Chapter 1: Friends

"Hey?!"

*Snap, snap!*

"What?!"

Startled with the snapping fingers in front of his face, Michael got irritated with his friend.

"Dude, you almost walked off the sidewalk into the road. What's up with you?"

Looking at the circumstances he noticed where his walking to.

"Sorry, man. I'm just getting spaced out with all the sleepless nights recently."

He touched his forehead and slightly shook his head.

Gabriel, his friend grinned with an "aha!" look on his face and said "You should spank the ham less to get some sleep unless you want to die by spacing out."

"F*ck off! C'mon, I lost the bet. Let's eat some pork barbecue."

(One hour later)

Gabriel while holding a mug of beer in his left hand and a pork slice on his right said "You know, I won and all but I can't believe that you really lost the first place in the exam. Vicky must be very proud of winning from you for the first time in her life, huh?"

He touched his head as his head started to ache from the lack of sleep.

"If only that was the end of it. On the exam day, I fell asleep halfway through it because "someone" wanted me to go to a double date, the night before. I fell asleep halfway through the exam and woke up 5 minutes before it ended that's why I lost. I didn't finish it. Since that day, Vicky has been calling me even in the middle of the night to gloat."

Michael glared at him with a look that's saying "it's all your fault"

"Hey, hey, hey! You can't pin it on me. I'm innocent. And can't you just silence your phone or block her, right?"

(Munch, munch) Michael chewed the pork in his mouth swallowed then finished his beer mug.

"If only I can, even though I blocked her, she called my mom in protest that I blocked her. She always finds a way to gloat."

Gabriel twitching his lips said "Don't worry, it will pass. You can't really blame her for this because all her life she never won against you and you can imagine how happy she is, right?"

Michael looked at the moon thinking while reminiscing the past. He smiled and said "Yeah, she deserves it."

After some beer and some pork barbecue, "H-hey, I can walk by myself."

Michael laughed and said "Sure." while holding Gabriel up.

Michael booked a driving service app to pick Gabriel up and after a few minutes the Ubar came.

He tossed him to the backseat and said to the driver "Take care of him. Here's some extra for the trouble of walking him to the door. Their butler will take care of the rest."

The Ubar driver was stunned because nowadays butlers are very uncommon which means the guy on the back must be very rich and influential much else his friend who through him off like some luggage in the car.

"Yes, sir." The Ubar driver said

Michael nodded in confirmation.

Michael has this habit of walking home while listening to music after drinking in order for him to relax from his intoxication that is why even though he lives around 3 km away he decided to walk home.

On the way home, he saw a stand that is selling mini cakes with chocolate inside. Those steaming mooncakes with that mouth watering sweet smell stimulated his appetite.

He pointed at the chocolate flavored one and said to the old man on the stand "Sir, how much for this?"

The old man, busy cooking the mini cakes without looking, answered "5 zans each"

He smiled and said "Could you wrap-"

Before he could finish what he said his phone rang.

*If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. If you're happy and you know it , And you really want to show it, If yo-*

The old man in the stand looked at him weirdly because of the childish ringtone.

He wryly smiled and walk off a bit and answered the phone "Chase!!! You changed my ringtone didn't you?"

Chase said jokingly "Are you happy? And do you know it? Hahahahaha! Anyway come here, there's a breakthrough in our research."

He was going to curse at him but stopped. He said "There is? What?"

"That is why I told you to come here, dumbass!" The man on the other side said cheekily.

Michael suddenly had the urge to smack him on his cheeky face but said "Okay.'"

Just when he was about to end the call, he heard "Wait, wait-"

"What?"

"Bring some food and drinks, We are hungry as f*ck!! Am I right??" He placed the phone near the others in the room.

"Yeah! We are dying!!" (Hungry friend #1)

"Dan, are you okay?" (Hungry friend #2)

"No, I'm dying. Tell my parents that I love them" (Hungry friend #3 aka Dan)

"No!!! Michael help!!!" (Hungry friend #2)

Chase his phone back to his ear and said "You hear that? We're dying."

"F*ck off! Drama queens!" He said and ended the call.

He laughed a bit and told the old man "Sir, can you wrap 60 of them for me?"

The old man was surprised because he never had one person buy so many and looked at him as if he was curious what he was going to do with them.

Michael obviously understand why the old man was looking at him like that and said "They're for my pigs, called friends" as handed over the cash.

The old man didn't bother to answer, took the billd and made the delicious looking mini cakes.

He looked at the beautiful moon and felt a cold breeze on his neck and wrap himself up with his coat and noticed a highschool girl beside him looking at the mini cakes like kid and said "Sir, give me 4."

The old man said without looking "That'll be 5 zans each and you'd have to wait a while"

The girl was taking 20 zans from her wallet when she heard what the old man said.

She drew a questioning look at the old man, pouted and said "Why? There's so many of there left."

The old man looked at her and pointed at Michael and said "That young man bought 60 of these so wait a while, little girl."

