Doing math is probably the worse part when it comes to shop or gamer stories. Sure you can probably just wing it and make up numbers that make close to sense but it wouldn't be that accurate. To make a story close as possible to a more realistic standpoint, one should suffer and pull out the calculator.
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Cobalt rolled the skill orb, ball, crystal, etc, in his palm, watching with a raised brow as two women walked in. The first was short, talking probably five foot or less(152.4 cm) and had mint green skin. Or is gray? Naw mint green he concluded. Her hair was a slightly darker green in two twin tails. Wearing a black jacket…and that's it. Other then shoes he couldn't spy a shirt or pants.
Please tell him she's not a streaker.
The next one was actual adult height he guessed. Normal white skin compared to the other one, white hair that shifts colors in the light, a white short jacket. Though wearing more than the short one, she had on a leotard and two grey stockings. Her hips and sides were exposed.
He deadpanned. Are hentai worlds a media he wants to be messing with? Last thing he needs is a NTR protagonist to stumble upon him and drag him into his problems. No thank you.
The short one spotted him and gave a wide grin. "Yo my man! What biz you running in this place? Looks kinda empty." The taller one groaned and kept a distance and near the door. She eyed the computer on the counter.
Cobalt out his shopkeeper smile. He noticed her eyes were not normal either, reddish pink sclera with big yellow pupils, reddish pink in the center. "Welcome the to Shooting Star, shop of another world. Here you can buy items not usually found in your world that grants you many effects and abilities. You entered here through a door right? One that you find usually on a store or gas station?"
The girl nodded seemingly taking in the fact this was not her world but another one. The girl behind them eyes glowed a bit. "Uh huh sure did. Sooo, what sort of effects are we talking about."
Cobalt reached over the counter and held up a chocolate bar. "If you eat the entire bar it grants you a small healing factor for ten minutes and boost your speed about 5%. The speed builds up the more you eat but if you eat too much it can cause [Sugar Rush]. More speed and strength by 10% but 20% dumber. Once it wears off you suffer from [Sugar Crash]. Makes you sluggish and suffer from a -10% to your usual speed and strength."
As he was explaining what it does to her friend, the tall one tried to hack into the computer and gleem what she can find.
Maybe take some eddies.
What she didn't expect was for her friend to actually grab the bar, peel the wrapper and stuff it all in her mouth! "Rebecca! What the hell are you doing!?"
Cobalt blinked not expecting that and simply waited for Rebecca, finally a name, to finish. She audibly gulped and gave a chocolately smile to her. "Yo Luce check this shit out! It's real! Real fucking chocolate! It's not synthetic."
"What? But that's impossible. Only top corpos have access to that shit."
Rebecca flexed her hand and a grin as feral as a wolf bloomed on her face. She hopped from foot to foot and kicked off! She ran to the right and did a quick lap around the shop giggling loudly. Hold on? Is she…faster then normal?
Rebecca ran back to her previous spot and started collecting all types of snacks. "Lucy! Don't rob this guy, he's a choom for this! This shit actually works! There not drugged are they?"
"First of all, I would appreciate not to rob me please and thank you. Second of all, I wouldn't sell it to kids if they were. I got ice cream if your interested in that too."
"Preem." She placed her haul onto the counter and rushed to the freezer. Lucy shook her head before noticing the big machine next to the door. "Holy shit. Is this is this a Gachapon? I thought they outlawed these things when corpos place one too many of them everywhere."
Corporations back when they began to claim everything and anyone, needed marketing to spread their influence. Ads, stores, stocks. Everywhere you looked is plastered with the stuff. Now a days its relatively the same but more watered down. Gachapons were a stable to get kids or gambling adults addictioned to whatever it gave, sprinkling false promises of more stuff or even big pay outs if you pulled a rare item from them. Thats when a insider revealed that all items market value were as valuable as dust, riots broke out of suckers who spent thousands of their saving trying to go big.
Anyone store or area that is seen with a Gachapon is to be shot and killed. Lucy rolled her eyes. Good ol Night City. Turning something harmless into a marketing scam of epic proportions.
"Yep. It's a Gachapon though it's probably different from your world. If you save up five store credits, you get one per purchase of a product, you can get anything from it. Though it's up to your luck on what you get."
Rebecca came back to the counter with three tubs of ice cream of each flavor, three ice cream sandwiches and two sea salt ice cream. "Like what? That weird glass ball in your hand?"
He rolled the ball and held it up for them to see. "Oh this? This is something I got from the Gachapon. It's a skill. A power of another world."
Both girls eyes widened before one of they swiped it out his hand. Rebecca eyed the ball, turning it all over. "Lets say I believe that bullshit. What does it give you?"
