Seeing the dozens of boxes I rush to the nearest one. 1, 2, 3, 4, .. 58, 59 ,60. If 60 loaves are in each box, 1,2,3, .. 42, 43. Thats alot of bread, I start to count on my fingers to try and calculate the total EMC but stop, why count when I can just deposit it. I run my hand across the boxes and absorb each Box, 16,424.6 EMC -> 202,184.6 EMC. There would be a few more digits if I didn't drop the boxes back off in the corner to possibly appease the bakery Fisk bought the bread from.
"How much was that?" I hear him ask behind me.
"180,000 EMC give or take." I state while thinking of how many more times I'll need to have this happen to reach the 50 million mark.
"That's quite the amount, here." He hands me a small square of pure yellow. "This is one ounce of Gold, how many of these can you make?"
Gold? If I had larger amounts I could get the Tome so much quicker. "Oh? Uh, each one is about 40 Emc." '33.68 but I'll take the extra' "I can make you two of these right now if you want?" I ask questionably to him.
"Yes, produce two of those and as much as you can a day afterwards and I will be sure to have the same number of boxes of bread for you each week. I might have something else for you to create, but right now just this gold." He smiles while patting my head, "Now go off and play with my son, I'm sure he might ask why you're in the garage, and just come by here once a week with all the gold you produce in the week."
"Will do sir, and what else do you want me to make? I don't want to make anything that will hurt anyone innocent." I say that even though I have low morals, innocent people, mostly kids and pregnant women are a line I wont cross.
"Don." He gets down on one knee to pat me on the shoulder while partly hunching over. "I wont ever make you create something that will hurt innocent people. As that also goes against my morals."
I smile knowing that while yes he doesn't go against innocent people, he can deam anyone who doesnt help him as some conspirator against him, but I will only make precious medals for him for now until I have more say in what I will make or won't make for him. Though Killing will be inevitable, I can control it at least. "Thank you, here you go." I say handing him the two small pieces of gold, "I'll be sure to give these to you next week when I have more."
I see the smile on his face deepen, "Now go play with Rick." He says shooing me out of the garage.
Making my way out of the garage, I bump into Rick. "What were you doing in the garage?" Rick asks while pausing at the bottom of the stairs.
"Oh, your father wanted me to do that magic trick of turning items into different ones." I need to explain to him what I can actually do later when he can understand, but for now the magic trick works tremendously.
"Oh cool!" excitement present on his face, "Is there anything new you can do?"
"Yes, watch." I grin while laying my hands together like some overzealous saint, and pulling away I show a golden square of gold. "It's only an ounce, but I should be able to make more later in life."
"That's awesome, you need to teach me how to do that someday. Oh, let's finish up Diablo 2, we are at the last boss and I want to finish the Terror Lord before the weekend."
Smiling, I follow upstairs excited to finish the game with my friend but also knowing that I have the backing to live in this world until I can protect myself.
~~~
Looking through the glass window I turn to Harry, "Keep an eye out for me ok? You wanted this too and I'm giving you a discount as long as we get this." I whisper as I stick the key I copied from the janitor into the classroom.
"Yes yes, just hurry, Peter will snitch and my dad will chew me out if they find out." A hissing whisper sounds behind me from Harry as I tiptoe lunge to the teachers desk.
I don't worry about finding the correct files as I just move my hand over everything and transmutate a file folder with papers to make it seem like I stole the right items before I can actually read through the items I stored. "Got it." I yell in a whisper as I make my way back to the door. Looking both ways with Harry I re-lock the door as we run back down the hallway, paper in hand back to the playground. Half paying attention to our run back I switch out the folders to the right homework file paper for our next class when we finally make it to the yard.
"Remember, I get this and the next one free." Harry smirks as we act like nothing happened as we swagger back to view.
"Yea yea whatever, Ill rat you out to Peter if you talk about this." Doing a small chuckle feels right as over the last 3 years I've gone from selling candy and drinks to actual homework answers, quizzes or tests depending on the price and day. Just because Harry and myself and others are smart enough to do this, if there's a simpler way to finish things, it makes more sense to do it that way than actual hard work.
Looking up to the leftmost position of my vision I see 47,864,884.2 EMC, I only need a few more months and Ill have enough to get the Tome of Knowledge and finally be able to start expanding and get my hold in this world.
I have increased the amount of EMC a day I convert for Fisk from 100 to 1,400 EMC, not a large amount but over 3 years the increase has been enormous and its helped him with his empire but more with the amount of bread he will give me a week. Going from 185,760 to 289,440 EMC in less than a year saved me 2 years of having to wait and accumulate.
Deep in thought I dont see a blob of Blonde enter my vision, and nearly running her over I hear her speak.
"Where were you and Harry just now?" Gwen asked with her hands on her hips. "What's that in your hand?"
Quickly switching it out with a random empty folder with paper in it, "Just a folder with paper, here look." I see a a flash of surprise and worry in Harrys eyes as I hand over the folder but I just shake my head looking at him.
"Ill be the judge of that." Thinking she caught us doing something, I see the confidence slowly leave her eyes when she sees that I was telling the truth and there was nothing.
I trust her but she's always been a goodie two shoes, least I hope she will chill out in highschool as I am certain she'd like to join making money, Peter too if I word it right. "See, nothing, now if I could have that back, me and Harry want to go join the groups and hang out before class starts." Smirking as I hold my hand out.
"I have my eye on you Don." *Hmph* She somewhat forcibly slaps the folder back into my hand while doing the motion of Im watching you with her free hand while turning around to walk away.
"How did you do that, Don?" Harry asks as I turn the folder back to what I copied earlier.
"Sleight of hand and confidence, now let's pass out the papers and here." Still smirking, I pass a sheet to Harry with the correct multiple choice homework questions we were supposed to do last night.
"If you are keeping the prices to only a few bucks still I think I can give Peter a run for his money and be the smartest, hahaha." A laughter escapes from Harry as we look around for the group of kids who want the answers as I had already taken the money as I always guarantee stock in whatever I am going to sell.
~~~
"Here's 294 ounces." I say walking into Fisk's office. I'm only a few thousand EMC short before I have the 50 million.
Seeing him smile and reach out for the bag. "Thank you Don, the box's downstairs should be here. Also there is a Bar of gold that I want you to learn to copy so when you are able to make 400 ounces in a week. Carrying so many small bars is getting to be a handful trying to hide it from Vanessa."
Doing a small salute, "I'll be sure to let you know when I can do so sir!" then turning around and marching out like a small soldier I leave his office.
I had decided to expand a little on what I said I could do. I could still only produce so much a day, however, if I produced something, I could turn it back into EMC to transmute something else but I couldn't do more. Say I produced 1,400 EMC for my daily limit, if I got something I used 100 EMC to make the day before, I could use that 100 EMC item and turn it into something else but that's it. Can't go over the set output but could transform anything else I did previously. This will help me out later when I get older rather than hinder what all I can do.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs I slip into the garage and stare at all 64 boxes of bread. Still 60 loaves per box, unlike once when there was a change in the distributor and 30 loaves were in and the EMC per loaf only went up by 4. Quickly running my hands over all the boxes and re-stacking them over in the corner I double check my EMC. 50,470,482 EMC in glowing white letters, presents itself to me in the upper left. 'Just enough'. Excitement fills me as I pull up the tablet and have the Tome of Knowledge appear in the menu. Reaching out as I want to grab it, I ignore as millions of EMC disappear as fast as I pull the book out…..
The Tome feels light yet heavy in my hands. I could have waited until later but I want to know what all it holds. I know it should hold all the Project E items and Vanilla items but what else? Is that it, does it hold other mods too? *Inhale* I take a deep breath to try and calm myself as I check my small EMC amount. 138,240 EMC, not alot but enough to start with some items I guess. *Inhale* Another deep breath I. Right-Click? How do I use this? Holding the Tome in my right hand I look back at the Tablet, I just drop it back in right? Ill get the EMC back. Let's do that.
Placing the Tome back into the Tablet I see my EMC jump back up to 50,470,482 EMC and along with it hundreds of minecraft items appear in the Tablet along with all of the Project E items. Every Tier of Matter relay, Klein Star, even Dark Matter.
I did it. I got the items and still kept my EMC.