*Earth – Kira’s POV*

I walked into the entrance to the bank and made my way to the counter with Karen. Karen was telling me, as we were walking across the lobby, to tell the teller that I wanted to withdraw some money and show her my card. So I did as she said and the look on the teller’s face was one of confusion, “Sir this isn’t a card to our bank.” I looked at Karen, who looked a little embarrassed as she spoke, “Can you go and get your manager.” The teller looked at us in confusion for a minute before she left to go and grab the bank manager.

A few minutes later the teller came back with what I assumed was the bank manager. She was a woman in her late forties, but it really didn’t show that much. She looked very good for someone in their forties, she reminded me of Cindy except that Cindy was in her late twenties. The only reason that I know she is in her late forties is because of the pin on her chest that said her name and her years of service, which is twenty five. Even if she started at the bank at the age of eighteen she would be at minimum forty-three.

The manager had a look of annoyance on her face, which deepened even more when she saw us standing at the counter. She walked up to the counter and spoke, “May I help you?” I told her the same thing that I told the teller and showed her the card. She got an even more annoyed look on her face, “I’m sorry Sir, but that is not a card for our bank and we…” She stopped speaking and then looked at the card closely.

Her eyes got as round as golf balls all of a sudden and her attitude along with the look on her face changed, “I’m terribly sorry Sir, I just now noticed what kind of card this was. Unfortunately I don’t have the power to help you, but if you give me a few minutes I can get someone who does. I nodded my head and then Karen and I were guided to an office and asked to wait and they would be able to help us shortly.

About fifteen minutes go by before a middle aged man walked into the office, “I am so sorry for the wait Sir and Madam…” He stopped mid-sentence as soon as he looked at us. He got a look of annoyance on his face before he hollered at the manager. The manager walked in to the office quickly. The middle aged man started to get angry with her, “I thought you said there were some important VIPs here and they wanted to do business with the bank. All I see are two kids in this office. Did you send me to the wrong office or did they leave already!?”

The manager was looking at the floor and actually looked like she was holding some words for him in. I praised her constraint because I would have snapped back at him already. I decided to speak up in order to save the lady, “Uh those VIPs would be us Sir.” The man looked at us and scoffed, “Please, you look to barely be in high school. You may be tall but I bet you still don’t even have any hair on you boy.” I grinded my teeth and was about to say something, but Karen spoke up, “If he didn’t shave he actually would for your information asshole.”

I looked at Karen in shock and a little embarrassment. I could see that the manager was smiling and trying not to laugh at what Karen said.

The man looked at Karen and spoke, “I wasn’t talking to you bitch I was talking to him.” I instantly got pissed, “Don’t ever talk to my wife that way or you won’t have to worry about whether anyone has hair or not, because you wouldn’t be a man anymore.” I glared at the man and for some reason he actually got a little frightened and the manager finally started to laugh. I continued to speak, “I actually came here to withdraw some money from my account, but I don’t know if I want to do any business here anymore.” I held my card up as I was speaking.

The man noticed the card and his face turned white and he immediatly started to sweat, “I am sorry for offending you and your wife Sir. I didn’t realize somebody so young and have an account like yours.” I smiled at the kneeling man and spoke, “It will be okay as long as you bow your head and apologize to my wife.” The man turned a little whiter and seemed to struggle with something internally before he actually did what I told him.

I laughed at the scene and the manager was looking at the man in awe. He apologized to Karen many times while bobbing his head up and down. I looked at the man, “Okay, since that is all over now we can get to business I guess.” The man straightened up quickly and was nodding his head vigorously, “Of course Sir.” The man walked over and sat in the comfy chair behind the desk while Karen and I sat in the equally comfy chairs on our side.

The man cleared his throat and spoke, “I am terribly sorry for my earlier attitude. My name is Jeffery Danielson, but you can call me Jeff. I am the owner of this bank and I am the only one with the authority to help our distinguished guests such as you.” I smiled and was a little irritated at his personality change, “It’s okay, just remember that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Anyways, what I came here to do was withdraw some cash from my account.”

The owner nodded his head, “That is easy how much do you want to withdraw?” I thought about it for a minute and calculated how much I would need for the car I wanted along with something else that I wanted to get. I smiled at a very pleasant thought before I spoke to the owner, “I would like to withdraw five hundred thousand.” The owner turned a little white before he spoke, “That may be possible, but I will have to check and see if we have that much cash on hand. We are but a small bank in a smallish town and I may have to go and retrieve the money from one of my other branches of my bank.”

