Chapter 257 - 256: The Forgotten Gift

Chapter 257: Chapter 256: The Forgotten Gift

Lloyd did wake up at his usual time the next morning, but he was a little too slow to catch the little kitten.

So, he decided to just lie in bed a bit longer. Then he entered the Thought Realm to collect his daily Madness Value and those meaningless bits of junk.

[Ding! Madness Value +7000]

The power inside the flower bud responded to him just like before, tightly gripping the hand he pressed against the bud’s wall, like a pair of lovers gazing at each other through a window.

’Why does it feel like I’m with the ’girl next door’ in the morning, Weiya during the day, my sister at night, and Elolo when I sleep? Have I become Lloyd the Quad-Companion?’

’And I still don’t have a single official girlfriend?’

After leaving the Thought Realm, Lloyd couldn’t help but complain to himself. Then, he added the 5 attribute points he just earned from leveling up to [Spiritual Power].

[Ding! Point allocation complete.]

[User: Lloyd]

[Status: Normal] ℴ

[Madness Value: 8055/9500, Max: 18500]

[Rationality: 185]

[Spiritual Power: 185]

[Inspiration: 110]

[Cognition: 180]

’Mhm, not bad. Once I finish my main job for today, I can level up again. I’ll add another 5 points to [Cognition], and everything will be neat and tidy again.’

’With my well-rounded attributes, built up over two months of effort, can a Bizarre Derivative even handle me?’

After muttering to himself internally for a bit, Lloyd began his usual daily routine.

As always, he combed his sister’s hair, went to work hand-in-hand with Weiya, and then borrowed the bell from Meditis to smoothly complete today’s [Audience with the Saint].

He also managed to review the basics of *Mysticism* before lunch, mastering the very basic but useless [Identification Divination].

In the afternoon, he had wanted to ask Weiya for another round of last night’s ’adult game,’ but she had a meeting in another district that evening and could only say apologetically:

"I’m sorry, Lloyd, I don’t have time today. How about I make it up to you tomorrow?"

"Eh? Make it up to me?"

"Hee hee, next time, it’ll be your turn to ask me questions."

Weiya said with a charming laugh.

So, Lloyd decided to just leave early. He went to the ’Dream Theater’ to farm some points and exchange them for the upcoming [Twist] type materials.

As soon as he stepped into the antique shop in the old book market, the slacking attendant’s head shot up, and he proactively greeted him:

"Yo? You’re back. Looks like you’ve gotten over your heartbreak?"

"You... Don’t talk nonsense. There’s nothing between her and me yet..."

Just as Lloyd was about to explain, the attendant cut him off.

"Mm... Got it. Looks like you found someone else. Abandoning our Little Saint after getting what you wanted so quickly... Ptooey! Scum!"

"You..."

"Alright, alright, just kidding. I was the one encouraging you to find someone new as soon as possible. Seeing you move on so quickly, I feel quite gratified, don’t I? So... cat, give it to me!"

The attendant said with a sheepish grin, holding out his hand.

’So all that talk was just for this one thing...’

"No way! It’s afraid of you!"

Lloyd refused sternly, pushing the little kitten that had just poked its head out of his pocket back inside.

"Don’t be so stingy. Are you telling me you won’t have other girls you want to bring back to the city in the future?"

the attendant asked with a wicked grin.

’I probably won’t be bringing any more girls back in the future, but it’s very likely I’ll need to bring a boy back.’ After weighing his options, Lloyd grabbed the little kitten and pulled it out.

"Meow meow meow..."

The little kitten could only let out a cry of utter despair.

After handing over the kitten, Lloyd asked curiously:

"By the way, you’re some kind of [Ancient Mage], right? Why are you so obsessed with cats?"

He hadn’t expected a serious answer, but the attendant, quite uncharacteristically, looked up and asked back:

"Oh? It seems you don’t know much about my path, do you? Then how did you recognize my path in the first place?"

’Huh? Did I say something wrong?’

’Could it be that liking cats is some kind of distinguishing feature of [Ancient Mage]s?’

Lloyd was taken aback.

Fortunately, the attendant didn’t say anything more and went back to burying his face in the cat.

Lloyd once again felt that this guy’s mental state was seriously unhealthy. Talking to him was always irritating, but for now, he couldn’t afford to provoke him...

He could only go upstairs in silence. An Attendant who had once been arrogant was now fawning over him as he went to race.

Lloyd had originally planned to play three high-score matches, preferably ones that started at 20 points, and reap a huge wave of points.

But as soon as he got close to the player recruitment area, he saw two guys who, between them, had played over two hundred matches with a win rate below 50%, sneakily luring newbies into a game.

The routine was similar to the one used by the last two scammers, just with a different pair of faces. ’Is this type of scam becoming a trend?’

