“What the fuck’s a Sex Point Shop?” I whispered to myself as the menu popped up in front of me.

Points Available:

1

Have more sex to increase points and expand the shop!

Ability

Cost

Description

Heart Seeker

2

Finds the closest willing sexual partner and sends them your way.

Second Chance

2

Reset someone’s opinion of you to what it was at the beginning of the current conversation. Reverts a maximum of 15 minutes.

Gold Digger Magnet

3

Increases attraction towards you based on how much money you have. Displays of wealth have an even greater effect.

Was this supposed to be a thing? None of the stories or that scholarly article said anything about a point shop. It honestly wasn’t a surprise this was the first time I saw it, since I hadn’t actually had sex even once until last night. One of the abilities in it looked pretty interesting, and incredibly useful, but…

I couldn’t afford it.

And I could get more points by having more sex? Well I wasn’t going to sleep around town for more points, and Elsie and I weren’t entirely together yet. So…

I threw my arms up into the air. “This point shop is useless!”

I got a few odd looks from the other residents who were already up this early, but once they saw it was me, they went back to their business. I was really making a name for myself here, wasn’t I?

I continued on towards Hiroi’s office, and got on with my day.

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[Skill Level Up! Tinker lv 7 -> 8]

[Skill Level Up! Tinker lv 8 -> 9]

[Tinker Perk Obtained! Understand Mechanism]

Skill

Perk

Description

Tinker

Understand Mechanism

Imparts knowledge on the workings of a mechanism

I didn’t get as many level ups in Tinker as I did yesterday, but I was making a whole lot of progress. Not to mention the new perk! What I had to go through to get it though, I’d prefer not to mention. At least it made up for the inaccessible Point Shop.

After finishing up at the apartments, I handed the owner’s manuals back to Hiroi and headed to the casino.

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“Mike, you’re early today!” exclaimed Mr. Goldshanks as he greeted me inside. He was flanked on either side by the two women from the day before, who each gave me a friendly wave.

“Yeah, I didn’t run into the same… problem I did yesterday, so I got here as soon as I could. Wanted to show you I was taking this seriously!”

“That’s good, that’s good. Did the two bouncers at the door give you any trouble? I’ve told them along with Todd from security to be extra careful today, and now I’m telling you too.”

“Them? Nah, they recognized me from yesterday, and my badge didn’t hurt. But one of them even asked me to sniff my hand first to make sure I was actually me!”

“Your hand?” asked my boss, confused.

“The perfume lady from yesterday, daddy. Don’t you remember?” asked the woman on the left, nudging my boss’ shoulder.

“Oh right! How could I forget?” Mr. Goldshanks slapped his head with a massive hand and let out a chuckle. “Well as of now, I want you to expect a lot worse. The people here today have a lot more to lose than yesterday’s wannabe pros, and the resources to do a better job.”

“Understood boss, I’ll be keeping my good eye on them today.”

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“And which one is that?” asked the woman on the right.

I simply pointed towards my forehead with a wide smile.

The three of them laughed in response.

“I’ll leave you to it then, Mike. Good luck.” The trio turned around and headed towards the back, probably to Mr. Goldshanks’ office.

I continued forwards and walked past several people, mostly the casino’s staff and several volunteers sent by my boss’ competitors. I nodded at Kamila who returned the expression but coated with an icy glaze. I accepted her continued apprehension with a warm, yet wary smile, and continued onwards to my true destination.

After a good night’s sleep, I could see how she was right about my behavior when I first showed up here. Barging in, flexing my Charisma, and just expecting to get my way. It made me consider being careful how I used System, I didn’t want to fall into the trap of expecting it to do everything for me.

And their reaction showed me that the System didn’t so much as carefully bend people around me, but rather conspicuously shove my will down their throat. Whether that was a good or bad thing, I was still deciding. At least I knew that as long as I didn’t make use of it, the way people around me acted was how they truly were. I was grateful that every aspect of the System had an off switch.

Speaking of which, if I did use the System to get something out of someone that they normally wouldn’t give, would that be coercion? Hypnotism? But then what about using natural charisma to get what I wanted? It was probably the “normally wouldn’t” part that I had to be careful of. Just don’t be a dick about it, then. Really the best policy anyone could follow.

