Chapter 100: Cogs and Wheels

The first week of May had arrived.

With it came the AP exams for several students, some of which they had already done a day or two earlier.

Just yesterday, Aiden happened to have written his AP Computer Science exams, one he’d been certain he would get a distinction in.

At the moment, he was currently seated in a familiar class, one that had served, not only as their practice room for the decathlon, but also the testing room for the AP Calculus exams.

Seated a couple chairs ahead of him was Theo, the youth’s fingers gently drumming on his designated desk as he alongside a couple others awaited their scripts to be distributed.

Aiden was much the same, albeit he had an arm gently propping his chin as he kept mulling over the hoops he’d have to go through to get his beverage business on the road.

For one, Aiden didn’t intend to dump all his hard-earned funds into the model. That would just be complacently stupid.

Rather, he intended to scale things up gradually, hence why he had plans to find a worthwhile co-packer to handle most of the grunt work.

On paper, starting a beverage brand seemed relatively easy enough.

Formulate a drink people would like, find a willing investor, produce the goods, market the product, sell and make some nice profit.

Yet, the cogs and wheels between all those stages was as intricate as things could get.

There were recipes to refine, nutritional values to calculate, shelf life to test, packaging to figure out, labels to design, permits to acquire, and a mountain of logistical headaches that came with simply getting a bottle from a factory into someone’s hands.

And that was before marketing even entered the equation.

Thankfully, Aiden wasn’t trying to build some massive corporation overnight.

He had quite a hefty sum at his disposal, yes, but nowhere near enough to start throwing around carelessly.

Which was why, he’d figured that the smart move was to test the waters first with a small production run and a limited distribution model.

Then, if the numbers looked promising, he’d invest more and scale things up.

If it didn’t?

Well, he would have learned a rather expensive lesson without completely gutting his savings.

He would also need to go right back to the drawing board, of course. Because even if he failed on his first attempt at it, Aiden had no plans of giving up till he made it work.

’Still...’ he pondered.

’More established co-packers won’t do...’ he gently yet continuously tapped a finger on his cheek.

’I’d have to find a new startup so I can equally scale-up with them as well...’ his thoughts continued.

’Besides, it’s bound to be a low capital investment, though the production units would be just as low...’ he bobbed his head slightly from side to side.

’But that’s exactly what I want so, it’d be perfect.’ he nodded slightly, to which he then tilted his head thoughtfully;

’And if I manage to make enough money from other ventures, I could always buy the company down the line. Would make my segue into the brewery business that much smoother.’

No sooner had the youth settled on that decision, his question sheets landed softly on his table, courtesy of Mr. Lazlow.

Tossing the thoughts to the back of his mind, Aiden adjusted in his seat as the man began giving instructions a couple seconds after;

"Alright, everyone. Listen up,"

"Read each question carefully. If you don’t know an answer, move on and come back to it later. Do not spend five minutes staring at one problem as though the answer is going to magically reveal itself out of pity." he advised.

"But most importantly, check your work before submitting. I would hate to see someone lose points because they forgot a sign." he gestured with a pointed finger to which he declared afterwards, hands clasped behind his back;

"You have three hours. You may begin."

...

...

...

Aiden had just submitted his scripts when his system chimed and pinged into his field of view.

-

[Quest Completed!]

⸢Time-limited Quests

› Am I cooked chat?

└ Achieve a 3.5 GPA before graduation – [2 LP Awarded!]

-

Aiden was pleasantly surprised.

Sure, he’d been well-aware he would tick off the quest soon, he hadn’t expected it to be this soon.

In his mind, he had relegated it to the third week of May, as that was when they would write their final year exams.

That said, he understood just why it was happening nonetheless.

For one, he’d been involved in so many extracurricular activities and his grades has been so stellar, he had garnered enough to get his GPA extremely close to the mark.

That said, he wouldn’t actually be getting his transcript until the day of graduation, which meant the only thing he had to go by, was his mental calculations.

