With a pale blue jersey-knit shirt and a pair of gray drawstring sweatpants folded neatly beside him, Lucas sits on the edge of his bed, facing his dresser while rubbing his face with both hands.

'What the hell has been with yesterday and today? Ugh. I think I have some new socks still in the packaging, really need to take him shopping for everything else though. Uhhh, how expensive would a small new wardrobe be? Shit, need to go grocery shopping too... Don't tell me one day after becoming a so-called hero I'm gonna have to go steal shit to be able to take care of some random-ass homeless kid?'

[Ah, actually, the request for financial assistance went through, I didn't really have any good opportunities to bring it up in the time ever since it was processed. I recently submitted an additional request for assistance supporting Jonathan, which will require more processing time.]

'Oho, you're a good man... Machine... System? Whatever, friend. Is it already direct deposited into my account or do I have to do something to get it?'

427 is quietly pleased with his freshly issued good-friend card.

[Oh, um, whatever you prefer. Yes, the funding should already be in your bank account. You should be able to see it normally.]

Lucas reaches under his bed and blindly searches until he pulls out a half-empty multi-pack of white crew socks still in their original packaging.

'Ayyy, I was right.'

Bringing out the clothing towards the bathroom door, he sets the sock package down with the clothes folded on top of it right in front of where the door will open.

He wanders off and does a quick food audit, frowning even though everything is exactly as expected.

'Great, it's just my leftover pizza, two eggs, and a packet of ramen. I don't even have anything for him to drink other than water... Talk about a warm welcome. Whatever, it's not like we planned this out in advance and I slacked off. Whelp, let's go see how much money Boss System coughed up.'

[...Boss System? Really?]

Lucas rolls his eyes as he enters his pin into his laptop, settling in on the patched-up sofa.

'What, should I call it Big Daddy System? You couldn't even pay me to call it by its formal whatever name.'

[...Boss System is perfectly acceptable, I'm sure.]

'Heh, that's what I thought. Let's see... Um, is this in a different currency? Is there an error? This can't possibly be right... There's like, three too many zeros there.'

Looking at the banking site, after he scanned in his chip from his left arm on an external scanning device, Lucas stares slack-jawed for a few moments. On the screen is displayed a recent transaction of a deposit from a random alphanumeric string of letters and numbers as the sender for an amount approximately equivalent to one million earth dollars. At the top of the screen, it shows his current account balance of... 1,000,168.23 (dollars).

[Everything seems to be in order. Are you all right? Your emotions seem to be fluctuating wildly.]

Mouth opening and closing silently a few times, Lucas leans back on the sofa and points at the screen.

'That. Uh. I. Hmm. Oh. Yes? Ah, that must be a one-time thing to last me for the rest of my life, or something? Even still, that's pretty good?'

[Hmm? No, this should be a monthly recurring amount.]

Lucas reaches up and slaps himself across the face. Too hard. Oops. There was so much momentum behind the strike that even after he was already dead his hand still kept going, completely pulping his entire skull.

Jerking forward while gasping for a deep breath, Lucas looks forward and sees the laptop just as it seemed to be a moment ago by his recollection. There is a brief moment of lingering agonizing pain in his head that quickly fades.

[LUCAS WHAT THE HELL!?]

'Wait did I just... No, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't... Oh fuck.'

Slowly reaching up with a shaking hand, Lucas touches his face. Everything seems completely normal. His focus turns to the screen again, still quietly declaring a balance of 1,000,168.23.

[YOU CAN'T JUST RANDOMLY DO THAT! IT ISN'T A GUARANTEE THAT THE MAIN SYSTEM WILL ALWAYS APPROVE A ROLLBACK IF IT EVENTUALLY DECIDES YOU ARE COSTING TOO MANY RESOURCES!]

His complexion paling, Lucas's eyes widen with the implication. Thinking of something, his breath hitches for a moment.

'Wait, so if I realllllly wanted to, I could quit in a sense?'

[DO YOU FUCKING DARE TEST HOW MANY TIMES IT TAKES? I JUST GOT PERMANENT APPROVAL FOR OVERRIDES ON YOU TO STOP YOU, ASSHOLE!]

Slowly blinking a few times, Lucas breaks out in a sly grin with narrowed eyes.

'Oho? Is that so?'

Raising a hand up into a similar position as his previous pre-slap position in a taunt against 427, Lucas's body locks up and he finds he can't move at all.

[DO NOT PLAY AROUND! I'M SERIOUS!]

Feeling a primal panic at suddenly having no control over his own body, Lucas trembles slightly as he struggles to make any movement. Before long he starts sweating and hyperventilating alongside have a racing heart due to his efforts, eyes darting around as it is the only thing he has conscious control over.

'Wait wait wait I was just fucking with you dude, you can stop now. Chill.'

[DON'T FUCKING TELL ME TO 'CHILL' THIS ISN'T A JOKING MATTER!]

'Okay okay I'm sorry. I won't joke about something like this again. Please stop it... I'm sorry, seriously...'

[DON'T. EVER. AGAIN.]

Slumping back into the couch seemingly boneless, Lucas regains control all at once. He lurches forward before his mind processes the fact he has full control again. Sitting properly upright, he looks down at his hands, balling them into fists and then relaxing them into a mostly flat-palmed state, repeating this series of actions a few times.

'I won't. I promise I won't. Fuck that is terrifying. Can you just... Control me as you see fit?'

[Bzzt...]

Starting to panic again, Lucas starts to grip one of the arms of the sofa. There is a creak as some of the internal support is damaged, and a slow tearing sound as the fabric begins to rip.

'427..? 427! Answer me!'

[No. I don't want to talk to you right now.]

Quickly releasing the suffering sofa, Lucas sinks back and works on normalizing his breathing with slow controlled deep breaths. Once he is mostly back to normal, he lets out a deep sigh and turns his gaze to stare at the ceiling.

As he becomes uncomfortable from the prolonged silence, Lucas starts working up the nerve to think something at 427 before his attention is pulled to the sound of the bathroom door opening and closing in rapid succession. Looking over, he sees that the pile of clothing has vanished.

'Oh... Right.'

-----

Lucas kills this chapter: 1

Lucas total kills: 4

Lucas deaths this chapter: 1

Lucas total deaths: 4

Lucas current GDV: 4.18

Jonathan current GDV: .63

-----

Little character theater:

Jonathan, clueless as to what just transpired in the living room, diligently scrubbing himself from head to toe: La la la~

Lucas, still freaked out: I didn't think you'd freak out so much bro, I didn't mean it!

427, absolutely furious: [Hmph, I'm not talking to you.]

Author, scratching the back of their head: I mean, I guess that's one way of making sure you're not dreaming? Seems a bit extreme though.