The man glared back at the shop. "Rubbish! Absolute rubbish! Saw the same stupid Instagram post. This?" He shook the bag slightly. "Dry as cardboard, tastes like nothing. Chips are soggy. Seriously, the pre-cooked roast chicken from the supermarket down the road is probably better. Complete waste of time and money. Whoever posted that nonsense needs their head checked." He stalked off down the street, fuming.
Theo felt a cold thrill. Perfect. The enhancement had expired Sunday night as scheduled. The magic was gone. The Tool Enhancement effect was demonstrably temporary when timed. He continued talking to people, hearing variations of the same story, lured by weekend hype, utterly disappointed by tonight's reality.
Then, he spotted an older woman sitting patiently on a nearby bench, watching the chaotic scene with a sigh. He recognized her vaguely from the neighbourhood. He approached her.
"Quite the crowd tonight," Theo commented, sitting down a respectful distance away.
She smiled wryly. "Yes, isn't it? Poor Jono looks run off his feet." She paused, then looked at Theo. "You know, I was one of the ones who left a good review over the weekend."
Theo feigned mild surprise. "Oh really? I saw those, they sounded amazing."
"They were," the woman affirmed, her eyes clouding with nostalgia. "I knew Maria and her husband way back when. Started coming again after they retired, just to check in, you know? Usually, it's… well, it's not the same. Jono tries, I suppose, but he doesn't have his mother's touch." She leaned forward slightly. "But this past Saturday? I came in, and honestly, it was like Maria herself was back in the kitchen. The chicken… juicy, flavorful, skin perfectly crisp. The chips… just right. It brought back such wonderful memories, I felt I had to say something online."
"So you came back tonight for more?" Theo asked.
She sighed again, a deeper, more disappointed sound this time. "I did. Foolish, maybe. Hoping lightning would strike twice." She gestured towards the shop. "What I saw people bringing out just now… it looked like the usual sad chicken Jono serves. I asked someone who just left, and they said it was terrible." She shook her head sadly. "Maybe Saturday was just a fluke? Maybe he had a good day, or maybe all these people tonight stressed him out and he couldn't cope? I don't know. But it definitely wasn't the same magic as the weekend." She stood up slowly. "Ah well. Maybe I'll try again in a few weeks. You never know." She gave Theo a polite nod and walked away.
Theo watched her go, the final piece clicking into place. The validation was absolute. The +1 enhancements on the equipment had temporarily transformed the output, creating food good enough to evoke cherished memories, even overcoming Jono's profound lack of skill and passion. And just as crucially, the moment the enhancement expired, the quality reverted instantly to baseline mediocrity, or worse under the pressure of the unexpected rush. The effect was potent, controllable, and demonstrably linked to the tool, not the operator or any lasting change in ingredients.
He glanced back at the shop. Jono was now arguing heatedly with a customer, gesticulating wildly. There was no chance of talking to him tonight amidst this chaos. But Theo didn't need to, at least not immediately. He had his data. The real-world test was a resounding success. The Tool Enhancement strategy was viable. He turned and walked away, already planning his next move, the failure of Maria's Charcoal Chicken under Jono's normal operation feeling like a personal victory.
Week 16 – Tuesday
Tuesday morning. The frantic energy of the previous night's observation had settled into a colder, more analytical focus. Theo sat nursing a glass of water, still avoiding coffee, thinking about partnerships. The GPU venture, despite its fiery end, had proven one thing: scaling solo was a nightmare. Managing sourcing, enhancement, listing, sales, shipping, customer service (and dodging corporate investigations) across multiple platforms had nearly burned him out. If Tool Enhancement was the future, allowing him to potentially influence multiple businesses simultaneously, he couldn't possibly manage it all himself. He needed help. He needed… allies. People he could trust.
The thought still made his skin crawl. Trust felt like a luxury he'd never been able to afford. Everyone had an angle, everyone looked out for number one, lessons learned the hard way in the corporate shark tank and reinforced by life itself. But the logical necessity was undeniable. To truly leverage his power, to build something substantial, something approaching the scale of his ambitions, required delegation, expertise he didn't possess, and ultimately, trusting others not to betray him or expose his secret.
His mind immediately went to Sarah. He replayed their coffee meetings. Her infectious passion, her sharp technical mind, her obvious frustration with her current soul-crushing job, her straightforward, bubbly personality… She seemed leagues away from the backstabbing ladder-climbers he despised. He genuinely liked her, in a detached, observational way. More importantly, he respected her drive and intelligence. If she applied that energy to the right project… she could be formidable. An ideal partner?
Then came the roadblock. Her cycling data analysis project. He mentally broke it down again through the lens of his power.
Data Collection: Garmin, Fitbit, Wahoo, existing hardware owned by users. He couldn't +1 thousands of individual devices. Useless.
Data Upload/Platform: Cloud servers, website hosting. He could +1 a server rack for +1 Efficiency/Stability, maybe reducing her hosting costs slightly or improving uptime. Marginal benefit at best. Useless.
The Core Value: Her algorithms, the code she writes to analyse the data and provide insights. This was the key. And it was utterly intangible. He couldn't +1 software code. He couldn't +1 Sarah's brain to make her write better code. He could enhance her laptop, her chair, her desk lamp, negligible impact on the quality of her intellectual output. Her current venture was almost entirely incompatible with his ability.
Dilemma. He liked Sarah. He saw her potential. He recognized his own need for trustworthy partners. But her passion project was a dead end for leveraging his unique advantage. Could he steer her towards something else? Something involving hardware where his +1 could make a difference? Maybe enhance manufacturing tools for cycling components? Or develop a new type of sensor where enhanced materials or production tools could create a superior product?