The next day was Sunday. Easter. Unlike the previous time, I had the full Quests series unlocked. That meant a quest for finding all the eggs! The rewards were mediocre—just twenty experience—but I was happy to see some improvement. I went with Dad to see Grandpa Milton and Grandma Rose for a family lunch. I kept the loops to myself. I hadn’t forgotten how she’d reacted to the truth. That was a mistake I would not repeat.

  When I got home that night, I checked the only skill I had yet to upgrade. I was disappointed to find that I could not improve it. There was no way for me to get even more experience every time I did something! I cursed the stupidity of the system not letting me break it.

  Monday brought the most dreaded thing: school. It had been mind-numbingly boring the last time. It was even more boring now. There was nothing for me to get out of the pain, either. After the day was over, I spoke with Dad about getting out of school as soon as I could.

  “Dad,” I said while he was driving me home. “I just can’t do this. I promised you a lottery win to have enough money for the year. When you win, can you take me out of school, please?”

  “I don’t know, kid,” he said. “I’ll have to talk to your mother first. There might be legal stuff I’m not thinking about, you know? I don’t want to get in trouble by accident. So give me a week. Can you do that?”

  “I guess,” I said, defeated. “I’ll let Mom know, too. I’m giving her lotto numbers as well.”

  “Gotcha,” he nodded.

  When we got home, I emailed Mom with the lotto numbers—distinct from Dad’s—along with a message about dropping out of school. I made a point to have Mom and Dad play different lotteries and have each win a smaller prize than the main one. With Grandpa Joe’s warning about the lotteries, I wanted to play it to draw less scrutiny. I hoped it would work out the way I envisioned. Mom replied later that night, saying she would look into my options. She also thanked me for the numbers.

  Thursday morning, I got an email from Grandpa Joe with the account details. After school, I found a way to send the crypto into the account. There were several intermediary steps—very much money laundering—just to get the money where it needed to go. With the trading day over, there was nothing I could do until the next day.

  Dad took me out to eat that night with a huge smile on my face. The restaurant was a fancy one. Not one that had any dress code—one step down from that. It had amazing food and was probably expensive.

  “I wanted to thank you,” he told me when we sat down at the table. “I sent in the winning ticket this morning. $250,000 is a lot of money. Even after taxes, it’ll last several years!”

  “That was my hope,” I smiled. “What about the schooling situation?”

  “I’m not sure,” he shrugged. “I called your mother about it, but she said she was still looking into your options. Sorry, dude. It might be longer than you wanted.”

  “Ugh,” was all I could say.

  “I hear ya, kid. I hope we—your mother and I—can find a solution that works. I will have plenty of time to watch you. That won’t be the issue. The truancy laws would be.”

  Friday brought good news. I still had to go to school. After school, Mom called Dad’s phone and spoke to us over the speaker.

  “Thanks for the tip, Eddy. That money should last me a while.”

  “No problem, Mom. That was the point.”

  “That leads me neatly into why I called,” she said. “So I’ve been doing research, and it looks like there are two possibilities. The first is to go to college. That’ll see you done in four years with no more education requirements. The second is to homeschool. You’d have to take occasional tests, but otherwise would be free to do whatever you want. As long as someone’s home with you, of course.”

  “I did the whole college thing last time,” I told her. “I think the homeschooling option is better. I need to be home and focused on making money for the next while. I can’t do that while in school.”

  “I see. With the lottery money, that should be plenty for a few years, right?”

  “Yeah,” Dad said.

  “Good. I could stay home with Eddy, too. Just let me know what you want to do. We’ll work something out.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “Are you ok with that, Eddy?”

  “Yeah, Mom. I’m fine with whatever. I’ve got a plan in mind already.”

  “Oh?”

  “I’m going to buy a farm to literally farm experience. I found this out after helping Grandpa Milton a lot last time. It worked well. Sadly, I didn’t have enough money to make it work then. This time, I do—or will.”

  “Can you explain how that works?” Mom began.

  “Maybe you can do that next time you’re together?” Dad suggested, cutting the conversation short.

  “Alright,” she conceded.

  The two of them talked more. It was a painful conversation to listen to. Neither of them trusted the other very much. I could feel the tension between them, and was relieved when they agreed on a split similar to the last time. One week at each parent’s place until I was ready for the farming. At that point, they’d talk it out again.

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  I gave Dad a supportive hug when Mom hung up the phone. I knew this whole divorce thing was tough on the both of them—even if, in many ways, it was an own goal. My parents needed to be stable to be as much help as they could be. Though they felt distant, I still needed their support.

  The weekend passed without incident. Monday morning, Dad called me in as ‘sick’ so that I could stay home. He told me Mom was handling withdrawing me from school and it would take some time to go through. I would finally have the free time to make money!

  I booted up the laptop and logged into the trading website. There were several things I wasn’t able to do—no margin or options trading. That wasn’t ideal, but the plans I had didn’t necessarily need those. They were nice to haves but not strictly necessary. I bought the stock—a small mining company—and set a price to sell at. It would take half a week to get there, but I would make a pretty penny.

  While making money was my primary goal, that did not mean I could neglect quests. Every day, I took what quests I could complete. Then I would complete them, only to select new quests by refreshing. The cycle would repeat as long as I had the time—and patience—to keep doing more quests. The experience rewards were decent. They exceeded my gains from the previous life because I did not have Milestones III unlocked.

