Chapter 36 - One Trick Pony?

Inside the car, I sat on the passenger seat while Salem took the steering wheel.

The moment we drove out of the fuel station, I looked at him and said threateningly,

"If there's even a scratch on the car…."

*humph*

He snorted upon hearing my threatening tone.

"Believe it or not, ama drive your car to the wall!"

Saying that he turned the steering wheel to the side, then straightened it back in quick fashion, just enough to let the car shake.

"You F*cking mor*n! I swear to god! If.."

*ring* *ring*

Just as I was going through the next gear of threat, my phone started ringing. Looking at the caller ID,

[Adam]

I knew what he would say, so I rejected the call and sent him a text message.

[To: Adam

Use the E app to make the call.]

E app, nothing serious, just a simple app to make encrypted calls over the internet. Because by 2031, people started getting more concerned about their privacy than ever before, which in return led to the proliferation of services and apps that offer an extra layer of privacy.

Another text came.

[from: Adam

Okay.]

Opening the E app, I logged in to my account, and a second later a call came right in.

[Call: Iron-Head]

The moment the call was picked on speaker mode,

"You lucky b*stard!"

"Did you really awaken the system!! What system is it!?"

Adam and Walid's loud voices filled with excitement came through the speakers. I can imagine the looks on these two without even seeing them.

"Eh, what system? Are you guys playing a skit?"

Salem's confused voice came from my side, he was peeking at me doubtfully from time to time while focusing on the road.

"Hey! Tell me what system you got!"

"Maybe he got only the appraisal skill, like in Japanese novels!"

"You two calm down!"

I said trying to calm the two excited bulls on the other side of the phone. However, that only made them more excited.

"Could your system be something shameful!? Is that why you won't say what it's!?"

"Maybe he has a succubus system! Hahahahah!"

This a**hole!

"F*ck! Don't come at me with your dream to become a succubus!

I yelled at the phone.

"Did you really awaken a system!?"

Salem by my said asked in a stupified tone while looking at me with wide eyes.

Wait, looking at me!? At the same time, Adam suddenly asked,

"Why are you transitioning to the opposite lane?"

I looked forward, and my soul almost jumped out of me. Then I grabbed the steering wheel and turned it to the right.

"You son of ****! f***** a***! Do you want to kill us!"

Salem came back to his senses and corrected the car's direction while trembling.

It's not like he was about to go through a wall like he previously threatened, but he was going slightly to the left, getting into the opposite lane. The problem is that on the opposite lane, there is a car approaching and its driver is playing with his phone, not looking seriously at the road.

"Are you guys okay!?"

Adam's concerned voice came through the phone.

*huf*

"It's, okay!"

I replied, then turned to Salem and scolded angrily,

"Can't you f*cking focus on the road! What are you looking at me for!?"

"He.. hehe! It's.. a mistake! Sorry buddy!"

He apologized while laughing sheepishly, still feeling cold.

"Forget about it."

What a fr*aking day is it today!

After a couple of breaths in silence, I talked through the phone,

"I don't know if it's a system or not! I tried the classic ways in novels to interact with the system, but nothing worked."

That is right, I tried all the packages of systems interaction procedures.

Calling the Systems!

Deep blue!

Status!

Skill!

Inventory!

Papa!

Grandfather!

Mama!

But nothing happened so far.

"Eh? Not even 'appraisal' works? Have you tried to focus on something?"

Walid asked.

"Hmm, I haven't had the time yet, let me try."

Looking around the car, I noticed the three pill bottles. That reminded me that I'm still hungry.

Eating a couple of different pills, I then take one vitamin pill and said in a loud voice while focusing on it,

"Appraisal!"

Suddenly,

Nothing happened…..

"Did it work?"

Walid asked with great expectations.

"... it doesn't work."

Three seconds of silence, then,

"Hahaha!"

"Did you hear how loud and confident he was! A grown man yelling Appraisal! Hahaha!

The two on the phone started laughing at me, even Salem by my side, his face was red and the shoulders were going up and down, trying to hold his laughter.

I didn't know what to say for a minute,

"Hahaha!"

I could only laugh to hide away the embarrassment. After laughing and joking for some time, Adam suggested again,

"Try other words like identify, or actions like focusing solely on an object, maybe it will work!"

Hmmm, although I'm still a bit embarrassed, I still tried, about silently this time.

'Identify'

'Appraisal'

'Show status'

'Attribute'

*Focus*

…..

I tried everything that came to mind one after the other. Unfortunately, nothing seems to work.

"It isn't working!"

I said in defeat while leaning back in my seat. Then threw the pill to my mouth and grabbed a pack of meal replacement jello.

*sip*

"Could your power be nerfed? Maybe you can only appraise one thing every day?"

Adam asked,

"What is that, it turns out you are a one-trick pony!"

Walid snickered.

"You are the pony! Your whole family are ponies!"

"Hey! Don't drag my family into it!"

Then we started cursing back and forth for some time, after calming down, I thought about it.

Maybe it's really limited to a certain number each day.

*sip*

However, if I remembered correctly, I did have the feeling of something similar to appraisal previously, in fact, that happened twice.

The first time was when I grabbed my phone after waking up in the car wash, but the information was more like an imaginary stream of data, and I wasn't sure if it's true.

The second time was when driving the car after coming out of the car wash. Before the hunger episode struck.

"Man, whatever! Whether it's for a limited time or something else. It still helped us tremendously this time."

Salem said suddenly, to which the other two echoed.

"Thankfully we weren't cheated!"

"Yeah! We were really lucky this time."

Speaking of being cheated, I asked.

"Walid, what do you think of this matter? Do you think Laheeb did us dirty?"

Hearing my question, Walid went silent for some time then spoke.

"I know him more than you guys, although their family business is involved in some gray areas, none of them would risk their reputation. Unless.."

Then he stopped.

"Unless what?"

Adam asked.

"There was a rumor about his cousin Sam, it says he is addicted to gambling, and last year he owed a casino a 100 thousand dollars!"

*Hiss*

We took a cold breath. Even if our families are secretly well off, 100k is still a huge number to be wasted like that.

"Don't think about it anymore, we might not even meet any of them again. Now think of what we should tell our parents!"

I said, wanting to forget about what happened temporarily, then threw a joke.

"Imagine our parents' sermon if they knew we brought the first truck!? Like if it was them, they wouldn't fall for it!"

"Hahaha!"

"Hahaha! That's normal, we don't have the awareness and smarts of the generation that used to cross the seven seas to go to school!"

"Hahaha!"

While laughing and talking, I accidentally glanced at someone standing beside the road.

*whim*

The area between my eyebrows suddenly throbbed, and a new stream of information came to my mind.

"Oh, Sh*t! Pull Up Your Pants!"