Chapter 94: Attaboy!

Aiden pushed open the door to his house, his steps carrying him straight to the kitchen.

Resting his gaze on the gallon in the corner, he casually tugged on his {Insight} to appraise it.

-

› {Homemade Brandy}

Improved by Aiden North, this deep amber, non-alcoholic fruit infusion...

└ Quality: Very Good.

-

Aiden didn’t bother to finish reading the description as a flash of surprise marking his features.

Clearly, he’d expected to have to spend his LPs to assess the homemade brew yet again.

However, it seemed {Insight} equally had a bit of a hidden function.

If he was being honest though, it made perfect sense that it had a repository to store previously appraised information instead of burning through his Life Points every time he needed to use it.

’My Mind attribute...’ Aiden thoughtfully remarked to himself, his head bobbing a few times in acknowledgement.

With the stat at its max grade, and the fact that his system did inform him that it was using him as a conduit to interact with the world around him, it was only natural that his photographic memory worked hand in hand with it.

That said...

’Very good, huh?’ Aiden noted the difference immediately, a light smile touching his lips.

"I wonder how the grading works..." he audibly muttered as he made his way out the kitchen, upstairs and into his room.

Placing his bag on the chair by the desk, Aiden casually retrieved his laptop and switched it on as he slipped into the chair.

At the same time, he pulled out his smartphone from his pocket and proceeded to text his buddies.

[Crashout: Sin City’s] PC port had now hit a little over 75K copies sold.

Considering Aiden had been the biggest driver to getting it working, his buddies had literally refused to allow him have anything less than 50% of the game’s revenue.

To them, it just felt absolutely disingenuous to receive a pay for something they barely did any work for.

Aiden too, had respected their decision without trying to reason with them as he knew their thoughts were valid. Besides, if he had, he’d have essentially insulted their pride, hence why he didn’t push it.

Added to that, they were all going to be getting 10%, one they were more than content with... especially when the sales of the mobile port had also surged in sales quite a bit after the release of the free DLCs.

Having plateaued at around 440K+ sales previously from its original 380K+ sales, it had now crossed over the 500K+ mark, accounting for a total sale number 120K+.

Obviously, that meant the gang had yet another net gain of about $470K+ to split between themselves as per their previous arrangements.

That alone, would’ve sufficed for Aiden to meet his $500K+ goal in the coming months. However, with him set to get 50% of the PC port sales, he’d practically smashed right through that quota.

All that was left now, was for him to retrieve his funds and tick the quest off the board.

That said, Aiden had already begun processing an idea in his head ever since he saw the reviews of said port.

The rogue-lite mode.

At first, he hadn’t known what to think about it when several gamers kept talking about how it was essentially crack in videogame format.

However, after mulling it over a bit, he’d realized something.

Dopamine.

Fudgin’ dopamine.

That was essentially what it was.

The rogue-lite mode had preyed so much on the average gamer’s gambling tendencies with such simplistic road-raging mechanics and the constant dopamine hit from endlessly leveling their vehicle with a crap ton of disgustingly powerful weapons and power-ups, it wasn’t even funny how easily it worked.

It was also why Aiden wanted to capitalize on it before some smartass out there ripped off the idea and claimed it as theirs.

As a result;

-

Aiden: Say idiots, would you like to make an easy hundred-thousand dollars more?

Casper: Fuck yeah!

Theo: At your service.

Clyde: Go on. The council’s listening.

Larry: You needn’t even ask, bro! Sign, me, the, fuck, up!

Benjamin: I’m counting my chickens before they’re hatched already!

-

Chuckling a bit at their response, Aiden then began explaining his idea to them.

By the time he was done;

-

Aiden: And that’s it. What’d you think?

Larry: Welp. Best better get to making the soundtrack and BGMs for it then.

Casper: You’re an evil man, Aiden North. But personally, I like the way you think.

Clyde: So, we’re essentially making a casino simulator disguised as a videogame? Gotcha.

Benjamin: Considering how simplistic the idea is though, it’s quite jarring someone hasn’t pounced on it yet. Oh well! More money for us!

Theo: I think it’s a brilliant idea. We should also be able to round it all up in a month too, maybe even less if things gel easily. Only downside, is that our schedules are choked next month, so we might have to push the bulk of the work into the earlier weeks of June...

-

Reading Theo’s message in particular, Aiden softly nodded in agreement.

They did have their AP and final year exams next month, after all.

