Inside the shop

After a while of picture-taking and page-flipping and bored-dazing, Rose's PET finally comes upon an entry in the inventory, matching that of Suitachi's criteria. Sabrina also found a few of the new, never-before-seen stock hidden in the inventory's pages.

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....
307-08 / Process Upgrade x100 / 01.08pm - 08/09/XX / Sect. 091-1b
307-09 / Process Upgrade Trade-In x1 / 01.08pm - 08/09/XX / Sect. 109-7a
307-10 / Custom Expansion x25 / 01.08pm - 08/09/XX / Sect. 092-9c
....
410-11 / Collector NCP x10 / 09.01am - 10/09/XX / Sect. 011-1a
410-12 / Millions NCP x10 / 09.01am - 10/09/XX / Sect. 011-2a
410-13 / Fast Barrier NCP x20 / 09.01am - 10/09/XX / Sect. 011-3a
....

"Wow, that was easy," Rose thought. Though that wasn't what she said. What she said was "See, look how easy that was."

SummonerMan rolled his eyes and went back to pretending to ignore everything. He'd basically done all the work, or at least directed it, but she'd take the credit. Whatever.

Rose smiled as she quickly informed the man behind the desk of their findings. "The Process Upgrade trade in is listed at One-oh-Nine dash Seven-A."

Rose was fairly close to stoked. "Finally we're basically done. I can't wait to get out of here. This has definitely not been the easiest part of the trip." She was certainly hoping the remaining things on the list would be easier.

Suitachi was basically half was on his way to a public relations disaster with how he treated these potential customers. It was a good thing he definitely ran the best shop around.

She looked up at the man and waited expectantly.

Yep, that was relatively quick. Yep, section 109-7a. Nope, she did not get a single paper cut from all that turning. Triple play. Speaking of which, those Collector and Millions NCPs that she managed to catch sounded interesting. She'd have to look into them later. "Yep, at 1:08 PM, on August 8th, 20XX. And it's listed as entry 307-09." And thank heavens, it was almost over. They could finally get out of here and grab some more stuff.

On the Navi side of things, SplashLady had made her way over to Rose's PET, wanting to talk to SummonerMan...for some reason. "That's some pretty good searching skills you've got, SummonerMan! I'm a good battler, but I'm actually pretty bad at looking stuff up...so I can appreciate when a Navi's good at processing info!"

With the location of their target known, it seemed that this leg of their scavenger hunt was finally over. It's about time, Zeo thought, rubbing the back of his head. If every step takes this long we'll be at this for days, which we probably can't be. He figured Suitachi didn't need the trade-in's info repeated a third time, so he didn't say anything and made a mental note of the new stock that was apparently due in. "Millions... sounds like my kind of program," he mumbled to himself. It probably had to do with money, and more money never hurt.

Zeo figured he could probably let ViralMan know they were done now, but considering how little time had passed since the Navi left, he resolved to do it later. While waiting for Suitachi to put an end to their search, he instead busied himself trying to make sense of some of the other inventory entries out of boredom.

"Well, how about that. Nice job finding that," said Suitachi, smiling slightly. "I'll be just a minute," he continues, before scooping up the inventory binder and speeding off into the back room. A little over a minute later, he returns with the inventory gone and a small box tucked under his arm. Setting it down, he opened it and extracted the upgrade from before. Even from a distance, it was obvious that the upgrade was old and of a different kind than the present day models. "Well, what do you know. Batch AA-00001. I'm guessing this is what you want."

Packing it back in the small box, Suitachi bagged it in a plastic bag, just like he would of any other purchase, and handed it rather reluctantly to the three. "There we go. Have a nice day," he said, ending the transaction.

Internally, Rose breathed herself a sigh of relief. Externally she remained as cool as she'd been all along. However, the smile playing across her face did describe a bit of the joy she felt at finally being done with this stage of their adventure.

"Thanks." Rose said, to both the receiving of their new toy and the compliment on their incredible searching speed. Then, once again, Rose offered another, "Thanks, you too," at the well wishes for their day.

"It's no big deal," SummonerMan, surprisingly enough, replied. "Management of data is just something I do." He didn't feel the need to mention that how he did in battling. In fact, simply answering was pretty much entirely different as it was.

Rose was also somewhat surprised. "Well, at least he's being nice." She figured it was a good thing that he was interacting, especially positively. "And I think I'm partly to thank for his searching prowess, but whatever. Starting a fight now would be sort of counterintuitive. "

SummonerMan chilled. Unlike his operator, he wasn't too concerned if a conversation ended, so he wouldn't push to keep it going.

Rose waited for her friends before planning to head back out to the car, onto their next destination.

And there it was. The upgrade they'd spent days of their lives to get. Truly, it was beautiful. Sabrina let out a nice, big sigh of relief, more than happy that they'd succeeded. "Thank you thank you thank you!" Before Suitachi could even think about changing his mind, Process Upgrade Batch AA-00001 was snatched and placed into storage. However, to fulfill her obligations, she then removed a certain item from her fanny pack, placing onto the counter. "And here's our end of the deal!" She gently pushed the autographed book across the counter, as if mimicking the binder pushing from earlier. "Pleasure doing business with you!" ...Not really. She'd rather get her tonsils removed than do that again. And she could say that, since she'd actually undergone the procedure when she was 11.

With all of that FINALLY done, Sabrina whipped out her list, and crossed off another item. 2 down, 5 to go. And she was actually encouraged now, since she highly doubted any of the others could possibly be as bad as that upgrade. "Another one down! So, what one do you guys want to do next?" She presented the list to her friends, awaiting their input.

