Kicking off my blanket, I brought my small hands up and massaged my temples.
’My only shot at pulling off the first quest in time is if I jump headfirst into the (α++) or High-Alpha instance…but even then, as not only a small child but a Non-Ranker, it will be borderline impossible.’ Dropping my arms with a soft thud onto my crib mattress, I stared blankly into the animal mobile spinning overhead.
’Well, let’s start by making a hud (Heads Up Display) of sorts, Arkadia; add the following two items to my display panels home page, Earthling Respawn Progress, and Arkadia’s Descent progress, present them in the form of two bars, one blue, the other red, and as the progression increases, fill the bar an appropriate amount to indicate the change.’
[The command prompt was recognized, and the necessary adjustments were made.]
Half a second later, my requested status bars appeared in the top left and top right corners of my system panel, causing me to nod in approval.
’Arkadia, add the quest checkpoints to the Respawn Bar. Do this in the form of red horizontal lines, and add checkpoint lines to the Descent bar in blue, one line for every 1000 years.’
[The command prompt was recognized, and the necessary adjustments were made.]
’Sigh, this is going to get annoying; I hope Brenden and Emilia come back soon because if not, they won’t be able to take advantage of these quests, well maybe Emilia can, since she didn’t get the memo from me about not coming back in time until reached 6C…’
’That was a long shot, to be honest; I wasn’t expecting to carry over the Classification; no, I just wanted Brenden to experience the sensations brought about by reaching Prymordyal Hyumun, it completely changes your outlook on things, and with that knowledge, he would have something to work towards.’
’Instead, it worked in my favor, but there was a drawback: my infant body struggled to adapt to the rapid evolutions,’ lifting my arms weekly, I could tell just how unhealthy I was, and it worried me.
’The lack of nutrients that I am getting from standard baby food isn’t anywhere near enough to sustain my full advancement to 6C, although my Status says I’ve reached 6C Prymordyal Hyumun, my senses, physicality, and perception are all around 2C…I’m weakened.’
’But I digress; first things first, I need to get my hands on some cash, exchange it for Alpha-Coins, and buy Particle potions; this will allow me access to my Talent, which, even in its present form, should allow me to sway Dad into not financially bankrupting the family.’
Closing my eyes, I thought back to all the idiotic things my Father allowed to transpire. If there was one thing Amanda was good at, it was spending my Dad’s money.
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Before they got married, my Father was a literal millionaire thanks to him and Uncle Gideon selling my grandpa’s company for a huge amount of money.
However, when he started seeing Amanda, his bank account began rapidly dwindling. By the time 1995 rolled around, of the initial 33 million USD he had from the sale of the company, only 2 million remained in my Father’s savings.
And by 1998…things had devolved to an unrecoverable point, the reason being Amanda.
On Valentine’s Day 1998, my Father went about things as usual, sending her 100 roses to work (At a local bank in Oviedo) and planning a big romantic dinner.
But when he got home that day, he found Amanda sitting at the kitchen table, not dressed up for dinner but in casual loungewear, and a stack of papers in front of her.
February 15th, 1998, Amanda filed for divorce and began a devious plot to take my Father for everything he was worth, along with Brenden and I, who were very young at the time.
Since I was too young to remember most of what happened, I can only rebuild the events through the information family members have told me, but it was a nasty legal battle. Amanda claimed my Father to be an alcoholic who abused her and lied, saying Brenden and I wouldn’t be safe in his custody.
Using the diamond ring my Father had given her as a deposit to a lawyer she claimed was notorious for taking husbands for everything they were worth, Amanda walked into the courtroom at the beginning of the proceedings higher than life.
She was even arrogant enough to believe that my cousin Helen, one of Aunt Penelope’s daughters, would stand on her side of the battle, but things were going to turn out VERY differently.
In the end, on her side was Kristina, Amanda’s sister Suzy, and my grandmother; that was it…during the year-long Divorce and Custody battle, Amanda swiftly learned that there was one thing she should have never done, and that was going head-to-head with the tight-knit Jörgensens.
Everyone, and I mean every living Jörgensen, showed up to testify; my grandfather bankrolled my Father’s attorney, and Uncle Gideon gave compelling testimony befitting someone of his business and legal expertise.
Even crazier was the fact that my Father got the most RUTHLESS lawyer he had ever seen in his professional career. He knew the woman from his years spent in the courthouse, and she was more than happy to take the case after finding out what a b***h Amanda was.
It was a metaphorical bloodbath; during that year, she learned that no matter what arguments there were between Jörgensen family members, they stayed internal.
The moment someone outside the bloodline attacked us, a rallying call would be put out, and the family would band together.
Although I would like to tell you that Divorce was the worst of the things Amanda did during the late 1990s, that would be a blatant lie. No, it gets worse, soooo much worse.
For years, my father had given Amanda everything she wanted. Still, the moment the money began running dry, she began planning her exit strategy, the least important to her being the Divorce and subsequent custody of her children.