The time struck six o'clock in the evening, and finally, an honest day's work was done.
"Here's your two thousand pesos as we agreed," Tiffany said, handing out the two one-thousand bills.
Timothy graciously accepted the bill. "Thank you, if you have any questions regarding the topic, please don't hesitate to reach me out in my messenger. Though there are times that I might not be active, still I encourage you to chat with me about your problems, I'll reply as soon as I can."
"Hmm, I'll bear that in mind. So, how are you going to return home?"
"I'll book Angkas since public transportation from here to my home is a hassle for me," Timothy replied.
"How about I book you a Grabcar? And seeing the weather outside, it's drizzling. It may get stronger later. You don't want to get caught in the rain right?"
"But I don't know if I can afford…"
Tiffany shook her head before he could finish. "Then I insist."
Her tone was firm, the same kind of confidence she carried in class when she answered a professor's question. Timothy opened his mouth to protest again, but her fingers were already moving across her iPhone screen.
A few taps, a soft chime, and she said calmly, "There. A Grabcar will be here in five minutes."
Timothy rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "You really didn't have to…"
"Think of it as part of your pay," she cut in, adjusting her glasses. "Besides, it's nothing. Just a ride."
Nothing. For her, maybe. For him, the thought of spending two to three hundred pesos on a single trip had always been unthinkable unless it was an emergency. He wasn't used to this kind of convenience.
"Alright," he muttered, forcing a small smile. "Thank you, Tiffany."
She studied him for a moment, then nodded, satisfied. "Good. Now go, before the rain gets worse."
Timothy slipped on his shoes by the door, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. The receptionist downstairs would probably eye him again when he left, but at least this time he'd be heading home in a private car.
The Grabcar, a Toyota Vios, was waiting outside the lobby just as she said, headlights glowing against the drizzle. The driver, a middle-aged man with a friendly face, waved. "Sir Timothy?"
"Yeah, that's me."
He climbed in, sinking into the clean leather seat.
As the car pulled away from BGC, Timothy leaned his head against the window, watching the city lights blur through raindrops. In his pocket, the crisp two-thousand-peso bills felt unreal. It felt the same when he got his first hundred thousand pesos from the jewelry.
He has three reconstructions left, and once he got back home, it's time to make a business plan to get as much money as he can from scraps.
Two hours later, he arrived at his home in Tondo. He didn't pay anything as Tiffany covered the fare.
He arrived at his home's doorsteps and saw his mother.
"Ma," Timothy reached for her hand and bowed as he rested his forehead on top of her hand. "I just returned from a tutoring session and got paid. Here's a thousand pesos, buy any dinner you'd like."
"No, this is your money…"
"Ma, come on, I insist," Timothy said, gently pressing the bill into her palm. "It's not every day I get to bring something home like this. Please, buy whatever you want. Maybe even meat, not just tinola with neck and wings again."
His mother's lips trembled faintly, torn between refusal and relief. Finally, she sighed and tucked the bill into her blouse pocket. "You're working too hard, anak… but thank you. I'll just order takeout since it's late to cook food."
"No worries, just order from Jolibee, Angela knows how."
With that, Timothy went upstairs and locked himself in his bedroom.
He sighed, it was quite a long day. But now that he was in his bedroom, it's time for the planning to commence.
He sat on the bed and browsed his phone. He knew the Reconstruction System was overpowered. The ability to turn scrap into something luxurious meant that the business perfect for him was buy and sell.
And a while ago, he saw this Facebook post about vloggers vlogging about their work as a second-hand car reseller. One of them was from JC garage that sells dirt cheap cars and was infamous for cars breaking down after the transaction.
He planned on getting into a car reselling business. The reason? It's one of the popular businesses out there and with a lot of pages dedicated to car selling, means that he has to jump in the hype.
Not only that, he has the advantage over his competitors. He can buy a sedan for 50,000 and reconstruct it into brand-new condition and sell it for 600,000 or more. That's a huge profit margin.
If he was going to join the market, then he needed a huge capital. He can have that covered by reconstructing another jewelry so he could get one or two million cash, and use that cash to buy multiple junk, flooded, second-hand cars from the marketplace and build his own dealership by renting a space.
And he also had to store a lot of reconstruction attempts so he could buy multiple cars at once, and he needed a driver's license.
He estimated in his head, he needed two months. By that time he would have 60 reconstruction attempts.
"Okay, time to lock in," Timothy said to himself.