NOVEL SIMPLE B2—Chapter 62: Getting Things in Order for The Final Push
Rabban strode up to me. “Where can I exchange gold coins or jewelry for local money?” he asked, his voice rough.
“I can exchange it for you.”
He nodded and handed over ten gold coins. The coins weighed heavy in my hand. I took out the scales I had bought in China and carefully measured them. Each weighed 36 grams, totaling 360 grams. Pulling out my phone, I checked the current price of gold online. “It’s sixty dollars per gram,” I said, looking up at him. “So, that’s $21,600 total.”
“Is it a lot of money?” Rabban wondered, his brows knitting together slightly.
“Depends what for. For transportation and hotels, it’s sufficient. But it won’t stretch far if you plan to buy goods for trading.”
“How much do I need to buy goods?” Rabban pressed further, his eyes narrowing with curiosity.
“Depends on how much you want to purchase.”
“I want to fill my Storage.”
“Then you’ll need at least fifty thousand dollars to stock up on merchandise,” I said. “I have a proposition for you. We’re in Vegas, and there are a lot of casinos—”
“What is a casino?” Rabban interrupted, his expression puzzled.
“A casino is a place where you can bet money,” I clarified, gesturing to emphasize the concept. “You can either lose it or win a lot more. Do you have the Luck Trait or telekinesis?”
“Telekinesis,” Rabban responded confidently, a faint grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“Al used telekinesis to cheat and win big,” I pointed out, gesturing toward Al. “You can do the same. Or, if you want, I can exchange another fifty coins.”
“I will change fifty coins, and I’ll ask Al about the casino,” Rabban decided, nodding thoughtfully.
He handed me fifty coins, and I gave him $108,000.
“When are you planning to leave?” I asked, curiosity spiking.
He sighed, glancing over his shoulder. “Sonak is stressed. He wants to leave as soon as possible,” Rabban explained, his voice tinged with concern. “But we still have to figure out which Gate to leave through and how to get there.”
“You should know that Earth is heading towards integration,” I said. “What that means is that it’s easy to pick up new ability points or classes to fill in the gaps. Sonak knows about it. I think he’s in a hurry to leave—not Earth, but my company. He acted very negatively, and now that he’s seen my power, he fears me.”
Rabban’s eyes widened in surprise, his eyebrows shooting up to his hairline.
“You should consult with him,” I advised, my tone serious. “Stay here a few months, attend workshops, and build up skill points. Use the casino to earn a substantial amount, stock up on merchandise for resale, and then move on—preferably by sea, not by air.”
Rabban nodded throughout my explanation, a thoughtful look crossing his face.
“I have a list of all the Gates we’ve visited. I can give it to you.”
Rabban’s tense features softened, and he gave a grateful nod. “Yes, please,” he said earnestly.
I pulled out my updated list, cast Copy Text, and handed him the fresh copy. Suddenly, Mahya started clapping, grabbing our attention. Rabban and I turned to her, puzzled.
“It didn’t even cross your mind to use your printer to make a copy. You just used magic. You’re learning,” she said, smiling as she patted my shoulder.
Her words hit me, and I realized she was right. In the past, I would have immediately reached for the printer. This time, magic had been my first instinct. A grin spread across my face. Ha! I’m learning, I thought, feeling a sense of accomplishment.
“Let me see the list,” Mahya requested, her eyes bright with curiosity, extending her hand toward the document.
“I thought we had decided on the Gates in Canada or Alaska for Lumis, right?”
“Yes, I’m just curious,” Mahya replied with a smile, reaching out to take the list from me.
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She scanned the list, her brow furrowing in concentration. “I’m still curious about the parallel Earth. I’ve never heard of parallel worlds from my parents or other Travelers, so I want to see one. Earth is perfect for this because I traveled it extensively, so the differences will be obvious. I understand you want to travel to a different world, and I’m all for it. But maybe after Lumis, we can cross back to Earth and go to the Gate that leads to the parallel Earth?”
“By then,” I said, “they’ll already be in the middle of integration. I’m not sure I want to be here when that happens. Besides, the Gate is in China. We’ll have to cross the sea again. I don’t know what will happen at sea during integration. There are many scary legends on Earth about sea monsters. I’m not sure I’d want to sail in those conditions.”
She paused, thoughtful, then nodded slowly. “Yes, I see what you’re saying. Anyway, it doesn’t matter now. Keep the list; after Lumis, we’ll decide what’s next. Perhaps we’ll discover an interesting Gate there, so this conversation will be moot.”
