Struggling to Survive in Hell Difficulty

Chapter 120.

After a familiar beep from the Capsule, the lid slowly opened outwards, revealing the inside of my room. The sun had yet to shine from the other side of the window, but there were traces of light coming from the distance, indicating the break of dawn was near.

As I confirmed that I was not lethargic or sleepy in any way and nothing was wrong with my body, I started my morning routine. Taking out my clothes from the wardrobe, pulling the towel I hung over the chair, getting into the bathroom and heading to the sink, splashing my face with water before using the towel to wipe the water away, picked up my toothbrush and scrubbed my teeth clean, and finally stepped into the shower area and turned on the slightly hot water, letting the spraying water wash away any remnants of lethargy from my body as I stretched under the heated water. Those were the morning routine that I always did every time it was workday, and today was not an exception.

Once I was done, I wiped myself dry before taking out the clothes I still had in the wardrobe. After taking out a simple pair of black jeans and a gray collared shirt along with a pair of underwear, I began clothing myself properly as I stood in front of the mirror, making sure that I did not miss anything. Relieved that nothing seemed to be wrong, I took my phone and FIS-HUB with me before I stepped out of my apartment, starting the first workday of the week... not so earnestly.

"...I wish it is a holiday..."

Needless to say, my hope was a useless one as I made my way to the familiar station. The area was still empty because everyone was still sleeping for now, but the road would soon be jampacked in less than an hour. This peace and tranquility within the station was the reason why I always woke up this early in the morning, as opposed to getting squeezed together like a pack of sardines inside the train.

If there was something different than the usual morning that I had...

"...hoo... so this is a vending machine..."

...it was that there was a tiny girl, floating in the air as she hovered in front of the coffee vending machine near the stairs leading to the underground platform.

After logging out from the game Miriande Gloralis, I asked if she wanted to come with me or just stay in the FIS-HE and browse the internet while I was working. Unfortunately, she said that she wanted to come along and would not take no for an answer, so I told her to stay in the FIS-HUB until I reached the workplace at least.

...but she decided to not heed my words and just tagged along, flying here and there as she satisfied her curiosity about the outside world for some reason.

"...are you this interested in vending machine?" I had to hold back from admonishing her as I stood next to her flying body. "You seemed to be interested in different types of machines."

"The first one was a... soda machine? And this one seemed to be exclusively for coffee..."

"You will be surprised if you saw the one for Instant Noodle."

"......instant noodle?"

When her curiosity peaked, she suddenly froze for a moment before her body blurred and disappeared. I thought this was a problem at first, but soon I found out that her body had returned to FIS-HUB as the internet browser opened by itself and she began searching about random things.

She would soon come out and talk about her discoveries with me later on, but I used this chance to get away as far as possible so I could reach the train that would arrive pretty soon.

"...I just found out that there are also different types of machines! There are even toys that..."

...fortunately, she came out right when the train arrived, so I was able to get into one of the compartments without TIZ getting sidetracked to something else. And it was also fortunate that the area was empty and that TIZ's excited voice did not disturb anyone.

It seemed like she finished her explanation at the same time as the train's door closed. And when the train began to move, her eyes seemed to glitter happily as she looked outside the window with slight glee.

"I'm a bit surprised that you seemed so... innocently childlike right now." Seeing that TIZ was not going to talk anytime soon, I began to open the conversation amidst the silence. "I thought you have seen this before, especially when you have come along with me a few days ago."

"...this is a bit different. The sensation I felt using FIS-HUB as the medium was just too crisp compared to using your phone."

".........are you saying my phone is bad?"

"Do you not agree that your smartphone is already several generations behind?"

...I had no idea whether that was a diss at my financial condition or she was expressing her dissatisfaction at my 'shitty' phone... or both at the same time.

"Still, it's not like I have money to spare..."

"I don't think that is going to be a problem in the future."

I was confused as to what TIZ meant by that, but then she began to point at my pocket. Somewhat confused, I took out the FIS-HUB that was in the pocket before it suddenly lit up and projected a document... no, a webpage that displayed a rising chart.

"...what is that?"

"Do you not realize what it is?"

Urged by her words, I began inspecting the webpage again. I thought it was the image of some stocks on the internet, but then I realized that the numbers continued to increase albeit slowly. There were three lines which seemed to be named as 'orders received', 'orders executing', and 'orders completed', and the edge of the line was slowly shifting upwards aside from the 'executing' one.

It was until I saw the words written at the corner left of the real-time-like graph on the webpage.

[trialTIZ]

"...wait... this is my side hustle...!?"

I began checking the graph again, this time focusing on the numbers.

[Orders Received: 1881]

[Orders Executing: 471]

[Orders Completed: 1410]

"......huh? How did I already get so many..."

"Do you still remember the situation with Proteus and Bailey?"

I was a bit taken aback by the disconnected question, but I still made a nod in response.

"The day following the maintenance, I tried to recover everything that was lost before. But when I managed to recover most of it, the system suddenly began running by itself, taking orders and processing them with the criteria you had mentioned before."

"......wait, the system ran by itself? Not because you did something?"

"I might have done something, but I don't know why it suddenly happened this way."

By the time I noticed, the display on the FIS-HUB had already changed, revealing the main page of my banking account. The number was still blurred unless I pressed the eye mark, but I had a faint understand why TIZ pulled this application out.

And when I gingerly placed my finger on the eye mark... I had to quickly press the mark again to blur the numbers.

"...I don't think you will have money problem. At least for a few months, considering your expenses."

"......it might not even be a problem for a year or two..."

At this point, I recalled the dream that I had.

I saved up my salary for five years to buy FIS-HE, hoping to get my money back using it. And now, the side-hustle that I did not even seriously do had already earned me a year of salary back in a day.

...if nothing went wrong, by the end of this week...

"...heh... heh heh heh..."

It seemed like my decision to buy FIS-HE... was definitely not a wrong one.