I smiled, “That is fine we have nothing but time right now.” The owner smiled and then walked out with the manager. I looked over at Karen and she looked at me. We both proceeded to laugh our asses off at the memory of the scene that happened earlier. After laughing for a few minutes I finally spoke, “I was not expecting something like that to happen; usually you would only see something like that in movies or books.” Karen stopped laughing and smiled, “Yeah, but money will do strange things to anyone. The thought of someone with the amount of money you have doing business with the bank made him through away his pride for the most part.”

A few minutes later the owner came back with a silver brief case. He sat down in his chair and then sat the brief case down on the table, “I was able to get the money you requested from this branch alone. I took the liberty of putting it in a brief case for you as well.” He opened the brief case and the turned it towards us. I saw that it was full of stacks of one hundred dollar bills. There were six stacks across and three stacks down and there was one more layer below that. Each stack had a bank on it that said twenty five thousand dollars and after some quick math, on the calculator on my phone; it came out to be five hundred thousand just like I wanted.

The owner noticed that I was done and that I didn’t have any complaints so he shut the case and slid it towards me, “I once again apologize for my earlier rudeness and hope to do business with you again Sir.” I nodded my head to him and we shook hands. I grabbed the brief case and followed the manager to the front door. She turned and spoke to me, “Thank you for saying something earlier.” I smiled and told her not to mention it and she smiled back.

Karen and I walked out the door and headed towards the car. Karen snickered something, “Ooo look who is stealing all the ladies hearts over here, modern day Casanova huh?” I recoiled back a little causing her to laugh, “The look on your face is priceless! Don’t worry though babe, among my programmed love for you is another command to love any other girlfriends and wives you get the same. Though in my programming you come first no matter what and they are second.”

The thoughts going through my head were complex and surprised; Karen seemed to notice and explained some more, “Those who play the game are destined for great things, unless their real bodies die first. That includes riches, strength, women, among many other things.” It made sense when you thought about it, but I guess my upbringing on earth is going to make it a little harder to adjust to certain things. The thought of being able to have a harem is overwhelming though, but I will have a real harem. I don’t want one of those harems that you see in most novels and anime, especially the Japanese ones.

In those harems either nothing happens for some stupid reason or another or the harem breaks up and the MC ends up choosing one of the girls over the others. I will have a true harem where I love them equally and fuck them all the same; well unless some of them have a special way they like to do it. I smiled at the last thought and Karen noticed it, “Someone is having perverted thoughts aren’t they? Already thinking about whom to shoot with that love gun of yours?”

I smiled at her and responded, “Yeah and you are on the top of that list.” Her face turned red and she looked down at the ground. I laughed and since we had arrived at the car I handed the brief case to Cindy, who was still sitting in the back seat, and then got in the driver’s seat. I went to start the car, but I was interrupted by a scream, “What the fuck is this!? Where the hell did you get this much money!?” I turned to look back at Cindy and noticed that she had the brief case open and was glaring at me.

I gave out a half laugh and spoke, “It is part of the money that Karen gave me.” She glared at me and then spoke, “Only part? How much fucking money did she give you exactly?” I was starting to panic a little bit because I didn’t know how much to tell her, but Karen came to save the day, “I gave him fifty million dollars, which was my entire inheritance from my parents.” Cindy’s jaw almost hit the floor when Karen said this and I facepalmed. Cindy calmed herself and spoke again, “Fifty million dollars? Does that mean you are a millionaire Kira?”

I nodded my head, “Yeah I guess, but it won’t stop at that. I plan on doing some investments and other opportunities to increase my earnings.” I told her that so I could try and explain how I would be getting more money in the future because I would be more than likely. Cindy seemed to accept that for some odd reason and didn’t say anything else. She just shut the case and then asked, “So where are we going to go and get you a car at?”

I smiled and thought about it for a minute before speaking, “We are going to a dealership in in the city.” (AN: MC is from Oklahoma and the capital of Oklahoma City is literally just called the city by almost all native Oklahomans.) Cindy smiled and then we proceeded to head to the city. It was about an hour and fifteen minute drive from our hometown, I probably could have got there faster if I wanted to, but I didn’t want to scare Karen or Cindy so I drove responsibly. (AN: Obey the traffic laws kids!)

