[Intermission] What Boredom can do
"It's quiet."
"Sure is.."
I replied to Prune as I stared out the veranda. By veranda, I mean I was looking at the sky beyond the glass door that separates the living room and veranda.
We were in Prune's apartment domain
Miss Margrett said she would be busy attending to something at the merchants guild so we were told not to run the shop for the morning.
Usually, if there isn't anything, Miss Margrett would be there to supervise us as we worked. It'll take a while before we get the hang of things around the store so in a way, we still haven't reached the sufficient experience level to run the shop ourselves.
In any case, the fact that Miss Margrett was going to the merchants guild says something. A shop in itself is nothing without connection with people.
I'm no adult so I don't know how the corporate system works in modern times-- that said, there's a lot of talk about how people are lonelier as technology progresses. So the fact that people spend time building actual connections rather than trying to get a larger following in Imagi is in way.. cultural shock. Since social media and the internet isn't a thing we can use here.
Which brings us to this current situation.
Nine and Liliath were out 'adventuring', we go in turns. Yesterday it was me and Liliath and the day before was everyone excluding Prune.
There were few reasons why we took turns like this-- I won't go into details but it has to do with taking adequate rest and safety.
In any case, Prune and I have been lazing around in the living room for a good chunk of the morning. We spent hours practicing magic-- I was able to stabilize two kinds of elements, one is light, the other is water; while Prune was able to stabilize 2 elements and one non-elemental type spell-- wind, water and gravity-- or weak levitation.
It's interesting how the wind spell gives off a green light, in a way it's very closely related to light magic based on the arrangement of shapes on the pentagram chart thing.
After that we got bored and started to just read whatever we could find on the BookReader Widget. As a manga and light novel lover, there's no problem spending time like this.. but for Prune who usually spends her free time scrolling through social media, she's probably bored to the bone.
Truth is, with all the light novels and manga condensing the story and scenes, people don't really talk about the reality of how boring things could be isn't it? I guess it has more to do with the fact that kids like us are used to technology as a part of our lives-- and that dopamine inducing contents are literally everywhere.
"Noel, has Unknown developed that widget yet?" Prune leaned against the couch with her neck bent all the way back. She was looking up at the ceiling.
"Not yet.."
"How do people live like this.. I'm going to sleep."
"Um.."
The widget we were talking about was an internet widget-- which basically allows us to view everything on the internet assuming that we can only view things that have been posted before-- and not be able to see the latest posts since the modern world is probably in some time stasis.
Prune repositioned her body and stretched herself onto the couch in an awkward sprawled position. She wasn't wearing a skirt so no accidents are going to happen kay?
"I've been wondering…"
"What is it?"
"What happens if we drop something off the veranda?"
"Hm.. we still haven't explored much about your Unique skill haven't we?"
And such became our next activity.
Prune went to the fridge and took out the fruits we bought from the market the other day-- an apple-like fruit that has a gummy candy texture in the middle-- and also tastes like grape-- the candy kind of grape, not the natural taste. So it's oddly tasty, very fantasy.
Not to mention, if you appraise the fruit, just like that parasitic demon or slime we met last time, there are a lot of different names that appear-- I'm guessing due to the unstandardized naming-- so let's just call this fruit Braple.
Now then.
Taking a slice, we held it over the edge of the snowy veranda and..
"Drop~"
It fell…
And fell..
And fell..
..
.
"So it just disappears like that?" I was a little doubtful but that's the proof. In a sense.. can't we just assume this void into a trash bin? It's a bad habit but.. taking out trash in a fantasy world is very different from the waste management system in the modern world.
Prune then took the other slice of Brapple, bit it in half and threw it as hard as she could.
"It's fun."
"Looks like it."
It drew an arc and dropped to the void.
"I don't think we should keep throwing the Brapple like that, it's a waste, maybe there's some other thing we can throw.."
"How about using the sanitary pads?"
"Uh.. what?"
"It's hard to dispose of, I think I left it in my room," Prune said and ran off.
What was going on? Did Prune just say that? That's very unlike her.. or is it because she's bored?
And a moment later she actually came holding a small paper wrapped package. Then as I was eating a slice of Brapple, she threw it out into the void. The momentum caused her silver hair to sway.
With a huff, Prune turned back to the living room with a satisfied expression.
"I never thought throwing stuff would be so interesting."
"Well, that's because we're bored out of our mind."
"Yes… right. Eh?"
"What?"
"Look," she pointed.
I turned to the place she was pointing too and.. at the doorstep were the Brapple slices and the paper-wrapped sanitary pad.
"Oh wow, so it reappears there?"
"Yes!" Prune came up to the 'objects' picked them up and.. ran to throw them out.
This cycle repeated a few times. I just sat on the floor watching her do so as I grazed on a Brapple. Each time she would make a sort of fist pump.
She's really bored isn't she? I guess I could say the same for myself, having nothing to do but watch as she ran back and forth throwing the Brapple slices and sanitary pad.
As here I thought we could use the void to dispose of materials like plastic.
No, there's that disposal vent we can use isn't it?
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"Let's see, I think there's a few things that I would want to get if possible. A room for you and Nine," Prune said, pointing at her UI.
The [Home Sweet Home] shop function is limited to Prune's UI, though everyone has the Unique Skill in their column, only Prune herself can access the upgrades.
So to put it basically, it shows the electric and water bill-- in points-- and the possible extensions we can add to the place. In fact, you could make it even bigger than the apartment we used to stay in.
To create another bedroom or bathroom would cost 1000 points, an upgrade to the kitchen with additional stoves and complimentary plates was 500 points, an upgrade to the small dining table was 500 and field creation-- which the description says here as creating a plot of cultivable land is 5000 points for a 400 meter square plot.
The current amount of points we have is around 2674. Yes, though we still have a good amount left, we actually spent quite a bit on clothes and weapons.
Can't wait for next week's special quest.. and don't tell me it's going to be like: nobody can let anybody else know what the quest is. That would be damn difficult.
"Noel, do you mind maybe adding a function to separate the points, maybe like each person would have individual savings and the points gained from the quests will either be shared or enter say, my saving if I was the one to complete it."
"I'll bring it up to Unknown," I typed a short add-on to Unknown.
It's actually kinda annoying how Unknown doesn't show up in Bleu's domain even though we've been frequenting there for the past few nights in succession. Is he busy or what?
Knock. Knock.
"Who's there?"
"Me and your wife!" Nine shouted.
Oh fuck, looks like their back.
"It's time to make lunch then," Prune said.
"Yeah, I guess.."
I opened the door--