Chapter 21: Delinquent Life?

Hiro focused a little, and the system shop window overlapped with the brochure.

The girl thought that Hiro was reading the details carefully, but little did she know that he spent 800 AP to buy the {Professional Soccer Skills} from the system.

Sigh, I'm back to my bottom line of 240 AP again! After Bella's incident, Hiro affirmed his resolution to always maintain a spare 24 hours' worth of synchronization in his system.

After giving it some thought, he decided to cheat in the Transcendent Taoist game as well.

Hmm, it wouldn't be considered cheating if he upgraded the spirit array with the hard-earned gems. As for saving up for new games, he decided to wait for more game vouchers in the future.

With that in mind, Hiro didn't dare to procrastinate anymore—he spent a few minutes with his eyes closed to enter the simulation space and upgrade the spirit array.

While at it, he noticed that his in-game character had barely made any progress toward reaching the peak of the Nascent Soul realm.

Damn, Hiro thought to himself. It would take at least three weeks for a breakthrough at this rate. And this is when I'm cheating, how long will it take for my tier to advance in real life at this rate?!

Hiro felt utterly desperate at this moment.

The girl standing in front of Hiro thought that he was seriously considering the various clubs and benefits, and she didn't dare to disturb him.

While feeling pained about spending the remaining 15 gems to increase the spirit array's proficiency from 22 to 52 spirit units per second, Hiro opened his eyes.

Finding the girl looking at him, Hiro asked with his pain masked behind a forced bright smile, "Where do I register for the Football Club?"

The girl blinked and asked, "Western Football or Soccer Club?"

How damn professional, Hiro thought to himself as he answered with the latter option.

The girl happily gave him clear directions and exchanged her phone number with him.

She said it was just in case Hiro had any other questions, while Hiro did it for the free 5 AP.

Both parties were happy with what they got from the deal, and they separated on a happy note.

Hiro spent the rest of the lunch break walking around the school. He observed the students and their various activities while contemplating how to get in contact with the "bad guys" around the block.

After thinking about it for a while, he figured that it was a pointless, thankless task. seaʀᴄh thё Novёlƒire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

If it was so easy to catch these guys in school, they wouldn't bother to exist, to begin with.

Hiro decided to check his phone and go through the dozens of groups Rosaline added him to recently. From there, many had sent him requests to join other private groups on the messenger app.

Hiro quickly found an invitation to a group called the "Real Manhood Challenge" and another group called the "Virtual Keyboard Warfare."

After he joined the two groups, he heard the loud chime of the bell signaling the end of the lunch break.

Satisfied, Hiro sent a random greeting message to both groups, muted them, and returned to class.

Things progressed smoothly from then on, and before school ended, he received an email about his application to join the Football Club being accepted.

The club days were on Monday and Thursday, two days a week.

The day was Tuesday already, so he had to wait two more days before starting.

Other than that, he also mingled up a little with the people from the two groups.

The Real Manhood Challenge group was filled with invitations to extracurricular activities like street soccer, improvised camping, riding mountain bikes around the suburbs, and other "manly" events.

As for the Virtual Keyboard Warfare, their topics revolved around gaming, movies, and the e-life.

Goes without saying, that their main topic of discussion was the newly developed and hyped S-gear VR helmet.

As Hiro was too lazy to come up with a fitting name for the base technology, he referred to it as the S-gear, referencing the initials of his last name.

The S-gear brand was an exclusive technology to Sciatis Holdings Limited, and while Hiro lacked the factories and manpower to produce them, he only needed to hand the blueprints and those big shots would produce the items with a commission.

Then, they would act as the middleman and sell the product and its source code to the gaming platforms, earning a stable income from both the sales and interest.

On the surface, the five hardware behemoth companies seemed to have earned the most profits. However, no one knew that Hiro had the blueprints and patents for the futuristic VR pod technology and the VR cabinet technology.

He had to admit that watching all those e-soldiers hype up his product and brag about their preorders gave him a satisfying feeling.

Also, it appears that someone with the nickname Great Sage had obtained a spot to become one of the lucky few to test-launch the new VR technology in a few days.

The test launch would take place on a live stream for both the television and internet platforms, satisfying the public hype.

There was also an ongoing bid for the spot of the very first sponsorship for the new technology, and Hiro only learned of it from the chat group on his way home.

…

[Otherworldly Transmigrator]: Are you guys serious? The bidding war is still ongoing?

[Great Sage]: Kid Hiro, do you think I'm bragging?! I'm going to be a beta tester in the future, so of course I know about the internal auction! These capitalists sure know how to make money!

[Otherworldy Transmigrator]: Bet. I believe you, we all believe you…

[Great Sage]: Fuck! You're really being sarcastic with me! Just wait for the day of the launch, you'll see for yourself! The bidding price is already at 27.3 million international credits!

…

Hiro was shocked. If that was true, then he really lost big time!

Damn, system! Your business acumen package didn't mention anything about such tricks! I feel like I wasted my 1,400 points on you!

Hiro heard a soft bell chime in his head, followed by a floating blue screen with lines of text on it.

[You've acquired {Business Acumen III}, which is the basic skills and principles for business. This won't make you an international entrepreneur overnight, Host.]

Only now did Hiro remember that similar to the technique scrolls in Transcendent Taoist, some of the system's skills weren't labeled as "Professional" but were designated by I, II, III, IV, and so on and so forth.

Shaking his head, Hiro returned to the dormitory room, tossed his bag aside, and began to stretch.

A notification from his phone notified him that someone tagged him in a group chat, and after he checked it, he found out that it was a message in the Real Manhood Challenge chat.

He quickly opened the chat to check.

[Mr. Monocle]: @everyone I'm inviting everyone on a night in the A-club for a get-together meeting! If you don't arrive by nine, you're a cuck! And I'll kick you from the chat!

…

Hiro rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming on.

The A-club was a famous place in the circle of young people, though it wasn't limited to students from schools.

To put it bluntly, it was a shady place masquerading as a disco bar. The big brother of the group really knew how to play it big.

In any case, this was a clear sign that some people in the group were involved with the delinquent life, and Hiro was on the right track.

Was this some sort of a stunt to test one's metal? Those weak of hearts wouldn't dare go to such a place!

After making up his mind, Hiro played the Legend of Babylon at leisure and when it was about eight in the evening, he changed into a black leather jacket and deep blue denim pants.

With his crimson hair let loose and a pair of sunglasses pinned on the v-neck of his white shirt, Hiro left the dormitory.

He knew that whether he joined the delinquent circle or not depended on the outcome of this night, and the thought of it had his heart racing and blood boiling in anticipation.