We made it to the city and after thirty minutes of driving to the middle of the city we finally arrive at our destination. (Another AN: Oklahoma City is the 18th largest city in the U.S. because of all of the small towns that are considered part of the city.) I pulled into the Subaru dealership and parked the car. We walked inside and were greeted by a salesman, “Hello welcome to Byford Subaru, how may I help you today?”

I smiled at the salesman, “I would like to buy a vehicle.” The salesmen smiled wide, “Certainly, follow me please.” He led us to an office in the corner of the building and sat down behind the desk, “Which car are you looking for exactly sir?” It didn’t take me more than a second to respond, “I want a Subaru Impreza STI Limited and I want it to have a few additional features.”

The salesman’s eyes gleamed and he smiled, “Of course sir, what would you like extra on it?” I told him what I wanted and he jotted it all down. After he got my list he imputed all of the features in the computer. In a few minutes he looked back at me with a smile on his face, “You are in luck sir. We actually had one matching your specifications arrive on the truck this morning. It was going to be a floor car, but we can sell it to you if it is to your liking.”

I smiled and nodded, “Okay let’s go and check it out.” He nodded and headed out of the office. After a couple minutes of walking we saw the car sitting next to three other Subaru’s. The color was just like I wanted. It was pitch black and when I saw the interior it was black with red stitching in the seats. The salesman unlocked the car and let me look at the interior. I sat down in the driver’s seat, after I adjusted the seat so I could fit. Everything was exactly like I wanted, there was a red floor board light and after I started the car the dash lights were glowing red. I could tell that the car had the performance package that I wanted because the exhaust was a little louder than normal, which meant that the performance exhaust was put on the car.

I was completely satisfied with the car and I told the salesman. He smiled, “Then let us go back to the office and talk some numbers.” I nodded and then followed him back to the office with Karen and Cindy in tow. We sat back down at his desk and he told me the price, which I already knew because I had been window shopping for cars for the last few months. He asked me how much I was going to put down and when I told him what I wanted to do he was shocked, “You are going to pay all of it in cash?” I laughed and then took the brief case from Karen. I took out two stacks of cash totaling fifty thousand and then sat them on his desk.

The salesman looked at the stacks of cash and he was excited, “This will work very well sir, but we normally don’t do cash transactions so I will have to have you sign a few more papers than normal.” I nodded my head and agreed, he gave me the stack of papers to sign and for Cindy to sign as well, because I wasn’t eighteen. We finished signing the papers for the car the price for the car itself came out to be around forty-five thousand dollars. I decided to be extra nice since this was my first big purchase and gave the salesman the change as a tip of some sort.

After everything was done and we were able to leave we did. I got in my car while Karen got in Cindy’s with her. We left the dealership and got on the interstate, I called Cindy on my beat up cell phone, I need to get a new one when I can, and let her know that I would see her at the house. She was confused at what I was saying, but when I upshifted and lost them in my rearview mirror she probably understood what I meant.

I hit one hundred as soon as I left the city limits, There were never any highway patrol on I-44 after you went through the toll booth on the south side of the city. I didn’t want to push the car too much because the engine wasn’t broke in as much yet so I didn’t go above a hundred. I made it home in about thirty-five to forty minutes. I pulled the car in the drive way and then realized that I didn’t have my house key on me. I cussed and then sat down on the chair on the front porch.

Cindy and Karen pulling in the driveway behind my car about thirty minutes later, I smiled and waved and then proceeded to get yelled at by Cindy while Karen just stood there trying not to laugh. I apologized and told Cindy I wouldn’t do it again, which she didn’t believe, but she stopped yelling anyways. I put my car key on my key ring when I got in the house and then we all went out for food, in my new car of course.

When we got home it was about nine and Cindy was headed to bed because she had to work early in the morning. I told her good night and then Karen and I went to the bedroom as well. We had a few hours of fun time before we both went to sleep and I entered the game.

