After the call, he called the nurse back and asked if he could have breakfast since he was really hungry, so she quickly went and got him something to eat.
While he was eating, she began to explain to him what he could do and what not. She also gave him some tips for his wound to heal quicker. He thanked her, and she went back out of the room.
He ate the rest and relaxed a little; he did feel slightly better now that he at least had a full stomach.
He laid back down and relaxed for quite some time; in the end, he fell asleep and felt a little more refreshed after waking up.
He then carefully sat up and began to stretch his body. From the corner of his eye, he could see a bar going up, which stood for how much stretching he had done. It took longer than in the description, but that was because he was being extra careful to not worsen any of his wounds.
Afterward, he did some breathing exercises; he had once tried meditation, but he just did exactly that right now since he didn't know what breathing exercises he needed to do, and this seemed to work.
The breathing exercises were easier, and he didn't have that many problems doing them; this definitely took less time than the stretching. He was happy when he was done with the two tasks, and he then slowly and carefully stood up.
It seemed like the walking requirement was accustomed to his current physical status since he only needed to walk some small rounds in the room itself. He had even thought of doing the fitness tasks, but he quickly discarded these thoughts and did the last bit of walking to get the reward. The walking was already painful enough, which was why he really slowly and carefully crept through the room.
It didn't take too long till he was done with the last task, and shortly after he felt a tingling across his whole body; some parts felt a little like ants were walking all across, but Lucien knew that this was a good sign since it meant that the effect was taking place.
He sat down at the side of the bed, and just as he wanted to lay back down, another middle-aged nurse came in. She was surprised to see him up, but she quickly rushed over and began to berate Lucien for standing up, saying that he needed to have more rest or else he would decrease the recovery of his wounds.
She came to bring him his lunch. He did not have the money to buy anything too fancy, so sometimes he would just eat one ramen for the entire day or similarly small meals. This made him feel a little embarrassed, since the food that he got here was better than what he would usually eat at home.
These meals were pure luxury for him, so he quickly wolfed all of the food down. The nurse, who still stood there and saw him gobble up his food, felt quite shocked but also pity; she could guess what kind of life he had, to have these kinds of injuries even before, and he was also so skinny.
She told him to slow down and that no one would take anything away from him, to which Lucien relaxed slightly. After he was done, she took his empty plate and told him to rest up before walking out of the room.
Just as Lucien closed his eyes, he heard the door open back up. There he saw two police officers standing, the one in the front who seemed to be the higher-ranking of them both. He took the initiative and asked if they could come in and ask him a couple of questions. It wouldn't take long; he would soon be able to rest, but it was pretty important to ask these questions when the happenings were still fresh, and he could remember everything best.
Lucien allowed them inside, and they began by asking him to narrate what happened from the start. Lucien began the story with him walking and hearing the scream of the woman. He continued explaining what happened in detail, and as he recalled all the facts, he felt that he was just so pathetic to have fallen for this trick. He especially felt a shudder run down on his back when he recalled the maniacal laugh of the woman after stabbing him in the back. The moment he saw the expression on her face and her laugh, he knew that she enjoyed it immensely, which strongly disgusted Lucien.
The cops were also slightly surprised when they heard this detail. Lucien continued his narration, and afterward, he answered some more questions, for example, how they looked. He remembered that they were already aware of their appearances, but he still described them as accurately as he could.
Soon after, the police officers excused themselves and told him to rest up and wished him a fast recovery. They told him to contact them if he remembered anything else.
Lucien was exhausted from his conversation with the police officers, so he laid down and slept soundly until his dinner was served by the young nurse from before.
The police officers had returned once, but they did not stay long, only asking a few questions before leaving.
The police officers had also come back one time, but they weren't there for long and just asked a couple of questions before going back.
Lucien wasn't that happy, since he had little time to prepare and finish the customer satisfaction mission that he got, so he was actually even somewhat stressed.
He had contacted the employee who was listed in the contract and told him some things that he should do. That was relatively simple to accomplish because he had already been informed of the temporary change in ownership; otherwise, Lucien would have had an issue.
He continuously had to ask the nurses for their phones since he didn't have one anymore, which greatly annoyed him, but he couldn't change it and had to somehow contact the employee to get done what needed to be done.
In the end, since he couldn't go there, he had asked for him to show it through a video call. After seeing the interior, he decided to rearrange the layout and the placement of the products. He produced a list outlining how it should appear and where it should be placed. The employee was not pleased when he heard that, but Lucien promised him a tip, so he gave in.
He had arranged for the shop to have a special event where there would be discounts on items and free samples placed throughout the shop; he had also ordered some banners, posters, balloons, and similar stuff to decorate and promote the store; he had even ordered some flyers that he ordered the employee to distribute on the day before the opening. He had tried to advertise it as much as possible, but in the end, it would depend on how much luck he had.
To buy everything, he used the investment check, which he was initially unsure how to use, but the last time he had it in his hand, he received a system notification asking if he wanted to use it, which he did this time; once accepted, he received another notification stating that the bank connection had been added to his bank. The system had actually created a separate account in his name for the investment capital, making things a little easier.
Everything was a little rushed since he was under pressure because of the time limit, but he had no other choice; he just hoped that everything worked because he desperately wanted the mission rewards.
