Now, he didn't have to worry about another vengeful ghost coming out of his TV.
As long as the ghost girl from before couldn't come out of other electronics, he should be safe. That reassurance was completely worth the cost of having his living room feel empty for the time being.
"Maybe I should donate the TV stand too. What am I going to do with it now?" Jack wearily smiled before shaking his head.
That was the least of his worries, so he didn't place too much thought into it, so he headed to the bus stop.
…
Timber Wood Park Square was bustling with activity—children laughing by the fountains, the rhythmic thud of tennis balls in the distance. Jack spotted a pair of girls seated on a stone bench, their lab coats standing out against the vibrant greenery.
The first girl had black hair with red tips. She was wearing her lab coat. Her eyes were bright crimson, which made her seem more energetic.
At least as energetic as one could look when the dark bags under her eyes made her seem as if she hadn't slept in days.
She was clearly Sarah. At the same time, Jack noticed her. Sarah perked up and waved, telling him to come over.
As for the other girl, Jack recognized her as Sarah's friend Betty, whom he had met over the phone this morning. She wore a similar short lab coat as Sarah but looked much more lively. Her long blonde hair shimmered faintly.
As Jack got closer, Sarah and Betty's faces frowned.
"What happened to you?" Sarah blurted, her eyes as wide as saucers.
She had just seen him two days ago—now his arms and chest were wrapped in medical bandages.
She couldn't imagine what could have happened to cause this.
"This? Don't worry about it. I just rescued a baby from a house fire. No big deal." Jack said with a smile.
Sarah blinked as she rolled her eyes. She knew better than anyone that Jack was the last person who would run into an active fire.
"Seriously, what happened?" Betty asked, her interest peaked.
Jack glanced at Betty before deflating like a balloon.
"My window broke, and I fell into the glass," Jack said truthfully.
Sarah and Betty's faces twitched.
This was completely different from what they thought happened.
They thought he had gotten into a fight or something. Turns out he fell into glass and ended up injured.
Noticing the smiles on both of their faces as they tried not to laugh, Jack wanted to hide under a rock. It was embarrassing when he told half of the truth.
Let alone if he said he was getting chased by vengeful ghosts and broke his windows to escape. He couldn't say that, or they would think he was crazy on top of finding it funny.
"Yeah, yeah, get all your laughs out," Jack said before Sarah and Betty burst out laughing.
After a few minutes, they calmed down enough for Jack to ask why they wanted him to meet them.
"Hahaha, oh yeah," Sarah said as she wiped her tears off her eyes.
"Betty wanted to invest in you. She wants to put in another three thousand in hopes you give her the same access and privileges as me."
"Are you interested?"
Jack's eyes widened from shock before he grabbed Betty's hands with tear-filled eyes.
"I knew when I met you that you were kind, generous, and noble. You don't know how much this means to me."
"Only God and the government know how much I need this," Jack said with sincere gratitude.
Betty's face froze as she said, "Uh, you're welcome?"
Sarah slapped Jack's hand away before pulling out her purse.
"Here is my three thousand. Can you make the main character look more like me? And make me a cool girl." Sarah asked as she handed Jack a wad of pure cash.
"Of course, she was already based on you anyway," Jack said as he felt his problems melting away.
Betty took out her purse and handed Jack her bundle of cash.
She felt too embarrassed to ask for anything. She turned to Sarah and gave her a look hinting she wanted to be added to the game, too.
"Hester, can you add in a character based on Betty? If not, you can make her a skin for the main character from which we can choose." Sarah said after noticing Betty's intention.
"Not a problem, not a problem at all. I have a character already planned out. " Jack said happily.
"So this is what startup CEOS feel when investors shovel in cash."
"Getting so much money upfront is addicting." Jack thought to himself and felt his entire day becoming a hundred times better.
Even that vengeful ghost couldn't ruin his day. Plus, he got rid of her already.
"With this much cash, even if I'm forced to move, I'll manage just fine." Jack thought to himself.
