"Father, there are a lot of complaints going on now.""I don"t think this is right, master."
LJ and Connor, despite being rivals to the succession of their division, were currently united in a singular purpose: questioning their division"s leader.
More specifically, it was along the line of "what were you thinking, bringing someone like Jake Smithson here?".
"What is not right?" the old man asked, annoyance written on his face.
"Surely you"ve heard of what the other members of this division are saying about the current situation. Your actions are causing some bad blood between our current members and the new ones you picked up. It"s going to end in trouble eventually unless we deal with it," Li"s firstborn answered, his tone barely betraying that he had rehea.r.s.ed that response before meeting up with his father.
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"Well, what are they saying?"
"Jake and Liam should be paying their dues to the division," LJ replied. "The dues all awakeners here have paid at one time or another: raids, city patrol, night watch."
"I don"t know exactly what those two are up to right now, but what I do know for sure is that they are both working harder in hunting monsters than any two of you awakeners you can find now. I can even say they"re working hard enough that I can exempt them from raiding."
"But the policy and rules are there for a reason, Master…" LJ said, but was interrupted when his father raised his voice.
"What policy? What rules? We did not start this division to have our awakeners be bogged down in all this meaningless bureaucratic bulls.h.i.t!" the old man yelled, but quickly returned his tone of voice to normal.
"All right, we"ll at least keep an eye on them. Should we see them slacking off and not being productive members of the Grand Duelists, Connor and I will make sure they are part of a raiding team immediately."
The old man saw his son take a step back – he did make some concessions, but they were meaningless, given what the old man knew about Jake.
"They don"t know who these guys are – or what they"re capable of."
He knew more about Jake Smithson while training him on the road from Kingsville to Carter, and knew the concessions he gave his firstborn were ultimately ineffective.
"That is a good idea, but I wouldn"t worry too much about those two being unproductive. Keep an eye on them if they start to become lazy."
"I will do it as you please, father," LJ said, bowing before continuing further. "Aside from raiding though, they should never be allowed to be exempted from patrol duty and night watch."
"I also don"t think I"m going to have much trouble with them not partic.i.p.ating in the raid missions, but I think we have to make sure he doesn"t get exempted from patrol and night watch. Otherwise, we won"t be able to appease the complainants," Connor added, expressing his own opinion at this point.
LJ saying something was one thing, but Connor and LJ joining forces? The old man wouldn"t be able to ignore their demands, because he knew better than anyone that if he gave anyone in the division special treatment, he"d end up sabotaging the division as a whole.
That was why he waited on giving his answer.
"What is your issue with these two? It is only a few days since they have joined us."
"It"s been more than a week already."
"And you would only give them one week to adapt to this division"s culture? I do not think so – it is like I said, I shall take care of that matter myself. It is out of your hands now," the old man said with finality, and while LJ and Connor didn"t like that answer, there was nothing more that could be done for the moment.
"I see, I shall address the rank and file with that."
"And we shall take our leave of you… master."
They bowed and left the office, with Master Li noticing that his son used the term "master" almost like an insult.
That wasn"t what worried him the most.
"They"re making their move quicker than I thought – this is not good," the old man thought. "They already see Jake as a wild card in their succession rivalry. This is but an alliance of convenience, nothing more – once I bring Jake to heel, they will be at each other"s throats again, this time fighting over which faction Jake will choose."
"I have to find a way to make sure Jake and Liam do not fall under their influence – my plan depends on them being independent."
***
"Status window," Jake intoned, and as the skill activated, he noticed a new change.
"Are my eyes deceiving me or am I dreaming?"
There was an addition to the skill from when he last saw it: another store was now included in his shopping skill.
"Shopping (Awakening Store in beta service, Superstore in beta service)"
"This is amazing, I can"t believe this is happening. Sweet dreams really are made of these," Jake thought, suddenly struck with the idea that he might be already dead and Nohas was heaven.
"Enough imagining. Let"s give the place a look-see, they might still be setting things up. Keep expectations low."
