Lucien shot him a slightly furious look but quickly composed himself, motioning for him to lead the way to the office. His expression betrayed a hint of impatience, something uncharacteristic for him, as he was usually more patient. However, the continuous poor treatment he'd been receiving from this agency was wearing on him, gradually irritating him. For a moment, he even contemplated switching to another agency altogether.
The manager did not dare to keep him waiting, so he swiftly led him to his office, where they completed all of the procedures. He had asked the bank for the specifications of his investment bank account, to which he discovered that he had the permission to spend infinite sums if he wanted to; he could spend everything for a single purchase, which was useful in this situation; otherwise, he would have had to contact the bank. Because that was not the case, he was able to pay the full amount of $2.348.656 all at once, which shocked both the manager and Lara; it appeared to them that Lucien considered that amount to be nothing. He did not flinch or do anything in response to the large sum; he simply purchased it, leading them to believe that his net worth was extremely high.
How he suddenly got this much money was very simple; it was the investment check he received, which also explains why he had such an overblown reaction when he realized what the reward for the diamond Lootbox was. In the end, he received a $4.565.312 investment check, but that was not all; he also received a chain of cafés known as Perk Up Cafes. Lucien had seen them before, at Starcity and Ardenvale, but they were neither famous nor successful.
As a result, Lucien had no idea how much they were worth, let alone how many there were. He had just received instructions from the system to obtain the ownership contract with all of the information from the nearest estate business; it appeared that the system could not just summon this contract as it was significantly more valuable than the small convenience store.
So, once he finished purchasing the storage unit, he asked for all of the information that they could provide him to the Perk Up Cafes; they showed him everything that was documented in their system, and Lucien quickly realized that it was far more than he had anticipated.
In Starcity alone were a total of three of these cafes; in Ardenvale, there were two, and there were even more spread across many different cities, small or large; there was almost one in every city.
When the manager heard Lucien mention the Perk Up Cafes, he went to his desk and started searching for something before slowly returning with a large stack of papers.
"So, you were the gentleman who purchased the Perk Up Cafes. Someone arrived today and delivered this stack of paperwork to us, telling us that Mr. Wilson, the owner, will be coming today to pick up the details and the purchase contract. "Who would have guessed it would be this distinguished gentleman?" The manager spoke to Lucien with a fawning smile, too friendly.
Lara was shocked when she heard what the manager said; this was a big fish, and she had worked out a deal with him. 'It looks like today is my lucky day,' she thought to herself. 'All the more proof that you should not judge a book by its cover,' she told herself, smiling. Today, her approach of treating everyone with equal respect was proven correct, which gave her a great deal of happiness.
Lucien was astonished when he heard the story that the manager told him; he did not express it on his face, but it was unusual for him. The mission was not even an hour ago when he received the reward with the cafes; he could only come up with two probable scenarios that seemed to make sense to him.
Either the system could see into the future and knew that he would be able to save the child and collect the reward before anything else happened, implying that the manager's narrative occurred exactly as described.
The second theory is that the system was able to control people's minds and alter their memories. This would imply that it was capable of altering their memories, convincing them to believe in a story, and explaining the unexpected appearance of the stack of papers.
From these two, he considered the second to be the more realistic explanation; however, he found it a little ugly due to the fact that he wasn't fond of the idea that the system had the capability to tamper with people's brains.
Even though he had to admit that the first option also seemed to have some truth in it, since the system knew of the accident before it even happened, which meant that it at least could see the future to some degree.
For now, he couldn't really pinpoint if either of them was right or wrong; he would need to wait and see.
It wasn't like he knew much; he didn't even know why he, out of all the people, had the chance to connect with the system; he also didn't know if there were others like him. He just needed to take this opportunity and use it to the fullest, at least for now.
It's not like dwelling on it would help him in any way since he didn't have any way of confirming his assumptions.
