43 New helpers
After Igarashi and Lumine's small chat, the latter decided to follow Venti and Paimon. They already troubled Diluc enough, but with the sober Venti on the loose with some new wine, it's gonna be chaotic.
Igarashi bid her farewell with a smile and closed the door before heavily sighing. "Haaa... I didn't think that we'll meet them this soon..." He muttered as he caressed his hair, which was dark, different from his original.
He then raised his hand and touched the Golden Monocle on his face and took it off. And soon, in Sasori's view, his appearance returned.
It was one of the functions of the piece [Scholar's Monocle]. Everyone around the user of this item will be viewing the wearer as a different person. Of course, the wearer can choose their appearance. From other people's point of view, his appearance did not change and always looked that way.
As for what will happen if Igarashi takes off the Monocle, it will not affect those who saw the appearance he wants to present. Even after taking the monocle off, they will still remember Igarashi as to what they saw after he put the monocle.
And regarding Sasori, since he saw the Monocle being taken off, the effect did not affect him. That, and because of the system's help.
"Who were they?" Sasori asked as he sat down on the couch near Igarashi, who was sitting in front of the door.
"People that are disaster magnets." Igarashi gave a short and vague explanation. "It's best for us to not get too involved with them."
Who knows? Perhaps if Lumine keeps seeing Igarashi, he might appear in her banner dreams and she might accidentally pull him. He doesn't want that.
Igarashi then stood up and prepared to close the shop for tonight when he suddenly thought of something. 'Oh yeah... I still haven't seen some of the new functions of the system...'
Realizing this, Igarashi decided to open the system's main interface panel.
•~•~•~•~•
<The Mangaka System>
<Level: 3>
• Status
↳ Stat upgrade points available
• Quests
↳ New main quests
↳ New side quests
• Store (New class)
↳ Weapon Section
↳ Furniture section
↳ Adventure Section
↳ Food section
• Inventory
↳ New items
• Owned shops
↳ Liyue Harbor
↳ City of Mondstadt
• (New) Palace of Memories
↳ Next refresh: 4 hours
•~•~•~•~•
"Hmm..." Igarashi inspected everything and hummed to himself. He noticed a new feature of the system having those arrows pointing at what seemed like other functions and served as some kind of notification.
He then noticed a new option. 'Palace of Memories...? What's that?'
With curiosity, Igarashi decided to open the option. He didn't know what it was but the name alone had intrigued him.
•~•~•~•~•
[Palace of Memories]
[Note: The host can only use this function once per day. After 24 hours, the refresh will happen and the host can use this function once more.]
[-Insert Memory-]
[Note: Depending on what type of memory it is, the number of system credits needed shall scale.]
•~•~•~•~•
"No way..." Igarashi silently muttered as he stared at the new system function. 'This... This can't be possibly THAT, right?!'
Having speculated on something, he immediately asked the system for some answers. 'System! What does the Palace of Memories do?!'
[Answer.]
Perhaps it's because Igarashi was asking a question relating to the new function that the system decided to speak up. Nonetheless, Igarashi was relieved that it did.
[The host can choose to insert a certain memory in this new function to be solidified as a solid object in the real world that would show the memory inserted.]
[In layman's terms, a video player that extracts videos from the host's mind.]
'It really is!' Igarashi thought. 'Then... Does that mean?!'
Suddenly, a thought appeared in his mind. 'I... Can produce anime?!'
It was the first idea that came to his mind. However, it seems like the system is rather talkative today.
[It is possible to produce such results but it would cost more than 500 system credits for a single episode.]
'...Nevermind' Igarashi thought in defeat. No matter how he thought about it, a single episode for 500 system credits is just impossible for his current standard.
With his Re:Zero series being serialized in Liyue Harbor along with The Avatar, his daily system credit income from there ranges from 130 to 220 system credits, depending on how popular it is.
Not to mention about his Your Name manga still being spread around Teyvat, adding in extra system credits.
Igarashi sighed and decided to clean up the shop. He decided to stop thinking about this matter. 'Tomorrow, I'll have to release Violet Evergarden to Liyue too...'
