Navi Net-Shop

((From Neo Shogunate HQ))
After nearly an hour of high-altitude cruising, MachMan had made it all the way from the NS HQ, through SharoNet, and then appeared in the skies above the Internet City. He still hadn't quite figured out the problem in his mind, but the peace and quiet of his trip did an admirable job at calming the Navi down.

As he flew deeper into Internet City Airspace, he saw a few advertisements for the recently opened network branches of the Navi and Chip shops. A brief glance at their zenny count made it obvious they had plenty to spend, so Mach gently banked to steer himself towards the commercial area. Mazer was only occasionally checking up on the Navi, but happened to notice his change in heading. ["Find something interesting?"] he asked. Mach started to descend as he replied, "Some new shops opened up, I'll get some upgrades since it's on the way." Mazer raised his eyebrows and briefly thought about it, then replied ["Fair enough, I'll be here if you need anything."]

Mach angled himself to approach the Navi Shop, careful to avoid the myriad of log-out beams from Navis leaving the shop. While most looked pretty standard, there were a few that appeared to have been customized, including one inky black animation that looked more like a streak of ink or smoke than a beam. He cut his engines just as his skid-like feet touched down, causing the Navi to briefly slide to a stop. His arms unfolded from the undersides of his engine nacelles and assumed a normal walking stride as he made his way inside.

It didn't take long to find the main counter, which was still plenty of time for the Navi to finalize his "shopping list." He approached TempoMan and produced a zenny chip before placing it on the counter. "Hello, I'd like 3 PowerUPs and NC Expansions, 2 Process Upgrades, and a Shield NCP please."


NC Expansion 15-17: (6250 + 6500 + 6750) 19,500z
PowerUP 6-8: (6000 + 7000 + 8000) 21,000z
Process Upgrade 48, 49: (4800 + 4900) 9,700z ((Mach's level: 43 -> 49 with above upgrades))
Shield NCP: 3000z

Total: 53200z
Funds Remaining: 6705z
"Welcome! Just a moment, sir, we'll analyze your current upgrades," said TempoMan cheerfully, as his hand reached for a small keypad next to him, while the other tapped onto the zenny chip laid onto the counter. There was a subtle change over the attendant Navi's expression, before it turned back to his former "customer service" face. In front of MachMan, a host of data orbs materialized, before decrypting themselves to form the upgrade packages that he had requested.

"All right, that should be all of it, sir. Thank you for coming," said TempoMan, deeply bowing to MachMan as he did so.

MachMan GET: NC Expansion x3, PowerUP x3, Process Upgrade x2, Shield NCP
MachMan LOSE: 53200z
Mach's eye watched the Navi through his opaque aircraft canopy-style helmet, mostly out of interest rather than suspicion. This was admittedly his first time ever shopping "in person," and he very briefly wondered if this was anything like the dozens of trips Mazer's made over the years. He picked up the data packets, which quickly fragmented and disappeared as they were downloaded to the PET. "Thanks, have a good one," he said plainly before he turned around and started to make his way out of the store.

((To Chip Shop))
Within the Navi Net-Shop, everything seemed to be running fine, with all of the hustle and bustle of a well-running business. In the middle of the busy activity, an order came into the courier delivery request queue, detailing a small list of items to be handed to the fastest courier they could send to the jungles of the Yumland network's Rogue layer.

Purchase (Terra.EXE):
-- PowerUP (Attack) #1-4 x4 (1000+2000+3000+4000 = 10000z)
-- NC Expansion Upgrade #6 x1 (Currently 1 HPMem, 5 NCExp: 1000+250*6 = 2500z)
Terra's Level: 19 -> 24
-- Process Upgrade #20-24 x5 (2000+2100+2200+2300+2400 = 11000z)

Current Zenny Total: 25025z
Total Price: 23500z
Remaining Zenny: 1525z
TempoMan was steady typing away when Terra approached and made her request.  "Hmm five Process Upgrades, a NC Expansion, and four PowerUps you say?"  The navi bent down and scrumaged through some stuff behind the desk.  "Ah here we go.  This is what you're looking for."  Once TempoMan stood back up, he held a single data cube that contained the Navi's request.  "That'll be  23500 Zenny please."  Once she paid up, he would hand her the data, wish her a pleasant day, and go back to typing.

Terra Get:  NC Expanison v6, PowerUP v1-4, Process Upgrade 19-24.
Terra Lose:  23500z
Current Zenny: 35600z.

DragonierMan, Magistrate, Suzume, and Aya walked into the Net-Shop together. They spread out to look around a bit, before Drago came to the front counter. "Hey there, I need Process Upgrades v41 through v48."

