44 Volunteering 1

I relaxed while drinking tea in the porch of Luke's villa as the robots did most of the work.

Luke busily commanded the robots on where to water or plant the seeds next on his tablet while sitting down on a nice comfy armchair beside me.

This was actually not bad.

I thought we would actually have to water and plant the flowers ourselves while I forgot that almost everything was automated here.

When I finished drinking my tea and my strawberry shortcake that I ordered from Luke's kitchen, I felt absolutely bored.

How many more hours did I have to burn through now at Luke's villa? I looked at the timer in my marble to see that there was about 28 more hours left.

Oh great! Luke's villa was located inside the vacation area in the first district. Each mansion had numerous gardens and courts filled with decorations inside the gated community.

I don't know how working on his family's garden helps make the 'first district a better place', but since I was here in the vacation area anyways, I wanted to explore what was outside this mansion.

"Can I go explore what's outside the mansion?" I asked Luke for the nth time.

"I told you that you can explore what is inside the mansion until I'm finished with the garden today but not outside," Luke responded for the nth time again.

However, there was not much to explore in Luke's bare villa. How could there be no forms of entertainment here?

When I went inside each room, there was no signs of TV or gaming computers. The villa consisted of exercise rooms, swimming pools, fancy bedrooms, a ballroom and luxurious washrooms from what I discovered so far.

Oh and a fancy living room to welcome guests! So there was absolutely nothing to do here!

"Come on Luke! There is absolutely nothing inside your mansion as usual." I complained to Luke while pulling on the sleeves of his new customized shirt.

I wouldn't be complaining this much if I got to pack my supply of light novels and manga in the dorm that I hid from Luke. But before I could even think of grabbing any of them, I found myself waking up in one of the rooms of Luke's villa.

I kept on tugging on Luke's shirt as he started to frown as his new shirt was starting to become stretched where the sleeves were.

"Rika, stop stretching my shirt. It's a new one after you stretched all my other shirts," Luke looked sullen as he briefly placed the tablet on the table.

"Then can I go outside? I promise I'll be back before sunset?" I pleaded.

"Just wait for two more hours. I'll go outside with you after I finish coding the instructions on how the garden should be decorated." Luke replied sadly while looking at his sleeves.

I guess I'll stop messing with his new shirt now. I ordered more strawberry shortcake from the kitchen to help me wait two more hours.

* * *

"Rika, walk properly." Luke said in disapproval.

I started walking like I normally did in school to prevent Luke from changing his mind. "Let's go outside the gated community first!" I announced with excitement.

We were almost out of the gated community when we bumped into Shelly and Alex. "Shelly?" I shouted in confusion when I thought she would be working at one of Alex's libraries.

"Rika!" Shelly warmly smiled back.

"Why? How are you here?" I asked with a big smile.

"Alex's new library is inside one of his vacation villas." Shelly responded.

What a coincidence! Was this whole volunteering thing a scam?

"Oh. Where are you going now?" I asked.

"Alex and I are going to the newly built mall inside the gated community. It's actually really close from here." Shelly answered.

"Well we're going outside the gated community!"

Both Alex and Shelly looked surprised while Luke still looked dispirited from his new shirt being stretched.

"I've been here many times before but I've never been outside the community" Shelly's eyes widened from great curiosity.

"Come join us then!" I welcomed Shelly.

"Hey! Don't drag Michelle into another mess Rika." Alex disapproved.

"You don't have to come then!" I yelled back.

I grabbed Shelly's hand as we both walked towards the large gate. Once we were outside the community, we found ourselves on the edge of the cliff overshadowing a tourist area that was inside a beautiful beach.

It was going to take forever to walk down, so I jumped as Shelly screamed from the surprise.

"Rika!" Shelly complained when we landed safely.

"Sorry, I'll try telling you beforehand when I jump down," I replied back while I tried to look pitiful.

Shelly quickly forgave me as she looked around our surroundings in wonder. Luke and Alex were still on the edge of the cliff deliberating on whether to jump down or not to follow us.

Many cute shops surrounded us, the one right behind us sold grilled octopus and yakisoba. "Let's get one of those!" I pointed to the shop.

Shelly and I ended up buying two sticks of twisted potato chips, five grilled octopus sticks and a cup of shaved ice.

We sat down on those typical beach chairs as we opened our mouths to eat those savoury goods. Just when I was about to bite down, Luke took my grilled octopus stick away from me and I ended up biting my own lip.

"Hey!" I yelled angrily.

"How do you know whether these are safe or not?" Luke shouted back.

"I will when I eat one of them." I quickly grabbed a bite of the potato chip in my other hand.

Sooo good. I smiled with pleasure as Shelly also grinned from eating a piece of the grilled octopus.

Luke resigned after seeing the food was safe. While Alex and Luke was watching us smile from eating the delicious food, Shelly and I ended up finishing everything.