching the stars in the summoning world go up and down and into his brain.
Summon scrolls were his therapy. Paradoxically, he was addicted to it. He needed to know that he had enough scrolls in his inventory for any situation possible. If he knew that he only had enough summon scrolls for two 10x summons, then he would feel anxious throughout the day. He didn't want to know what he would feel like if he didn't have enough for one 10x summon.
[Energy: 5.31/100]
[Summon scrolls: 44]
"Ahhh…." Seeing his summon scrolls go up was another sort of happiness that couldn't be replaced. It was better than anything.
And now that he had enough summon scrolls, he was itching to summon more. The Diplomatic Slime and the rest of the minions must have been feeling lonely in the Virtual World all by themselves. It was his job as their master to get more companions for them. Yes, this wasn't for his benefit, it was for others. So, he wasn't addicted. This was good for him. Yes. Right.
But just as he was about to go through the system summon, a window suddenly popped up in front of him.
{Coupon Mission Completed}
• Return Sam's favor: Join him for a night out
Go on a date with Xandra
{Rewards}
• 500 Yi Power
• 2x Seraph of Lazarus Coupon
Patty got the rewards for completing the missions because of his Do-Everything Coupons. He expected the 500 Yi Power reward, but he didn't expect another coupon as a reward. This time, it was labeled as the Seraph of Lazarus Coupon.
A projection of the new coupon flashed on his screen. Unlike Patty's Do-Everything Coupon which was a black ticket with golden writing, this coupon was extremely different. First of all, it wasn't even a ticket at all, it was just a simple white feather. It was unassuming and it didn't look larger than most feathers used as a quill. It was a simple dirty white color. As a special reward from the system, Patty thought it would at least have a special aura around it or at least a different outline. Instead, it looked like a simple feather.
"What is this system?"
"Talk to myself for hours, say things you don't understand, I can take myself dancing, and I can hold my own hand." (Flowers by Miley Cyrus)
"I shouldn't have asked." That was the sassy way for the system to tell Patty that he could go find out for himself. Patty just thought that it would be easier for both of them if it just explained it automatically without Patty going through the system screen and inventory to select it and find its description. But, he forgot that the system was always moody all the time.
[Seraph of Lazarus Coupon]
[Description]
• Using this feather on the user's body will allow the user to recover from fatal injuries. There is no limit to the extent of regeneration and healing that this feather can inflict, as long as this feather is in contact with the user himself.
"Wow…" Patty couldn't believe that the system was generous enough to give him this kind of priceless treasure. He immediately became suspicious. What was its motive?
But on second thought, maybe it was only natural that he was given this overpowered reward. After all, high risk equals high rewards. If he wasn't able to complete the coupon missions from earlier, then he would have died. There was no question about that. It only made sense that the system would give him a revive feather because of the threat of death in the mission itself.
It made him realize the gravity of the Do-Everything Coupon. If this was used by his enemies, then they would be able to give him an impossible mission that he couldn't complete, and then they could kill him without even doing anything. Each mission from this coupon gave Patty a guillotine hanging above his head.
However, the opposite was also true. If he gave his Do-Everything Coupon to someone he trusted like Sam, and he asked Sam to use it for a very easy task, like buying him a can of soda, then Patty could earn another Seraph of Lazarus coupon that essentially gave him another life! This was an exploit that was also high risk, high reward.
The only problem was the mission itself. He must make sure that the mission that was given to him was something that he could do. Then, he could earn as many extra lives as possible, making him virtually invincible!
It was incredibly fortunate that the two times that the coupon was used, he was only given very easy missions. If this was caught in the wrong hands, then they could kill him.
The safest way to go about this was to not use the coupon at all, even if the reward was high. However, when he tried to do that, the system would take matters into its own hands and forcefully give out the coupon to whomever it wanted. Both times, the system gave it to Sam, with the last time being snatched away by Xandra.
To take control of his own life, Patty had to be the one who gave away the coupons himself. He needed to give them to people he trusted, his inner circle of friends. The problem was that his friends were only two people. One was Sam, and the other was Grammo who was busy transferring to his new Atlas Inc. school.
Also, he must never tell someone the consequences of the coupon itself. If people find out that his life hung in the balance whenever this coupon was used, then unknown people could take that to their advantage. He must make this coupon as worthless as possible, just like a piece of paper that did absolutely nothing.
The only people who knew the value of the coupon were Sam and Xandra, but at least they didn't know the full extent of its powers over Patty. After all, if a person used the coupon and asked Patty to give them his Teqx powers, he didn't know what would happen. Would he die? Would he lose the system? He didn't know.
Knock
Patty heard a bump in the door. He thought there was someone at the door, but the knock was only once. It must have been the wind, Patty thought. After all, there was no one else who would visit Patty at this time of day. Sam was already home, and he would have immediately entered the door without asking Patty.
Knock knock
But there it was again. This time, the knocking was a little bit louder than before. This was not an accidental sound from a rock or a bird hitting the wood. Someone wanted to come in from his door.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
They immediately got impatient when they heard no one answering the door. Their knocks were more intense and angrier as if all the pretense of amiability was thrown out the window and the person only wanted to come inside and get what they came here for.
Patty didn't know who this was, but he answered the door from his bed. He didn't get up. "Come in."
The door finally opened and showed a disheveled man who was bald at the top of his head, but had long, tangled, and greasy hair on his sides. He was wearing a white lab coat which was dirtied from food stains, sweat, and a little bit of blood.
"Are you Patrick Patterson, the one who will give me the power that I want?" he asked, exasperatedly.