"Wait, wait, wait, you're not making any sense, how come it costs 100 SC for just food?" Clay felt that it was absurd that food costs that much considering that he had bought map materials for a lesser price even if they cost much more than food in the real-world shops.
"Maybe what I bought was different from what you know, hmm, this is called 'U' one roast whole chicken with rice and it only costs 2 SC, try searching that up"
"'U' one? What's that?" Mrs. Mapa furrowed her brows as she searched for the item on her own system shop.
Mrs. Mapa had a E-Grade Speaker System, she could project her voice anywhere in areas she has designated as her territory, sadly, because of her E rank the quests were not in her favor resulting in a lot of penalties compared to the reward, it was up to the point that her levels were being subtracted every other week because of quests she couldn't complete ultimately causing her to not accept any more quests in the latter half of her life.
And because of all the penalties, she was only above average in stats than a normal person without a system. Which resulted in her not being able to provide a good source of income even with her Speaker System as it was relatively useless in making money. This, in turn, caused her to be very cautious in how to spend any type of currency, hence why Clay got scolded as she clearly knew how expensive the food is in the system shop.
"That's strange, it says there are no results for 'U' one roast whole chicken with rice" Mrs. Mapa told Clay.
"Huh? How come? Well, then uhh, search for roast whole chicken with rice?" Clay told his Mom to try again because maybe the U-1 was getting in the way.
A moment passed as Clay was waiting for his Mom to tell him what she saw when something that he had forgotten could happen, happened.
*Ding!*
<|$^)%#$%'s Gift| activated, host is invulnerable for 7 seconds>
Clay's eyes widened. Then he looked around, trying to check if time had stopped again. His hunch was correct as he saw that his mother was frozen still like a statue.
'It happened again, but why now? Could there be a pattern to this that I don't understand?' Clay who was suddenly reminded of the existence of some otherwordly force that could stop time at seemingly any time, wanted to find out if there was a pattern to this in order to gather useful information about the phenomenon.
At this point a second had already passed, giving Clay some time to observe his surrounding more to see if there was any detail that stood out.
First, he observed the living room he was currently in.
'Nothing unusual here except the grey color that's everywhere'
4 seconds left.
Next, Clay looked outside as he figured that nothing particularly stood out in home.
'It's a bit too much trying to find anything weird outside whilst also trying to remember every small detail with only a few seconds to check things out, I guess I really can't find anything useful this way' Clay sighed as he went back to his previous position before his ability activated.
0 Seconds left.
The world soon returned to its bright normal colors.
"Clay... The price is still 100 SC, not the 2 SC you mentioned" Mrs. Mapa was slowly losing her patience.
"What? Then how come... Are you sure you searched it right this time?" Clay tried confirming.
"Yes, everything's correct, except I don't have the 'U' one that you were saying"
"Hmm, that might actually be the reason why the prices are different" Clay needed to know why the U-1 wasn't appearing on his mother's system.
"Are you sure of that? Not just some excuse you created to avoid getting lectured on how to properly spend SC?" Mrs. Mapa raised one of her brows.
"Yeah, I'm sure, why would I even spend 100 SC on food anyway? Even I know that" Clay defended himself.
"I'll take your word for it then, just don't buy food often, okay?" Mrs. Mapa sighed as she gave up on pursuing the matter.
"Does that mean we can eat now?" Belle who was just watching finally talked.
"I guess?" Clay replied as he glanced at their Mom who gave a subtle nod.
"Let's dig in then!" Belle seemingly teleported to the table as she wanted to get dibs on the wings of the chicken.
Clay smiled seeing his sister's antics.
'From now on, Mom wouldn't have to worry food anymore, since I can just buy them food from the system shop, I don't even know where to spend all my SC anyways' Clay sat down.
What followed was a breakfast with tons of laughs and smiles.
...
..
.
'It's good that I can leave on a happy note, it would really suck if we were all angry with each other before I left, I'm glad that worked out well'
Clay was on his bed staring blankly at the roof while thinking about what had happened at breakfast in the morning.
'It should still be about thirty minutes before I leave, but I better go there early or I might miss something important'
Clay got up and wore his bag and left his home after saying his goodbyes to his family.
"Stay safe, Clay!" Mrs. Mapa waved at Clay as he headed to the village hall.
"You too, Ma!" Clay waved back at her.
'Ahh, sometimes walking feels better than just teleporting everywhere, hmm, I wonder if Josh is already there, he's not really the type to show up early to things' Clay clicked his tongue as he didn't want to be standing alone over at a corner awkwardly because he didn't have anyone to talk to besides Josh.
Little did Clay know that as he was walking he was also being observed by someone with malicious intent.
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