Fancy meeting you here

Ender got off the bus and started walking toward his new apartment. It was around five minutes away from the bus stop, which was the same one close to Jackie's bar.

He turned his phone on, which had a pending message from Sakura.

[I knew you forgot about it. You're lucky that he is not that strict, don't be so distracted the next time.]

Ender smiled while thanking Sakura's quick thinking. Casper was still sleeping in the backpack while making some purring noises.

'Well, since the apartment is on the outskirts, how many times do you think I'm going to get randomly assaulted.'

["Until they know about your strength, I'd say every day. Are the outskirts that bad though? Feeling calmer here than in midst of the city."]

'They are not bad, just dangerous. Everyone living here is striving for a better life, there won't be too many nuisances... I hope.' Ender looked towards the vast sea and feeling so close to it made his heart calm for a bit.

Now that he thought about it, he never really went to the beach... or doesn't remember going. He could arrange something with Alex to visit it.

He chuckled while thinking about what he thought. He would have never guessed that once in his single life these thoughts would pop out.

Looking towards his phone's map, he noticed the apartment was close to him now.

After some more walking, he arrived in front of it.

It was a building, not tall at all, with only four floors including the bottom one. The painting was somewhat worn off and he could see some balconies with open windows, indicating all the other people living there.

It was placed in a row of many other flats, marking the little neighborhood.

He took a deep breath and got inside.

Nothing shiny greeted him, just some walls that needed some painting done.

He looked around, trying to find the person Sakura has spoken to, but there was no one. He started walking forward and quickly found a door that was labeled as "Office".

He knocked twice, and the door automatically opened.

There, he found a young-looking man playing some games on a computer. He looked immersed in the game, so much he didn't even notice all of his pink curly hair in the way of his eyes. But, Ender wanted to get his key as soon as possible and tried to talk to him.

"Wait." But he quickly shut him off.

'Awkward...'

Suddenly, he smashed his fist against the table while shouting,

"Fucking smurfers dude! Sick of this fucking game...!"

Ender stood there with his eyes wide open and not knowing what to say.

The boy closed the game forcefully and turned the PC off while sighing, "Sorry about that, was ending a ranked match." He then got up and quickly walked toward Ender.

"Sorry about that... I'm Rook... well not exactly my name but a nickname that I liked." He stretched his hand for a handshake, which Ender quickly reciprocated.

"You must be Ender. Sakura talked about you and emphasized when she said you wouldn't cause trouble... Hope you stay true to her word." Rook said while squinting his eyes.

Ender just stared at him, nonchalantly. Rook sighed and said, "Not the talkative type, just like her. Anyways, here's your key."

Rook took a small chip from his bracelet and handed it over to Ender, who quickly introduced it to his own.

"Your room is on the third floor, number 302. Some people are living here as well, so bear some noise as well."

"No problem with that, anyone else living on the third floor?" Ender quickly asked.

"Just a small family of two, don't worry they aren't that much of a problem, the father is mostly outside anyways. By the way, even if I have ten months of rent from you, prices may go up, so be prepared for some slight rises. I need to eat as well you know... and keep this place up."

Ender nodded and exited the office, though before he went out he asked, "Is the apartment already furnished?"

"Sorry city boy, that's for you to solve. The only installed furniture is those involving water, and the kitchen counters. Why do you think rent is so damn cheap..." Rook chuckled.

'If 750 is cheap for you...'

He walked outside the office and took the stairs to the third floor. While climbing, he saw that every floor has a special zone for deliveries, so he could bring some new furniture to his apartment without climbing down the stairs.

He quickly arrived at his apartment and got inside, when he realized it was similar to his old house, but mirrored. The living room, bedroom, and kitchen were within the same walls but on the opposite side.

If you turned to the right, you would see the kitchen area because of the distinctive floor and the sink. A little bit further there was a spot for the living room. To the left though, there was a door that lead to the bathroom and a small enclosure for a bed and nothing more.

He started taking notes and measuring the place while Casper walked around the apartment. There were already installing a ceiling fan, a sink, and all the bathroom's necessities. For now, he only needed a bed and the kitchen.

'Let's see, I want a good mattress, sheets, spatial closet so that would be around 180 Earthies... then I need an oven, microwave, fridge, the trash can... would be like 1,500 Earthies... and a good TV, of course, 300 Earthies.'

Ender started taking notes about what to buy plus the model he wanted, and once he had them all prepared, he made the transaction, leaving him with 9,000 Earthies. He paid for the fastest delivery as he wanted them as soon as possible, paying an extra 50 Earthies.

The furniture would arrive in three hours.

In the meantime, he checked the bathroom, which was really spacious. He had a sink, a toilet, and a bathtub instead of a shower.

The conditions were... improvable, but he was happy nonetheless. There was also a mirror, where he noticed that his hair was getting too long.