*Somnium Venatus – The Deck*

When I entered the game I was lying on my bed in my room on The Heart Suite. I got up and dress myself before walking out of the room. I ran across Sylvie outside of the ship, “Hey boss!” She looked over towards me and smiled while waving, “Don’t call me boss, no one does that in my squad.” I smiled, “Then what should I call you then?” She smiled again, “Well most people call me by my name and so can you or you can call me Sylv if you want. Whatever floats your boat really.” I smiled, “As you wish Sylv.”

She smiled again, “So what are your plans today? Want to do some training again or take a mission?” I thought about what I really wanted to do before speaking, “Well I honestly want to get some training in hand to hand combat, because a gun won’t be useful in all circumstances.” She nodded her head and then thought of something for a minute before speaking, “Ok I can give you some training in hand to hand combat if you want.” I was shocked that the Ace of Heart Squad wanted to train me personally, but I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity so I agreed.

She smiled and told me to follow her. I followed her for a bit before we arrived at an outside training arena. She climbed in the arena giving me a nice view of her plumb rear. She walked over to the corner of the arena and told me to come in. I shook my head to clear out the perverted thoughts and climbed into the arena.

I stood opposite of her and she looked me up and down quickly before speaking, “What is your experience in hand to hand combat?” I answered her, “I am pretty confident in my skills, but there is no harm in trying to make them better.” She smiled at this before she disappeared and there was the feeling of being hit by a sledge hammer in my gut followed by a sweet sounding voice, “This will be painful, but you need the experience.” I fell on my knees trying to catch my breath. I looked over at where Sylvie was standing and she was slightly smiling at me.

I gritted my teeth and then got up, as soon as I stood the pain was on my right cheek and I was sent flying into the wall of the arena. I slammed against the wall of the arena and my vision went black for a split second. I slid down the wall and landed on my ass. I gathered my senses and looked back at Sylvie, who was still just standing there slightly smiling at me. I didn’t try to get up just yet as I spoke to her through clenched teeth, “Why are you hitting me as soon as I stand up?”

She looked at me and spoke with a serious expression on her face, “It is to show you that no matter how strong you are there will probably always be someone who is one step ahead of you. There may be a day where you can shatter a planet with a single punch, but there may be someone out there that can blow away one or two planets with just the wave of their hands. The old Joker told me a story of how he saw inside of a black hole doing pushups.”

I was astonished, for a man to be inside a black hole doing pushups he would have to be extremely strong. Black Holes aren’t really holes in the true sense of the word. They are areas of space that have such a strong gravity that even light can’t escape. If you were to fly a ship into a black hole it would be crushed before you hit the center and even if it did reach the center it would be like crashing a Ferrari into a solid steel wall at two hundred miles an hour.

I understood what she was saying and I told her so. She smiled at me and actually didn’t attack me when I stood up again. I walked back in front of her and got in a fighting stance. I had was standing semi-sideways with my left foot forward and my left fist out in front while my right fist was pulled back towards my chest some. Sylvie smiled and then ran at me, I was actually able to see her move this time.

She arrived in front of me and jabbed out with her left hand. I blocked it with my right and then sent a quick jab of my own. She knocked it away effortlessly and then sent another jab towards my face. I moved my head to the right and dodge her fist while trying to counter with my right first. She noticed fist coming and then stopped her momentum instantly and then jumped back, leaving me with my right fist where her face was.

She smiled, “Not bad, but not fast enough unfortunately. Your hand to hand style is okay, but you need to be faster.” I nodded and she gave me a few more tips and we sparred for a bit longer. After sparring in hand to hand we moved on to weapons. Her choice of weapon was a single sword; it was solid black and a blood red fuller running all the way to the hilt. (AN: A fuller is a groove in the middle of the blade used to decrease the weight a little.)

I was able to choose from a multitude of practice swords, which were real and very sharp, hanging on the wall. I picked up two short swords and walked back to the arena. She grinned at my choice of weapons, “What is your experience in swords?” I smiled a little before answering honestly, “Well we don’t actually use swords or anything like it on my home world and many of my people actually consider them barbaric”

She sighed, “They just don’t simply understand the art that is swordplay. If one perfects the sword their form and battles will actually start to look like an elaborate dance. The same goes for axes, maces, staves, and many others.” I actually understood what she said, I have seen two professional edged weapons specialists go at it one day with wooden swords and their fight was very spectacular and kind of memorizing. She sighed again and then beamed an enchanting, “Oh well, I will take the responsibility and pleasure of teaching you the dance of death.”