Absolute Shopping Addict

"I will grow stronger. To the point where nothing and n.o.body can get in my way of both my new life here… and most important of all, my shopping.

In order for me to do that, I"m going to need to get into a powerful division."

He considered it a necessary annoyance and more busywork than he wanted, but it was one of the steps along the path to his goal, so he had to make his way there.

"That old man was pretty good. What division was he from again? Another Ten Stars member… yeah, that makes the most sense," Jake thought, his destination already set in his mind. "The kind of power that old man had… yeah, that"s the kind of stuff I"m going to need."

The kind of power, enough for that rat b.a.s.t.a.r.d Timothy to step back, made Jake strongly consider joining the old man"s division.
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"Wait until the evaluation ends… ha, I already gave those Cheon-Ji-In b.a.s.t.a.r.ds where they could shove my answer."

Too bad their backs were turned when Jake gave them the finger.

"Other divisions gave me Empowerment Pill, and the old man… wait, the old man didn"t offer me anything."

Jake combed his mind, trying to remember the incident, now that his reason wasn"t consumed by anger.

"I"m in no hurry to decide where to go… but let me remember. That old man wanted to… he wanted to…"

It took him a few moments to figure it out.

"Right, he wanted to talk with me and Liam over some tea.

Well, he"s not actually making a sales pitch for his division; besides, I owe him one.

Tea it is, then."

Master Li"s power was very impressive, sure. They haven"t had an actual conversation, too: his sudden appearance in the arena was Jake"s only interaction with him.

Most of the divisions recruiting him promised Empowerment Pill, which were consumable items that optimized the body"s performance when using skills.

This was another thing the novice awakeners had to get used to: as their arrival in Nohas had them learning how to use mana on their own.

Their own understanding only took them so far, as well as how they were slowly getting used to the new type of power flowing through their bodies.

The most important thing about the Empowerment Pill was that it hastened the process by which the body got accustomed to mana, among other effects.

"Those pills seem important," Jake thought. "But Cheon-Ji-In never offered it to me. If that old man was from the Ten Stars, chances are, he won"t be offering me that as well."

This was one of the weaknesses of the Ten Stars: hubris.

They rely too much on the power of their established awakeners, to the point where they do not bother to focus on finding promising novice awakeners and invest in them properly, simply using the prestige of the name "Ten Stars" to get beginners into their ranks.

Nowadays, though, the name doesn"t carry as much prestige as it used to, so the member divisions have to resort to promoting their division the old-fashioned way. A number of divisions aiming to become part of the Ten Stars further complicates this issue.

Add to that the sheer size of the Ten Stars divisions, and thus cannot actually devote their time and effort to invest in novice awakeners as much as is needed to keep their divisions strong.

"What to do, what to do…" Jake worried as he thought about the division to join – more than that, novice awakeners are given 48 hours to join a division.

He and Liam had found an inn near the stadium, and while Liam was reading through each of the divisions" information he gathered in their room, Jake was downstairs and seated on one of the tables, deep in thought.

That was when he nearly jumped out of his chair as the chair across him that was previously empty suddenly had an old man seated there when he blinked.

"Good morning, young man," Master Li said, a smile on his face as he saw Jake"s reaction to his sudden appearance.

"Good… morning…" Jake replied cautiously, and as he returned to his seat, he was still digesting just how powerful this old man was: he tried estimating the old man"s strength, but it was like peering into the ocean.

It was an apt comparison, as the old man before him was smiling, a placid surface hiding unfathomable depths of power.

"Would you like to have some tea with this old man?" Master Li asked, and Jake just nodded, not trusting his voice.

***

Since after the evaluation, the recruitment of novice awakeners took two more days, Kingsville was still filled with representatives of various divisions, as they were either looking for prodigies, diamonds in the rough, or settled for whatever awakener they"d find.

Thanks to this, the tension within the city during this time is so thick that you could cut it with a knife.

The law of the land forbade war between divisions in Nohas; though violent acts are frowned upon, there are more under-the-table deals going on to ensure that the divisions get the talent they want.

It is less a superficial alliance and more mutually-a.s.sured destruction, in a sense, as divisions keep each other in check.

These checks become more p.r.o.nounced when the evaluation and recruitment for novice awakeners take place, as bringing prodigies and potentially skilled awakeners is one of the fastest ways to increase a division"s power.