"It's a skill called Dragon Rage. A basic move for dragon creatures called Pokemon and a really strong one. It does a fixed amount of damage to anything or anyone that isn't immune to dragon energy. Consuming it will lock you into learning mostly Dragon type moves or abilities but that's only if your body can't handle a second energy type."
Lucy stared at the ball before into the eyes of the cashier. "What's the catch." Cobalt met her stare. "To use it you gotta have a sense of pride of yourself. And I'm not talking about respect here. I'm talking that you truly above all hold yourself on a higher level then anybody around. You consider yourself the pinnacle, a top bitch that fold to nobody. I'm a bit too money hungry at the moment so I couldn't use it and was gonna sell it before you two came in."
Was he advertising the shit out of it? Hell yeah he was. Does he mean it? Also hell yeah. Dragon pokemon before the introduction of fairy types were the end game. You couldn't get one till the very end before Black and White as they were the strongest type to exist. Holding the resistance to all basic typing of water, fire, grass and electric, while having a weakness only to itself and ice. Before Black and White, there was 21 Dragon Pokemon. Six dragon lines, six dragon legendaries.
In the future, a entire type of pokemon, Fairies, were introduce to be a counter for dragons. In most fairy tales, the dragon is always defeated.
"So unless you believe you can as prideful as a dragon I'll be taking that-."
*Crack*
Cobalt and Lucy whipped to the orb to see it cracking in Rebecca's hand. Her eyes wild and her smile bearing her canines. "I'll take it." Soon it shattered into thousands of pieces. Each peace entered her hand Cobalt swore he saw her eyes gain slits.
We watched her slowing bring her hand down before she sharply looked up. Her cheeks buldging. "Becca? Are you oka-."
"DUCK!"
Years of the field kicked in and Lucy dived down in time for a massive stream of blue and purple flames to go over her head. It slammed into the front door before exploding. The force shook the building and whipped up a fierce wind, making Cobalt cover his face from the backlash.
When it calmed down the shop remained unscathed.
Rebecca stared blankly before whirling around at Cobalt. "How much!?"
"Uh what?"
"How much do I own yah? You just earned yourself your new number one customer! I'll buy it all!"
"Becca!"
"Lucy I just breath motherfucking fire without a implant! This shit is real! ALL OF IT IS REAL!!" Cobalt grew worried that that he may made a mistake.
Lucy pinched the bridge of her noses and looked apologetically at Cobalt. "I'm sorry she's a bit of a gremlin. Ring that …skill up with the rest of the stuff. You said you got that from the Gachapon right?"
"Yeah but it takes only store credit. Each purchase is 1 credit like I said. You don't get change back but more credits."
Rebecca eyes flashed then Lucys. Lucy nodded at her. "What's the total?"
"She grabbed three of each flavor of ice cream, I'll explain later what they can do, as well as five chocolate bars, three white ones, 2 of each pocky, popcorn, three ice cream sandwiches, two sea salt ice cream. I have soda if your interested." Lucy blinked before checking it out. She grabbed two colas and a rasp and added to the pile.
"That'll be…$53.90 USD with only this pile." They both flinched at the currency. He knew he forgot something. "Yeah I can only sell stuff in USD. But I can convert it for you. What currency do you use?"
"Eddies…oh err eurodollars."
"Let me look it up and I'll get you sorted."
Going to the computer and finance he converted the total number to the new currency. A Eddie is $2 USD per unit. So for once USD was not the more valuable one. So in Eddie…
"For the pile it's $53.90. Including the skill that was worth $500 USD, that's $553.90…divide by 2. So 276.95 eddies."
They both stared slackjawed before Rebecca wooped in glee! "Fuck yeah! I thought I fucked myself into debt! Thank you shitty government for once!"
"Why so cheap?"
"A Eddie is $2 USD worth. Something about two currencies now one. The Euro and the dollar."
Lucy nodded and her eyes flashed. Cobalt got a notification and saw he received…1000 Eddie!? "H-hey I know I need money but are you sure?"
Lucy gave him a small smile. "It doesn't seem fair that you get so little out of it. How much store credit do I have in all with that?" Cobalt checked the computer, with all the items and skill orb and change now his…wow. The pile is 28 credits and the orb 3, that makes 31. Because she paid 1000 Eddie, that's $2000, the total being $553.90 it would of been $1723 in change if it was only USD. Due to Eddie being double the value she gained a 3,446 credits!!
Lucy now has the most store credit by a landslide! When he relayed this Lucy smile turn into a giant smirk and turned to look at the Gachapon. Rebecca cheered and ran to it with Lucy right behind her. Oh dear. Maybe he should make a limit. He bagged the items and put the ice cream back in the cooler so they wouldn't melt and went to watch, bringing two watch sticks to give them.
"3,446 divided by 5 is 689.2. So I can pull 689 times if I wanted."
"Hell yeah, think of the crazy stuff we can get."
