Chapter 276: Chaotic Thanksgiving (1) (Patreon)

[Edward POV]

As the jet took to the sky, Frankie sat in front of me and poured herself a glass of whiskey, and myself some Sprite.

“Can I have some of that?” I asked as my eyes glued to the whiskey bottle as I grabbed the drink from her. “No.” She replied curtly. 

I whined, “You won’t let me drink. You won’t let me make more Euphoria.”

“Tell me about your date,” she ignored me as she sipped her drink.

I smiled and teased, “I don’t know you like to ‘get the tea’. You little gossip.”

Frankie was confused, “I’m drinking alcohol.”

Taken aback for a bit, I sighed and told her all the deets about my date. Frankie fell into some deep thoughts while I muttered with self-depreciation, “See. I told you it won’t work.”

“I kind of expected this to happen,” Frankie said suddenly, which made me baffled. 

“Then why did you make me do it?” I asked in confusion. The room went silent for a while as Frankie finished her drink and I patiently waited for her answer.

After a while, she explained, “Because you thought that you couldn’t.”

“That’s really not what my conflict is about.” I reacted with a dumbfounded expression. 

Frankie smirked and explained, “Isn't it, though? You think you need to close yourself off because no one will understand you or see past your status. But you've only had a couple of relationships - how can you know for sure that's true? How can you find ‘the one’ if you stop trying? Just as in statistics, you need to widen your data group.”

I looked at Frankie with disbelief and spoke after a momentary silence, “That’s kinda sly. I knew I shouldn’t let you watch Shark Tales.”

She said smugly, “But you did. Now I know how to navigate your issues and offer you solid advice.”

“Or dumb. We don’t know the results yet.” I said with a shrug.

Frankie smiled and said, “Now if you don’t mind, I'd like to get some shut eye. It has been a long day at Greendale.”

“Wait before that, did you find the IT lady?” I asked with intrigue. Frankie shook her head, “No, it’s an IT guy. There’s no IT lady here.”

‘So her twin isn’t here. That’s 2 changes now.’ I thought while rubbing my chin. Seeing me in contemplation, Frankie asked curiously, “What are you thinking about?”

“Who’s going to become the foreman for the whole construction? You know, we haven't hired anyone yet,” I changed the topic quickly. Frankie nuzzled onto the seat and said, “I’m too tired. I’ll think about it tomorrow.”

“Alright then. Goodnight. Mother…,” Her eyes widened a bit, but I continued with a smirk, “...Figure.”

She exclaimed in exasperation and didn’t bother to react as she got some rest. It would take around 3 hours for me to arrive in Wisconsin, so I decided to shut my eyes too.

I walked to the storage and got some blankets. I handed Frankie one of them and went to lie down on the long couch instead of sleeping on the cozy chair. It may be because of the altitude, or maybe because of the gas leak, but I was feeling particularly sleepy tonight. I didn’t even have to use my [Rest] skill to go to sleep.

However, my rest was cut short when I realized that I was transported into a white room.

“Wait, Afterlife corp?” I muttered with confusion as I saw Gong Shin’s office in front of me. “It was time for an afterlife session? Why wasn’t I notified?”

Suddenly, Gong Shin entered the room too, through a red door that appeared from thin air.  He saw me and asked in confusion, “Why are you here?”

“How should I know?” I exclaimed in bewilderment.

…

[General POV]

Entertain company building. Taylor, who cut her blonde hair short, sat across Pepper who had an exhausted look on his face. She asked, “Can I release the song today?”

Pepper snapped in frustration, “Girl, it’s Thanksgiving. You definitely should not. And you should go home to be with your family.”

“No, my family is coming here,” She replied casually before getting back to the topic. “Then, when can I release the music video?”

Pepper thought about it with some difficulty. He glanced at Taylor and asked whisperingly, “Are you sure you don’t want me to ask Edward? He’s the one who knows about this stuff.”

“You’re the CEO!” Taylor retorted. “Have some backbone! You got this!” 

“Hmmm…” Pepper racked his brain as he was filled with indecision. “You know what?” He said, which made Taylor perked up. “You can release it tomorrow. We’ll just do what Edward usually does before he releases his songs.”

