章 3: Chapter 3 - Building Blocks II

For my plans to succeed, there's three things that I must achieve before I begin.

First is to improve my Stats and Physical condition. I will be doing a lot of heavy work in the near future, which may or may not require me to be extremely fit. So I'm planning on going to the gym starting tomorrow.

Second is the Money. To which I will not be having trouble acquiring illegally. But before I could even use them freely, I need legal, clean money so I could launder them without the feds getting suspicious. The FIB still has my name, so I need to be careful.

Third is connections. As much as I want to go solo on this, I can't do all the work by myself. I'm gonna need a crew for the heists, distributors for my businesses, buyers and security.

Another thing I want to add is to have a good relationship with the De Santa Family, though I'm still not sure if I'm gonna go through with it. I personally don't have any emotional attachment towards them, but I took over Michael's body. Sure, I have his memories, but taking over his body is basically the same as killing him. I was given a new life with this body, I should at least grant one of his wishes.

It was now 4 P.M in the afternoon. I should probably go home.

A 10-minute drive later, I was now back home. Looking around, Amanda's car was parked outside. Ohhh boy... I hope this won't get awkward. When I went through Michael's memories, he hasn't cheated with that stripper yet so their relationship hasn't soured to the point of radioactive toxicity that was in the game. But Amanda still hates Michael for dragging their family to another state to start over yet has done nothing but sit on his ass all day admiring his yacht, not giving a sh*t about his family. Thank god their family hasn't turned dysfunctional yet, or else I'll just dip, cause there's no point in saving their dumpster fire of a family.

I entered the house. Hearing the sound of the television in the living room, I took a peek. It was Amanda sitting by the sofa. She had light skin, long brown hair, and light blue eyes. She wore her usual tank top and pajama pants. She was currently watching what looked to be a dating variety show.

"Hey, what you watchin'?" I greeted her with a smile.

"It's a dating show where they put single people on an island and then pair them up. It's kinda cringe but there's not much good on so I might as well" She replied, not even looking at me. The look of boredom stayed on her face as she lay on the sofa.

"Cool," I sat beside her, which caught her attention. She looked at me, bemused.

"What're you doing?" She said, a brow raised. A small smile forming at the edge of her lips.

"I'm watching T.V. Something wrong with that?" I gave out a light chuckle at her reaction.

"You're being weird, Michael. Normally you'd taken the remote by now and switched to some old movie you overly obsess about. You're smiling too. You did something, didn't you? What is it, spill" Amanda interrogated. If the smile on her face was not an indication, she was just being playful.

"Whaat? Is there something wrong with wanting to spend time with my wife? Jeez, no need to get so worked up" I replied, a bit hesitant to say the word wife.

"Uh-huh…." She looked at me, brows raised, then returned her attention to the T.V. Currently there was a guy serenading a girl with a guitar, a few people surrounding them, cheering him on.

"Okay, what the f*ck is he doing? Is he trying to summon Beelzebub from the depths of hell or something? His voice sounds like two styrofoams rubbing against each other" I mocked. "Look, look, the dude behind him is trying hard not to laugh" I laughed, as I pointed to the T.V. Amanda laughed as well.

"The girl looks uncomfortable too. What's even worse, his friend has been hyping him up since last week saying he has the voice of an angel" She snickered.

We continued to mock everything they did, to the point it just degraded to us nitpicking every word that came out of their mouth. But we had fun, I think. Along the way, she laid her head on my shoulder. I think I did well to break the ice, but It's not enough to save our marriage yet. Small steps Michael, small steps.

An hour later. It was almost dinner time.

"Hey, why don't I cook for tonight?" I asked.

"You can cook?" Amanda looked at me, bewildered. "I didn't know you can cook" she continued, unable to conceal her mirth.

"You honestly didn't know? Back in the old days, they called me the God Tongue." I boasted.

"Buuuulllsh*t!" she cackled with laughter. I laughed along with her.

"Just watch, I'll serve you food that can make you experience what heaven feels like," I said with a huge grin.

"Uh-huh, sure you can." She replied with a smirk, still recovering from laughing too hard.

I then went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. Nothing much I could prepare, there was some pasta, a few vegetables, a slab of butter, and the usual commodities. I lived alone ever since I got out of college so I have lots of experience in cooking. I didn't want to eat the same sh*t every day so I had some variety in my repertoire. I decided to make some spaghetti. Not really heavenly food, but I don't really have much to choose from. After cooking, I called out to Amanda.

"Wait, I'll call the kids," she said before heading towards the stairs. "Kids! Dinner!" She called out to both Jimmy and Tracy, the latter replying with "In a minute!"

We all then sat by the Dining Table.

"So.. this is what food in heaven looks like? Spaghetti?" Amanda asked, a smirk adorning her lips.

"Hey, not like I got much of a choice. The fridge is empty. Plus, you haven't even tasted it" I replied, adorning the same smirk.

"What're you guys talking about?" Tracy chimed in. She was Michael's eldest daughter. She had blonde-dyed hair, light-blue eyes, and light skin. She wore a long-sleeved t-shirt and pajama pants.