He decided to tie the back in a ponytail to keep it somewhat organized while leaving two strands of red hair dangling, one to each side, 'I like this style... looks great.'

["Because you look like me."]

"Damn, turn that ego down don't you think?" Ender laughed while getting out of the bathroom.

He also checked the balcony and realized he had perfect views of the sea, 'I don't know if she selected the apartment herself but I will thank her once again.'

["What are you going to do now? I want to see the real outskirts so if you could please take a walk around."]

'I'm finishing the daily tasks first.'

Since Ender got the System, the daily tasks changed a little bit. For example, he no longer had to run for X minutes, now he needed to climb a certain height two or three times.

Another change is that instead of lifting something and then running, he had to run certain meters with a certain weight applied to him in very little time.

But these were only two tasks, where is the third one? Well, the new task he had was to simply gain knowledge for one hour. He would get advanced tech or science books and had to spend some time reading them and understanding their content.

Of course, Ender didn't mind this one as he was doing it even before the task appeared. The only difference was that this task had a locked symbol, and when he asked about it.

[This daily task won't disappear. Instead, you will be carrying it throughout your journey.]

All of these are for the same rewards.

He jumped off his balcony, landed safely, and dashed towards the forest outside the outskirts. This would be his new training site from this day.

He spent one hour trying to find a good spot not too far from his apartment, and another hour finishing his current tasks. The hardest by far was the speed and strength, as finding a notable heavy object was really hard.

Then, he spent half an hour checking the other places from the outskirts.

'Sheesh, the condition was as bad as they said...'

When he arrived, he couldn't help but feel sorry for these people. They were living in improvised housing made out of scrap or wood. These places were far from the city, so far they didn't even have a proper road.

The smell overall was disgusting, it looked like a dumpster made to throw useless people out.

He started checking around the place and noticed that most of the people living here were drowning in green-tinted syringes, and that's when realization quickly kicked in.

["Poor guys wanted to feel strong. That's what you get for being lazy."] Ren casually said while yawning.

Ender felt that his comment was a bit harsh but it was true. Those syringes were Powerfuels or other variants, and these people, the result of overdoing them.

See, when people use Powerfuels they feel a sudden rush of energy comparable to extreme pleasure, and so people use them as their only form of entertainment. Sadly, most of them become dependent as if it was a drug.

Checking some of the housings, he saw someone mumbling incoherent things. It was a young boy, maybe his age, or a little bit older.

The moment he saw Ender, he instantly jumped toward him while activating a Plant Element.

Ender quickly dodged and knocked out the boy with a punch.

"I wasn't expecting that..." Ender mumbled. He entered the boy's place and found that the ground was covered in Powerfuels. There wasn't a single place he could step without breaking a syringe. He looked back at the kid who was slowly getting up with the help of some vines.

Ender quickly got him inside, activated the Claws, and slashed and him twice. The boy ended up in the same state as Derreck in less than a second.

["Huh? Thought you didn't want to use those in public."] Ren wondered.

Ender instead, took a broken glass and cut the guy's hand, letting black blood out. He then touched it and...

[Requierements have been met, but Element is completely obsolete, extraction is impossible to achieve.]

Ender clicked his tongue, quickly left the place, then dashed toward the forest. He stared at his bloody hand and went towards a river to clean it off. All of that in less than ten seconds.

["Hey what was that about? Did you seriously want to extract his element out of nowhere?"] Ren asked.

"Firstly, the boy would cause more harm than good with that state of mind. Secondly, I wanted to check a hypothesis I've read about Powerfuels.

It is said that if one consumed too many of an Element booster, such as Powerfuel, in a really short time, it would become obsolete or so damaged he could no longer use it properly without a heavy backlash... Seems like it was correct."

Ender looked back toward where he came from and sighed.

He returned to his apartment and summoned a Psychology book and started reading after sitting on the ground, trying to get that boy out of his head.

He noticed that due to his Thinking Speed and Intelligence stat he could read an entire page of extremely technical descriptions in less than half a minute while understanding everything. This way he could finish any average-length book in less than two hours.

Before he realized it, one hour had gone by and all of his furniture had arrived by now. He closed the book and went to retrieve all of his things.

He exited his apartment and went towards the delivery zone where he inputted the serial code for the delivery and received the spatial bracelet with all of his things. Just as he wanted to go back to prepare everything, a door to his left opened.

"Hmm? Are you the new one? I heard somebody was coming bu-" It was a tired, feminine voice, that quickly shut once he got out of her apartment.

Ender looked toward there and his eyes widened as they both stared at each other.

"Gotta be kidding me..." He muttered.

The girl was the same height as Ender and had messy, blue electric hair, as well as baggy eyes as if she has just woken up. Sporting an oversized shirt that ended at her knees and some slippers, she had her mouth slightly open as he stared at the boy before slowly saying,

"Ender?"

He sighed and said, "Hey Loren... fancy meeting you here, don't you think?"