Taylor grumbled in frustration before saying, “I hate that you’re probably right in this one.” Even though she had planned her stealthy revenge and wanted to do everything on her own, she still wanted the song to succeed. 

Pepper stood up from the couch, grabbed Taylor’s hand to help her stand up from the chair and ushered her out of his office, “Now, go home. I want to go home too! It’s Thanksgiving, and I have given every employee a day off. That includes me.”

Taylor grabbed the door frame before Pepper could push her out of the office, “Wait. Make sure not to tell him before the music video is released!”

“I got it! You already repeated that a thousand times!” Pepper pushed Taylor out before he locked the door. 

“Teenagers!” He exclaimed in frustration before whispering, “She really thought that we could hide it from him? He even gave the director some advice about the music video. Well, she’ll be extra mad if she knew about this, so I’ll just keep that bit to myself.”

…

[Edward POV]

As I sat in front of Gong Shin, I asked, “So why is the session closed again?”

“An eldritch entity had come to visit, so we evacuated everyone and closed all sessions. Without sufficient protections, the soul will explode as soon as they gazed upon him. I guess you came here the second he left so I missed your presence.”

“Who? Cthulhu?” I asked jokingly. 

Gong Shin was startled for a bit before he asked, “Anyway, since you’re here, do you want to come and see my new machine or do you want to go back now?”

Seeing his avoidance, I fell into a deep shock, “Wait…is it really Cthulhu? Those…aren’t fictional?”

“Do you want to or not?” He asked again. “Where is that messenger anyway? Shouldn’t he already notify you about the afterlife session being postponed?” 

He waved his arm and a white raven suddenly appeared inside the room. It was flapping his wings tiredly, with its tongue hanging out, before it fell lifelessly to the desk. 

Gong Shin grabbed the bird with 2 hands and asked with concern, “What were you doing?”

The bird replied while huffing its breath, “I fly…across the land…Target is not…At his house…”

My eyes lit up and I said, “Oh yeah, I was in Colorado.”

“Tell me…next time…” The bird said annoyedly before he pretended to faint. 

Gong Shin placed him down on the desk gently before saying, “So, you want to check it out.”

“Sure.” I replied casually. The bird whispered cursingly, “You heartless monsters…”

Gong Shin directed me to a new gacha session room. “It’s something I thought of called, ‘Double or Nothing.’ So, the gist is that, after you roll one prize, the probability that you will get another prize from the same person you got the original one, will be raised to 50%. If you lose, you’ll lose the original one too.”

“Ah, I get it,” I nodded my head in understanding as I touched the mechanism on the machine. “It’s a Bingo Machine?” I asked.

“Yes. You’ll get a paper with 25 slots for numbers and you need to get a BINGO. Sooner you get it, the higher the quality of the roll will be.”

“I think I get it. Can I use it now?” I asked.

He turned to me and said, “Why not? Since this is an unofficial session, you don’t even have to reset your karmic points. I’ll just use the ones from your storage.”

“Great. Let’s do it.” 

Gong Shin taught me to use the machine, and I pressed the green button on the panel. A piece of paper printed out from the machine with my name on it, and I get ready for Bingo.

Filling the 5x5 columns randomly, I asked him, “So, if I get 5 numbers in a straight line, then it's bingo right? Does it work diagonally?”

“Yeah it works.” He replied as he rolled the bingo machine. A ball with the number rolled out of the machine, and he announced, “13. By the way, you’ll have to pay 1000 karma per ball.”

“I don’t really mind it. Great. I got the center one.” I said excitedly as I scratched my number on the paper. 

After 10 calls, I finally got a diagonal BINGO. The paper morphed into a purple ball that labeled, [ Purple Quality Gacha:  Consumables– No circle Transmutation (FullMetal Alchemist) – Edward Elric]

“Consumables again?” He looked at me with suspicions. I was also confused, “Don’t look at me, it’s your machine.”

He sighed before he said excitedly, “Double Or Nothing!?”

