Nick arrived back at Montreville but didn't immediately return to his apartment. Instead, he stopped at 72nd Police Precinct, Orlande.
He walked up to the police officer at the front desk, already having most of the clown makeup on his face washed off.
"I want to report a crime," he requested sternly, despite the funny looks he was given by the police and other visitors. "An attempted kidnapping, to be precise."
Not long after, Nick was back at his apartment. He took a shower and rested a bit before leaving for his night shift.
By taxi cab, he arrived at Jack's QuickStop convenience store at 3:55 p.m. and immediately began his shift, sitting idly behind the counter.
The sun had already begun its western descent and the late-afternoon rush hour had commenced. Roads, walk lanes, and train stations were filled with individuals who had closed from work or school and were returning home, and others who were turning in for their nightly duties, just like Nick.
Just a few minutes after his shift began, the bell above the push-pull entrance door chimed again, announcing the presence of his second customer so far.
Nick looked over and his eyes widened in an instant.
Fair-skinned, thin eyebrows, cold brown eyes, a delicate nose, small pink lips, and standing at about three inches short of six feet.
'It's that girl,' Nick thought with squinted eyes. It was the girl that Johan brat had his arm on.
"Can you stop staring at me, please? You disgust me." He could still remember her cutting comment from before.
Underneath a black blazer and v-neck sweater vest, she had a collared white shirt with the top button undone. Below, she wore a short black/dark-blue plaid pleated skirt, long black socks, and low-heeled black leather shoes.
She was in a school uniform, meaning she and her friends were actually not of legal drinking age.
Although this was already a settled fact—evidenced by their inability to provide their IDs, Nick still scoffed.
She glanced at Nick and walked to the shelf on the far right of the convenience store.
'Wait, I think I remember where I know her from…' Nick voiced inwardly, an expression of pondering emerging on his face.
'She is Lukas's younger sister from way back then!' Nick was deeply shocked. She had grown so much; back then when he was just in high school, and she was still in elementary school.
With a very well above average intelligence, although he couldn't remember her at first glance, when he thought deeper, the fog that shrouded that part of his memory eventually receded briefly.
"What was her name again? It started with an 'L' too…" Nick placed a hand on his mouth, trying to remember.
At that moment, two packs of chocolate cookies and a can of Coke landed on the counter.
Nick looked up at her; light makeup adorned her heart-shaped face and her straight black hair with a middle parting landed deftly down her shoulders.
Of course, her gaze was elsewhere, once again avoiding to look at Nick.
Nick laughed in his heart. Having seen her actions and the friends she kept, truly, she was the younger sister of that bastard Lukas.
Nick felt a certain tinge of anger recalling the past and also the events of that fateful night he had to strip in front of her and her dumb friends.
'I can't put the actions of her bastard older brother on her head, but her own actions… Johan still has that photo of me, they laughed at me and humiliated me, how can I not have my revenge? But that's a task for another day.' Nick didn't utter a word and calmly picked up one of the items to scan.
Right at that moment though, he was suddenly overcome with a feeling of immense dread as a feminine voice recited in his head:
[Task: Get her contact.]
[Difficulty: Easy.]
[Reward: 2 VP.]
[Ending In: 9 minutes 59 seconds.]
[Optional: Ask her out on a date (+2 VP).]
Nick instantly froze, the item he was about to scan hanging in the air. 'You have got to be fucking kidding me…'
The young girl noticed his stunned expression and frowned slightly.
"What?"
Nick took a large gulp before letting out an awkward laugh.
"A-Ah, it's nothing."
This task was a cause for concern, considering its objective. Nick felt the difficulty grading and the base reward was supposed to be higher.
'How is this thing even calculated? Why this of all things, oh my goodness…'
Despite Nick's frustration, he still knew what he had to do. V-points were an extremely precious resource, and hence, there was no really easy way of earning them; just earlier today, he had to put a cockroach in his mouth. Additionally, he had to make sure he didn't fail any task to not fall behind his peers on the Leaderboard.
Nick mentally let out a heavy sigh and began thinking about the manner of approach he would use to address the female customer to get her contact, also unconsciously reducing the speed at which he processed the very few items in front of him.
'From her uniform, she should be a senior in her final year, so she is either 18 or 19 years old. But since she didn't show me her ID that night, I doubt she's 19. No matter, I have no plans on actually keeping in touch with her. First, I should try building some rapport with her, and then I will ask for her WiChat or phone number. After she gives it to me, I'll then ask her to go on a date with me. That's enough, I think. It wasn't specified that she would need to agree for me to complete the optional task; I believe I can just ask and I should receive the v-points…' Nick didn't even realize when he sunk deep in thought about this matter.
Drawing himself back to reality, he laughed forcefully again, but it just seemed awkward.
"You didn't come with your friends today?" he asked, only realizing the question didn't make too much sense after he had already spoken.
The young girl's arms were folded. She raised a brow and shifted her footing, wearing a slight frown. "No?"
'Dammit, that was stupid. She is obviously alone. I should introduce myself properly first instead,' Nick thought, already feeling he was off to a bad start.