Homies

In the end, Spike turned out to be a trashy swindler who had nothing interesting to offer except his boring speeches about the dead army generals.

"Can I sneak out tonight?" Jeremy said to himself while lying on the bed his academy assigned him. After the patrolling around the border, the students were asked to retire to their rooms.

And thank god for that! Because even after his improved stamina, Jeremy barely had any strength left in his legs to walk.

"Maybe tomorrow…" Jeremy murmured in a daze, feeling the waves of drowsiness wash over him.

*SLAP*

He tightened his palms and slapped his cheeks harshly, shaking his head to shake off the pain. This wasn't the time to sleep and waste. He barely had time left, and if he wanted to die, he wouldn't get any better opportunity for a long time.

"Guards shift at 12." Jeremy shot up the bed and washed his face, checking the time, '11:48 PM, there is still time.'

He wore some casual boxers and an oversized t-shirt, clothes he would wear to sleep.

Although sleep walking wasn't a good excuse, Jeremy was certain he wouldn't need any excuse to begin with. He was confident in his stealth.

And the first step was to… trick Aria. The trickiest and most annoying part.

'I need to go out.' Jeremy said in his mind and as expected, Aria replied.

[ No, host. No student is to leave the premises without written permission. ]

'It's an emergency, I dropped my wallet outside and it has a lot of cash. I can't afford to lose it.' Jeremy urged.

And it wasn't a lie, since he did intentionally drop his wallet outside, though he took out the cash from it first. 

[ Searching for the wallet. Match found on the Museum of Death. Locking the wallet, don't worry host. No person will touch or take anything out of that wallet. ]

'Tsk as expected,' Jeremy sighed but he wasn't disheartened. He knew that tricking Aria wouldn't be easy. It wasn't the smartest AI for nothing.

But alas, in the end it was just an AI.

'Your locking mechanism can only work on humans who have Aria embedded in their brains, can't it?' Jeremy smirked, 'How can you prevent a bird or an animal from taking it?'

[ The wallet is found on the path to the Museum of Death. The probability of any animal interfering with the wallet = 3.1416% ]

'As long as the probability isn't 0, I can't stay calm. It has all my life's savings!' Jeremy pestered.

The AI didn't reply for many seconds, processing the words spoken. It kept running the equations against the data, thinking of a way to deny Jeremy, but it couldn't.

Why couldn't it just tell him to pick it up later? Or ask any other person to pick it up and keep it safe?

It was because Aria was an highly personalized AI, it was designed only to help the individual it was bonded with and by the help, it also meant that it will prevent the host from overdrinking, over sex, suicidal attempts and many more.

But apart from that there was no other way Aria could hinder the host, only support. It could tell the directions, make calls (Wish Jeremy knew about that before), make orders and many more things that other AIs could.

Thus when forced to choose host's wallet over the security, Aria allowed the breach.

[ Host is allowed to pick up his wallet… ]

Maybe Jeremy was imagining it but Aria sounded… disappointed?

'Meh, it's just AI who cares?' Jeremy shrugged it off and took note of the time, '11:56, only 4 minutes left.'

He began to walk towards the guards since he had no strength to run, and in 3 minutes, he reached the gate. Luckily Aria was guiding him in the dark or he might have stumbled or something.

Due to strict rules, most people except the guards were asleep, even the teachers and thus Jeremy wasn't too worried about getting caught sneaking around.

All he had to do was sneak around the guards. That's it.

After that, he needed to trick Aria again, but that was for the latter.

'Any minute now,' Jeremy smirked hiding in a corner as he watched the guards.

"Yawns, dude I am sleepy." A male guard yawned and said, checking his watch, "It's already time to shift. Let's just go."

Like a contagious yawn, the rest of the guards also yawned due to the first guard, nodding at his words, "I'm also tired."

"Yea yea, we all are tired. Let's just go, let those newbies take over."

"Indeed, as the responsible seniors we shouldn't take over our junior's responsibilities."

Laughing and joking, the guards left the gate unchecked as they knew soon the other shift will come anyway.

Alas, this was the exact moment Jeremy was looking for. Throwing on a cap he was carrying, Jeremy started to walk behind the guards sneakily, pretending he was one of them, but not letting any of the guards see him.

"Goodnight bro," A guy petted another guard's shoulder and looked at him. And at that moment, Jeremy ducked to the guy's blindspot and dove into the bushes.

"Huh was there something?"

"Nah, bro. Sleep. You need it."

"Heh you need it more," the first guard moved closer to the other guard and smirked, "Your hair looks a little dry."

"Wanna shower with me then? You can shampoo my hair and wash my back." The other guard smirked back, stunning the first guard.

"Damn, you are even more shameless than me. Piss off you gay bastard."

"Hey don't say the G word, it's a taboo."

"True, and loving homies isn't gay." The other guard said.

'Damn these bastards are weird, that's why I don't make friends.' Jeremy, hiding in the bushes, cringed when he heard their conversations.

He would have prepared snarkier responses for them, but right now he was in a good mood.

Good mood because he was out.

Good mood because his death was within his grasp!

'Let's do it!'