"Fuck!" Trent bolted upright.
"What time is it?" He glanced at the clock.
"Past seven… shit."
"Oh, yeah.." He took the laptop from the table and placed it on his lap,
"let's see how this thing went" he muttered, "must've been a loss" he added
He opened the laptop and what he saw, surprised him. He looked at the chart, surprised by what he saw, "No way..." he muttered, "is this real?"
+5943%. Almost thirty grand in profit. In one hour.
He was beyond stunned. So this voice in his head was real? He wasn't going mad.
"Ave?" He called out, hoping this wasn't a dream.
"How may I help you, Trent?" Ave replied.
Trent exhaled hard, then slapped his cheek — not a dream.
Ave was real. The pain was like pleasure to his soul. He wasn't dreaming.
"No-nothing..." He answered.
He looked at the balance, 30,215 dollars.
He quickly terminated the position he'd taken and took the profits to his trading account.
Over 30,000 dollars and 4,500 more on his bank account. When he'd been sad just this morning about not been given the complete 25,000 dollars from the program.
How funny. He chuckled to himself.
"Next mission initializing..."
The sound got all his senses active. This is it. His saving grace. An absurd gift from the universe that he was going to cherish while he had it.
"Location: Oaks Eatery, 7th Street. Interact with target—Subject 001. Time limit: 1 hour" Ave cut in.
"Time limit? Shit."
He jumped up and got dressed.
He rushed into the room, changed into some nicer clothes, took some cash and rushed out.
"Hello" A neighbor greeted him as he rushed out. He barely turned to the neighbor and greeted them back while rushing out.
The neighbor watched him, confused as he rushed off.
"7th Street... This is 6th Street, so it should be close" he said to himself, "I just don't know how close" he added.
He hailed a taxi, "Oaks Eatery, 7th Street". The driver looked at him surprised, "That'll be 2 dollars" he responded. Nice.
Trent entered the cab and in less than 10 minutes he was parked in from of the small place called Oaks Eatery.
It looked nicer than he'd expected. He paid the driver, thanked him and walked into the place.
As he walked in, the bell attached to the door rang signalling his entrance. Ugh. Some people turned to look at him. So awkward.
He took his seat at a free spot close to the wall and a waiter walked over to him.
"Target spotted" Ave signalled.
Target? This is the target he was supposed to interact with? He looked up and it was a beautiful young lady.
She looked like she was within his age range. She looked fit and her skin was shining. Does the Eatery pay that well?
"H-Hi... I'm Trent" he blurted. Ugh. Guess that starts an interaction.
"Hi?" She replied surprised, "I'm Marie, may I take your order?" She added.
There was no reply from Ave yet, so this hadn't been acknowledged.
He looked through the menu placed on the table, "Ahem", he cleared his throat, positioning himself well.
"I'll have pasta and chicken, with a glass of red wine", he ordered, "that'll be all" he added.
"Alright", Marie responded. She bowed down and walked off.
Fuck... She must think I'm a weirdo.
"Mission completed. Dustin Corp. Buy"
Nice. But this was a bit different. There was no time stated.
Well, the stock market was close around this time and will open by 8am in the morning. He just had to buy by then. He grinned.
A few minutes later, another waiter came to deliver the order and walked off. "She definitely thinks I'm weird" he said to himself in a low tone.
After he'd finished eating, he signalled the waiter attending to another person. He paid for his meal and as he was walking off, he placed 10 dollars under the menu.
He decided to take a walk as he'd memorized the route the cab followed and it wasn't too far from his place. It could be a nice exercise
As Trent walked, a kid shouted, "Ackerman would crush Bond!"
"No way! Bond's a super spy," another fired back.
Trent paused, amused.
One of them noticed him. "Hey, mister! Who's better — Ackerman or Bond?"
The rest rushed over, eyes wide with anticipation.
"Who do you think?" Trent deflected.
"Ackerman!" the first kid beamed.
"Bond, obviously," the other smirked.
"But you like Ackerman too, right?" Trent asked.
"Yeah, but Bond's cooler," the boy shrugged.
