The feminine voice in Nick's head subsided just as suddenly as it came.
Nick's shock was evident. He stared at the group of four dumbfoundedly, almost about to ask whether they heard the voice too, considering how audible it was.
Johan raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
Nick snapped out of his daze. "Nothing."
"So what do you say? Take off a piece of clothing, and I'll add $200. If you chicken out, I'll take back all the money and you'll give us what we want. And if you reach the finish line, where you have nothing left to take off, all the cash is yours. It's quick and easy money for you."
Nick's eyebrows knitted at Johan's words. "...Why are you doing this?"
Johan just scoffed and repeated, "So, what do you say?"
Nick's annoyance with the entire situation was still present. However, he knew what was important.
Even though he would only earn 12 v-points in three days, he still had to earn them. To his surprise, this task even had an optional task that could provide him additional 8 v-points!
Nick glanced at the surveillance camera perched at the top corner of the store and studied each member of the group.
The two girls seemed a bit surprised, but the brown-skinned one had a look of indifference too. It wasn't a crime to treat assholes like assholes, was it?
The edgy brat had a confused and almost horrified expression on his face aimed at Johan, but as Nick met his gaze, he laughed awkwardly and looked away.
"Dude, let's just go. He might call the cops on us. And he has already wasted our time enough."
Johan was about to say something when Nick forced himself to say, "Sure. I'll play your game."
The four brats showed varying degrees of surprise but only the edgy brat exclaimed with a chuckle, "What? You're kidding."
Nick wasn't smiling. He calmly unbuckled his belt and dropped it on the counter.
"Dude, what the fuck?!"
Apart from Johan, who held a cunning grin, the rest of the group members seemed to have their jaws dropped. However, they weren't impressed by Nick's actions, most especially the ladies, who seemed creeped out.
The edgy brat turned to Johan. "Dude, you can't possibly be paying for this shit. Let's just go. There's no point in wasting money this way."
Johan glanced at his friend and said plainly, "It's my money. I can do whatever I want with it."
Nick ignored their bickering and said looking at Johan, "Aren't you forgetting something?"
Johan's curled lips twitch. He looked at the thin brown belt on the counter, resting beside the two hundred-dollar bills.
"That's just a belt," he said.
Nick nodded as he held his trousers up his waist with a hand. "It's a piece of clothing."
The edgy brat stared at Nick horrifyingly. "Wait, are you really doing this?"
Nick just spared the kid a glance and, undeterred, looked squarely at Johan. The spoiled, proud brat was wasting his time.
Johan, unwilling to back down in front of his companions, forced a smile and concurred, "Yeah. It is a piece of clothing."
He took out another $200 from his wallet and added it to the balance on the counter table.
"You can carry on."
The brown-skinned girl chuckled and said to the edgy brat, "Sonny, calm down and just watch. It's not a big deal. He won't take everything off, you'll see."
Nick let a light curl form at the corner of his lips.
'This should count as participation. I've completed the task, but not the optional task. A strip game, huh? Alright. I'll just delete the surveillance footage after.'
Nick took off his old leather wristwatch and placed it with the belt.
"Hey, that's just a wristwatch," the edgy brat, Sonny, said, pointing at the item.
However, Johan gestured for him not to interfere and slapped two more hundred-dollar bills on the counter for the leather watch.
Quietly, Nick took off his right sandal and placed it alongside the belt, watch, and money, then paused, prompting Johan to do the needful, in which the spoiled brat did.
Nick constantly thought back to the optional task. He wasn't fully sure he had what it took to "win" this kind of game, but the allure of extra 8 v-points tugged at him. He contemplated the potential risks and rewards.
Top Idol had promised a lot with its features, and what caught his eyes the most were the Talents.
There was a vast number of tier-1 talents in the Shop of varying prices, all the way from something as meaningless as Beatboxing to Piloting.
One thing Nick noted was the 'talents' mentioned were actually 'skills', but he suspected that the nature they arrived for the pointer was akin to the skill being a natural aptitude they were born with. Hence, the given name.
However, the tier-1 talents were also the most expensive things in the Shop.
Nick gently placed the left foot of his brown sandals on the counter, much to Johan's chagrin.
However, the handsome brat maintained his cool and added another $200 to the amount that was already there, effectively making it a total sum of $800.
Nick knew he needed to save if he ever wanted to have a chance of purchasing a talent, or even invest in his attributes. He dearly wanted to test that out too.
So far, Top Idol has demonstrated its… uniqueness. The things that were happening were all feats Nick's science and technology knowledge couldn't explain. If anything, it was all truly paranormal.
Therefore, in a twisted way, it made sense for the better reward to cost more personally.
Understanding this, Nick proceeded to take off his work uniform—the simple red sleeveless jacket—and place it on the counter, making the prize pool a $1,000 sum.
Johan smiled after remitting and said, "Go on."
Nick mustered up some zeal, then gradually, took off his long-sleeve t-shirt.
He pushed aside any lingering feelings of humiliation and embarrassment. His life was about to change and the price was letting some dumb rich kids walk over him for a few minutes. Cheap! These were the best odds he had been handed in years.
Pa! Nick slapped the t-shirt on the counter and urged Johan to drop the dollar bills with a hand gesture.
The edgy brat hissed and said under his breath, shaking his head, "What a disgraceful fuck."
The brown-skinned girl and Johan laughed at his remark, and the spoiled brat said with a long sigh, "It's almost as if you're enjoying this, Nicholas."
The corner of his lips curled, and he added, "Let's see how long that will last. You can carry on."
Nick didn't say anything and just glanced at the two girls, especially the one he thought looked familiar, and averted his gaze as he grabbed the waist of his slightly oversized blue jeans.
But just then, he froze. He couldn't bring himself to pull it down, despite the benefit of completing the optional task.
The reality of the situation had finally dawned on him.
He was stripping for money, in front of teenagers!
'Am I really that desperate?' he asked himself.
Johan relished the situation and taunted Nick with a smirk.
"What? Why aren't you taking it off? Don't tell me your shame has only started to kick in now."
Nick didn't raise his head. He gritted his teeth and released the grip on the loose jean trousers, letting it fall to the ground with a thud.
'Yes. I am that desperate,' he admitted to himself. Because really, when was he allowed to be desperate? When he overworked himself to pay an unending debt? When Boss Falco had caught him? Or when he was already six feet under?
For so long, he had been taking everything sitting down, never truly standing up for the change he needed to make.
No one was going to give him a brand new life on a platter of gold. He had to be ferocious, furious, and desperate enough. And not just any type. No, he had to be ten times more ferocious, ten times more furious, and ten times more desperate than those who tried to keep him down!
Nick was left with only a singlet outlining his bony figure and blue briefs on. At this point, he didn't even want to bother using his hands to cover the small bulge protruding from his blue briefs, however, he wasn't that shameless.
Johan was delighted by Nick's display as though he was watching a dancing monkey. He eagerly slapped another $200 on the counter, now making it $1,400.
Bearing a sinister grin, he ignored the concerned looks on the faces of his friends and urged Nick, saying, "Nice. We're almost there. What's taking you so long? Come on, we don't have all day."