This is why each division has an information network to keep tabs on other divisions, to see what awakener they plan on recruiting, and to prevent other divisions from getting the awakener they themselves want to recruit.

Unfortunately, sometimes the presence of someone causes another to slip under the radar, so to speak.

"What do you mean, "you didn"t know"?" the man asked, flabbergasted at how their division"s information network failed to disclose the presence of Master Li in Kingsville.

It"s what you call a FUBAR situation, as how could they miss someone as influential as Master Li making his way into Kingsville?

As Skyward, his division, was currently planning to replace the Grand Duelists in the Ten Stars, such a situation drew out a fury within Kurt, the division"s current adjutant master – and in charge of most of the division"s logistics.

"He came here all by himself and attended the evaluation personally, it seems – and thanks to that, we could not track his movements," a frightened subordinate said. "Our apologies, sir."

As one of the Ten Stars, many divisions often pay attention to the Grand Duelists.

"Fine, then! Is there anything important you can add now? No? Well, continue being useless, then! Has the schism within that division been addressed?"

"No, sir," another subordinate replied. "According to the intelligence we have, the schism within the Grand Duelists is still ongoing."

"And their leader came to Kingsville himself?"

Thanks to the ongoing schism within the Grand Duelists, its reputation has been declining for some time, to the point where its recruiters would not appear in this evaluation.

The information networks of each division thus predicted that due to addressing the internal problems within the division, the Ten Stars-affiliated division could not join this recruitment of novice awakeners.

"Unbelievable," Kurt thought. "This is a master stroke; took me totally off guard."

Skyward wasn"t the only division sharing the same sentiments – nearly every division within Kingsville thought the same. The leader of the Grand Duelists, personally seeing to the recruitment of novice awakeners within his division?

"He appeared to have taken steps to conceal his presence within the evaluation proper," the subordinate added, and before he could add further details, another member of Skyward barged in the room and shouted.

"We"ve received the news; Li has made contact with Jake Smithson once more!"

***

Jake was giving Master Li an odd look as he was seated across the old man in the tavern.

"Thank you," Master Li said as he bowed his head in thanks to the pot of tea brought to him by the tavern girl, with cups for the three of them. "Your friend?"

"Upstairs, taking care of some business," Jake answered as he let the old man take a sip of tea.

Jake decided to get down to business once he took a sip of tea of his own.

"Who are you again?" he asked, and thanks to being introduced to this old man"s power, Jake"s normally easygoing nature was replaced by an intense focus.

This sudden calm he had wasn"t something he forced, a far cry from his usual flippant and nonsense way of dealing with situations ever since his arrival on Nohas.

"My name is Li, and I lead the Grand Duelists," the old man replied.

"Whoa. Really?" Jake thought, the first time seeing a character like that leaving him in shock.

He was burning with fury when they first met, but now that things have calmed down, Jake realized that he"d wanted to talk with the old man when he wasn"t angry, like a thought in the back of his head that he just now recalled.

"Relax," Master Li continued, taking on a genial and comforting tone to try and get the novice awakener before him to calm down, "I am not here on any harmful business. Do you remember yesterday?"

Jake nodded, the events of yesterday still fresh in his mind.

"Good," the old man replied, "that"s good. Remember what you told me? "There"s a lot more at stake for me than this match"?"

Jake nodded dumbly.

"Could you humor this old man about why?" the old man asked, and Jake felt like he was being put on the spot at that moment, "you seemed to be in trouble, have you taken care of it?"

A minute pa.s.sed by, and silence reigned in the table.

"Take a sip of tea," the old man said. "I find that it helps."

When he did, Jake found himself more at ease.

"Well, I would have been in trouble if I lost the fight," Jake began, "so I had to do everything to win, even if those people stopped it."

"I see," the old man said, nodding as his eyes started to sparkle. "Since you don"t look too messed up about it now, something happened after that and it all worked out in the end, right?"

"How did you know that?" Jake asked, his eyes widening.

"Well, you don"t become the leader of the Grand Duelists without picking up a trick or two along the way," the old man answered, and let out a hearty laugh.

Jake felt an indescribable sense of pride.

"Grand Duelists…" he said. "Did you come here because you wanted me in your division?"

"If you"d like," the old man replied, his pleasant tone contrasting the power Jake could sense from within him. "Still, though, if you ended up elsewhere, then this old man would have come a long way for nothing."

"I wouldn"t say that," Jake replied. "There are other awakeners you could have recruited."