She looked at Michael and blushed. Michael is a tall young man with glossy black hair, deep blue eyes, pale white skin and was wearing a black trench coat, white shirt inside and black pants which made him look like a mysterious prince.

Michael looked at her embarassingly because of the amount and said "Sorry that you have to wait for a while in the cold."

The girl was flustered and said "No, it's fine.You didn't do anything wrong. I can wait."

She looked down blushing as she held her hands together because of the cold. She contemplated why he made her feel flustered because usually she is indifferent to handsome men like Michael but coupled with his good looks and genuine humble demeanor, she couldn't help but have a good impression of him.

Although winter had just ended, it was still pretty cold that's why those piping hot mini cakes was especially alluring to students like them.

While waiting for the mini cakes he noticed that she was holding her freezing hands together. He couldn't help but feel guilty because dhe wouldn't have to wait in the cold if he didn't ask for an unreasonably large amount of mini cakes for his friends.

He took off his gloves and gave it to her.

She was taken off guard and recieved it unconsciously. When she noticed what he gave her, she looked at him dumbfounded.

Michael took the 60 mini cakes, and smiled to her and politely said "Sorry for making you wait in the cold but my friends are hungry and are waiting for me, so you can have those. Thank you for understanding." as he smiled at her and left.

Michael walked off to a convenience store and bought some drinks.

In the distance the girl looked at him with a longing look while holding the gloves to her chest.

The old man wrapped the mini cakes and noticed her longing look.

The old man who looked cold and grumpy as if he haven't smiled in a long time suddenly smiled at the situation in front of him.

When she got to her senses, she took out her cash and gave it to the old man.

The old man took it and said "That look you gave him. Made me remember the first time I fell in love with my late wife."

She bashfully retorted "No no no! You're mistaken! I'm just grateful for the gloves." while waving her hands denying it.

The old man smiled and shooed her away while smiling.

***

Michael took an Ubar to Chase's house because the mini cakes might get cold along the way.

After entering the gate, he rung the doorbell of a regular looking house.

Bzzz!!

Coming from the speaker next to door someone said "Who is it?"

Michael pushed a button and said "Who the f*ck You think it is? there's a camera staring at me with red lights blinking!"

Chase put his finger in his ears and said "Sheesh! Mr. Grumpypants, no one likes a sourpuss like you."

Buzz!!

The door unlocked itself.

Michael entered the normal looking house and came straight to the master bedroom like he's been there multiple times.

It was a wide room with a huge bathroom on the right and a huge closet on the left paralleled to the king sized bed.

He entered the closet room and there was two closet doors on both sides.

One for men's clothes and one for women's clothes but surprisingly he didn't get in on either doors.

He went straight to the wall up front. He put down the food and drinks and wander his hands on the edge of the wall. There was a blindspot part there where it creates a false illusion that the angle on the left side of the wall are connected. He slides the 100 kg wall to the right and a secret room is revealed.

The once silent normal house was suddenly filled with keyboard noises.

Inside there is a stairs to the underground room.

Upon entering the room he saw Dan and Paul typing nonstop on the computer, Chase behind them concentrating on what their typing and Takeshi sleeping on the couch.

Chase noticed him entering the room, smiled, walked up to him and said "I'll take that! Hahahaha!"

Michael was slightly annoyed with the shamelessness of his friend but because he was curious as to why the others looks so serious he asked "What's going on? You were just telling me you're all hungry but why is Dan and Paul so serious decoding something?"

Chase is munching on the mini cakes like a rabbit and said "Oh? Yeah! Yeah! You just came in."

He finished munching on the mini cake on his mouth and drank a mouthful of coke.

"Buhaa!! That hits the spot!" He looked at Michael and gestured him to follow him to his computer.

While preping his computer with firewalls and all kinds of protection he said "So earlier we found out how to put up the final pieces of our research in space tunneling but that's not important right now."

He finished with his prep and entered the dark web.

"Earlier while waiting for you Paul got bored and entered the Dark Web looking for something entertaining like those creepy ass games and puzzles he likes to play but while browsing, he found something. A supposedly leaked information by our favorite his favorite hacker named holloweyes97. You remember him?"

He looked up while thinking and said "Is he the guy whose always sharing those puzzle games and that theory about the ancient gene?"

Chase nodded and showed him an encrypted puzzle box with 5 layers of codes on it. "Yeah and just after I called you he shared this encrypted puzzle box. After opening the first layer there was a note inside."

(Warning: Do not open this puzzle box if you are being watched by the government because this is top secret.)

Chase continued on and said "Naturally, Paul got curious and begun opening the encryptions but after the fifth layer he got stuck. Dan teased him. Paul got angry and challenged him to open it but was also stuck at the 5th layer and now this."

Michael let out a sigh and said "Let me try. I'm getting a bit curious as well."

After 5 minutes of typing he said "It's opened."

Suddenly, Dan and Paul stood up running to his side and stared at his screen.

After a while, the four of them suddenly shouted "What the f*ck?!!"