’That won’t do. I established a persona for myself long ago as a righteous youth who despises evil. In order to maintain a fair, healthy, harmonious, and friendly game Order—and to make it easier to farm points in the future—I must strike hard and curb this unhealthy trend!’

So, just like last time, Lloyd pretended to be a ’Newbie’ and joined the two new scammers’ game.

These two weren’t stupid, of course. Since they were out scamming people, they had definitely checked Lloyd’s match history.

But because Lloyd had the ’esteemed privilege’ of a ’hidden callsign,’ his record appeared as a complete blank to others. He couldn’t look any more like a newbie.

The function to view a player’s match history wasn’t a privilege exclusive to Lloyd. Anyone could unlock it easily by achieving a certain number of wins.

Lloyd had obtained this function last time when he was grinding hard for points to save Elolo.

But the function to hide information... that was something very few people knew about...

And so, a few moments later...

"Like scamming newbies? Like crushing noobs? Like fishing for players? Like being written out of the family book?"

"If you want to be orphans so badly, then I’ll grant your wish."

Lloyd muttered curses under his breath as he controlled his highly unique race car, swinging the weapons on its sides and turning the two scammers into shooting stars on the horizon, their fates unknown.

It couldn’t be helped. The game’s player protection measures were quite robust, so he couldn’t completely rule out the possibility of the two scammers surviving.

After he had dished out a wave of justice, the remaining newbies who had been tricked into the game naturally surrendered or gave up, giving Lloyd an easy victory.

Although he earned fewer points, he had purified the gaming environment. Lloyd felt it was all worth it.

For his remaining two wins of the day, Lloyd didn’t see anyone scamming, so he just played a normal high-score match.

And every time his race car appeared, it would always cause a stir of gasps and discussion:

"Whoa! Look at that guy’s car! Why does it look like that?"

"Damn it, could this be that psycho people were talking about? The one who somehow made his car all weird-looking and then painted two pretty, cute, and ’lickable’ beautiful girls on it..."

"That’s the guy! I ran into him last time, he’s totally brutal! Ramming him was like hitting a wall, he didn’t even budge! Damn it! And I’m a Tier Four, for crying out loud!"

"Huh? But the highest on the second level is Tier Four, isn’t it? How could you not move him?"

"Maybe it’s because his [Spiritual Power] and [Cognition] are really high? Even among Tier Fours, there can be a gap in Attributes."

"There’s an enemy this strong? Looks like a head-on collision is out. We’ll have to compete on speed. Luckily, I’ve always been better at racing-style gameplay, unlike you barbarians who might still try to fight it out."

"Sigh... I guess I’ll race too. It’s not that I’m afraid of him, it’s just that the two girls on his car are so pretty and cute... I just don’t want to destroy something so beautiful..."

The crowd came up with their strategies for dealing with Lloyd, but they had overlooked one detail.

’Heh heh, you guys completely don’t get it. My car may be tough and strong, and yes, it’s pretty and lickable, but the thing I’m truly proud of is its speed!’

’Let me show you all what it can do!’

...

After easily farming nearly two hundred points in the ’Dream Theater,’ Lloyd didn’t linger. He quit while he was ahead and left early.

He then got his cat back from the attendant at the entrance, ran to the club across the street, and prepared to do some research on Orbits.

The moment he walked in, he saw the silver-tongued manager approaching him, holding a rectangular object in his arms. It looked like a tightly wrapped painting.

"A painter left this here. He said it was the gift he promised you?"

Only then did Lloyd remember the street artist from before—the one who had a stall at the entrance of the old book market across the street. They had met a few times; Lloyd had been his first customer and had even given him some encouragement.

Afterward, to thank him, the painter had promised to create a free painting for him with a sword and blade theme.

But that was many days ago. He hadn’t seen the painter appear since, and Lloyd hadn’t thought much of it. He just assumed the man had hit the big time and forgot about the matter entirely.

But unexpectedly, the painter hadn’t forgotten and had actually delivered the painting.

So Lloyd went to the basement and unwrapped the painting to take a look.

It depicted a Two-Handed Heavy Sword with a simple, ancient texture, showing slight signs of damage and rust. Like some newly unearthed artifact, it was stuck into a small mound of earth.

Around the mound lay numerous mangled corpses, scattered haphazardly. Fragments of weapons and armor littered the ground, creating the vivid image of a brutal battlefield.

While the painting’s technique wasn’t particularly masterful, it had certainly captured the right mood. It did an excellent job of conveying a sense of cruelty and gore, rendering an ineffable feeling of sorrow and loneliness.

Although Lloyd wasn’t fond of such a depressing theme, he had to admit the painting had high artistic merit. It just wasn’t suitable for hanging in an office, so he casually hung it on a wall in the basement.

Then he started to fiddle with the Orbits.

When it was about time for dinner, Lloyd finally came out of the basement and saw the manager walking toward him with two people who looked like investigators.