It was around 2:10 pm in the afternoon, same Friday. Sofony pressed her finger on the lock mechanism of the condo unit and then she heard a sound, a beep recognizing her fingerprint. At the realization that Gio made her a co-owner of his house, her mood somewhat lightened up and a faint red colored her cheeks.The door slid automatically sideways. After closing it, she slowly walked around to explore the place. Last time, she had already observed how simple the decors and colors within which mystically did not make the place dull, but more sophisticated. Whoever arranged the furniture and everything in the house was a true magician. Today, she wanted to etch every detail into her mind.
"I feel like I"m in a dream."
That was what escaped from her lips when she spotted her few belongings already arranged in the bigger bedroom. She couldn"t help but stupidly blink and stare.
"When did he..."
Sofony moved closer to the elegant blank round table near a breathtaking mini waterfall set up attached to the wall. Its water was crystal clear, the mini pond under was also breathtakingly decorated. A crystal-like lampshade was placed atop the table. Next to the lampshade was a note. The handwriting on it was not familiar, but she was sure this was not Gio"s. Probably this was left by his a.s.sistant.
She read the note which was only a reminder of which what was placed where. She had already checked the huge wardrobe and her clothes were there, actually, there were also other dresses and even s.e.xy garments added. Gio"s thoughtfulness made her red all over, especially whenever she looked at the black negligee.
"... That miraculously thin black nightgown...is something I"m not ready yet to wear."
This remark stunned her silly and made her reflect deeply. She bit her lips because the system was correct again. "He"s always the one giving... This is wrong."
Sofony took a deep breath before shaking off the thoughts in her head. She inspected every drawer and found that a particular one was filled with neatly folded panties, while another with bras. All is new, and the quality of the materials and brand are very topnotch too. And the correctness in sizes... almost made her soul fly far away.
""Oh, my, goshhhhhhh!!!! How did he know? When did he get my sizes? No, I think there"s something more d.a.m.nable here. Yeah, no, that"s not it. The main problem is did he let others know? Did he just let other people buy it for me? And they know it"s for me?""
One way or another, the system"s brutal reb.u.t.tal successfully summoned back her wandering soul. She exchanged some few words with it in her mind, and then push the drawer of bras closed. She pulled up the next one only to find that in there, its content was her important doc.u.ments like birth certificate, diplomas, etc.... and even her family"s photo alb.u.m...
"It"s all here... Now all that"s left in that apartment are few appliances and daily clothes."
And she wouldn"t be needing those anymore as the condo unit was not lacking now of anything.
She had mixed feelings after she pushed it back. As she changed from uniform to comfortable shirt and short shorts, her mind was lost in her flashbacks.
She realized it all started when her father abandoned her.
She was made into a host.
Then into a man"s personal hostess.
And here she was... in an unbelievable situation.
Was she a modern Cinderella now?
She couldn"t tell.
A few minutes pa.s.sed and Sofony was still alone. She brought her old model laptop on the head part of the bed and then powered it up. Her plan was to browse for some materials to learn more theoretical knowledge about managing like what Gio had advised.
Google had been a great help as she began to download useful PDFs and books while reading some articles related to or about running a business, particularly a cafe business. To make her brain calmer, she even tuned in her playlist of piano and flute songs.
As more ideas poured into her mind, she was truly satisfied with her decision to increase her Intelligence stat the most. She indulged more in studying and she couldn"t stop. The feeling of grasping new concepts easily like it was a very basic thing was really making her feel awesome and addicted. Understanding everything was not very difficult. She even had the feeling that even if she switched materials to complicated and advanced chemistry or differential equation, it would not be that much of a challenge.
""I wonder if Wendy has always felt like this...""
Sofony flinched a bit since the evaluation was very high, but when she remembered her friend"s feat, she felt like this evaluation was a given and not surprising at all, and this calmed her down.
"Wendy"s a real genius. I can even bet that once we take the college exams, she will easily become the first ranker in the whole country."
After hearing that, Sofony"s hands stayed in the air above her laptop"s keyboard. Her eyes turning complicated. Time pa.s.sed by that she was like that.
With a sigh, she decided to stop what she was doing. For some reason, she lost her enthusiasm to read and just felt like resting a bit.
Her laptop placed near the edge of the foamed mattress, a piano instrumental was playing. Sofony laid on the bed face up. She could hear the sound coming from the laptop much clearer and it was more resonating on her heart and soul. Maybe it was just the effect of the sound reverberating through the foam of the mattress. It was very calming. She felt like her ears were being teased by the soft music. Her troubled heart was also gradually calming down.
"System."
"I don"t get it. I know now that there are many hosts in the world like me." She summoned the interface. "It even said here, I am Host 137. Still, I don"t know how many are there. Are we destined to fight? Is that why you said before that our future will be full of challenges?"