  As the weeks went by, the money poured in. Since I started with less money that I might have wanted, my goal felt far away. Each week, I increased my money by about a quarter. There would be taxes I’d need to pay on all the trading activity, but that was a small price given the wealth I’d end up with. I knew it would take me the rest of the year. I’d have to stop around then because the sheer number of trades I’d need to do in order to not influence the market too much would be overwhelming.

  I went on the summer vacation the same as I had last time. It was enjoyable, but felt like a distraction. I’d already done it once before and that was enough for me. I was mentally checked out. That I couldn’t abuse the system to entertain myself—or at least work on getting more experience—was a downer for sure.

  Late in the summer was when my plan hit its first snag. Though I had the money in the account growing at an acceptable rate, I didn’t have a good way to actually use any of it. Searching the internet could only do so much. I thought about asking my family for help.

  “What can I do to use the money?” I asked Grandpa Joe when we were hanging out.

  “Hmm,” he thought. “I’m not sure. I think you’ll need my permission, but beyond that, well…”

  He shrugged.

  I asked the same thing to Mom later the same day.

  “I think you’ll have to make a company,” she said. “You can’t sign a contract until you’re an adult. Well, you can, but it’s not enforceable—meaning it’s worthless. To get around that issue, you’ll need something that can sign a valid contract. The only thing I can think of is a company. I don’t know more than that. I would talk with an attorney, though.”

  “How could I afford to hire one?”

  “I’ll pay for it. You’ve given me plenty of money, so it’s the least I could do.”

  “Thanks, Mom.”

  I asked Dad, too. He knew about as much as Grandpa Joe did. Since Mom had the only solution, that’s what I went with. I asked her to set some time up with an attorney that specialized in setting companies up. Thankfully, I only had to wait a week.

  Mom took me to a set of office suites that looked like a strip mall for professionals. The building we stopped in front of felt soulless. It was as boring and utilitarian as could be. It had no flare to set it apart from the rest.

  Mom and I got out of the car. She struggled to pull open the door. Still, she held it for me until I’d walked inside before quickly letting go and joining me. The inside of the place was just as soulless as the outside had been. Everything was gray or brown and minimalist. Clean, yes—but without life.

  The office we needed to go to was for a Mr. Gregoire. Mom and I entered the office. The receptionist took down her name, and we waited in the chairs provided. They were rather comfortable. After a handful of minutes, the receptionist ushered us into a small conference room and closed the door. The lawyer came in a few moments later.

  “What brings you here today?” he asked when he was seated across from us.

  “I need to start a company,” I said.

  “Do you now?” he asked, with a raised eyebrow. “My! You are a precocious little man.”

  I gave the man a stare. He coughed.

  “So, what kind of business are you looking to form?”

  “I intend to purchase land and farm it,” I stated. “I don’t have any location in mind, but it’ll happen sometime in the next few months.”

  “So you’re both aware,” he said, “an adult will have to sign for things. You’ll own the company, but you will have to nominate someone else as your agent. Are you with me so far?”

  I nodded.

  “Would that agent be the woman sitting beside you?”

  “My mother?”

  “Mhm.”

  “Probably? I might have to ask Dad to sign stuff as well. Would that work?”

  “Not a problem,” he said. “The next question is where the money will be coming from. A bank account, an inheritance, or maybe something else?”

  “I have a custodial account with my grandfather that I’ll be using.”

  “Makes sense. He’ll need to sign some things to transfer the money. Not until you have a company bank account, though. There’s time to arrange the business first.”

  I nodded to show I understood.

  “The last thing I’ll need to ask: what do you want to call the business?”

  I sat and thought. I had a few ideas in mind, but decided to keep the name boring and to the point.

  “Teller Farming,” I said.

  “Using your name, I see. Good choice. Alright, I’ll start working on the documents you’ll need. Expect to be back here in about a week. I’ll email you when everything’s ready, as we can schedule a time for everyone to come in and sign.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  Mom thanked him as well.

  He ushered us from the office and back into the lobby. We said goodbye. It was time to go home.

  I talked with Dad about it on the way back to Mom’s house. I let him know I would need him to join us in signing the documents to get the business started. The business bank account came up, too. He had a local bank he used for his handyman work that he suggested I use. I had no reason not to check them out. A bank was just a bank, right?

  Wrong, apparently. Their fees were terrible! The way they operated was by charging a fee, depending on how much income the business had. I thought that practice was silly. I would bring in a lot of money. Shouldn’t I make something on it instead? Well, I looked at other banks before settling on a—mostly—reputable national bank. I couldn’t do anything until the documents were signed and filed, so I put that plan aside.

  A little over a week later, I walked into the lawyer’s office with my parents. The money both now had went a long way towards smoothing over their relationship. It wasn’t good, but at least they could play nice for an hour or two if they had to. And they had to.

  Signing the paperwork took forever. It was easy enough—but my god there were so many places to initial and sign. And with three signatories, that just made everything take longer! Eventually, though, we got out of there. I was the proud founder of a company and my parents were legally allowed to sign on my behalf if I needed them to. In order to make it all binding, I had agreed to pay them a small fee to have them as my agents while also laying down the law as far as what they could sign for.

  With that all accomplished, I was proud of myself. I needed to get the bank account still, but I was now a business owner!

  On the way home with Dad, I emailed Grandpa Joe. I needed to get him and one of my parents together to handle the new bank account. I still had a couple of months before I ended the money-making scheme. Even so, I wanted everything in place and ready to go. I couldn’t afford any delays.

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