NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 2.0
Hearing the contents of the letter filled me with equal parts concern and relief. She was alive, but I'd have to confront my- no these freaks weren't my family.
By this point I was so tired, both emotionally and physically that I couldn't even form a plan. The three heroes had assured me that they would help me and strongly warned me against doing this by myself.
The following hours passed by in a blur. I was dropped off at Baine manor, under the care of Alfreda, who seemed to be the only one awake. With a teary goodbye and heartfelt thanks from me, the trio sped of into the night.
Alfreda saw the state I was in and became worried, asking me questions. What had happened? Where was Vick? And so on.
With each answer, the british butler became more distraught, to the point were I could see through her calm facade.
After I finished telling her the details, she told me to get some rest and that she would go inform the other Baines.
I probably should've gone with her in case they wanted to ask me some more questions, but I was so SO tired…
When I finally fell down on the soft bed, I sighed with pleasure. It didn't even take me a minute to fall asleep.
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When I woke it was late morning. I'd slept for 4 hours, which was strange because the way I was feeling, I'd expected to sleep well into the afternoon. Another perk of self healing powers, was my guess.
Everyone but Alfreda was still sleeping at this time.
I had to make the best out of the time I had till midnight. The fight would decide my and Vick's fate. And building tech was probably the best thing I could do.
Yes, despite being in a new reality and body, I still seemed to have access to my old crafting power…although for reasons unknown to me, it was much weaker than before.
In the past I could have built true marvels: combat prediction models, photon swords, you name it. After all, I had the full force of the government backing me. Anything mistake I did got swept under the rug, so long as I gave them some of my tech and gave them a hand from time to time for emergency situations. Countless ads and pr campaigns had given me a steady source of fans that supplied me the necessary admiration and love my power used as fuel to build its wonders.
Now though, I was by myself. No government. No fans…I'd be lucky if I could make a stick spear.
But first things first. I'd have some of that nice smelling breakfast the butler was cooking and then I'd spend maybe an hour researching this world. Before, due to all the stressful events, I wasn't able to sit down and think, but now after a goodnight sleep, I'd put the pieces together. Something was very different in this world and I needed to know what.
Turns out Alfreda made a mean omelet. Perhaps it was the ingredients or her skill, but it was way better than my shitty "man-cooking".
After I spoke with Alfreda, explaining my need for materials.
She smiled and showed me the way to the garage workshop.
Countless parts and tech pieces laid around. This could work. I could feel my mind whirling, showing me blueprint after blueprint.
I felt that with my current level, I could make flashbangs, grenades, or an improvised projectile weapon.
But perhaps there was a way I could gain some more power and fast. My internet searches had revealed that essentially, for all intents and purposes, men in this world behaved like women and vice versa. Most major historical figures were women, erotic videos focused on the man with the woman's face not being shown most of the time--everything was flipped.
But I realized after getting over the shock, that I could use this. From what I'd seen I matched the ideal of beauty of this world.
Perhaps if I uploaded a few sexy pictures of myself online I could get a good amount of power…it was a half baked idea and I had low expectations for it, but I needed to try it.
So, without further ado, I went to the bathroom (yes, in the manor every bedroom had a bathroom) and undressed. Looking at my body felt weird and I couldn't accept that this was me. Every movement weird, sensations off, like suddenly waking up from a coma and finding your muscles atrophied.
The first few pictures I snapped of myself were terrible and half hearted, my smile stiff, body posture awkward.
Sighing, I looked up some pics from male models as reference and copied them.
After several tries, I chose the one I liked best: one of me covering my chest with one arm and my dick with the other, my chest hand giving the middle finger to the camera. For good measure I stuck my tongue out, too.
Now all that was left was to upload the picture to wherever it would gather attention. I put it on T*nder and a few other popular dating apps, then looked up a list of the forum sites with most users and submitted it on r*ddit, Q*ora, and a couple others.
This was really too much trouble. I'd have to create an social media account or something in the future and only put it there. Or maybe pay someone for advertisment?
In any event, that done, I put my phone down and settled down to wait…but to my surprise the phone I borrowed from Vick began vibrating like crazy with non-stop alerts.