Item shop

Is this for real?

It smelled like a trap, it looked like a trap, but it was too stupid to be a trap and I already had this flat number 501 on my list of things to check. If by any chance this offer was genuine that would open a whole new world of possibilities.

But I don’t want to have my brain exploded by a random person, I need a proxy.

I went out of the building and walked towards the nearby ATM. On my way there I was looking around for potential candidates. I needed someone who could check it out for me, someone who didn’t ask too many questions and would agree to do it for money. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the best spot to find hookers or it was simply still too early for that.

No other choice. Though I hate it, I have to play in Adam’s style. Find a lonely guy, sell him a sob story of how I had a fight with my friend and now my items are being sold. I will give him some cash and ask to buy them back for me...

… no. There’s another way of dealing with this. Not as safe, but quicker, easier and better way.

There was a small pizzeria around the corner, I went inside.

It was a typical cheap place open till late night hours. The floor was slightly dirty but other than that the atmosphere wasn’t bad. There were four small round wooden tables with two chairs each in the middle and two bigger ones with additional leather couches for larger groups separated from the rest by glass folding screens.

It was mostly empty except for two men busily moving behind the counter and one customer finishing his pizza.

“Excuse me, can I order a delivery?”

I asked the guy who was waiting for me to place an order.

“Yeah, sure, but you will have to pay extra if it’s further than two kilometers.”

“No, no, don’t worry. It’s right around the corner, but I want it to be a surprise. Can I put a message in the box?”

“Haha, no problem, but I hope you won’t order the smallest and the cheapest one.”

After returning his obvious sales smile I started patting my pockets, pretending to search for something to write on.

“Can I borrow a pen and a piece of paper?”

“Yeah, but the sooner you tell us what to bake the faster it will arrive.”

“Oh right, give me… umm... it will be a farmhouse special XXL with cheese stuffed crust and please deliver it to New Gate road 501.”

“What sauce?”

“As long as there’s no mayonnaise in it anything’s fine.”

My habit from the past life kicked in and before I knew it the order was tailored to my liking. I paid and in return, the employee handed me a pencil and two yellow self-adhesive cards.

While phrasing the message in my head, I was looking around and spotted a clock displayed in the corner of an electronic menu hanging above the counter. It was around nine pm.

[Hi! My name’s Roger. I’m also playing T-he E-ndless T-ravel and I’m really interested in the offer you’ve placed on the corkboard, but I’m worried about visiting you alone in your place, so why don't we meet somewhere public? There’s a nice pizzeria around the corner called Golden Star Pizza, I will be waiting for you there until midnight. The pizza’s my goodwill token, bon appetit!]

On the second card I wrote:

[To make it easier for us to spot each other please hold those cards in your hand, I’m wearing-]

I stopped for a moment, took a brief glance at my mostly black and brown hatless attire and finished with:

[-mostly bright clothes, look for a guy with a white hat.]

Alright, this should be enough.

After passing both cards to the staff, I waited to check if they were placed inside the box together with the pizza and left.

Opposite to the pizzeria, there was a perfect dark corner in between two buildings, with a big container placed in front which was mostly obscuring the view inside it. After checking if there weren't any people lurking inside that place I took a piece of cardboard lying nearby, removed some snow from one spot on the ground and sat on it.

It should be rather hard to notice me from the street’s side, while I had a good view of the lit entrance to the store. There was no further point in thinking about the note, its origin, the person who had placed it and other details because there were too many possibilities. First, they should be thinned out and I only had to wait to achieve that.

Will an angel or a demon show up? Or will I become an atheist?

To kill some time and put a stop to that broken replay from the park repeating itself time after time, I went over all the billboard idols who had caught my attention. There were three of them and I gave them the following nicknames: the blackie, the neko, and the vampire.

Blackie was a girl around fourteen to twenty years old. Her style was heavy on goth and light on lolita. In other words, the typical cutesy accessories weren’t mixed within, Almost everything was pure black. Heavy black boots, black stockings, black petticoat, black corset, black detachable sleeves with few black leather straps holding them in place, black nails, long straight black hair, black bows and sickly white-powdered face.