After mentally drafting my doctorate thesis on the philosophy of using magic, I finally reached my true destination. Yesterday, only a half-eaten, lackluster platter was present for me to scrounge through for my breakfast. Today was different. Much different. Now that the preliminaries were over and the only people left were the true competitors, the catering was upgraded to a dramatic level of grandioseness.

Before me lay a massive charcuterie board made up of various pieces of bread, toast, and bagels with a collection of various cheeses, fruits, and nuts. Cheddar, brie, and gorgonzola sat in the center-left, with strawberries, grapes, and blackberries placed in a decorative circle around them. Honey-roasted almonds, pistachios, and brazil nuts made up the top right corner. And finally, some smoked salmon and bacon rounded out the board with some red and orange.

Ignoring the rest of the less visually impressive options, I began to quickly pile a slice of toast with various meats and cheeses, with a handful of fruits and nuts to the side of my plate. Before I could take a bite, however, I noticed that some of the cheeses smelled off. Not only that, but several of the strawberries and the bread had mold growing on them.

With a look of disgust and disappointment, I tossed out the contents of my plate and shuffled back to the table to pick out a cheese danish and another cup of coffee. I mean, what good was such an impressive spread if most of it wasn’t even edible?! The flakiness of the fresh pastry and surprisingly mild notes of the caffeinated drink did well to raise my spirits, at least.

It didn’t take too long for me to finish, and by that time the tournament began to start up again. I saw the same announcer from the day before Jerry whatshisface, and that Zane asshole who tried harassing Kamila. The former was standing in front of a camera, combing his fingers through his hair, while the latter simply stood to the side with the other audience members.

Speaking of the audience, they were way larger today as well. Something on the order of three times as many people as yesterday. As a result of their presence, several red, velvet ropes were erected between them and the players, with plenty of space in between.

They were probably interested in seeing the more qualified competitors of the actual tournament, thus didn’t bother showing up for the preliminaries. I didn’t blame them, there was a reason I never went to high school football games back home when I could just watch the pros on TV.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to day two of the World Poker Series Invitationals! I’m your host, Jerry Chetman, and we are live from Atlantic City! Today will be a battle between the winners of yesterday’s preliminaries and the real pros! Haha.”

The camerawoman waved her hand in a circle, urging him to get on with it.

“So without further ado, let’s get started!”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, letting myself relax while turning on my Skill. With a sharp exhale, I opened my eyes and honed my focus on today’s competitors.

Detect Cheating (lv 13)

Target

Lewis Bell

Method

N/A

Clean.

Detect Cheating (lv 13)

Target

Gabby Rogers

Method

Phone sex at work

Wrong type of cheating.

Detect Cheating (lv 13)

Target

Quinn Cummings

Method

Counterfeit Chips in pocket

[Skill Level Up! Detect Cheating lv 13 -> 14]

Well hello, there! I walked over to one of the casino’s bouncers and let him know about the cheater. He quickly made his way to the man in question and requested he empty his pockets. To my astonishment, they were empty!

“What are you doing?!” shouted Quinn. “I was invited here! Is this how you treat your players?! Who the hell would want to come to a place like this if this is the kind of welcome I get!”

I looked at the man intently. [Detect Cheating] had never been wrong like this before. Maybe it was a false positive and he just had bad enough luck to accidentally trigger it? For something as magical as the System? I didn’t believe that, there was more to this. That was when I noticed his left pants pocket had an extra flap of cloth partially stitched onto it.

[Skill Level Up! Situational Awareness lv 4 -> 5]

I walked over to another bouncer and asked him to tell the other man to tug at the fabric of his right pocket. He made his way over in a moment and relayed my request. At first, they were worried about doing such a thing, but after seeing the sheer look of terror on the accused’s face, they sprung into action.

After a particularly dexterous grab and yank, the similar square of fabric came loose from his pocket and several chips fell out onto the floor. Exact replicas of the ones the casino was using. Without further deliberation from the bouncers, the man was forcefully ejected from the venue and I sighed in relief.

The first cheater of the day apparently taught me the valuable lesson that my Skills had their limitations, and at the level I was apparently fighting at, I’d probably be facing up against many more of them soon. And maybe [Situational Awareness] was what I need to even the playing field? Or just my own wits?