He decided to play it safe, not get too hyped up, and save the jumping for conclusions until he can actually see what the Superstore offers.
"Here we go."
He activated his Shopping skill carefully, feeling as if he had used it for the first time once more, and saw the question.
[Do you want to access the Awakening Store (beta service) or the Superstore (beta service)?]
The b.u.t.tons appeared before him, and he made his choice.
Soon after that, the dialog box appeared.
[Happy to serve! Welcome to the Superstore!
30% off all items!
1F. Basic items.
2F. Sporting items.
3F. Weapons.
4F. Armor
5F. Other items.
6F. 2K Miles Bike (exclusive on sale)]
Jake Smithson saw the Superstore"s catalog appear before him.
***
Despite Jake"s resolve to come in the Superstore with any expectations, there was still one thing that he was looking out for: the similarity between the Awakening Store and the Superstore.
That was where he was mistaken.
[Happy Super Shopping Day, sir! This is the Basic Item floor. Most of these items consist of basic needs for the average awakener. If you have any questions, please don"t hesitate to ask, sir!]
Jake hadn"t been in the Superstore for fifteen minutes when he realized that the difference between how the Superstore and the Awakening Store treat their customers is like night and day.
The Superstore treats its customers like royalty.
[We"re always on hand to help if you need anything, sir!]
"Is this their marketing strategy?"
Jake also noticed several things: the store itself had a very kitschy color scheme.
It wasn"t ugly to him, but it was very rudimentary; it also had a strange kind of charm.
"Fascinating," Jake said, right before he saw the item in the exhibit floor.
"What"s this? A Velocity roadster… a motorcycle?"
"They"re selling motorcycles here, too?"
This is something he"d never seen in the Awakening Store yet, and its novelty made the Superstore attractive.
You could remove the solicitous way the store acts towards its customers, but the presence of the roadster bike gave the store a bubbly presence.
It was truly the centerpiece of the Superstore, and Jake was drawn to it, reading the description immediately.
[2K Miles Velocity Roadster:
Thanks to our brand-new contract with the best motorcycle manufacturing company across many universes, we are now able to offer you the latest in 2K Miles" "Velocity" series, the Velocity Roadster!
Because of its rugged construction and built-in magic defense effect, this roadster can take you places and traverse rough terrain with little to no loss of speed.
Our exclusive contract also includes spare parts and maintenance, so we won"t just sell this bike exclusively, we"re also getting you ways to fix and upgrade this bike, only from our store!]
Despite the long description, there was one word that Jake fixated on when he read the description: "exclusively".
Only this store offers this item.
Jake"s desire for the item began to rise dramatically within him.
"Dammit… I want that…"
The word "exclusive" was paramount to a must-buy for Jake: it is an expression of "unique" and as such must be bought as soon as possible.
"Nothing else is needed. I"m getting this, nothing gets cooler than moving from place to place on a bike, like that film from before I was born."
His decision was made immediately, as he wanted to be the only awakener going from place to place on a motorcycle, hunting monsters and doing quests all on a bike.
He"d look a lot like a bada.s.s in a movie with it.
"Okay. How much is it?"
Jake continued to read the item description, looking forward to the price and expecting it to be insanely expensive – and he was correct.
"Better hold onto my jaw before it drops," Jake thought as he scrolled down to the price of the Velocity Roadster, his chin calmly resting on his hands.
[The basic model we are offering is priced very compet.i.tively, unlike the other motorcycles from the 2K Miles exclusive catalog. Our entry price for this item is 3 million points.]
"Well, s.h.i.t," Jake said, as soon as the shock of seeing the price wore off. "It"s only natural."
Thankfully, he was holding onto his chin, so he wouldn"t drop his mouth open.
Also, he was able to put himself in the place of the store as soon as the shock had gone out of his system.
"I mean, a lozenge for stats costs several thousand, a sword costs a few hundred thousand, three mil for a bike sounds reasonable.
