Inside the shop

Suitachi tried to ignore everything else said to him, until one particular word reached his ears. Lowering the book a bit, he looked at Sabrina somewhat curiously. "What? ....Yeah, it's a NERVE book. You kids read this stuff?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Relaxing a bit, he shrugged, continuing, "It's 'Lobotomy #100'. Got it autographed by Frasser herself. Was going to get the next one signed, too, but I can't get out of the store on this particular day."

Rose was both pleased and somewhat let down at this confirmation. She was pleased as she now knew that they would indeed, be accomplishing their goal. She was dismayed that in order to do it, she'd have to give up her copy of that books she'd just bought.

"Oh well, I can always go back for an additional copy. And it's not like I've grown too attached to it. I mainly bought it on a whim."

Rose looked back at Suitachi. "I thought it looked familiar. I guess I just couldn't tell from the distance." It was sort of odd, though, since she'd just bought the same book within the last hour.

"We just got back from that book signing, coincidentally enough." Rose began. Then, attempting to make eye contact with the other two, to make sure they understood what the plan was, she continued. "We have an extra signed copy, even."

Rose said this as nonchalantly as possible. She'd picked her words carefully. She could have said "we don't need" but that would undervalue it. She could have even pushed the trade angle immediately, but since she had to run out to the car to get her copy, she decided to let the others talk.

"I should wait to see if they understand and if he even shows interest. But once he does, I can just run out and grab my copy from the trunk." she figured.

SummonerMan almost scoffed at how incredibly convenient it was that this man happened to be a fan of the book, but he did like extortion better than wasting time. So he continued to sit back and chill, assuming the scene would likely get a bit more interesting in a moment.

"Er, I don't, but I've got friends that do." Oh, the lying to Suitachi. Not like he'd ever know, though. And just as she hoped, they had trade bait. Rose seemed to pick up on it, too. Sabrina decided to follow up on that. "Yep, and it's right here!" Cue the removal of one book from one fanny pack. Sabrina opened the cover, revealing the autograph. "See? Now, we COULD part with this signed book...for, say, a Batch AA-00001 Process Upgrade? Think that'd be good compensation?" Apply bait to rod, then put the rod in the water, and wait for a fish to bite. Then she'd be able to reel in the elusive Navi Shop Ownerfish. Oh yeah, internal analogy.

Meanwhile, SplashLady simply sat on her operator's shoulder, awaiting the response eagerly. She didn't see why he wouldn't take Sabrina up on the offer, but if they didn't...then that upgrade might become out of their reach. And the mermaid Navi did NOT want to see how her operator would respond to that...she was pretty sure there would be blood spilled by the time it was all done.

And so it seemed they were definitely going for this trade arrangement. Zeo was fine with it, and it was relatively painless for both parties. Except for Suitachi having to go item hunting... but I'm not too broken up about that, he thought. He was glad that they'd picked up an extra co-wait, when did they get an extra copy? "Getting one copy was enough trouble with Sabrina's handling of the situation," Zeo mumbled. ViralMan picked up on his words. "That's probably why Rose took so long to get out of that place. Looks like no one realized she was with us."

"If that's the case, then all the better. I wonder how much those book costs, though," Zeo replied. "Well, as long as things work out this way our compensation from that weird guy will probably make up for it." I can't believe Rose would have any idea this would happen... why'd she get another book? he wondered, not even considering the possibility that someone might want to read them. After another involuntary shudder at the thought of the book's cover, Zeo waited to hear Suitachi's reply.

<<< From ??? <<<

Opening the door, Steve was amazed at how much the store had changed since his last visit. Almost eight years had passed since his last venture into the world of netbattling supplies, and the new range of goods made Steve feel like an idiot.

Never thought I'd walk into a Navigation Store and feel like an idiot.

As his eyes wandered, his gaze settled on something he'd used a lot of in the past. Something that hadn't changed in the face of time.

Hey, Process Upgrades, he remarked. Taking out the PET, he quickly calculated Recon's storage capacity. I can only put one on right now, but it's a start.

