For as much of a disciplinarian Principal Walters was, he was just as much of an opportunist.
Not the shady lot, but the pragmatic kind.
So, when he’d heard that six students from his school made a videogame that made close to two million dollars on its first day of release, he saw an opportunity he could take advantage of.
Before the end of the week was over, he’d gotten the news into the local newspaper, and even had a few small-time media outlets cover it, all of which did a good job of drawing eyes to their school.
Sure, the themes of the game itself weren’t exactly the sort of things that should be promoted, but, whoever said anything about having to do that when he could simply reframe things by shining a spotlight onto the actual achievement itself.
Besides, when all was said and done, it really was just a videogame.
It also helped that the teens who made it, had great track records... save for the usual pranks and hijinks they occasionally got up to.
As a result, by the time the second week of March came around, interest in their school had spiked quite a bit.
Parents and alumni also found themselves genuinely intrigued, most of them curious to know the six youths better and how they had managed to make such a lucrative game amidst their day-to-day schedule.
It was this exact curiosity that the principal had expected, hence why he had all six have an interview with the press club that very same week to include in the yearbook.
But more than that, was the word of mouth it would bring.
Silverlake High was already a pretty renowned public school given how consistently they’d been producing generally well-rounded students over the years.
And with interesting news like this, the inclination for several parents and guardians to have their kids whom were about to transition into high school attend theirs would increase, if only slightly.
If that happened, the possibility of being allocated more funds from the government would likewise increase, as would their school’s popularity--not just in the neighborhood, but over all of New York as well.
Really, it was all a layered sequence of thoughts the man had gone through from the moment he’d gotten the info. One he had promptly decided to act upon.
That said, with a wave of attention funneled over to Silverlake High, it was only natural that other schools in the region would also take notice.
As a result, there was an almost natural response from their respective school heads to find some way to drive back attention to themselves lest Silverlake High hogged the spotlight to themselves.
The biggest avenue to do that, was the upcoming academic decathlon scheduled to happen in the last weeks of April.
Without being told, they all knew their respective schools would have to bring their A-game if they wanted to have any shot at taking home the grand prize and likewise, hijacking the spotlight.
So, they had their teams double down on their preparations, all in an effort to secure that opportunity.
Yet, at Silverlake High, two core students in their school’s academic decathlon team remained blissfully unaware of the going-ons as they kept prepping across the next two weeks for the event scheduled to happen in the last week of April.
At the same time, they alongside their buddies were running through a list of feedbacks they’d gotten from their game’s little community and had promptly began working on them.
Perhaps the biggest feedback they got, was how several of these gamers would have preferred to have the game on PC as well.
Considering they hadn’t ever planned to work on a PC port before though, the more gamers requested for it, the more the gang realized that they would have to double down and do just that.
Pretty soon too if they wanted to capitalize on the momentum they’d garnered.
That alongside the fact that they were already working on a new map, with new activities and a little story to boot... well it made for a rather busy week for all six.
Nonetheless, Aiden went ahead and announced across all of Crashout Interactive’s social media platforms that they’d heard their feedbacks loud and clear and they were working on it.
He also happened to announce that they would be releasing new content to the game worth five more hours of playtime sometime next month and would be supporting the game for a fairly long while, all for free.
Naturally, the news was met with very positive receptions, more so when a good chunk of the gamers whom had played the game were now also aware it was made by teens.
In fact, the latter half especially had surprised most of them as they’d assumed the game was a one and done deal.
Especially since it had a lot of replayability baked into its core gameplay loop without it getting stale even after its initial fifteen-hour playthough.
This was all to say that Theo and Aiden especially soon found themselves crunching codes at every opportunity they got as they simultaneously worked on the PC port alongside all the new content they’d planned.
At the very least though, the curly-haired youth and his family had now moved from their former apartment in Brownsville, to a much better one which was closer to school.
All thanks to his 17% cut of the $1.5M+ which had netted him $255K+.
That’s right. After some annoying back and forth with the bank, Aiden finally managed to get full access to their money and had promptly distributed everyone’s cut.
Larry, Clyde, and Benjamin, honestly didn’t know what to do with theirs when it landed so they consulted their parents who guided them and gave them solid financial advices after their initial excitement had worn off and they’d jubilated with their kids.
Speaking of jubilation, Theo’s mum had been so shell-shocked by such a large sum of money entering her account, she’d literally avoided her bank app for the fear of it being hacked.
Well, that was until Theo called to confirm it with her, her joy knowing no bounds when he finally explained how the money came to be.
Casper on the other hand was more than glad to know his money was in safe hands with Aiden.
As for Aiden himself...
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[Bank Balance]
Updated Balance: $580,237.20 USD
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... he was currently staring at his balance with a proud smile on his features yet again, the phone’s screen illuminating his face as he lay on his bed in his pajamas.
Of the total, $335,926.80 belonged to him, while the remaining $244,310.40 belonged to Casper.
Even then, it was still surreal, seeing such a whopping amount in his bank account. Especially since he knew how hard he had worked for it.
Still, Aiden had no plans of touching it for the meantime. At least not until he was extremely certain of what he wanted to do with it.
Besides, he still had a couple funds left in his wallet, one he’d now delegated solely for his personal spending as he pulled up the app and checked its balance.
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[Wallet Balance]
Current Balance: $3574.00 USD
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Though he perfectly remembered just how much was left in it, courtesy of his photographic memory, he still wanted to see it nonetheless.
There was that feeling that came with knowing you had deep pockets and Aiden just wanted to embrace it.
In any case, he soon placed the phone aside on the bedside table and proceeded to sleep.
Just before he did though, he pulled up his system’s interface with a silent yawn, his hands covering his mouth briefly.
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[Aiden North] – Life Points – [5.2]
⸢Stats
› Mind — A
› Strength — D+
› Stamina — C-
› Agility — D
› Charm — B
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Staring at his combined total of 5.2LPs, one he’d managed to accumulate over the last three weeks of February, combined with the month of March that had quite literally come to an end today, Aiden spread them across his stats.
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[Aiden North] – Life Points – [0.2]
⸢Stats
› Mind — A » A+
› Strength — D+ » C-
› Stamina — C- » C
› Agility — D » C-
› Charm — B
⸢Skills
› {Type Designing - A}, {Digital Illustration - I}, {Drawing - I}, {Cooking - A}, {Brewing - I}, {Singing - I}, {Dancing - I}, {Writing - N}, {Lettering - I}, {Programming - I}, {Riding - N}, {Video Editing - I}.
⸢Shop
› Browse Catalogue.
⸢Daily Quests
› {Expand}
⸢Exclusive Quests
› {Expand}
⸢Time-limited Quests
› {Expand}
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⸢FAQ⸥
-
Feeling the subtle improvements in his being as a light tingling slowly rippled through his body, Aiden gave the newly updated stats one more look over.
Unsurprisingly, his gaze lingered on his Mind attribute once again.
Now that he had comfortably brought all of his stats to a level he was more than satisfied with, he was finally ready to take the plunge and see what else exactly his system had to offer.
That, however, would have to wait till next month, and perhaps, after he was done with the academic decathlon.
Casually dismissing the interface, Aiden yawned once more, adjusted his pillow and then closed his eyes for some much-needed shut-eye.
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