Jim's PoV

As Jim woke up for the second time, he realized he was feeling surprisingly good. The pain that had been plaguing him for the past three days was finally gone! Jim started mentally preparing his day as he went through his morning routine. Getting arrested for theft was pushed back for at least a week, so he might as well move back home.

It was still early enough for him to vacate the hotel and not get charged for another day. After that he could look up the pawn shop and see if his goods were the real deal. After that the plan was kind of hazy. Who in the world would want to buy millions of silver coins? He had no idea, but maybe the store clerk there could give him some pointers.

Jim was getting dressed when something weird happened. The first thing was that somehow his shirt shrank. It was one of his old favorites too! After pulling the thing off he just grabbed his jeans and looped his belt through them.

He would have to reuse one of his dirty shirts. While walking over to the dirty bag of laundry he tried to put on his belt while walking. Unfortunately he couldn't seem to find the little hole for his belt.

Looking down he was confused. Why did he have abs? He didn't have abs. And were those pecs? He didn't have those either. Where did his little paunch go? Then he looked at his belt again and realized the reason he couldn't latch the belt was because there weren't enough holes to make the belt that small. Walking over to the mirror he looked at himself. He gaped.

The man looking back at him was definitely Jim, but the muscles were new additions. Hell even when he lifted weights back in college, he wasn't this buff. He was right! He was a genius! Jim remembered his research about the connection that bridged his own mental patterns with game world Jim.

Those same connections that would rob him of his memory if he either died or deleted the game. It was the Greater Sources! They were having a bleed over effect on his body in this world! Or at least that was his best guess. Damn if he could sell this in a bottle he would be a millionaire!

Well, technically he was already a millionaire, but still. Looks like there was yet another advantage of having a world in your noggin. If he could make himself look like this on accident, what could people do when doing it on purpose? Sighing he put that idea into the 'More stuff I don't want to think about' bin.

An idea bubbled in his head that he could make 'Pallets of Cash and Greater Source World.' But then he could possibly screw something else up. Shaking his head he remembered he needed to exhaust all avenues before taking another risk like that. He didn't need to give up the helmet yet. If he really sat down and thought through all the new stuff that was possible, he would never make any progress. Baby steps. Pawn shop.

Looking at his belt that wasn't operating properly, he grabbed the latch and used it like a dagger to make a new hole for his belt. The blunt piece of metal actually made the new hole rather easily. Was the leather that weak? Or was he that strong? Yet another question. There were too many questions.

After he was done admiring his newfound physique, Jim put the previous shirt back on. Wow, he looked good! With the shirt being so tight, it left little to the imagination. All his other shirts were the same size anyway, so it didn't really give him any options. Shrugging he put his equipment into a backpack and tossed the rest into a duffle. It was time to check out,

Jim tossed his duffle in his car and put the backpack on. His body was on autopilot as he made his way to the front desk. A customer was already being helped so he stood a couple paces back as he waited in line. Then a middle aged woman walked up to him with a broad smile and said "Hi there handsome. Checking in?"

Surprised Jim was about to tell her no, but then saw where her eyes were looking. Straight at his chest. Jim wanted to laugh. He was being ogled! Well, by someone in their 40's. Still a new experience. Kinda creepy though.

"No, not checking in. Just checking out."

Handing her the key card he saw her make a disappointed sigh. As he was walking away, he heard her say under her breath "Why do I miss all the cute ones?"

Jim tossed his backpack in the car and started heading towards the pawn shop. As he was driving, he realized he might have a problem with the selling silver idea. If he could only take out 99 silver pieces at a time it would be a problem.

Would typing in 100 silver roll it over to one gold? While driving he shifted his right eye over to the game world. Jim clicked on the gil button and it brought up the now familiar text box that had inputs for gold, silver and copper with his total gil number at the top. Jim typed in 100 in the silver section. So far so good.

The counter didn't roll over 100 silvers into gold automatically. Dragging the text box to the left he released the currency into the 'real' world. Then one silver coin came out, and then two. Jim moved his hand before the second coin came out.

Oddly, the second coin came out where his hand used to be instead of where it currently was. And then a steady stream of silver coins were flowing. It worked! Jim was happy with his discovery, but was a little annoyed that his loot was now spilling onto the floor.

Figuring he might as well pull over to the side of the road, he pressed the brake to slow down. Only the pedal didn't go down. What? Why was the brake pedal not working? Taking a glance down he saw a pile of silver coins underneath his brake pedal. Uh oh.

