Taking over the Abyss

55- Blocked and Reported

If there was one thing in the world you hated, it was last minute additions to a project. You had expected your latest commission to be relatively easy, which it was, until your client decided that he wanted to make a major addition, without extending the deadline. Your reputation as an excellent alchemist always came back to bite you in the back somehow. 

Hailed as a young prodigy, you'd spent most of your second childhood both coming to terms with the fact that you'd been reincarnated into the world of a video game you loved, and trying to figure out how to 'cheat the system' with the knowledge you had from your past life.

All of that led to you being seen as some sort of genius, for better or for worse. In this case, it was worse. Your client had high hopes that you could handle everything and anything, which gave them the confidence to tack on a major addition to the project they hired you for... a few days before the deadline. Believing that you could handle it, your deadline was not extended, and the extra pay you were getting was mostly in 'experience'.

Thankfully, your job as an alchemist meant you could also insult or outright reject things, were you certainly planning to do. Reading over the proposals for the new addition gave you a headache, so you wanted to head to favorite spot to get something to eat. Did it taste like cherry-flavored medicine? Yes, absolutely. Did that taste oddly calm you with how familiar it was to Earth, your home? Yes, it did. It was the closest thing you really had to Earth, and never failed to calm your nerves.

You frowned. Maybe you should try to bake a cheesecake or something. Khaenri'ah was an underground nation with little to no fauna or flora, so the prices for anything related to either of those two things that wasn't mostly synthetic were obscenely high- both from their genuine scarcity and to ensure that only noble families could purchase them. You made more than enough to live comfortably, but it would still feel frivolous to spend so much money in one sitting.

Still, you could do with the pick-me-up that it'd bring. While walking down the semi-crowded street, you noticed some moron desperately trying to peek out from behind a nearly comically tall stack of books. What in the world was this guy trying to do? Wouldn't it make more sense to put them in bags and carry them that way? You sighed and shook your head, returning to angrily staring at the ground. This street was bumpy, so things wouldn't fare well for him.

Just as predicted, the man's shoe got caught on a piece of stone that stuck out slightly, and he tripped over. The books all went flying in different directions, as he spectacularly collapsed against the ground, limbs splayed out like a starfish. With all the stress that had been building inside of you, it was the funniest thing you'd ever seen. One of the books had even fallen down straight on his head.

You burst out into laughter, not caring if anybody passing by thought you were strange. You were interrupted by a loud thunking sound, your train of thought suddenly being cut off. For some reason, your head started to hurt. You reached up to hold your forehead, somewhat dazed. When you regained your sense of awareness, you stared straight at a lamppost.

The one you'd walked into because you were too busy laughing. After a moment of standing still silently and contemplating life, you decided to help the man pick up all of his books.

"Did you really just walk into that lamppost?" He asked, too occupied with amazement at your lack of awareness.

"... yeah," you nodded, picking up a book, closing it and handing it to him. From the cover, it seemed like a fairly standard book about astrology. "I guess neither of have very good judgement, considering how you were carrying that stack of books. Did you forget to bring a bag or something?"