Item: Temporary Income Boost Card
Description: Doubles income earned from sales for seven consecutive days. The effect activates automatically at 12:00 a.m. at the start of a new day and applies only to income gained during that period, not to existing money or savings.
Item: Small Push Cart
Description: A basic pushcart designed for street vending. It includes a built-in cooking area and a small storage cabinet for ingredients, making it suitable for starting a simple food business.
...
Seeing the reward he had received, he decided to use the temporary income boost card. For now, he needed to earn as much money as possible so he could stock more and sell again tomorrow.
At the moment, he focused only on pre orders. His current funds were not enough to cover anything beyond that since the demand was high.
In today's world, this kind of thing had become common. After returning to his room, he was reminded of that reality when he saw just how messy it was.
Without wasting any time, he began cleaning the mess. First, he opened the window and let a ray of sunlight finally brighten the room.
"It's so dirty. I really wonder how you were able to live in a place like this," he cursed inwardly as he started his cleaning spree.
He began by gathering the bottles of alcohol and stuffing them into large trash bags. In the end, he filled more than five big sacks.
Each sack held around eighteen to twenty bottles, and when he counted them all, the total was close to a hundred.
He was deeply shocked by the discovery and wondered how this kid was still alive after all of that.
After finishing he swept the floor, grabbed a towel, and wiped everything down.
He then washed the bedsheets and pillow covers and took out the trash, placing it in the garbage bin across the street.
From a second-floor window, Claire had been casually staring at the sky when her gaze shifted. She saw him carrying out the trash, and the sight left her surprised.
"Is he really changing? There's no way it's this fast," she said, finding it hard to believe.
Yet the facts were right in front of her, leaving her no choice but to accept it. Meanwhile, after taking out the trash and cleaning his room, John was completely exhausted.
Once everything was done, he lay down on the floor with the electric fan aimed at him and fell asleep until he recovered his strength.
When he checked the time, it was already 5:38 in the evening. He was surprised to realize that he had slept for more than six hours.
"There's no way I'm this tired, is it because my body lacked vitamins from too much beer and drugs?" with this he knows that he needs to have some vegetables just to nutrients his self.
Looking at his money, which was now around 270 pesos against a total base cost of 480, he realized he had not just fallen short but taken a heavy loss.
He was missing about 210 pesos, which was a huge amount for him right now. With that shortage, he could not afford more chicken wings or drumettes.
With his remaining budget, even the seasonings and plastic bags would not be enough to cover the orders.
He sighed as he racked his brain for a solution. Then he remembered something that mad his face lit up, then it was followed by a wry smile.
"Hayss, is this really the only choice? This is all the system's fault," he cursed inwardly.
The system had stated that it would double his income, but he had not known that he would need to wait an entire day before receiving the bonus.
That delay was a real headache in his current situation. Now he was short on funds, and although someone came to mind, he found himself hesitating over whether he should go to them or not.
But his current situation pushed him to go. This was his first business attempt, and if he failed to show up later that night, many customers would form a bad impression of him.
First impressions mattered and with his shabby appearance and past behavior, there was no one else that are willing to lend him money other than her.
After a minute of hesitation he decided to go through with it.
"I'll try and borrow some money from Aunt Ruth," he said, waiting to see what would happen. And sure enough, something did.
...
Quest: First Step Forward (To Borrowing :D )
Description: The host lacks resources but refuses to stop moving forward. Borrow the necessary funds to secure tonight's business opportunity.
Objective: Borrow money from Aunt Ruth.
Rewards:
Persuasion +1
...
"That's it? Only Persuasion huh? And what's with the emoji?" he said after seeing the reward and the quest name.
"What a friendly and cheerful system." He took a deep breath to motivate himself.
"Now that the mission has been issued, there's no point in backing out."
As he prepared to leave his room and head downstairs, the system panel hovered into view, appearing beside the active quest panel.
[The creation of Quest had finally reached its limit]
[Cooldown '1 day']
"Oh, there's actually a cooldown?" he said in surprise.
He quickly realized that it made sense. If he could issue quests endlessly, the system would become far too overpowered.
With that thought he went downstairs. In there you can spot the hallway that led directly to Aunt Ruth's room.
After walking a short distance, he saw the door ahead. He stopped a few steps away and slowly raised his hand.
He was ready to knock but hesitation held him back. After a moment of contemplation, he was just about to do it when a girl's voice suddenly came from behind him.
"What are you doing here?"
He turned around to see Claire, with her cold glare seemed to pierce straight through him. But faced with her intense gaze and sharp question, the situation suddenly felt even more troublesome.
"Just a visit," he said with a smile.
"Eww. Take that perverted smile off your face," she snapped.
Hearing her hurtful words his smile broke but he didn't argue back, seeing him like this she could not help but feel perplexed.
She had been expecting him to shout back or push her, but none of that happened. Why was this not happening? Had this guy really changed for the better?
Even so, just looking at his face irritated her deeply. She was about to shoo him away when the door suddenly opened.
"No wonder it's so noisy outside. So it's you two arguing again," a gentle voice said as a middle aged woman stepped out.
She was slightly chubby yet graceful. It was clear that when she was younger, she must have been just as beautiful as her daughter, since a daughter often reflects her mother.
[I do not know if this is statistically correct, but my sister looks exactly like my mother when she was young. When I say exactly, I truly mean a younger version of her. I have seen similar cases among people I know, though not to this extent. I think my family might be a special case.]
"Isn't this John? What a surprise for you to come here. Come, come," she said warmly as she welcomed him in.
Seeing how approachable she was, he became so awkward as the memories resurfaced of how he treated her badly.
This made him lose his confidence and now hesitating about whether to accept the invitation and how to bring up his purpose when Claire quickly spoke up.
"What? Mom, why would you let this absolute psycho inside our place again? Don't you remember how he almost wrecked our kitchen over a silly excuse?" she screamed.