Early morning in the old perfumery.

Leonid sat behind the counter, impatiently tapping his finger on the wood.

♪ knock ♪

♪ knock knock ♪

♪ knock knock knock ♪

♪ CRACK ♪

Leonid pulled his finger out of the hole he had made with his finger and looked at it. He let out a long sigh.

He had expected Dai to return today, but there was still no sign of her.

Frustrated, he picked up the water glass and placed it over the hole to hide the damage.

When the doorbell rang, he immediately looked up and stood. But it was only two young men who were very excited about the new arena.

"'Oi, Uncle Leonid!" greeted one of them. He was a goofy-looking young man with short-cropped brown hair. He was quite muscular and radiated explosive energy. He was someone who liked to fight.

On the other hand, his friend had floppy purple hair and a narrow face, as if he had not had enough to eat in his youth, but his movements were agile.

"'Brat, you tell me that again, I'll put you over my knee and give you the beating of your life." Growled Leonid at him in a bad mood. He did not have to be friendly with these guys. He had enough experience to know that these young men would not be deterred by his natural behavior.

The young man who had spoken earlier chuckled and scratched his head. "Alright, alright. There's no need to get pissy right away!"

Leonid sighed and went to open the door for them.

"Oi! Leonid! Why don't you let it go today and come with us to the arena?" The young man offered enthusiastically. He had already tried to challenge Leonid yesterday but was not in the mood.

"Brat, I am so much stronger. Why do you even want to compete against me? Ha?" Leonid shook his head.

The young man came closer to him. "In speed! Whoever kills the beast the fastest. Come on!"

Leonid shook his head. "I have my work to do. If you want some rivals, talk more about the arena to get people here. So stop bugging me about it." He opened the dragon door so they could enter.

"I am not giving up, Uncle!" Said the young man as he walked past him.

At that moment, Leonid raised his foot and gave the young man a kick in the butt, sending him flying forward like a kicked ball.

"Ow!"

"What did I tell you not to call me uncle!" Leonid yelled after him.

"Hehe."

Leonid rolled his eyes and closed the door so he would not have to deal with the brats.

Leonid sat down again and looked at the door.

"Where the hell are you? Just wait until you get back!" He threatened.

----------------------------------------

Filn was sweeping the already clean store when he heard the voices and looked up just in time to see the young man fly forward and hit the ground hard. Filn smiled when he heard Leonid scream and the young man's laughter.

He shook his head and walked to the front of the store to greet the customers. He had already met this man himself.

"Qin. Why are you provoking Leonid? You know he's not in the mood." He scolded the short-haired young man just getting up from the floor.

Qin wiped his butt and stuck his tongue out mischievously. "It's fun to tease him."

Filn shook his head. "He'll beat you up one day. Tern, can not you tame him a little?" He glanced at the other young man shuffling along behind Qin. He just shrugged his shoulders. "He'll get what he deserves."

"Oi! You are such a good buddy of mine!" Protested Qin, and Tern shrugged again.

Filn gestured toward the arena. "You are the first one here today. You should take advantage of that before the others arrive."

"Haha! I'll get that damn moth today!" Qin slammed his clenched fist into the palm of his other hand and was already hurrying towards the arena. Tern nodded to Filn and shuffled his feet after his friend.

Filn found this pair of friends really strange.

Filn returned to the store but did not stay long when he heard his name being called. So he went out and joined them.

"What's going on?" He asked.

Qin and Tern were standing in front of an interactive board with a ring set up on it. "Take a look at this, brother. What does it mean?" Asked Qin, making room for Filn to look at it.

It was Qin's personal card where he had to enter a nickname, and instead of a photo, there was a picture of a strange grinning duck.

Filn scratched his head. "What's the problem?" he wanted to know.

"Suddenly, it said something about an update, and I am supposed to use a nickname." Filn looked at Qin. "Hmm. Okay, but what's the problem? Then enter a nickname."

Qin grinned. "That's not the problem. What about the duck? How am I supposed to get rid of it? I do not want to be a grinning duck!"

Tern raised his hand and started doing something with the screen.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"There." He said. Qin and Filn looked at each other, and Qin turned pale.

"Oi! You son of a bitch!"

They all looked at the new picture, which looked like a cartoon poop with sunglasses. The nickname 'poophead.'

Qin pushed them both away and started clicking. "Bastard! I can't change it!"

Tern shrugged and started playing with his own card.

He set the image to a purple cat with a prince's crown and the nickname 'Master Whiskers.'

Filn walked away. He was speechless.

----------------------------------------

Dai moved away from the corpse of the giant seagull and waited for Stigma to return. She did not want to wait until the scavengers came.

Of course, she had previously collected all the weapons she had used during the fight and lost them. The hardest part was getting the chakram out of the beast's butt.

"Boss." System echoed.

Dai ignored him.

"Boss."

Dai still did not answer.

"Boss. Boss?"

She looked at the map; Stigma was already on her way back; it would not be long now.

"Dai."

