Chapter 3: I’m Quitting Comes Next Year

"Oh no, I'm not here to play." Gerard denied it.

"What are you here for then?" the man asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I saw the poster you have outside and was wondering if I could apply," Gerard said, smiling.

"Oh, is that so? Apologies!" The man laughed.

"I'm Bandit Augustin, the owner of this little gaming shop, and you are?"

"My name's Gerard Smith"

"Welcome; since I dare to say that there is no requirement, I will not require you to provide one. Being a youth goes to show that you know a thing or two about technology. You're hired from now on; I'll settle your papers later. You may start today or tomorrow; you choose."

With the bombardment of words by Bandit, Gerard didn't get to intervene, so he let him finish before clearing up some things.

"I'm hired right now? What about my resume? You're not gonna take a look at it?"

"Do I look like I'm joking? The resume isn't needed; I already said that I'm not looking for any requirements except being able to handle technology. Seeing that you can handle it, you're hired; no need to ask more questions."

"You can see the state of my gaming store; it's not very popular, isn't it?"

Gerard could only nod in response to the owner's question.

"Don't be so awkward. I established my store quite recently, though I can't say that about the building. This is the reason for the lack of customers. With time, it will grow," Bandit said as assurance.

"You only have a simple job; you'll stay here on the first floor and be the one directing the customers to their seats. You don't need to speak too much; get the money, then using the main monitor, unlock an open slot for them. It's that easy. You can do anything when there is no customer."

"By the way, the salary I will give you is 5,000 dollars per month. It's the average minimum wage, and I hope you wouldn't have any negative reaction over that."

Five thousand dollars monthly? That's $4,000 more than the salary from the convenience store. What the f***! If I knew of this earlier, I could've lived a better life. Gerard was crying on the inside.

"Um, owner, when did you establish this store?"

"I think it was about a year ago. Why?"

"Nothing..." Gerard was crying on the inside. How did he not find this shop? What a wasteful year. Upon further thought, he realized why he hadn't found this shop. His apartment is in the downtown area, so he looked for a job near there.

No use lamenting about it; now his life is turning a little better step by step.

'After the end of this year, I'll quit the trash-paying job,' he thought

"How about it? Are you going to work tomorrow?" Either will suffice because I'll still pay you five thousand dollars in a couple of days, although you haven't worked for a month yet. Still, the holiday bonus is out of the question. As you know, you're newly hired, and the end of the month is only six days away.

"Since I do not have anything to do at the moment, I'll stay," Gerard said.

Bandit brought him to the side counter, where two computers are side by side.

"I've already given this computer another master key for all computers, the same as this one, which is mine; feel free to use it, except for illegal things," Bandit joked.

"I know you already know that, so break a leg; I'll sleep for a while upstairs." While saying that, Bandit was already walking upstairs.

Gerard didn't know whether to laugh or cry; the owner is so bold to let a newbie take charge. Bandit even left as soon as he hired Gerard. Then again, this goes to show the trust Bandit decided to give him. This also gave him the privacy he needed to conduct some stock trading. With his pride on the line, he would not jeopardize his job or goal.

Seeing that no customers were trying to enter, he decided to focus on his goal first: practicing his stock market skills in the hopes of making thousands of dollars. Gerard knew that even with expert-level skill, he would not be able to get millions of dollars soon. A master must also progress step by step; his advantage is that he knows what he's doing better than anyone currently living. There's no way he can mess this up; only God can probably defeat him.

He would be faced with a questioning look if he said it aloud. The celebration for the descent of the God of Light is near, and he dares to say that he is the only way below God. Isn't it saying that he is near to being equal to God? That would be very rude and disrespectful, not only to God but also to the believers. He isn't the kind of person who maligns someone or something.

He booted up his PC. He hadn't realized it before, but the computers in the shop are all brand new and of the highest quality. All of the 30 PCs in the store are HP Envy 34s, which cost around 70,000 dollars in total. The three main PCs are even more costly, with a combined price of roughly 90,000 dollars. If he correctly hypothesized, all things, including the computers and the building itself, would cost roughly half a million dollars.

This frightened Gerard. Only curses surge in his brain right now; Gerard's net worth is f***ing zero, while the owner of this establishment is operating a store with a 500,000-dollar capital. It might even be much larger than it seems.

Is Bandit a millionaire? Or even a multi-millionaire? Is he, like his name suggests, a bandit of some sort?

He couldn't believe it; with everyone he'd met, the most they could have was a hundred-dollar net worth, and now he was working with a tycoon—the type of tycoon who can waste his money on computers but not the building he bought. That is insanity. He struck it rich this time.

Even if he knows what will happen in the future or if he only dissected his system, he will cough up blood if he realizes that being a millionaire is not that much if he wants to use the system at its best. There's just no helping it; acquiring power is not that easy.

After relaxing quite a bit, dealing with tension is not his strong suit, but dealing with negativity—now that's a different story.

With the PC now booted up and the multiple intricacies of its motherboard paired with the amazing lighting and customization, he was led to wonder how good it felt to use one of these. The so-called realm of the "rich" is so much fun if you come from an ordinary household.

The computer lacked a password and may not have been opened yet. He was delighted for some reason; a computer not touched is always good.

Anyway, we went to a browser and downloaded the most influential and successful stock trading company, YE Trading. It was hailed as the most successful stock market since its release 23 years ago.

It has never been defeated by any other company, and its stock has not collapsed in the period it has been running.

Gerard took a look at the current status of the stocks. He was shocked to see how stable the trading market was. Other stock trading companies would have their stocks plummet quite slightly, but this one is surely increasing, though only by a slow amount. Still, an increase is a positive thing. Who would not like an increasing money flow?

He reviewed the stock market to see if the knowledge that he had gained could earn him a lot of money. As he still doesn't have the funds to start making money through this, he wanted to know if the skill he acquired would work on the biggest stock market to date.

Even if we were to gain the fund now, he wouldn't want to steal from YE Trading; he would rather start small, obliterate small companies, and get all their stocks. It's not that he doesn't want to bask in the glory of YE Trading, but rather, what if he takes over the company? He doesn't know what the f**k to do; his only skill right now is stock trading; he doesn't know a f**k about business management.

Though, when he thought about it, he could just hire the CEO of the company to still work there. That way, his identity will not be revealed, and the company will still be on track.

It will still depend on the attitude of the owner as to whether the owner wants to be hired by the very same person who stole his company. If Gerard was asked, he knew he wouldn't; his pride again wouldn't allow him to do so.