“Double.” I replied with excitement. Another piece of paper printed out of the machine, and he rolled the bingo numbers. It took me 12 tries to get a Bingo and I received a white quality gacha.

[White Quality:  Memory – Chimera Dog – Edward Elric.]

“No no! NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!” I stood up in shock and I tried to give back the prize to Gong Shin. “I don’t want this memory.”

“Damn. This one is quite bad.” He reluctantly took the prize from me and said, “You want another Double or Nothing? Then you will lose everything.”

“Yes! Definitely!” Even though I was reluctant to part way with the transmutation circle, making sure that I would never experience this memory was the obvious choice.

Gong Shin said casually while spinning the ball, “Oh right, this time, the probability will lessen to 25%.”

“That works better for me.” I replied as I scratched the numbers off the paper. Within 7 balls, I managed to get a BINGO, and unfortunately, I received something from Alfonse Elric, which made my entire prizes disappear.

“Good luck next time.” Gong Shin said with a smirk. I sighed in relief and said, “Thank god. Alright, next.”

“You want to continue? Okay then.” He didn’t expect me to be absorbed in the game, but I did.

In the next few BINGO games, I lost theDouble or Nothing game 3 times , and only won once.

[Green Quality: Skill – Design Planning– Ted Mosby]

[Purple Quality: Talent – StoryTelling – Ted Mosby]

Gong Shin teased, “Maybe you’ll need 9 seasons to tell the story of how you met your kids' mother too.” 

I smirked and said, “I may even win some awards. Who knows? Ted must be great at telling his stories if it can run for 9 seasons without cancellation.”

We continued the games for a while, and I only won 3 more times even though I had played 11 games. Sensing that my luck in this game wasn’t very good, I decided to pause the game for a minute.

[Gold Quality: Talent– Mesmerizing Eyes – Gojo Satoru]

[Purple Quality: Talent – Angering People – Gojo Satoru]

[Gold Quality: Skill – Brush strokes – Bob Ross]

[Gold Quality: Skill – Color – Bob Ross]

[Green Quality: Consumables– Minor Bone Regeneration – Luciel (The Great Cleric)]

[Red Quality: Consumables – Minor Heal– Luciel]

“Will my eyes color change?” I asked in confusion. Gong Shin replied, “I don’t think so. It’ll just look very pretty after this.”

“Can you explain to me about the healing items?” I asked hesitantly. 

“Maybe it can heal a gunshot. That’s it. It won’t regenerate organs.” He replied with a sympathetic look on his face. “But, that bone regeneration, you can cast it on your cat for her to get her claws back.”

I smiled in satisfaction and said, “What shall I do with the mechanical claw design I have made for him?”

Gong Shin chuckled without replying. 

“Hmm…” I thought about it for a while and asked him, “How long has the time passed in the real world?”

“Only an hour.” Gong Shin checked his watch.

“I’ll play one last time before I go back.” I declared.

In the last roll, I actually got a Gold Quality Memory from an unknown guy.

“Who is he?” I asked Gong Shin. He mused as he saw the ball and replied, “Just a guy… living in the same universe as your previous self.”

My eyes lit up, “Really?”

[Gold Quality: Memory – Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 4 & 5 (incomplete)  – W. Lana]

“Double or nothing?” Gong Shin asked.

“Double it.” I replied confidently. Within only 6 rolls, I managed to get another BINGO on the paper. My heart palpitated quickly as the paper morphed into a ball. 

[Gold Quality: Memory – 2023 Entertainment Landscape – W. Lana]

“Yes!” I raised my hand in celebration as I stood up from my seat. I died in June 2022, so if the memory was from my previous universe, then I had something to look forward to. 

Marvel projects were usually great although the quality declined a bit before I left, but I’m sure that they had quickly fixed the problem and returned with quality shows, right? I wasn’t clear about the Entertainment Landscape, so I ignored it for now.

Gong Shin smiled as he saw my excited expression and said, “Congratulations. Double or nothing?”

“I’ll just stop here.” I said non-committedly as I smiled. Waving goodbye to the agent, I left the afterlife session and returned to my mortal plane, feeling satisfied about today’s session.

