40 Return

It was only after the first game that Daniel realized having someone like Jake accompany him to play this war game is the equivalent of having a competitive gamer suddenly being forced to take care of a noob who only play games for leisure.

Since Jake did not have the intentions of using the war game as a wake to hone his battle intent, unlike Daniel, he obviously treated the war game as just passing time with his best friend. However, Daniel's mindset was instead like a student procrascinating 24 hours before the final exam, which made the behavior between them seemed like heaven and earth.

In fact, Daniel had originally wanted to simply abandon Jake and head on to play PvP with a random person online instead, but was immediately stopped by the latter, who wanted to either team up or play against him the entire time.

"Come on! Aren't we here to have fun?" Jake complained when he saw Daniel in contemplation, looking at the menu before them intensely as though trying to decide whether or not to ditch the former in order to get some real practice. "You can't just ditch me here alone in the lobby while you go on and play with random strangers online!"

In the end, Daniel really did as Jake asked and simply continued to play against the latter or against an NPC team with Jake for the rest of the session. First, since it was Daniel who invited Jake to come in the first place, it would be quite mean for him to simply ditch his friend like that just because the latter isn't taking the game as serious as he is. He would also feel guity too. Second, playing against another player online requires Daniel to create an online account, which he currently doesn't own. The creation would cost quite a few credits, compounded by the fact that a monthly fee would need to be paid just to maintain the online account.

Because of this, Daniel is still stuck with using a guest account, with none of his achivements in his games tracked, thus not knowing whether or not if he actually imporved his skills after playing a few skills with Jake. Luckily, unlike the vast majority of people on Earth, Jake has the alien system, which has a stats menu that allows Daniel to view the level of his skill, thus it wasn't necessary to pay at all.

To lower the waiting list of the simulation rooms, a room have to be booked for a minimum of two people, which was why Daniel had Jake come with him to begin with. Since Daniel knew from first-hand experience that he wouldn't be able to gain much from the war game anymore with Jake by his side, he directly cancelled the rest of his bookings for the rest of the month. Of course, it took until the both of them returned to Jake's home that the latter finally viewed the notification about the one-way cancellation.

"Hey, why did you cancel all the bookings!" Jake shouted as both teenagers stepped into the home belonging to Jake's family. "I wanted to play a few more games on those simulation pods! The only thing we've tried were the mecha game that you insisted on playing for the whole time! I wanted to try out a horror game and an FPS game as well!"

"Why don't you re-book the simulation room and bring someone else with you then, since I'm not interested in playing with it anymore." Daniel waved the other off like it was none of his business, making Jake feel even more pissed off.

"With such a long waiting list, I'll need to wait until after the New Years before a new slot will be available for me!" Jake retorted in a furious tone. "Besides, who else am I going to find to accompany me other than you? It's not like I have any other friends at school."

"I'm pretty sure you have other friends." Daniel replied nonchalantly.

"Yeah, well you're the only one who befriended me just for the sake of friendship and not because of some other ulterior motives." Jake muttered under his breath as he subconsciously looked away from his best friend, making the latter unable to hear what he said.

"Well, you should have at least consulted me before suddenly cancelling all the slots like that!" Jake continued to complain. "I even especially left my schedule clear just for that event every week! Now you've destroyed my happiness! Compensate me!"

Daniel observed Jake's exaggeratedly aggrieved look for a while before finally reaching towards him and taking out his wrist. Then, he placed his own wrist over Jake's while mentally sending a transaction over to him through his biochip.

<Ping! Transaction request detected. Daniel 0777 would like to transfer 1 stock of the Z Corporation to you for free. Would you like to accept?>

"Who the heck wants your money!" Jake immediately threw Daniel's hand away, instantly cancelling the transaction in one go. "And why only 1 measly stock! And by that Z Corporation nonetheless! Isn't that company going bankrupt soon? I can have my dad bail-out the entire corporation for me in less than a second!"

"You said you wanted compensation." Daniel replied with a serious tone.

Jake opened his mouth, looking as though he wanted to say something, only to remain speechless when he realized he did not know how to respond to his best friend's ridiculous antics.

"At least give me a monthly pass to Holoflix or something..." Jake couldn't help but thought to himself when he realized how cheap and thrifty his friend was.

Daniel directly took the chance while his friend was distracted to 'run away', directly removing his shoes before walking into Jake's apartment as though he owned the place. Though, with how familiar he was with this apartment, it really looked as though he had lived here and would be able to pose as that to any stranger.

Since Daniel had spontaneously decided to sleep over at Jake's place, as he often does, he directly ordered a pack of disposable underwear and pyjamas online and have them delivered by the evening so he could have a change of clothes after a shower at night.

Right now though, he directly headed towards the standard sanitizing chamber located beside the entrance of every apartment and closed its doors. Once the doors were deadbolted, a mist-like substance directly sprayed onto Daniel's body from all directions, slightly tickling on his skin. Though, since Daniel is already familiar with such a feeling since young, he didn't say anything and simply waited until the spraying stopped.

<Sanitization completed. Scanning. No harmful bacteria or viruses detcted. Unlocking sanitization room.>

Daniel left the room feeling more refreshed subconsciously, knowing that all the germs he got from outside have been mostly destroyed earlier. Unfortunately, unlike Daniel, Jake is much less wary about his own sanitization and would normally skip such a step when coming home. Therefore, feeling the thirst for revenge, Jake directly tapped on Daniel's shoulder before wiping his hands all over Daniel's upper body, giving the latter a smug look as he did so.

"You do know that this is your home, right? If anyone were to get sick because of this, it would be you." Daniel raised an eyebrow and looked unfazed from Jake's provocation, knowing that showing even a bit of his emotions would only be a victory for the other teenager.

Hearing Daniel give him this 'friendly advice' instead of directly reacting strongly as he had initially anticipated, Jake felt slightly disappointed and annoyed at the same time. "Why thank you for telling me this, Daniel." Jake responded in a sarcastic tone. "But if anything happens, I'll just go to the hospital and have them inject healing nanobots into my bloodstream. That would solve all of my problems."

Daniel did not say anything, letting Jake say whatever he want so that the latter would feel better about himself after losing so much ground to Daniel. He headed towards the kitchen and made himself some synthesized tea, not forgetting to chemically remove the caffeine from the tea while doing so.

"What are you, 50? Why don't you have a soda instead like a real teenager?" Jake sneered when he followed Daniel and found the latter making such an old-fashioned drink.

"It helps calm my nerves." Daniel replied nonchalantly. "You should also try it as well, sometimes."

"Ew, no thanks." Jake said with a look of disgust on his face. "I don't get how you can drink something so bitter and feel good about yourself."

He then went to the fridge and took out a can of soda, sipping on it and giving an exaggerated "Haah!" sound to make it look as though he was having a much greater time than his best friend.

Daniel simply rolled his eyes secretly at Jake's petty attempts to infuriate him and simply thought that the other person really sucks at provoking other people.