Money

The last week has gone according to Nikolas' plans. Every morning he trained at the dojo with his brother. Unexpectedly, Erick had a great aptitude for martial arts and was learning fast!

Even though Yuemura was harsh, he enjoyed teaching them. Or should we call it torturing them to death? In any case, the fatty lost around 10 kilos (20 pounds) and some muscles were appearing in his arms.

[Still have a long way to go though...] The difference, which seemed big to his parents, was just one small step he had taken towards his goals.

Because of their advancements, the sensei allowed them to use wooden katanas and after some simple teachings, he put them to spar. Such an event was within their expectations. What he didn't expect, however, was that his brother would be so promising as himself, who lived for 10 years in the apocalypse.

Although Nikolas was hiding his abilities, now that his brother was proving to be a genius, it wouldn't hurt if he looked partially genius as well.

Currently, Nikolas was training with the youngest disciple, Okino Noboru, or just Nobo for friends. He had small eyes, blond hair, and a large nose rarely seen in Japan, clearly showing his half-Japanese half-German identity.

Although he was the youngest disciple, he had years of training and from his movements, Nikolas knew the boy had great potential. Unfortunately, he was up against a man who had mastered the sword for years and had faced death with the sword as his only companion dozens of times.

After a few exchanges Nobo was clearly losing his composure, as he started to put more strength than he should behind his attacks. But no matter what he did, he couldn't hit the clumsy fatty!

Weirdly, it felt like Nikolas tripped every time the wooden sword was about to hit him!

As the Dragon King was regaining the finesse control of his body, the martial skills slowly came back. But he refrained himself and made everything look as if he was lucky.

After "stumbling" on his own feet, he lowered his head, nearly escaping from a horizontal slash. At the same time, Nikolas stretched out his arms to get some "balance". Because of that, his sword hit Noboru's belly heavily.

"Ouch!" the boy yelled and fell on his ass.

"Oops,I'm sorry… It was unintentional!" Nikolas apologized, but he was laughing inside.

[I'll not let any of you hurt master this time!]

Though he still doesn't know which disciple betrayed his master, or even if that belief was true, he wasn't going to go easy on them!

************

In his free afternoons, Nikolas helped his father build the wall around the house. Within a week, they had increased its size to a full two meters and doubled its thickness with pure concrete at the base.

Furthermore, he started cleaning their left neighbor's house.

The man had died years ago in a car accident and since then his home had been abandoned to nature. Even though it was a one-story house, what interested Nikolas the most was the land: there was a large yard in front which they could use to plant something.

With his father's approval, Nikolas jumped through the small fence and cleaned the ground in his free time.

[At least my dad believed me when I said that dealing with the ground could help me develop my attitude and that sensei had suggested it.]

Furthermore, his mother Emilia also thought of it as an act of charity and supported her son taking care of the land.

At the end of the week he had almost cleaned a space of 300m²! And at the end of the seventh day he received a huge surprise: his WoW account was sold for $20,000!

That would probably be his capital until the apocalypse.

[I have to spend it all!] Nikolas smiled, it had been a long long time since he went shopping!

***********

As he looked at his banking account unsure what to do first, his cell phone rang.

When he saw the name of the caller, his hands shook and memories flooded his mind.

[H…How could I forget about him!?] Nikolas sighed at his own ignorance and answered the call.

"Hel…"

Before he could finish a shrill voice came out of the phone.

"I saw on the MMORPG news that you sold your Wow account dude! Are you insane!?"

"Calm down Marcus! Wait… It went on the news!?"

Marcus was her one true friend, a friendship that grew after hours and hours of playing online games. Although they never met in person, the hours they spent together were countless.

[Unfortunately, I never found out what happened to him after the apocalypse. He probably died in the first few days...]

In fact, the first year was hell. Nikolas was weak and didn't have time to think about anything other than his own survival and the death of his family. In the end, he even forgot about Marcus.

Perhaps, he could also change his friend's fate this time!

"Yeah man, you've been offline the whole week! I thought you were sick, but now I know that you've become an idiot!!"

"Chill down man! This week was so full that I forgot to tell you!!"

After a minute or so, his friend calmed down a bit and asked.

"So, what happened? I was really worried, are you in need of money? I can lend you some if you want…. Is your family okay?"

"I'm good, jeez...that's not the case. Actually, I can't tell you much pal… you know I have contacts on the Deep Web, right?"

At this moment, Nikolas started to introduce some ideas on Marcus' mind.

"Hmm… sure, why?"

"Well, there was a leak about a super experiment going on. It seems that more than one government and huge enterprises are involved…"

"Shit! Just like the last virus experiment?"

[Ha! He took the bait] Nikolas smiled devilishly.

"I think it'll be worse!"

"S*** don't scare me brother!"

"Man, something big is going to happen, so listen to me: sell your account too and buy as much food as you can, water and some weapons will come in handy too!"

"Ah, and do some diet too!" Nikolas hurriedly added. Even though he never saw him in person, judging by himself, Marcus should be fat too right?

"What the fuck man!? I've spent years on that account! Can't you say more?"

"For once in your life, I need you to blindly believe in me. For all the raids we've made! For all the times I saved you by tanking the bosses so you could cast your spells!"

Nikolas spoke over-dramatically about their time together.

"Alright, alright! You better be real, because if nothing happens, I'll kill you!"

"I wish it weren't real my friend. Also, you have three weeks to come to my house if you want…. If you can't do that, just stay hidden and I'll try to get to you later…."

Without waiting for the answer, Nikolas added.

"And before I forget Marcus, buy an amateur radio and use the frequency 6xxxx to get in contact with me, okay?"

"Yep! I'll try to convince my family to pay you a visit…"

"Yes, yes! But remember: You only have three weeks!!"

"Okay sergeant! Turning off now!"

Nikolas sighed.

If his best friend hadn't called, he wouldn't even remember him! Those ten years of living life on the line and now worrying too much about the future made Nikolas ignore certain things about the present. Unfortunately, time was short even to complain.

As it was still early in the morning, and knowing that his money wouldn't go anywhere, he decided to go to the dojo as usual.