For each of us, there comes a time when we must awaken and become what we were born to become.

A beautiful and deep quote, don’t you think?

I don’t have to explain what it means, right?

Good, because that quote very much applied to me.

Although I was born from a normal, loving middle-class family, I had always stood out from the others. From childhood until adulthood, I was praised as a genius. I was smart, athletic, charismatic, and handsome; I was literally the prince charming every girl would dream of in their childhood, and because of that, I guess my ego may or may not have become inflated.

I guess that’s why I believed I was meant to become greater, someone who’ll rise to the top.

After graduating from the top and hardest college to study in with flying colors at the young age of 18, I have decided to make my mark on the world.

After years of, not so, hard work, I became an influential and terrifying figurehead that could change the entire world if I wished.

Who was I? I am Iron Ma—excuse me, I am, what they call, a genius, one-of-a-kind, all-rounded engineer.

But is just being an engineer enough to make me so influential? No, the real reason why I’m such an influential figure is that I am a weapons dealer for the military.

With that profession, in a few years, I became a multi-billionaire. So, it wouldn’t be a stretch to call me a real-life Tony Stark.

Love me for it, hate me for it; I didn’t care as long as I got what I wanted in the end.

But the difference between him, Tony Stark, and I is that I had wonderful and caring parents and had a sweet and loving fiance down the lines.

And… a couple of years have passed, and things happened.

I resigned at the young age of 34 and went to live the rest of my life peacefully in my mansion... alone.

*****

***

*

-Beep! Beep! Beep!

The sound of the alarm woke me up, and I groggily opened my eyes.

Staring into the ceiling, I thought about the things I could do today.

-Beep! Beep! Beep!

Yes, yes, I know it’s time for me to move. There’s no time for me to waste, even though there is time for me to waste, 24 hours to be exact.

-Beep! Beep! Beep!

Aargh! “Shut up!” Annoyed by the sound, I grabbed a pillow and was about to throw it at the digital alarm clock sitting on the desk until I remembered that I could hit the few picture frames beside it, so I calmed down.

[Master] a feminine mechanical voice came from the speaker on the left, and my eye twitched as my calmness was immediately replaced with annoyance.

“Sigh, FRIDAY, I’m once again asking you to call me anything but that. ‘Sir’, ‘boss’, anything but that. I’m not a fan of roleplay.” I rubbed my forehead in frustration.

[But master~] her voice was somehow able to change from a mechanical one to a luscious voice.

Heh, that voice may work on lonely NEETs, but I’m no ordinary NEET because I’m no virgin!

“I will wipe you out and replace you if you really don’t stop with that,” I threatened.

[Hehe, no, you won’t.]

I sighed internally. She’s, unfortunately, right. I won’t do that.

I can’t do that.

‘Following Rigorous Instruction Day After Year,’ or what I like to call her, ‘FRIDAY,’ is the first and possibly the last AI I made and ever need. She was created by yours truly at the age of 14 and has been with me ever since.

Her calling me master may or may not have been her way of getting revenge against me since I used to train her 24/7 just to do basic tasks.

But can you blame me? I mean, she was at the start just a bunch of ones and zeroes; she had no actual awareness needed for my tasks. If I want her to become useful, she needs her neural networks to be trained, smart, and adaptable.

-Beep! Beep! Beep!

The annoying sound of the alarm clock snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Sigh, FRIDAY, turn it off.” Thanks to her years of development, I don’t have to specify to her what exactly to turn off.

[Yes, boss.] She then paused for a moment before the beeping noise from the alarm finally stopped.

The first hour of my morning, and I’m already off to a good start.

I took a deep breath before getting off my bed and doing some light stretches, popping a few joints.

Then I went to the bathroom to wash myself up.

After a few minutes, I went out with a towel wrapped around my waist. Then, heading to the closet, my figure was reflected in the mirror beside it.

Oddly enough, even though I haven’t exercised in years and have been pretty much neglecting my diet, I barely have any fats, although I did lose my lean and somewhat muscular appearance. Not that I need them anyway with what I’m doing now. Though I do need to shave, I soon shrugged my shoulders at that thought. Too lazy to do that. Maybe next time.

