I wanted to scream.

Time and time again I was reminded of the fact that with great potential rewards came great potential disappointments. Skills were great and two positive Scenarios were even more so, but everything else?

The Shout was a worthless ability without a Dragon Soul to channel it. This wasn’t something Equivalent Exchange could resolve because it didn’t have to do with energies and more the inherent characteristics of “being like a dragon.” Even if I did have a Dragon Soul and could use the Ability, I doubted I’d often need to clear the weather for 40 seconds at a time.

Trick Vanish was a fucking tease from the Gacha Gods and no one could convince me otherwise! The Item was a “Sacred Gear” that would allow me to seal any one aspect of a person, or target, for a short amount of time. Exactly the kind of thing that could solve my Salem problem, right?

If only it were that easy…

It only worked on one aspect, so if I sealed her immortality, her absolute regeneration would still come through. If I did the opposite, then when my limit for sustaining Trick Vanish ended, I’d be back to square one once her absolute regeneration returned. I was going to need another Silencing-type Skill, Ability, or Item to cancel out both aspects of her power if I wanted a real shot at being able to kill her.

Don’t even get me started on the Epic Gacha “Rewards” I got. I don’t know who this Sukuna person was from whatever demented world had cursed spirits prowling around, but I did not want any of his fingers. Perhaps I’d have a use for them if I ever decided to elevate my Alchemy past Level 10 with that Skill Advancement I’d been hoarding, but right now I didn’t want to mess with the “King of Curses.”

As for the benign-sounding nearly Legendarily Bad Scenario? I didn’t even want to know what kind of horrors lay wherever accepting that Scenario might take me. All it gave me was a time and place. Perhaps that would be ground zero for World War 3 in an alternate Earth. Perhaps it would be ground zero for an alien invasion. Maybe that asteroid idea I had some time ago might come to fruition.

Whatever the case may be, I would only accept the Scenario once I was done with everything else on my plate. My Vasto Lorde Form was probably good enough to deal with almost anything I could think of, but I had to remember there were threats like Salem that even it couldn’t resolve.

Within my Inner World, I finally managed to become an even match for Katayoki by the time I was due to wake up. He seemed excited for the development which was odd considering it’d mean I’d have little to no reason to keep training with him once I bested him… and kicked his ass a couple times for all the times he’d done the same to me.

Ignoring the possibility that my Zanpakuto Spirit — and myself by proxy, since he was part of my Soul — might just be a closet masochist, I woke up, finished a morning workout and decided to make the most of my rest day by checking out some of those apartments I’d looked at the other day.

I took a few guided room tours before settling on a place in the middle of the commercial district. For the low, low price of 11,525,000 Lien a month, I could live on the penthouse suite of the tallest highrise outside of the industrial district of Vale. The building was located right next to most of the higher-end restaurants and stores. It was a bit farther into the heart of Vale than my previous apartment, which meant a longer trip to get started on my morning workouts, but at least it was closer to a shuttle stop for when Velvet wanted to visit me.

I paid for a whole year in advance before getting started on the moving process. Being able to fly and hold things in an alternate pocket dimension made it easier than it should have been, but it still tested my patience having to go back and forth over a dozen times over. About an hour after I signed the renting agreement, I was finished setting up and hungry enough to go clean out one of the fancy places near my new home.

A sense of deja vu struck me as I felt Neopolitan’s Ki Signature enter my sensing range. This time, though, she was accompanied by Roman so it wasn’t a total repeat of my last run-in with her. Also, my Ki Range was starting to get big enough for me to no longer be surprised by familiar people crossing into it while out on random trips across the city.

“Hey guys, fancy seeing you here,” I said as I timed us running into each other right as we came across two sides of the same corner.

“Lapis,” Roman looked surprised before he eyed me warily. “I saw our prospective associate make a run for it last Sunday night. Neo and I were expecting her to get in contact with us yesterday, but she never called. Have you heard anything from her?”

“Cinder? Yeah, I packed her up and sent her away. Thanks for arranging the meeting between us by the way, I had been looking for her group ever since they shot me… A week ago, I think? Anyway, after she realized it was me under the mask and ran away, I followed her until we made it to a secluded spot before I took her group out,” I told him for several reasons. The most prevalent being, his complete uninvolvement in Salem’s plans. Roman and Neopolitan were, at best, potential pawns of Cinder, who was, at best, a potential pawn to Salem had she gotten the Fall Maiden’s powers.

