Current Worth (1712) clears the (1000) Worth threshold for clearance increase.
Next threshold: (2000) Worth.
(1) Clearance ticket issued.
Opening Clearance Shop at your location.
……
Clearance Shop already summoned for the previous Worth threshold. Only one can be summoned at a time. Another will not be summoned when this one disappears.
Total Clearance tickets in your possession: (2). As they are linked to your current clearance, not that of when you earned it, they both have the same purchasing power.
……
All requirements met.
When the time expires, you will have cleared the initialization process.
Congratulations, Gambler.
You have survived.
As the last coin flips through the air, I can’t help but smile down at my screen. Those last two lines feel as sarcastic as plain text can get. It brings me extreme satisfaction to see the system annoyed at my survival, and at the real possibility that I bested its most realistic chance to get rid of me. The infusion of Worth is great, too, but it just doesn’t have the same oomph as getting one over a massive magical… A.I.? Spell? Whatever the ‘system’ actually is.
“Last one done.” I say to Illumisia.
She nods and lowers the barrier. “It is more than enough, I presume?”
“Oh, yeah. Take a look for yourself.” I flip my screen around for her to see. She grows a little so her head is at the right height before her eyes start to scan the text. “I’ve got seven hundred Worth to spend before I get under the threshold. You have any suggestions?”
“Buy the Soul threshold skill. The sooner you have it, the quicker you will be able to upgrade or evolve it. After that… I would recommend buying each first-tier stat point you still have left. They are relatively inexpensive, and will be a better investment than nearly anything you could afford.”
I raise an eyebrow in surprise, but take in her suggestions all the same. “Alright. If I do that, I’ll have… 1137 Worth left. Is there anything good I can get for that much?”
Illumisia shrugs. “You can ask the shopkeeper. It is their job to know how much everything costs. All I can recommend is stocking up on items clearly meant to aid beginners–like those stat upgrades that cost far less, but only work on a stat of five or lower.”
“So… three coins for Body, two for Mind, and another two for Fate.” I list as I walk out of the alley and towards the door that’s superimposed itself over another shop’s window. “That’ll probably eat up a good chunk of my clearance tickets. Unless this store is like Gil’s, and they have pre-made packages for me. That’d be annoying.”
“I did not get to meet Gil. I would like to… remedy this next time.” Illumisia licks her lips and grins. “He intrigues me.”
Pearl must’ve spun some kind of story about Gil to Illumisia, because I really don’t remember anything about him being that interesting. Except for his store, but that’s system-approved. Which… actually, knowing what I know now about Worth classes, that is kind of interesting.
“I’ll see if I can bring you in next time. I’ve got a few more questions I’d like to ask myself. But now…” I wrap my fingers around the door handle and shoot Illumisia a toothy grin. “Be a good guard dog and keep me safe from the scary Paindne.”
She huffs indignantly, but I slip through the door before she can say anything else. This time it looks like a high-end accessories boutique, complete with purses, watches, dangly earrings, and all other sorts of accessories that I can’t imagine myself wearing in a world like this. And masks. So many elegant and expensive-looking masks. The shopkeep’s wearing a really simple half-mask on the top of her face, styled with flowing lines and half-circles painted in gold and decorated with sparkling blue gems. She glances over at me from her other customers for a split second, holds up a single finger for me to wait, then goes back to the heavyset man she’s trying to sell a gemstone-encrusted watch.
“Ah, shit.” I mutter to myself as I gingerly walk around the glassed-in display cases. “This place is way too rich for my Worth. Guess it's just default clearance ticket items and nothing else this time.”
But it’s good to know something like this can happen. I’d just assumed that everywhere was like Gil’s or Akris’ stores; full of a lot of different options, and with stuff literally anyone can buy. With options like this high-end boutique in the mix, I can’t rely on clearing thresholds to refill my health potion. Hell, this place might not even buy a good chunk of the things I’d bring to sell. I can’t imagine the half-masked woman being very pleased with me dumping a corpse or broken robot on her pristine floors.
I wait for a dozen minutes–being polite and all that–but the shopkeep doesn’t make a single attempt to talk to me. Now, if this was a real store, I wouldn’t care at all. But I’m on a slightly less than two hour time limit. And she knows. I put on my slimiest smile and cross my arms, then march right up to the counter while elbowing aside the heavy guy and a woman in a dress that’s somehow both elegant and horrifically revealing.
