(A/N: Sorry for the short chapter everyone! The next chapter will be longer because it’s going to have the extra third that was supposed to be on the end of this that I decided would actually fit better in the next chapter! Sorry!)

"Charlie, you are one fucked-up individual." It was Leaf that had suddenly awoken me from my slumber.

"Huawah?" I make a stupefied expression with my half awoken body.

"You can only imagine my surprise when I had woken up to my alarm and then went to wake you up as well, only to discover a little girl in your bed!" Right, Leaf wasn't aware of Charlotte's existence yet. He didn't go shopping with all of us last night after all.

"Oh... She's... Umm... She's Charlotte, an assistance A.I." I didn't really explain anything but I had still made an attempt. That's better than nothing, right?

******

Knowing that there was no other way of explaining the situation to Leaf, I opted to introduce them. Leaf was hesitant at first but eventually managed to understand the situation, somewhat.

"Ohhh, you're so cute Charlie! Threatening me over a candy bar because you didn't want Charlotte to be sad. Truly a father like figure!" At this point I swung my leg towards Leaf's family jewels.

'A direct hit!' or so I thought. Leaf was quite the speedy fellow and had jumped backwards, as if he had known the kick was coming well before I had attempted it. He probably did, actually.

"You're so predictable Charlie! Something like that would never get me!" at this point leaf was just mocking me.

"You bastard!" I had accidentally retaliated with a growl. Charlotte was clearly frightened from my uproar. I knew when it was time to move on and let the past be the past.

"Charlie do you have my candy bar still?" Charlotte clearly absorbed key parts of the conversation or at least the parts that were relevant to her. It was interesting how quickly she had forgotten about me yelling, the frightened look already having disappeared.

"Yeah, yeah. It's in the cupboard, come on." Ignoring Leaf, Charlotte and I went to the cupboard where I got her the candy bar.

Handing Charlotte the candy bar, her face instantly lit up.

"Thank you!~" Her voice had taken on a cheerful tone which was somewhat refreshing. What was I supposed to do with her today? I was obviously intending on dumping her on to the girls, however, it suddenly dawned on me that they would be busy the entire day with work.

Well fuck. What would I do now? I really didn't have any option but to take her along with me. Babysitting, perfect. Maybe there would be some kind of upside to it, no, that would be too convenient, wouldn't it? Yep.

"Alright Charlie I'll see you later, okay? It's almost 8:00 and I'm supposed to be meeting up with Crystal and Elizabeth now, see-ya!" And before I could even so much as give a nod he was out the door.

Out of the corner of my eyes I could see Charlotte. She was in the middle of trying to eat the candy bar and didn't even seem to notice that Leaf had left. She was often quite clueless, wasn't she?

Charlotte had finally looked up from her candy bar and noticed that Leaf had left.

"When did he leave?" She had a serious look on her face but didn't seem to really understand what was going on.

"Millennia ago, my child." I had put on a fake voice that I had attempted to make sound like an old man. It had actually partially worked. I was mildly surprised with myself.

"I'm not a little kid, meanie." Charlotte had began her childishly devious pout. I would never tell her that I secretly liked it, nor anyone else.

"Do you want to come with me today or not?"

"F-fine." And with that, Charlotte had resigned from the opposition.

***Perspective Change***

I wonder if Charlie will be okay today... Was he really going to be able to handle Charlotte all by himself? All I could really do was hope.

"Crystal, stop losing focus otherwise we will be late!"

"I'm really sorry I get distracted easily by small things..."

"It must suck living in an Asian country than!" What does Leaf mean? I really didn't understand.

*slap counter 4*

"I dare you to say that again." Elizabeth suddenly attacked Leaf without warning.

"It must suck liv-"

*slap counter 5*

Abruptly, before Leaf could finish his sentence he had received yet another slap. It was not Elizabeth's brightest side but I felt like she did it for me and I came to respect her even more.

"You had your warning." Leaf was currently on the ground with a red face. The smirk having left his face. Elizabeth really could be scary sometimes.

"Elizabeth, where will we be working, anyway?" I really didn't know much about this job. Elizabeth had told me that we'd be cleaning for a large company that was in urgent need of 5 new janitors. Luckily for them, they hired us three in such a short time. It was highly likely that the two spare positions were already gone.