I knew that this was only her public image and in private she could be wearing neon pink bunny pajamas, but the feeling that asking her about the color she liked the most was akin to asking ‘is water wet?’ was strong.

Neko was the one showing the most skin out of that trio. She looked a bit older than the rest, but pinpointing the exact age of a girl on a billboard was a fool’s errand as it was previously shown by the wide error margin I had left for myself with Blackie’s age. She had shoulder-length bluish hair combed neatly to the back, showcasing her shiny forehead and placing more emphasis on the pair of big cat-ear shaped blue headphones, not only them but the rest of her outfit as well had many illuminated elements that were giving off an electro-futuristic vibe. Her golden eyes were obviously a result of using eye contacts with horizontal pupils and-

Oh?

A skinny guy with a small backpack and a long brown coat was coming from the direction of my building and it looked like he was holding something in hand.

Is that my target? I was expecting a girl.

When Yuni got closer I double checked the content of his hand, in between two fingers were the same yellow cards I had sent. He went inside the pizzeria, while I waited a few more minutes to see if he came alone.

He didn’t give the impression of a person prone to going on a murderous rampage and it seemed that no one was following him. There were also no signs of trying to hide his identity or scheming so I entered the shop.

“Oh! It’s him!”

Pointed his finger at me the happy shop clerk. A wave of shame was swallowing me from the inside, at the very end I left such a huge flaw in my plan.

Asking the staff about me is against the rules! Should have given him a tip to keep his mouth shut, ehh... let’s pretend that everything’s going according to the plan.

In theory, I was planning on making myself a part of the background to observe a little more before deciding if I should make a contact or not, but it was chosen for me. It was time to act.

With a simple head gesture, I asked Yuni to sit together with me at one of the smaller tables.

“Roger in a white hat? Heh.”

He remarked quietly and sat opposite to me. About one-third of his black hair was cut really short, while the rest was styled with gel to the side. There was a checkered tie visible in the gap of his unbuttoned coat. However, the most memorable element of his visage was connected with his slanted eyes, they were deeply purple with vertical pupils.

Eye contacts?

From up close I could tell that this skinny guy was older than me.

“Thank for the pizza, I’m Yuni.”

“Sorry, I lost my hat, but I can’t lose my name, I’m Roger.”

He wanted to shook my hand, but I ignored this gesture and even moved my chair a little back.

“Why all that caution? We live in the same building, right?”

“I saw your notice while visiting my uncle.”

“Yeah right… you should relax a little, it’s just a game, but whatever. So what are you interested in?”

He shrugged his arms and placed his backpack on the table.

“First of all, do you have any proof that this stuff is real?”

“Now that you mention it…”

He finished unzipping the backpack and took out three small flat green stones from it.

“... let’s do it this way, in return for the pizza you can take all three slime runes. If you like them we can meet again and conduct a proper exchange. What do you think?”

The way how easily he gave them to me did not agree with my prediction of how expensive the real items should be.

Carefully I picked one of the runes and looked at it from every side. It was pleasantly smooth to the touch and there was a small picture of some blob on one side, but that didn’t prove anything.

“And you’re just going to give them to me like that?”

I asked with a voice full of doubt.

“Listen pal, to tell you the truth those are just toys in my eyes, I keep the really good stuff for myself and may be willing to sell some of it later, but for now, the thing I’m really interested in is information about the mana spots location and getting my hands on more tickets. In the game.”

He added the last part upon noticing that the bored looking shop clerk was leaning against the counter and listening to us. Yuni also pushed the remaining two green stones towards me, I pocketed all three of them.

“How do I use it?”

“Oh come on, you don’t expect me to give you stuff and add an explanation on top of that just for one pizza? Got a spare ticket or two to sell?”

“Sorry, I don’t have any.”