“Excuse me, but I’m on a time limit here. I know I’m not the kind of clientele you’re probably used to dealing with, so just deal with me for a minute and I’ll get out of your hair.” I say with saccharine sweetness and uncross my arms to lean down on the case. “So what do you say? Are you going to help me, or am I going to keep stinking up your precious store?”
The heavy guy side-eyes me with obvious discomfort, and the woman on my other side lets out a quiet gasp. The kind you usually hear with someone saying ‘my word’ and hiding their mouth with their fingers. Only now do I notice that both of them are wearing masks–the man’s covers the left side of his face and looks like it has rain imagery, and the woman’s covers from her nose down to her chin with closed mouth silence etched into it. Weird as hell, but I guess I’m in some kind of mask shop.
And… I can’t tell what species any of them are. They register to me as people, but I can’t place any noticeable features on any of them. The masks must have some kind of anonymity bullshit built into them… just like the Horizonguard. Shit. This place might be a little more dangerous than I thought.
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“Hey, you don’t just get to waltz in here and be a diva to my customers.” The shopkeep plants her hands on her hips and leans in until our noses almost touch. “I know you’re busy, and I know you’re on a time limit, but you ain’t the only one with those problems. Ooh, but I’m so much more special than everyone else, and you have to take my order first!” She says sarcastically, then actually nudges my nose with her own. “Tough tongues. Wait your turn, and I’ll get to you before the system kicks you out. If you can’t do that, feel free to leave your tickets on the counter and I’ll make sure you’re reimbursed.”
I’m more than a little taken aback by the shopkeep’s intensity, attitude, voice, choice of words, general mannerisms… pretty much everything about her, actually. From the looks of the two other customers, they’re just as surprised as I am. They quickly mumble some excuses and apologies, then scramble to leave the store without buying the things on the counter.
The shopkeep watches silently, then grumbles under her breath. “Mute me. Damned customers can’t handle anyone with even an ounce of personality.” She turns to me and places one elbow on the counter, then rests her chin on top of her knuckles. “Guess you got what you wanted. Me–and all to yourself. But if you’ve got the clearance the system seems to think you do, then why the hell are you standing in this store?”
“I’m asking myself the exact same question.” I say flatly. “I’ve got two clearance five tickets, and a hundred Worth I’m free to spend. What’s the best I can get for them?”
“Two clearance five tickets? How’d you manage that at your level?” The shopkeep tilts her head to the side and waves my explanation off before I can even start. “Actually, I don’t care. I don’t have anything here for low-levels like you, which means the owner gets screwed out of something more valuable. Personally I don’t give a shit, but my manager’s going to throw the mother of all tantrums.”
“Sorry?”
“Oh, as long as it’s not on my shift, I’m going to love hearing the stories. So we’ll call that a positive.” The shopkeep chuckles in anticipation. “But enough of my bitching. I’ve got some masks here that are pretty okay for hiding your identity. Do you know how they work? Oh, who am I kidding, of course you don’t. Alright–here.”
She leans down and pulls a pure white full-face mask from inside the glass case and sets it down on the counter. I grab it and hold it up, expecting some magic to let me see through the solid material, but nope. It’s exactly the slab of white stone that it looks like.
“I’m going to be royally pissed if I spend two tickets on a useless mask.”
“It isn’t useless. And it’s worth a hell of a lot more than two damn tickets.” The shopkeep snatches the mask from my hand and flips it around, then gestures where the eyes would go. “This is an alternate self mask. When you put it on, people will think you’re a completely separate person–but you don’t get anonymity. They see you as the person in the mask when you wear the mask, and the person not wearing the mask when you take it off.”
I cross my arms again and raise an eyebrow. “So it’s just a disguise.”
The shopkeep sighs in exasperation. “Sure, call it that if you want. But it’s a disguise that works perfectly–nobody can see through it, nobody can find out your ‘true identity’, and nobody will ever associate you with the person in the mask. But they’ll recognize your mask as a brand new person, independent from you, but definitely not anonymous. Hell, you can’t even tell what species I am. That’s how good they work.”