"Paleria Corp." I wasn't familiar with the name but it did sound big. I mean, it had 'Corporation' on the end of it.

"So we're just cleaning, right?"

"Well, yeah. That and apparently cleaning toilets, I believe."

It didn't sound the best but after this month was up I could do anything I wanted. I wonder how the rest of the group are doing.

***Perspective Change***

"Howard, we're not getting anywhere." I was getting tired from this repetitive job hunt.

"Marcus, don't give up. Have hope!"

"Why should I? Do you propose that I should also have had hope with the physical examination? We all know how good that turned out." I respond sarcastically in every possible way, making sure to clearly portray my annoyance.

"We'll find something eventually. You just need to believe."

The majority of the red team had joined together after we had failed miserably against the salients. Combining all our money was enough to purchase a decent sized place for all of us to stay in.

Rex and Max had somehow managed to secure jobs at a construction site. It suited them in a way because they had a really high strength stat. Most of us were around 40-55 while they were both in the high 70's with their strength.

Howard and I had went through building after building trying to get a job while the others like Ethan, April and Scott had also been looking. It really wasn't going too well.

A few of the others had to log off at night in the game and still hadn't logged back in. They had stuff to do apparently. I didn't delve deeper into any of it. Our offline lives weren't anyone's business.

It was still early in the day and we were looking for work. I did not want to run out of time on the tutorial because I had a late start. Approaching another large building, Howard and I had read the name on the outside of the building.

"McJohnald's"

What the hell is this? That's a blatant rip-off, clearly.

"Are you seeing this, Howard?"

"Of course I am, and it's our last resort so shut up." Howard had suddenly become bitter which was unusual because I hadn't seen him like this since the physical examination.

"I'm going to have to work at a damn fast food chain?" This was really going to be horrible.

******

"You two have got the job. It's always good to see hard working individuals such as yourselves trying your best. I'll call you both with all the details by tomorrow, alright?"

It was the interviewer. We had managed to land ourselves a job at McJohnald's.

Important Notice!

You have managed to obtain a job through legitimate means!

With a legitimate job you can earn a steady pay!

Good-luck with burgers though, ehhh.

Despite what we had first thought, it didn't seem like a job with them would be all too bad.

"Thanks Sir. We really appreciate it!" Howard had shown the man our gratitude. Finally, we were done.

Friends Online:

Howard Ypres

April May

Ethan Hall

Max Power

Rex Chester

Annalise Kurtis

Contacts Online:

McJohnald's Interviewer(Adrian Fisher)

All of the sudden the man popped up as a contact. It was really convenient because we were about to add him to our contact list anyway.

Everyone had decided on not changing their first name in an attempt to prevent confusion. It was a good idea really, why would you want to change your first name anyway?

Howard and I finally leave the interview room with a skip in our step. We were going to bring good news back to everyone after all!

***Perspective Change***

"What are we going to do today, Charlie?~" Charlotte had spoken up towards me. I would happily answer the question but the truth was that I really weren't sure. All I knew was that what Crystal had suggested - that I start my own business - was the key.

After debating internally on how to answer for a good half of a minute, I decide on the simplest answer possible.

"I'm going to start a business."

"A business?"

"Yeah."

"What kind of business?" She had a smile on her face indicating that she was excited.

"I'm not too sure..." She seemed to sink down into her chair at my words.

After a few more minutes had past her face lit up with its former healthy glow.

"A food stand!!!~" I face-palmed on the inside because this entire time she had just been thinking about food.

"You're that hungry?" I glance back over to Charlotte as I burn my words into her mind.

"N-no..." She starts mumbling off into nothing and I hear her stomach grumble while she turns red, "I meant that you should feed other people! People need food!" Charlotte had finally said something that made sense. The only problem was that food was made from ingredients. Ingredients I didn't have cheap access to, meaning that I would either lose money or hardly gain anything.

"It wouldn't work, I can't make money from it because ingredients cost too much." Charlotte's face had once again drained of color and sunk into the couch she was sitting on.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine, alright?" Charlotte didn't even look up at me, let alone give some kind of clue acknowledging my existence. Was she alright?

