Little time for important matters

Michael didn't succeed in persuading his mother that he would be completely healed so soon, but she agreed to wait for two days. If not to take her son to see his father for the last time, then just to monitor her child's health a bit longer.

The news that Michael woke up swiftly spread throughout the school. His first visitors were the ones Michael spent most of his time with – his game development team. When they broke into the room, the cultivator had to out-shout them to make sure they wouldn't hug him.

"I'm so happy you're alive," Anna's eyes glistened with tears.

"Mm, I was really worried too," echoed Sofia.

"And you, man? Did you worry about me?" laughed Michael, to which Dimitri huffed and turned away, muttering, "Pfft, who would worry about a blockhead like you? Only Anna was brave enough to sit here for hours."

In truth, the Greek boy felt grateful to Michael for saving Carina. Like a typical nerd, Dimitri was attracted to the energetic and popular girl, but his feelings weren't significant enough to say it out loud.

Michael frowned, discerning his friend's hushed words. He didn't want Anna to grow too dependent on him, even if he saw how she might do that after all he'd done for her.

He was an adult after all, a 34-year-old, albeit somewhat emotionally undeveloped, man. He only had romantic feelings towards Alice, and other girls and women were just human females to him. Michael completely missed the possibility that she could fall for him.

He decided to break the news then and there, "Guys, listen up. My father's health has gotten worse. In two days, I'll leave EIS and travel back to Russia to see him. I'm sorry, but we need to move on the game. There's just one small thing. That asteroid…"

"You want me to redraw it to look like a comet? Done it," smirked Sofia.

"Wha?"

"Oh, please. It's not like we don't listen to you. You said, everyone had to find something they could relate to. I swear, if you hadn't told me to draw the asteroid beforehand, I would have thought you expected all this to happen."

Michael let out a weak laugh. That was exactly why he asked her to draw it.

Sofia pushed a phone into Michael's hands, but held it up herself after she noticed his twitching fingers. Serene music illuminated the screen as a party of birds came upon the Pig King.

"It's just the animation, the way it looks in the game. A video file," explained Dimitri.

Without speaking, the green pig cast a spell, and a tear-shaped comet tore through the sky. The massive white-hot rock painted the clouds crimson and visibly distorted the reality around it. Radiating power, it wrecked the scenery just as the Pig King teleported away.

"That's great. Looks very professionally made."

"Thank you for the compliment, Mr. lead designer!"

Everyone laughed, proud of their accomplishments. With this, the game was finally complete and ready for upload.

"Before I'm gone, we need to do a few things. First, do we need to establish a company or are you guys fine with simple contracts?"

"What contracts?"

"This game is going to earn us money, I've been telling you that all these weeks. Where money is involved, friendships suffer. We need to draw a line, determine who gets how much."

"I don't need anything!" announced Sofia. The ambassador's daughter was already well-off and wanted her friends to lead better lives, even if just slightly.

"That won't do," Michael shook his head, "Everyone has to get something."

"Then, a hundred dollars. Don't argue with me on this. I want to earn money myself, without asking papa. That's enough for me."

"All right. Dimitri?"

The programmer was deep in thought. Frowning, he reached an uneasy decision and said resolutely, "$100,000. Before you and Anna get your part, I want a hundred thousand!" He clenched his teeth and added, "If we don't earn that much, I'll return it to you, I promise."

Dimitri expected Michael to refuse indignantly, but as always, the Russian surprised him.

"You need money? You should have said so. Half a million is yours, as soon as we earn that much. And buddy, you know you can always tell me about your troubles, right?"

Dimitri blushed and nodded. He wasn't one to share his feelings, and Michael respected that. The Greek teenager vowed to give Michael that respect back a hundredfold.

"Anna?"

"How much should I get?"

"Honestly, your contribution was smaller than the others'. I'd say it would be fair for you to get 15% of our revenue. What do you think?"

"All right."

Anna didn't care much for the money. In her opinion, the days she enjoyed her friends' company were time well spent. She would have taken nothing if it meant they could continue doing something like this.

"Another thing, Dim, when will you be able to prepare an Android version?"

"A month, more or less."

"Woah, didn't expect that. What's the matter?"

"Go to hell! This isn't easy, you know? Android apps are easier to hack, so I need to brush up on my encryption."

"Fine, fine. Hey," Michael lowered his voice, "How goes project Striptease?"

The girls gave the injured young man a weird look.

"It's going nowhere so far. First, I refuse to develop anything under such a name. Second, I'm totally out of my depth here."

"Ha-ha-ha, that's all right. If you weren't, I'd start to ask questions."

"What are you two talking about!?" exploded Sofia, her ears red from embarrassment.

"Just guys' talk, never mind," laughed Michael.

After half an hour more of play fighting and joking around, the trio noticed their injured friend was getting tired. Sofia suggested they left, and everyone headed for the door.

"Anna, stay a moment," the cultivator asked.

Dimitri pulled away Sofia who tried to voice her discontent that Michael shared secrets with anyone but her. When they left, Michael asked Anna, "How are you and Zhao doing?"

"Great! Teacher is strict but fair. He explains everything he does, and we do a lot of real research."

"I can't believe you can get on with him."

"No. He's rough around the edges but very nice once you get to know him. He compares me with his daughter a lot, though," the girl pouted.

These was something tagging on Michael's memory, something about Zhao's daughter, but he couldn't catch it. He wasn't close with Anna in his past life, so it was probably a tidbit Alice told him once. Michael dismissed it without care.

The real reason he asked Anna to stay behind was his worry about the cursed genetic potential stimulation. If his father's cancer turned for the worse, perhaps a global epidemic threatened to erupt all around the world. Every disorder and illness rooted in genetic abnormalities might become more severe. With how many cases there were around the world, it could cut the Earth's population by tens of millions if not more.

Conditions such as heart disease and alcoholism were also considered genetic, but even twenty years in the future, there was no cure from those. There was a multitude of other untreatable diseases in 2008 such as hemophilia, cystic fibrosis or Huntington's disease. However, Michael had no idea how those were treated. On the other hand, cure for cancer was discussed hundreds of times, with chemical formulas available on the Internet.

Michael knew the way the cure had been developed very well, it was a thorny path that took the humanity tens of years to traverse. Perhaps he could shorten it? He moved his arm to grab a pen on the nightstand near the bed but couldn't yet control his body.

"Anna, can you write something down as I dictate? A formula."

The girl hurried to complete her friend's request. As Michael spoke, her eyebrows went higher and higher, if she was a cartoon character, they would have met her hairline.

"What? How?"

"Listen to me. It's only an idea, but I need you to develop a chemical with this. Bring it to Zhao, tell him whatever you want, but try to get him to help. Can you do it for me?"

"I… How did you come up with this? It's too complicated for me to even understand!"

Michael winced, "That doesn't matter. I came across it by accident. Do you think you can get Zhao to help?"

"Yes, of course. He can probably do it by the time you return."

"Great. You take care of yourself. I noticed you've been tired lately."

Anna chewed her lips and didn't say anything. After that comment, Michael fell asleep. He would need to draft those contracts the next day, but for now, LZD1 was many times stronger than before and it drained him completely.

.