I Level Up With In-app Purchases

I Raise With In-app Purchases – 27

EP.27 She Put on the High Heels (3)

Rebecca was a much better character—no, person—than I had initially thought. When I first met her, I saw her as an SSR gacha character. Although many things had changed with the reality patch, I was still more familiar and comfortable with the SSR Rebecca I had seen in illustrations than the real-life Rebecca.

However, after drinking and conversing with them, I could no longer see them as mere ‘characters.’

‘How could I see these people as just characters?’

They were people who talked, laughed, and joked with me. Unlike in a game, where you could reload if you messed up a relationship, you couldn’t do that here. And if I saw them as mere characters, I thought I would be the one who ended up feeling pitiful. Humans are social animals, and no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t completely cut off relationships with people. This meant I was taking my relationships with them seriously.

“Hey!”

“Yeah.”

As mentioned, Rebecca and I met every day at Sasha’s private training ground and spent time together. After retiring, my weight had increased significantly. Exercise was necessary to manage that.

“Have you tried this?”

“What is it?”

Training with Rebecca was a great help to me.

“Idiot, how could you not try this after spending so much money to rent a private training ground? Most people come here just for this. Try it now!”

Maybe it was a bit of a professional habit from working as a teacher, but she seemed to enjoy giving me advice while watching me train. So, I told her to say whatever she wanted, and from that moment on, Rebecca started giving me pointers enthusiastically.

And surprisingly,

– Beep-! –

“Oh! Not bad. Wow~ You’re amazing! With this skill, you’d be in the middle of our class.”

“…Thanks to you.”

Rebecca’s pointers quickly improved my skills. I was quite surprised that my skills could improve at this age. It made me realize how skilled she was.

‘Indeed, the swordsmanship used recklessly in real combat is different from the swordsmanship nobles learn.’

Rebecca also seemed to enjoy seeing her own progress as she followed my instructions consistently.

At first, she gave advice cautiously, but now she was actively involved in my training. From my perspective, there was no reason to refuse her interference. Wasn’t I receiving lessons that only academy students could get? These were pieces of advice that others would love to receive but had no opportunity to.

“You have a lot of experience, right? So, I was skeptical about whether you could correct your bad habits even if I gave you advice. But you fixed them so cleanly, without any fuss, that I was really surprised.”

It’s said that teaching someone who knows nothing is easier than teaching someone with ingrained bad habits. No matter how much you teach, it’s hard to change habits. There’s a reason for the saying, “Old habits die hard.”

“I paid attention.”

I had never received advice on where I was lacking. But for the first time, I met someone who pointed out my shortcomings. Naturally, I had to take that advice to heart.

“If habits could be easily fixed just by paying attention, academy students wouldn’t struggle so much.”

“Is that so? It was easy for me. If you learn a better way, isn’t it natural to use it?”

Strangely, I didn’t find it difficult to change my habits. I thought there was no need to stick to inefficient movements when I had learned a better method. After correcting one bad habit after another, my movements improved so much that I wondered if it was really me.

“Maybe you’re just a good teacher? You are an academy instructor, after all.”

“Hehe, is that so? I’m not bad at teaching, right?”

“Yeah, you’re great. I almost feel guilty receiving this for free.”

While I was worrying about how much to charge her for the high heels, I was receiving her advice without reservation, making my long-lost conscience ache.

‘We’ve become too close.’

I hadn’t intended to get this close, but Rebecca’s friendliness was overwhelming. Look at her now.

She lightly tapped my shoulder as she responds to my word. She controlled her strength so well that it didn’t hurt.

“Hey! This much between friends is nothing.”

“I’d feel less guilty if we exchanged money.”

“It’s really nothing. I just threw out a few words, and you picked them up well. Honestly, I give this kind of advice to people passing by. Your improvement is entirely due to your own efforts.”

Rebecca, more serious than I was, insisted that I shouldn’t feel burdened.

Despite looking like a big sister to anyone who saw her, why was she so kind?

“Still, it doesn’t sit well with me to just take without giving anything in return.”

“Then buy me a meal or something.”

“That’s a given. Come to the general store. I’ll prepare a gift for you.”

“Oh? Right! We were supposed to go to the general store, weren’t we? Can we go today?”

“Of course, that’s why I mentioned it.”

“Oh… Should I ask Sasha if she has time?”

“Sure.”

The general store was perfectly prepared. I had deliberately placed the high heels in a luxurious cage and even put up a sign saying they weren’t for sale. But would something like that make her give up on unique equipment? Rebecca would never give up.

“The training ground is booked until late today, so I don’t think I can make it. What should we do?”

“Oh, what a shame. Should we go tomorrow then?”

“It looks like it will be late for about a week. That person booked it for a week.”

