Leaving for Lunch was actually just Luca's way of checking out the food in the cafeteria. And because he was broke, all he could do was look around.
In fact, he was now in debt, so he could not afford to get his meals from there.
Ollie did say that meals would be free once Luca was fully enrolled, but Luca didn't want to risk it. What would happen if he missed a step and was denied a meal?
He couldn't keep on expecting people like Ollie to save him left and right.
Luca wanted to verify his conjecture, so he walked around with an apple from his space to compare it with the fruits in the cafeteria.
The local apples were similarly red in appearance, and their skin was free of imperfections, much like how the people preferred their perfect-looking bananas back in Tesseris.
But only his apple would shimmer when he tried looking for energy traces.
"Host, it seems like there's no spiritual energy in any of their meals. I wonder how they recover their spiritual powers?" D-29 chimed in her brain.
"Are you unable to check on something like that?"
"Apologies, Host. My abilities are still locked. I should be able to use more functions once the barrier is lifted."
Yeah, there was that too. Luca told D-29 to wait until the Spiritual power assessment was over. Since he still needed all the energy that he could possibly gather.
I'm dead if I fail that. Luca couldn't help but imagine failing it on the second try. He was actually just lucky the test got interrupted mid-way.
The Duke may have some contingency plans, but an E-grade would definitely call for everyone's attention on him. It was bad enough that he got in by virtue of his birthright, but having an E-grade rank would be just as bad.
But Luca understood where the Duke was coming from.
The original Luca had nothing at all. So, an E-rank was actually more than enough in case someone attempted to check. At least no one was going to expect anything from him.
Luca tried to understand the mindset of his new relatives, but he couldn't understand how they sent him here without a single Star coin!
What were they thinking about sending an invalid into the wild without a guardian or some money?
However, from what Luca remembered, he supposedly had a guardian and a double body. They all came together, but why was he left alone here?
Luca's mind couldn't cope with too many things, so he just focused on his market research.
Yes, market research. Luca needed money. And for someone who's got no capital, all he's got was his space.
At first, he thought of selling his pills. But he was not sure about the policies of selling medicines without permits. He didn't want to be sent back into prison in this life as well.
Then he thought about selling some fruits. He had a few crops in his space, but they were beyond the barrier for now, so all he had were the closest apple trees.
"Host, where are you planning to sell the apples?"
"I did a bit of research. I could set up an online store on credit. I just have to make sure to set my details to anonymous."
"Will that be safe?"
"It's just a few apples; it's not like I could take over the world with them."
It would be much later in the future, but maybe D-29 was right to ask about that.
As expected of such an advanced era, the online shopping experience was well-developed and high-tech. Products could even be scanned via the terminal for authentication.
Luca would have to pay for the service, but it would save him the hassle of arguing with doubtful customers.
Opening the shop would cost about 3,000 Star coins, while the authentication was set at 1,000 coins per product listing.
He actually wondered how the administrators planned on combating scammers when they could just authenticate one item while selling something else if the authentication was per listing.
But then he learned that the delivery drones could check the products based on their authentication stats. If they were subpar and out of a certain tolerable range, they would be rejected upon pick-up.
"How convenient." This would have solved most of his concerns about online shopping. Not that he had many opportunities to shop as Lucas.
After further market research, Luca realized he needed to apologize to Ollie. His entire meal was 150 Star coins, but that apple he gave him was 100 Star coins by itself. And he had the gall to look ungrateful.
100 Star coins were because the Academy heavily subsidized the food of the students. The Military had allocated a sizable budget to ensure that the future cadets would have well-balanced meals.
Luca was shocked to see each apple being sold for 300 to 1,000 Star coins, depending on where the apple was from.
"Host, isn't that extortion? How come they're selling apples for such prices? And I believe most, if not all, wouldn't even have any spiritual energy in them?"
"I have no idea, but this should work for us. Let's launch some at an opening discount. We'll do both individual packages as well as sell a few in bulk."
That night, a young man flitted around his space, trying to collect some apples for his newly opened online shop.
"Host, what about picking the worst kind of apple for the authentication?"
"Hmm… Good idea, if we do that, at least we won't have a problem with the quality. We should be safe from rejected goods."
D-29 rejoiced upon being useful. For a while, it had been too scared to do anything, given the mood of its Host. But now, it was confident about being able to help.
Luca harvested only a few crates of apples, intending to sell only a few in case demand was too low.
Although there weren't many competitors, he still wasn't sure about the viability of his plan.
But if he were being honest, his goal was to keep the fruits attached to the trees longer so they would receive more energy.
Luca's space kept items as fresh or better than when they entered. The concentration of energy preserves the biodegradable items, so even if he harvested the apples, they would've been fine. But he wanted to see whether they would improve once he opened more of his space.
The products were posted an hour before curfew. His original price was 800 Star Coins per apple and 9000 Star Coins per dozen, but he planned to offer a 35% discount for a week.
"Three hundred apples should be enough for now. We could sell a bit more, but if we sold too much in one go, we'd look like we owned an apple orchard."
D-29 supported Luca's decision, partly because it was logical and mostly because he didn't want to endanger his safety.
Luca went to bed enjoying the happy feeling of productivity, only to wake up puzzled at the trajectory of his newly opened venture.