"You're father's the one that cooked tonight" Amanda replied.

"You can cook??" Jimmy answered this time, shocked at the revelation. He was Michael's son. He had curly brown hair, light-blue eyes, and light skin. A bit on the chubbier side as well. I guess he hasn't let go of himself yet, thinner than the one in-game. He wore a black baseball jersey and cargo shorts.

"Yeah, apparently they called him 'The God Tongue'" Amanda mocked my title, then ended her words with a small chuckle.

"Hey, at least it looks better than John's lasagna," I replied with a chuckle. John was the one on the dating show, he tried to recover from his ear-bleeding performance of a serenade by cooking for the group, but he laughably failed even that.

Amanda laughed at my comparison. We continued to exchange jokes throughout dinner. I noticed Tracy and Jimmy looked at each other brows raised, then back at us with smiles as they ate.

I'd say it was a pretty successful first day.

***

It's now been a week since I took over Michael's body, and a lot has happened since then.

First off, on my second day. I applied for gym membership, and have been working out every morning for two hours. I've lost most of my fat and gained some muscles. Thanks to the Gamer skill, I've been having an easier time.

I've also used the Profiler to make myself a hidden bank account, untraceable. I'm no greedy bastard, so I've only been stealing money from criminals and big-name douchebags, which will also become my competitors in the near future. So I decided to weaken them early. Two birds with one stone, right? Currently, I have $87,233,470 in my hidden account. Unfortunately, I still can't use it legally.

I still need to gain some clean money. Which I'm planning on getting from gambling in the Casino and BAWSAQ, the latter being GTA's stock market. Then I'll be buying some businesses around Los Santos to get some passive revenue.

I've also been digging for some information on my future competitors.

First is Martin Madrazzo. He's the head of the most ruthless Mexican Cartel in San Andreas. He currently holds control of the Cocaine Market in Los Santos. He also has some connections with some gangs, so he's gonna be one of the most difficult to deal with. That is if you aren't me. He currently has an affair with a younger Russian woman which I could use to blackmail him and some even more incriminating evidence that could get him to prison.

Second is The Duggan Crime Family. They're a corrupt family of Texan petrochemical magnates. They've been raising the oil and gas prices around San Andreas lately. Also, their Head, Avery Duggan, currently owns a private military. They also own the largest Cannabis Farm by the Marlowe Vineyard. However, they've only been focusing on acquiring the Casino from the Cheng Family lately, so I can ignore them in the meantime.

Third is Devin Weston. He's a billionaire businessman, who also happens to have the largest private military in America on his paycheck, Merryweather. So he's gonna be the most annoying to deal with. He's also in control of the largest gun smuggling business in Los Santos.

Fourth is the Epsilon Program. It currently has the most people, however, most of them are just brainwashed lunatics, civilians. So they're probably the easiest to deal with. The only reason I added them to my list is for their Money. The Epsilon Program charges an absurd amount of fees to their people. That means more people, means more money. Unfortunately, their Head keeps a majority of the money in cash so I've only stolen little from their bank accounts.

The last one is the whole of Blaine County itself, where Trevor resides. They're the largest supplier of Meth in the whole of San Andreas. This is where I plan on setting up most of my not-so-legal businesses. With the police here more than willing to take bribes, It's the safest place to start. But that also means taking Trevor to my side. Which is gonna be veeerryy difficult. Like, seriously, dealing with all the other four I've mentioned combined is gonna be way easier than getting Trevor to work with me.

But for now, I'll just leave these for future me to deal with.

Other than that, I've also gone shopping to spice up Michael's wardrobe. Amanda was so shocked when I told her to go shopping with me to the point she thought I was just trying to lure her somewhere. When I told her I was paying, she accepted immediately.

I also made cooking dinner for the family a daily routine in order to get closer to them. I've been making small talks with Jimmy and Tracy, but not too much. I don't want them to think I'm being forceful to be part of their lives, and they seem to appreciate that. I think I've been making progress.

It was now evening.

I just finished showering, drying my hair before finally leaving. After, I went straight to the bedroom. Amanda was laying by the bed scrolling on her phone. With my entering, getting her attention. She looked me up and down as I made my way to the bed.

"You've been…working out?" She said, her gaze lingering.

"Ouch. I've been working out for a month now and you just noticed?" I acted hurt. She didn't need to know I only started a week ago.

"Well, to be fair, I didn't know your old man bones could even lift anything... Much less even work out" She defended herself. A small smile formed on her lips. I only chuckled at her response.

I lay on the bed. "Good Night," I said as I turned off the lamp on my side of the bed. When we slept together for the past week, there was not much contact. We just turned the other way as soon as we were both in bed so I didn't really expect much to happen. But to my surprise, Amanda suddenly hugged me from behind.

"Good Night, Michael." She said as she buried her face on my back.

Yeah... I did good.

***

That's it for Chapter 3!

This was supposed to be released yesterday but my internet decided to screw with me and dipped for the whole day. So I just made this 2 chapters long to compensate.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading! And let me know if you have any suggestions in the comments!