The morning sun was hitting just right when l made my way out of Akira’s company, and with yesterday’s cash burning a hole in my pocket, I had one mission: get a phone.

Living on Earth without a smartphone is basically being stuck in the Stone Age.

I spent an hour prowling through neon-lit tech boutiques, weighing the sleek minimalism of an iPhone against the raw power of the competition. In the end, I went for the crown jewel: a Samsung S25 Ultra. It nearly wiped out my entire stash, but holding that sleek titanium frame felt like holding a piece of the future.

As I walked through the mall, thumbing through the settings, a thought hit me. I remembered some superhero in a movie where the guy could charge electronics with his bare hands. It made me wonder: could magic and tech actually play nice together?

I had to know. I decided to test the theory. I dialed 911.

"Emergency services, what is your location?" The voice was crisp, professional, and unsuspecting.

"Hello, I’m Asher," I murmured as l closed my eyes, focusing. I activated my Mnemomancy skill, trying to see if I could bridge the gap.

Usually, I needed physical contact, touching a person’s head to weave through their mind. But today, I followed the signal. I felt my consciousness piggyback on the radio waves, traveling through cell towers and fiber-optic cables at the speed of light.

Click.

It worked. It fucking worked!! I wasn’t just hearing her; I was seeing her memory threads. They shimmered like glowing fiber-optics, perfectly synced with the digital pulse of my phone.

The best part of all of this? There was no backlash. No splitting headache on my end like l usually get. The tech was acting like a buffer.

"I’m sorry, I need help," I said, while my mind neatly snipped the thread of the last ten seconds. I erased the name ’Asher’ from her immediate recall. "Wait... what did I say my name was again?"

A long silence followed. I could practically feel her mental gears spinning in a void I’d created. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Good day to you, sir," she eventually replied, her voice looping back to the script. "How may we help you?"

I hung up, a feral grin spreading across my face. "WooooHooooo! It worked!" I did a quick, impulsive hop, earning some strange looks from a group of teenagers nearby.

Using magic on Earth was almost like a cheat code, and definitely hell of a lot more fun than using it in a fantasy world. I couldn’t wait to see what else I could break with this tech and magic combo.

Feeling high on the win, I decided to fix my look.

I stepped into a high-end boutique and traded my utilitarian rags for something sharper and better. I emerged minutes later feeling like a different person: dressed in a charcoal-gray button-down with the sleeves rolled to the elbows, black tailored chinos, and formal shoes polished to a mirror sheen. Simple but classy and lethal as hell.

I bought other clothes and packed them nicely into my shopping bag.

"Right. Wardrobe handled," I checked the time: 10:00 AM. "Now, do I go play alchemist and sell some potions at the market, or find that ’Vendor Killer’ woman and collect my debt?"

As always, my love for money won. "Yeah... let’s go hustle."

I headed toward the market, but as the crowds thinned near a narrow, graffiti-stained alley, I slipped into the shadows. I needed to pull a few vials from my System Store and stash my shopping bags in the Item Box.

I was just reaching into the void when footsteps echoed behind me. Rough, uneven, and far too many.

"If you don’t want to get hurt, kid, I’d suggest you strip naked right now. Leave the valuables on the dirt and run." A short, squat man who looked like an overgrown minion stepped forward, brandishing a rusted shiv.

I didn’t even turn around. I just rolled my eyes. "Thugs in an alleyway. How original. Are we doing the ’give me your lunch money’ bit now?"

I calmly purchased four glowing health potions from the system interface, holding them in my right hand as I turned to face my ten new "friends."

They were grinning, the kind of greasy smiles men wear when they think they’ve found an easy mark.

"You’ve got guts, kid," the leader sneered. "Most boys your age would be piddling themselves. You don’t even look scared."

"He’s either brave," another added, "or too stupid to know who we are!"

"I’m neither," I sighed, walking toward them with a bored gait. "I’m just a businessman on a schedule. If you’ll excuse me, boys..."

They actually parted ways for a second, confused as l walked right into the center of their semicircle. Once I was right in the middle of them, they burst out laughing, thinking I was surrendering.

"Yeah... he’s a total idiot! Bwahahaha!"

"Take this!" one yelled, swinging a telegraphed punch at me.

It was so slow I actually had time to yawn while waiting for it to arrive. I shifted my head slightly, and he missed by a mile.

Another guy screamed from my left, lunging with a knife. I didn’t even look. I drove a snap-kick into his wrist so hard the knife flew into the air and came down like a spear, pinning the leader’s trousers right between his legs, inches from his crotch. The man turned pale, his "family jewels" narrowly escaping a permanent retirement.

"You damn brat! Kill him!"

They charged en masse. Using only my left hand and my legs—keeping my precious potions steady in my right—I became a whirlwind of precision. It wasn’t a fight; it was a rhythmic demolition. Within thirty seconds, the alley was a mosaic of groaning bodies and bruised egos.

"As I said. Busy," I flicked a speck of dust off my gray shirt.

As I started to walk away, they scrambled to their feet, already backing off.

"We’ve seen your face! You’re dead!" they threatened, voice shaking. "Our Seniors are gonna teach you a lesson you’ll never forget! The Shinigami will have your head!"

I stopped mid-stride. My neck snapped toward them, my eyes narrowing. "The Shinigami?"

The sheer intensity of my gaze sent them into a fresh panic. They didn’t stay to explain; they bolted, disappearing into the midday traffic.

I let out a slow, thoughtful breath.

The Shinigami, huh?

Then the guys l just pummeled were clearly just the bottom-tier errand boys for them.

But if these boys were going to go crying to their bosses, it just saved me the trouble of hunting them down.

I tucked my potions in my pocket and stepped back into the sunlight. "Well," I chuckled to myself, "thanks for the lead, boys. You just made my day a whole lot more productive."

Time to hustle.

To be continued.....