Walking closer I go to nudge her but before I can,

"I know!!~" What? She had suddenly burst out of her chair and had lunged towards me. My world slows down as she approaches me at high speed.

Dodging to the side just in time, my eyes widen as I become aware that she had planned on me dodging. She reached her short arms out and latched onto me from the front. I had fallen backwards from the sudden force from her momentum spreading through me.

Landing on my back, Charlotte was laying on top of me.

"I can get you ingredients!~" I was still in a daze but I still could make out her words.

"Y-you can?" How was she supposed to get me ingredients?

"Yeah!~ I can spawn them!!" She was right! But, was an assistant A.I supposed to assist to this degree?

"You will?" My lips had curled into a smile at the thought. Free ingredients, maximum profits, no expenditures. The perfect fucking business.

"Yeah! Lemonade, let's do lemonade!~" A lemonade stand? I felt like I was eleven all over again. I would have preferred something else but it did have its charms.

"Alright, where do we start?" Putting an excited look on my face, I was genuinely for the first time in how-many-years excited.

***Perspective Change***

Mopping the tiles, bit by bit I slowly edged my way over the entire bathroom. It was horrible. Crystal and Elizabeth had gotten incredibly lucky and were simply vacuuming offices.

Because I was getting bored I decide to skim over my stat page. My name was still 'Leaf' and my stats were still the same as yesterday. I didn't expect them to change at all but it still felt odd. The only thing that had actually changed was that my stat page had changed to show I now had a job at Paleria Corporation as a janitor.

It turned out that Paleria Corporation was an insurance agency. NPCs and Players could apply and pay a set fee to receive some form of support in the event of an accident.

The main difference was that NPCs would get insurance for their health and personal belongings, while players would get insurance on their money and personal belongings.

When an NPC died, they really died. They may have a stats page and an inventory, but in the end, this was still reallife for them. Players on the other hand, when they died they would receive many penalties and would also have to wait a day in real time before reconnecting. 8 days would pass while you were gone! It was really outrageous.

The many penalties that a player would face would be all cash on hand and 2% of all money stored in bank accounts would be lost. Additionally, a player would also lose many things in their inventory. The only thing that was never affected was one's stats.

Although it wasn't like conventional games, in Economicalopoly, stats wouldn't be lost from death simply because stats were a representation of the real you. It wouldn't make any sense for a player to suddenly lose stats that the system had spent so long calculating. Besides, your real body didn't change from dying in-game.

Enough of that, currently I was mopping the floors of the men's bathroom. Almost being finished, I feel freedom coming as I can finally leave the bathroom! Wait... Dammit! I still need to wipe down the mirrors, refill the soap dispensers and change the toilet paper...

Today was going to be a long day. I could feel it.

******

"Ehhhh...." I could feel my body melting into a pile of sludge. Being a janitor wasn't easy. After I had finished with the bathroom, I was instructed to clean windows with Crystal and Elizabeth. Afterwards we were finally allowed to go out on a lunch break.

We had moved to the company's cafeteria and had started eating our lunch, this is where we were now. We were talking about VR and I had asked if this was everyone's first time.

Surprisingly Elizabeth had explained that she had played Death's Bridge before Economicalopoly but she didn't like that the majority of the game was simply fighting. It wasn't fun at all, according to her.

On the other hand, this was mine and Crystal's first time in VR. Eventually the conversation led to me asking about Charlotte.

Crystal had begun talking about Charlotte, filling me in on everything that Charlie had skipped over when suddenly Elizabeth interrupted.

"Crystal, what's going on between you and Charlie?" Crystal suddenly jumped back at the attack on her. Slowly her cheeks took on a pink shade. It was funny so I inadvertently let out a short laugh.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about..." Crystal response got quieter and quieter as she neared the end of it.

"Leaf, help me out here!" Suddenly being dragged into the new conversation wasn't pleasant so I just pretended not to hear Elizabeth.

***End of Chapter***

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Chapter RSS About the author 3 Fictions 1 Posts 0 Threads EL-S Follow Author Sunday, September 20, 2015 2:16:28 PM Tuesday, September 22, 2015 2:08:01 PM Australia Unmotivated Sloth http://www.freethepenguins.cum

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