It was also why he texted a moment after;

-

Aiden: Then that’s just what we’ll do. In the meantime, we can sort out the framework and most of the assets to use.

Aiden: Casper, you’re on character creation and crafting the game’s lore. Hi-Fi Radio, you know what to do. Theo, we’re gonna code the game and do some more research into gambling addictions.

Theo: When you put it that way, it sounds like we’re up to no good. But sure. At your service, sire.

Casper: Roger that!

Clyde: Yep.

Larry: Alrighty then.

Benjamin: No problem.

-

Upon reading their texts, Aiden placed the phone aside, stretched his limbs a bit from side to side, interlocked his palms and cracked his knuckles and then, pulled his chair forwards slightly as he got down to work.

An hour or so later of focused work, he hibernated the system and gently closed the lid of the laptop as he got up from the chair and headed downstairs to make dinner before his Pops arrived.

Surprisingly, the man arrived earlier than usual, his form looking notably less tired than usual as he greeted upon pushing open the door.

"I’m home!"

"Welcome back, Pops." Aiden replied from the kitchen, just as he was pouring the chicken stock into the soup.

"You’re home early. What’s the occasion?" he curiously asked afterwards.

Turning around the corner and leaning on the kitchen’s door frame a moment after with his arms crossed, Richard grinned and said;

"Just rounded up a project today and the client loved it so much, the company’s giving us bonuses."

"Oh~. That explains the vivacity." Aiden chuckled to which his father did a little dance as he slid into the kitchen.

Laughing this time, Richard already retrieving a flask of chilled brandy from the fridge, the man then asked;

"So, how was school today?"

"Oh, you know... same old, same old. Managed to rope Dr. Kowalski into an idea for a beverage company I had though." Aiden casually replied as he covered the pot.

Richard almost sputtered on his drink upon hearing that, his pupils dilating as he turned to face his son whom was already chuckling in response to his reaction.

"That’s not ’same old, same old,’ Champ!" he exclaimed a moment after to which he then demanded;

"Deets! Now!"

Laughing yet again, Aiden proceeded to do just that.

Explaining how he had essentially told her he had plans to start a brewing company, but couldn’t quite go down that route because he didn’t have the resources for that just yet, but was considering starting with a beverage brand to begin with, Richard simply watched his son, slack-jawed.

Considering Aiden hadn’t exactly had any of this discussion with his Pops prior to this particular moment, the man couldn’t help but be bamboozled by how far ahead his son was planning.

’He’s really serious about retiring me before fifty, isn’t he?’ Richard couldn’t help but realize at some point, a deep sense of fatherly pride washing over him as Aiden kept explaining.

Though he hadn’t taken his son’s words for granted previously, it was only in the moment he was realizing how dead-serious the youth was about it.

"So, that’s it." Aiden concluded to which Richard stood at arms akimbo, staring in awe at his son who simply shrugged as if he hadn’t just plotted out a solid yet strategic business plan to make his goals a reality.

’It’s probably why she decided to accept his offer to use her license...’ he inwardly remarked.

Before he could manage to actually respond though, Aiden suddenly raised a finger up;

"Oh, and one more thing,"

Casually, he made his way out the kitchen, walked up the stairs, into his room and right back down a couple seconds after.

Through it all, Richard had simply waited, his head tilted his slight curiosity.

However, when his son handed over a sheet of paper to him and he read its content...

... his expression cycled from shock, to amazement, to joy and then finally, unbridled pride.

Words didn’t even need to be said to explain how far this would go in aiding him.

Slowly lowering the paper a moment after, he tried to speak as tears brimmed on his eyelids.

"I couldn’t be..." his voice cracked before he could get out the first couple words.

Placing aside the sheet, he just went it for a fatherly hug that Aiden partook in, his own eyes equally misty as the man managed to force out the rest of his words;

"... prouder of you, Aiden... and... and, I know your mother would be too."

Lowering his head a bit, his eyes even mistier, the youth managed to respond with a warm smile;

"I’m sure she would."

Disentangling from the hug a moment after, Richard then let out a relieved laugh as he wiped his eyes and joked;

"I presume there are no more surprises?"

To that, Aiden equally flicked a tear of his eyelids and said;

"Well, I did as a firework of a lady out to prom... if that counts as a surprise."

This time, Richard stared at his son for a moment... only for his grin to widen into an even prouder laugh that had Aiden himself chuckling as he declared;

"Attaboy!"