Chapter 28: Inventory (2)

"...Inventory."

"!!!"

[Reader of Fate: Jojojo Kurdi, hopes that Zero still has all the Gifts and the whoring bitch Zeni did not use them.]

[Reader of Fate: Doge Blade, saying cola and cars are about to come rolling out.]

He had seen it happen before when he called out his status– but the thing that appeared in front of him almost covered his entire view; he should be very careful not to call this out whenever he was in a battle.

It was some sort of… semi-transparent board suddenly appeared in front of him– with words and characters similar to what the Readers of Fate keep on popping out in front of him.

There was only a slight difference, or perhaps he could consider this huge. There were all sorts of random items hovering inside this board. And he recognized two of them– the Iced Cola and… the Massage Chair, that's what Zeni called them.

But… what were the other things?

[Gifts: Iced Cola: 35, Inspiration Capsule: 5, Luxury Car: 2, Massage Chair: 2, Pizza: 0 (Eaten by Zeni) ]

"Iced… Cola? M… masag char?" Zero was trying to attempt to read the words that were next to the bottle– and since he already knew what they were called, he was using it to read the other letters… but it was taking him too long so he just waved it to the side for now.

But he was sure of it, he was going to learn how to read them soon.

There was another section; filled with boxes, with a blue gem floating on the lower left.

[Inventory: Empty | Powerstones: 1,672 ]

"..." The empty boxes did not really intrigue Zero that much– the Iced Cola and the other miniature floating items, however, truly caught his eye. He then focused his eyes on the Iced Cola… before curiously pointing his finger at it.

"!!!"

And as soon as he did so, a normal-sized bottle similar to what he saw in the White Space appeared in his hand. But alas, the bottle dropped to the ground as Zero wasn't really expecting for something like that to happen.

"..." Zero then quickly looked around to see if anyone saw what happened– but everyone else seemed to be too busy doing whatever it was they were doing. It was typical for humans to do that, after all.

Still… was something like this… normal? Zero truly lacks knowledge of the world still.

It was enough, however, for him to realize that if he pressed the miniature items floating on the board, they would appear in front of him– similar to the words of the Readers of Fate. But…

…where exactly did these items come from? Zeni mentioned something about Gifts…

…could it be the Readers of Fate gave it to him?

"..." Zero then turned to look towards the sky, before nodding his head and saying,

"...Thank you."

[!!!]

[The Readers of Fate don't really know what to do with that.]

[Some of the Readers of Fate are nodding to themselves, and saying 'You're welcome'.]

[Some of the Readers of Fate are feeling… touched.]

[Some of the Readers of Fate are going to make Zero rich af.]

"..." Was he right? For the Readers of Fate to respond like this, that would mean the items really are from them.

Zero could only wonder what sort of wonderful knowledge they hold.

[Some of the Readers of Fate are telling the other Readers of Fate they are gay.]

Zero then nodded his head– and for the very first time, actively acknowledged the presence of the Readers of Fate. His eyes remained looking at the sky for a few more seconds, before returning to the floating board in front of him.

There was something else that caught his eye– the car. He had seen something like this before in his home outside… but why would they give him something like this? Was it to use as some sort of shield? The humans do that all the time.

[Some of the Readers of Fate are begging Zero not to press the Luxury Car right in the middle of the city.]

"...Inventory… close?"

And as soon as Zero whispered those words, the board instantly disappeared; once again allowing him to see his surroundings clearly.

"Mommy, look at tha–"

"Shh. Don't point at him, it's rude. Slayers are a bit weird but they're people too."

"..." There were a few people looking at him; most likely because, in their view, he's been waving around his hand in the air for no reason, well– that was what Zero assumed it looked like from their point of view.

Their… point of view. Zero was unaware when he started caring about what the humans would think, but it seemed very important to do so– after all, the very reason he was on his way to the markets was to buy some clothes and blend in.

The walk to the market didn't really take long, the only problem was that there seemed to be even more humans here than at night. Zero still couldn't get used to the noise, but he has to persevere if he doesn't want to suffer the same fate as the zombie spawn he created.

"Weapons! Weapons from the Slayer blacksmith, Simeon Helmschmeid!"

"Get the fuck out of here, scammer!"

"Rations, get your rations here!"

"Smartphones with chargers! Buy now since the price will soon skyrocket once the nearby satellite gets fixed!"

"Bubble Artifacts! Check out our Bubble Artifacts!"

"..." Bubble Artifacts. The receptionist from the Slayer Association mentioned something about that. She made it seem like a big deal when she talked to Zero, but why was no one in front of the stall?

"You! Are you interested in checking out our wares!?"

"..." Zero only glanced at the stall for a few seconds, but the merchant miraculously saw him even through the busy crowd– pointing at him and gesturing to him to come near. Truly, humans can be frightening if they want to be.

"Look at this, young man!" The merchant then grabbed something from his stall, before rushing to Zero, "This will suit you perfectly! I'll even give you a discount if you throw your old one to me!"

"..." Zero looked at what the merchant was holding– it was a black cloak adorned with some sort of symbol. For him to know that Zero was looking for cloaks…

…was this old man some kind of powerful slayer? He couldn't smell any aura coming from him, though.

[The Readers of Fate are telling Zero that it's most likely a scam.]

[The Readers of Fate are telling Zero not to trust merchants.]

"Oho, I can see you're curious," the merchant then pushed Zero towards his stall, "You're in luck, we're only selling this cloak for only 5 Red stones!"

The stones. He received about 5 Green rocks from the materials he got from the werewolves, then about 10 Red stones from Eleanor. Eleanor mentioned something about living comfortably for an entire month when she handed him the reward… does that mean this black cloak was worth half of that?

"..." Zero could only stare at the black cloak the merchant was selling– it did look somewhat better than what he was wearing now. This merchant had this kind of item, and no one was looking at his wares?

"I… I see you're still not convinced," the merchant then leaned closer to Zero, "I'm only going to tell you this, "But this cloak is shock-resistant, cut-resistant, bullet-resistant…

…and completely fire-proof."

"..."

"A… and if you throw in your old cloak, I can give it to you for… for only 4 Red stones."

"..."

"Three! 3 Red stones and I'll even sharpen your weapon for free!"

"..." Zero then slowly touched the black cloak, trying to see what the difference is between his old one.

"Oho, can you feel it? Just between us…" The merchant once again leaned closer, "...but this was worn by an Orc Shaman, that's why it's immune to flames."

"Immune… to flames?" Zero squinted his eyes with the mention of fire. If he remembered correctly, he was able to summon flames when he was fighting with Natalia. Was… that also some kind of ability of his?

"Summon…"

"Hm?" The merchant only had smiles on his face as he looked at Zero's face as he seemed to be interested in the item.

"...Flames."

[Some of the Readers of Fate are saying 'GG'.]