While Xavier's classmates were laboriously tracing cursive loops, his pencil was moving with a different, more lethal kind of purpose.
In his notebook, the blue-lined pages weren't filled with spelling words. They were covered in the dense, structured syntax of Objective-C.
To anyone glancing over his shoulder, it looked like gibberish. the complex doodles of a child with an overactive imagination. Even his teacher, Mrs. Santos, had stopped correcting his lack of focus, assuming his robot drawings were just a byproduct of his high test scores.
But to Xavier, every line was a brick in a wall he was building around his family's future. He was mentally prompting Abyss through the 2031 phone hidden in his pocket.
The AI would flash the code on the back of his eyelids, and Xavier would copy it down, his small hand cramping as he tried to match the machine's relentless speed.
This handwritten bottleneck was his greatest shield. He couldn't trust anyone with the phone—not even Leo.
The phone was a mystical artifact, a piece of technology that shouldn't exist for another quarter-century. If the world saw it, he would be a laboratory specimen. So, he wrote. He filled his notebooks all day, creating a physical paper trail that originated from a child's hand, making the brilliant software he was designing seem like the output of a prodigy rather than a digital ghost.
---------------
Recess at the Zagu table had a new addition today: Paolo, the leader of the Grade 6 block.
He wasn't standing over them anymore. He was sitting, hunched and small, looking at Xavier with a mixture of terror and desperate hope.
"My Pa... he checked the books," Paolo whispered, his eyes darting around to ensure no other Grade 6 boys were watching. "You were right, Xavi. The loan shark from the trucking union... he's been adding interest that wasn't in the contract. He's claiming my Pa owes him another three hundred thousand pesos. We were going to lose the trucks... maybe the house."
Xavier took a bite of his mango graham cake, the sweetness a sharp contrast to the cold calculation in his mind.
[ABYSS: ANALYSIS OF UNION DEBT. LOAN SHARK: 'NICKY FOUR-FINGERS'. ILLEGAL INTEREST RATE: 20% MONTHLY. RECOMMENDATION: BUY OUT THE DEBT VIA THE LOCAL COOPERATIVE.]
"Tell your father to go to the General Trias Cooperative Bank tomorrow morning," Xavier said, his voice flat and older than his years. "My Pa has a contact there—the manager, Mr. Lim. We'll buy out his debt at a fair, legal rate. We'll pay off the shark, and in exchange, your father's trucks will exclusively carry Guan-Tech and Guan Dessert shipments for the next two years."
Paolo nodded frantically, his eyes welling up. "He'll do it. I'll convince him to sign. We can't lose everything, Xavi."
"I don't like seeing people lose their homes," Xavier said, his voice dropping an octave.
"Now, go. Aris has the preliminary agreement for your father to review. Tell him this is a business partnership, not a charity."
As Paolo hurried away, Aris looked at Xavier with a newfound reverence.
"You're saving them, aren't you?"
"I'm securing our logistics, Aris," Xavier corrected, his eyes fixed on the Grade 6 block.
---------------
Later that afternoon, the land grab moved from theory to execution.
Xavier and Leo stood on the porch of the Reyes house. A sprawling, old-fashioned wooden structure that smelled of time and the lingering woodsmoke.
Lolo Reyes, the patriarch of the family, was looking at his mango tree. It was no longer wilting; the leaves were a vibrant, waxy green, the white scale insects gone thanks to the neem oil solution Xavier had "suggested" during their last visit.
"The tree lives" the old man said, looking at Xavier with a newfound respect. He sat in a creaking wicker chair, his hands weathered by decades of farming.
"And you say Camella wants to turn my fields into a protected wetland?"
"They're already talking to the municipal council, Lolo" Xavier said, his voice sweet but sharp. "I heard the drivers talking at the factory. They want to devalue your land so they can buy it for pennies next year.
They'll tell you it's for the environment, but it's really for their own pockets."
The old man's face hardened. He knew the ways of the big companies in Manila. They treated the local farmers like weeds to be cleared.
"But if you sell to us today," Leo said, stepping forward with the contract Xavier had drafted, "we'll keep it as a research farm. We'll pay you one million pesos as a down payment right now. Half of it to clear your debt with the Rural Bank, and the remaining two million over the next twelve months."
It was a deal that offered immediate liquidity and long-term security. More importantly, it offered the Reyes family a way to keep their land "in the family" of the local community rather than losing it to a faceless corporation.
"One million today?" Lolo Reyes asked, his hand trembling as he reached for a pen.
"In your account by 4:00 PM" Leo said. "And if we miss a single payment, the contract is void. You keep the million, and we keep the land."
The old man looked at the small boy who had saved his sixty-year-old tree, then at the young man who looked like he was being haunted by a ghost. He signed.
[ABYSS: REYES ACQUISITION SECURED. PARCEL 092-A IS OFFICIALLY UNDER GUAN CONTROL. CURRENT VALUE: PHP 3M. PROJECTED VALUE IN 2009: PHP 75M]
---------------
Elena and Sarah were typing away at their silver laptops, their faces illuminated by the cool blue light of the screens. They looked up as the seven-year-old boy walked in; their expressions filled with a strange, professional awe.
They had spent the day turning his handwritten doodles into a working database for the Guan-Health prototype.
"Sarah, how is the web novel's SEO-bombing?" Xavier asked, standing on his stool to see her screen.
The young woman, a brilliant English major who had once dreamed of being a journalist, adjusted her glasses.
"Total views hit fifty thousand today, Xavi. The premium donation link on the blog has already generated twelve hundred dollars in early access passes. The readers in the US are obsessed. They're calling The Blood God's System the new bible of progression fantasy."
"And the code, Elena?" Xavier turned to the IT graduate.
"The logic is flawless, Xavi" Elena said, her voice filled with a mix of excitement and confusion.
"I don't know where you learned Objective-C, but your memory management techniques are... they're ahead of anything I've seen in the documentation. We'll have the first build ready for the jailbroken community by Friday."
Xavier nodded. The dollars were flowing. The land was secured. The underlings were loyal. The logistics were settled. He was seven years old and he was already a millionaire.
He walked to the window and looked out at the factory. Arthur was there, standing under a new CCTV camera, looking up at the stars. He looked happy. He looked safe.
"We're not just surviving, Ma" Xavier whispered to the quiet room, thinking of the mother who was currently downstairs, unaware that her son was already the richest child in the local community.
"We're owning the future."
[ABYSS: TOTAL ASSETS (LIQUID + REAL ESTATE): PHP 4.2M]
Xavi sat in his small chair, picked up a fresh notebook, and began to write his next cash cow. The game market is his next ocean waiting to be developed, and he will build a ship that wouldn't sink.