Chapter 12: Who Am I...?
—Click
—Khinch —Tinch
'Finally done...'
My legs finally gave out as I plopped down on the wooden floor of the building, right next to the trolley with a crate full of glass vials.
It took me half an hour to make it back home, since the trolley was slow due to the weight. I also had to make sure that the glass bottles did not break.
'I wanna sleep badly...'
After sighing, I stood up, shaking my head with a smile on my face.
As a programmer back on Earth, I had battles with bugs on a regular basis. In our line of work, even a good night's sleep wasn't guaranteed. It was ingrained into us to not give up, no matter how many times we had to rewrite the program.
If I could endure that kind of torture, how could I give up and lay down now?
"Hup!"
After catching a breather, I again picked up the crate from the trolley and dropped it on the ground.
—Thud
"Fuuu..." It took me a while, but after so much weight lifting, my muscles have finally adapted to the strength I got from Dia.
'If they are this heavy right now, how heavy will they be once they are filled to the brim...?'
Let's not think about that…
After shaking my head to yank out all the useless thoughts, I stood on one side of the crate and put my hands into one of the side handles, and pulled the crate in the direction of the wall nearby.
—Khii
—Tuk
'Nice.'
~Growl
As I was nodding in appreciation to my own work, some ancient beasts woke up from their slumber and started playing hopscotch in my tummy.
'Let's go get dinner, shall we?' I muttered under my breath as I urged my body to walk in the direction a delicious aroma was coming from.
I climbed the flight of stairs and a table filled with steak and soup entered my vision.
"Wow, Mum! So many delicacies!"
I was truly surprised by the fact that mom cooked such a royal meal for tonight.
"Is something special going on today, Mum?" I asked as I gulped down a mouthful of saliva, which was soon replaced by more.
"Hmm…, no particular reason. Just thought that we should enjoy ourselves once in a while," Mom replied as she added the proverbial icing on the cake to the table, a vegetable salad!
"What's the holdup? Dig in!" Mom with an enchanting smile on her face.
"Just a moment, Mum," I said as I went to wash my hands. Who would want to dirty such an awesome meal?
Certainly, I won't.
After washing my hands, I approached the table as my belly announced its impatience.
""Thanks for the meal."" We both said at the same time, with our eyes closed and hands joined.
***
—Burp
"That sure was tasty. Oh, right, I forgot." I ran to the stairs as I remembered something.
"What happened?"
Without replying to mom, I ran down the stairs and neared the trolley, and opened its drawer to reveal a cloth pouch. Taking the pouch out, I hurriedly closed the drawer and ran back up the stairs.
"Mom! Here," I said while grinning from ear to ear.
"What is this?" Mom asked, visibly confused.
"Hehe. Open it and see for yourself," I chuckled before pushing the pouch towards her.
Though she raised an eyebrow, she complied because her curiosity was piqued.
"Oh…!" she exclaimed in surprise as her other eyebrow went up to accompany the first one.
"Is this the money you got for selling the potion?" she asked.
"Yes, Mum!" I nodded.
"I also bought empty bottles for the next batch of potions with half of the money. You can have the rest to use however you'd like," I admitted.
"No, Son, you earned it, you keep it. You need it more than I do."
'Seriously, Mum?'
"Isn't it good manners to give your first salary to your parents?" I wondered aloud.
"Is it written somewhere?" she asked back, as a sly thought came to my mind.
"Well, just for curiosity's sake…. There is no written rule about eating food without talking... no?" I asked, as politely as possible, while looking at the ceiling to avoid mom's gaze.
'Well, either way, it is my win.'
But, who was I up against here? My Mom!
"It is written here," she replied, pointing at her beautiful and silky silver-white hair. "Want to open it up and take a peek at it?"
Not her head!
"No, Mom…," I replied as I sighed in defeat while taking the pouch back.
"Hmm, I can use this however I please, right? So, I want to use it to renovate the building," I announced, nodding to myself.
"You, what? Are you sure?"
"Yes. 100% sure," I confirmed
"Alright then! We will Kickstart the eatery now!" Mom cheered enthusiastically.
"Yes!" and I matched her perfectly.
The money that I got from selling potions wouldn't be enough to start the Eatery, but that didn't mean that it was less by any margin.
After spending 80 Bronze Vels on 24 bottles, I was left with 52 Bronze Vels.
Since they were the lowest grade potions, they sold for less, and since they were from a no-name person like me, they went for even less.
But after calculating profit and loss, it turned out to be equal to a middle-class man's average salary.
Even so, running a restaurant was bound to be expensive, no?
All the money would go down the drain just to get the building renovated, fix the nooks and crannies, deal with the pests, and all the other small repairs that the equipment needed.
Even then, what was an eatery for?
For food!
For delicious, finger-licking, tasty, food combined with a mouth-watering aroma and hunger satiating meals!
"We should have enough money to buy all the decorations and utensils after the next sale,'' I mused to myself.
After we planned how we were going to renovate the place in the coming days, we went to sleep, with me snuggled in Mum's warm embrace.
***
After a long night of dreamless sleep, I woke up in a familiar bed, only to see a familiar ceiling. It was a soft and fluffy bed that had me sandwiched between it and a white blanket. Beside the bed was a bedside table with a digital clock on top that displayed the time.
[7:04 A.M, Sunday]
"Yawn~"
A single teardrop formed at the periphery of my left eye as I yawned and stretched my arms.
"It has been a while since I last ate sandwiches with fruit juice. I guess I'll have that for breakfast," I said to myself.
Today is also the day of the weekly check ups for those who had ENAMAL implanted in their brains, to check if it is harming the body or brain in any way.
"Let's get moving then." I gave my final monologue in bed and immediately got out of the bed before any lingering sleepiness caused my plans to backfire.
In 30 minutes, I got ready and started preparing breakfast in the kitchen, humming to myself.
Suddenly, my body froze and pain assaulted my head as if an electric bolt had just struck me.
My head was on the verge of shutting down when the scenery around me started to morph, but I couldn't pay any mind to that as my brain started to go numb.
"ARGHHH!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, but nobody could hear me.
Without any notice, the pain vanished, and my body ceased all functions as it fell to the floor.
"Ryan... me...? or him...? him? Who is him...? Biotech company...? Silvermoon...? Mum...? Dia...? Father...? Codex...? What is real...?"
I muttered a string of incoherent words which felt familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time.
"Who am I...?"
Having said so, everything turned dark.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Rookie_Draconian
Rookie_Draconian What is happening? Was it all fake? Did Ryan never die?
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