The Arcade Series

It turns out that the Guild Master worked fast on arranging things for our deal. The first day of the Guild deal was very busy with my new customers, explaining how things worked several dozen times, people buying snacks for while they were playing in the arcade, then the eventual sale of about a dozen tier one artifacts to various parties. But when I closed the shop for the day, slightly haggard but otherwise cheerful, an interesting bonus for the day's work appeared on an Arcade System screen.

“Congratulations! Your current location’s reputation has increased to Level 2. New Arcade System products have been unlocked and added to the store.” The system read out for me and making me tilt my head.

I had honestly forgotten that there was a reputation system in place… That had been mentioned, once? Though in all honesty I haven't used the Arcade System much at all, being too caught up with this world and the impending invasion. Though now that I think about it… I don't really know what's going on in the first place. That should have come up before, but I had just made a lot of assumptions… That was always a small problem for me, though for some reason I am usually right in assumptions I make.

I really need to talk to someone about the situation in detail. Though first I should at least check out the system store to figure out if something interesting or useful appeared that I could use. I haven't used all my resources effectively, but I can start trying to correct myself.

I should not start bad habits with that kind of thing in my quite possibly very long life, as my lifespan was increased dramatically according to the description of Managers Body. I just had to not let myself be killed… I could be selfish and prioritize myself over the town and the people of this world, but I was always a good man in my heart and I knew for a fact that I could not stand aside and do nothing. Besides, doing that would be bad for business. I doubt a typical undead would like to play videogames and eat pizza.

With that in mind, I opened the system store and started reading through the various products available with an appraising eye.

The level two Store Defensive Measures mostly weren't much of an increase in capabilities, with the options usually just a straight improvement to the level one stuff, but there were a few interesting options. A forcefield, a mental influencing effect to influence people to decrease aggression while inside the building and a small addition to the building of a small survival bunker, though I wasn't quite sure how effective a bunker would be. The options were all expensive compared to everything else of course, all of the useful stuff being in the two thousands range. Not that it was that expensive really, but comparatively it was.

The list of level two Shop Appliances was a bit long, as it looked like an increase to what is available in terms of designs and strength, but I read it through quickly anyways. There wasn't much there that I was interested in though, so I moved onto the next tab.

The Shop Stock tab was longer than any of the others. It looked to be just an increase to what different products are available for the Arcade and the cafe, with full meal generators being available now alongside a rank twelve magical artifact generator and the ranks before it. Though I somehow doubted that anybody would be able to earn… hang on, I forgot about my question of how much I could discount the prices… I need to test that to see if it would be worth it to buy the higher ranks before I make any decisions.

I opened the Shop Furniture tab up next and looked it over, only to sigh as I saw that level two had just unlocked a bunch of variant furniture and not anything useful so I moved on to the Open a New location tab, looking at it for a second before I realized that nothing had changed so I moved on once again to the Personal Defensive Measures tab.

This time, the new options available for purchase was quite an improvement but I realized how much I had been neglecting the Arcade System store. I looked and I could see things that could give me an incredible boost in combat that I had completely forgotten existed.

A low powered force field to deflect attacks on me, a basic drone with guns built in, a low healing aura for any injuries that were inflicted on me inside the store, and that was just the level one stuff. The level two stuff added quite a bit on top of that, including a healing ability that would passively heal my injuries when I entered the store no matter how I had been injured and a short range teleport ability to kick attackers outside my Arcade along with more basic upgrades.

I could only shake my head at seeing everything that was listed and cursed myself for not taking advantage of the system store as soon as I got money.

The Shop Addons and Options tab added quite a bit as well, and as I looked at it I realized that there was quite a bit in this section as well. The sub shop part had expanded quite a bit, while there were only three options available to buy before there was now a good six. They all cost between a thousand and four thousand however, so I could use up all the money I could reasonably spend on a new sub store like a gym or a smithy. The Theme tab was blacked out so I couldn't do anything with that, but the Extra Services was what I opened up next.

For some reason when I had opened up this tab, there wasn't much level one stuff that caught my attention besides the VR chair. But there were a good three other level one things that were just as interesting now that I was looking properly. There was the odd thing like massage chairs and stuff, but I ignored that all as focused on the useful stuff.

Slight healing atmosphere, with its level two ‘basic’ upgrade alongside it, the non-euclidian interior expansion, and the last option called transportation room. The first is self explanatory alongside the second, but the third made me read the description a few times before I fully understood it. It basically makes a room in the back of the store where I can choose to teleport to once a day. There was a level two version of this that included a transportation hub for between my locations irrespective of the universal boundaries, but that wasn't useful to me right now.

But that was basically all that I could see as being useful or an option to consider spending my savings on.

Oh, actually I nearly forgot to check on how much I actually had available to spend.

Store Menu

Current balance: 12060$

…huh. I haven't checked my balance for a while and with the eight thousand that I had received from the Guild Master alongside my normal income from the Arcade, without any expenses at all… I had gotten quite a bit of cash. Though I would have to keep eight thousand for a new location just in case, meaning that I only had four thousand and sixty dollars I could spend on anything. That was still a good bit for the system though.

Now that I had cleared that up however, I moved onto the last two tabs in the Store. Employee Shop first.

