He was three pages into an outline before he even noticed the time.
"What are you still doing up? Did you stay up the whole night?
Cassandra’s voice, thick with sleep, came from behind him. She rubbed her eyes before stretching her arms up letting out a muffled groan.
She turned her head to the floating clock that looked more like an animated character with glowing hands and a smiling face.
It was six in the morning.
"I am not tired, looking for some work" Derrick said, closing the laptop. "Go back to sleep, it is weekend you don’t have school."
"Mhm..." She stared at his for a second. "You can wait one day. You don’t even have your memories, what can you do?"
She did not meant to sound cold but that was the truth or the one that he made them believe.
"I will look for something that does not require detailed memories." He replied after a beat of pause.
Cassandra opened her mouth to say something but no words came out. She lowered her head and whispered, "Maybe, I should have chosen to join a guild instead of choosing business administration."
Her voice was soft but the room was so quiet that it reached Derrick without problem.
Without thinking, he snorted and said, "That is idiotic."
Both of them paused before he turned to face Cassie, "What I mean is, from what I have seen, the life of a hunter is a scam. Quick money, glorious titles. It is all show, but no one talks about the dangers they have to face. While what you are doing may take a long time but it will keep you alive long enough to make the big money."
Cassandra pursed her lips. Before she could say anything else, he continued. "Look at it like this. Who gives the hunters their mission and who takes the cuts when their missions are completed?"
"The guilds?"
"The people who manage the guild don’t go out there in the wild to risk their lives for the resources. They make money and use that money to buy resources to make themselves strong." Cassandra finally seemed to have realized what he was talking about.
"So, without risking their lives, they make more money than one hunter because they control so many and they also have the most resources to get thos pills."
Derrick smirked at her response, "Exactly. The road to reach that point is very long but it more worth it than just being one of those hunters."
"What about you?" Cassie suddenly raised her head and looked at him. "What will you do? Become one of the hunters or one who controls them?"
"Me?" Derrick glanced at the system screen that appeared before him and grinned wildly, "I will become The Pill Tycoon."
"Haha." Cassie chuckled, for the first time before him. "You have changed."
Her expression softened as she said those words but Derrick saw some hidden pain behind them.
"I will get back to work. You should sleep."
"Goodnight, Derrick." Cassie nodded and laid back down.
BuZz!
His phone buzzed once before he could turn his attention back to the screen.
He could see the name of the sender through the cracked after titling it a little to the side. There was a cute little snake emoji stitched next to the contact name Gwen.
{You didn’t even try to explain. You just let me walk out.
I don’t even know who you are anymore.
I’m leaving for school tomorrow. Don’t bother texting me.}
He had raised his thumb to type an explanation when he saw the little blocked notice popping up. The silly dp Gwen had of the two of them also turned gray within seconds.
Placing the phone back down, he let out a long sigh.
Did I forget to apologize for existing? Wait, she might know who could have done this to me. Derrick thought, staring at the ceiling in the dark. I’ll ask Gwen tomorrow, she has to know something. Assuming she doesn’t set me on fire on sight.
After writing 5k words of Chapters, he closed the screen. It had taken him less time once the outline was done.
Then he moved to the free bed that belonged to him and closed his eyes.
Sleep hit him like a truck he didn’t see coming.
When the morning arrived, Derrick woke up to the sweet smell of the breakfast and Rebecca standing over the stove like she hadn’t spent yesterday having the worst day of her life.
"Good morning." Cassandra sat on the dining table with a lazy posture in her underwear and a tshirt whose straps were falling from her shoulder. But despite her lazy posture, her face was clean and her hair were neat.
Derrick walked up to the table when Rebecca came out of the kitchen with a basket full of toasts and a small smile on her face.
"How are you holding up, dear?" She turned to look at her son and asked with veiled worry in her eyes. She did not want to put any pressure on him so she did not ask what his plans were and what he wanted to do now. "You should have slept more and focused on recovering."
"I want to find out what happened to me," Derrick told her while taking a seat on the table. "Retrace my steps. Maybe it’ll jog my memory and help me recall."
Something lit up behind Rebecca’s tired eyes.
Hope.
And Derrick’s innate skill caught it instantly, making him feel like garbage for lying to her by omission.
"Eat first," she said, already reaching for his plate to pile on more. "You went out that morning to buy your PED. You’d saved almost ten thousand Social Credits for it, over years." She paused, hands going still. "You never came home with it."
"You even lost your money too and I found you lying in the street with nothing on you at all." She suddenly gasped and asked, "Were you robbed?"
She did not expect an answer form him but it sounded more like a sound guess one could make.
Robbed, Derrick thought. Except robbery doesn’t usually end in transmigration. Who could be responsible for this.
...
The pill store wasn’t far.
A cramped little shopfront wedged between a noodle stand and something that might have been a pawnshop, its windows plastered with faded ads for products with names like Vitality Face Cream, Iron Veins Powder.
"Good morning sir. How may I help you today?" As soon as he stepped through the front gate, a clerk came up to help him out.
"I want to ask you something..." Derrick deduced to ask the man if he had seen him come here yesterday.
The clerk behind the counter remembered Derrick’s face immediately.
He told Derrick that he had bought exactly one unit of the cheapest PED, cash, left through the front door around seven that evening.
That was where the trail went cold.
He’d bought the pills and left the store but he never made it home.
Clank!
Derrick was still standing there, chewing on that fact, when the bell over the door jingled.
He turned around to see two people walking. Both of them were young kids, around his age.
One of them was someone he had just gotten familiar to.
Gwen.