Chapter Four: Shrine maiden

I walk over to the landlady's apartment. Her room is on the first floor, right next to the stairs. Before I knock, I open the menu and convert twenty points to money. It was enough to pay my rent. I ring the doorbell and hear a bunch of commotion behind the door. What is she doing? A minute later, she opens the door. "Oh, it's you," she said, somewhat annoyed. "Here's my rent." I hand over the money to her, and she looks slightly surprised. She takes the money. "Do I even want to ask how you got this money?" How, unlike here, she sounds somewhat worried. "A job." "What kind of job!" I can't tell her I work for some evil magical cult that uses creepy teddy bears as minions. "A deconstruction job." I mean, it's kind of true. I'm somewhat deconstructing society with my evil deeds. She let out a sigh. "Good. Try to stay out of trouble." "So, what were you doing before I rang the bell?" Her face turned red as she started to panic. "non... NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!!" She then slammed the door on me. *Ding* Oh, I got a point for harassment. I already know what she was doing and don't get why she tries so hard to hide it. She was watching one of her cheesy romance soap operas. I guess a delinquent watching romance shows all day would destroy her image. Well, I might as well enjoy the rest of the day now that I don't have to work any dead-end jobs.

What time is it? I rolled over to grab my phone, which was charging. It was ten in the morning. I didn't know I was that tired. I guess magic energy somehow ties in with physical energy. Well, It's not like I need to work that hard anymore. With the point-to-money conversion, as long as I make twenty points by the end of the month, then I don't have to worry about rent. Beating a magical girl gave me two hundred points. As long as I beat one a month, then I will pretty much be set for life. Hmmm... but if I beat one a week, I could live like a queen. I opened my menu and saw that I still had a little over two hundred points. Might as well spend some of the points on new skills. I could save up and get some powers, but I might as well just spend it on strength, speed, agility, and stamina. After all, it took only one hit to beat a magical girl, so as long as I could hit her, I could easily win. After using points on that skill, I still had a few left over. Might as well convert it into money. I would like to buy some things after all my room is basically empty and there is not much to do other than sleep.

I walk to the shopping center that's not too far from my apartment. I don't know what I want to buy since I never had spare money to buy anything unnecessary. Walking past a window, I see those game systems everyone talks about. I could buy one, but I would also have to buy a TV. Looking next door, I see a clothing store with lovely dresses and female apparel. It would be nice to have some good clothes, but what's the point? I don't have anyone that I need to dress up for. Hmmm... shopping harder than it looks, or maybe I'm not impulsive enough to buy things I don't need? *Ding* A message appeared saying that a magical girl was nearby and battle mode was starting. My clothes changed into the frilly battle dress. Wait, are they coming to attack me? Oh well, looks like I'm about to have more spending money.

Not too long after I got the message, a shrine maiden with a fox mask showed up. "Hey, shorty, Shouldn't you be in school?" Not that I'm one to talk. "Sttt... Stop... evil doer." She was again shaking as she said it. "I will put... an end to... your evil deeds." Why is she even trying to fight me if she's so scared? "Look, if you scared then..." "Where is it!" wow, she's capable of yelling. "Where's what?" "My... my... SHOES!" Oh, right, I forgot about that.

"Well, it's somewhere you won't be able to reach." I doubt she will be able to reach them even with a ladder. I can clearly see the anger on her face. Well, at least the part of her face was not covered by that mask. She started to fire magic at me. I managed to dodge it at the last second. Her aim has improved, but too bad for her, I put quite a few points into speed. "Well, I don't like bullying kids, but this is self-defense." I opened my storage, took the bat out, flipped it around, and grabbed it. Wow, even my reflexes have gotten better with the skill upgrades. "I'M NOT A KID!!" Whoops, it seems like I struck a nerve. She starts firing magic at me wildly. I dodged most of them, but so many were coming at me. I couldn't dodge them all, so I decided to hit one with my bat. A loud metallic clunk sound is made as magical sparks fly off the bat, and the magic gets redirected and flies past the magical girl. The magical girl stops as she sees her magic fly past her and sees me acting smug about it.

"How..?" "You've gotten better, kid, but too bad it won't be enough to stop me." She started to get angry again and fired another shot at me. I wind up the bat and smack the magic attack. It then flies right back at her and hits her. She flies back and tumbles on the ground. Whoops, I didn't mean to hit her with that, but hey, I was never really good at baseball. Her clothes changed back to a school uniform. *Ding* I got a message saying that I won. I should probably go check if she is okay. She still breathing, so I guess she's just knocked out. Looking down, I could see that she had a new pair of shoes on. Hmmm... I could steal her shoes again. "Don't... take... the shrine..." She was sleep talking. Don't take the shrine? Wait, was she trying to earn points to help a shrine? Great, now I feel bad about beating her up. Just who is she? I reached into her pocket, took out her wallet, and looked at her school ID. WAIT, she's older than me! She's a third year. No wonder she got so pissed at me for calling her a kid. It must be hard being that short. Opening up the wallet, I see that she has no money. Well, now I feel even worse. I know what it's like to be poor and trying hard to get money. Damn it, I use the two hundred points to convert it into money, then put the money into her wallet. I know I'm supposed to be evil, but I don't exactly want to be evil to someone who is sacrificing themselves to help others.

I can't leave her here in the middle of the street. Who knows what some evil... what some other evil person will do to her. I pick her up and start to carry her to the nearby park. She is very light, or maybe it's because I spent a lot of points on strength. Looking around the park, I see an empty bench under some shade and sit her down on the bench. She looks cute when she's peacefully sleeping. She's also pretty cute when she tries so hard to look strong, even though she's a scaredy cat. I should look into the shrines around this area to see which one she's trying to save. Not that I want to help, but I will try to avoid doing evil things to that shrine.

Wait, I should probably not do evil things to shrines in general; the gods may get pissed at me. Oh, I know I should use the tracking skill on her. I opened up the tracking skill and selected her. Error can not track magical girls. I guess spawn camping them for points would be cheating. Well, I should leave her here to rest, but I should do something evil to make up for the good thing I did. I reach over and take her new shoes. I wonder what I should do with this pair. Hmmm... I can't decide, so I toss them into my storage for now. "Until we meet again, shorty?" I said as I petted her head. Her name was on her school ID, but it was pointless to read it. After all, I would have forgotten it by tomorrow anyway.