Chapter 30: Addition
[Edited by: ArchmageNaoki & Arthur300000]
A... a love letter? In my previous life, I never got one, and this one even came with a purple rose. Wait, currently, I’m a girl, so there's a high chance this letter originates from a guy. Even so, it might also come from a girl! My hand was shaking when I grabbed the envelope and inhaled a lungful of its scent. The smell of sweat and the distinct odor of a male that lingered on the envelope made me realize the gender of the sender. Hah, all my excitement is for naught.
Now the problem is what I should do with this... thing. I could just throw it away. However, this is such a rare occasion to read a real love letter, even if it came from a guy, it might serve as a future reference for me when I want to write one. Thus I pop it open. It’s quite a weird experience to read a love letter from a guy, but I strive on. The paper inside is just plain white paper, and the handwriting is like a blacksmith’s doodle. Let’s read the content.
Dear Ms. Kuro Velvori,
Just watching you made my brain stupid, and my heart hurt. When you glance at me, I felt like I made a poodle in my pants. I wish you were never born.
Sorry, I’m bad at this.
PS: My friend said I should add a rose. I hope you like it because I muthafucking waste all my lunchtime to buy it. Now I am hungry.
What the heck, is this a love letter or a threat? He doesn’t even put his name on the letter. Is he content with being anonymous or is it too embarrassing? I looked at Maria, and she stared back at the letter. Don’t tell me she wants to see it? In this case, I quickly used the letter as a test subject on my improved fire spell. It burned faster than I expected. Ahh, my spell has really improved. Sorry Maria, you should never be able to see the letter. She looked dejected, but I don’t want her to see that offensive piece of writing. I also test my new frost spell on the rose. It turned hard and brittle, and then I crushed it into powder with my hand and ground it to smithereens. I heard someone gasp behind my back, but I ignored him...
While I’m cleaning up the ash and dust, the professor called for class. The afternoon class is about what I can and what I can't do with magic. There are three limitations. The first one is what I can manipulate is dependent on known magic [Word]. Well, it's not exactly a word but for the simplicity of it let's call it a word.
I was flipping through the current edition of arcane encyclopedia I bought from the internet when the professor mentioned it. It cost me 240 credits, which is quite expensive. However, it's worth every credit. With this I could manipulate a lot of things like light, air, temperature, or even electrons. However, there's no such thing as time, soul, or gravity magic inside the book. The dimension is also a special case. The only use of it is a storage device like my hair clip. To the current date, no one's found another method to apply that word yet.
The second limitation is, I could create something from nothing or move real objects around with magic. However, I cannot make any real objects disappear from reality. The professor explained "Because my real hand is behind the reality membrane. No matter how strong your magic is, you cannot push my hand away from the membrane. Because the magic is, in a nutshell, the manipulation of the membrane not manipulation of reality behind it."
The last limitation might only apply to the current technology. There are some forces which current magic couldn't overcome yet, examples like covalent bonds and sub-atomic strong interactions. Because of this, no one could magically change lead to gold or charcoal to diamonds yet. Of course, one could create an artificial diamond with high heat and pressure but not by changing the molecular arrangement directly with magic. This might be the reason why my transmute spell doesn't work.
I flipped through the arcane encyclopedia while another part of my mind listened to what professor is saying, and I got a lot of magic improvement ideas in my mind. I also want to disassemble all Skyrim magic to see if there are words this world hasn't discovered yet. To do those things however I need time. Maybe pulling an all-nighter tonight might be a good idea so I could test how well this body handles sleep deprivation.
*Ding* At the end of the class my phone vibrated, so I sneaked a look and saw it was a message from Ms. Bluebell. It's the first time I've received a real e-mail from someone, and it came from celebrity to boot.
From: Patricia Bluebell <[email protected]>
Subject: Thanks for saving my sister.
Date: 94754.8 4:24 PM
To: Kuro Velvori <[email protected]>
Dear Miss Velvori,
Thank you for saving my sister. I have transferred the adventurer's fee to your account.
Patricia Bluebell
Superstar
Pfft, a superstar. She must be proud of her job. Anyways, I don't remember us talking about adventurer fee. Well, some more pocket money is always welcome. Let's see how much I got. I tapped my ID card and opened my status display.
Name: Kuro Velvori Age: 15 years
Race: Human Gender: Female
Institution: Royal Adventure High School
Rank: 3B Score: 1740/4000 Points
Credits: 1,013,402 Energy: 9.872/9.872 KJuiz
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Huh? I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing things. One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven... Oi! When did I become a millionaire? Last time I checked I only had about ten thousand credits or something. Well, I like money, but this isn't a mistake, right? One million for just locating her sister? To make sure, I replied to her e-mail.
From: Kuro Velvori <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Thanks for saving my sister.
Date: 94754.8 4:27 PM
To: Patricia Bluebell <[email protected]>
Dear Ms. Bluebell,
I just got one million credits in my account. Thank you, but is there some mistake, like maybe you added too many zeroes?
The class ended while my mind couldn't focus on it anymore. Well, it's one million, if I use 500 credits per day, I could live a carefree life for... *Ding* another message came.
From: Patricia Bluebell <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Re: Thanks for saving my sister.
Date: 94754.8 4:31 PM
To: Kuro Velvori <[email protected]>
Dear Miss Velvori,
No, It's not a mistake. I heard you were interested in flying ships. With those funds, you could buy one.
Patricia Bluebell
A superstar who has a lot of money
I concluded she was insane. Who would use the only one million they have to buy a flying ship!? I could have... have... huh? What should I do with it? Travel around the world? Live in luxury for the rest of my life? No, one million might not be enough for that. Maybe if I invest in something then try to live off the interest, I could live happily forever.