"Don't forget where we live Becca. If we showed up out the blue with all never seen before upgrades, we would draw to much unwanted attention. You can hide your power with the excuse of a implant but a quick scan and gives you way."
Rebecca pouted. "Fine but how many times should we do it then? 100? 200!?"
"I suggest only 10."
They both turned to him, he was holding two metal sticks. "These are watches that will inform you the opening and closing of the shop and also future deals and events. They also tell you how much credit you have, time and date." Lucy eyes flared up and was shocked to see she couldn't…well see anything. The code and tech had some kind of wall that made everything about invisible. Rebecca hummed and slapped one over her wrist, it wrapped around wrist. She opened the screen and began to play around. "This is some good tech. I think I can have it hooked up to my shit. You got a different color? Pink?" As she said the color the band changed itself.
"Woah. Blue."
It changed back.
"Yellow."
It changed to yellow.
"Clover green."
It changed to a deep green. Lucy grabbed hers and put it on changing it to white. "So why only ten?"
"As you can see from the rarity rates, with how many credits you have you will no doubt pull crazy powerful or useful stuff. You said how you can't have too much attention on yourself, so limiting yourself to ten a day or even week to spread it out can keep yourself on the down low." Lucy gave it some thought before nodding much to Rebecca's dismay.
She pouted with her arms crossed. "I should of paid." Lucy playfully ruffled her friends hair, snatching her hand away from getting bitten. Cobalt determined Rebecca was slightly taller the five foot. Maybe five foot three…four?
As Lucy was bout to twist the machine the front doors opened. "Good afternoon Cobalt-san! I came with some news! My master invites you…too…."
In came Mitsuri cheerfully greeting him when she spotted the two women. Or more likely the women with not normal skin and eyes.
"Oh shit. NO MITSURI WAIT! SHE-."
"Love breathing First Form: Shivers of-!"
"STOP!!"
Cobalt rushed in front of Rebecca as Mitsuri skid to a hault, inches away from Cobalts face. In hand was a long sword with properties of a whip or ribbon winded by her. Lucy back up in shock and slight fear. She barely even saw her move!
Rebecca blinked and glared at the newcomer. "Who the fuck you think you is pink bitch!?" She whipped out two sidearms out her jackets and stepped around Cobalt. Both girls glared at eachother with weapons ready. Lucy opened her palm, ready to lash out with a monowire before…
*WHAP*
*WHAP*
*WHAP*
"Owie!"
"Fuck!"
"Ah! Hey I didn't anything!?"
"Everyone chill the fuck out!" Cobalt cuffed each one on the head. Mitsuri looked at his hurt while rubbing the top of her head. Rebecca was grumbling and Lucy side eyed him. Cobalt sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "This is not how I wanted two different world to meet. Alright." He clapped his hands.
"Allow me to introduce everyone. Mitsuri meet Lucy and Rebecca, my newest customers. Rebecca and Lucy, this is Mitsuri my first ever one. Yes all of you are from different worlds. No Mitsuri, Rebecca is not a demon…maybe a goblin." He got a nasty glare for that.
Mitsuri stared. It took a minute as her face slowly heat up. "IM SO SORRY!" She bowed to Rebecca at a perfect 90 degree angle. Rebecca shamelessly staring at Mitsuri chest as is wobbled from how fast she bowed. "Uh can I know why you tried slicing me with a…is that suppose to be a sword?"
Cobalt nearly cuffed her again when he caught her staring. "In Mitsuris world, she is a demon slayer, self explanatory. Man eating demons that use to be humans plague Japan and her job is to kill them. Her weapon is made for her to use her a special sword sets they call Breathing Techniques. They can breath in ways to increase blood flow and makes them stronger and faster." He relayed what Misturi told him about her world.
She wanted him to shape up a bit more before she can properly teach him to use breathing techniques but Iguro reminded her that he's not a demon slayer. She isn't allowed to teach him anything unless he becomes one or gains permission from the master.
Lucy grimaced. "Thats disgusting. I thought the voodoos were only a Night City problem but actual demons are another thing." She saw her fair share of voodoo work and doesn't want to be near one in a thousand mile radius.
Rebecca hummed. "Why not just gun them down or something. Pretty sure guns are better then swords." Mitsuri stood straight up but had a sad look. "Demons cannot be killed by normal means. You can shoot, stab or crush them as much as you want, they'll only regenerate. Only with a nichirin blade can kill them by decapitation or burning them in the sun."
"Oh that actually sucks." Rebecca can only imagine the trouble if demons were in Night City. Or god forbidden if corpos get their sticky hands on them. Yeah that's a thought that's gonna keep her up.
Lucy couldn't help but think of vampires. Burning up in the sun and consuming humans. Though she can't remember if vampires also ate humans or only drank blood.
"Ah! That's right! What's your world like miss?"
