Chapter 5: The Shop

After having a few more drinks, Alan and Michael left together, whilst Alan's dad went back to his office to finish up some more paperwork.

As they stepped outside, Michael noticed that the line had gotten even longer, which made sense since when they entered, it was still early in the afternoon.

He also noticed that there were a few cop cars parked by one of the side doors, which also made sense since he had exposed an undercover cop just a few hours prior.

He didn't pay too much attention to these changes since he was more focused on just getting home and being finished with the day.

He called an Uber as Alan did the same. Both of them had walked here but were too drunk to make it back to their houses safely. They both figured that their lives were more valuable than a few bucks for an Uber.

They chatted for a little while until the Ubers showed up, and they both left in their respective cars.

Once Michael made it home, he instantly collapsed onto his bed, exhausted.

'Too many things happened today. On the one hand, I got to meet up with Alan again. But on the other hand, I have a dead body in my Inventory, but I don't even feel any different. By the way, where are my rewards from both of the missions?'

[Mission Complete.

Objective: Kill Somebody.

Reward: 25 Origin Points.

Bonus Reward for Time: 10 Origin Points.]

[Mission Complete.

Objective: Punch the Man with the Red Bracelet.

Reward: 10 Origin Points and 1 Mystery Box.]

[Rewards have been deposited to your Inventory.]

In front of Michael, two small, translucent boxes appeared in front of him simultaneously.

'Oh, well there are my rewards. Were you sleeping or something, why were they so late?'

[I do not sleep. I was just waiting for an appropriate time to deposit your rewards.]

'Whatever. What can I use my Origin Points on?'

[Origin Points can be saved up and used to purchase items within the Shop.]

'Shop'

As before, a small translucent window popped up in front of Michael looking the same as when he first opened it. There were rows with boxes, and each box was filled with an item labeled with a name and a number. Michael tapped on the first item, which was a sword.

[Sword of Justice: 80 Origin Points.

Description: While attacking an enemy with the Sword of Justice, the user will regenerate small amounts of health per hit.]

'What the heck, this is just like a Video Game.'

He backed out of the sword and clicked on the next item.

[Pill of Enlightenment: 50 Origin Points.

Description: Once taken, the user will understand more of the Origin of the Universe.]

'How will that ever help me out?'

Michael kept scrolling through the choices, noticing many items that he thought would never have a use.

One item caught his eye, however. It looked just like an aged book with a foreign title. He clicked on the box and another window popped up.

[Martial Foundation Technique: 25 Origin Points.

Description: The ultimate basic technique for learning any Martial Arts. The technique alone can rival undeveloped advanced Martial Arts.]

Michael was even more blown away by the description because he had clicked on it due to it looking out of place.

He also noticed that unlike the items which were out of his price range, the Martial Foundation Technique had a large box at the bottom right corner of the window that was labeled 'BUY' and noticed that it looked similar to a small online shopping website called Amazin.

'Samson is this format copied from Amazin?'

[I do not know what Amazin is, I simply copied the shop from the format which the Host is most familiar from.]

'So did you copy this from my memories then?'

[I did.]

'That's neat! Wait, does that mean you can read my memories?'

[Correct, however, if I don't need to, I won't read your memories.]

'Oh, that's a relief.'

After conversing with Samson for a little while longer, Michael pressed the Buy button and a smaller rectangular box popped up in front of him.

[Would you like to learn the Technique automatically for 10 Origin Points?]

Michael was startled by the discovery.

'Hey Samson, what does this mean?'

[Learning automatically, the Host will learn the Technique instantly. Learning manually will depend on the Host's reading speed and innate abilities.]

'So basically, I'm either purchasing the material directly, or I'm purchasing a dusty old book?'

[Essentially, yes.]

'Well that's not much of a choice then is it?'

With that revelation, Michael press Yes to learn the Technique automatically, spending 10 more Origin Points, leaving him with only 10 Origin Points left.

After pressing yes, the window changed to a loading sign which read [Processing...]. The sign stayed the same for around 5 to 10 seconds before a small bell could be heard.

[Purchase Complete! Have a Great Day!]

As the bell rang, Michael suddenly doubled over due to an unnaturally painful headache.

He felt years of knowledge flowing into his brain, teaching him the technique of years of experience within a few minutes.

Once the pain finally receded, Michael knew he hadn't actually practiced the movements, but he could feel the training all the way down to muscle movements, with every step perfectly practiced for hundreds of thousands of times.

'I'm basically like a walking cheat code.'

He closed out the window and looked back to the shop to see if he could find anything useful for 10 Origin Points.

Another book had caught his attention, funnily enough.

[Book of Fools: 10 Origin Points.

Description: Trickery and deceit become more natural and more believable.]

'This would be useful if I had more points, but I can't learn it automatically. Hey Samson, do you want to give me another side mission?'

[I can not deliver thoughtless missions, however, the Host may take small loans for Origin Points, which can be paid back with zero interest later.]

'That's handy. Then can you loan me however much it will take to learn this automatically?'

[5 Origin Points have been added to your account.]

With that message, Michael pressed buy once again, and a box confirming he wanted to learn automatically popped up. Like the last, he pressed yes.

The info surged his head just like the last time, but he noticed that it wasn't nearly as painful. He figured this was since he had already learned through this method before.

He closed out the pop-up and scrolled through the shop for a little while longer, before finally closing his eyes and going to sleep in his bed.