“Good to know,” Roman grimly said.

“Anyway, let me know if any other jobs come up. I currently don’t have any enemies… Except maybe the White Fang after yesterday’s thing with their idiotic leader. But, other than them, I probably won’t end up going against whatever clients you bring me. Unless, you know, they’re evil, serial killers, pedo freaks, or so on.” I could really use any and every excuse to get more Gachas.

“You had a run-in with Sienna Khan, yesterday?” Roman asked, looking even more unsure of himself.

“Adam Taurus, actually. I meant the leader of Vale’s Branch. The dumbass made a scene at the restaurant I was eating at with my date and I was forced to knock him down a peg.”

“Should we be worried you’re going to come after us next?” Roman asked. He sounded like he was going for a joking tone, but I could tell he was being genuine about it as he said, “Cinder, the White Fang, maybe even Junior… If you’re trying to send a message, please be direct about it.”

“What? I had a personal vendetta against Cinder, and the White Fang were the one to instigate things at the restaurant. I don’t really have an issue with you guys. I mean, it’d be great if you weren’t thieves and Junior didn’t run a mob ring under the veil of his club, but I don’t really care to stop either of your guys’ crimes. As long as you keep things tasteful and I don’t catch you in the act, I’m not going to go about my way to uproot the criminal underworld of Vale.”

“Oh, thank the Gods,” he breathed a sigh of relief.

My Scroll let out a sharp ping and vibrated within my pockets. It wasn’t a call, but rather a notification. A text? Velvet and her teammates were still in the middle of a grueling school day, so I didn’t expect much from any of them until further into the afternoon. Jaune, I’d already started torturing with exercise by proxy of a Shadow Clone. The only other people I could think of were Ozpin, the two in front of me or Junior.

This was probably important, so I pulled out my phone even though Roman and I were still technically in the middle of a conversation. He didn’t seem to mind as he gestured dramatically, urging me to “get on with it.”

I opened my Scroll and found out it wasn’t a text. Rather, it was an alert I’d set up to remind myself there was that Gala I’d been invited to by the Schnee patriarch.

I put my phone away and spoke to Roman saying, “Well, I was going to see if you guys were about to stop somewhere nearby to eat lunch or something. But, I just remembered I have a Charity Gala thing to go to.”

Neapolitan made gestures at me which Katayoki translated as, “Well, we're going to get some ice cream so it all works out.”

“Uh, you were going to get ice cream,” Roman gave her an amused look. “I already ate lunch back at the hideout.”

“Whatever. See you guys around,” I said before leaving to return back to my apartment.

When I got to my apartment, I scanned through my tens of thousands of Uncommon and Rare unclaimed rewards only to reach the end without finding a good enough outfit to take to the Gala. I had various luxury pieces, but they were mismatched and I wasn’t about to look like an idiot even if I didn’t really care about the event.

I left my apartment after finding a store that could accommodate immediately tailoring adjustments to whatever clothes I would pick. When I made it to the store, I quickly regretted my decision as the woman who greeted me at the door took her job way too seriously when she went about helping me “pick the perfect ensemble.”

She was just nice and enthusiastic enough to stop me from stopping her in her tracks as she made me try out what felt like hundreds of different suits, pants, belts and shoes. If only I was 10% more of an asshole, I would have been done before the Gala was set to start.

But, no, I just had to be a nice guy.

Oh well, at least my outfit was as good as I could get it. Credit where credit is due, the lady who helped me pick my attire not only left me looking sharp, but she didn’t price gouge me or arrange for the outfit to cost me as much money as possible.

More often than not, she suggested — and I accepted because I knew nothing about fashion — clothes and accessories that were well below the highest-priced luxury brands. She charged me fractional hourly pay for the adjustments she made to get the clothes to fit me perfectly. She even offered to spray me with a “sample” of her recommendation for a cologne instead of requiring me to pay for a whole bottle as it came up in conversation that I was only going to dress up for the Gala.

If that wasn’t the definition of quality service, I didn’t know what was. So, when the time to pay the 432,588 Lien came up, I gave her a million-lien card and let her keep the remainder as change. I almost regretted it when she started bawling her eyes out and hugging me like I’d just saved her life. But, the moment of discomfort passed quickly enough and I was soon on my way to the Gala.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

4:37 PM, the time on my Scroll read once I arrived at the venue. At this point, I hadn’t eaten for almost 24 hours and to be honest, I wasn’t really hungry at all. It was more like the routine of eating was reminding me that I probably should eat something even though biologically I probably had enough energy in Ki alone to survive the next millennium if I didn’t exert myself.