Walking up to the counter, Steve pointed to them. I'd like to buy one of those Process Upgrades, please, he requested, placing 100 zenny on the counter.

==========

Zenny: 730 = > 630

"Is that a-" Suitachi started, before being interrupted by a customer. "Excuse me for a sec, you three." Turning to the customer, he immediately began going about providing some service, bagging one of the upgrades from behind the counter and handing it to Steve. The transaction was quickly completed as the hundred zenny found its place in the shopkeeper's till.

Steve GET: Process Upgrade [#1]
Steve LOSE: 100z

After that, he turned back to the three still in his shop, who were still in his shop, not buying anything. Sighing audibly, he propped up his head with an arm, looking mildly amused. "Anyway, that does look like a nice book you've got there," he continued. "But, as you heard earlier, it would take me a bit of time to find what you're looking for. I think I should be able to find it by tomorrow morning, perhaps. I can't exactly go searching around while the store's still open just for this one thing."

"I assume the book is for the part itself. As for the time taken, I'll expect any one of the three of you to buy something the next time you're in here. Is that agreeable?"

Taking his upgrade, Steve thanked the shop keeper and headed for the door.

Before he could step out of the door, he glanced through the window and across to the other side of the road.

A dark figure had its stare fixed on him. He double-checked its gaze. Yeah, it was definitely looking at him.

Quickly ducking out of the shop and into an alleyway, Steve used the shadows to make his getaway.

>>> To Science Labs: UnderSub Apartments >>>

Rei pushed open the door to the shop, walking straight up to the counter. He already knew what he was getting, so it didn't take him long to approach the register. Readying up 1700z, he made his order.

"Hey there. I need to get two process upgrades for my navi. If i remember correctly this is what i should owe you." He spoke, gesturing to the cash he had prepared. Rei seemed a little anxious, as he waited for assistance. He knew he should hurry back quickly or he;d never hear the end of it later.

[2840 z -> 1140z, for process upgrade 8+9]

Suitachi was about to go back into the conversation before Rei walked into the shop and quickly approached the counter. "Surprisingly busy today..."

He looked at the zenny, and then back to Rei with a smile. "Yep, it seems you kids are still good at math, this world isn't too bad off after all!"
He took the zenny and returned with a pair of upgrades, which he handed to Rei.
"Have a nice day!"

Rei GET: PU #8, 9
Rei LOSE: 1700z

"Thanks a lot. Catch you later" Rei said as he took the purchased goods. The man turned back towards the door, and with a quick wave headed for the exit.

Now all he had to do was get back before anything happened. He had faith in his navi, though he rarely showed it, but he still didn't want to leave her completely stranded.

Rose found that there was no need to go to the car if Sabrina was offering her copy. "Mine is just signed to 49, so we can just give the guy it instead." she figured.

They moved aside once more for a large man in lots of black with a scar down his face, who looked much more mysterious and edgy than the last person they'd almost held up.

After that diversion, Suitachi laid down his offer.

Rose wasn't satisfied.

She grinned a smile made from her reluctance to let someone down, but her inability to go along with it. After sucking some air through her teeth, her face returned to a more normal state and she began to talk.

Or she would have, if another man hadn't come in.

A second man, this one younger and less mysterious, but also in black, came in and wanted to buy something. Coincidentally enough, she was pretty sure both MIBs had bought process upgrades. Odd.

Once he was gone, she got back to her intended conversation.

"We really appreciate the offer," the girl began, "but we're kind of in a hurry."

Rose looked around, thinking. "Is there any way you could get it for us more immediately?" She paused for a moment. "If it'd help, we could watch the front counter for you while you look."

Rose figured there wasn't much of a reason why they shouldn't. It couldn't possibly take that long, it was likely more an issue that Suitachi couldn't go off looking for it until after he closed shop for the day. So if they gave him a break they could have the thing in no time.

"We can't be out all night on this Scavenger hunt, and the dude will go home eventually. The wait and the book and the buying; it's not really a great trade for us."

