Chapter 2: A Shop of Mysteries
"Why did you come to me and not any of the other Outcomes?" I asked.
Sumire laughed a little before leaning back against my wall. It seemed that she had made my table her permanent seating area. I guess I didn't have any reason to use the table yet, but it definitely made the room feel a little more cramped than it should've been. That was notwithstanding the lack of privacy I now had to deal with—I thought that a girl like her would be the one to bring something like this up, but I guess not.
"I just know you better, that's all~."
"I wasn't even in your generation. To be completely honest, I hardly even know you."
All that I knew about her was that she was a year younger than me. As far as I could tell from various pieces of hearsay, it seemed that she was one of the favourites of her generation. Regardless, it would've made more sense for her to group up with any of the other Outcomes that she knew better.
I wasn't exactly a celebrity in the Ideal Human Project either. For a long time, any betting man would've guessed that I'd be the first to go.
I had no real extraordinary talents, after all.
"That doesn't matter, does it? We can get to know each other now, ain't that right, Akira?"
"Were you a loner in your generation or something? Surely you had other friends."
"Hey~ that's not very nice. I don't suppose you had any friends either."
"My circumstances were different to yours."
"How would you know~?"
I guess the environment didn't exactly allow for it, but our personalities are quite clearly different; that alone should denote a major contrast between our social abilities.
I looked down at my phone.
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SHOP
[Abilities]
[Minions]
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—I clicked on [Abilities]. Chronologically, it made sense to do so. I probably didn't have to justify my thought on that so I'm not sure why I'm still monologuing.
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SHOP - Abilities
[Unlock Your Unique Personal Ability] - 10 points
[Universal Abilities] - NEXT PAGE
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Looking at that cost, there wasn't a reason for me to not [Unlock Your Unique Personal Ability], so I decided to do so.
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PERSONAL ABILITY
This is is your own unique ability that no one else can possess. The ability you receive is directly related to you as a person—your likes, your emotions, your past, your future—it is the greatest defining factor of you, as a student of TAG.
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I sure hope it's something good.
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Mind Breaker
You can inflict severe mental pain in the form of headaches which bypasses any defence or barrier. The more physically closer you are to someone and the more you understand someone, the stronger the pain.
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Alea iacta est. ///
There's no turning back now~
…
"So, what did you get, Sumire?"
She looked up at me.
"I can't just give away my ability like that, you know?"
I guess that was fair. If anything, fights at this point in time would most likely be dependant on how well someone could utilise their ability. To give it away would be giving your opponent a very big advantage.
I decided to look at the other thing in the SHOP.
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SHOP - Minions
[Star Minion] - 500 points
[Lesser Bank Minion] - 5k points
[Poultry Minion] - 1250 points
[Wood Minion] - 100 points
*
… [Unlock More] - 1 Star
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For some reason, the prices weren't in chronological order. The bigger mystery there, however, was the weird names of the Minions. I was expecting something more along the lines of 'point harvester minion' or something simple like that.
I guess I had a few points I might consider investing. But first I gestured to Sumire.
"Did you buy any of the Minions?"
"Nope, not yet. I was waiting for you to buy one, Akira."
"Why me."
"Because I don't want to have to waste my points without seeing what they do."
Sigh.
Still, it was probably worth at least seeing what they did.
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POINTS
Your current points: 302
Current Rank: #61,127
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I might as well get a [Wood Minion].
"So, what does it do, Akira?"
The moment I bought the Minion, another App appeared on my Home Screen—FIELDS. There was no notice from the school about this app.
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FIELDS
[Wood Minion] x1
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Pressing on the small widget, a little bit of information was revealed.
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[Wood Minion]
Inventory: 0x Wood
[BASE] Produces 1x Wood per hour.
Wood can be converted to Points at a rate of 10 wood/point. The more wood a [Wood Minion] is holding in its inventory, the faster it produces wood.
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It was interesting that it had a condition. It meant that it was a bit more complicated than just simply producing a Point every 10 minutes. Still, I didn't know about the speed that it increased with each Wood, but it seemed quite slow. Just for me, it'd take more than a month to earn back what I spent on it.
In terms of investments, I wasn't sure if it was really worth it at this point. I'd need more references in order to determine its value.
"It produces wood."
Sumire laughed a little.
"No need to be so ambiguous, Akira~. What are its specifics?"
"Should I tell you? What do I get in return?"
"What do you want then, Akira?"
She hopped off of my table and walked a little closer to me. Her long blonde hair swayed as she leaned down to face me. She pressed against her cheeks with her finger, as if to imitate a cute pose.
"You could tell me your ability."
"That's not really an equal trade."
"What's an equal trade then?"
She raised her leg, stepping on my bed with her white, frilly socks. The pressure caused the bed to squeak and for my position on the side of the bed to become a little less comfortable.
"How about ten Points? Surely that's fair," she cooed.
"You'll really pay me ten Points just for information?"
"Of course. Don't you know, in places like this, information is invaluable."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone