Chapter 123: Big Strides

Given Aiden had woken up earlier than usual, he opted to begin knocking out some of his daily quests.

In fact, it was still 4:15 am in the morning by the time the coal-haired youth stepped out for his run, an hour earlier than his usual schedule of 5:30 am.

Before long, the morning sun rightfully took its place high in the sky, and by then, he had arrived home, taken his bath and had already made breakfast, much to a lot of appreciation from his Pops whom was utterly famished from the night before.

That said...

"And here I thought I was going to sleep in," Richard remarked with a palpable sense of unbridled energy to him whilst rolling his shoulders and flexing his arms.

"I have to say, that beauty sleep must’ve worked like a charm." he added with a satisfied nod to which Aiden agreed, his eyes glinting in amusement and a light smile on his lips;

"I’m sure it did, Pops."

Casually, the youth cleared the table and his Pops made his way over to the bathroom to take a shower.

Though SlurpPAK had already finished producing all units of Aiden’s beverages a couple days back and had landed right on schedule as planned, they’d been working out the details of the transportation with him.

That, especially, was what had added a few extra days to the delivery of his products.

Not that Aiden minded. It was still within the same span of time he’d planned out and had even accounted for delays ahead of time so things were pretty much on-track for him.

Thankfully, today also happened to also be a weekend--Saturday to be specific, hence making it the perfect time to have all his products delivered.

Currently leaning backwards, his frame resting onto the kitchen counter, Aiden casually pulled up one of the skills he’d been intending to get whilst sipping on a hot cup of coffee.

-

{Directing} – [3 LP]

└ Claim using 3 LP?

-

Unsurprisingly, this was from the {Novice} section of the shop, and Aiden already didn’t even want to imagine how much LPs the {Intermediate} grade of the skill would cost him.

Still, he went ahead with it and bought the skill anyway, leaving him with a measly 0.285LPs.

In typical fashion, a surge of information was crammed into his head, yet as opposed to all the previous times a wave of vertigo would hit him, he remained just dandy this time around.

Perks of his upgraded Mind attribute of course.

’Now that only leaves me with upgrading my {Video Editing} skills...’ Aiden said to himself as he took another sip of his coffee.

With his beverages set to hit the market a day from now, Aiden was finally ready to kick phase two of his plan to get DeathWish to as many people as possible into motion.

To do that, he knew would have to make a really good ad, one that looked like it was shot by a professional.

It was why he’d gone right ahead and purchased the {Directing} skill to bolster his skill set.

Not because he himself wanted to film it, but because he simply wanted to have the general knowledge of what it was like film anything for that matter.

That, he believed, was the only way he’d be able to convey his exact vision to whatever film crew and indie actors he ultimately decided to hire for said advertisements.

That said, there was one person he already had in mind to include in one of his ads... one he’d realized was very talented a while back after assessing her stats.

Said person, was none other than his very own girlfriend. Afterall, when her stats looked like this...

-

[Clarissa Hale]

⸢Stats

› Mind — B-

› Strength — C+

› Stamina — C+

› Agility — C+

› Charm — A+

⸢Skills

› {Acting - I}, {Gardening - A}, {Modelling - I}, {Fashion Designing - I}, {Cooking - I}, {Singing - N}, {Driving - N}.

-

...well, it was hard to not be utterly impressed and admittedly proud of her.

Besides, what kind of a man would he be if he knew he could help his lady achieve her dreams and didn’t position her for worthwhile opportunities that could help her reach them.

Putting those thoughts on the backburner for the meantime, the youth soon found himself pondering why healing the last of his Pop’s condition had reduced to a surprising 7LPs instead of 10LPs like he’d been expectant of.

’Perhaps the medications were in fact doing their job...’

That was the only feasible explanation he found himself coming to.

Simply glad that his Pops was healthy once more, Aiden found himself dismissing the thoughts just as his old man walked back into the living room, clearly brimming with energy.