Rose reflected a bit more. "We don't even get anything from it. We lose a few hours of our lives and I lose a book. And someone has to buy an upgrade. That doesn't sound like a good deal at all"

Rose decided to ignore that train of thought as she focused on waiting to see the reaction to her request and suggestion.

The other customers coming in gave Sabrina a handy excuse to stand back and consider the offer. So basically, they gave him the book, an entire day, and a purchase for an outdated upgrade and...whatever anyone bought. Somehow, that didn't seem quite as fair as the Navi shop owner was making it out to be.

"Actually, I kinda have a problem with that. I mean, sure, you could probably just buy the book on the Internet, but who knows how much that could be? All we're asking for it is some worthless upgrade. We're already saving you money with this offer, so I think whether or not we buy something next time is our own business."

And then Rose proposed that they looked over the store while he went back and looked for stuff. Now that was an idea. "That's right, we could watch the shop for you! It's not like you have to worry about us doing anything fishy, thanks to the security cameras! ...Not that we'd do anything like that, of course." Well, that was all she could really add. Hopefully he'd see it their way...for a change.

Moving to avoid multiple customers again, Zeo considered Suitachi's offer. He wasn't sure how long their "employer" would stay at the cafe, but it seemed unlikely that he'd come back the next day. Or maybe he would. They didn't really have time to go ask. The second part of the offer was fine with Zeo, though. He was about to affirm his intention to buy something when Sabrina and Rose expressed their dissatisfaction with the entire offer.

"Wait, but I-" Zeo decided against trying to speak over Sabrina. I was considering buying something anyway... It was a little late for that now, though. At the very least, he had no problems with watching the store for a while. Running a store like this was probably as close as Zeo could get to a dream job at the moment. "Is any of this striking you as that unfair, ViralMan?" he asked his Navi. "I have no idea what that upgrade's worth, but I'm starting to wonder whether it's worth this effort..." He stretched his arms. "If it helps us get this finished sometime soon, you should go for it."

"Yeah, I've had enough of this argument," Zeo said tiredly. If this works, then all the better. If not, I wouldn't be against leaving and not coming back. Without any better ideas, Zeo resolved to help out with their current offer if Suitachi accepted. How hard could watching a store be? But then again, with how Suitachi's been acting, is he really going to trust us with this? Zeo had his doubts. There was no harm in offering, though.

[Sorry for the late mod. Been sick.]

"That is out of the question," was Suitachi's immediate reply to the kids' proposal. "Security cameras? Those little things? You can't beat those with old-fashioned sharp eyes," said the shopkeeper, smirking as he pointed towards one of his eyes. "However..." Scratching the side of his neck in thought, he took a few seconds before opening the back room's door. "Just a couple of seconds," he said, disappearing into the room. True enough, exactly two seconds later, the shopkeeper emerged with a rather intimidatingly large binder tucked under his arm. Setting it down on the counter with a loud thump, Suitachi pushed the binder towards them.

"That there's the inventory for the last two weeks. Search around for 'process upgrade trade-in', and tell me the inventory section it's in. If you can't do that, then I don't think there's anything else I can do for you."

As Na'im entered the door, his large PET in his right hand and by his side, he immediately noticed the trio of people who were already in the store. With a raised eyebrow, he walked over to them and tilted his head. "Excuse me, you three" he said politely and walked around them to talk to Suitachi. "I'd like three Process Upgrades, you see," he began and put down the money for the transaction, "Sixteen, seventeen and eightteen. And how have you been?"

[3 Process Upgrades. 1600 + 1700 + 1800 = 5100 Z]

Suitachi looked over as Na'im walked in, and opened the binder on the counter and pointed to the start of the inventory before he shifted his focus to the new customer.
"Three process upgrades? Comin' right up."

He turned and went to a shelf behind the counter and picked out the upgrades as he responded to Na'im's question. "Well, keeping busy as you probably have already noticed. Better than an empty shop!" He placed the upgrades in a bag which he gave to Na'im as he took the zenny from the counter. "Have a good one!"