"Are you alright, Kuro? You have a strange look." Maria asked after finishing packing her belongings.
"No, I just need a few minutes." I tried to take a deep breath and cast calm on myself to stabilize my mind. I dreamed of having a lot of things in my previous life, but right now, I actually have a lot of money, and I don't know what to do with it... Hah, let's not be hasty and just do one thing at a time like I always do.
I stood up and saw Maria who was looking at me worryingly, so I told her that I was fine. For now, I'll try to continue my previous plans until I figure something out. Recklessly telling anyone about my newly acquired fortune would be a bad move. I saw many bad examples about it on the news. Moreover, upgrading my abilities is also important. Otherwise, I might not be able to protect my wealth.
Before leaving the lecture room, I recheck my belongings. Well, this thing is too good to be true, so I try not to make a stupid mistake like forgetting my ID card. I walked with Maria until we met with Eva at the school gate, but suddenly Maria waved goodbye. "See ya! I've got a part-time job to get to." She said.
"What kind of computer are you looking for?" Eva energetically asked me before I had a chance to ask Maria what her part-time job was.
"Uhm, I want to use it for spell design. So I want a fast one with a big screen." I told her what I needed, and she replied with a lot of technical jargon that I never knew existed nor understood, so I just nodded to everything.
It took about 20 minutes of walking and listening to Eva's hard to understand speech to reach the IT store. Honestly, I tried to make sense of what she was talking about, but all I got from her is something is better than another thing because of some reason. Some company's with bad after sales service. I should bring a pen and paper to note those names down because I forgot all those names already before we even reached the store. Damn, I got 64 cubic meters of storage space in my hair clip, why haven't I put any necessary items in it? Hah, my to-do list is getting longer and longer.
"And here we are!" Eva was showing off her favorite IT shop. It looked like the adventurers magic device store I visited on my first day of arrival. An array of gadgets is displayed on the rows of shelves. However, the merchandise here is focused on IT devices rather than magic devices for adventurers.
"Uhm, you know Kuro that's very expensive." Eva looked at me when I looked intently at the biggest model displayed in front of the shop. It looked beautiful. It's a bit smaller than one side of my room's walls, but If I remove everything except my bed I would have a bit more space for a massage chair I also planned to buy. A big screen PC, a bed, and a massage chair, yup, it's a perfect room for me. I read the description of it.
Synapse Axon 7
Display: Semi-Holographic 160 inches 1.9:1 Widescreen
Processor: SN-1180
Memory: 32GS
Storage: 64TS
Control: Touch screen, Gesture, and Voice command.
Price: 29,999 Credits
"The price is crazy." Well, I could buy it, but to pay more than what I earned from the last field assignment for a computer, It felt like too much.
"Of course, this thing is just for show. Synapse likes to brag about what they could do at the moment, but they always come behind other companies on the actual product. Would you happen to require anything else?"
"Hmm, I want the best one within a reasonable price range. Also, it would be good if it drew power from me." It would be great if I could carry it around in my storage device and use it anywhere. Eva was thinking for a while and then ran to say something incomprehensible to the shopkeeper.
"It's this one little miss." Mr. Shopkeeper showed us a spherical black plastic object with a matte aluminum frame.
"You should try it first because a lot of people complain that this model drains too much power." Eva suggested. I ignored the stare to my *ahem* from the shopkeeper while holding the computation orb. It's much bigger than my hand, so I have to use both to hold it. Suddenly the menu displayed inside my vision, almost making me drop it. Oh, it's the same thing used in the theme park, it sends the image directly into my mind. I try to manipulate the menu a bit with just my thoughts and found no problem with it. I also don't feel too much drain from the device, so I looked at the description.
Pegasus Zenorb UX-870
Display: Nuron link ®
Processor: SN-1170U
Memory: 16GS
Storage: 32TS
Control: Mind interface and Voice command.
Price: 1,499 799 Credits
It is quite cheap. Eva said it's consumer grade so that it won't be as expensive as that "Show off" model. Also, the price was discounted because of the "Lucky defect" which doesn’t affect me at all. All in all, I am content with this one. When I bought it the shopkeeper looked very happy and gave me several complementary things like the essential software (Magicsoft Mirror 10 and Magicsoft Tower), a 1TS external memory chip, a holding stand, a monster core power adapter, a bag, a T-shirt, a mug, a pack of candies, a pen, a flashlight, and... a hot dog? I think my mysterious Skyrim's speech perk was working too well here, and I believe that hot dog was Mr. Shopkeeper’s dinner. Eva was complaining a bit about the last time she bought something here because she doesn't get this kind of giveaway. So I offered her the hot dog, but she politely declined.
"Do you have any plans this evening? I know a good ramen shop nearby." Eva suggested as I put everything in my hair clip. Well, I want to pay her back for helping me out, so I accept her invitation and send a message to my mom.
From: Kuro Velvori <[email protected]>
Subject: Going out with a friend.
Date: 94754.8 5:38 PM
To: Catherine Velvori <[email protected]>
Dear mom,
I met a new friend at school. Her name is Eva. And she helped me buying a new computer, so I'm going to treat her ramen near the IT shop at Road Rheodrive.
Kuro
It took me quite a while to write the message while walking. However, when I looked up, I found Eva and myself were surrounded by a gang of men. Damn, typing while walking is a bad thing.
"Heys sweetie pies~" This again, huh? Last time I lost it because my sister was the target and I caused quite a bit of trouble. This time I'll handle this like a grown up. Like a grown up being me picking up Eva and running after using my slow time shout...