Chapter 17: Shopping

Chapter 17 - 17: ShoppingThe


"Alright, bro. After we eat, it's straight home. We have a lot of assembling to do."

Richard nodded, leaning back. "Yeah... but let's take this moment to enjoy the calm before the storm."

As the waiter placed their sizzling plates on the table, the aroma of grilled pork and garlic sauce filled the air.

Jack picked up his fork and grinned. "Cheers to a productive day."

Richard smirked, clinking his fork against Jack's. "And to an even more sleepless nights."

And with that, they dug in, fueling up for the long night of PC building ahead.

After finishing their hearty lunch, Jack and Richard took a moment to relax before heading back to the car. The restaurant was still alive with the chatter of students and workers, their conversations merging into a comforting city hum.

The smell of grilled meat and fried garlic rice still lingered in the air, mixing with the occasional whiff of exhaust fumes from passing tricycles outside.

Jack leaned back in his chair and stretched, rolling his shoulders. "Alright, bro. Time to head home and start building."

Richard patted his stomach, sighing in contentment. "Yeah... I can already tell it's gonna be a long night."

Jack chuckled as he threw some bills onto the table for the waiter. "You make it sound like we're about to go to war."

Richard smirked. "Might as well be. We're about to piece together two high-end war machines."

Jack laughed as they stepped out of the restaurant and into the warm, early afternoon sun.

The return journey was quieter this time. The mid-day rush in Cagayan de Oro had settled, though there were still plenty of tricycles, jeepneys, and motorcycles weaving through traffic.

Both of them had iced coffee in their hands as Jack drove, the faint hum of the Land Cruiser's engine blending with the sound of radio music playing at low volume.

Richard stared out the window, watching as the urban landscape slowly gave way to rice fields and small provincial houses. He always liked this part of the drive—the sudden change from the noisy city chaos to the peaceful, open roads.

For a while, neither of them spoke. It was one of those comfortable silences, where both were just lost in their own thoughts.

Finally, Richard broke the silence. "So... what about our servers? You mentioned we'd get a pre-built one."

Jack, keeping his eyes on the road, nodded. "Yeah, but not now. We'll buy it later. Right now, the priority is developing the base game first."

Richard took a sip of his coffee. "Fair point. But we're gonna need them sooner or later."

Jack smirked. "Of course. We'll start with a 42U server rack and 16 2U servers to run our game's shard logic. That setup alone should cost around... 2.25 million pesos."

Richard almost choked on his coffee. "What!?"

Jack glanced at him, amused. "What?"

Richard shook his head in disbelief, staring at Jack like he had just declared war on his bank account. "Did you just casually say two million pesos? Each!?"

Jack grinned, clearly enjoying Richard's reaction. "Yep."

Richard ran a hand through his hair, still trying to process the number. "Dude... I knew servers were expensive, but damn."

Jack chuckled. "Well, we need to test and develop our shard logic properly. 16 shards will let us run real-world simulations for our game's persistent world."

Richard let out a deep sigh. "Man, this is some next-level money talk."



Jack took another sip of his coffee before casually dropping another bomb. "Oh, and by the way, we already spent nearly 800k today—including our clothes in the back."

Richard let out an exhausted chuckle. "Damn, I don't even feel rich anymore."

Jack smirked. "Relax, bro. I already wired your 1 million peso allowance, so we still have 1.2 million left for other budgets."

Richard raised an eyebrow. "Wait, so if we need more, we can just ask Gramps?"

Jack nodded. "Yeah, but there's a catch. We have to use up the 1.2 million first before we can ask for more."

Richard frowned. "Huh. Guess we gotta be smart about it."

Jack nodded. "Exactly. We'll probably use part of it to renovate our basement workspace. We can't just dump all our high-end gear on raw concrete, plug in some extension cords, and call it a day. If we want Gramps to keep supporting us, we need to look like a real game studio."

Richard nodded in agreement. "Makes sense. We'll need proper insulation, network cables, server cooling, and a clean setup."

Jack grinned. "Exactly. And besides, if we ever need more space, we still have plenty of room at the backyard mansion. We could expand there if needed."

Richard leaned back in his seat, shaking his head with a smirk. "Man... we're actually doing this, huh?"

Jack glanced at him, flashing a confident grin. "Hell yeah, we are."

With that, they drove on, the city shrinking behind them as they made their way home—where the real work was about to begin.