Chapter 325: Item and Message

———Lynda———

<12: 21 pm>

I slammed down the giant tray of food and collapsed onto the chair, feeling exhausted still.

“Perhaps that was a bit more than you should chew.” Glery remarked as she sat down with her much smaller amounts of food. It’s nice of her to wait until I’m done with the mission room, but still… Did she even take any mission while I wasn’t looking? Even if she was, it can't be anything with a high rank like mine, considering how unbothered she looks.

“Well, at least I completed the task.” I said before taking a sip of milk. “I wasn’t expecting such a heavy resistance, you know? I try not to throw out attacks wildly, otherwise the level of casualty would’ve been really hard to justify.”

“Perhaps taking a lower risk mission in the first place would’ve solved the issue.” She unsympathetically said.

“I wouldn’t have been able to buy those new items otherwise!” Maybe if I do them perfectly I could get it, but if I mess up then I’ll have to do another one and that’s going to take all the lunch break time! “I got it, did you get it?”

“I didn’t buy everything new like you did.” She flatly replied while slowly eating her portion. “Only the dungeon counter and a few exit tickets."

“Really? Not stuff like the floor skip tickets? Exit tickets aren’t even that useful for us, right?” With the ability to go right back up to the surface at certain floors the exit tickets are only really useful if you’re crazy enough to do a dungeon run until you’re completely depleted, which is a pretty dangerous way to go about it. You probably wouldn’t have enough energy to even move your legs at that point.

“Just in case of an incident. Lest we forget, there is no safety net for anyone exploring the dungeon. Despite its formulaic layout even with the daily reset, it’s still a place where death could come out of nowhere.” She explained.

“I mean, for others, maybe, but for us I think we’re plenty experienced as is.” I said to reinforce her confidence, or at least not be so tense about something we do on a regular basis. “How many tickets did you even buy?”

“Five.” She answered.

“Less than I thought…” I only bought one of those. “Anyway, we should go see how it works. Apparently the skip ticket won’t work without our own floor counter, and both of us need to go deep into the dungeon in the first place for it to have any value. How does a hundred floors sound?”

“That’s fine, we don’t have a P.E. class today anyway.” She half-heartedly answered. I guess without that we would have plenty of stamina for the afternoon… “Assuming we don't get any homework today.”

“Don’t jinx it, come on.” I complained with some food still in my mouth. I need to quickly shut her up before she tempts fate any further.

“One is more important than the other. We have plenty of opportunities to go to a dungeon, it’s far from our first priority.” She said while I continued stuffing my mouth with food.

Tasty with unlimited refill, it’s a steal with the discount on tuition, and even without it it’s super worth the money. I mean, there is even less school work than before! It’s awesome! Who cares that we have to effectively spend an extra year with all the benefits. I heard that normal school lunches are basically poison. It’s hard to tell what my old cafeteria food was like with my child tongue back then, but it’s not worth thinking over.

“Don’t you think the custom order looks a bit ridiculous?” She asked me about the biggest bowl of food on the tray.

“It’s novel, at least.” A pile of chopped up steaks on top of a bowl of ramen. It looks pretty crazy compared to a large plate of spaghetti I also got, or the sashimi platter. “If it lets you go wild with any toppings then I’d say go for it. Also, it’s not like there’s a lot of students around to see it right now anyway.”

“I suppose…” She said while I continued eating. This is probably not the best time for either of us to continue talking. We can keep yapping later when our mouths aren’t stuffed.

———Wiina———

<12: 39 pm>

Hmm… The drink tasted nice. They mix it with just the right amount of ingredients so it tastes like milk and lime instead of rancid milk. Now let’s go check out other shops to see what they have to offer.

The streets are pretty clean outside of certain parts being cracked due to all the struggles happening around these parts. Even with a dedicated protector it’s not going to solve every issue regarding violence around these parts. Obviously this place still looks better than most other areas in the world right now, even if it’s not by that much.

With only one person who could reliably patrol and stop any crimes happening in the city, it’s natural that there are still going to be many parts of it that are unaccounted for. That’s just not something he could be held accountable for. While I and many others could actually perform such a feat, anyone who started out during the first new chapter is simply incapable of such a feat no matter how much they tried, unless they are in some way… lucked out, like myself.

The person of interest isn’t within my vicinity at the moment, so I might as well take it slow for now. I have all day to do this if I need to, or come back tomorrow. I have plenty of time to do whatever I want.

I should also go buy a few exclusive merch items for Karra to display during her stream. It’ll help drive a bit more interest if the viewers notice them. And on that particular topic, I should probably help clean it up and maybe improve the place just so it’s more eye-catching overall. It has been four days since the last clean-up.

Walking into a gift shop nearby, I see a few crude figurines of that guy, as well as other generic items scattering around the shop.

“Are these hand-made?” I asked the shop owner.

“Oh. It’s a staff member’s hobby. He is pretty good at it. No idea why he doesn’t open his own shop and stop leeching the shelf space here.” She said that in good spirit. They are quite crude and full of imperfection, but they’re still quite charming.

