24 Breathe (1/2)
Once he got back downstairs, he put away his Chemistry work and pulled out his Algebra. He remember Ms. Blackice's instructions and separated the required questions from the rest. It was a little distracting to do so, but he ultimately decided to just do everything on one set, and then copy out the required ones. This simplified the work significantly. He then grabbed a ruler and drew a border around the the required sections, so that it was more clear. He felt that this looked a bit fancier and was quite pleased with himself, though he wasn't quite sure why.
After he finished delineating everything, he stretched and brought his coffee mug back upstairs, thinking he might get lucky and there'd be more in the pot. His luck was good, as his parents had made another pot. By this point, his sisters were up and he could hear Saturday morning cartoons blaring in the living room. Resisting the urge to go and join them, poured himself another cup, chatted briefly with his parents who seemed to be doing some paperwork at the table, and went back down to get started on his last novel.
When he got back downstairs, he was ready to use his Enhanced Focus ability on the last novel. That would give him a 25% boost to his reading speed, turning 60 minutes worth of reading into 75 minutes. He looked at the time and saw that it was almost 11. If he used his Enhanced Focus now, he'd probably be asleep by the end of the cooldown period.
”So, System, just to make sure I understand this properly - if I used my Enhanced Focus now, I can use it for an hour and it will cooldown in 12 hours. But I can also use it for two hours now and it won't cool down til this time tomorrow?”
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”Got it. So that means that hypothetically it would be possible to use the Enhanced Focus for an even longer period.”
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”Got it... so there are ways to improve my mental capabilities so that I can sustain the focus for longer periods?”
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”...How do I do that?”
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”Ah. No. Not at the moment. Enable Enhanced Focus, please.”
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Shortly before 1pm, Michael's Enhanced Focus session ended. Other than a bit of a fuzzy feeling, he was feeling okay. He could vaguely sense what might happen if it had continued, though, and understood why the limiters the System had mentioned were in place. Deciding that he needed a bit of a break, he made his way upstairs to see if there was anything to snack on for lunch. Soon he'd prepared himself a plate of cold-cuts, cheese, a couple of hard-boiled eggs, and some salad.
”Now that I think of it, shouldn't I get ready for the nutrition plan? I can afford it with the money from the cafe project... System, is that ready?”
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”Let's make it for tomorrow. I'll let my parents know.”
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”Woah... that's a lot of meat... and eggs... and vegetables.”
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”Never mind. Guess I'll go shopping.”
After discussing his plans with his parents and assuring them that everything would work according to proper nutrition guidelines, Michael grabbed his empty backpack and walked over to the nearby grocery store. In inordinate amount of eggs, multiple cuts of multiple types of meat, and green vegetables later, he started making the trek home with a much heavier backpack and a much lighter wallet.