“Well, that’s disappointing. Then let’s plan to go after a week.”

“No, you two go without me. I’ll come later when you invite me. You want to go, right?”

“Ugh, was it that obvious?”

“I’m fine, so you two go ahead.”

Sasha said she couldn’t leave the private training ground because it was booked until late.

“But I’m just going to check out the general store?”

“Exactly, so enjoy the tour and drink moderately.”

Sasha gave Rebecca a look that seemed to ask if she wasn’t going to drink. Rebecca smiled bashfully and turned to me.

“Drinks?”

“Of course.”

Rebecca extended her fist. I clenched mine and bumped it against hers. After a hard training session, a cold can of beer was a must, wasn’t it? Both Rebecca and I agreed on that.

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We headed to the general store with plenty of drinks to match Rebecca’s drinking capacity.

“Oh? There’s a path like this here.”

Since Rebecca worked at the academy, she was naturally familiar with the area around my general store. However, she seemed surprised, as if she had never been to this part before.

“Believe it or not, people do live here.”

I joked, and Rebecca burst into laughter.

“Although it’s a bit secluded, the accessibility isn’t bad. I especially like that it’s close to the academy.”

She seemed to think that with good promotion, students from the academy would find it worth visiting.

“As I already mentioned, please refrain from promoting it. I like it just the way it is now. If more customers come, I’ll either have to hire staff or stay in the store all the time, and that’s a hassle.”

“But shouldn’t you have enough customers to make a living?”

“If I couldn’t make a living, I wouldn’t have opened this general store.”

I had a secret weapon, and selling just that would be enough to live well.

“Well, the path here is too dark. Students might be reluctant to come.”

If I wanted more customers, the first thing I’d need to do would be to install streetlights along the path.

“Come in.”

The exterior of the store looked quite old. But once inside, it was fairly well-organized. I had utilized my experience working in a convenience store to set it up, paying attention to the rows and columns, so it shouldn’t look too shabby.

“Wow~! What’s this! It’s amazing! It looks so nice when it’s this neat! Can I look around?”

“Feel free.”

Before opening the general store, I had visited Ash’s General Store, which was famous among academy students and a place I used in the game. I was curious about how they displayed their items. Even though I wasn’t actively seeking customers, I had a certain attachment to ‘my store.’

The store was old and in a remote location, but the items it handled were on par with those at Ash’s General Store. I could proudly say that I had organized the items much more neatly than Ash’s General Store.

“Are all these weapons on display for sale?”

“Yes.”

“The quality is no joke. The products are top-notch. Seeing that the blades aren’t dull, you must be maintaining them daily, right?”

Maintenance? The system should take care of that. I had never thought about maintaining weapons obtained through in-game purchases. If I thought about it in game terms, it would be like repairing items when their durability decreased.

“More or less.”

“Wow~ If you maintain these daily, a day would fly by. If more customers come, you’ll really have to either hire staff or stay here all the time, just as you said.”

Rebecca first focused on the weapons, then turned her attention to various general merchandise items.

“The variety of items here seems on par with Ash’s General Store.”

“Of course. The quality is good too. If you need anything, just come by.”

“What would a teacher like me need? If I do need something, the academy would provide it.”

“True, there’s probably nothing here that would interest you.”

The items that might catch Rebecca’s interest were stored in the warehouse.

“This place is good enough to recommend to students. Ash’s General Store often runs out of stock because it has so many customers. Sometimes, people leave empty-handed. But here, you probably have plenty of stock since there aren’t many customers.”

“Forget the recommendations. If you can’t find something, just let me know in advance. I’ll get it for you. I can at least do that.”

“Hehe, good service. You know how to run a business! But what’s over there?”

Just when she seemed to have seen everything in the general store, Rebecca showed interest in the warehouse area.

“Can I go in there?”

“That’s the storage for non-sale items.”

“So, I can’t go in?”

Of course, she could. If she didn’t go in and see the items, it would be problematic for me.

“No, you can go in. Just know that nothing in there is illegal.”

“What could be in there for you to say that? Now I’m getting curious.”

Rebecca laughed as she opened the warehouse door. If there had been anything incriminating, I would have stopped her seriously when she tried to enter.

“Oh?”

Rebecca stepped inside and immediately stopped, as if she had discovered something. Although there were other items, the ‘thing’ I had placed there was the most eye-catching. Rebecca’s gaze was fixated on it, as if nothing else existed in the room.

“This… this… what is this?”

It was as if someone had taken Rebecca’s soul and then returned it. She stood there for a while, staring blankly at the item, before stammering and asking me about it. It seemed that the effect shown by Shine applied to other characters—no, other people—as well. Their obsessive desire to own certain items was fortunate for me, as it meant I had to sell these items only to their rightful owners.