With the safe relocked, I glanced around the office with caution and paranoia. At the same time, my brain imposed a mental mapped image of what the room first looked like when I arrived and its state after I shuffled around, and after a few micro-adjustments, the two images matched, causing me to nod.
’Alright, all that’s left is for me to exchange the coins with Arkadia and get some Alpha-Coins. Then, the sky is the limit.’ Making my way back over to the desk, I climbed up into the computer chair and placed the small stack of plastic/cardboard-wrapped coins atop the desk, examining them one final time, as once I did what I had in mind, they would be gone forever.
That was when a strange thought appeared in the back of my mind.
’Hold up, if I exchange them…shouldn’t that cause a minor change in the timeline? I mean, the auction was a pretty big deal, and millions of dollars changed hands, plus they were considered an ancient and rare artifact.’ Picking up the first of five similar golden coins, I twirled it around.
Printed on the front of the roughly circular piece of metal was a mand with a worried expression, scruffy beard, and long hair; apparently, it was supposed to be of a satyr or half man half goat person.
On the reverse side was a rough image of a griffin, a mythological chimera-like creature that had the body, back legs, and tail of a lion and the head, wings, and front legs of an eagle.
Some Greek letters were written around the creature, and there was even a feather underneath the beast.
’Ok, here we go,’ knowing that the longer I sat here hesitating, the higher the likelihood that I would be caught increased; I opened up the Arkadia exchange and placed the first of five coins inside my panel window.
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The reaction from Arkadia was as expected, and not even a full second later, the view on my panel window changed.
:{The Arkadia Currency Exchange has accepted an Ancient Greek Gold Stater of Pantikapaion.}:
:{The Total value of the said item has been appraised at 2,044,647 USD.}
:{You may exchange the item for either Currency (USD or Alpha Coins}:
:{Option One: 204 (Α-coins) and 64 (α-coins) }:
:{Option Two: 20,447 (α-coins)}:
:{Option Three: 2,044,647 in United States dollar Bills:}
Seeing Arkadia’s value of the coin, my left eye quivered slightly. I knew how much the coins sold for separately in 2012, and the value I was seeing as a million dollars short, but then I quickly remembered that inflation was a thing, and that caused me to reevaluate things slightly.
Initially, I had planned to cash all five coins in for Arkadia coins, but since the USD had more buying power now, and I was in need of funds for the future, I changed that plan.
Clicking on option two, Arkadia notified me of the deposit of 20k Low-Alpha coins in my inventory, triggering me to dump the other four into the exchange; only this time, I chose the Cash option.
A few minutes later, my Status and inventory were 8,178,588 dollars more full, and I couldn’t help but smile at this fact.
Up till now, my comprehensive plan for the future banked on using my Talent as early as possible to course-correct my Father into not blowing through all his money, but now that I had a bit of a cushion to fall back on, I wasn’t as worried about his abysmal spending habits.
Sure, while the loss of millions of dollars could be attributed to Amanda, my Father had a habit of attempting to live a lavish lifestyle, and that in itself needed to be regulated, or else by the time 2023 rolled around, he would be living in his car due to the ever-increasing home rental prices.
"Honey, wake up, where is Taylor? How could you fall asleep? What if he got hurt?" As if the universe wanted to throw a wrench in my happiness, Amanda’s shrewd voice pulled me out of my thoughts as a slight panic occurred in the living room.
’Damn it, and I thought I had more time,’ frantically looking around the room for a second time; it wasn’t until I was sure that everything was in order that I made a split-second decision and began hammering away at the keyboard in a lame attempt to emulate my Grandpa.
CLACK, CLACK, CLACK CLACK
"Now, Little Man, what do you think you’re doing?" While I clacked away on the old keyboard, the door to the office creaked loudly as my Grandpa poked his head into the room and found me typing away, even though the computer wasn’t on.
"I Pa-Pa!" CLACK CLACK CLACK
The words came out of my mouth in the most innocent tone I could emulate, causing the elderly man to chuckle before walking in and scooping me up.
"Now, Taylor, you can’t be in the office without me. I know you want to play on my personal computer, but I need to be present." His gentle voice didn’t really match the words he spoke, as it was clear he was trying to scold me for coming into the office, but found it too cute that he saw me typing away.
Smiling and bobbing my head up and down as if I understood, I allowed myself to be carried back into the living room, where my Dad and Amanda began fussing over me and apologizing to Grandpa.
"This Boy is going to be a computer genius when he grows up; I just know it!" Grandpa stated, causing everyone to glance at me before rolling their eyes.
’Heh, Grandpa, if only you knew just how much of an impact you had on my computer addiction in the future, you would have probably nipped it in the bud early on.’
The truth was, I could trace my fascination with computers all the way to being a little kid and sitting on his lap while he showed me the internet. I never really put much thought into it, but now that I was, it really could be attributed back to those days.