Inside the shop

Rei strolled into the store casually as he played with a calculator on the screen of his PET. He was trying to come up with the most effective purchases for what he could afford, but it was proving difficult to afford everything he needed this time around. As he approached the counter with a sigh, he made up his mind and readied the appropriate funds.

"Hey there. I'd like to pick up 4 PowerUPs, 2 process upgrades, a element buster upgrade and a seeking buster upgrade, please."

He fumbled a bit as he readied the zenny for the purchase, making sure he had the right amount before hand.

((10,000 + 3300 + 500 + 1500 = 15,300z ))

"Sure, one moment." Suitachi said as he got up to gather up the upgrades requested, setting them on the counter in a small brown bag. "Here you go."

Rei GET: 4 PowerUPs, 2 Process Upgrades, Element Buster, Seeker Buster
Rei LOSE: 15,300z

"Thanks a lot, haha. This will certainly help out." Rei replied, collecting his purchase and heading for the door. Knowing full well the whole time his navi was getting impatient to upgrade.

"We're here!" Mira cried as she opened the door, much like a child in a candy shop she was excited at the idea of upgrading Nyan to be even more super awesome than before. Her eye's widened as she browsed around the different shelves and stock, completely taken in.

"What is it we came to pick up? you still havn't told me yet." Nyan was a little worried about that, as the last time that happened Mira was planning to edit her graphic coding even further.

"Oh don't worry! We're just making you a bit faster that's all. You gotta be fast fast fast to get you stronger!"

Mira just hummed to herself as she finished up browsing, ultimately not finding anything she wanted that she could actually afford.

"Hi there! I'll take a speed upgrade and 2 P.U.'s for my navi. This should be enough right?" Presenting 5300z in advance.

* 5000 + 100 + 200 = 5300 *

"Yes, that should be right," said Suitachi, flipping through the zenny bills and stacking them into his register. A few moments later, Mira was presented with the upgrades she requested, along with a courteous "Thank you, and have a nice day."

Mira GET: Speed Upgrade, 2x Process Upgrade
Mira LOSE: 5300z

"Thanks a lot mister! This is gonna be great haha." Mira exclaimed, as she took the purchased goods in hand. "Time to get to work!"

With that, she fled the shop in a hurried fashion, eager to get to work on powering up Nyan.

"Hey! Watch it!" Roger exclaimed, as he narrowly avoided getting bowled over as Mira tore out of the shop. Leaning lightly on his cane, he walked up to the counter and inquired, "Pardon me sir, do you happen to have any Element Shot upgrade programs in stock?" In his pocket, Gretchen could be heard quietly singing.

"I'm gonna' get some poison, I'm gonna' get some poison..."

Roger rolled his eyes. "Sorry about her..."

(Buying: Element Shot - 500z)

If it weren't for his finely honed senses, Hector would have been utterly annihilated by the flung open door, courtesy of one cat loving operator, by taking one more step. But he didn't, and thus held open the door for himself to get through.

"...I think she knocked your hinges a little loose. Just as an FYI." Casually, the Whazzapian walked over next to the other customer, since it wasn't like Suitachi couldn't handle multiple customers at once, especially when they were the only two customers in the entire store. "And I'm afraid I won't be paying for any future repairs, either...I'll just have 3 Process Upgrades."

-------------

Process Upgrade 2 - 200z
Process Upgrade 3 - 300z
Process Upgrade 4 - 400z

Total: 900z

With the thunderous Mira exit, Suitachi found himself cringing as he watched the door sustain the beating and two more customers pop in. Putting on his best smile, he raised his hand, saying "Just a sec, thanks," and looked around the counter displays. He extracted the requested upgrades in the blink of an eye, and presented them to their requesters.

"Five hundred for you, and nine for you. Thank you, and have a nice day," said Suitachi, referring to Roger and Hector respectively.

Roger GET: Element Upgrade
Roger LOSE: 500z

Hector GET: Process Upgrade x3
Hector LOSE: 900z

Roger nodded to the newcomer, and counted out the required Zenny. He didn't have a lot, but you needed to spend money to make money, right? "You know, this gentleman might be on to something. Sorry, but could I trouble you for one process upgrade as well?"