Na'im GET: Process Upgrade x3
Na'im LOSE: 5100z

Na'im took the upgrades as he spoke to Suitachi, "It's a good sign that people still come here for your ware. It means that there are still many Operators out there." After he said that, he saluted with two fingers at his forehead and turned to the door. As he walked over to the door, he looked at the three already present in the store and squinted his already squinting eyes while thinking. Na'im's sight then switched to the PET he held in his other hand, noticing the screen was still not lit, and then back at the three people. "You are Sabrina, right?" he said while looking at Sabrina, "From the tournament fight? Tell SplashLady that Djinni said hi. But I have someone to look for, so bye." He then left the building without turning back again.

Rose was fairly experienced with information gathering. She was also fairly used to having to go to great lengths in order to complete assignments and send in papers.

So while some may have been distraught at the thought of searching the binder with their eyes, Rose was incredibly relaxed.

The camera on her PeT was top notch, as it needed to be when she was trying her whole Reporter thing. And she had just the program to do this deal for them.

Sliding in front of the large book, she pulled out her PeT. SummonerMan knew where this was going, but decided to relax until it got to the actual searching part, which he'd have to do. "Who'd have thought that all those stupid upgrades she went through during her Reporting Spree would ever be useful in the real world?"

Rose smiled. "This shouldn't take long." she said aloud.

The girl looked at each of her friends. "Could one of you flip the pages? It'll go much faster that way." She held her PeT above the book, camera focused on the pages, with the screen showing that she had moved a sufficient distance away.

"Basically, I'm going to use a program to convert the images my camera reads in into text files, and then have Summ search through them for what we need. Sound good?"

She took a photo of first set of pages, and saved them to a folder, and set her PeT up for optimal ease of use. It'd just be a camera snap and an OK for each page now. Once the pages started flipping, she'd take the pics.

Wow. That was one huge binder. That'd take hours to go through...hmm? Did someone just say something? Sabrina looked up and around, but didn't see anyone. Must've been her imagination.

It then took her a few moments, but she managed to figure out what Rose was going to do. In no small part because Rose actually said what she was planning. That was a really nice camera though...nothing she'd be able to afford, anyway. "Okay, I'll do it!" She walked over to the other side of the counter, completely disregarding the possible consequences of that, and opened the giant book-like thing to reveal the first page. "Let me know if I'm flipping through too fast, okay?"

Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. One by one, the pages were turned. It was repetitive, sure, but at least it meant they could finish this quicker. Though one thing did come to mind..."Oh, Rose. Make sure you delete those after we're done here. Suitachi might not like all his inventory getting copied like that."

...Oh hey, a page that listed new stock. Sabrina flipped it as quickly as any other page, but..."But do me a favor and let me read that new stock page first...I want to see if there's anything I'd want to buy later on in there!"

Now we're finally getting somewhere, Zeo mentally sighed with relief. This should be a lot easier... but that's a big binder. Before Zeo could even begin to wonder how they were going to tackle the search, Rose produced her own method of searching for the listing. Soon after, Sabrina was over the counter flipping pages to assist her. That left Zeo without much to do. He pulled out his PET again.

"Now we're set, I guess," he said to his bored Navi. "It's about time," his bored Navi replied. "Nice to see thing going smoothly for once. Let me know when we're finished here; I don't have anything else to add to this little search." Zeo nodded and replaced his PET in its holster. "I guess I'll just go pretend I'm helping somehow," he said to himself before stepping up to the counter beside Rose. "This store gets a lot of stuff in... you'd think it was the only store of its kind or something." As he watched the pages flip, Zeo managed to glean some amusement from some of the interesting items displayed in the binder.

Eventually he stopped paying attention to the words on the pages and simply watched and waited. "Wait, was that-" Zeo started before the page flipped over and another picture was taken. "...never mind," he sighed, going back into his bored daze to await the completion of Rose's impromptu photo op.