Odds of the Gamble

Seeker relaxed and rested his eyes.

"What a very profitable and beneficial day!" Seeker sighed satisfied with his progress for the day.

His two friends continued to give him a peculiar look.

Seeker looked back.

"I'm not gay." Seeker finally spoke.

"So what was that all about?" Lynd asked suspiciously.

"Arthur Humphrey's a potential Ranked Hero. Normally, I planned to keep myself away from those who had the potential to reach Ranked Hero or beyond because of the possible ripple effects that I might cause. This one, however, is different. He's the same as I am. So I think it would offer no threats but pure benefits. Such is the man called Arthur Humprey."

"Oh. No wonder you wanted him. I was surprised that you could easily reject Kristine's offer."

"Oh trust me, I wouldn't dare have her right now." Seeker smiled mysteriously.

"Now that I think about it, you never did tell us if you managed to land a hot one in the future Zeek." Meryl smiled mischievously.

Seeker's eyes looked towards the heavens.

"She's… complicated Meryl." Seeker spoke with a very detached tone.

Meryl suddenly stopped her teasing. With the future that Seeker had, it wouldn't be surprising that Seeker would meet and say goodbye to several friends. Meryl even had a very embarrassed look.

"Uh, Zeek." Lynd spoke as he was rummaging Seeker's bag.

"Your phones got like thirty missed calls!"

"Must be Mom and Dad. It's not surprising that they'd get word of everything that has been going on."

"You sure it's alright? Auntie Grace hates gambling after all." Meryl had a grave look.

"Relax. I'll deal with them." Seeker smiled.

"Cliff, I want you to beat up anyone on that list if you have a chance. Just enough to get them to the hospital. Don't make it too life-threatening."

Cliff jolted as Seeker spoke to him.

"And while you're beating them, make sure to put on some mask or something and make it look like you're one of those foreigner haters." Seeker stood up and started walking.

The group left the duplex immediately. The strange and action-packed night finally ended.

The next day classes resumed. Seeker and his two friends were now being treated like superstars. They were like a bunch of superstars at school. People would wave and attempt to talk with Seeker.

Seeker's rise of prestige was so dramatic compared to before. Not even Royal's felt that they had the qualifications to meet and talk with Seeker. Their level of connection paled compared the worth of Seeker in both the gaming and the medical world.

Despite the increase in fame, there were very few girls who attempted to make contact with Seeker.

Lynd had an exasperated look.

"Zeek, you got to do something to clear this misunderstanding," Lynd begged.

"Leave it, Lynd. If anything, it might be better this way. A lot of annoying things would pop up if I were to meet Arthur in any other way." Seeker rejected immediately.

"Could you properly define annoying?" Meryl asked as she gave a bland look at Seeker.

"Possible assassinations from professional hitmen or getting abducted by some intelligence agency from enemy countries." Seeker easily responded.

The two gave a surprised look. How would meeting an e-sport gamer end with such drastic results?

"Ok. Then it looks like I'll have to put up with this for a bit." Lynd sighed.

"How did your parents take the news? My mom and dad were asking me a lot of questions and even asking me if I can invite you and Charles over dinner." Meryl asked Lynd.

"Basically the same as you. It was annoying. They also asked me if I knew if Seeker was gay." Lynd sighed.

"What about you Zeek? What did Aunt Grace have to say with your gambling?" Meryl laughed.

"Well at first she was mad when I came home. She started yelling, telling me that she doesn't care about my medication and how gambling is off the table. Dad just had a serious look. No doubt he was angry about the whole Arthur thing." Seeker explained.

"Then I explained how I needed to meet with Arthur for a secret meeting to discuss the terms of my contract and the future of the Covenant. I told them that I wanted Kristine. So that calmed my dad down."

"What about Aunt Grace?"

"She calmed down when I gave the two of them tickets to a 7-day cruise on the Bahamas. In fact, I think she was encouraging me to continue saying that my health is more important than her standards."

"Typical for Auntie." Meryl laughed.

The three met Alean Cipril later on in class. Her face showed signs of being hit and the students were panicking and asking her what happened. Lynd and Meryl had a confused look since they while they knew that of the wounds on her face were caused by Seeker's smash, there were some that were clearly not inflicted by Seeker.

Seeker seemed to have not found this surprising and continued yawning in class.

Alean brushed addressed the asking students saying that it was due to her spars with some of the soldiers under her father's command. Several male students felt jealous as they daydreamed of wrestling with this hot teacher of theirs.

The class eventually came to an end.

"Seeker, I would like to talk to you for a bit." Alean suddenly asked in a very courteous tone.

Several of the class was confused. They knew of Alean's unexplainable hatred towards Seeker and how she would be very biased. But now there was courtesy in her voice. Some even thought it was respected.

The three remained as the other students shuffled out of the room.

"Miss Cipril, I think it would be to everyone's benefit if you acted as if you hated me. Try to do what you usually do. Don't worry. I won't make it harder for you on account of Lynd." Seeker stood with a boorish look.

Alean glanced at Lynd for a moment. Lynd was blushing to the extremes but Alean gave a sweet smile to Lynd.

"Then thank you." She smiled. Lynd's heart was pumping faster than the normal heart rate of a man being chased by three werewolves.