Seeing Jack become so giddy, Sarah and Betty felt embarrassed. They looked around and noticed people looking at them with strange gazes.
"You're causing a scene. It's embarrassing." Sarah said quietly.
Jack snapped back into reality but still had a wide smile.
"Am I?"
"Alright, is this all you wanted to talk to me about, or is there something else? I plan to work more on the game today, so I'm free." Jack asked.
Sarah and Betty looked at each other before pulling out their phones.
"We need help getting to the higher rounds," Betty said with a soft sigh as she handed Jack her phone.
She was currently on round five, and the zombies were raiding her base.
"Yeah, show us how you got to round twenty. The most we were able to get to was round ten before dying. Even using our saved-up XXX Fertilizer was useless to save the situation." Sarah asked with a serious expression across her face.
"Sure, sure," Jack said happily, looking at their bases before shaking his head.
"Your bases are awful. Once I add the real market price feature, you two probably won't get past round five."
"Real market price?" Sarah and Betty uttered before becoming pale.
They were already struggling to get anywhere when the prices were fixed. Now, he was saying he would introduce a situation that would make everything ten times harder.
They wanted to strangle him.
"If you add that before we hit round twenty, we're doomed," Sarah said with wide eyes.
"Wait until we catch up. Can you work on the other features in the meantime?" Betty added, feeling a bit embarrassed that she hadn't caught up to Jack yet.
When she was watching Sarah, the game felt so easy. It was just like playing a more complex Plants vs Zombies. She easily got the gist with one look, but she was stuck at round six.
Remembering how much she argued with Sarah about which plants were better was especially embarrassing.
"Sure, I was planning on first adding a gambling feature to the game to help you guys. The real-time market price feature will have to come later." Jack said casually.
He was just teasing them. Adding in the real market price feature was definitely going to exaggerate the problem of the game being too hard. He didn't have plans on really creating it.
But now that he thought about it…maybe he could create a hard mode. Then, the real market price feature would fit in just nicely.
Sarah and Betty breathed out a sigh of relief before focusing back on getting Jack's advice on improving. After an educational hour, they made far more progress.
"Now that you have a stable cash flow, it's time to sell off your Furred Venus Fly Traps and upgrade to the Red Blaze Fly Traps and electric fences around your entire base."
"Isn't that going to use all our money?" Betty asked as she immediately started selling her Furred Venus Fly Traps.
"Yeah, but with it and the cash flow, you will be back in shape in no time. And you have enough food, water, and electricity stocked up to last."
"Oh! That makes sense." Betty's eyes sparkled as she came to an understanding.
"Wow, these electric fences are so broken. They turned the Slow Walker Zombies into ash." Sarah's eyes sparkled as she watched the zombies that plagued her for so long get destroyed easily.
"Yeah, but they are guzzling down electricity so fast. We will have to spend more money to increase our battery."
"Betty's right. Your next big purchase will be upgrading the base battery. Then it will be time for you to start working on building the research facility." Jack said as he looked at the time.
They had been hanging out for the past hour, and it was nearly six o'clock. The sun was starting to set, and it was getting colder. Wearing just a tank top and shorts, Jack shivered from the icy breeze.
Jack hesitated for a second before deciding to go back home.
He wanted to work more on Windor's Siege. He couldn't waste too much time with his military service deferral ending soon. Now that the cursed TV has been gone from his home,, he should hopefully be safe.
Every second he wasn't working on Windor's Siege delayed the launch. The sooner he launched Windor's Siege, the more money he could get.
Of course, he also didn't want to keep staying outside, freezing his ass off.
"I gotta go. I'll see you two later." Jack said abruptly as he stood up.
"Sure, stay safe. Send me a text when you get back home."
"See you later."
Sarah and Betty casually bid Jack farewell before going back to their phones. Their eyes were practically glued to their phones, which made Jack want to roll his eyes.
"At least they're enjoying it." Jack sighed and looked at his phone before leaving.