…

Arriving at Wisconsin, my dad picked me up and met with Frankie at the airport. Only my dad came as it was 3 am, and my cousins were all sleeping. Frankie and my dad both looked at me with confusion after I exited the jet.

“What?” I grunted with a playful tone, rubbing my sore forehead at the same time.

My dad looked at me and said, “When did your eyes change?”

“Did you wear contact lenses?” Frankie asked. “When?”

My head was still hurting so I stopped the questioning, “Can we do this later on? I’m still sleepy.”

My dad and Frankie scrutinized my face before both of them gave up and turned to each other. My dad used an affectionate tone to ask Frankie, “Are you sure you don’t want to come to my place for Thanksgiving? My mom is eager to meet you.”

“I feel bad that I have to squash her hope, but I already promised my family to be there.” Frankie replied.

“That’s too bad,” my dad said as he held her hand.

While they were flirting, I was struggling with my eyes.

Gojo Satoru eyes was referred to as The Six Eyes, an innate gift rarely inherited within the Gojo clan. They are a nonstandard jujutsu trait manifesting as a pair of bright blue eyes that grant a bearer extrasensory perception of cursed energy. 

However, I don’t have any cursed energy, so the change wasn’t obvious for me, other than making my perception ability stronger. The overload of sensory input made me squint my eyes and covered it up from any source of light with my palm.

My dad and Frankie noticed my struggle and stopped their conversation. Frankie turned towards me and asked worriedly, “Edward, are you okay?”

“Yeah my eyes are just sensitive from the change.” I replied. My dad nodded in understanding and said, “Come on, you can continue sleeping in the car.”

I obediently let my dad pull my hand and led me to the vehicle before he drove us to my grandparent’s ranch. Even in that 1 hour drive, my eyes hadn’t adapted to the change yet. I had to cover up my eyes with a black cloth temporarily in order to walk into the house.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to the doctor?” my dad asked with concern as he carried my bags into the house. I smirked and said, “Ever wonder if this is a plot for me not to carry my luggage myself?”

He scowled a bit before saying, “Go to sleep–”

“Edward!” Suddenly, my grandpa called out for me from my behind. As the morning started early in the ranch, he was already up and wanted to go to the stables to milk the cows. 

He hugged me and stopped when he saw my face, “Wait. What happened to your eyes?”

My dad spoke for me, “He said that it’s too sensitive. It could be from jet lag. He traveled quite a few times in 2 days.”

Grandpa nodded in understanding and said, “I guess I can spare you from getting our milk for breakfast. Why don’t you go to your room and sleep it off?”

“I will. Where’s Vader and Ace?” I asked curiously. 

My grandpa replied, “The cat is sleeping with the girls. Ace is guarding the ranch– Wait, here he is.” 

The black panther ran to the house in excitement and lunged toward me. As I couldn’t prepare myself for it, I fell down on the floor, which made both my grandpa and my dad worried.

Ace nuzzled his face towards me in excitement, which made me burst into laughter. “I miss you, too big girl.” I said as I affectionately patted her head. It took me a while to convince the panther to let me go. 

My dad led me into the room and left me at the door as I told him that I could manage on my own. I still remembered what the room looked like so it wasn’t that hard to navigate. I found the bed in no time and sat on the edge of the bed, unbuttoning my shirt before taking it off to go to sleep.

As I laid down on the bed, I suddenly sensed there was something amiss there. My hand rummaged the sides of the bed when I suddenly touched something warm and soft.

“Hmm? What is this?” I muttered in confusion as I grabbed the squishy thing for a bit.

Maggie, who was sleeping soundly in my bed, suddenly woke up and her face turned tomato red. “That’s…” Her voice caught me off guard. I was shocked when she continued, “That’s my boobs…”

“Oh…” I exclaimed casually before moving my hand away and turned sideways, with my back against her. Then, I went to sleep. 

Maggie was speechless for a second before she sat up from the bed and picked up a pillow, gripping the edges strongly. “You PERVERT!” She pushed the pillow on my face, trying to suffocate me.