Unsurprisingly, he also happened to have calculated that even if somehow, someway he didn’t manage to get a distinction in his AP exams, he would’ve easily crossed the 3.5 CGPA mark nonetheless.

Hence, the quest completion notification.

In any case, as the exam was the last order of business for the day, Aiden soon made his way home after discussing a couple things regarding the new game they were working on with Theo.

The youth had just stepped through the door when his phone vibrated in his pocket, the sound of the bank alert notification music to his ears.

At the same time, a familiar sound dinged withing he confines of his mind, the panel phasing into his field of view.

-

-

[Quest Completed!]

⸢Time-limited Quests

› Don’t get comfortable, big dog.

└ Make $500,000 before your fiscal year end – [7 LP Awarded!]

-

Aiden didn’t bother retrieving his phone to check the notification just yet.

Instead, he casually made his way into the kitchen to appraise the home-made brandy yet again.

-

› {Homemade Brandy}

Improved by Aiden North, this deep amber, non-alcoholic fruit infusion...

└ Quality: Great.

-

Aiden frowned.

That was the third time he was making the brew ever since he’d employed his {Midas Touch} to offer him improvements and yet, he just happened to be a step below the max grade.

’Perhaps my {Brewing} skills aren’t there yet...?’ Aiden pondered, his head tilted in a slight mix of confused curiosity.

That was the only explanation he could come to as to why he was yet to push it into the next grade.

That, or, this was the limit of making a homemade brew with the limited equipment accessible to him.

Whatever the case may have been, Aiden didn’t intend on dwelling too much on it. He’d be finding out soon anyway.

Making his way up to the room, the slipped into something more comfortable and crashed onto his bed whilst rolling over.

Only then did he pull up his phone to view the credit alert.

-

[Bank Alert]

Credit:+$282,933.00 USD

Reference:Portal Inc.

Status: Completed.

Previous Balance: $445,706.80 USD

Updated Balance: $728,639.20 USD

-

Having moved Casper’s funds to a secure account a couple months back, Aiden’s prior bank balance had been $335,926.80.

That, in addition to the recent 125K+ mobile sales which had come down to $109,780 for him after all was said and done, was what had been in his previous balance.

And with PC sales plateauing at 81K sold copies for [Crashout: Sin City], which had netted them a revenue of $282,933 after the usual 30% publishing cost had been shaved off, Aiden was set to gain $141,466.50 for his 50% cut, hence why his system had updated the quest.

In any case, after moving around the funds and distributing them to his buddies a couple minutes after, Aiden’s bank balance reflected a sum total that was all his.

-

Updated Balance: $587,172.50 USD

-

Placing his phone aside, Aiden then pulled up his system panel afterwards.

-

[Aiden North] – Life Points – [15.615]

⸢Stats

› Mind — S

› Strength — C+

› Stamina — C+

› Agility — C+

› Charm — B+

⸢Skills

› {Type Designing - A}, {Digital Illustration - I}, {Drawing - A}, {Cooking - A}, {Brewing - I}, {Singing - I}, {Dancing - I}, {Writing - N}, {Lettering - I}, {Driving - N}, {Programming - I}, {Riding - N}, {Video Editing - I}.

⸢Special Skills

› {Insight}, {Midas Touch}.

⸢Titles

› {Expand}

⸢Achievements

› {Expand}

⸢Shop

› Browse Catalogue.

⸢Daily Quests

› {Expand}

⸢Exclusive Quests

› {None}

⸢Time-limited Quests

› {None}

-

⸢FAQ⸥

-

Over the past two weeks, Aiden had earned 2.8LPs, though it had reduced by a teensy-bit (0.05LP) when he’d appraised Mrs. Rodriguez’s sparkling water at the Prom dance.

Still, with the 1.5LPs he’d earned from winning the arm wrestle match with Clarissa’s father, and now, the combined 9LPs from completing his time-limited quests, he had quite the robust number of Life Points.

Perhaps the most he’d ever had at once since he’d gotten the Life System from the strange old man.

In any case, Aiden had long figured out what he wanted to use his LPs beforehand.

It was also why he promptly began distributing them.