David hesitated for a moment before saying, "I can take a leave of absence and find a job or something."
"Taking a leave of absence" was just a nicer way of putting it.
Arasaka Academy did have an option to take a leave of absence, but for a lowlife like David, that option didn't exist.
He could either stay at Arasaka Academy properly;
or leave and never think about getting back in.
Did he think Arasaka Academy was somewhere he could come and go as he pleased? A public restroom?
Sure enough, Gloria immediately got angry.
"What are you talking about?"
"Mom, you know we really can't afford the system repair costs."
The so-called system repair costs referred to the fact that David had burned out Arasaka Academy's online education system.
That was also why David had nearly been expelled.
If Gloria hadn't repeatedly vouched for him to the principal, lowered herself to beg bitterly, and promised to pay compensation...
David wouldn't have needed to go to school tomorrow.
And he hadn't damaged the system on purpose.
The Braindance Headset David needed for school was severely outdated and obsolete. To connect to the academy's system, he had to buy the latest Braindance Headset.
But as mentioned earlier, after Gloria refused David's first request for money, he had turned to a ripperdoc who usually gave him some really awesome shows.
He'd had the ripperdoc install a pirated program of unknown origin on his old Braindance Headset.
As the ripperdoc had put it, "Once you install this pirated program, you won't need to buy a new Braindance Headset. Yours will work just like a new one."
David had believed him.
And then he'd been screwed.
That was how things had ended up like this.
Even after things had reached this point, David