22 Cunning Plan

Lian was currently driving the combine harvester like a pro. As he already learned all the basic knowledge from leveling up through the system, there was no danger involved. Therefore, his expression was nonchalant.

Simon was looking at him as though staring at some freak. He only gave Lian a few instructions these past few hours, and he already mastered the vehicle. There was nothing Simon could nitpick or criticize. In fact, Lian looked like he'd been using the combine harvester for ages; even matching his own ease and experience with it!

"Now you give me that look. Of course I can drive it this well! If you would have shut up for two seconds and let me control it, I could have already moved on to the next machine…"

As he drove, Lian noticed that outside of the norm, he managed to receive 10 exp per minute. This was much better than pulling weeds, milking cows, or individually planting seeds. Unfortunately, this amount of exp was useless with his current leveling requirements.

However, it was good to know that a gain of one exp per action wasn't the limit outside of tasks. Who knows when a task would become too difficult to finish? It's good to have a back-up plan for leveling.

With Simon commending him for his abilities, Lian felt that he had done his job in proving his capabilities. He had quite a few machines to control as subtasks, therefore time couldn't be squandered. Against Simon's encouragement to join his custom harvesting crew, he moved on to the next person.

This routine continued over the next few days. Lian would join a driver or farm equipment specialist for a few hours, shadow them, and then convince them to allow him to operate their machinery. Consequently, he would stun them with his skills, before leaving despite their misgivings.

For Lian, it was draining to deal with so many people. Just because he knew how to communicate with others, didn't mean he enjoyed doing it. Being introverted, although he could give off the impression that he was very social, he liked keeping to himself. But, everything was for the exp.

On the second day of his task, Lian saw Catalina checking him out whilst driving a tractor. She looked at him lustfully, then walked away.

"I'm obviously enjoying where this situation is going… but I feel like I'm in the plot of some weird adult film. Young handsome male farmer and mature hot female manager…WTF?!"

"Is this the law of attraction? I stopped watching that junk on the computer, so in turn it's become my reality…?"

"Hmmm… in a weird way, I feel like I've been enlightened…"

Lian knew that this wasn't exactly how the law of attraction worked, but there was definitely some truth to his view. If he didn't split his consciousness as a clone, he wouldn't be able meet so many new characters. Without giving oneself a chance to interact with others, despite looks or insecurities, it would be impossible to have any sensual or exciting opportunities.

"If I don't even give myself a chance to experience life, who else is going to do it for me? My parents? They're tired and older now. My friends? Their life doesn't revolve around mine."

"… I'm already 20. I've been passive for the past three years. I must create my own opportunities to become stronger and wiser. And you know what? I will."

Firming his resolve to continuing evolving as an individual, he continued with his task.

On the third day, instead of heading over to the fields, Lian hitched a ride with Matias to the city. Moving to his usual hiding spot, he then dawned a new disguise. Consequently, Lian waited for Isabel while playing mobile games and listening to music.

Eventually, she showed up and met with Rafael before following him to a fancy restaurant. Lian tried planning as much as possible for mishaps prior to this meeting, but one can only do so much with such little information. Besides, as long as he didn't have to follow Rafael's car by taxi, the risk of getting caught eavesdropping would be very low.

Thankfully, this restaurant had a large wooden wall placed between certain sets tables. Therefore, even if Lian was sitting close-by, they couldn't see him. Hence, they wouldn't be on guard. In fact, even if the pair were cautious, who would care to listen to a conversation involving some random orphan with all the noise going on in the restaurant anyways?

Lian ordered a rice-dish called "paella" then waited silently across from the two. As they were ordering their meals, he prepared some loose change.

"The meal is around 10$, so… ahem… so I'll give the waiter 10 cents…I'm sure that it's better than nothing…"

Back in the day, Lian wasn't always a miser. He would always spot friends and give good tips to waiters or deliverymen when he ordered food. But, both friends and workers took advantage of his generosity to acquire higher tips or have their expenses paid without repaying Lian. Therefore, he changed and became stingy to the utmost degree. This was because he hated being used.

Honestly, Lian did feel somewhat bad after changing. But, his previous experiences overweighed the lingering empathetic feelings he harboured.

As Lian was in the midst of slowly eating his meal to bide time, he noticed that Rafael was ordering almost double the usual amount of food.

"I wonder what they're up to..."

Once the waiters left the two's table, their conversation finally became interesting.

Rafael: "All right…everything's mostly ready for the plan…"

Isabel: "Honey, you're so smart! Come on. Tell me! What are we going to do?"

Rafael: "First, we'll get Francisco to come with you to the city. Once he's there, we'll pretend that you two accidentally bumped into me…"

Isabel: "That won't be too difficult. What do we do after that?"

Rafael: "You'll convince him to let me join you two around the city. I've already found the perfect spot to cripple him."

Isabel: "But how are we going to convince him to follow us? Are you going to fight him?"

Rafael: "Of course not. I'll find a way to ditch you guys, while you two will take a shortcut to the movies through a certain alley-way. Once you're there, I know some guys that are willing to permanently cripple him for some cash."

Isabel: "…I don't care what happens to him. But do you think he'll still want to marry me if you make it so that he can't even have kids?"

Rafael: "Don't worry. I planned for that too. Remember how I said I'll leave you guys shortly? Well, once those guys do their job, I'll pretend that I've come back to save you."

Isabel: "Hmmmm…That's a great idea! With how Francisco thinks, he'll probably feel guilt for being unable to be the one protecting me."

Isabel: "So… he'll most likely hide that problem from my parents if I ask him to. Then, even if he looks somewhat crippled, my family will still go along with the marriage!"

Rafael: "And by that point, even if you and I have kids, he won't be able to say anything about it!"

Listening in on their conversation Lian couldn't help but applaud Rafael for his well-thought out plan.

"How cunning! If I wasn't here, you would have probably gotten away scotch-free…"

"But… what a dumb reason for all of this. Isabel's going to go through an entire marriage just to have a secret affair? Some people really have a weird train of thought…"

He continued eavesdropping, but the conversation was mostly about the designated areas for executing their plan.

Rafael: "There's also another good spo…"

The two randomly stopped mid-conversation. Lian was confused as to what was happening. However, he noticed the sound of footsteps approaching their table.

Lian: "Hmmm?"