“A pity, guess I will have to wait for my next share from TET or with a bit of luck someone will answer online. Hard to believe that the prehistoric way of communication was the first one to bear results.”

The thing he just said in a way as if he was stating that it was cold outside-

- is something that I would love to know earlier! Fuck’s sake! TET’s giving tickets?! How?! Where?! For free?!

Yuni noticed my dumbfounded reaction and reacted to it with a slowly growing wicked smile.

“Hmm~, was I mistaken? Are you by any chance a person that’s not a player? In that case, I may be able to offer you some other interesting services, like telling you where to become one, for a price of course.”

The obvious holes in my basic knowledge made him reach the wrong conclusion and I had nothing against it. With a bit of effort, I managed to gather my dropped jaw from the floor, regained a businesslike expression and said:

“So you wanted to know more about mana spo-”

“Stop right there and allow me to return your own words. Will you have any proof that the stuff you say is real? How am I supposed to believe a guy who didn’t even know about tickets from TET?”

Now that he had an upper hand his attitude towards me changed and even the tone of voice he used was infused with a slight tinge of superiority.

“Will you believe money?”

“Money’s fine. Let’s see… since you’re my first customer, and I want us to have good relations in the future, what about… 200$ for explaining how the runes work, another 500$ for sharing with you a secret about the mana infused items and 1000$ for providing you with information about the place where you can become a player. What do you say?”

Each of those three things reverberated nicely with my sense of greed for knowledge, but without any reference, I had no idea if the price was adequate or not. I decided to test it.

“That’s a bit expensive… I’ve only got 1000$ on me, but I really know a mana spot location. Today, I saw a dead guy in front of it with a used ticket in hand."

That's all I'm willing to risk on an uncertain information.

Yuni scratched his chin while thinking about my proposal and nodded after a minute. There was no noticeable reaction from his side to the words ‘dead guy’.

“Fine, but give me cash and info first.”

I took out my wallet and handed him the money, he counted it quickly and nodded with a smile urging me to continue talking.

“You know the park in the western part of the city, the one with that big memorial stone in the center?”

“You mean the Dove Park?”

“Yeah, that stone’s an important place in our game.”

“Sound’s good. I guess it’s my turn now? Look, I’m not running away or anything. You should trust people more Roger.”

Sure, as soon as random girls will stop destroying brains of people who try to help them.

Yuni moved one of his hands in my direction and I flinched slightly, which resulted in him shaking his head in disbelief.

“Calm down scaredy-cat. One, the simplest, yet the most important matter. Go and visit The Chevalier, it’s a high building in the city’s center where you can rent office space. The Checker, which is TET’s public face, is located there, you can’t miss it.”

The hand he kept extended towards me was simply used as a gesture to enumerate the things he wanted to talk about.

“Two, any items infused with mana that you have on yourself while entering the game go inside with you. It makes it easier to win challenges.”

“All of them? No exceptions?”

“As far as I know that’s right. Three, you can either use those runes inside the game where they last till you exit or outside where they last for about ten minutes. To use them, simply throw them hard enough to break and...”

He stopped and gave me a meaningful glance based on my previous twitchy reactions.

“... don’t worry, they won’t eat you. Though slimes are too stupid to listen to their summoner orders, there’s a system in place preventing them from attacking their owner.”

“I wish you were attacking the menu instead of just sitting there talking at an empty table.”

Interjected the guy behind the counter.

“I just heard the voice of fate telling me that it’s time to end our meeting. The pizza was good, feel free to send me another one if you will want to lure me out of the flat again. Hope to see you become a true player by that time. See you, Roger.”

Said happily Yuni, took his belongings, patted the full wallet in his pocket and left. My situation was similar, although I lost ten percent of my savings, the chance that it was worth it was high.

To avoid an awkward situation of walking in the same direction right behind him, I ordered some fries and a cheeseburger before going back home.

I thought about Yuni words, but in my eyes, he was the one who should treat this more seriously.

A big hypocrite, that's who I am.

The sight of two dead medics would probably emerge from the corner of my mind in today’s dream.