"Dear, let's go. We will eat somewhere else–" her husband said in a dulled tone.
"Manager Kendrick, I'm almost finished; you can give them my table," Augustus eased with a calm tone. And after hearing his words, the couple's dull faces lit up.
He gave a small nod to them and glanced at the manager, who replied, "…If you say so, Sir," backing away.
"Also, I would like to pay my bill. Please show me the counter and let them take their seats," he requested. The manager nodded and brought him to a billing counter which was not easily visible to the guests.
"Thank you, sir. We hope you had a great experience. Your total bill is $8,700," the woman said, slipping a leather folder across the counter.
"hmmm…" Augustus hummed, looking at the bill. Then, with a thoughtful look, System, can I pay their bill too? he mused.
[The system's rewards are exclusive to host]
Wow, it replied… then what if the bill is under my name?
[…Then it is possible]
"Hehe, nice," he muttered under his breath.
"Can you please make this $20,000? I would like to pay for that couple over there too," he exclaimed. He was feeling happy and excited after a long time, so he wanted to help others too.
The cashier furrowed her brows with a confused look. "Here, sir… the new total is $20,000."
Ding!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Task #08:
[✓] – Dine at a 3-star Michelin restaurant and eat to your heart's content.
Status: Task Completed Successfully
The taste of luxury after struggle? It's more than food—it's proof.
| Reward: +$100,000 + Bill amount + Satisfaction.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Beep
6:12 PM
| Commonwealth Bank.
| Your account with xxxx0067 has been credited with $100,000
| New Balance: $313,373.87
As Augustus was about to pay the bill, a brilliant thought surfaced in his mind. Wait, what if I increase the bill to $100,000 and pocket all the money for myself?
[The bill money can only be used to pay the bill.]
"I guess not," he sighed, and paid $20,000 in full, then as he left the counter "Listen, young man," a voice called as he glanced and saw the couple approaching him.
"We are grateful for the table. Thank you, young man."
"Haha, no problem, eat to your heart's content," he said with a thumbs up.
"Such a kind kid. May God bless you."
Augustus nodded with a bright smile and began walking Should I inform them that their bill has been paid so that they won't hold back? he thought and approached a waiter passing by.
"Excuse me, could you tell them that their bill has been paid?" he said and pointed at the table. The waiter nodded, and Augustus finally stepped out of the restaurant.
"Haah…" he sighed with quiet contentment. "After eating these many delicacies and living the rich kind of life, I just want to laze around and chill," he muttered happily to himself with a full stomach.
However, the system had something else in mind…
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Task #09:
[×] – Find a job. Rest is earned, not endless. Stand up, suit up, and step into purpose.
| Penalty: Stop, and so does everything else. Rewards locked for 7 days.
Laziness whispers comfort, but growth demands movement. Tomorrow won't slow down—neither should you.
| Reward: +$500,000 + Black card
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"What? System, won't you let me chill even for a day?" he complained and sighed inwardly after looking at all the motivating lines. Fine, can't argue with the pep talk, I guess.
"But where would I get a job now at this time?" he mumbled with a confused look, then… perked up and pulled out his phone to call his friend Keith.
"Hey Keith, how's it going?" he began in a happy tone. "Listen man, that job you were talking about, can I get it?" he asked.
"I'm fine… But weren't you the one who said the pay was low and you didn't have a proper laptop to handle the workload?" Keith on the call questioned with skepticism.
Augustus was a gaming major, and the job they were talking about was to work in a small startup to produce small games that required a high-end computer.
The startup didn't have computers or salary to pay its employees; all they offered was experience with little money now and then, so Augustus had ignored it.
"Why do you want to join now?" Keith asked, then his tone turned serious.
"Is everything fine? You're already working 16 hours man. If you take on other jobs, I'm complaining about this to Aunty Serene," he said in a strict tone trying to scare him with his mother's name.
"Calm down, Keith. It's not that. I was fired recently from my job, so I'm looking for other jobs. Can I join now?"
"Hmm… If you're fired, then yeah. But you already know we are just a small startup, right? So maybe find something that pays well," he hinted at low pay.
"That's fine, I just need to get a job," Augustus said casually.
"Wow dude, you insane or what? You seem chill after losing that job and now you want a job that doesn't pay? Whatever, come meet me at the office. We'll talk there," he said in a rushed tone.
"Alright," Augustus replied shortly and cut the call, then booked a taxi to Crunch Studios, the startup they were talking about.
He paid the taxi driver double his fare, feeling overjoyed that everything was coming in place.
He entered the room of a second-floor building. The room being small made everyone easily notice his shining and sparkling appearance after entering.
"Augustus, come here," a familiar voice called out from the corner. He followed the voice and smiled at Keith.
"Whoa man, you look nice," Keith complimented after scanning him up and down. They both hugged each other like real friends.
The office had many youngsters around Augustus's age working on their laptops, some eyeing him curiously for his looks.
"Boss, can you come here? He's the one who's looking for a job," Keith called out, and a person sitting just behind the table walked towards them.
"Augustus, right? I'm David," a middle-aged man introduced. "Your friend here talked a lot about you, saying you were one of the toppers in the class. You must be pretty smart."
"Haha, not really, sir. I just studied hard," Augustus said, scratching his head.
"It's been a month since you graduated with Keith, right? I'll give you a problem. If you solve it, then you're hired, or if you've forgotten everything, we can skip this," David asked, placing a laptop on the table.
Augustus narrowed his eyes. "I'll at least try," he said and pulled a chair to sit down, focusing his eyes on the code, while the boss explained from behind, "This is the problem."
Augustus silently listened to the problem while understanding the code lines.
Hmmm… if I do this like that. No, hmmm maybe this way… yeah, let's try, he contemplated deeply, fully engrossed, while clicking on the keyboard with a serious expression, unaware that everyone in the room was looking at him with curious eyes.
Click. Click.
And after a few minutes, he ran the code for the fourth time. All the errors that had been showing red were fixed, and the code executed without any problems.
A small smile appeared on his face. "There, done," he mumbled and turned around only to find everyone looking at him with stunned expressions.
"Haha, what did I say, boss? Now everyone give me my $100 bet money" he yelled in the small office with excitement.
Augustus blinked. Bet? with a surprised expression, then his attention shifted as a new task panel hovered before his eyes.
Ding!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Main Task: Save Crunch Studio – Not compulsory]
– Mini Goals:
▸ Gain Majority Control – 70% shares
▸ Secure a Better Work Environment
▸ Invest in Equipment & Staff
Penalty: …