[6]

By the time I made it to a local clothes store, it had begun to lightly rain. I didn't bother shying away from it, however, since that was actually my favorite kind of weather.

Stepping out from under the cloudy sky, I pushed the entrance door open and walked inside, glancing curiously at what was currently in stock. I wasn't disappointed. After taking a closer look at some of the prices, it didn't take me very long to realize that this place was a bit on the lower end when it came to what they sold, but that wasn't a problem for me whatsoever.

Plus, it wasn't like I had walked in here to buy something in the first place.

While I at least reminded myself to grab like three fresh packs of underwear when I paid a visit to Walmart, that was about the only thing clothes-wise that I had gotten from there. As a result, now I was mostly just focusing on everything else, and it actually turned out to be a fairly quick affair. The majority of what I took may have been somewhat random as well, but I didn't really care about what I planned on wearing as long as it didn't bring me too much attention and just fit my body.

Not only that, but I stuck with neutral colors for the most part, and the most of one color I got was probably black. It just fit with damn near anything, so I didn't really see the problem in doing so, anyway.

When I stepped back out into the rain, which was coming down a bit harder at this point, I kind of just stood in place for a while. Not only was it like a pseudo-shower, but it was a feeling that I had always loved. My next stop before heading back home, though, was a small shop I could literally spot from across the street and down the road, which I could tell mainly sold cleaning accessories.

With that, I quickly made my way over.

----------

Man, this shit was just so convenient. It made things so much easier for me.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Blecroom - F rank. A powerful cleaning tool that combines the sweeping ability of a broom with the disinfecting power of bleach, effortlessly sanitizing and scrubbing away dirt and germs in one swift motion.]

I let out a physically-taxed sigh and threw the item into my inventory, before turning to walk into the kitchen so that I could grab another recent creation of mine.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Aromfan - F rank. An innovative device that combines the functionality of an air freshener with the air circulation power of a fan, ensuring continuous distribution of refreshing scents throughout the room while maintaining optimal airflow.]

Glancing down at it in admiration, I crossed over into the last and final room that had been cleaned until it was spotless, and set it down in a corner before opening up all the windows that I could. It was like that in every location within the apartment at the moment, and I was actually sorta reeling just from the sheer contrast between the before and after as I checked each room in case I forgot anything. In the end, it seemed I hadn't.

I smiled and leaned my back up against a wall, which had also been covered in a new layer of paint after I scrubbed it until there wasn't anything left. Honestly, the entire apartment looked absolutely brand new, and I couldn't help but feel extremely proud of myself as a result. Throughout all the cleaning, I tried my best to be as quiet as possible, and now that it was starting to get dark and all the windows were open, I had made sure to not let any light or anything like that from bringing attention to the rooms that were practically being renovated for multiple hours.

The fact that I could merge things together and end up with unique creations that seamlessly lowered the difficulty of life for me was a blessing. What would likely have taken weeks or even months for others literally just took like nearly three quarters of a day for me to accomplish all on my own.

Even though there wasn't anybody standing around me, I nodded to myself. There was still more work to be done, however.

----------

A couple days later, I was roaming through a plaza with my hands tucked into my pockets. It was mostly young people that were passing me by, and I blended in for the most part, though that was somewhat debatable when I was wearing a hoodie that shadowed my face. If the mall security were as attentive as they should be, then I probably looked a little suspect, but I didn't really pay it any mind. There were a few others I noticed every once in a while dressed similar to me, and my headspace was focused more so on the food court than anything else to be honest.

I was pretty hungry at the moment, and had been for a minute, I just decided that my current objective held a little more importance in the grand scheme of things.

Riding an escalator up to the second floor, I eventually made my way over to an electronics store, which I noted was fairly jam-packed with people looking around. There were also a few window-shoppers, which I couldn't help but relate heavily towards. Although, that was more so due to my past, not now. With these new abilities of mine, I could essentially have whatever I wanted if I was sneaky enough, and eve just the thought of that could be a little intoxicating at times.

I stood outside the store and went to glance through the glass, but ended up catching sight of myself instead. While I didn't actually grimace, I still let out an involuntary sigh at my appearance. I looked fucking rough, and honestly, sometimes I thought back on my interaction with Armena and cringed at how I must have looked to the woman in the library, especially since that was when I was still wearing the clothes I had when I was first dropped into this world. However, she never seemed to display any sort of negative reaction, so it was also possible that I could've just been misremembering it.

The new clothes definitely helped to improve how I looked, and even though I had yet to take a shower, I made sure to use some of the bottle bottles I now had at my apartment to manage my hair and stuff at least. It was the least I could do, and I was intent on having things change in a positive way fairly soon, so I wasn't all that worried about it at the moment.

However, when I caught sight of my reflection, I did take note of something else.

[Appraisal function activated. Host detected. Dante Luca - E rank.]

…Yeah. I could apparently observe myself the same way I've been examining the items I'll usually choose to merge together and whatnot. It was an interesting aspect of the system, and one that I planned to use on Armena Ortega when I got the opportunity, curious to find out how much information it would provide me with. The fact that I was the first thing I had seen so far with a rank higher than F got a surprised hum of acknowledgement out of me, but after a while, I simply chalked it up to my possession of the system.

There also seemed to be a description for myself, but it was pretty basic and I didn't really bother giving it much thought either, as I eventually reapplied my focus back onto the task at hand and moved to walk into the store.

The layout of the establishment had the majority of their customers drawn near the center, as that was where most of the phones and stuff were being put on display. However, rather than immediately heading there, I stuck to the sides and gradually traversed the groups of people until I reached an area in the back that held a bunch of televisions.

They were slightly grouped up, but also placed on short pedestals, so all I really had to do was graze a hand over one of the ones around the middle and just continued walking. I could only hope that the transfer looked seamless enough that it wouldn't bring me any attention when such a large item suddenly disappeared, and when I didn't receive any alarmed look from the people standing nearby, I couldn't help but feel a sense of internal relief. I never stopped moving either though.

I basically just continued to do this and stole what I figured would be useful to me in the long run, which was quite a considerable amount to be honest, and the last thing I grabbed was actually three different phones. I specifically chose a different brand for each one as well, but that was mostly just for experimental reasons once I started merging shit together back at my apartment.

Feeling my stomach grumble as I exited the electronics store, I licked my lips at the thought of heading back down towards the food court. That would be my next stop, I supposed.