Leo takes a sip from his coffee and lets out a breath of relief. “Ah!” He calls out, satisfied. This is the good life! Sitting, relaxing. No work, no duties! It feels good! He thinks with a smile.

**DING**

“Hmm?” Leo says, looking to his phone on the table.

Leo looks at the notification.

User, Barbara Salzar, has requested an increase of her allotted storage space and permission to access the manager directory. Approve request?

Leo lets out a chuckle and sends a text.

Did she receive permission from her manager?

Leo lets out a smile. Word got out that he was kind of a slimy dude at work, and people began requesting weird things; access to certain shared mailboxes, or directories, to ‘just have a look,’ and all sorts of other things. Leo’s company was connected and managed a variety of companies, so the things people would request could be all sorts of things. Normally, Leo wouldn’t touch any of this; I mean why risk your work and livelihood for these random requests? It wasn’t responsible and it certainly wasn’t legal in some cases. But the thing was… These requests have started providing Leo with a bunch of work points; I mean, he was sort of surprised at how much work points he was getting from these requests. Everyone sort of assumed that he would get burned eventually, so after the first few, these requests just kept on coming, practically flooding in. And the work points! There were so much!

Essentially, Leo couldn’t say no. So, while he could, he did what he had to.

Permission from her manager has not been received.

Leo rubs his chin.

Tell her that if she bakes muffins for the lunch room tomorrow, she can consider it done.

Leo sends the text and leans back. He takes another sip of coffee and lets out a breath.

Ah! Life’s good! Leo thinks with a smile.

…

…

“Hey, Su! How are you?” Leo says jovially.

“Ah, I’m good, I’m good. I just got back to the Eastern Empire. I’ve ah, quit my job. I’m just roaming the country. Seeing the people, hearing of stories. Just wandering. Just finding myself. And damn, man, let me just say. I don’t know what I was doing before. I mean, I was working, I was alive. But was I alive? Anyways, I’m out here now, feeling the earth with my fingers, tasting the sweet fruit of life. It’s out here man, it’s freaking out here, and I love it.” Su Sheng says before letting out a breath of relief.

Leo’s eyes widen. “Damn man, what’s gotten into you? I thought by now you would of ran to your government to expose all the drug smuggling?” Leo says, somewhat surprised.

Su Sheng lets out a laugh. “Man, I don’t even care about that. Fuck the government, and fuck the machine, man.” He says dismissively.

Leo’s eyes widen once again. “Damn man! What are you talking about!? Are you okay?” He asks, somewhat bewildered.

Su Sheng lets out another laugh. “Man, whatever. I’m just saying, man, that I don’t care for that sort of life anymore. Your girlfriend opened my eyes, man. Magic, man! Freaking magic! It’s everywhere! When I got back, I got good and drunk. I had it all prepared. All the information I learned, all recorded. I was going to hand off to the appropriate person, but on a whim, I decided to get drunk. I drank one, then I drank another, then another. I just kept drinking! All by myself, alone and lonesome at a bar. Eventually I didn’t know which way was up. Then, of course, I have to stumble home. But dude, as I was walking, there were no taxis! No freaking taxis anywhere! So I decide to call for one, but guess what? No signal! No freaking signal! So I start walking, just walking, mindin’ my own business, and stumblin’ home. I start walkin’ and I go through some alleys, then I walk past a garden, then, for some reason, I’m at a temple! I pass out and just lay down in front of the temple. A monk finds me, brings me inside; next thing I know, these guys start teaching me about magic! I mean, they didn’t say it was magic, but I recognize magic when I see it, and it was their own brand of magic! The dude said a spirit led me there and asked the monk to teach me. Can you believe that? It was freaking wild man. Freaking wild.” Su Sheng says, his story streaming out like a river.

Leo’s eyes widen yet again. “Holy shit man! That’s freaking wild! So you’re learning magic? Like what kind of magic?” He asks, very curious.

“I’m not really sure what to call it. Basically, they’ve kind of opened my third eye. I can see the spirit world now, and dude, it is beautiful. The spirit world is like, most of the existing world! It’s where all the beauty is! Anyways you should visit sometime. I’d love to show you my world, my little piece of heaven.” Su Sheng says with a smile.

Leo lets out a breath of wonder. “Holy shit, man. That’s so wild. Yeah, I’ll come over soon! I want some of whatever you’re smoking my dude.” He says with a loud laugh.