I waited until night. I turned invisible and took my phone with me. Using a mapping app and the tracker on Jacob, I checked the direction from several locations. I then made the lines extend until they met. While not perfect, they all crossed over the same house about twenty miles away. I returned to bed and considered my options.

  My first instinct was to run all the way there to investigate. The problem was that twenty miles was a long distance—even after leveling up. Without another skill, there was no way to get there and back without raising suspicion by my absence. That meant I needed to spend yet more experience on this lead.

  Or I could do something else. Like hiring a private investigator to track down everything for me. That was a better plan. I could spend my time focusing on more important things. I had money now even if I wasn’t used to it. And one of the perks of having money was being able to spend it making things easier. There was no reason for me to do everything myself—though I wanted to.

  The next day, I researched private investigators local to my area—or at least those who could visit. There weren’t many options—just one, really. I emailed the man with the rundown on what I was looking for—evidence on whether Jacob was the arsonist—and what information I had.

  It didn’t take long to receive a reply and negotiate rates. I let Gloria know so she could pay him. With that, I wiped my hands of the affair. For now. I still wanted my revenge, but it would have to wait until I had evidence.

  Two months later, George invited Dad and me to their house for a barbecue. Dad accepted and dragged me there. I would much rather have stayed home to work on quests or anything else than deal with people. Still, I went anyway.

  When we arrived, there were more people there than I had expected. Instead of just Dad and me, it appeared that they had invited the other neighbors. I’d met them once upon a time, but kept to myself since, so I didn’t really know anyone there.

  “Welcome!” Mable said as soon as she saw us. “George is in the back manning the grill. The kids are running around somewhere. I’m sure they’ll find you!”

  “Thanks,” Dad said.

  I took the opportunity Dad opened up by answering Mable to scram. I didn’t really want to hang with anyone, but children were easier to deal with—generally—than adults. Adults always wanted something and were never straightforward. Kids—on the other hand—wore their intentions on their sleeves. That I could handle.

  I wandered towards the backyard. Instead of going through the house like Dad, I hopped the fence that separated the two. Sure, there was a gate I could have opened, but that wasn’t any fun!

  The backyard was really nice. There was a carpet of emerald grass covering everything. Closer to the house was a patio made of cream-colored blocks—that’s where the grill, and George, were.

  The children—Henry and Mila—were playing some sort of lawn game with some other kids I didn’t recognize. I walked to them and watched what they were doing so that I could join. As soon as I arrived, whatever they had been playing devolved into screaming and running around. With a mental shrug, I joined the chase.

  I felt the thrill of running with others wash over me. I had to limit my speed or else I might have sped past all of them. That wouldn’t have been too much fun. I went just fast enough to give them a chance—like parent would for their own child. I was old enough to know how to share. Or I hoped I was.

  After the other kids tired of running around, I checked on Dad and George. I admit that it was just an excuse to see how close the food was to being ready. I was getting hungry! At any rate, Dad was chatting with George and two other neighbors I only vaguely remembered meeting.

  “Ah, here he is,” Dad said. “This is my son, Eddy.”

  “Hi,” I said.

  “Hello!” George bellowed. “And welcome, if Mable didn’t say so already.”

  “When’ll food be ready?” I asked.

  “Soon,” he laughed. “Hungry already?”

  I nodded.

  “There should be some snacks on the table.”

  “Thanks!”

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  That was about as much mingling as I wanted to do. Food held me by the nose and dragged me to the table. I filled a plate with chips, dip and anything else that looked appetizing. There were plenty of vegetables that I turned my nose at. Sure, they weren’t bad, but there were just so many better—tastier—options.

  I sat down at the edge of the patio to eat. The adults and children moved this way and that—avoiding the obstacle that was me. While I ate my snack, I kept an open ear to what was going on around me. The improved stats from leveling up meant I could hear better than I could before. That was something I usually tuned out, but now I focused on it.

  “…opening up a store in town,” George was saying.

  “Oh, really?” a man next to him asked.

  “Yeah. The closest hardware store is an hour away. And with all the farming here, I figured it could do pretty well.”

  “So why not do it?” Dad asked.

  “I can’t afford it. We just bought this house, so we’re pretty broke right now.”