Upon entering the building, I showed my invitation to the security guards at the check-in and was told to head to the large conference room that occupied half the building’s ground floor on the left side of the hallway. Once I made it inside to the actual room where the Gala was supposedly already underway, I was surprised to see very few people actually present. Half of the people I saw at a glance looked like they were part of the staff that was still in the middle of setting the event up.

“Welcome to the Gala!” The white-haired son of Jacques Schnee said as he approached me. “Wait a second, you’re that man from the restaurant a few days ago.” He was wide-eyed as he stopped a few feet away from me.

“Sorry about that. I was only trying to annoy your sister. I didn’t think your dad would make such a big deal out of her reacting exactly how I wanted her to react,” I said.

“Father can be a bit too hard on her, but he always has our best intentions in mind. It’s for the best that we strive to become our best selves,” he said and it lacked enough passion for me to believe he was reciting the response from memory. “But never mind that. What about you? Have you come to see Weiss’ performance later tonight?”

“I didn’t even know there was going to be any performances. I’m just here for the food like I said back at the restaurant. I assumed that’s where the charity part of the Gala comes in, right? Part or all the money we spend on the food will go to some charity or another?”

“Uh, no,” he awkwardly said. “All the food is bought and paid for by the Schnee Dust Company. The charity aspect of the Gala primarily lies in the ticket price for my sister’s singing performance. The average fair market price to attend one of her concerts is about 80,000 Lien per person so any amount over that which went to purchasing entryway to attend the Gala will count as a charitable donation. We will also have a few raffles and games where you can pay to participate which will also yield a charity donation.”

“Great, so I can’t even eat everything I want without feeling like an asshole,” I muttered. If it was for charity, I would have cleaned out the whole catering area, but since it wasn’t and other people would probably want to eat at some point, I could only indulge a little.

“I would not worry about that,” the boy said. “We have around-the-clock staff restocking any catering food that might be running low or switching food that’s been out longer than an hour to keep everything as fresh as possible.”

“Great,” I said.

I started walking towards the food that beckoned me with its tantalizing aroma while the boy followed and asked, “So, I was wondering how you and Weiss met. Ah! Wait, where are my manners,” he suddenly added before I could respond, “I never introduced myself. I’m Whitley Schnee.”

“Lapis Lain. As for how I met Weiss, well, I was eating outside at her favorite restaurant and was kind of being a pig about it. The restaurant across the street from where I was eating had denied me service so I decided to order and eat a couple hundred thousand lien in food to show them what they were missing out on. Your sister didn’t appreciate the damage I may or may not have been doing to her favorite restaurant by eating without any manners so she came over and gave me a piece of her mind.”

“And after that, you ran into us while we were having our monthly family meal, and that led to you being invited here?” Whitley asked.

‘Monthly family meal? Yikes,’ I thought as I nodded. For him to throw out a term like that as if it were the most normal everyday thing… His family dynamic had to be all kinds of messed up.

“Well, I hope you enjoy your time. I will talk to you later if I’m not busy greeting incoming guests as they arrive,” he said before making his way over to the conference room entrance where new arrivals were ready to be received.

I reached the catering area and took a warmed plate from the neat stack that was at either end of the long table holding all the food. I then loaded up my plate with a small amount of maybe 10% of all different available dishes — 10% of the variety available, not 10% of the amount of each catering plate — before the food pile started getting dangerously close to being spillable. When I was done eating that, I went back to get seconds, then thirds, fourths, and so on until I tried a small amount of everything available.

By then almost an hour had passed and I was getting kind of thirsty, so I looked around for some drinks and found a variety of canned sodas and fruit juices in punch glasses by the bar. Since I was not really a fan of soda, I took a glass and filled it with some of the orange juice from its corresponding punch bowl.

All the tables near the bar were already filled with people in the middle of socializing, so I decided to avoid any awkward interruptions and drink my orange juice at the bar. Coincidentally, I found the Schnee matriarch there, nursing what looked like a half-empty glass of champagne. It couldn’t have been her first or even tenth going by the potent smell of alcohol I could detect from her breath even with an empty seat between us.

I drank my orange juice in a couple minutes before going back to try the different flavors. Apple, grapefruit, peach, hell even the vegetable juices like carrot or beetroot juice all tasted amazing. I was halfway through a glass of pomegranate juice when I heard Mrs. Schnee begin giggling under her breath while staring at me.

