Offer

Ensen slowly navigated to the land posting while trying to think of an effective strategy to use to get the price lowered. He needed it as low as he could get it to ensure he had enough money for the initial renovations.

Clicking the 'send offer' button on the posting page, Ensen began explaining how much it would cost to tear down the existing house and how that should be accounted for properly. Although in reality, he would be repairing the house, that would not do much for lowering the price. After explaining several other reasons, he offered a price slightly below the asking price.

After clicking send, Ensen smiled in satisfaction. Even if his offer was denied and he was met with a counter-offer, he still took a big step towards the establishment of his new school.

Once he had finished with the matter of sending an offer, he turned his attention to possible inexpensive solutions for his school. Although he was still set on renovating the already existing building, there was no harm in looking around.

While a few solutions did pique his interest, none of them fell within his view of what he wanted.

Putting his phone down, he slowly walked towards the couch, laying down and staring at the ceiling in deep thought.

'Hey, system. Are there buildings I could buy when I unlock your shop?' Ensen muttered under his breath, simply thinking out loud.

A blue box, dimmer than usual slowly faded into view, trying to not disturb Ensen's thinking process.

[In a way] The system responding mysteriously.

Brought out of his deep thoughts, Ensen looked at the blue box and pondered its meaning, but he wasn't able to come up with anything significant.

'Could you be more specific?' Ensen responded gently, understanding it had no real motivation in telling him the truth.

The system was weirdly talkative today, however. Possibly because of their discovery earlier today or simply because it was bored. Whatever the case was, the words on the existing box were replaced.

[I am unable to directly affect reality itself, such as creating new atoms from nothing. I can, however, manipulate pre-existing atoms and reorganize them into structures. Impressive isn't it?] The system wrote with an attitude mixed with both pride and arrogance.

Not bothering to respond to the system's obvious attempt at flattery, he began formulating a plan. Quickly thinking about the starting mission, the mission details slowly appeared from the void.

[Starter Mission: Prove your Worth]

[You are not allowed full access to the system and catalogs until you meet the most basic requirement, having the property and local rights to a private academy. A location and building for your private academy are essential for starting your new dream. You are required to purchase both land and own a school building on said land. The school may already have been constructed or you can build it yourself.]

[Rewards]

[5 Ep (Education Points)][Access to all categories]

While the mission stated that there must be a school building on the plot of land, it never stated that the school had to function and pass any health codes, which gave Ensen a diabolical plan. He would buy the land with the pre-existing building on that. That would be counted as fulfilling the mission details. After that, he would use the now unlocked product market and see what kind of buildings he could buy.

Although it seemed like he had to buy the materials himself for the system to be able to assemble the building, it was still very cost-effective in the grand scheme of things. It would only cost about half the usual amount to buy the materials and forgo human labor in favor of the system. Depending on how much education points the actual buildings cost of course. He didn't have many points at the moment, so he would need to make sure he gathered as much as he could.

Fortunately, he still had the athletics improvement mission chain, although it severely overestimated Ensen's capabilities. While he wasn't sure how many missions remained in that chain, it was a good source of education points. Plus a random item or skill if completed.

Satisfied with his brainstorming and solution to his biggest issue so far, he turned his attention to some smaller issues compared to the initial setup of the Academy.

First off, he was unsure how he would get his first students and how long it would take. After all, who would pick an unknown startup Academy over a locally famous one? Even if the scenery around the Academy was beautiful, Ensen would need to fight an uphill battle to establish a reputation, both himself and his Academy in the city.

While it was not an easy task, Ensen was confident he could find at least a few students that would be willing to attend his Academy if he gave them discounts or scholarships. But that was in the future.

He also needed to come up with a name. Both SilverLeaf Academy and Littlewood Academy had catchy names that were memorable.

Sensing the early onset of a headache from so much thinking he decided that he had done enough for today. Ensen decided to cook himself a late lunch with his new stock of ingredients. He opened the fridge and randomly pulled out zucchini and a slice of ham. Looking at his ingredients, he also grabbed an apple that was earlier put inside a bamboo apple basket.

Turning on a burner, Ensen grabbed a pan from the drawer next to the stove and carelessly threw the slice of ham inside of the pan, placing it on the burner afterward.

After waiting for a few minutes, he gently flipped the ham and opened a nearby cupboard. Taking an old stained chopping board out, Ensen began carefully slicing the apples into little blocks. After nearly taking off two of his fingers, he successfully finished creating many small square apple pieces.

Next, he moved onto the zucchini. He cut the vegetable in half, saving the rest for later. Taking the half he was using, he cut thin slices. Although it was cylindrical and after much awkward cutting, he managed to make small squares of zucchini.

As the pan began giving off a cloud of black smoke, Ensen knew the ham was finished. He quickly removed the pan from the heat before it set off the fire alarm and grabbed a nearby plate and placed the severely burnt ham that was nearly covered in charcoal onto it. Afterward, he began placing individual pieces of both the apple and zucchini on top, trying to layer them.

Standing back to look at his work, Ensen gave off a proud smile.

This... abomination would not even pass as dog food in normal households, but this was no normal household. Ensen happily grabbed a fork and knife, taking the plate to the dining table. He slowly began enjoying his meal when a sudden message box emerged in front of him.

[Cooking skill has been updated]

Excited and proud at his new accomplishment, he said out loud trying to hold back a yell "Show me my cooking skill!"

[Cooking Skill: i]

'Wait, i? That's lower then what it was before. Hey system, I think you made a mistake!' Ensen yelled within his mind, his hope suddenly shattering into tiny pieces as he saw that his skill in cooking had actually decreased. Even more so when the system did not respond, as if mocking him silently.

Ensen finished his meal in silence, now not in a good mood. He thought he made an incredible, creative dish. Something to be featured on famous culinary tv shows. And while he still wasn't convinced that wasn't the case, his confidence in his cooking his shaken.

After the plate was cleared, Ensen brought his dishes to the sink and thoroughly washed them. Afterward, he made his way to the couch, absent-mindedly staring at his phone waiting for a response from the seller of the plot. But nothing came.

After several hours of staring at his phone, a notification finally arrived. Seemingly coming out of a trance, Ensen navigated to the message as quickly as he could. After forcing himself to slowly read the message, he had a thoughtful look on his face, seemingly contemplating something.

The message was outlining a counter-offer from the seller. The main conditions were it would be sold at the asking price, but the coast of the lake would be included with the property. There were also several smaller clauses, stating that he would be responsible for the cleanup of the grounds. After all, the tall grass and scattered wood would need to be handled correctly.

Not certain if he wanted to accept the deal or propose another counter-offer, he decided to sleep on it and come to a decision in the morning. Getting off the couch, he slowly turned off the tv, his mind still occupied with the big decision ahead of him.

He entered his bedroom and got under the sheets, staring at the ceiling overhead. Unable to come to a decision, he slowly drifted to sleep.