Shaking my head, I opened my closet and dressed myself in comfortable dark gray sweatpants and a matching white shirt.

Then, I went to the desk, grabbed a yoyo in the drawer, and skillfully played with it as I headed outside my room.

My destination was my office, which was in the attic down the hallway to the right.

As I walked, FRIDAY’s voice came once again. She said, [Anyway, boss, Major ‘Dick in Ass’ has requested fo—]

“Not a chance.” Before FRIDAY could finish, I coldly cut her off. I’m not dealing with him again.

[Boss, it may be out of line for me, but I truly think he has repented for what he said that time.]

I snickered at what she said and continued to play with the yoyo as I walked. So what if he repented? It doesn’t change the fact that he said it straight to my face.

[Boss, you have been good friends for many years. Are you really going to have it ruined because of one mistake he made? He’s has been—]

“FRIDAY.” I cut her off with the coldest voice I could bring. “That isn’t for you or for him to decide. Besides, it’s exactly because we’ve been friends for years I want nothing to do with him.”

As I walked down the hallway, pictures of me, my fiance, and my parents came to view. Immediately, my expression softened. “He knows very well what I felt about that time, yet he said those. For the country? What bullshit.

“Besides, he’s most likely saying that because he’s been demoted from being a well-respected General after they found out that he’s ‘the reason’ I retired and stopped the whole weapons business.

“Tell him that if he keeps bothering me, I won’t hesitate to make his life a living hell, starting with revealing his dark browser history. He should know what I mean.”

What’s in his browser history, you may ask? Nothing special, really, aside from the disgusting crap he’d do anonymously. It was only by chance I found it; it’s a good thing I didn’t erase the data. After all, I now have some dirt in him.

[Sigh, I understand, boss. I’ll tell him right away.] With that said, her voice disappeared.

Though she’s technically not near me, she can still hear me, so I said, “Next time, don’t ever bring him up again. What I said earlier about wiping you out, it wouldn’t end as a joke.” Except it pretty much will; she’s all I have left, and I know she means well.

Stopping in my tracks, I sighed. I’m getting attached to something that doesn’t physically exist. Haha, if this keeps up, I may end up marrying her.

Ahem, anyway, I continued my way to my office, which I finally reached. In front of me was a steel door that could only be unlocked with a registered fingerprint.

After placing my thumb in the scanner, a beeping noise sounded, and the door opened, revealing the staircase to my attic.

I went up, and the room was dim. Then, placing my hand on a blurred window panel, the room’s lights turned on as the window panel became fully transparent, revealing my office.

My office had multiple series of holograms and monitors around, all connected to one powerful supercomputer. It would look like a state-of-the-art laboratory if it weren’t for the scattered random junks around and the messy pile of papers.

I quickly maneuvered towards my main desk on the far left side of the room without stepping on the junk on the floor and switched on my computer.

Then, I opened the browser, and as soon as it opened, countless email notifications appeared on my screen, annoying me, but there was one that caught my eye.

A familiar user sent it, so I opened it up.

==================

Sent by: [email protected]

Subject: Return?

Wassup, author!

I wazz just wondrin’ if you evah gon’ complete yow completely radical web novel, yo! This reader here haz realized that yow haven’t been back in the crib of web novels for a while now, yo! I abso-f’ing-lutely love yow work, so I do hope you aint droppin dis like itz in some battle royal, yo!

Thazz juzz it for today, yo!

Peace!

==================

“Oh god…” I pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration. The way its content is formatted was just… unexplainable, truly. It’s just so cringy; it’s like seeing your parents act like they’re cool or back in their youth just because they used slang that doesn’t even make any sense in the current context or situation. Except in my case, they’re no parent of mine, and it’s so obvious that he’s trying so hard to sound like a cool young teen, but they obviously failed. I mean, who the hell uses ‘radical’ or ‘yo’ nowadays, much less in an email!

Now, I’m starting to regret writing that horrendous junk they call a web novel.