La Minot Department Store had been seamlessly built into a larger mall complex called Central Plaza that served much of Vermillion City. To say that the complex was big was an understatement.

People often joked that Central Plaza could serve as its own small country. It had everything, from food and drinks, to arcades, night clubs, barbers, movie theaters, miniature golf, a hot spring resort built into the complex on the ground floor that sourced locally volcano heated water from Mount Vasco, multiple five star hotels, and even a neonball sports center where contestants competed in zero gravity.

Walking from one side of the complex to the other took half a day, so there were shuttle services provided for a ludicrous fee. A day’s shuttle fare at the Plaza costed several thousand dollars.

Unsurprisingly, Zack and Hugo decided to walk. Thankfully, the department store section of the plaza was not part of the luxurious inland portion, although everything in there was still several notches more expensive than other stores.

“I gotta say, I’ve never been here before,” Hugo said with a bit of awe in his voice as they rode up the escalator into what could only be described as a shopper’s paradise, realistic looking vines hanging from the glass ceilings down to their heads as they entered the jungle themed section. From frying pans to camo pants, this excessively large department store had it all. And by the looks of it, the La Minot in Vermillion City went the extra mile and then some when it came to delivering the full shopping experience. No other La Minot location had themed sections, not by a long shot.

Hugo picked up a coil of rope that had been placed decoratively on the side of the escalator’s railing, next to some colonial explorer hats fitting with the whole jungle exploration theme. There was a price tag on it, so even the decorations were products. “You think we can use this? Wanna toss it in your inventory?”

Zack grinned. “You’re not even hesitating, huh?”

Hugo responded animatedly. “Come on, our asses are on the line if we don’t prepare properly as you said. I don’t want to be on the skewer end of a rusty spear because I didn’t buy enough gear, alright? Let’s live a little, it might be the last week of our lives!”

Hugo was right for once. Zack glanced around, checking if there was anyone looking, then vanished the rope into his inventory, his heart racing a bit. Luckily, there were no cameras in the store because each item had been tagged with Lumien tech, which was an infallible theft prevention device except when it came to magical disappearing inventories. He once dreamed of working at that glitzy Lumien Corporation once he graduated, but now it appeared that fate had other plans for him.

He’d feel a bit worse about stealing from La Minot if it wasn’t a price gouging bloodsucker that crushed multiple small mom and pop shops entering the Vermillion market under the watchful mastership of a ruthless private equity firm. And as if putting numerous Vermillion families out of business and onto the streets wasn’t bad enough, the private equity firm cut costs by firing more than half of La Minot’s staff, from cashiers to clothing folders, only to pay the remaining workers a paltry thirty percent more to do twice the work. All to push up their damn EBITDA ratio and line the pockets of those guys who now owned the waterfront properties and casinos by the wharf, and frequented the luxury inland facilities of Central Plaza.

Business was business, they’d say. Well, he could say the exact same thing back. When he stole from La Minot, he stole from their fat cat pockets, and Zack did not feel a shred of remorse about that. It was just business as usual.

Vermillion City was the land of both the ultra rich and the numerous poor. The floaters and the sinkers. Careful not to drown.

In a way, every item he stuffed into his inventory was an exercise in vengeance for the city’s poorer residents against La Minot’s limitless bottom line. But in all honesty, he could empty an entire section of the store into his inventory and not make a dent on their financials. Seriously, their bottom line went deeper than even his magical inventory could go. Ah, that reminded him to tell Hugo something.

“I forgot to tell you. My inventory isn’t limitless, so we’re going to have to choose a bit carefully on what we want,” Zack said, quickly explaining what he’d discovered earlier this morning.

“Well that’s alright,” Hugo replied after listening to Zack’s explanation. “Just means we have to make a few more trips.”

That hadn’t even occurred to him. He was surprised yet again by Hugo’s boundless audacity. Maybe he was like that once too, before he got all proper and stuck up. Lost some of his edge. And for what?

“See you at the top,” Zack said all of a sudden, sprinting up the escalator with newfound energy.

Hugo looked surprised for a moment, then laughed. “That’s the Zack I know.” The years had separated their lives into completely different paths, where Hugo spent much of his days around cigarette smoke and booze and easy women while Zack entered a stuffy lifestyle with a mixture of extreme prestige tied with a severe case of imposter’s syndrome and anxiety, but for a brief moment as they ran up the escalator, they returned to how they were as kids.

They were just kids scrounging up some makeshift weapons, getting ready to play pirates at old man Li’s backyard again. Except the Rory twins weren’t twins anymore. One overdosed on his mom’s needles at sixteen, and the other… well… he wasn’t sure. They were never the brightest bunch, even if drugs weren’t brought into the picture. The other kid they used to play with Pete was still around, working as a deckhand back at the dock. Zack hadn’t spoken to him in years.

Stolen novel; please report.

