006 EXCUSE NOT TO MINE
Dan flinched, bracing for Ralph's fist. He half expected the blow to break bone, maybe cripple him. But the hand that reached for him wasn't Ralph's at all.
"Uh… Mr. Yaris," Dan said quickly, forcing his voice steady. "My finals are coming up. I might not be able to keep working part-ti this month."
The man in front of him wasn't his drunken uncle but Supervisor Yaris, the foreman of Aur Mine No. 15…the one who signed off Ralph's hours and handed him his wages.
Yaris chuckled. "Don't worry about it. A kid like you have no business in a mine anyway. I've told Ralph that more tis than I can count, but he never listens."
"Where's my uncle? I need to talk to him… about stopping work."
"Ral!" Yaris called out, lifting his voice across the pub.
Dan raised a hand quickly. "Please…don't call him. Not yet. I need to figure out how to tell him…in a nice way."
Yaris studied him for a mont, then nodded. "He's over there. Drunk, as usual."
In the corner, Ralph sprawled across a battered couch, one hand clutching a glass, the other draped lazily over the shoulder of a bored-looking hostess.
Dan didn't move toward him. Instead, he pulled out his phone, raised it in Ralph's direction, and tapped the screen.
"Begin mining," he whispered.
Turning on his heel, he made for the stairs.
"You're not going to talk to him?" Yaris called after him.
"No. Not tonight. Maybe in the morning, when he sobers up. He won't take it well if I tell him now."
"Right."
Outside, the night air was cool.
Dan's eyes stayed fixed on his phone, watching as the DemCoin app confird the mining process was still locked onto Ralph.
"Heading out already?" the bouncer at the door asked.
"Yeah. Told you it'd be quick," Dan replied.
"Co back in a few years when you can forget about the grandmas and taste the pussy cats inside", the bouncer added with an obscene smile.
"Right, probably not… ever", Dan replied his thumb tapping the next command.
Acquire. Strength.
A smile flickered across his face as he walked into the street. Ralph wouldn't trouble him tonight or for many nights to co.
------
Dan wandered the streets with no real destination, dragging his steps. He thought about where he could spend the night when the sudden wail of sirens cut through the air.
"Huh… that was fast," he muttered, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
He guessed the ambulance was for Ralph. The shock of having his strength stripped must have dropped him cold.
"Should I go ho?" Dan wondered aloud.
He needed rest after a long day and then after another punishing round under the ta Amplifier.
But then he shook his head. "No. If I go back, I'll get no peace. The hospital will call, and Aunt lody will force to check on Ralph."
That left him with only one option. The school.
-----
The campus gates were already shut by the ti he arrived. The night guard eyed him warily though he recognized him as one of the students of the school. "You're not supposed to be here this late."
"I ca for the extended ta Amplifier training," Dan said smoothly.
The school had rented the ta Amplifier at a staggering price, so they kept it running day and night. Evening sessions were open for anyone willing to pay a ticket especially students hungry for an edge, professionals desperate to polish their abilities. Dan had never joined. He couldn't afford the fee.
"Are you sure you have a ticket?" the guard asked.
"Yeah… yeah", Dan replied as he walked to school waving his hands without showing proof of his ticket.
But the guard did not insist. He rely waved him off glad that he could return to his snooze.
Soon, Dan reached the ta Training Center when a voice shouted at him.
"Dan Dark, why aren't you ho?"
The voice ca with a firm pat on the back. Dan stiffened. It was Mr. Fischer, his ta class teacher.
"I—uh, I dropped sothing in the training center earlier," Dan stamred. "Just ca to pick it up."
Fischer frowned. "Sorry. You can't go in now. This session is ticket-only. Co back tomorrow and check Lost and Found." He started to walk away.
"Wait, Mr. Fischer." Dan's tone sharpened. "Will you be in the overnight session?"
The teacher blinked at the question, surprised, then sighed. "No. I need rest too."
"Then who's presiding?"
Irritation flickered across Fischer's face. He was clearly exhausted from a long day's work, but he answered anyway and pointed a finger towards soone at the door of the training center receiving the guests.
"Professor Gawdry. From the ta Human Association." With that, he turned on his heel before Dan could squeeze out more questions.
Dan smiled at his retreating figure. That was all he needed to know.
He lifted his phone, sighted Professor Gawdry across the courtyard, and locked him in the fra. The app recognized the target even from this distance. The range of his app had expanded after the last upgrade.
"Begin mining."
The command pulsed across the screen, and Dan slipped into the shadows near the Training Center. From there, he watched the DemCoin app tick upward.
Gawdry's output was staggering. It was several tis richer than Fischer's.
"Damn. I'm going to be rich," Dan whispered, his grin widening as the numbers climbed.
Then the rate spiked again. Gawdry had entered the Amplifier chamber, and under ta amplification the mining yield skyrocketed.
"This is worth sleeping outside for," Dan murmured, settling into a cross-legged posture in the corner.
The DemCoin app drained energy on its own, but this ti sothing different stirred inside him.
He closed his eyes, letting the steady pulse of harvested power hum quietly in the background. He tried to train in ta power using the techniques he learned in class but never tried at ho- breathing rhythms, mind focus and proper form and posture.
To his surprise, the ta energy within his body shivered awake, like embers catching fla.
"So, this… is what ta training feels like?" Dan whispered to himself, wonder mixing with disbelief.
This was the first ti he started ta training all by himself without teachers and ta Amplifiers.
For the first ti in his life, he could focus. There was no shouting, no fists, no distractions. Just pure practice, pure growth as ta particles slowly gathered around his body.
----
User Comments
0 comments from readers