After a second he realized all he needed to do was wait until his speed naturally bled off. It was a good plan, but as he looked up, he saw one of those spandex bicycle riders in the middle of the road. Why did they do that?

Sighing Jim thought he could just pass him, unfortunately as he glanced to the next lane he saw a line of incoming traffic. Now he was in trouble. There was barely any shoulder on the road, but he was out of options. It would have to do.

Jim guided his vehicle to the outside of the road. And just as he passed the man there was a low branch. Swerving back on to the road the branch clipped his side mirror. The only bright side was that the vigorous movement shifted the pile of coins and he could finally use his brake. Did he really want to pull over and pick up the coins now?

Jim started using his feet to make a little pile of coins away from his pedals. He could already hear the earful that the bicycle rider would give him if he gave the guy a chance. Being safe enough for now he made it to the pawn shop with no more coin related problems.

***

Pawnshop worker's PoV

Jerry glanced at his watch for the fifth time in the past minute. He was anxious about being the only one in the shop. His coworker was on a coffee run and he was probably going to get breakfast too.

That meant he would be alone for an hour. The helpful watch told him that it was still going to be twenty more minutes before he returned. It was both thrilling and nerve wracking to be alone. He was in charge, which meant that he was in charge of appraising customer's items.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Jerry was still learning but it was like an art and science combined. First you had to be knowledgeable to know how much a good is worth and how much it could sell for. Then the second part is the customer. That was where the real profit was made. Many people who entered a pawn shop with goods were in desperate need of money.

Which meant there was a massive potential in profit margin. In essence you were appraising both the item and the customer. He was getting better at it everyday, but there were always con artists that looked for people like him. They could see he was new at the game and would in turn play him like he practiced playing other people.

So far he had spotted two of these little con artists. The first was fake jewelry. It was a passable fake. It had one large diamond around eight smaller ones. Fake jewelry is basic potatoes for a pawn shop, but this particular customer's item had one real diamond in the center with the fakes being the smaller ones. He did just like he was told, trust nothing and test everything.

The other was a gold bar. It even had a certificate of authenticity and a serial number. But as he felt the bar in his hand he realized that it should have been heavier for a bar its size. Quick as a whip he took out his pocket knife and scraped the bar. Panicked, the customer grabbed the gold bar back and left in a huff, but he saw the glimpse of the color that had been below. It definitely wasn't gold all the way through.

It was still early in the morning. Generally it was really slow in the morning on weekdays. But it was Friday, later on they would probably get some decent traffic flow. He watched a car pull up and a shot of excitement hit him? Customer?

After a few seconds he could see that the car was full of people. Maybe a group of friends looking to browse their goods? Jerry waited and still five minutes later the group did not leave the car. They did not give him a good feeling, so Jerry felt his phone reassuringly. Another side of running a pawn shop was that sometimes you met some really unsavory people.

Another minute later he saw another car pull up. A muscular man stepped out with a backpack. The man bent down and started scooping something from the floorboard into his backpack. Jerry got on his tippy toes to get a better look. One of the objects missed the bag and fell to the ground. A large coin silver in color. Jerry rolled his eyes. Another one? Fairly simple trick. Mix in silver plated coins with real silver coins.

He would probably hand him a few real ones at the start. Then he would hope after testing them that he would automatically accept all the rest as real. Bored, Jerry stood behind the counter and waited. He estimated there would be no profit to be gained with this one, just a waste of time.

***

Jim's PoV

Jim had finally found the hundredth coin and made his way into the pawn shop. Taking his first look at the rotund man he didn't look happy to see him. Probably hasn't had his coffee yet. Jim normally looked exactly like that at this time of day.

Putting his backpack on the counter he said to the man "Would you mind looking over some silver coins I have? I want to know how much they're worth."

"Sure thing boss."

Although he said that he appeared to be watching Jim closely for some reason. Jim unzipped the pocket and started scooping the coins on to the counter.

The man looked surprised when he asked "There isn't any you want me to look over first?"

Huh? Why would that matter?

Gesturing to the pile he said "Beats me man, just pick one if you want."

The man pulled a knife from his pocket but kept his eyes on him instead of the coins. Was the clerk going to rob him?

He must have done something wrong because the man looked even more suspiciously at him. Then the clerk said "I don't suppose you have any certification for these do you? They look brand new."

"Is that necessary? Because I don't have anything."