(Buying 1 Process Upgrade: 100z)

"Gracias." With nothing but a single word in his native tongue, Hector grabbed his goods, and left the store without so much as another sound, save for those the door made. And even that wasn't much, considering how gently he handled it. If he did what that girl did, he'd probably send it flying off its hinges.

An uneasy feeling of guilt churned in Daemon's gut as he walked through the doors to scilab. the reason... there really wasn't one other than the fact that the last time he had been here a simple scan of his ID Card allowed him access to back rooms, research facilities, and high tech computers for official business. now... well he was nothing more than a customer only able to "Legally" make minor adjustments to his navi through these civilian "upgrades" where before a few hours codding work and his official signature granted all the programs he needed. A quick shudder cleared his mind of where his life had gone, back to reality. Striding up to the counter he found one person in front of him in line, not bad it'll probably be just a minute...

...(time)...

"Hey, I'll take 4 Process upgrades. I believe that's 1000 Ƶenny correct?" (pulling out the appropriate dough)

"No, no trouble at all, sir," waved off Suitachi, as a Process Upgrade materialized itself in his hand, which then promptly went to its proper place on the countertop. He then turned to tend to his second customer, who had turned up to "Yes, four process upgrades--"

"Hold it!"

An unexpected appearance of a holographic projection depicting a blue Navi interrupted the shopkeeper's affirmation. "... TempoMan, what are you doing?" said Suitachi, creasing his forehead slightly. The uninvited Navi smirked, and pointed forward with a smug expression. "I have come forth with my sharp Navi-detection skills to inform you that your Navi does not have the proper level requirements for this purchase! Ho!"

TempoMan then stood there for a good couple of seconds awkwardly, then let down a big breath. "Haa, okay, that's all, go on with your lives," the Navi said, turning around and disappearing into thin air.

Roger GET: Process Upgrade
Roger LOSE: 100z

Daemon was now kicking himself for not remembering the Process Upgrade limit for civilian navis. Placing the new total on the table daemon returned the rest of the money to his pocket then took the PU and slightly flustered said, "Thank you.".
Then turned and left the building.

[Back to DenTech.]

With a smile and a nod, Roger gathered his new programs and headed out, being exceptionally careful with the door.

"We're here!" Teruko announced, stepping off the bus with her compatriot,the fake Von Derzel. She herself was still dressed like a chubby pink mastadon park mascot, albeit one with a human head instead of a elephant one. She had long since removed that headgear to allow her head more freedom and easier breathing. "Come on, let's get Dare some better upgrades than that stupid puke one you bought," she encouraged Bruce, dragging him out behind her

Ordinarily, she'd have jogged in, but with the unwieldy combination of dragging Bruce along and wearing a fat mammoth costume, that wasn't happening. "Hey, Suitachi! I wanna buy all the HP upgrades and process upgrades I can get for Ante. How about... 3 HP and 4 PUs?" she asked, laying all of her money on the table.

((1250+1500+1750+500+600+700+800
=7100 zenny for HP 2-4 and PUs 5-8))

"I didn't buy a puking upgrade, it was free! Like you didn't download a thousand dumb apps when you first got your Navi." Bruce thought he was making a safe assumption, but after he thought about it, could he really picture Ante subjected to that sort of silliness? Well... yeah, this was the operator who just adopts a Navi that inexplicably pops up on an unattended PET in a locker room.

"Speaking of spur-of-the-moment decisions that probably screw up Navis, I have no idea what I'm gonna get..." Bruce ran his hand through his hair as he read all sorts of labels he couldn't understand. "Well, there we go!" Bruce figured he'd come up with the perfect surprise. "Speed's gotta be the ticket. And you know it's gotta be good cause it's like five times the cost of all this other junk! I'll get that and some of these puppies so I can... upgrade my processes!" Fake it till you make it.