“...Yeah, I guess so.” I say reluctantly. “But a mask without any holes, and without any magic to see through it, is pretty much useless. No matter how ‘impressive’ the magic worked into it is. And why would I care about being seen as ‘the woman with the mask’ instead of me? I don’t plan on going on a crime spree.”
“Just… think about it for a second. You could effectively live two lives; one that’s super dangerous, and the other that’s completely safe. I don’t think I have to convince you on how important that can be to anyone with a Class. And yeah, buying the blank mold on its own is usually a thousand Worth, but I’ll give it to you for those two clearance tickets. And I’ll even throw in a word with someone who carves it into a real mask for free.”
She sets it down on the counter once again. I look deep into her eyes–ones that are still filled with emotion, but that I can’t make out at all. All I can see is her mask.
“Fine. I’m not getting anything else out of this, anyway.” I cede and summon both of my tickets, which I slide over to her. When she goes to grab them, I don’t let go. “Unless you’ve got some under five stat coins lying around?”
“Mrrgh.” She glances over to a door marked ‘employees only’, then stomps off and throws it open. Not a minute later she comes right back with a fistful of coins, dumps them into the mask, and pushes it at me. “They’re pretty much worthless anyway, so just take ‘em and screw off. Oh, and wherever you are–don’t come back here with that face unless the system does it. I’m putting you on the ‘don’t serve’ list.”
I take the mask and all the coins inside and offer her a sincere smile. “Thanks, whoever you are. You won’t see me again.”
“Don’t tease me.” She sighs, but offers me a small wave anyway. She turns away and mutters something under her breath that I can’t hear, then laughs lightly. “Don’t misuse the mask. My contact will rip my head off if I refer a criminal to him.”
“Like I said; don’t plan any crime sprees.” I say as I shoulder open the door and stumble out into the street, mask and coins jingling happily together.
Illumisia raises both of her eyebrows when she sees what I have. “A face-shaped stone and a good amount of stat coins. Is that really all you have to show for your… hold on a moment. That isn’t just any stone.” She stands all at once and presses her face to my mask. “And it appears to be of extremely high quality as well. The system would not send you to a place where you could get this if it was the only store available.”
“I don’t know. Maybe it just sent me somewhere random.” I say with a shrug, but my mind gets drawn back to the sensation the shopkeep gave off. One that was nearly perfectly mirrored by the Horizonguard. “The Horizonguard had a helmet that gave off the same feeling as the mask. Do you think she could’ve influenced the system somehow?”
“It is… possible. Extremely unlikely, sure, but possible–if the Horizonguard has control over the city, and the system attempts to pull from the city’s stores in the first place… but that would require powers…” Illumisia shakes her head and pulls away from the mask. “No. I suppose your explanation of raw, dumb luck will have to suffice.”
Pearl yawns and smacks her lips. “Sorry, I dozed off a little there–what are we talking about? Did Shelby double all of her Worth yet?”
“Doubled all of it and spent both my clearance tickets. You missed a lot.”
“Aw, I wanted to see you haggle with someone again. Did you at least get something good?”
I raise the mask and coins for her to see. “I’d like to think I did.”
“Nice! So, um, what now? Do you still have Worth to spend?”
“Definitely. Just gotta do this.” I take one stat coin and flip it, then push it into my system. The points go right into Fate–bringing it to five–and I don’t get a popup. “Oh. I guess I don’t get a threshold skill for every stat. Might as well buy the Soul one, then.”
I swipe over to my skills tab and scroll down to the bunch of question marks with a ‘Soul five’ requirement right next to it. When I hover over it a prompt appears with a Worth cost of five hundred, and I falter for a second. It’s one thing to think about spending so much Worth, but actually pressing the button to make it happen… it’s way harder than I thought it would be. I mean, I’m only three hundred Worth away from the next threshold.
If I wasn’t so close to the timer running out, I don’t think I’d be doing this right now. But I don’t exactly know what’s going to happen when it hits zero. I could get given another quest, or nothing could happen at all, or I could get sent right back to Earth. If option one or two happens, then I’ll wish I saved the Worth. But if option three happens… I don’t know if the system will let me spend Worth on Earth. And, I mean, if I get to stay here, then I’ll make up the five hundred Worth eventually.
There’s really no reason to wait. But the hardest person in the world to convince of something is myself.