I stood there, looking at the now stoic phone screen with zero notifications. Like it hadn’t just passive-aggressively threatened me before rubbing my back saying “there there.”

  It threatened me… or at the very least, told me “nah uh”, in a less theatrical manner.

  I pocketed the phone and headed for my car. Stewing on this wasn’t helping, and sitting in my car was the closest thing to a fortress right now.

  Better to do something, even if it seems unimportant—my father always said.

  **

  I completed the rest of Anna’s shopping, ranging from fine wine to designer clothing. Which made me question how she even knew some of this stuff.

  Is she from my world after all?

  Never mind.

  My funds at this stage had been all but diminished to about 200 bucks and half of that was already reserved for filling up my car.

  She a thirsty bitch.

  So I spent the st remainder of my diminishing time on finding some legs for my favourite mimic.

  “Welcome to Harvey Norman, what can I help you with?” The man greeted… with as much intensity as someone having a dry-spell for the st 10 years, and I was a juicy piece of ass.

  “Umm. Just a pair of leg-upgrades for my roomba.” Trying to already walk towards the pce that I knew had the parts.

  “Oh certainly, I can get you sorted asap.”

  “No no, I’ll yell out when I need someone.”

  Someone not making bedroom eyes with my backside.

  The man kept smiling, giving me a nod and then sauntered off into the TV-isles. Forcing my cheeks to clench up even tighter.

  These retail people are like sharks.

  I shook myself and made my way to the roomba section, which was surprisingly stocked.

  “They want how much?!” I excimed a bit too loud, while seeing the price tag on some robotic prosthetics. Which in roomba terms meant “foldable stilts”, pushing him over slightly rger steps and so on. “But not the ability to actually climb mine…”

  I dropped my head in shame, unable to provide my most friendly of employees the one thing they asked for.

  Then remembered with wide eyes and a slight gasped inhale.

  The Pizza Party Storefront.

  The section that allowed me to dish out bonuses for my employees!

  My feet shuffled over to the massage chair to “test it out”, while I pretended to use my phone for something. Instead, I brought up my menu and went straight into the Storefront, then searched for roomba parts.

  “Holy…”

  It was all there, and very reasonably priced.

  “I can definitely buy him some legs.” My face dimming again. “But they’re going to be shitty ones, barely able to clear anything more than 10cm in height.”

  Might have to think of a different solution then.

  After pushing the limits of what constituted as “testing the product” and a lot of staff walking past me with narrowed eyes.

  I left the store.

  Headed for my car once more, but this time pnning my trip out of town—with a short sloppy burger stop.

  Minus pickles… yuck.

  The dungeon time was ticking away as the map dispyed a lot of movement from my employees, especially Anna.

  Not sure what she was doing, but I sure hope my house was still standing when I got back.

  **

  It had taken me much longer on the way back. Between toilet breaks and the occasional rogue sausage-roll with sauce. And the added deying on my part, due to the serenity of just driving my car from A - B—and no system messages.

  As I approached the gates to my indebted and dysfunctional estate… I had an epiphany.

  If the system could effectively read my thoughts, while my phone was acting like a one-way street to a toxic retionship, then I needed to find out to what extent.

  System, can you provide me with 1 million gold please.

  [Negative]

  Let’s try another method.

  I wonder if the system could tell me more about this bad sender.

  Nothing.

  Ok, so there’s some nuance to this.

  Maybe the system only hones in, if my intention was set to it. Like addressing a room, but pointing at one individual in particur.

  After a bit more trial and error. Mostly trying to rage-bait the system or this sender into replying, with only a handful of responses—but zero from the sender.

  So that meant that I could at least strategise now.

  I had given it some thought into how I had been running things. Mostly relying on luck and unsteady income from adventurers. And barely making enough dough to expand on my situation.

  It was true that I technically only needed 10 gold to cover my house repayments, but I wanted more now— I deserved more.

  Maybe there’s a skill I could bend the rules of.

  I opened my menu, my car now parked in front of my house and idling with the air conditioning bsting.

  Funny enough, I forgot to scroll down my skills when reaching level 10. Which now dispyed 3 new skills. Ignoring the fact of the 2 skills I hadn’t purchased yet… or couldn’t: “peaceful presence” and “familiar.” Since they weren’t really A: useful or B: too expensive and vague.

  The first skill was an interesting addition.

  [Customer Survey]

  [Anything negative conversation inside the Safezone is recorded for…Training purposes]

  Ok big brother…

  [Big Dog]

  [The higher your level and the higher your Currency stockpile— the higher your prestige amongst people]

  [Note: Prestige = Influence and reputation amongst others—monsters or otherwise]

  Interesting.

  [Scalper]

  [The ability to now buy items at much lower price]

  [Note: Works in conjunction with Used Car Salesman]

  [Side Note: Heavily dependent on item rarity and level difference between you and the target]

  Now that… is THE skill.

  To be honest, all of these skills screamed at me, and I could technically afford with my current funds. But it would put an even deeper dent into my reserves than I was willing to accept right now.

  Just as I selected the skill and simultaneously pushed through my front door, I was met by 2 glowing eyes… narrowed eyes.

  “Good, you’re back… funny thing happened while you were gone.” Anna announced, while I could smell the faint aroma of charred wood.

  Great.