Want
Process Upgrade v41: 4100z
Process Upgrade v42: 4200z
Process Upgrade v43: 4300z
Process Upgrade v44: 4400z
Process Upgrade v45: 4500z
Process Upgrade v46: 4600z
Process Upgrade v47: 4700z
Process Upgrade v48: 4800z

Total: 35600z

Total Zenny After: 35600z --> 0z.
"Got it. Just a second!" said TempoMan, his hands waving across the counter to start a brief scan on DragonierMan. The scan ended with a quick beep, and TempoMan turned towards a small screen while nodding. The upgrades appeared as a data sphere on the counter, and the shopkeeper's Navi gestured towards it with his hand and bowed. "Confirmed. Thanks for coming!" he said.

DragonierMan GET: Process Upgrade #41-48 x8
DragonierMan LOSE: 35600z
DragonierMan paid the man and stored the upgrades in a sack he brought with him. The four browsed a little more and then headed out.
((From Wrangler's Booth.))
Mach and Shrike materialized a good distance away from the Navi Shop, but only a dozen or so feet from the ground. Since landing was a bit precarious now, he decided to touch down in the relatively open link transfer area. However, he soon realized it might not be as "safe" as he expected. His "view" rapidly became filled with a latticework of icons so overlapped they were near impossible to decipher; each program that lay ahead within his detection range popped up on his "scope." The movement of dozens of programs made their names blur into illegible messes of text as they passed "through" one another.

Mach froze as his ruined eye blinked multiple times in a vain, muscle memory-induced attempt focus itself and try to make sense of the blurred mess ahead. Though blind, he was getting sensor overload from his replacement "eyes." Mach groaned aloud, dazzled and getting increasingly frustrated. While he could just turn the thing off, wandering around completely blind wasn't a good option, and Shrike wasn't designed to be a seeing-eye SP. He needed another option.

A thought flashed in his mind: his vision essentially became a radar scope. Normally, it's displayed from a top-down perspective, not from the user's first-person point of view. His engines didn't get the chance to fully spool back down before he kicked his throttles back up to get airborne once again. As soon as he got enough lift, he threw the SP and himself into a rapid climb. It seemed to work; the amorphous mess of signal returns started to fragment and spread out. As he climbed, he could finally get a sense of depth and the names above each "hit" became distinct enough to be legible. He leveled off and hanged in the air for a while so his mind could get a brief rest from the sensory overload. It was certainly a relief...

About a minute later, he picked up speed to head towards the Navi Shop. As he did, he spoke up to Mazer. "Found an issue." Mazer, who was quietly watching with a look of concentration on his face, responded. "From that rapid climb... wait, you didn't have depth perception; that's the issue, right?" Mach was spared the need to explain, which was a small relief. "Exactly. I need to be able to adjust my detection range, or filter out extraneous data," the Navi exclaimed as the NaviShop became ever closer. "Okay, I'll see what I can do. Another option would be to add another sensor to give you binocular vision, or something else to at least replicate depth perception," Mazer suggested just prior to Mach's descent towards the shop below.

Thankfully the walls of the shop would act as a buffer between him and the other returns from outside, but it was still a bit difficult to navigate due to the excess clutter. After finding his footing, he made his way to the first program that had the name "TempoMan" that appeared to be behind a counter and not near another program. He moved slowly and deliberately, not wanting to accidentally run into a display and/or other programs on the way.

Upon reaching the counter and who he assumed was one of the TempoMen that ran the shop, he produced a zenny datapacket. "I'd like two NC expansions with a Megafolder +2 program, and one Process Upgrade please," Mach requested in a conversational and polite, yet cold tone.

((Upgrades owned: PU 49, NC 17, HP 7 (combined 24)))

NC 18, 19: 14250z
Megafolder +2: 7000z
PU 50: 5000z
Total: 26250z
Watching the less-than-whole MachMan struggle to get to the counter, TempoMan seemed to think of assisting the Navi, but he reached the counter before the attendant Navi could. With the order received, TempoMan bowed politely. "Understood. Please wait a moment," he said, receiving the zenny packet. The packet shimmered in his hands as he verified the contents, and then disappeared in place of a holographic screen. A few short taps on it later, and a glowing data sphere appeared in front of MachMan.

"Thank you for your patronage. If there's anything we can help you with, please don't hesitate to ask," said TempoMan, bowing once more.

