19 I need more money...

"Welcome home!" Michael heard as he walked in the door. He waved weakly and walked down the stairs to the slightly stunned looks of his parents and siblings. They looked at one another as they set the table or readied food. "Is Michael okay?" Anne asked, a little bit of concern coming through in her voice. "He's fine, probably. High school is probably just a lot more work than he's used to," Rowena said reassuringly while she shared a bit of a wry grin with her husband. Since they knew what sort of goals he had set for himself, this was probably not the last time he'd be coming home exhausted.

Michael quickly toweled himself off and changed his clothes before throwing them and all of the other clothes in his bag in the hamper, then bringing that up the stairs and into the garage. After starting the wash he made his way inside and finally greeted his parents and sisters, before sitting down for dinner. The daily news-sharing was pretty light today, as his sisters had spent the day playing again and parents had just started to plan out the work for their latest project.

Flavius and Rowena ran a technical and management consulting company, working with businesses to improve their internal systems and processes in a number of different ways. This included everything from helping companies set up sales and service systems, to figuring out their business analytics, to training up their employees on better business practices or new applications. They had initially been working in a smaller city and seeing quite some success before moving their main office to the capital so they could target larger companies. Now they were more of a small fish in a big pond, but there was a lot more room to grow. So far, it had been working quite well.

Since Michael wasn't inclined to share too much of the ups and downs of the day, he glossed over it and directed the conversation to the project he'd soon be working on with his parents. They started to explain the client's needs. Essentially they needed to integrate a few different systems that they were currently using, as well as a couple that his parents were going to be introducing. They also needed to make the data that would be flowing through those systems follow certain rules so that it ended up in the right location according to the new business processes his parents would be recommending.

Michael listened intently and started to sketch out what that would likely need in his head. A rough diagram of the various systems was drawn out in his mind, like an imaginary whiteboard. Since he didn't have all of the details yet - after all, they hadn't even been worked out - he couldn't accurately predict how long the whole project would take, but he was sure that it would be more than 100 hours worth of work overall. That meant that his overall pay would probably be upwards of $2500. While that was a pretty impressive amount, especially for someone his age, when he thought about the cost of the materials he picked up tonight alone, not even considering what the new diet he would soon be undertaking as well as the costs for renovating the bathroom, he knew that the money would not last very long. Furthermore, he was determined not to put the costs onto his parents. After all, it was his decision (well, with some prodding from the system) to set these goals and follow them.

At the end of the day, he needed to come up with some more ways to make money.

>

"Thank you System - if I had the time to read them right now, I probably would. Is there a better way for us to organize that list, by the way?" Michael inquired internally.

>

"Let's do that," Michael decided.

>

Since he wouldn't be checking it any time soon, Michael wasn't terribly concerned. In fact, he had received a number of notifications over the course of the evening/afternoon since the events on the track that he'd disregarded - mostly minor physique or intelligence improvements, the completion of the day's daily routine, and some upgrades to a couple of skills that he was guessing were related to programming or computers considering when they arrived. "Apparently I'll need to do a bit more reading on the fundamentals of programming and computer science in order to unlock those skills," he mused.

They decided on the preliminary plans for the project, and Michael agreed to start working on it this weekend after he finished his work at the cafe. Flavius then informed him that the construction team agreed to start work on the bathroom the following week. He'd given them a rough outline of the plans, including Michael's changes, and their estimate came out to about $3000 higher than the budget that had been. Michael winced at this, since even the entire estimated profit from the new project and his cafe work didn't amount to that much. However, his parents made an exciting offer at this point: they'd discussed it and they could carry the cost for a time, but Michael would only get 40% of his normal rate until the amount was paid off, regardless of how many projects that took. Michael quickly agreed, since the prospect of having his own dedicated bathroom was very attractive.

Their conversation concluded, and dinner wrapping up, Michael asked his sister Anne to trade washing up for two separate instances of him taking over her dinner duties - he just had too much work to do that night. She rolled her eyes but agreed, since it was a pretty good deal. Thanking her profusely, Michael excused himself and ran back downstairs. He quickly returned with the grocery bag and pulled out the slow-acting supplement he'd picked up from the grocery store. He poured a glass of water and stirred in a scoop of powder according to the instructions, stirring it with a spoon. After what felt like several minutes, he pulled out the spoon and took a tentative sip, before grimacing at the chalky inconsistent texture and artificially sweet taste. He resolved to pick up a shaker bottle to simplify and improve the process for the future, then made his way upstairs.

By this point in the evening, he was quite stiff and achy. He'd been covering it pretty well while he was at dinner so as not to worry his parents, but it was almost unbearable by the time he made it into the bathroom and turned on the faucet. A soft groan left his lips as he bent down to take off his clothes and pour the appropriate amount of the small crystals into the stream of water. He set the glass of recovery drink down within arms reach of the tub and then slowly lowered himself into the piping hot water.

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"Ouch, ouch, ouch!" he winced as the hot water enveloped his limbs. Since he wasn't that tall, and still only 14 years old, the tub fit his whole body into when submerged if he stretched out and lay flat. The water had a faint smell of lavender, ginger, and mint, and gave him a refreshing tingly feeling despite the dull ache spreading throughout his entire body. Begrudgingly, he reached one arm out of the bath and grabbed the glass, being sure to hold it more tightly so it didn't slip through his wet fingers. He grimaced and choked the chalky mixture down as quickly as he could, both so that he could get the terrible experience over with and also return his arm to the water. The combination of the cold liquid permeating his insides and the hot tingly water enveloping him outside was quite odd and a little uncomfortable. He then asked the System to set a time for 20 minutes as per the instructions on the bag.

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"Oh? And what do I need to do to unlock that drink? I thought the bathroom renovations were only getting me the bath solution."

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"...I really need more money," Michael sighed as he sank lower into the tub.