Still… though… how the h.e.l.l am I going to collect all these points – it will take months before I get to buy it! Am I going to have to be a shopping ascetic the entire time?"
The thought of going two months without buying anything burned Jake"s shopping-addicted heart something large – it was inconceivable.
"How would I stand going two months constantly hunting monsters without buying a thing?
What should I do?"
And in the midst of his agonizing on how to collect all those points, a notification popped up.
[We at the Superstore want you to have a happy shopping experience! Don"t expect us to sell something like this without discount and cashback events! We"re still doing some last-minute tweaks to those events, so check back here soon, and you"ll be on your way to having your very own Velocity Roadster before you know it!]
The Superstore shone a light on the path Jake should follow.
***
While Jake was browsing the Superstore"s catalog, Kelderian and his employees at the Awakening Store were busy following their own lead.
"Boss, we found four pairs in stock at HQ!"
"Great! Tell them to send those in, then continue checking if we can find more in other places. You – how"s your search in the third-party sneaker sites doing?"
"Doing well, boss! Bunch of hits, already contacted half of the providers I"ve found; just waiting for their reply."
The Awakening Store back office was now moving with more purpose than before: Jake made an unexpected request, and Kelderian was locked into complying with it.
He has no choice; Jake Smithson is his only customer.
"Four pairs. That should get us enough time to search more."
To the credit of the Awakening Store, they had four pairs in stock at their corporate headquarters, so they were able to acquire part of the request quickly.
If it weren"t for that, Kelderian would have been hard-pressed to acquire those shoes right away, and would have resorted to other measures to keep Jake loyal to their store.
"Sir, just heard from our messenger. It"s in transit."
"Great! Everyone, update the site! This isn"t a day for a new product release, but let"s do it anyway; we"re under the gun right now."
"Copy that!"
Everyone was working in haste.
"Sucker bet he"s already checked the bike out. It"s going to prove an amazing piece of bait for someone like him," Kelderian thought, taking measures to inform Jake about the GOAT Flyer series they just picked up. "We need to deal with this decisively."
"Any adjustments we need to make on the price, boss?"
"Thirty-five percent off, across the board! Show me the effect of the pairs we have!"
The GOAT Flyers have an effect for each shoe in the series: the #11 that Jake purchased had the effect of increasing water magic damage by 100%.
Kelderian wanted to find the best out of the four pairs they had, and put it up on the front page for Jake to see.
"This #4 has an identical effect to the #11, but for fire magic damage. 100% boost. I remember this one! He wore this against the Paladins!"
"I see you know your basketball history. It"s good, but Jake hasn"t purchased any fire-related skills yet. Next!"
"The #9 we have here has improved healing effects," the employee continued, "but the GOAT never wore these in a game."
"That forest camouflage colorway and healing effects are a nice combo, but our customer isn"t a healer," Kelderian answered. "What about the other two?"
"The #17 has a mana boost effect!"
"Interesting," Kelderian said as he considered that the mana boosting effects the GOAT Flyer #17 would be attractive to someone who used a lot of magic effects to supplement his fighting style, like Jake.
Out of the three GOAT Flyers they had in stock, this was the one Kelderian liked the most to be put up front.
"What"s the last one?" Kelderian asked, thinking that he already had his item to sell to Jake.
"Well, it"s the very first GOAT Flyer in the series, sir," the employee said.
"What is its effect?"
"Experience boost," the employee said.
"How much?" Kelderian asked, and his jaw dropped when he heard the answer.
"Fifty percent more points when hunting monsters?
This is unreal.
This effect is just as good as the #17"s mana boost – no, it might be even better!"
"What"s your decision, boss?"
After a minute of thought, Kelderian gave his answer.
"Here"s what we"ll do: put both of them on our front page, and add the description that whoever completes the event can get to choose between one of the two pairs featured, with the second pair purchasable at a discount later."
"Roger that, updating the site now!"
Kelderian nodded in approval, not knowing that giving the points boost would turn Jake"s hunting craze into a hunting frenzy.
***