maintenance

"Who is it?" A tired voice came from the other side of the door with the number 1360 on it.

"It's Alex," I replied.

"Who's Ale…" Nill opened the door and stopped mid-sentence, "Oh, it's you."

Too shy to ask me what I wanted, Nill waited for me to start the conversation, "Can I come in?" I asked.

Nill looked back into his room which I couldn't see since it was all black for me and awkwardly said, "Sure, come in, but don't judge."

As soon as he granted me permission to enter the room, everything inside his room became visible to me and I was astonished to see a total mess.

It was like a tornado had been in there and by the looks of it, and it had some old grudges with the room.

"Wow..." I muttered unconsciously.

"It's just that I don't have time and Malia has sworn not to help me with this again. As for the room's cleaning service… well, I don't see a point in spending MPs just to clean up."

"Is it possible to clean your room by spending money?" I asked, thinking of the mess in my own room.

"Sure, you just ask the AI and spend around 10 MPs," Nill answered.

"Just 10?"

"Just 10?" Nill repeated my question sarcastically, "I knew you were from some rich family, for a student, spending 10 MPs on something so…. Unnecessary is…. Unnecessary."

I looked at him for a few seconds with an amazed look, "what makes you think I'm rich?"

"Your room? Your behavior towards money? Your power?"

"Well, you are wrong, I actually come from a very poor family from the upper world." I clarified.

"Are you serious? You aren't from one of the underworld families?" Nill asked like he had just heard the strangest thing.

"Not really. I just know that my father was a fighter before he died."

A strange smile appeared on Nill's face, "you are a legacy too?"

"What's a legacy?"

"You don't know? Didn't they tell you before bringing you here?" Nill seemed surprised again.

"Not really."

Hearing me confirm his questions, he just sighed and explained, "There are three types of people in the underworld: residents, newcomers, and legacies.

Residents are pretty self-explanatory; they are the people born and raised here. 

Newcomers are the people who come here for the first time with no prior history of it, both directly and indirectly.

Then comes the third type, people like us, legacies. Legacies are usually second or third-generation newcomers. We were not born here and until they contact us, we know nothing about the subatomic world and this stuff. But they will explain it to us before bringing us here. That's why I'm surprised that you didn't know about any of this."

"Aha…. So, I'm a legacy…."

"Yes, Malia and I are both legacies too. Malia's father and mine were fighters and both died in a monster tide."

"Sorry about that…"

"it's ok, we didn't really know them so it's not that difficult to accept." Nill said with a smile and tried to change the topic, "Why are you here by the way?"

"Oh, I'm here to give these to you…" I brought out two of the healing potions I had bought and put them on the table right next to us.

"These…"

"Healing potion, as a thank you for helping me before…"

"I know they are healing potions… but their quality…"

"they are rank 2 potions…"

"I know… but still… the color…"

At the mention of the color I became worried, "Are they not good?"

Looking at me like he was looking at an idiot, "Are you kidding me? It's one of the darkest healing potions I have ever seen. It must have been really expensive," Nill explained before returning the potions to me, "I can't accept these… the one I gave you was a low-quality one, these are far more precious."

"it's ok, just accept them, please… I bought them with the money I extorted from someone, so I lose nothing." I put them back on the table.

"You did what?"

"It's a long story, just accept it."

Nill seemed conflicted between accepting and not accepting. On the one hand, he was too shy to do so and on the other, it was too tempting.

Seeing his hesitation, I pushed again, "Just take them."

After seeing me not backing off, Nill finally took one of them, "then I will only accept one of them."

I wanted to push him a bit more but decided against it. It wasn't nice to force someone to do something that they weren't comfortable with.

"Thank you," Nill said.

"since you just accepted one, then accept this too…" I said and before he could say anything I said out loud, "AI, is it possible for me to directly pay for the room maintenance?"

In response, a robotic female voice said, "Certainly, subtracting 10 MPs from your account."

As soon as the 10 MPs were subtracted, the room started shaking.

Nill's face became as white as a sheet of paper.

"What is it?" I asked, feeling like I had just done something wrong.

"Alex, thank you but…. No one pays for room maintenance while in the room." Nill explained shakingly and before I could ask the reason, a few things started flying in the room, "get out." Nill shouted and ran towards the door.

"WH..." before I could do or say anything, Nill grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the door.

When we were finally out of the room, before the door closed completely, I saw a literal hurricane inside the room, throwing things around.

"What was that?" I asked, not wanting to think about what might have happened if we stayed there.

"That was a maintenance hurricane. That's the reason you should never pay for it when you are in the room." He explained, "But it will only take about ten to twenty minutes so no worries, we can get back in then."

"Why don't we hang out in my room?" I suggested and a few seconds later we were inside my room, looking at the mess inside it.

"How about we leave? You pay for maintenance and we wait in Malia's room?" Nill suggested.

"That's a good idea…" I said and made sure I was out of the room before paying for maintenance.

After a few seconds, we were in front of room 1377.

Knock knock

From the other side of the door, an angry voice called out, "Who is it?".

"It's me," Nill answered.

"Not now Nill, I told you, I don't have time for a date now…" Malia shouted.

Nill blushed but didn't leave, as if he was used to this behavior, "I'm with Alex."

As soon as he said that, the door opened and Malia stood there in a white lab coat with a forced smile on her face. She asked, "Why didn't you tell me from the beginning?"

Her polite tone was so forced that even I felt shivers down my spine.

The poor Nill was way over his head.

"Come in."

Upon walking in, I felt like I entered a five-star hotel room. The room was so clean and neatly organized that I couldn't find a single flaw in it.

"How can you two be together?" I asked without thinking.

Nill looked at me with a wronged expression like I had just betrayed him.

"That's the million-dollar question, isn't it?" Malia said with a smile.

I looked at Nill apologetically before taking another look around.

As I was looking at the room, I noticed a glass door leading to an alchemy lab on the left wall. It wasn't as spacious and flashy as the one in my room, but it was well-kept and clean.

"how come you don't have a lab?" I looked at Nill and asked.

"I have a smithy… you just couldn't see it..."

Before Nill could complete his sentence, Malia completed it for him, "All the mess."

"Yes," Nill confirmed looking at his feet.

Malia sighed and changed the topic, "how can I help you, Alex?"

"well…" We started to explain the situation to Malia who got angry as soon as she heard that Nill had accepted the potion, "you took the potion?" she asked angrily.

"He didn't leave me with any choice." Nill looked at me for support.

I stepped in front of him, "he is right, actually, since he didn't accept both bottles, I decided to give one to you."

I took out a bottle and put it in her hand.

Looking at the bottle, Malia seemed more surprised than Nill, "Where did you get this? This is not a simple potion. This can even enhance energy regeneration."

"How..." I started to ask but Nill beat me to it and explained, "She is an alchemy student."

"Oh," I nodded in understanding.

"Alex, where did you get the money for this? Is your family..."

Before she could say anything else, Nill interrupted her, "He is a legacy just like us."

This time Malia became worried, "Then what did you do to get this? Did someone make you do something you didn't want to? Did you…"

Before she could form any wilder ideas, I interrupted her, "I just extorted Lucile a little."

"Lucile?" Malia and Nill shouted at the same time.