Basic AI employee, Robotic Employee, Golems and Shadow Guards were the level one employees I could buy, but even those alone would likely be worth it. AI and Robot combo and Golems sounded like more basic store and maintenance workers, but Shadow Guards… according to its description it can teleport through shadows, looks like a slenderman made of shadows, and on top of that it doesn't need sustenance or rest… but it has no mind of its own and can only follow simple orders. Basically it sounded overpowered and exactly the type of thing that would make an incredible guard or soldier. It was concerningly cheap however. Four hundred was not nearly enough for something with a description like that, there had to be something that the description didn't mention that made the price drop.

The level two stuff had its own different things on top of all that, so I looked at them before I decided anything. A sentient AI… that was probably fine? A sentient gremlin named The Inventor with an incredible description saying he was supernaturally smart and inventive, being an artificer with hundreds of skills being honed by it over centuries… but oddly, that seems to reference this Inventor used to be alive before…

That was the end of specific employees, but there was one last thing that was interesting on the list. Summon Employee. The description read that it summoned a suitable employee from an afterlife. What that meant exactly, I did not know. But it did sound useful for normal job positions unlike the other specialized employees. It cost a thousand dollars, but that was less than the gremlin’s two thousand.

That was the end of that list so I moved onto the Abilities Shop eagerly. I didn't quite remember everything that was available, but I did remember I thought there was some incredible stuff. Then I looked it over and I deflated. There were five level one abilities available a lot less then I seemed to remember. Slightly enhanced brain power, empathy, slight telepathy, slight telekinesis and slightly enhanced body. The descriptions also seemed to make me feel that they were only a slight increase in ability… The level two stuff wasn't much better either. With the ‘slightly’ abilities having a ‘basic’ level two upgrade for a higher price in the thousands.

There were a few new options however. Basic short range teleportation being one of them, alongside basic situational adaptation and basic world information gathering. Those last two abilities made up for the initial disappointment. Though they were two thousand dollars each. I was really in dire need of information and adapting.

That was the last of the System Store however, so I turned my mind to what I should spend my cash on while I walked to the counter and took out paper and pencil to start doing the math and deciding what I should get.

So that was how the first half an hour of my evening was spent. Eventually I decided upon my course of action however, and I looked at my list of my choices before doing anything. I chose the Transportation Room for eight hundred dollars, Basic World Information Gathering for two thousand and finally Summon Employee for a thousand.

That left me with eight thousand two hundred and sixty dollars. Probably just enough for the bare minimum for a location in another universe.

I decided to buy the Transportation Room and the Basic World Information Gathering first, before I summoned a new Employee from wherever. That way I could focus on my new employee when I summon them and explain everything without having to worry about buying anything else. So I entered my purchases into the System Store quickly.

The Transportation Room was simple to buy and set up, with the screen letting me place it beside the staff room with a door leading to it in the wall. I went back to examine it the second I had bought it, walking through into the staff room for the first time in quite a while. It was just like it was when I designed the room, with the exception of the new black painted door in the left side wall that instantly drew my attention. I walked up to it and opened it up quickly to take a good look.

The room was almost completely black with hints of white here and there, but not because of darkness as there was a magical light floating by the ceiling like in the rest of the arcade. It was because of the material that this room seemed to be made of. The entire room, from the floor to the ceiling and walls was made completely of black marble. Like someone took a block of black marble and carved a room out of it.

There was a small raised platform in the center of the room as well, but it was black as well. Though it was definitely metal and plastic instead of marble. The platform itself was a spitting image of what I had expected a typical teleport pad would look like, with hexagonal base, handrails and what looked to be a simple rectangle raised up at the back of the platform with an odd handprint shape engraved on its top.

It was as I looked at the inside of the room that I got a notification from the Arcade System as the system screen appeared and started reading the notification to me.

“To link the Transportation Platform to yourself and allow teleportation to this location, place your hand in the handprint on the control panel.” The system instructed, and causing me to blink and making my face twist into a smile of amusement before walking into the room and doing as the system instructed.

Nothing particular seemed to happen as my hand fitted inside the handprint on the control panel. Until the system began to relay another notification.

“Linking…” The system droned, three dots blinking as the system seemed to be doing something. I waited patently, standing on the platform while I watched the screen float in front of me. It wasn't long before the system screen started relaying yet another notification though. “Linking and calibration complete. To be teleported to the Transportation Platform, simply give the command to be teleported or transported to this location.” The system explained and causing me to withdraw my hand curiously.

I paused for a second before I decided to test the room before I moved onto my next purchase. I walked outside the room back into the staff room before I stopped. “Teleport me into the Transportation Room.” I gave the command, standing straight and wondering how it would work.

Then I was inside the room. I didn't feel a thing. It was a very strange feeling, but my body didn't seem to react to the instant teleportation at all. I knew that I was just teleported, but at the same time I didn't really feel strange. Truly odd.

But I knew it worked now, so I left both the Transportation Room and the staff room to sit down at the counter again, pulling up the system store for my next purchase, the Basic World Information Gathering for two thousand dollars. I purchased it without any problems at all, then I waited for something to happen. Then I fainted.