"That is true," the old man replied, taking a minute to think before his calm was replaced with a sudden burst of energy. "Well now! I think you would make a good fit for the Grand Duelists: feel free to ask me what you need to know about it."

"With all due respect, sir," Jake then said, after taking another sip of his tea, "I do not wish to impose, but what I can get from joining the Grand Duelists?"

Thanks to Jake"s shopping habit, weighing the gains and losses of his activities is a mental exercise for him, and the question he asked the old man was proof that he was doing just that.

"I see," the old man replied, before letting out a hearty laugh upon seeing Jake"s expression. "Well, it looks like my eye for talent hasn"t diminished in the slightest. You wouldn"t make a good fit: you"d make a great fit for our division."

Jake looked a bit put off by the old man laughing.

"Sir, suppose I do join the Grand Duelists, what would be in it for me? I wasn"t really interested in anything when I first ended up here – but that changed during the evaluation."

"Oh, I totally understand you," the old man said, instantly getting what Jake wanted in the wake of the nearly-disastrous evaluation. "You seek power – the kind of power to avoid having to go through what just happened the other day, right?"

"Yes," Jake answered, nodding grimly. "That is exactly the kind of power I need."

The old man closed his eyes and nodded in understanding before taking another sip of his tea, with Jake unconsciously following suit, taking a drink of his own tea as well.

"Do you need anything specific, something you need immediately?"

"Well, for starters," Jake said, shaking his head. "I"d like to know about the world of Nohas a bit more. Do you have anything that can help someone who just got brought here?"

At this point, Jake was all business: it was the same mindset he had when comparing products or prices. His mind was set to hang on most of the words this old man said, and his focus was at an extreme point that you could stick his arm with a needle, and he wouldn"t notice.

"Well, you won"t have to worry about that," the old man replied, recognizing Jake"s focus as soon as he saw the younger man"s body language. "Once I get you up to speed with the division"s rules and way of life, I"ll give you the means to become independent. It"s part of the principles we were built on, and I know other awakeners like you, who grew strong by hunting by themselves, or hunting with a partner."

The old man turned his head towards the inn stairs before continuing, and Jake knew immediately what the old man meant.

"Learning how our division works won"t take long – and once you do, you"ll be able to grow stronger freely, all the while carrying the prestige and power the Grand Duelists are known for."

"This guy is amazing," Jake thought, surprised but hiding his feelings under his focus. "How did he know what I was after?"

The fact that he had to work with a group and its pecking order was the reason why Jake ultimately decided to tell Cheon-Ji-In to shove their proposal up their collective a.s.ses.

"f.u.c.k you, I won"t do what you tell me" was basically Jake"s life"s motto – he loathed having to be part of a group and stay under a leader"s thumb.

His ultimate goal in Nohas was to live a life where he shops when he wanted and get the points he needed to shop whenever he wanted.

And now this old man is telling him that through his division, Jake could achieve his dream?

It sounds too good to be true.

Jake took another sip of the tea to gather his thoughts; it had long since stopped steaming, but it was still hot.

"You know me well," he finally admitted.

"Again, you don"t get to lead a division unless you have some skills that aren"t in the menu," the old man replied with a smile of his own. "Isn"t that right?"

Jake nodded and the old man continued, his eyes probing. "I saw a lot of awakeners during the evaluation: you"re the type who marches to the beat of your own drum. Furthermore, you look into things others don"t bother. How close am I to the truth?"

Jake sat a little straighter as he realized that the old man was right: other awakeners want power and skills; Jake just wants points to buy things with.

"...very close, sir."

The old man nodded.

"I still don"t know what that matter is you deem so important, but whatever it is, I will be with you every step of the way, if you"ll allow me and the Grand Duelists to help you."

His words had a strange power to them: it not only made the listener think everything will be okay, it also made them feel that what he says will happen – even if he never made any promises.

Jake desperately wanted to believe this, but given his focus, he had to go with his brain on this one.

"He sounds like a salesman or a business tyc.o.o.n. I have to tread carefully around him."

Throughout Jake"s lifetime, he had business with multiple shopping malls: the better the story, the cooler he looks, according to his experience.

"That"s nice, sir. How about we start with Empowerment P—"

Jake"s question stopped short as he found that several other awakeners had gathered around the table where he and the old man sat.

"How is the schism within the Grand Duelists, Master Li?"

"It has been a long time, Master."