Rabban and Sonak left later that day. They might have decided to visit the Genomey world, but I wasn’t sure. They spoke a foreign language, and I only caught that one word. Rabban hugged the three of us, thanked us repeatedly, and promised that we only had to ask, and he would come to our aid from the other end of the cosmos. Sonak was more subdued. He shook all three of our hands, even mine, said goodbye, and they left.
Since we no longer needed all five bedrooms, we moved to a three-room suite at the Bellagio. Al still wanted to gamble because, in his opinion, he hadn’t earned enough money yet. We told him about the lounge for high rollers, and he got enthusiastic.
Mahya and I didn’t feel like gambling, so instead, we went to a paintball shootout in the desert. By the end of the fight, Rue, our referee, had more paint on him than either of us. We couldn’t figure out how this happened, and when I asked him, his only answer was, “Paint fun!”
My mana was still relatively low. Although my regeneration had improved to one unit per minute, instead of a minute and a half, I was still at 3000 mana, which I nearly drained to clean the three of us from the paint. This paint seeped into places where paint shouldn’t be.
We made another round of pawnshops and snatched up the new jewelry people had pawned. In one shop, Mahya spotted an elaborate microscope. She bought it immediately and told me to add microscopes, telescopes, binoculars, magnifying glasses, and loupes to our shopping list. Unfortunately, fantasy worlds lacked significant advancements in optics.
This sparked the idea that we should sit down and list things we wanted to buy from Earth for our own use. We had purchased a lot of stuff to sell, but I thought it would be a good idea to list all the things we might need personally, which would be hard to find in fantasy worlds.
The three of us worked on it for hours, and our list looked like this:
I wanted to visit my mother’s and Sophie’s graves one last time. My mother’s grave was in Birmingham, Alabama, and Sophie’s in Chicago, Illinois. Our eventual stop would be Calgary, Canada, before heading to the Gate near Mount Rundle.
We wanted to stop in major cities on the way to buy the list and stock up on food supplies and whatever else would catch our eyes. So, our route looked like this:
USA
- Las Vegas, NV
- Phoenix, AZ
- Albuquerque, NM
- Dallas, TX
- Birmingham, AL - My mother’s grave
- Nashville, TN
- Louisville, KY
- Indianapolis, IN
- Chicago, IL - Sophie’s grave
- Detroit, MI
Canada
- Toronto, ON
- Sudbury, ON
- Sault Ste. Marie, ON
- Thunder Bay, ON
- Winnipeg, MB
- Regina, SK
- Calgary, AB
It was time to check our financial situation. I sat on the hotel room floor, spreading out stacks of cash and a few reloadable Visa credit cards. Mahya joined me, cross-legged, with her collection of bills and cards.
“All right, let’s count this out,” I said, sorting the bills into neat piles.
Mahya nodded, her fingers deftly flicking through the cash. “This feels surreal,” she murmured, shaking her head slightly.
We spent the next hour meticulously counting and double-checking our math. Finally, I looked up at Mahya, a bit stunned.
“So, between us, we’ve got exactly $3,189,268,” I said, still processing the number.
Mahya’s eyes widened. “That’s... a lot more than I expected,” she admitted, a small laugh escaping her.
Al stared at the scene of cash spread across the floor.
“Whoa,” he said, eyes widening. “You have achieved success. Is it acceptable if I take part in the counting party?”
I gestured to an empty spot on the floor. “Be our guest. We just finished tallying ours.”
Al settled down and began counting his stash. After about twenty minutes, he looked up, a mix of pride and slight disappointment on his face.
“I have $632,890,” he announced.
I glanced at Mahya, and she nodded. I turned back to Al. “You know,” I began, “Mahya and I have been thinking. Since we plan to travel as a permanent group, why don’t we pool all our money together? We could buy everything as a team and manage expenses together.”
Mahya nodded enthusiastically. “It would make things a lot simpler,” she added.
Al’s brow furrowed slightly as he considered the proposal. “Are you certain?” he asked, looking between us. “This decision demonstrates a substantial leap forward.”
I shrugged and smiled. “We’re in this together, right? Keeping separate funds doesn’t make sense if we’re sharing everything else. The items in our individual Storages will stay personal property, and anything we earn on our own will also stay ours. But we’ll use the cash we have to cover supplies—both for ourselves and as a group. We’ll split the general items three ways. Once we’re done shopping, we’ll buy jewelry with the rest of the money and split that too.”
Al was quiet for a moment, then slowly nodded. “Yes, you are correct,” he said, a grin spreading. “Let us do it.”
“Great!” Mahya exclaimed, already gathering the cash into one large pile. “That brings our total to... $3,822,159. All in cash and reloadable cards.”
I grinned, feeling a surge of excitement for our upcoming adventure. “Let’s get to work on that shopping list.”