Chapter 105: 105 | The Girl Who Calculates Coffee and the Money Laundering Quest [CASTLE BONUS]

Jordan stood in the quad scrolling through his System inventory. Thirteen tickets sat in his account. Ten for bronze, fifty for silver, one hundred for gold.

He hovered his thumb over the bronze gacha button.

Then locked his phone.

The bronze pulls were fun but mostly trash. Dramatic Tumbleweed? Bunny ears that turned girls into pregnancy speedrun candidates? The good stuff came from higher tiers. Tune Up had been rare and it completely rewired his entire body. The gold box probably held something even better.

Jordan needed eighty-seven more tickets. At three per day from daily quests, that was twenty-nine days minimum. Almost a month.

Unless he completed more story quests. Those paid better. The inheritance conversation with Chloe had dropped fifteen tickets. Meeting Alexis might trigger something similar if he played it right.

But forcing quests felt wrong. Like trying to speedrun a relationship.

Jordan shoved his phone in his pocket and checked the time. 10:52 AM. Management 1A started at 10:30.

Shit.

He broke into a jog across campus, weaving through clusters of students lounging on the grass. The Business Building sat on the far east side, a modern glass structure that looked like it belonged in downtown LA rather than a college campus.

Jordan took the stairs two at a time and burst through the door of Business 310 at 10:54. The classroom was arranged in a horseshoe of group tables, maybe seventy seats total. Dr. Ashford stood at the front whiteboard, already mid-lecture about balance sheets.

Every head in the room turned to look at Jordan.

Dr. Ashford paused mid-sentence. Her blue eyes locked onto him with the warmth of an IRS audit notice.

"Mr. McKnight. How gracious of you to join us."

"Sorry, Professor. Won’t happen again."

"See that it doesn’t." She returned to the board without another word.

Jordan scanned the room for an empty seat. Most of the front tables were full. Cameron and Eliza sat in the back corner, Cameron’s arm draped across Eliza’s shoulders. Eliza’s eyes tracked Jordan as he moved through the classroom.

He ignored her completely.

Then he spotted an open seat at a middle table. Brooke Hastings sat alone, her laptop open and a Starbucks cup positioned precisely six inches from her notebook. She wore an oversized cream sweater and black-framed glasses, her long black hair falling past her shoulders in glossy waves.

Jordan dropped into the chair beside her.

Brooke glanced up, those distinctive crimson eyes meeting his for half a second before darting away. A small smile tugged at her lips.

"Look who’s early this time." Jordan pulled out his laptop and opened a blank document.

"Last time was an anomaly." Brooke’s voice came out soft but clear. "I’m usually punctual. The Starbucks line was unexpectedly long that day. I accounted for seven minutes of wait time based on previous visits but they were training a new employee who took approximately fourteen minutes per order. The statistical variance was unfortunate." 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Jordan blinked.

"So you’re telling me you calculate Starbucks wait times?"

"Of course. Efficiency optimization is important." Brooke adjusted her glasses. "I have seventeen point three minutes between my previous class and this one. The optimal Starbucks is two point four minutes away at average walking speed. That leaves eleven minutes for ordering and three point nine minutes as buffer time for unexpected delays."

Jordan stared at her.

She was being completely serious.

"What happens if you need eighteen minutes?"

"Then I don’t go to Starbucks." Brooke said this like it was the most obvious answer in the world. "I bring coffee from home in a thermos. Temperature retention lasts approximately four hours with minimal degradation."

Something warm settled in Jordan’s chest. Not attraction exactly. More like the feeling you got watching a puppy try to climb stairs.

She was so earnest about everything. So genuine in her weirdness that it wrapped back around to being cute.

Dr. Ashford continued her lecture about debits and credits, her voice cutting through the room with professional authority. Jordan opened his notebook and started writing down key points. The material made sense this time. Basic accounting followed logical rules. Money in, money out. Track everything, balance at the end.

Jordan’s mind wandered while his hand kept taking notes.

The Cashback System had deposited over four thousand dollars into his account in the past week. The tuition sign-on bonus, the rebates from spending on Chloe, all of it just appearing in his bank account with no paper trail.

Right now the amounts were small enough that nobody would notice. But Chloe’s chemistry was climbing. When she hit seventy-five percent, he’d start making fifty percent profit on every dollar spent. At one hundred percent he’d double his money.

If he spent ten thousand dollars at ninety percent chemistry, he’d get back eighteen thousand.

Free money multiplication.

The IRS would have questions. Big ones.

Jordan needed legitimate income. A real business that explained where the money came from. Something that let him claim the Cashback deposits as revenue.

His pen stopped moving mid-sentence.

What if he started a streaming organization?

Chloe was about to launch her Twitch channel. Kumiko already had an established presence. If Jordan brought them together under one brand, added a few more streamers, he could claim all the System money as business income. Donations, sponsorships, merch sales.

The IRS couldn’t prove the money wasn’t real if he had a functioning business generating content.

His phone buzzed in his pocket.

Jordan pulled it out under the table.

A golden notification filled the screen.

🎯 NEW QUEST UNLOCKED 🎯

STREAMING EMPIRE: FOUNDATION

The Host has identified a viable business strategy. Time to build something real.

OBJECTIVES:

\[ \] Register business entity (LLC recommended)

\[ \] Recruit 3 streamers (minimum 1K followers each)

\[ \] Generate $1,000 in combined revenue

\[ \] Create brand identity (logo, social media)

REWARDS:

250 Quest Tickets

$25,000 Startup Capital

Business Management Skill (Rank C)

TIME LIMIT: 90 Days

Jordan’s lips curved into a grin.

The System was reading his thoughts now. Or maybe it just knew where his mind would go once he started thinking about money laundering solutions.

Either way, this quest solved multiple problems. Legitimate business income. A reason to spend time with multiple girls without raising suspicion. Built-in content for Chloe’s new career.

And twenty-five tickets moved him closer to that gold gacha.

"Mr. McKnight."

Jordan’s head snapped up.

Dr. Ashford stood directly beside his table, one perfectly manicured hand resting on the wood surface. Her expression could have flash-frozen lava.

"Since you seem so engaged with your phone, perhaps you’d like to explain the difference between accrual and cash accounting to the class?"