Making Money

Axel quickly stood up, and got his bike up. He managed to get on the bike however Justin's meaty hand wrapped around his arm like a vice.

' Kick your left leg out as hard as you can manage '

Kicking he felt a crunch as his foot connected with the family jewels of the overbearing giant, causing his grip to loosen allowing a swift escape from Axel.

' Good shit, kid. Now run away like your life depends on it, and pay attention to what you're doing this time. If he catches us we're gonna die after the stunt we just pulled. '

Axel sped away leaving the teen lost in the dust. After the short bike ride, he made it to his apartment. Axel changed into his work clothes, and made his way, letter in hand to his work at the loto mart. After a 15 minute bike ride, Axel chained his bike up, and walked into his work.

Loto mart is a simple gas station, with fountain sodas, and snacks aplenty. He went directly to the counter, and walked behind to greet his boss.

" Hello mister Lodd. "

" Axel? What are you doing here? Don't you have school? "

" Well sir, for a number of reasons, I've dropped out of school. Here's a letter from my principal. "

Taking the letter in hand, Mister Lodd read over the contents briefly before addressing Axel.

" What happened? I know you were a good student with a bright future! "

" Well as you know I was being bullied pretty hard, and I wanted an escape. Plus I earn enough money working my shifts here to get by. "

" You poor stupid kid. How are you going to get into college now? There's no future for you here son. Look I know homelife was screwed up for you, and school has been tough, but you can't just give up like this. "

" Sir I'm not giving up, I am trying a new angle though. Don't worry about me. I just need to work a little overtime for the next couple months, and I will be fine. "

" Well, I do need a vacation, and time to be with my family. Since you're my only employee, I've been putting in over 80 hours a week in this place. We're not a 24/7 gas station as people only use the electric pumps, and those are self automated. However we are open from 8 AM to 12 AM. Can you handle working 16 hour shifts for the next week? If you can manage that then ill give you 70 hours a week instead of the 32 you've been doing. "

" I can handle that sir. "

' That sounds like an obnoxious amount of time to spend here. '

' It'll be worth it kid. We need just over 15k by the end of next month. We should have around 3k in savings right? And we make 15 an hour right? '

' Yeah we make 15 an hour and we have 3, 467 in pocket money. Rent is 1500 a month, utilities are 400 a month, and food is another 200 a month. So with what we have saved we already have next month's bills paid, and this month's bills have already been paid. '

' Perfect so we just need to work 1, 059 hours to have enough money. If you work these 116 plus the two months following he will be at 676 hours, which isn't enough. However, over time…. Give me a few moments. $7,110 from overtime plus 5, 400 from regular hours is 12, 510 plus our left over savings is 1,367 which means we will have $13,877 which still isn't enough even more so with taxes. So realistically we will end up with roughly 11k. However we have options. '

' How did you do all that mental math, why does my head hurt now, and what options. '

' Your brain isn't really ready for the level of thought I can do. So I overused it a bit by accident. And our option is betting on sports. Next month is the hyperbowl, and the tigers are facing the goats. Goats win with a minute to spar. '

' Isn't there an old movie that warns of the danger of using time travel to cheat bets? '

' Yeah but that doesn't really apply here. Anyway if we put all our money on that bet we will get roughly a 12 times pay out. With that we will be set to move to a nice apartment, get all the nutritional fluids we will need, get the pod, and the game. Then when in game we can sell all our gold for real money to make sure that we have our bills paid for the next two years. Also since we're going to accomplish so many grand things we will set up a stream for our time in the game. '

' Okay old man, You've gotten us this far. Let's make some money. '

The next two months had flown by, Axel worked his hardest, and collapsed at the end of every night, just to do it all again the next day for the first week. It was strange how he was the only employee at the gas station, but his boss was a stingy man, and to quote him " One stinky teenager is more than enough. "

The first week was the worst of it, working 116 hours left him entirely drained. However, that first check after words changed his whole mood. His other self wasn't lying when he said hard work pays off. Axel still didn't wanna do it though. After the first month of breaking his back the Hyper bowl had come up. He made a bunch of small bets with the intention to lose them so it wasn't suspicious when he made the giant jackpot. He had a total of 7,500 to bet with.

He spent 1000 in total on the losing bets, and the other 6500 on the winning bets. He had made a total of 12 bets with the money he had earned. Most of it was a big bet. After winning 7 of his bets, and losing 5 he had made a total of 78,000 dollars. With that and the extra work he did for the rest of the month he had a total of 83,100. With that he had gotten himself a nice apartment in town, pre ordered the pod, and the game. The move hardly took any time at all, and since he was independent he didn't need to notify anybody, or do any extra work.

' Alright kid, we've gotten this far. The pod will arrive a day before the game comes out, so in 4 days. That day we will be setting everything up. We have 56,000 dollars left after we got the new place, the pod, and the game. For these next 5 days aside from setting up the pod, we need to fix your diet, and start a work out regime. You gained a little bit of healthy weight from how much working you did. But you're still too skinny. Having a better body out here is only going to help us there. We also need to buy plenty of nutritional fluid to keep the pod always filled. '

' Too much at one time old man. Can't we just chill now? I just quit my job, and I want a day off. '

' No time for a day off kid. While we're at it we need to turn the rest of the living room into a home gym. '

' A gym? I don't wanna have all that crap in here, Shouldn't we get a better bed first? '

' We don't need a better bed. While in the pod your body is asleep. So we just bought a 15k bed kid. '

' Wait so im mentally going to be awake 24/7 wont I crash at some point? '

' You normally would, however the game will nourish your soul. You don't need sleep anymore. '

' No more time wasted sleeping? '

' Exactly kid. '

After spending another 20k of gym equipment, and the fluids Axel got started on his workout regime from his other self. The workout wasn't anything hyper difficult, just a simple routine of pushups, sit ups, squats, pull ups, and an 8 mile run each day. Axel jammed out to all his favorite music while working out.

At the end of the 4 days the pod had arrived, and he spent half the day setting up the pod, and the other half working out.

After all his hard work he had gained roughly 20 more pounds in healthy weight, and wasn't quite so skinny. His hair had grown out just a bit, and he had much more energy compared to before. His skin was clearer, and he had lost his appetite for all the awful junk food he had been eating for years. Morning was fast approaching, and with it the day his whole life would change.

' You ready kid? I'm going to walk you through everything, and we will be the king of this game. Best class, best items, and the best ranking. It'll all be ours. '

' Whatever makes us survive what's coming. That's all I care for. '

' For now sure. Once you feel the power that reflects into reality you're going to be seeing different colors. We have 2 hours till the game opens. This is very important. We need to be already in the pod beforehand. And make our character as soon as possible. It's of the utmost importance! '

' I get that starting as quickly as possible is important, but why is it such a big deal? '

' We need to get the right name this time around. '

Axel's face froze as he processed what the old man had said.

' I'm sorry you are making this big a deal over a nickname? '

' I HAD TO HAVE NUMBERS IN MY NAME LAST TIME. THAT'S SO LAME. '