He took the stack of papers from the manager and signed the ownership contract before taking all of the papers with him. He would need some time to look through the big stack of papers, so he thought that it would be more plausible to do it at home.
This time he took a taxi; he didn't want to carry all these papers through public transportation; that would seem quite pathetic, knowing he had the money to just take a taxi.
When he got back home, he took the stack of documents and started going through them. There were many details included, from the statistics to the menu, reports on the financial situation, and details about the shop itself. He began by looking at the statistics.
Huuh!
'187! So many? Why are there so many if they keep losing money?' He was absolutely stunned and perplexed. Why were there so many of them? He had assumed there were only 50; if there were 187, how much were they worth? What was this for an outrageous reward?
He would need to investigate why they were not popular or even moderately successful, not that there were any issues. This situation appears to be significantly more serious and complex than at first glance.
He would undoubtedly need to think carefully about what to do with them, and it would definitely cost a lot of money to transform them into something fresh and distinctive; fortunately, he had the menu. The only thing that he could not be certain of was if the recipes were tasty and would be popular with the public.
But for now, he pushed that to the back of his head, he had no time to worry about that right now, he had enough to do with the new opening of the convenience store and the two missions, as well as the side missions that he sometimes got.
He looked through the rest of the papers, looked at their locations, and noticed that many things made no sense; for example, there was a change of the menu in some cafes, while all the others stayed the same, and there was also almost no expenditure for advertisements.
Furthermore, the documents revealed that the cafés' reputation was always good because of the excellent customer service, but one day everything suddenly changed and the reputation began to deteriorate.
For him, what was written there made no sense; he did not understand what had changed to make it so severe.
He decided to stop reading further and set it aside for the time being; otherwise, he would be constantly worried. He decided to shift his focus back to the convenience store, although that was easier said than done.
Eventually, he would do his best after stabilizing the store, and he decided to call the owner to find out what was buried in these papers. Something had to have happened to cause the cafes to shift so drastically in such a short period of time.
Lucien then thought about the hidden mission he had initiated by assisting Benjamin, the homeless person in front of his store. Once he heard the complete narrative of what had happened to him, the conditions needed for the mission appeared to have been met, and the mission appeared in front of him.
`Hidden Mission: The Good Samaritan
Trigger: Help a homeless person outside the store by giving them food or assistance.
Grade: Random
Objective:
Assist the homeless person in finding a job and stable living conditions.
Rewards:
Community recognition+50 Exp
Time Limit:
none
Bonus Objectives:
Secure a job for the person within 15 days for an additional 20 Exp
Find him housing within 30 days for an additional 30 Exp
Mission Discovered: The Good Samaritan!
Accept Mission? [Yes] [No] ´
He had accepted the mission and given him the money and a second opportunity; he wanted to help him, but if he did not change and reverted to his old ways as soon as he had enough money, it would not be worthwhile, which is why he offered him this ultimatum. He wanted to know if it was worthwhile to give him another chance. Lucien wanted to see if he could actually change.
On December 25th, he celebrated Christmas alone. He was accustomed to this, as he had never had the money to travel back to his family and most businesses were closed. He would usually prepare a slightly better meal, eat, and relax, as many people were celebrating. He received some messages from friends and family but nothing more. In the end, he had a brief call with Lizzie, his aunt, and his uncle, chatting a little before saying goodbye.
After a few days, Lucien looked for Benjamin at a nearby hotel that he had paid for. Benjamin was wearing new clothes and appeared to have gained some weight; he had also had a haircut and showered, which were all positive indicators. In the end, it appeared that Benjamin had changed, so Lucien offered him a second chance, hiring him as an employee for his new shop, and they signed the contract, leaving Benjamin thrilled and even in tears. Lucien was pleased to see that this second chance meant so much to him, as he hoped he had made the correct decision.
For others, it may not seem like a big concern, but Lucien was about to open the shop under a new image, and it was preferable if nothing went wrong; otherwise, it would harm its reputation and cast a negative light on it before it even started.