  “Sorry to hear that…”

  The conversation continued, but I let the idea run through my head. I knew I could get experience from planting crops and having someone else harvest. Would the same principle apply to funding someone else’s business? If I gave George money, would I get economic experience when his business made money? Would I have to be a partner for that to work or would simply lending the money be enough? I decided that was something worth investigating.

  “Food’s ready!” Mable called, snapping me out of my thoughts.

  I stood up and took a hotdog. I topped it with relish, ketchup, and mustard. The delicious juices coated my mouth when I bit into it. It brought a huge smile to my face. Before I went too deep into my hotdog, I walked over to George.

  “Hey, George,” I said.

  “Oh, hey… Eddy, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What can I do you for?” he asked with a laugh.

  “I heard earlier about you wanting to open a store in town.”

  “Yeah,” he said with a sad look on his face. “It’s not realistic, though.”

  “I could fund it,” I said earnestly.

  “How? You’re just a kid?”

  “I’ve got a lot of money,” I said. “The farm and house and all of that are owned by me.”

  “Really?” he wondered.

  I nodded.

  “Well, how would this all work?”

  “I’ll have to talk to Dad—and my lawyer. But I have plenty to fund what you want to do. How much do you think it’ll be?”

  “I’m not sure,” he said. “Talk to who you need to. I’ll figure out how much—and I need to talk to Mable as well.”

  I gave him my email address for when he decided what he wanted to do. To me, it made sense. Even if it lost money, it would be a success if it generated experience for me. That was the most important thing. The farming project was going well, but it wasn’t making enough experience for me to make the system what I wanted it to be. I hoped funding businesses could fill the gaps.

  I left the man to think about the proposition while I enjoyed the rest of the barbecue. Dad would be the face of the interaction, even if I was ultimately the one funding it. It was easier that way. I hoped George wasn’t one of those people who got all weird when they had to report to someone younger than them. He didn’t seem like that on the surface, but one could never be too sure.

  A month passed before George went through with the idea. I felt some reluctance on his end, but the contract from Al seemed to ease his mind. Making it official was the best way to go about things. I paid for everything in exchange for 40% ownership of the business. I didn’t want to actually run anything, but rather see if the transactions of the business would bring me experience.

  The contract was signed, and the money was handed over. I went with George to the storefront he’d picked out downtown. It was roomy, but in need of modernizing. As far as I could tell, it had been vacant for a while, still looking like the last store that had stood there. Time had not been kind to the interior. Still, I believed he was up to the task.

  “Do you need any help?” I asked George.

  “Thanks, but no,” he said. “I’ve got a crew coming to do the renovations, so I don’t want either of us getting in the way.”

  “Makes sense. Well, I’m heaving back to the farm. Get in touch if you need anything.”

  George waved as I walked out. Dad was waiting for me by the sidewalk and drove me back to the farm.

  The crops were growing well. Still, there was work to be done. I needed to maintain the machines, make sure the crops were well irrigated, repair any broken fences, that sort of thing. As usual, I threw myself into the work.

  Work was beginning to feel like a crutch. A way for me to isolate myself from feeling that the world wasn’t exactly real. On a fundamental level, I knew it was, but it didn’t feel that way to me anymore. I could just start over at the drop of a hat. So who really cared if I just did as I pleased and undid everything if it went terribly wrong? Gaining experience was all I had going for me. The Dad I lived with was not the same as the one who I would see upon waking up in the past again. Similar, yes, but not the same.

  Being on the farm was isolating, too, which did not help temper these thoughts. Yes, there was George and his family nearby, and there were people in town, too. But even so, I felt like I was floating through this life just doing whatever I needed to do to meet my end goal. And that all brought me back to working.

  Every day, I worked. The tasks might be different. Most of the time, it was working on the farm in some way. Other times, it was quests. I avoided downtime like the plague. I couldn’t afford it. Calculating how things were going now, I was going to fall well short of how much experience I needed. And with all the testing I’d already done, the amount I would need to spend kept increasing!

  The system I needed to create was one that would see humanity not only survive but also thrive. Seeing how System Contract could be bent and abused led me to wonder just how many other features out there I would need to modify so that people wouldn’t be incentivized to do evil things. I didn’t give a shit if they were used against monsters or anything like that, but against fellow humans? That was a problem!

  I sighed and pushed the ideas away for now. The most important thing to do was just to keep going. The entire process was a giant slog and all I could do to put one foot in front of the other. I would not get there any other way, so it was better to suck it up and keep moving.