"My father agreed to the meeting. Thank you for that insurance." Alean spoke as she rubbed her chin.

"This was the only punishment I got from General. Whatever that was, it brought him to his knees." Alean gave another smile. It looked like a smile one would give when encountering true happiness. Lynd's heart was beating so fast it could've caused a heart attack.

"Must have been a satisfying site for you considering how happy you look recalling that." Seeker chuckled.

"Also, as a future partner in this business, I would urge you to stay away from Arthur Humphrey." Alean had a serious look on her face.

"If you're talking about how dangerous Lennox is, I already know." Seeker shrugged.

A surprised look flashed on Alean's face.

"Lennox?" Meryl had a confused look.

Before Seeker could elaborate, Alean spoke.

"Lennox Humphrey. Arthur's father. The most dangerous mathematician on this planet. Even my father is afraid of him. So you knew, but you still want to take Arthur on a two-day trip? Are you crazy?" Alean was controlling her urge to shout. There was fear painted across her face. Lynd and Meryl were surprised to see the scared look of this woman.

A mathematician would leave a General and a drug-lord scared? How?

"It isn't a date trip. It's purely business. I plan to strike a deal with Arthur and this is the fastest, easiest, and least suspicious path that I could take. You probably have an idea as to how many eyes are watching that man. Pulling off a publicity stunt like this would quench all doubts and give me the chance to talk to him privately and maybe even get the opportunity to meet Lennox."

Alean had a look of true horror in her face. If Seeker were attracted to Arthur, it would have been potentially scary. But if Seeker wanted to meet Lennox, then it was terrifying.

Alean's horrified face started to calm down. She remembered that in front of her was someone who managed to get her father to his knees without being in the same room.

"Can you kill him?" Alean suddenly asked. Killing Lennox would give his father and his empire a lot of benefits.

"Are you stupid? He's one of the few people on this Earth who can kill me. I have business proposals to offer him. But don't worry. It will only benefit your father's kingdom." Seeker walked out of the room.

The remaining three stood in shock at Seeker's statement.

Meryl slowly followed. Lynd was about to leave when Alean called him.

"Lynd. Wait." She called out softly.

Lynd was petrified. He slowly turned back to look at Alean.

Alean gave a warm smile.

"Who would've thought that you'd be able to help me of all people. Thank you." She smiled.

"Don't worry. I won't take advantage of your feelings towards me to make you betray Seeker. I'm not that stupid anyway. But since he didn't give a directive, could you just tell me who Seeker Carlean is." Alean stared pleadingly.

Lynd felt as if heaven was touching him. That kind smile, that soft stare. If only time would stop. Lynd smiled but shook his head.

"He has always been honest in answering you, Miss." Lynd smiled back.

"He really is a kid who just knows about the future." Lynd turned around and walked out of the room.

As classes ended, Seeker and his friends went straight to the duplex to host another stream. Seeker earned 30,000 credits on stream views alone. Kristine joined the call again. But instead of a casual viewer, Seeker pushed his skills up another notch.

"That's impossible! Counting? That's how you do it?" Kristine shouted in surprise.

"That's how Precision does it. Right? In fact, I think he's better at it than I am." Seeker shrugged.

Bullet was facing five different Titan's this time. Unlike the former Titan's, this one had what appeared to be an electronic charge that generated around their bodies. As Bullet had next to no ranged attacks, Seeker continued to parry and dodge and would only attack whenever the electronic charge of these robots would disappear after initiating an attack.

"But that's impossible! Each of these Titans has different timing and sequence of attack. You'd need a machine to keep track of all of their sequences to tell you when to attack!" Kristine complained. But against her statement, Seeker was controlling Bullet with expert control. Evade about three of the Titan's attack and dash to inflict three or four hits to the surrounding Titans without the electric current and back out.

The gamble this time was that Seeker would complete the boss without getting a single hit. The boss was dubbed undefeatable unless the players would utilize the environmental advantages to stun and paralyze the Titans. But Seeker claimed he could without using the environmental advantages. Seeker was set to win 4700 credits from some unbelieving fools.

Kristine was angry and in shock at what she could see.

"I see. So that's the counting." A detached voice spoke from behind of Kristine.

She jolted and turned to see Arthur watching.

"Precision!" Seeker called out happily. His attention no longer was on the screen. But his avatar continued to evade and attack as beautifully as before.

"Interesting You managed to calculate the counting perfectly for this boss." A rare smile emerged from Arthur's face. It was very rare for someone of his prestige to be impressed.

"I'm happy that I've impressed you."

"Indeed. It could be said that your counting skills are on par with mine." Arthur adjusted his glasses as he continued to observe Seeker's counting.

"Simple enough." Arthur sighed.

"However, this is not enough to make the teams move to treat you like me." Arthur sneered.

"Ok. Then why not bet it if you're so confident? I bet that I can manage a payslip better than yours by Friday. If I win, you go with me and Kristine on this two-night get-away. If I lose then I'll join your team free of charge. I'm sure you've seen my accurate counting. If I could team up with you and the Covenant, no one on this planet could match us." Seeker smiled.

Arthur frowned at Seeker's taunt.

"Unless the great Precision cannot calculate the odds of this bet." Seeker smiled.

Arthur's frown turned into an angry glare.