"Call me Rebecca. That's Lucy and our world is a cluster fuck if you ever saw one."
"Amen."
Cobalt and Mitsuri looked at each other but shrugged. Lucy shook her head. "We'll tell you another time. I'm gonna draw 10 times and we gotta bounce. The others could be waiting Becca. Remember to grab the ice cram before we go."
"Oh shit yeah. Fine let's get it over with. How does the door work by the way? It just appeared in our base and no one knows where it came from."
"The door spawns nearby people to find and take. Guess you guys were lucky enough for it to appear in your base. Once you go back it'll close to sync with my worlds time with yours, thus can come and go between 9 in the morning and 9 at night."
"Nova. Spin that bitch Luce."
Mitsuri sweatdropped at the foul language of Rebecca, reminding her too much of a feral do-she means fellow Hashira. Hey she tries to be nice but she can only handle so much rudeness. Even if he's handsome. "Ah let me tell you about the Gachapon Mitsuri. Remember your store credits? Well you see…"
As Cobalt explained how it works Lucy spun her first capsule. With its usual flair out came…
A sparkling purple capsule!
Cobalt jaw dropped. "You got to be shitting me." What's his luck!? Two greys and a blue and she gets a Epic first try!? Such bullshit!
Rebecca tried snatching it but eeped as Lucy slapped her hand away. "Not yet let's get all ten first." So they all watched as she ranged it up nine more times.
A common was next, followed by another. Next a bundle of four rares. Finally two more commons to the group of capsules, ending with another rare. One epic, four commons, and five rares. Cobalt went to the counter and grabbed a plastic bag so she can hold them. Hiding his crocodile tears.
Lucy thanked him and gathered her earnings, probably open them in her world. "Fuck yeah I can't wait to get more shit! Your gonna share some of those right Luce?" Lucy glanced at Rebecca and grinned before turning to Cobalt. "Thanks for this. It's definitely gonna help in the long run. We'll be sure to come by and buy more stuff from you. We never got a name?"
"It's my pleasure Lucy. My name is Cobalt after the metal. Suppose to be a representation of how it's a metal with many uses to help people." Rebecca smirked. "Well consider your name for filled. Thanks choom. Hey pass me a capsule." Lucy ignored her, waving at Cobalt as she headed for the door.
"Hey! Your sharing right? I helped pay for it! Luce you bitch don't ignore me!" She ran after her friend through the door with it closing behind them, sending them back to their world.
Mitsuri giggled at the dynamic, turning to Cobalt. . "I didn't know your name was a metal. What does it look like?"
"It's a grayish black metal that is blue inside."
"Oh it's sounds pretty. Ah! I forgot! Well you remember how I can't teach you breathing techniques right?"
He nodded with a frown. "Yeah I do. Don't tell me your gonna teach me regardless. I don't need Iguro on my ass or yours, even though that's what he wants." He mumbled the last part. Dont need to embarrass the love themed girl.
She giggled. "No I won't go against it, but I did ask the master. I told him all about the shop and shared some of my sweets I bought with him and his family. It's was so nice to hang out with them! The pocky made him feel better too! Though I doubt it's strong enough to cure him."
Cobalt smiled, Pocky is a basic cleansing agent but it's still better then nothing. "Is he ill? I can buy more Pocky for him if you want." With Lucys donation he finally got spending money! She's definitely his new favorite, just don't tell Mitsuri he would feel bad.
Mitsuri shook her head. "I gave him all I had when said it made him feel better. Oh! Maybe I can pull something from the Gachapon! It can give you random stuff right? Strong stuff?" Cobalt nodded before a idea popped up. "How about you pull ten turns like Lucy and we'll go and meet your master. It can help promote my shop and maybe have your other Hashira buddies to spend money here!"
"That's a wonderful idea! Please get ready and remember to be respectful. I'll pull ten times and we'll go right ahead!"
Cobalt nodded and went to sent a message to the watches of his customers that he'll be leaving for a bit so the shop will be temporarily closed. He also washed up a bit, switching to a more professional look. He doesn't know the anime world but being polite and presentable can help him appear to be more trustworthy.
When he came back Mitsuri had ten capsules in her arms. "That was fast, you pulled quite a good…good…."
He felt the world slowed down when he noticed a particular capsule shining brighter then all the ones in her hand.
On top of them all was a Legendary capsule with two epic ones under it.
Mitsuri innocently blinked with two black dots for eyes. "Hey Cobalt I pulled a really shiny one! This is good right?"
What luck god did he offend…to be cursed to be a cuck to others luck.
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I'm not joking when both Mitsuri and Lucy rolled epic on the wheel. Only for Mitsuri to come blessed by protagonist luck and get a legendary and two epics. Truly a sad day to be a shopkeeper.
Also was gonna release this chapter yesterday but had a hospital trip to check out. I'll spare you the details.
Have a good day.