((5000 for Speed 1 and 100 + 200 + 300 for PU 1-3))

Oddly, as soon the pair were in the shop, Suitachi came in from the back room, carrying two small boxes, and with a slightly worried expression on his face. He immediately brightened as he heard the orders, though. "Huh, what a coincidence. I have here two boxes, each containing those exact orders! You don't really need the story behind them, though. It'd probably just bore you, anyway. Here you go!" He presented a box in front of each, starting with the mammoth girl (ladies first!), and accepted their money in exchange.

Teruko LOSE: 7100z
Teruko GET: HPMemories 2, 3, and 4, Process Upgrades 5, 6, 7, and 8

Bruce LOSE: 5600z
Bruce GET: Speed Upgrade 1, Process Upgrades 1, 2, and 3

Teruko's narrow eyes momentarily widened with surprise at their good fortune. As she started pouting and panicking, they closed back again. "Noooo! You gotta tell me, Suitachi! I'm not gonna be able to sleep tonight cause I'll be thinking about that mystery!" she pleaded, her upward-tail bobbing back and forth as she thrust herself across the desk towards him.

"Ahem! Let's not bother Suitachi now that our transaction is complete. Thank you very much for your time, sir," Ante interjected, wishing she could be out of the PET with Teruko to drag her back when her operator did embarrassing things.

"Okay... I would pay him for the story but I just spent all of my extra money," Teruko sobbed, walking out of the store dejectedly.

Still, all was not lost. Now that they were done navi shopping, they could get down to the fun stuff. Teruko would share her greatest guilty pleasure with Bruce, something she hadn't done in longer than she would have liked... "Let's get something to eat! Neither of us lost the bet, so I guess we just pay our own meals. You pick, unless you want a great veggie restaraunt? I don't think you've leveled up enough to want a veggie dinner yet, though. Brucey probably wants hamburger," she giggled.

"... Actually, I had better go change first. E-mail me later though so we can get together! It's THOTTA@dentchmail.net! Don't forget!" she finished. With that, she jogged (mammoth suit be damned) down to the next metroline train leaving and took off for her apartment in Electown.

((Leaving for Electown))

"Oh, I bet it's a pretty standard first time purchase, huh?" Bruce commented, rubbing his chin as he accepted the goods. "Yeah, I'll pass on any boring stories, but thanks for the upgrades. I gotta go catch up with that jogging mammoth, later pal!" Bruce grabbed his purchase and turned to follow Teruko.

"Anyway, yeah, I'm starving. And yeah, since I'm actually hungry for food, you can bet I've got something in mind other than a great veggie restaurant! I could eat a whole burger joint right now."

"Hey, I think you owe Teruko one... we couldn't have won the competition without her and Ante." Dare piped up, having started to listen in once she realized the upgrades apparently weren't going to instantly pop into the PET if she sat and waited for them.

"This is my red blood at stake here, Dare. A guy like me needs protein to function in his line of work," Bruce pointed out, although keeping it quiet because hell if he needed a lecture on how you could get protein from asparagus or some nonsense. "Yeah, Teruko, I'll e-mail you later. My address is... uh... I'll e-mail you, so go change. Sounds good!" Bruce tried to smooth over his error, as he was pretty sure he hadn't set up an address yet. Raising one hand in the air as a kind of wave, he turned and headed for a different bus... he had to get back to the park, since he'd driven himself.

"Bruce!" Dare popped in with a loud whisper, conveying she had something secret to say but needing to convey it at the current volume. "If you're trying to get serious with Teruko, this is the perfect opportunity...!"

"Hold up, who ever said I was trying to get serious with anyone? Are you sure you aren't just trying to get serious with Ante?!" Bruce retorted.

"I told you you've got that wrong..." Dare pinched her brow between her glasses. "Look, do you want my help or not? This is the time when having a Navigator and the power of the Net at your fingertips can be a big help! Just let me work my magic."

"... You really think you can find some miracle place that will satisfy both of us? I am seriously jonesin' for meat here, but I get the feeling Teruko would rather go munch on that dinosaur jungle."

"Is that a challenge? Nobody can find a good restaurant faster than me! Just you wait..." Dare began her high-tension restaurant search as Bruce boarded the bus to start his journey home.