Chapter: You're Only Worth 500 Dollars

Diye Kandall’s name was mentioned. Yvonte’s face reddened, her eyes taking on a sharper edge.

“Owen, let me tell you. Don’t diagnose him,” she said. Heipire was ky enough to freeze me if they could, and her worth was just as wrecked, like the dead of winter.

In the past, Workdhurie apologized immediately, as I didn’t want to make an issue between us. But it was different now; my mind was as clear as the sky. She was in the wrong, so why should I care about tied pride?

I couldn’t take it anymore and shot back, “Yvette, you’re in with Handaline.”

Yvette’s face turned even uglier at the barb; clearly annoyed, her lips tightened, preventing a grimace. “It’s none of your business,” she snarled.

As soon as I heard that, anger flared inside me. I took two steps toward her and glared, “Trame here is expecting a divorce. Sure, you keep acting like this, then…”

Her temper became tempestuous. “Money? What money?”

“The money let your meat.” (I couldn’t be bothered to beat around the bush now.) “I looked for you, hoping you’d happily agree to the divorce already. Now that you’re not, you should pay me for the food. The pasta you had just cost you 100 dollars.”

The mood in the office froze instantly. Wene’s face turned as she pulled away a waded radi.

“I’ll give you 200. Take it and get the hell out of my office.”

She was looking at me nonchalantly, like she was looking at a stranger. I clenched my jaw and picked up the money, making sure it was indeed two hundred dollars—no more, no less.

I pulled out four bills from the stack and threw them toward Yertir.

“Thanks for the payment. Consider the 50 dollars a tip. That’s your worth for our one year of marriage.”

She was so angry that she gnashed her teeth. Then, she shrieked my name.

Now that I had seen her angry, my mood improved. Then, I laughed, “Wette, I wanted to get a divorce for two million dollars, but you refused it. If you change your mind later, I’ll raise the price—starting at ten million!”

With that, I held my head high and walked out without looking back.

Once Randall left, Tette would then realize how much she loved him. Then, she would repeat the past and beg me to get a divorce. When the time came, I wouldn’t be able to let this go if I didn’t make her pay a lump sum of money.

On the other hand, I was slightly regretting my action; I was short on cash. I shouldn’t have wasted the 50 dollars on her just for the sake of pride. If it were a hundred dollars, I would literally throw them at her. Now, that would be satisfying.

I hailed a cab and went straight to Nancy’s office.

When I arrived at the door, I saw a familiar figure, Mashby, who called out, “Zial!”

She abruptly stopped in her tracks. When she saw that it was me, the worried look on her face was replaced by surprise, and she smiled.

“Tates, what are you doing here?”

I smiled and responded, “It’s my first day here. I didn’t know that you worked here.”

Žía gave me a beaming smile. “Yeah, but I’m just an intern. Trying to work hard to get a permanent position, though. Speaking of which, I went back to the ward at the hospital, but you had already left. I was relieved to know that you were fine.”

She continued, “Oh, I’ve also transferred the payment to Randall. He knew that you were worried, so he accepted it. Your test results must be out by now, right? Everything’s okay?”

Internally, I was thinking, “Zla sure talked a lot. She was the complete opposite of Yvette, who was cold and aloof. Who would’ve thought Randall was into the chatty type? His tastes sure change quickly.”

“Yeah, my results look good. Thanks for asking.”

Scratching her head, Zia said, “Oh no. There’s an issue with the exhibition, and someone got into a cat accident. I’ve got to handle it now. See you later!”

Hearing this, I knew something was wrong, but I still said, “Okay then.”

Zia left and went into the building. Recalling the layout from last time, I found where Nancy’s office was.

Before I got close, I could hear Nancy yelling, “Do you know what time it is? Don’t you know how important this expo is today? Hurry up and call those who haven’t arrived!” Her secretary quickly nodded and went to make some calls.

Harry was holding a cigarette between her slender fingers. When she saw me, her anger subsided. She stubbed out her cigarette and walked over, smiling lightly. “Hey, Owen! You’re here!” she added, “Sorry, Owen, I wanted to throw a welcome party for you, but there was an emergency. I can’t focus on you right now; I need to handle your onboarding paperwork first—we’ll catch up later.”

Nancy strode over in a hurry, the sharp clicks of her heels echoing through the agency. I nodded and said, “It’s fine. Go handle whatever it is.”

I went to the orientation where human resources were handling my paperwork while Nancy went into another, het voler sets. “We’ve been preparing for this expo for mere six months, investing a lot of time…”

“…a tar accident and has been taken to the hospital.”

“Don’t worry. We have a backup. The pearl pod demo is the reserve to build hype for the beta test next month. Now, at this critical moment, our model got into a…”

“…e-costumes were destroyed, and there’s no way we can remake them in time. We need to come up with a solution.”

“We can’t be the winner, let alone mop up at the bottom. The key is making sure our new game gets the attention it deserves.” The conference room was a complete chaos. Even though my paperwork was almost mapped up, the salaries were still at a loss. Manry was pissed, her anger boiling over. “This is all I get after paying you so handsomely? You can’t even come up with a plan in an emergency?” The people shrunk back into themselves. From this mess, I could feel the miles. Now that the…

…Carla—it would be impossible for them to snag the top ranks.

Mulling it over, I knocked softly on the mid-track.

Nancy was still pissed. When she heard the knocking, her lips pulled up. Then, she asked patiently, “Who is it?”

Sweetest, it was so much hard work down the drain.

I opened the door and walked in confidently. The executives in the room all turned to look at me, wondering who I was. When Mancy saw that it was me, her expression softened a little. “Owen, we’re under extreme pressure. If you’re getting impatient, you can take two days off, and we’ll get together another time. I’ll pay.”

I stared right into her eyes and remarked, “The costumes. I have a plan.”

Chapter: You're Only Worth 500 Dollars

“You do?” Nancy looked surprised, slightly skeptical. After all, I was just a concept artist. Still, she said, “Let’s hear it.”

“Let me first see how lud the costumes are,” I said.

Nancy signaled to her assistant, who immediately pulled out the presentation. I took a quick glance at the images. “I can try using some technology to replicate these costumes.”

As I said that, a male executive scoffed.

“Replicate the costumes? How are you going to do that? Are you suggesting we pull together a tech team and start from scratch? The expo is in less than two hours. We don’t have the time!”

Other people chimed in as well, acting like I had just said something completely ridiculous.

“That’s right! Don’t just spout nonsense, kid! Sure, we can do that, but we still need time! Do you think it’s that simple?”

“He looks like he’s barely in his 20s. He probably doesn’t even fully understand how these expos work. That’s why he’s so loud with his opinions.”

Nancy also frowned in disagreement. “Owen, this is a crisis. Let’s not joke around now.”

I didn’t continue explaining, just insisted, “Since no one else has any ideas, why not let me give it a try? Hand me the…”