"Not at all, but I will need to check them out thoroughly. Tell you what, I'll give you 70% market value of the silver, but I'll have to test each one of them. Just to show you I'm on the up and up I'll weigh them in front of you. But then I'm going to check each coin to make sure they are silver all the way through."

"How come only 70%?"

"This isn't a charity shop. If you want full market value, you will need to look elsewhere."

Jim shrugged and agreed. He wasn't originally going to sell them but why not? The man grabbed a scale and put all 100 coins on it.. After showing him the weight, he was informed 70% of market value would be around 3,000 dollars. Jim gulped. Doing a quick estimate in his head, that meant that his one billion gil was worth over 300 million dollars if he sold it as silver.

The next thirty minutes could only be described as bizarre. The man carved up every single coin and used one of those jewelers magnifying glasses on each of them. Still Jim wasn't booted out of the store so he was happy.

The man was very invested that they were real and so was Jim. Three grand was a cheap price to pay for solid confirmation that his goods were legit. Coin by coin passed his test and there were only a handful left.

Then the man stopped and looked behind him. His face changed to panic as he pulled out his phone and started dialing a number. Jim looked behind him and saw four young men enter the store.

Two of them had pistols, one of them had a knife, and the last just carried a bag. Jim put his hands up and backed away. It was weird. He should be panicked but he felt calm as water. Jim really didn't care if his coins were stolen. He got what he wanted here, the coins were the real deal.

Bag man started making a beeline to the coins and one of the gunmen started pointing the weapon at the clerk and yelled "Put the phone down! NOW!"

The clerk's hands were shaking so badly. He looked like he was about to put the phone down but the shaking was so bad that the phone fell to the ground. It must have been on speaker phone when it was dropped, because as soon as it hit the floor the operator on the other end of the line said, "This is 911, what is your emergency?"

Bang! A gunshot rang out from the one who had a weapon pointed at the clerk. But he wasn't even looking at the clerk when the firearm went off, he was looking at the clerk's phone which was on the ground. Then one of his comrades yelled at him, "You idiot! Put your weapon on safe! You could have killed one of us!"

Then everyone was looking at the phone on the ground. He could see in the eyes of the would-be thieves that they hoped that the operator had not heard that last little bit. Unfortunately a second later the operator replied "We have the number for this phone in the system. A vehicle is being dispatched to your location. Stay safe!"

The man with a knife hissed "This is why I like knives! I don't accidently knife anyone I'm not meaning to!"

Then he yelled at the man with the bag "C'mon we got five minutes at best. Grab everything you can."

Pointing at another man he said "Get that guy's backpack."

No. This was not happening. These guys were trying to steal his helmet and loading module. He stole it first dammit! Time slowed. He wasn't giving up the keys to the universe to some would-be thugs. Jim felt powerful. He couldn't let go of what he had. He wouldn't.

***

Pawnshop workers PoV

Jerry was terrified. He had almost been shot! God he pissed himself. He looked at the bullet hole behind him that was not more than a couple feet away from where his body was. What had he done wrong? He dialed 911 so fast, just like he was told. He almost died!

And then he watched a miracle happen. His previous customer was cool as a cucumber. Barely any reaction when he saw the men, just raised his hands and backed away. But then one of them went to grab his backpack and he moved. He was so quick he didn't even see what he did to the guy.

His customer now had a gun and one of the men was out cold on the ground. Then he threw the gun right into the other gunman's face. Who throws a gun? A shot discharged and this time Jerry was smarter. He got down on the ground behind his counter and stayed there.

The sounds of fighting continued for a few more seconds and then stopped. Taking a cautious glance over the counter, he saw his customer standing over the bodies of the four would-be robbers.

Then he saw the flashing of police lights outside. Wow! They were quick! Man he was going to have such a story to tell his coworkers. Did the security cameras get that? He would have to make a copy for himself.

***

Charlotte's PoV

Charlotte was slogging through another report that promised massive returns if only they continued funding the project. She had a headache. Her phone rang and she looked down to see that 'Oblivious' was calling.

She picked up and sarcastically said "Oh, got 40 million dollars already Jim? Wow, that was quick."

Then Jim on the other end of the line said hesitantly, "Can you bail me out of jail?"

Charlotte wanted to bang her head on her desk. Really? She looked tiredly at the unfinished report.

"Sorry Jim. Us normal people have work at this time of morning. I'll be there around 10PM."

Without letting him get in a word she hung up. Why her? Sighing she trudged on with her report. God she hated useless reports.