The day of the event, he left the hospital early and went to his apartment to put on the neatest clothes that he had. He then went to the shop to do the final preparations. Before starting work on the sample booths, he reorganized some things and made the discounted items more noticeable.
Soon the employee came; he was called Tom. When he first came inside and only Lucien was there, he carefully asked if he was Mr. Wilson, which Lucien affirmed. Tom had a shocked expression on his face before he quickly composed himself. He had probably thought that the new temporary owner would be a middle-aged man.
Tom was just a part-timer who needed the money, but Lucien's first impression of him was positive. He could easily communicate with him, and Tom also attentively listened to everything that he explained, so Lucien got a positive impression of him. Lucien only hoped that he was as skilled at communicating with customers.
It was not long before they opened the store's doors. When Lucien opened the doors, he hoped it had succeeded, but he saw no one outside.
He tried to convince himself that it was only like that since it was still really early and that the customers would come later, but he wasn't that confident, so it didn't seem to work.
After a while, they finally had their first customer, and they began to escort her through the store, letting her try samples and explaining it as best as they could while staying friendly. In the end, she seemed satisfied and bought some of the samples that she tried, as well as some other products from the store.
When he first got the mission, he was nervous and thought that he wouldn't be able to make anything out of it, that he would fail the mission. Why did he believe he would fail? Because the previous owner was more experienced, he believed he had no chance. The last owner had similarly failed, so why should he succeed?
But as he looked at the inventory list of all the products, he found that there were a lot of nice and usable items.
He picked them out and let them be used as samples; he knew of some of them since they were local products from Ardenvale that weren't all that well-known in Starcity. So he used the knowledge of these products to his advantage. Ultimately, he used up the full 1000 dollars that he got from the system.
Just before she exited the shop, she thanked them and told them that she would recommend them to her friend group.
Lucien smiled brightly; exactly this was what he needed—recommendations from people who came and gave positive feedback.
As the day went on, the customer flow slowly started to increase. Lucien and Tom were both continuously busy, but the smile on Lucien's face never faded, not even once. Why? Naturally, he was really happy since he saw a thick customer flow and many satisfied faces. This was exactly what he needed.
But he would not be able to think about that for long because one of the customers was well-known; she had thousands of followers on SnapChirp, the most popular social media platform, and she had posted about the convenience store, recommending it to her fans, which increased the number of customers who came.
Lucien hadn't expected this many people to come, so after some time, the samples ran out since he had not prepared enough. He needed to act quickly before losing these consumers who might buy the products, so he developed fresh offers, such as offering a deal in which if they bought one, they would receive one free.
They continued to be super busy till the closing time of the store and had sold off a huge chunk of their whole inventory. Had Lucien expected this much, never. Was he extremely happy, Yes.
And why was he so happy? It was pretty simple—just two words. "Mission accomplished!" While working, he had seen the notification for the completion of the mission, so he was even happier and even infected the customers, which further increased their satisfaction.
Tom was also really good since even though there was such a big rush of customers, he stayed calm and professionally explained everything, guiding the customers through the store.
He gave Tom a big tip before sending him home, afterward, he sat down and calmed himself a little before looking at all the notifications that he had gotten, at some point, he had turned them off since they obstructed his sight and were just in the way.
There was a notification for the mission's completion, followed by two notifications announcing that he had completed the bonus tasks; customer satisfaction was 86 percent, and they served a total of 278 customers that day. Was that believable? No, could he believe it? No, but it was what the system claimed, so it must be true.
He had also gotten another notification after the completion of the mission, which was that he leveled up.
He was now level 1, not level 0 anymore.
He first began to retrieve all the different rewards for the mission.
`System Alert: Rewards collected
Congratulations! You have received the following rewards:
Complete Ownership of Bargain Bin Mart.
50 Exp.
Earned $6.954 ´
`System Alert: Title Effect triggered
Hard Work Pays Off
You have triggered the first special effect of the title "Hard Work Pays Off."
Prepare to test your luck. ´
Just as he was confused about what was happening, a big wheel with numbers from one to ten appeared in front of him. He had an assumption about what it did, but he was still unsure. He quickly turned the wheel, and it clattered as it went quickly before it began to slow down and finally came to a stop on the number 7.
`System Alert: Special Effect Used
Congratulations! Earnings are being multiplied by 7.
Final Earnings: $48.678 ´
"Wow!" he exclaimed, his jaw hanging open in disbelief. It took him some time to calm down and grasp what had just happened. He had just earned as much money as he had ever made from part-time employment in just a few days, thanks to the system. Earning $6.954 through the shop was already a large sum given that he had nearly sold out of the entire shop's inventory during this event. If he did not want to lose anything, he would have to refill them quickly.
He now finally had an idea what the effect of his title was, at least if that was the only effect that it had. But the 'first' makes him believe that there is more than one.
He continued with the last rewards; first he got the extra 10 Exp., then he got the reward for the second bonus, and since he even far surpassed this condition, he got an additional 30 Exp.
Before going back home, he quickly checked his status to see if there were any changes, and there were some small ones. First, probably from leveling up, he now had 3 available points, which he put into intelligence, adaptability, and interpersonal skills after some consideration.
He also saw that his Critical Thinking ability had improved from average to good, possibly because he had to make a lot of crucial decisions rapidly. Still, he was not sure how the system determined whether an ability's competency had increased.