4 First Step In Making Money

I squinted my eyes as the rays of sunlight creeped through my curtains hitting my face, illuminating my room as I stirred awake.

It was time to face reality –all this was not a dream. I reached for my phone on the shelf as I felt it vibrating, realizing that I'd gotten a text from none other than my father.

His text stated thus: "Remember, Damon, use your allowance wisely."

'As cold as ever,' I thought.

I blinked my eyes to try to get the remnants of sleep away.

Checking the calendar, It was a new month, the date being the 17th of August 2002 and there, staring back at me, were the stark numbers.

49 days until my final entrance exam into Columbia university– just a bit over a month and a half.

The responsibility weighed down on my shoulders , and I was brutally reminded of the task ahead.

I directed my attention back to my phone as my allowance had been sent, my fingers swiping across the screen.

"$10,000," it read.

An amount that would seem like a lot to the average student but to me on the other hand, who knew the full extent of my family's wealth, it was a mere fraction.

My father, Simon Darhk, was the head of the Darhk Corporation, one of the giants in the electronics industry that year, and he wielded immense resources.

However, when it came to my allowance, I collected mere scraps, especially when juxtaposed with the extravagant spending afforded to my little brother.

Despite the gap that lingered between us, I found that the $10000 was more than enough for me.

I knew what to do with the money to make more money and how to properly utilize – my knowledge of the future acting as a guide for me.

A wry smile played on my lips as I contemplated how to effectively utilize the resources at my disposal.

I stood looking around my room, it was a very messy environment. A contrast to how untidy I was.

The shelves were lined with gaming consoles, gaming accessories, merchandise, and action figures that stood as a constant reminder of my not so glory days, but all that was in the past and I was ready to trade that for a brighter future.

After some moments of contemplation I finally made my decision – I would sell everything.

I moved around the room picking up the first thing that caught my eye, my Nintendo game cube.

I stared at it for a long time and thought about what the estimated selling price would be.

Just then, as if on cue a system panel popped up.

[Yes] [No]

'Oh wow, appraise? I wonder what it meant by that, let's give it a try I guess' I thought.

Without thinking I said yes and another panel popped up.

~Ding!~

*Appraisal*

Item: Nintendo game cube

Estimated value: $149 - $199

Status: In Good Condition

[Additional Information]

A nintendo game console purchased by Malcolm in his early teenage days which he shares a lot of memories with.

[End of Information]

"Wow! This is a lot to take in" I said to myself.

I'd made new discoveries already. First of all I didn't have to always swipe for the system to pop up as it operated on voice command.

Secondly, I could appraise items and discover information about them, this would come in very handy in future.

To test my theory I walked up to another gaming item, let's see how this goes.

"Appraisal!" Not to my surprise the same thing happened again. As the system popped up presenting information about the item.

With this new discovery my work would be so much easier, then I had an idea.

'What if I could ask the system to simultaneously appraise multiple items at once? That would certainly come in handy and save me a ton of time. Might as well try it out' I thought.

"System?", I said in a low voice.

And like I thought a panel popped up.

"Scan my room for all items related to gaming and conduct appraisals on each one of them." I said not trying to sound disrespectful. Feeling weird as I was practically talking to myself.

In another instant another window popped up.

*Items appraised*

[Yes] [No]

"Yes", I muttered. All of a sudden I groaned in pain pulling my hair as I felt a sharp ache in my head.

It felt like my brain was about to burst and I lay on the floor for a few seconds screaming in pain.

The pain was only momentarily though as in a few seconds it subsided and was like it was never there.

'What the heck was that about', I thought.

After contemplating for a while and not being able to find a decent explanation I decided to check the results of the appraisals.

*Transfer complete*

'Was that the system?' I thought. But this time there was no panel.

I just happened to hear the voice of the system in my head.

I wondered if I could communicate with the system through my thoughts, still contemplating this factor, I picked up another item and suddenly I had information on it that I'm sure I never knew before then.

The value and status of the item, its warranty, estimated size, I had access to both information I knew and didn't know about.

This would come in very handy for me as I no longer needed to perform singular appraisals for each item, saving me a lot of time and effort.

I decided to go through the rest of the items and sort them out in boxes.

As I started the process of sorting them out, placing them in cardboard boxes, each item had a story to tell, bringing back memories.

The gaming console that gave me countless sleepless nights, the action figures who once seemed like my only friends – all became mere objects.

The routine was simple, I would pick up an item, stare at it for a while and then place it in a box based on its price.

It felt like I was throwing away memories of my past, but they would not go to waste as the money I gained from selling them would be put to good use by me.

After the last sale, the room felt different, emptier but strangely it felt liberating. I'd just let go of my distractions deciding to focus on more important stuff.

As the last box was hauled away by the delivery guy, I realized how empty and spacious my room actually was.

Picking up a vacuum cleaner I cleared all the dirt and performed a quick room cleanup. Folding and arranging my clothes, getting rid of all the cobwebs, throwing away the countless boxes of pizza and fried chicken.

I realized I'd been living really unhealthy as most of my diet consisted of fast food. I used to be too lazy to cook and would just order food and go back to gaming.

'Sigh, I was a mess' I thought.

To my surprise the item sales didn't that long as in a few moments I began to receive credit alerts.

+$300 here, +$149 there, +$227 elsewhere, the money just kept flowing in and I couldn't help but feel this sense of power.

I calculated the total amount I'd received from my sales, approximately a $100,000. It was substantial to an extent, I'd expected more to be honest.

It might have seemed absurd as to how someone would amass so much money from just selling items, but most of my previous allowances were spent on me gaming and purchasing items for gaming.

Pokémon cards that would've gained more value over time, limited edition items, these were just a few of the items that i sold so I expected at least this much.

Now it was time for me to focus on what to do moving forward and plan ahead.

I decided the first and most important step was to gather information and I sat at my computer and began to make research on various financial advancements at that time.

Hours went by and yet I didn't seem to notice as I was too busy with my new task.

There were so many opportunities and it was laughable how I already knew what the major advancements would be, when they would happen and how they would happen.

Cryptocurrency, the stock market, the global launch of smartphones, I would capitalize on them all.

I couldn't miss this opportunity and after my research, I began to plan my next course of action.

In all this I couldn't help but worry about the unknown factor -the system, it seemed convenient, too convenient.

Either way I would capitalize on it and farm as much SP as I could.

'Sooner or later I would find out its origin' I thought.

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