…

And now they were about to play a game of pirates with their lives on the line.

It was sad, but at the same time… kind of exciting. Zack smiled. There was no way he’d lose this time around. Not with so much experience saber fighting on the high seas in his childhood as Captain Zack.

“Haha, a compass,” Hugo said, picking up a yellow compass from a stand. “Didn’t think we’d ever need to use one of these. You think it might be useful?”

Zack blinked. Wasn’t there that dungeon map function? He quickly opened his menu to check, ignoring Hugo’s confused look seeing him poke the air in front of his face. The map icon wasn’t grayed out anymore, probably unlocked at the same time as his level up function. But when he checked the map, Delver’s Alcove’s outline could be seen, but everything beyond the entrance was covered by something like fog of war in a game. A tooltip popped up in front of him.

Dungeons may not be the same when re-entering. Your map will automatically update as you explore further into the dungeon.

There was a compass function on the side of his map.

“We don’t need one,” Zack said, closing the map interface and snatching the compass from Hugo’s hands before he broke it by accident pressing the button on the side. “It’s already part of the system.”

“I’m really jealous of you,” Hugo said. “Wish I also got magic powers and invisible screens and everything.”

“You’ll get those sooner or later,” Zack replied.

They continued their search for useful supplies through the jungle exploration section, ending up taking a few things here and there. And by a few things here and there, he meant fourteen sets of heavy duty bear traps, the kinds often seen clamping onto people’s legs in cartoons, in addition to several cans of dangerous animal repellent spray and a few sturdy bamboo stalks with twine. He learned the importance of kiting when facing a difficult enemy after his experience against the kobolds, and stacked bamboo stalks made for a way better fortification than playing house of cards with ragged weapons.

“I’m going to check out the fishing section for anything useful. Catch up with you later,” Hugo said.

They split up to cover some more ground. Leaving the jungle exploration section, Zack looped around to the next set of escalators when he ran into a familiar face right in front of him as he turned the corner.

It was Grace Kim, the personal trainer and yoga instructor at Zack’s gym who recently cut her hair short and dyed it a vibrant pink. This was the first time he’d ever seen her outside of work, and she looked very different in her daily outfit of a white crop top and jeans. Hell, he’d never seen her wearing anything but a monotone matching yoga top and bottom.

“Hey,” she said, greeting him energetically. “Well, you look nice!”

“Thanks, and so do you,” Zack replied with a laugh, before what she said finally registered in his head. He wasn’t used to getting compliments. “Really?”

“Yeah! Don’t you know, yesterday my client asked if I could get your number for her, heh.”

Zack was speechless. Unlike Hugo, he hadn’t really paid much attention to cleaning up his appearance until very recently. It was embarrassing to admit, but he wore hand-me-down clothing with patched up holes in them right up until he came to the city for university. He also looked a bit malnourished back then.

“I can’t even believe that…” he finally managed to say.

“How about you join my yoga class, for free? Having you around would be good for business, and plus, you’re already there every day,” Grace said without a hint of hesitation. “You could even be an instructor for me!” She stepped so close to him that he could smell her perfume, her round face glistening with what he could now clearly see was cosmetics.

A normal guy would be rather flustered in this situation, especially because Grace Kim had been blessed with a vigorously healthy body and a particularly eye-catching set of natural globes underneath her neck line, but Zack was not a normal guy. He only had one thing on his mind the moment that she mentioned the offer.

He looked her straight in the eye and asked the most important question in the world to him. “Does it pay well?”

Grace nodded. “Of course! How else do you think I can afford to spend the weekends shopping here? Let me tell you a secret, the girls tip really well if you show them some patience, although they might be a bit hard to deal with at times.”

“You’re making this sound way too good, Grace…”

Zack Baker was someone who would willingly dive into a pile of sludge if he was paid enough to do it. There was a reason why he didn’t pay much attention to trivialities like his appearance before–making money was just more important to him. Now she was offering him a high paying gig just to stand around and attend some yoga class to attract slightly bossy, affluent female clientele? And this was after he seriously considered a port loader position where he had a non-zero chance of getting grievously injured? This was an offer that he’d be blind and deaf to refuse. Zack had no moral qualms about becoming a yoga class gigolo-slash-mascot.

“I’ll do it,” he said without any hesitation. “Except Friday nights. I’ll be busy then.”

The dungeon and preparation for that came first, but besides that and studying he was free. Truth be told, he desperately needed a part-time job.

“Great! You can come attend the class tonight at eight pm. I think it’ll be best for you to attend a few classes so that you can learn and observe first, and then once you get the hang of it, I can train you to be a part-time instructor.”

“But first, I’ll need to get your number.”

Grace extended her phone, and Zack scanned his contact card info in. And just like that, Zack became closer with Grace and just landed his dream part-time job starting tonight. Surely nothing could go wrong in ten hours, right?