27 New Opportunity

Michael flipped open his Algebra textbook and began turning to the page for the next section. As he was doing this, he suddenly had a thought. Based on how the System had described his new function, he'd be able to read books he had 'scanned' in his Lucid Space. Why not scan his whole textbook? Why not scan them all? Intrigued by the idea, he started turning each page at the same pace he had when 'scanning' the nutrition books for the system.

Mr. Maddox looked over and noticed Michael's odd behaviour. However, after several such instances, he was no longer shocked. He simply shook his head and continued with his work. After flipping through the entirety of the Algebra book, Michael switched to his Chemistry textbook and repeated the process. Unfortunately, he'd left the supplementary books at home, so he'd have to wait til this evening to 'scan' those.

Shortly after 8am, he finished flipping through the Chemistry textbook, as well. He was now at a bit of a loss. There wasn't anything left for him to tackle for English, and Algebra and Chemistry were already finished. He couldn't work on his Computers project, his proposal for the cafe was done, he didn't have the necessary information to think through the project for his parents, and he was out of material he could scan. The thought of trying to sneak a book from the shelves briefly flashed through his brain, but he quickly shook that off. Running out of ideas, he decided to offer his help to Mr. Maddox.

The librarian seemed a bit stunned at the proposition, but after a few moments of silence, he replied. "How about this: you seem to like coming here early in the morning. Normally we wait a few more weeks, and this is usually only a position open to more senior students, but we'll be hiring a Librarian's assistant as my previous assistant graduated. You'll need to come here before school, during lunch, and after school over the course of the week, but you'll be eligible for a school credit each semester depending on your performance. Furthermore, you'll have certain privileges for accessing the library. This includes an increased limit on the number of books you can sign out, as well as access to the library outside of regular times. Of course, you'll be responsible for the condition and proper sorting of all books, as well as assisting other students and eventually registering students and performing the filing in the system once you get trained up. What do you think?"

Michael's eyes lit up. He couldn't think of a better option for him. If he started reading a lot of books in his lucid space, it might become a bit difficult to account for or explain, but with the ability to take out more books, and access to the library for an extended period of time, not only would he be able to account for this, but he'd also be able to scan the books much more quickly! The thought of an entire library at his fingertips couldn't be more exciting. His firsts were trembling as he quickly agreed to the proposition.

"Yes! Absolutely! Thank you, Mr. Maddox!"

The librarian chuckled. "You really love books, don't you? Well, no time like the present. Shelve the rest of the books on the cart, or as many as you can before class starts. After school, I'll start teaching you how to use the computer system. If you're not sure where the books go, you can ask me. I'll be at the front desk dealing with some paperwork."

Michael nodded and quickly got to work. He was familiar with the shelving system, of course, and after spending a week essentially living in the library, he'd already developed a map in his mind of the library's layout. He noticed that properly filing also seemed to give him some minor unknown intelligence bonuses, as well as upgrades to his Organizing skill. He finished the shelving with several minutes to spare before he'd have to leave for class, but decided to pack up his things and head over regardless. He said goodbye and made his way to class.

---

Michael quickly made his way to Ms. Aldrich's class and went to his usual seat. As he was sitting down, his teacher walked in as well. "Ah, Mr. Prout. Early as usual, I see. How's the assignment coming?"

Michael thought for a moment, and decided to err on the side of humility in his reply. "Good morning, Ms. Aldrich. The assignment's going well, I think."

Ms. Aldrich nodded, a bit doubtful. "That's good. Just remember, I won't go easy on you just because you decided to be ambitious. It's not too late to change your plan. I'll be asking students for their outline this week, so make sure you have yours ready."

Michael wasn't sure how to reply to this, so he decided to ask another question. "I was wondering, Ms. Aldrich, what's the process for when we start working on our drafts? Is there a review process?"

The teacher snorted a bit at this. "No need to get ahead of ourselves, Mr. Prout. Once the outlines have been approved, I'll naturally be taking in the drafts to review."

Michael blanched a bit at this. He hadn't even thought about getting approval for the outline! Now he was already knee-deep in the draft process. He swallowed audibly, a bit dazed, and found his seat. He didn't have a copy of his formal outline on hand, as he'd left that by the wayside once he finished his draft.

By this time, class had started. Jeremy sat down next Michael as usual, with Valeria by his side. Jeremy tried to get Michael's attention, but the latter was still quite distracted as he tried to figure out how to solve the problem he'd placed himself in. Jeremy looked a bit disturbed by this, and frowned.

---

After class, Jeremy pulled Michael aside. "Hey, man, are you okay? You seem a bit distracted. This isn't about what you found out at the cafe, is it?" He was clearly nervous as he asked this.

Michael was surprised as he snapped out of his deep thoughts. "Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just trying to figure something out about the assignment. What do you mean about the cafe?"

Jeremy looked relieved and a bit embarrassed. "Oh, cool. You know, about who the owners are..."

Michael was a bit shocked before he remembered and realized what Jeremy was referring to. "Oh, that," he chuckled. "I think it's pretty cool. Young entrepreneur, it's impressive! Something to look up to. We're all trying to get there, right? Though I'm impressed by your capital. Ben doesn't look that much older than us, but it must have been tough to get a loan to start an internet cafe, right? By the way, here's the proposal for the updates to the cafe's network. Let me know your thoughts."

"Sure, yep. Super tough. Anyway, let's head to Algebra!" Jeremy replied quickly, grabbing the proposal and stuffing it in his bag before heading down the hallway. Michael nodded and followed, since he wanted to hand in the supplementary work before the rest of the class noticed.

---

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Michael and Jeremy walked into class, and Jeremy went to sit in his seat while Michael went up to the desk and placed his supplementary work on the table. When Jeremy teased him about passing 'love notes' as he got back to his desk, Michael blushed furiously and ignored him. He sat down at his desk and focused on the view outside his window. He could see another class currently getting into ranks. His thoughts drifted to his goals for the Regional Games, and he reminded himself not to get distracted from his need to improve himself and perfect his skills. He resolved to scan all of the archery books Jeremy had lent him tonight, as well as look for other options in the library. He'd make finding all of the books on the various aspects of the Regional Games, and ways to improve himself, a priority.

The bell rang not long after Jeremy and Michael sat down, and Ms. Blackice walked it just as it sounded. She stepped up to the desk and nodded subtly at Michael went she noticed the supplementary work on the table. His eyes quickly darted back down to his desk, and he passed the class-required work up when it was called for.

Class flew by pretty quickly, and though the material wasn't challenging, Michael still focused intently on the front of the class. Jeremy snickered once or twice, but stopped at Michael's glare. Once the bell rang again, Michael said farewell to Jeremy and made his way to the Library to start his first official shift.

---

"Ah, Mr. Prout. Just in time. Quickly shelve this set of books from the morning's free periods. If you finish early, come back to the desk. You can either read a book, do homework, or use the secondary computer, which is connected to the school network, as long as you remain at the desk to assist students as needed."

Michael nodded and started to shelve. He finished in about half of the lunch period, scoring a few additional bonuses to his organizing skills and Intelligence, then came back to the desk to eat his lunch and type up the changes to his draft.