“I see… Are they for sale?” I asked another question, seeing the lack of price tag despite being bundled with purchasable items.

“Of course! It’s negotiable! Fifteen dollars to start with.” Certainly on the lower ends of things. It is amateur work, so that is quite reasonable.

“I’ll pay the full amount. I’m not short on cash.” I said before pulling out the money and picking out the figures of the man in gaudy black armor. “I’ll take these two.”

She silently took the money and completed the transaction with nothing more than a knowing look and smile.

“I see that you’re not from around here.” She remarked, trying to get a better look of me underneath the hood. It’s natural for such an inquiry to come about with all the chaos happening elsewhere. A bad individual doesn’t even need a weapon to cause trouble anymore.

“Yeah. I have plenty of free time to roam around and do whatever I want. I came here to see some exclusive items from the city.” I flatly explained while holding up one of the figurines. “This is one of the more intact cities I have been to, no doubt due to the work of this man.”

“Indeed. He has helped make sure a modest place like mine stays intact. It’s why that employee even made these figurines in his image.” She replied. “People might think he just sounds like a buffoon with that superhero name, but his heroics are the real deal.”

“Darkkni is just a shortened mashing of words. Certainly doesn’t sound intimidating nor impressive.” I casually pointed out. “But with the fact that they can make fun of his name instead of his actions, I suppose this place is quite well-off, relatively speaking.”

“Looking at how carefree you seem, I guess your place is like that as well?” She said, making an observation.

“Yeah. Plenty of strong people, actually. Almost suffocating. Even a small troublemaking incident could leave a large crater in the pavement.” I jokingly said. That’s not much of an exaggeration. The overall power level of the people in the small town is much higher than most places even if I excluded the obvious outliers like the old players. There are multiple reasons as to why that is the case, but there’s no need to bring them up at the moment.

“Sounds rather… not peaceful.” She remarked.

“Eh, those who reinforce peace are all at the top, so that’s more of a hypothetical scenario.” I said so she won’t get any wrong ideas. “Well, it was a fun talk, but I have plenty of places to visit today.”

I walked out of the shop and made my way towards the next location. It’s a fancy dessert shop and therefore it’s full of items Karra will like.

More importantly, I also noticed a certain someone coming this way. It’s killing two birds with one stone by going there right away, cutting the amount of time needed to be spent here.

I walked into the shop at the same time as the person wearing a pink hoodie. Feminine face with long hair, and yet still quite tall with clear musculature where the skin is exposed.

Both of us walked into the store and he didn't recognize me. I should do him a bit of favor so the next conversation goes a bit more smoothly.

“Hey, boy. Fancy seeing you here.” I called out to him before he reached the glass display. He turned around with his expression neutral, the long flowing black hair noticeably fluttering as he moved his head as it stood in contrast to the brightly colored shop and his hoodie. He stared at me with his dark eyes for a bit as I walked closer and let him see the inside of the hood.

“Yeah, nice to see you.” He said with a tone softer than with the other persona.

“For the occasion, it’s my treat. Just talk with me for a bit.” I lay out my offer.

“That’ll work, thanks.” He flatly replied before he walked to the display and began picking up items. I need to do the same as well, so let’s quickly get this over with so we can move onto the main topic and why I’m even here.

“Let’s sit here and talk for a while.” I said while leading him to a table in the corner of the shop. The amount of goods he selected is quite modest considering my offer.

“So, why are you here? It can’t be for something as simple as these.” He asked before I could tell him the news.

“I was about to get to that. No need to be so tense.” I said while observing his expression. He certainly sounds a lot less approachable than when he has that silly helmet on. It’s quite a dissonance between this feminine man who seems quite reserved compared to when he is in full armor and doesn’t seem to have a volume setting. “The school board has received insider information regarding the government’s plan of action. As you know, things have been less than pretty as of late, they’ll get desperate soon.”

“What? Like siccing the army? On their own people?” He said while sounding a bit confused. No doubt that he would still express confusion in his other person, albeit with a much more panicked tone. It’s all due to circumstances and persona, of course. Despite his current attitude it is still the same person as the one underneath the armor. The internal logic remained the same, but how it was expressed is vastly different.

“Perhaps, not that it is something you need to personally worry about.” I answered. “I’m only here to say one thing, as a messenger. Just keep doing whatever you’re doing, and we’ll deal with the problem. Since you are a part of what keeps this city stable, if you were occupied with that instead, this place might not last.”

“...That’s all?” He said in confusion.

“That’s it.” I flatly replied.

“...It feels like that could’ve been an email.” He pointed out.

“I am well-traveled. I can go wherever I want whenever I want. This way it’s certain that you can get a message. Just in case you didn’t read the message.” I explained. It also reinforces their confidence by coming here in person. He’s not the first one of these heroes I have sent these messages to. “That’s certainly all there is to it. Make sure to keep playing the hero.”

“...I never intend to stop.” Obsin replied. That’s what I want to hear from someone who can be so hammy during his stint as a superhero.

“Glad to hear it.” I flash a grin before taking my sweets and standing up, walking away and calculating my next destination.