Chapter 8: The Battle Between Laziness and Wealth

I spent a couple more hours with Maya after that. Once she calmed down and stopped crying we started talking. We shared stories and life experiences, interests and disinterests, and by the end of it all her nervousness had all but vanished and she was able to talk to me normally.

She turned out to be a really sweet person, though she admitted to being lonely. She said she didn't have many friends in the area, because everyone she made friends with in school moved away when they reached adulthood. I, of course, promised to be her friend, which got a genuine smile out of her. 

After that I went back to my apartment to prepare dinner, leaving Maya with the promise that we'd hang out again soon. I knew at one point or another she and I would probably end up becoming more than just friends, but I was more than happy to take my time and not rush into things. 

This world may be different, but that still didn't change my own sensibilities, and I'd much rather get to know someone before I made any major relationship decisions, after all, we've only known each other for two days. 

After dinner I was lounging around on my sofa watching TV when my phone vibrated. I checked it to find a message from Lauren, apparently she had mentioned me to a couple of her friends and now they wanted to meet up sometime this week. 

I fired off a quick message asking when and where and then let out an audible sigh. It's not that I minded meeting strangers, especially not if they were more beautiful girls, but a little piece of me still held apprehension that they would find me intimidating or not want to interact with me due to my appearance. 

I received a reply from her almost immediately, they wanted to meet up tomorrow around four at a coffee shop in town, which was perfect for me. I still hadn't been to any shops in this world to see how things were different, so I was looking forward to tomorrow.

I also needed to get a few things from the store that I was running low on, so this meet-up was a perfect excuse to kill two birds with one stone and get some shopping done while I was out.

That thought in mind, I realized that I still hadn't checked my bank account in this world, even though I had been here since saturday. I pulled up the app, and was happily surprised to see it was set to be unlocked with biometrics, which was perfect for me since I had no idea what the password was. 

My eyes almost popped out of my head when the page showing my current bank balance finally loaded. All I could do was stare in shock for a few minutes at the number on the screen, recounting the digits over and over again to make sure I wasn't misreading. I had thirty-five thousand dollars just sitting there waiting for me.

Sure, thirty-five grand isn't an insanely huge amount of money, I wasn't rich by any means, but it was still the most money I had ever had on hand at any one time by a lot. Not only that, but as long as prices were the same in this world I could do a lot with that amount of money. 

Checking the deposit log, I noticed that money was being deposited at the beginning of every month from the government. Then I remembered reading about government funded incentive programs for males while I was doing research and couldn't help but smile.

Because the Isaac of this world had shut himself away, he was making the minimum amount every month in incentive funds, but that just meant there was potential for those deposits to grow once I had my bearings and started to bring women into my harem. 

It felt a little scummy, the thought of becoming rich while doing nothing just by collecting women, but that also meant that I could provide for myself and any women I chose to be with. Considering I only planned to go after women who were considered ugly in this world, I would quite literally be giving them the best life possible, all without having to lift a finger to do it. 

I understood fully at that moment how the men of this world became so lazy. Who would ever want to work when everything was handed to you without struggle. It would be very easy for me to fall into that same trap, but I knew I could never be satisfied living a sedentary life, I would have to do something fulfilling.

I went to bed thinking of all the possibilities before me. How could I contribute, what could I do? A few thoughts came to mind, which I would sit down and heavily consider in the morning. I fell asleep with a wide grin on my lips, knowing that very soon I would be living the dream.

(Author's note: the next few chapters should be a bit longer, especially chapter 9 when Isaac meets up with Lauren and her friends. I also have a few alternate POV chapters in the works so stay tuned!)