'Speaking of which, I've only released about eight chapters of Re:Zero... Volume 1 will end at the 12th chapter so I should start drawing the second volume...' Igarashi thought. Then, a sinister smile appeared on his face. 'After that reaching the part where Rem kills Subaru, I should start making the next series here in Mondstadt which is Akame Ga Kill...'
'That, and the next chapters of Violet Evergarden...' He thought before sighing. 'There's so much to do...'
Even if he has the help of Sasori and his skills, it would only get him so far, and with new serializations, his updates would be slow and insufficient.
Just then, another thought appeared in his mind. 'That's right... When the system was updated last time, Sasori's design appeared in the shop...'
Without sparing any more thought, Igarashi opened the system shop in hopes of finding new puppets.
•~•~•~•~•
<System Shop>
<Level 2>
[Credits: 1,130]
• ??? Class (Locked)
• God Class (Locked)
• Heaven Class (Locked)
• Earth Class (New)
• Mortal Class
•~•~•~•~•
Igarashi clicked on the new class and saw that it looked no different from the Mortal class but with new items such as shop guardians which actually caught his attention.
•~•~•~•~•
<Earth Class>
• Earthbound Shop Guardian ×1
↳ A spirit that protects the host's shop. It cannot physically harm enemies but inflict mental harm to them.
↳ It can only be placed in one shop.
• Lesser automated puppet ×2
↳ This puppet served as a failed product of the first prototype, Scaramouche. The reason it is considered a failure is that it can only follow a few complex instructions and does not contain self-awareness.
↳ This has been modified by the system to be loyal to the host.
•~•~•~•~•
Igarashi didn't bother looking at the other items in the new shop and just nodded. 'I see... These new items can be useful... Rather convenient, if I say so.'
Igarashi decided to purchase the Earthbound Guardian for 90 Points and the Lesser Puppets for 40 Points each.
After receiving the two items, he was given an option of where to put the former. He decided to place it on Liyue Harbor because he will be active in Mondstadt for a time. He needs a guard there, after all. 'Let's see who dares to sneak in there... There'll be a ghost waiting for them...'
Though, he is wary of one person: Hu Tao. 'Hu Tao... She'll be glad to exorcise my guardian spirit...' He was sure that Hu Tao can and will exorcise his ghost when she gets a glimpse of it. 'I should order it to stay low if Hu Tao is in the vicinity...'
As for the Lesser Puppets, like Sasori, he was given an option to modify them. And since they were two, he decided to make them male and female. And as a manga artist that has quite an artistic taste, he decided to make them beautiful.
A tall man with grey hair that looks like a quiet and loyal type and a short-haired woman that looks quite capable. Of course, they wore servant-like clothing. Like butlers or something like that.
Looking at the two lesser puppets, Igarashi felt proud of the designs.
"Sasori, what do you think about them?" He asked.
Oh, and yes, he is planning to place them under Sasori's command. And have a 'Drawing department'. Because, obviously, one printer is not enough. He needs a whole team.
Sasori inspected them by going around their bodies before nodding. "They look capable."
"Right~? Alright then, why don't we name them?" Igarashi offered as he let Sasori choose the names.
"Name them...? Hmm..." Sasori thought for a moment before nodding. "I know. Helper 1 and Helper 2."
"..." Igarashi fell silent when he heard Sasori's reply. He then shook his head and tried to convince him. "Umm... Can't you come up with something more... Human?"
"Human, huh...?" Sasori thought again before nodding.
"I know." He said as he pointed at the two lesser puppets. He pointed at the male puppet before the female puppet. "He'll be Satorou and she'll be Saori."
'Japanese names...? No, their names contain 'Sa' at the start so... Did he come up with their names from his name?' Igarashi pondered in his mind as he heard Sasori's answer.
Satorou was closest to Sasori and if you remove the middle 's' of Sasori, then you'll have Saori, which is a girl's name. 'Weird... But oh well.' Igarashi just shrugged.
He decided to type the names in the system which was approved. After that, he commanded the lesser puppets to follow Sasori's orders.
Since they were lesser puppets, and Sasori is a puppet that is considered a success, he should have no problem commanding them.