The mission was done once Lucien paid for a whole month at the hotel for Benjamin; somehow that had counted as him finding housing for Benjamin.
He leveled up to level 2 and opted to give two points to Leadership, which was his lowest stat and would be very useful in his business. He then allocated the final point to Interpersonal skills, which would improve his ability to communicate with others, such as colleagues, customers, and business partners. He also still needed to sign fresh contracts with suppliers in Ardenvale and other places.
With this, he slowly tried to even out his stat window; he had also once tried to raise his luck stat, but he wasn't able to, which made him think that it was a fixed stat that couldn't be increased.
`Stats:
Intelligence: 81
Interpersonal Skills: 65
Innovation: 72
Charisma: 67
Leadership: 58
Adaptability: 80
Luck: 84
Available Points: 0 ´
He then opened the Random Lootbox from his inventory that he had obtained through the mission.
`System Alert: Lootbox (Random) opened
Congratulations! You have received the following rewards:
Skillset bundle ´
He opened the skillset bundle and received two things that were called 'skill coupon' and 'skill upgrade'. Skill upgrade was pretty self-explanatory; at least he thought so. At first he wanted to raise his critical thinking skill, since it was still pretty low but important to expand his business sense. But he didn't; if he was correct, he would gain a new skill via the 'Skill coupon.' He wanted to know what it would be, so he opted to use that one first; all he had to do was think of using it before it dissolved into particles.
`System Alert: Skill coupon used
Congratulations! You have received the following skill:
Insight Beginner (LVL. 1 /5), ´
As soon as he had the skill, he noticed some small changes happening to the system; the system seemed to be showing slightly more information than before, and he could also see a short explanation of the skill this time.
`Skill Insight:
The ability to discern the mechanics of the system and the motivations of individuals. ´
The description was brief, but he was intrigued; if he had interpreted it correctly, this skill may be very useful in the future because it would allow him to learn more about people and the system.
He also attempted to utilize the skill on the 'Skill upgrade', but it only stated, "Used to upgrade a skill," and nothing else. In the end, he decided to utilize it on the new skill that he obtained; it appeared to be the most plausible way to use it.
With this skill at level 2, he was able to notice numerous new things in the system that he had not seen before, as well as more thorough descriptions. When he realized how useful the skill was at a higher level, he immediately stopped regretting his decision and felt confident in his choice.
He began to investigate his status panel once more. He looked at the various descriptions for his stats, which were very boring because he already knew what was said there and learned nothing new. He continued with the skills, which were more interesting now that he could see the effects they had when used.
But what he found most interesting was something else, which he had completely forgotten but was extremely important: his titles. He first looked at the title 'Hard Work Pays Off,' which led to this screen.
`Title 'Hard Work Pays Off'
Effect 1: Wheel of Fortune
Triggers as soon as earnings are registered. Grants a chance to spin a wheel with numbers from 1 to 10, which are the factors by which earnings are multiplied.
Effect 2: Triple Triumph Lootbox
If earnings are tripled from the previous month, a unique lootbox will be provided.´
'Although I am not sure what the rewards are for a unique lootbox, I really want to get one. It seems like I will need to work harder in order to triple my profits from the previous month,' he thought.
He went on to look at his other title.
`Title 'Orphan'
Effect 1: SympathyBoost (10%)
Increases the sympathy or compassion that others feel towards the MC, making it easier to gain allies or receive help.
Effect 2: ResourcefulnessBoost (15%)
Enhances the MC's ability to creatively solve problems, find unconventional resources, or make the most out of limited situations.´
Lucien was satisfied, a faint smile tugging at his lips. "These effects will definitely be helpful. Not only will they aid in connecting with people, but the second effect will also help me make decisions in tight situations." His mind raced as he continued to reflect on how these title effects had probably already helped him several times, even without him knowing.
Although he didn't like being pitied by others, he wouldn't refuse these effects, as they would be helpful both now and in the future.