Refusing to believe for even a second that she could in any way be signaling interest, I looked at her strangely until she spoke up.

“If you came here trying to impress, you can stop now. I can admit you’re the better alcoholic between us,” she laughed as she downed the rest of her glass; this was her fifth one after I started drinking next to her.

“This is fruit juice,” I shook the glass in front of her face.

“Spiked fruit juice,” her rosy cheeks rose as she smiled shamelessly at me. “Didn’t you read the labels? They’re mixed with one-hundred-ten proof Atlesian Vodka.”

“Really? I can’t taste or smell it,” I said.

Really, I wasn’t feeling even remotely altered with regard to my normal state of being. I didn’t feel any of the heat that definitely would have come from drinking as much alcohol as I had if the juice had been spiked. I didn’t feel any disorientation and I definitely didn’t feel my inhibitions lowered considering my first reaction to her behavior. Had I been slowly getting the alcohol filtered out of my system by my Immunized Perk?

“That’s how you can tell it’s the good stuff,” she slurred her words. “Fetch me a glass of what he’s having, would you, bartender?”

The man behind the counter didn’t miss a beat as he went to bring her a glass of the allegedly spiked pomegranate juice. When he returned and offered the white-haired woman the glass, she took it and gulped down half its contents before almost dropping it as she went to put it against the bar top.

“Have you been having a rough day or something?” I asked her. For someone as well off as her, she was drinking awfully hard for this to be a regular thing. Maybe she was an introvert and needed to cope with the alcohol to stand being at an event like this.

“Heh, rough day, he says.” She took another sip of her juice. “Try rough life. There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t pray I’ll find the strength to push through the hangovers to get as buzzed as I am right now. Is it not the same for you?”

“No? I don’t need the alcohol. To be honest, I’m over here wondering whether or not you’re messing with me right now or not.”

“Why would I bother to mess with you?” She snorted in a way that someone more uptight than me might call immodestly. “Some no-name boy around my younger daughter’s age. If you were anyone of actual import, I’d at least put up a front for Jacques.”

Holy shit, she was no-holds-barred roasting me!

“I’m—” she stifled a burp with her hand before it could come up as anything more than a huff, “I’m sorry. I just meant, there’s no reason to pretend I’m something other than a miserable drunk of a woman.”

“Are you… ok?” I asked, watching as she swayed languidly.

“Do I look ok to you?” She asked sadly, with a self-deprecating smile.

I opened my mouth to answer before closing it and frowning as a cold rage began to form a pit in my stomach. Adam Taurus’ Ki Signature had just entered my sensing range and it was heading straight for the Gala. A couple dozen unrecognizable Ki Signatures with Aura suddenly became a cause for concern as I noticed them arranged oddly above the venue.

Before I could consider checking them out, the ceiling below them exploded into chucks of debris raining down on more than a couple dozen attendees. Masked individuals, all of whom sported animal traits proudly through their robes and armor descended from the holes that had been blasted through the ceiling and quickly began to target the security at the Gala while ignoring almost everyone else.

My “drinking” companion had the misfortune of being one of the people who wasn’t ignored as two of the attackers made a run for her the second they laid eyes on her. Of course, with me being right there they didn’t get closer than I let them before I punched through their Aura and left them in a heap on the floor.

“Hey assholes,” I said, projecting my voice with enough spiritual energy to penetrate through the chaos that had descended along with the terrorists of the White Fang. When just about everyone in the room turned to face me, no doubt drawn in by the dominating power flowing through my words, I continued, “I thought we reached an understanding yesterday.”

I activated my Sandevistan and proceeded to make my way around the room while time seemingly ground down to a halt. I stole all the White Fang’s weapons, crushed them to pieces of scrap metal, and then hit each attacker with just enough force to shatter whatever Aura forcefields I found in my way.

It took about two seconds from my perspective to make my way to and from each attacker and give them the same treatment, but to everyone else only a fifth as much time had passed by. Meaning, that in less than half a second the Gala went from being under attack to the threat being inexplicably neutralized.

When my perception of time caught back up to normal the guns I’d destroyed were still in the middle of falling down and all more or less made a crashing noise against the floor at the same time.

“S-sir! What was that?!” A man to my right asked. His was the only voice after mine so everyone turned to face him and then me once they followed his line of sight.