Her eyebrows twitched in irritation. "What the hell do you want?"

"... The training ring has received an update." Announced the system to her.

She sighed. "What kind of update?"

The system immediately began to explain. "The algorithm was faulty, and it determined that the current method of enrolling in the training ring was not working. This is why the update was triggered. Participants must enter a nickname and an avatar instead of a face and a name before enrolling. This way, their anonymity will not be violated."

Dai shook her head. A system error? She had the impression that its entire existence was a mistake.

"So now customers will call each other by names like 'Mr. Boomer' and 'Miss Hoppy'? That sounds great." She turned her head and saw the Stigma coming toward her. She looked annoyed and let out a puff of steam.

She stopped before Dai and buried her foot in the ground before pointing her horn at her as if to threaten her. Dai looked embarrassed.

"I am sorry, girl. I'll try really hard not to do anything like that again." She comforted her.

Stigma snorted and raised her head. Dai walked over to her, petted her, and mounted. They rode on. Dai watched the road and the map to ensure she had no unexpected obstacles ahead.

Later that afternoon, she came to a river, where she stopped and let Stigma take care of herself. She checked the time and decided to finally go to the store and see how the boys were doing.

She clicked on the door icon, and her eyes clouded over.

When she saw clearly again, she appeared in her store and had just the right view of the training ring, which was almost full. It was an unexpected sight for her, and more importantly, so many human voices at once threw her off balance.

She immediately went to the store where Filn was serving some customers. Filn looked up at her and beamed. "Dai! You are back!"

The customers turned their heads to her, and Dai immediately made her way to the door of her room. "Yes. Just a moment, Filn." She said and hurried up the stairs. She did not want the customers to see her all dusty and sweaty.

"Is there any way I can set up where I am going to show up?" She asked System.

"Unfortunately, you will appear in the place where you reveal yourself. In that case, you can just retire to the back room before you leave." That was the answer.

Dai sighed. Right. She had forgotten that.

Dai showered and changed, but when she came back downstairs, she first bumped her nose against a hard chest.

When she looked up, she saw Leonid looking angry.

"Hey." she greeted him, confused.

"Are you kidding me?" he groaned, the words out between his teeth.

"Huh. What?" Dai did not understand. She had no idea what she had done to upset Leonid again.

"Come with me. Now." Said Leonid, grabbing her hand and leading her into his room.

As soon as he closed the door, he turned to her. "Where have you been?" He asked.

Dai was more and more confused. "You know where. I am on my way to Shelter 1."

"You have the option to come back at any time, and yet you just leave like that and then do not bother to show up again for a while?"

She sighed and raised a hand to rub her temple. She did not want to explain to him what had happened. He'd probably freak out.

"Leonid. I... it's really nice that you are concerned. But I am an adult, and you are not my father. You know that, right?"

"It's a good thing I am not! If I were, you would have gotten a spanking by now! You are incredibly irresponsible!" Leonid yelled at her.

Dai frowned. "Irresponsible? Explain that to me!" She raised her voice as well. She would not let him yell at her about his father's complex.

"You just sneak away! Why did you not let me escort you out? Did you think no one would attack you at the shelter? What if someone had followed you? I could have kept a damn eye on it! And then you do not even show up at night or for the rest of the next day! Not to mention that mutant! Don't you think you are being too careless?"

Dai shook his head. "You are exaggerating. I'll be fine!"

Leonid paused in his shouting for a moment and began tugging furiously at his beard. "Where did you get that idea again? Why can not anything happen to you? You are the owner of a magic store. Do not you think that's a good enough reason to come after you? And then there's also a crazy mutant breathing down your neck which could have easily been waiting for you. Is your head alright, lass?"

Dai hesitated to answer because when Leonid put it that way, she was beginning to realize that she was probably really overestimating things.

"And this is not the only case! What's the deal with the gloves? Some excuse about me being your employee and you having to protect me! You almost died in the process!" Leonid was not done enumerating her suicidal tendencies.

Dai held up her hand to restrain him. To her delight, he actually closed his mouth and stared angrily at her.

Apparently, Leonid was someone who had managed to force her to overcome some obstacle in her brain that prevented her from realizing her own stupidity with his screams.

It was stupid, both with the gloves and with her walking away. He really could have escorted her out. Why had she not let him go? At that moment, she told herself that she did not like goodbyes. And she was not even thinking about her own safety. She did have some sense of caution, but that was more about being outside the shelter. She recalled the brief memory of the children who had appeared to her in the lab. Had her memories been altered, perhaps suppressed even more? Or was she just that stupid?

She sighed. Things were simpler when she was a nobody.

"Leonid. Yes, you are right. I was stupid. Both times. May I ask you to point it out to me if I act that way again? After all, it could be that I did not notice."

Leonid looked at Dai inquiringly. "Hmm... yes. I am glad you realized that, lass."

Dai was a little embarrassed, so she avoided his gaze. Leonid patted her on the shoulder. "Good, so what about your journey? Tell me about it."

Dai was ready to tell him the abbreviated version.