MachMan GET: NaviCust Upgrade x2, Process Upgrade x1, [MegaFolder+2] NCP
MachMan LOSE: 26250z (26295 -> 45)
Mach stood quietly while TempoMan processed the transaction, standing unnervingly still by virtue of his replacement limbs and his fully armored torso. He only started to move again after TempoMan announced the completion of the transaction, and a new data packet was detected on the counter.
"Understood," he rumbled back before his thin metallic fingers of his right hand wrapped around the data sphere. He lifted the sphere then seemed to mechanically tighten his grip slightly, causing the data sphere to "evaporate" as its contents were downloaded to the PET. The sphere completely disappeared in just a few moments, and Mach's hand swung back down to his side. "Have a good one," he said to TempoMan, then disappeared in a pulse of cyan light.

((Logged Out))
Current Zenny: 34560z.

Suzume walked into the Net-Shop. She was reading a data-slate as she walked to the front counter. "Hello there. I'd like, um, these following items."

Want
PowerUP v6: 6000z
PowerUP v7: 7000z
PowerUP v8: 8000z
Process Upgrade v49: 4900z
Process Upgrade v50: 5000z

Total: 30900z

Total Zenny After: 34560z --> 3660z.
Suzume received a small nod as she moved towards a counter and Tempoman stepped across to her after serving another navi. He accepted the list and glanced down it, then looked back to her with a friendly smile and another quick affirmative nod.

"No problems here. Just one moment." Barely a moment did, indeed, pass, before a small coalescence of light formed between his hands and resolved into a bundle of packages, all neatly marked. He moved them across to Suzume after taking her payment.

"All done and confirmed. Enjoy your order! If there's anything else, just let one of us know. Have a good day!"

DragonierMan GET: PowerUp v6-8, Process Upgrades 49 and 50
DragonierMan LOSE: 30900z
Suzume collected the items and gave a little bow, followed by a wave, as she walked out of the Net-Shop. "Thank you. See you next time."
Nighty busts in, rushes to the counter and slaps 4750z on the table.

"Gimme two HPmem naow!" He squealed. "I gotta get stronger to help Dad! Also give me three process upgrades! I'll need those.

HP Memory v3: 1500z
HP Memory v4: 1750z
Process Upgrade v4: 400z
Process Upgrade v5: 500z
Process Upgrade v6: 600z

Total: 1500+1750+400+500+600 = 4750z
Tempoman popped up behind the counter, startled by the overly excited navi. "S-Sure, one moment." He ducked down for a minute and then came back up with a bag of upgrades. He counted out the money and deposited the bag on the counter. "All done and confirmed. Enjoy your order! If there's anything else, just let one of us know. Have a good day!"

Nightshade GET: HP Memory v3 and v4, Process Upgrades v4-6.
Nightshade LOSE: 4750z
Walking up to the counter, Jazz would simply slap down 7500z onto it. Excuse me Tempoman, could I get Buster Upgrades 2 and 3 as well as a floatshoes Navi Customization Part? Jazz asked simply.

(Buying: Buster Up 2 and 3 and a Floatshoes NCP)
2000+3000+2500=7500
82z left over
As Jazz approached, Tempoman was alredy zipping across to his position from serving another navi, but gave a polite smile and wave all the same.

"Good morning, what can I get for you... Buster upgrades? No problem. Just a moment." He ducked behind the counter and popped up again in precisely one moment, now sliding the requested software across to Jazz. "Here you are, two buster upgrades, and your shoe program. That'll be 7500." Once the transaction was processed, he stepped back from the counter and inclined his head.

"Thank you. Enjoy your purchases, have a good day, and do come again!" a moment later the approach of a different navi drew his attention and he darted away quickly to continue his work.

Jazz Lose: 7500z
Jazz Get: BusterUp v2 and 3, Floatshoes NCP.
Jazz nodded at Tempoman as he gathered up his buster upgrades, slipping his Floatshoes on almost immediately afterwards. Slowly floating away, Jazz gave a hearty goodbye before disappearing from Tempoman's shop
[>> Assistant to the Regional Manager - Bounty Shop.]

Wandering into the commercial area complex through one of the many entrances, Terra paused to look about at all of the different holo-displays that advertised various upgrade products. Most of them only caught a glance from her, but she stopped at one in particular, and looked down at her gloved hands, clenching and unclenching it. She then nodded to herself, and hailed down one of the shop's attendants. "Excuse me, I'd like to buy four of those upgrades," she said, pointing to the holo-display that she had been looking at.

Buying:
- PowerUP (Charge) x4 (v5, v6, v7, v8) (5000 + 6000 + 7000 + 8000 = 26000z)
Zenny Change: 26675 - 26000 = 675z