Meanwhile, a side-load truck had pulled into the street, the quiet rumbling of its engine informing all and sundry of its arrival in the usually quiet residence.

Seconds after, it came to a stop before Aiden’s home, he and his Pops immediately walking out the door with a palpable eagerness.

Stepping out the door after briefly looking at his phone--presumably the delivery app--for details, the delivery driver asked of the both individuals for clarification;

"North residence?"

"Yes." Aiden and Richard replied simultaneously.

"Alright then," the man nodded and then gestured to the delivery helpers whom had already stepped out, both men pulling the side of the truck open upon reaching their side;

"Twenty-five thousand units of Death Wish, folks. Let’s get to it."

Promptly, they began offloading the product, both individuals alongside the delivery driver offloading the product whilst passing some over to Aiden and his Pops.

Like clockwork, they then carried them into the house. Having planned ahead, they placed it in the guest room which they rarely ever used but had repurposed and re-arranged for the meantime.

It also helped that it was more than cool enough for them to keep them stored, as Richard and his son had got around to replacing the busted AC a couple days ago after several years of ignoring it.

Though the drink’s carbonation and general production had extended the product’s shelf-life by a good margin, they knew better than to not ensure it wasn’t stored in a cool environment.

’Those electricity bills are gonna skyrocket this month though, that’s for sure.’ Aiden thought to himself as he and his Pops shuffled out the house to pick up another ten packs each.

Even then, the stacked packs already waiting for them had more than tripled as the men offloading did it with immediate alacrity. Afterall, they did have other places they needed to be at.

Considering the packs numbered in a thousand and forty-two packs though, Aiden and his Pops knew they still had a long way to go before they were done with it all.

Thankfully, two familiar vehicles rolled into the neighborhood a couple minutes later.

Quickly, Benjamin, Clyde and Larry jumped out of the Jeep, as did Casper and Theo who exited the blonde-haired youth’s Lexus upon parking nearby.

"Just in time!" Aiden remarked with a grin, a clear appreciation to his tone as the gang swiftly joined in, all of them exchanging greetings and pleasantries amongst themselves and with Richard.

"How are you even managing to carry ten that easily?!" Casper asked of his buddy, he and the rest of the gang realizing that what he and his Pops were doing wasn’t normal by any stretch of the imagination when they tried it out for themselves.

Richard, they could understand. He was a construction manager that probably lifted beams and other heavy shit on a day-to-day basis so why would ten 24-pack bottles be a problem to him.

Aiden’s on the other hand, was just absurd. Not that it stopped the coal-haired youth from trolling the gang, his grin smug as all hell;

"Do you even cultivate, bro?"

"Fuck you!" all five with the exception of Theo whom was laughing with his mirth on full-display cussed him out!

Knowing his limits, the curly-haired youth had simply carried three and made his way in without even trying his hand at the absurdity that was Aiden’s and his father’s strength.

Soon enough, the boys adjusted to their individual strength and soon began trooping in and out of the house like a kicked anthill, the stacked packs outside whittling faster now.

At the same time, their neighbors noticed, and though most simply watched in curiosity, their immediate neighbors did in fact come around to help, though everyone was dead-set on preventing little Joey from thinking he was one of his fictional superheroes.

Still, they gave him the task of ’opening’ the doors for them, one he seemed rather glad to be involved in.

Roughly an hour later, they’d packed in all the products, gave a brief download of what the product was to their neighbors whom were rather curious, appreciated their help and then waved them goodbye after handing over a pack as a token of appreciation for their help.

Crashing onto the living room sofas, some of them lying flat on the plush carpet, Richard alongside his ’sons’ began conversing.

With everything now accounted for, and hotspots ready to go, they were all looking forward to the official launch of Aiden’s beverage product come Monday.

Given how much work he had put into it, they were all crossing their fingers that it did extremely well.

Afterall, much like Aiden had pushed them to taking big strides towards their own goals, they wanted his to be just as much of a resounding success.