“What? These guys? Probably White Fang. Hold up, their dumbass leader is about to get here so let me deal with him before we clean up this mess and get back to the party,” I said as I waited impatiently for Adam to get his ass within beating distance.

“The what?! Jacques phone Ozpin, the Vale Council, anyone, everyone!” One person cried out and afterward the floodgates opened as the previous chaos returned.

See, this was why I was so annoyed with Adam and the White Fang. Hadn’t he learned his lesson yesterday?

About a minute later, the man, the myth, the legendary idiot came flying through one of the holes that had been blown into the ceiling. As he got closer, I got people to make room for where he was going to land and found myself with a good amount of space to deal with him as he got closer to the floor.

He tried to slash at me as he descended but that worked about as well as it did the night prior at the restaurant. Again, I grabbed his blade and broke it between my fingers.

“How many times do I have to teach you this lesson?” I asked as I let his impromptu punch land helplessly against my immovable face. The fact that not even my skin depressed from his haymaker probably meant the experience was comparable to punching a block of solid tungsten for him.

“First you ruined my date,” I slapped him and the force from that alone broke his Aura. “And now you ruin my rest day? What the hell is your problem?” I tripped him and stepped on his legs and forearms, breaking them so he’d stop being such an unhinged menace.

“My problem,” he spat out a glob of blood, “is that you keep running into me.”

“I keep running into you?” I fought the urge to kick him for being such a narcissistic asshole. “How about I end that problem for you permanently and send you on your merry way to prison?”

“Fuck you!” He spat again and this time more blood splattered on the ground next to him. “My brothers and sisters in the White Fang will break me out!”

“You’re making a very convincing case for getting a court-ordered execution, my none-too-bright friend.”

[Congratulations! For defeating Adam Taurus, you have earned a Skill Unique Gacha Coin!]

He began to hurl the most elaborate set of curses I’d heard to date at me until some guards detained him, freeing me up to go around healing anyone and everyone injured. I thought that would be enough to get the event back on track but I guess it was a bit too much for regular people to brush off a terrorist attack, even if it was a mostly failed and short one at that.

“Young man,” Jacques called out to me as I considered leaving. “I’d like to personally thank you for stopping the White Fang’s attack before it could develop into something more serious. It’s a shame that the Gala was ruined today, but I am already of the mind of organizing a substitute concert later on this week. If I could persuade you to attend, it would do much to assuage the concerns of everyone who was caught up in the attack today that there will be a strong, competent, individual present.”

“A concert?” I let the thought marinate for a second. It was probably going to be starring his daughter, who was a pretty well-renowned musician and artist worldwide; and also the person who would have performed today. She didn’t really make the kind of music I preferred, but it was good enough that I could stand to kill a few hours attending a live performance. More importantly, it’d make for a nice date event with Velvet to make up for the last one.

“Is the date of the concert up for discussion? I’d almost certainly go if it was set for the weekend.”

“The weekend works perfectly since few people can spare more than a single work day to participate in these kinds of events.”

“Great, now I just need you to set me up with someone to buy an extra ticket.”

“For you, my friend, I will ensure we whitelist anyone you bring with you to the event.”

Damn, this guy was pretty charismatic. At least in buttering me up and leaving me with a good impression when he clearly had something to gain. I wasn’t blind to the fact that he was only treating me this well because I had something to offer him. But, suffice to say, I could at least understand a little more of how it was that he got to where he was in life.

I left the ruined Gala and went home after exchanging contact information with him. It was still early enough for the sun to be in the process of setting and I was starting to get restless even as I lazed in the middle of my extremely lavish new apartment.

There were a few Scenarios I could initiate. Alternatively, I could go start fighting Katayoki early and maybe finally beat him by the time I was due to wake up tomorrow. Of course, since time didn’t pass while I was whisked off to deal with a Scenario, I could just do all of the ones I currently had in stock and still fight Katayoki early if I really wanted to.

I probably wouldn’t want to if I put my life at risk or faced a situation that drastically altered the lives of countless people because of my actions. But that wouldn’t stop me from trying to hold on to my optimism!

Mistakes I’d made in the past would hopefully build up my willpower and character. I wasn’t close to being strong enough to stop every possible bad thing that might happen, but I was getting closer with each new Gacha.

Perhaps today I’d manage to pull off three Scenarios before the mental drain got to me. Perhaps I’d fuck up catastrophically and give up after only the first. Either way, I would hope for the best, expect the worst and probably surprise myself with how everything played out. I always did with the Scenarios; both the good and bad ones at that.