"Ackerman's the coolest!" the first kid argued. "He can take down, like, a hundred guys!"
Trent chuckled. "Why not like both? Different heroes for different fights."
They both paused, considering it.
"So… who's your favorite?" one asked.
"You tell me," Trent replied.
They squinted at him. "You've got the hair. You're totally Team Ackerman."
"Well, he doesn't look built like Bond," the other whispered.
Trent burst out laughing. "I'm sure both Ackerman and Bond would like you guys."
He handed them each ten bucks. "Go get something heroic — like candy."
The kids cheered and bolted down the street.
Trent smiled. Ackerman, huh? What was that about?
___________
As he stepped into the building, he saw the neighbor that greeted him when he was rushing off and greeted him this time, introducing himself as the person that just moved in.
"Don't worry about it. I could tell that you were rushing off to somewhere important" the neighbor laughed.
"I'm Theo, I live just besides you. It's nice to meet you"
They both shook hands. His hands were firm, like someone who's had military training.
Trent just smiled and didn't bother to ask. This house was provided by the Program, this wasn't surprising.
Trent got into his house, locked the door and went straight to his laptop.
"Ackerman…?"
He typed the name. A soldier from an anime.
"Oh? This is interesting" he exclaimed as he scrolled through a loaded page with more details.
"No wonder the kid likes him. He's strong, brave and a very good captain who cares about his team members" he muttered to himself.
Hmm. "Trent Ackerman, huh?" He thought loudly.
"Surname 'Ackerman' registered across all protocols. Name updated: Trent Ackerman" Ave said immediately.
"What? Name registered? Can I change that?" Trent asked surprised.
"Negative" Ave replied.
"Hmm... Trent Ackerman. That's kinda cool." he added as he looked at the anime characters picture.
"I should watch this series"
"Ah. Dustin Corp..." He searched the browser
"The atmosphere online is not really favorable for a launch. There's a lot of people going against it, even big sites" he said scrolling through.
"Well... That's none of my concern" he added as he switched to his trading profile.
"Dustin Corp..." He said searching for it.
"Nice. It hasn't launched, but it's still here for me to place an order before it does"
He looked at his balance and used 10,000 dollars out of the balance, leaving 20,215 dollars, to place the order.
"I hope this works well"
"if it gives me even half of the previous one, I'll have more than 200,000 dollars. Hehe" he chuckled to himself.
Suddenly, the phone in the passageway rang. He walked there to connect it. "Hello" he spoke.
"Hello, Twerp" Anton was on the other line.
"How's the real world welcomed ya?" He laughed
"Hmph... Real nice. Getting knocked out and placed in a busy area" Trent replied, giving him an attitude.
"Stop being such a bore... You're at such a nice place I gave you, no?" Anton replied.
"Nice place, my ass"
"Wait... You gave me? I thought they gave me this place" Trent asked confused
"They were going to make you find a place with the change they gave you. Those bastards..." Anton replied
"You should've given me a better place then... It's a good thing they didn't check the envelope" Trent replied.
"I'm not particularly a rich landlord, kid" Anton responded,
"and while they dropped you off at that place, I had someone watch you until you got into a bus and safely got to your destination"
"Why didn't they come up to me?" Trent asked
"Well, they didn't feel like it?" Anton replied,
"So, how's life? How are you faring, Kid?"
"I—" for a second it crossed his mind to tell him about Ave, but it was too unbelievable and he didn't want to go about explaining.
There's no need to tell him since it's not a dangerous thing.
"I'm doing great, I'll survive" He answered.
"Hmm.. good. I hope you do" Anton responded.
"You'll meet the person tomorrow, at an eatery. Oaks Eatery–"
"Oaks Eatery? How weird" Trent cut in
"What? You know the place?" Anton asked
"I was there today, for dinner" Trent replied
"Oh? It'll be easier then. You'll meet them there tomorrow morning by 8"
"They'll help you get used to things. Have a goodnight kid" Anton responded, cutting the call.
"Oaks Eatery, huh? This feels strange" Trent said to himself as he walked into his room to prepare to sleep.