"Yep, and you're really good at it!" Sensing that SummonerMan didn't feel like chatting, SplashLady returned to her operator's shoulder to check the list. ...Actually, it was less 'sensing' and more 'knowing based off of experience' considering how rarely he spoke. Getting a reaction out of him was more than enough for her. "Hmm...well, I don't know about the Battlechips yet, since we haven't heard from your dad. And the poker chip and cafe listings are both tied to Netopia, so we might want to hold off on those. Which leaves the boiled egg and the the plaque. I think either of those are good, myself. What do you guys think?"

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Scavenger Hunt

1- Batch AA-00001 Process Upgrade ~SciLab (Suitachi's Navi Shop)
2- Nil-Zenny Poker Chip ~NetVegas
3- [Neuronomicon], author Maya Frasser ~Bookstore in ElecTown
4- Previous three NetCafe Secret Menu listings ~NetCafe
5- Two (2) Tier-3 Battlechips ~Dad?
6- Thousand Year-Old Spring-Boiled Egg ~Yoka (Mom?)
7- Dentech University 200X Vision Statement Plaque ~DenTech

Zeo threw in his own thanks after the rest of the group and glanced at the Process Upgrade. Was it worth it? He supposed they'd find out after this was all over. It certainly looked interesting, that was for sure. He was well into trying to figure out what was so different about the upgrade when it was snatched off the table and exchanged for the second copy of their hard-earned book. Zeo promptly averted his eyes at the sight of the book's cover. Still not comfortable with that stupid thing.

On the topic of their next destination, Zeo only hoped their next target would be easier. "The plaque sounds like it wouldn't be too hard to find. Then again, this wasn't hard to find either, just hard to get," Zeo said tiredly. "I wonder how much the university prizes their vision statements..." He barely knew what they were, so he was pretty clueless on that one. Zeo wondered whether it would be acceptable to simply walk in and ask for it. "Not sure about the egg, but if you have a good idea of where to get it, I'm all for it." Zeo turned from the counter, grabbing his PET as he did. "So driver, where to next?" he asked Rose jokingly.

As Rose followed the other two out the door, she realized that they'd left the decision as to their next location up to her.

Of course, first they'd cut the list down to two remaining locales, but she still had the pick between the two.

After thinking it over very briefly, she decided to go with the one which sounded easier, as a sort of break from the last one. Since they actually knew what a vision statement was, she figured they could go with that one.

"Alright then," she said with a smile, "DenTech U, here we come."

DenTech. Sounded good to Sabrina. With a nod, the Netopian girl made her way to the door. A place that at one point seemed like only a fantasy. "DenTech it is!..."

...Hold on a sec. Come to think of it, that might not be a good place for Sabrina to go. Time for a Navi/operator whisper conference. "...DenTech? Are you sure you're up to heading back there after...well, you know..."

"It should be okay. I've got an idea about that. Just remember, above all else, we do NOT need to mention that mission to them. Got it?"

"...Right. I wish I'd never heard about it, either..."

With all that settled, Sabrina turned back to her friends with a big smile. Possibly a little TOO big. "Come on, we've got a plaque to get!"

"A plaque to get. You make it sound so easy..." Zeo sighed in response to Sabrina's enthusiasm. "Here's hoping it goes smoother this time." He'd never actually been to the university in question before, so this would be an enlightening experience. Tapping a button on his PET, he woke his Navi up again as he began to leave the store.

"Time to go back to school, I guess," he said, resolved. "Wherever DenTech is." ViralMan gave his operator a look. "It's a gigantic institution. How could you not know it?" Zeo shrugged dismissively. "I don't care much about school, especially since I don't have to go. Now, to actually get out of here."

Walking happily through the front door, Zeo stopped and stretched. "Onward, I guess," he called out halfheartedly before looking around for Rose's car. Upon remembering where it had been parked, he started towards it and finally put an end to the second stage of their hunt.

((Splash/Summoner get 9 FXP!
Splash/Viral get 8 FXP!
Viral/Summoner get 9 FXP!))

She stood patiently in line waiting for her turn, checking her funds and counting off mentally what she wanted to buy and what she could afford.

"Excuse me, I would like and elemental shot and one process upgrade please" she mumbled.

Want: Element Shot - 500z
1st process upgrade — 100z

Total: 600z

Suitachi watched as the newest customer checked her balance before she asked for her requested upgrades. "A new customer? Those upgrades will be 600z, please."

He obtained the money from Kari before he grabbed the upgrades from under the counter and placed them on the table. "Hope to see you again. Have a nice day."

Kari GET: Elemental Shot, Process Upgrade
Kari LOSE: 600z

She gave the owner a quick nod and a thank you before she scurried off, rather eager to work on her now slightly more powerful navi. She didn't want to interrupt anyone's conversations either.

The door opened and Henry entered the store. He spent several minutes looking at the store's stock list before making a selection.

"One HPMemory please."

"Oh, another one!" said the shopkeeper as he lowered his newspaper. "It's going to be 1,000z, sonny."

Rummaging through the cabinet below him, Suitachi placed the brand new upgrade down to the table and took the money from Henry. "Have a nice day."

Henry GET: Level 1 HP Memory
Henry LOSE: 1,000z

"Thank you," Henry said politely, collecting his upgrade and leaving the shop.

Chris walked into the shop and straight up to the counter. He and Nitro had already decided what they were going to get on the trip there.
"One Speed Upgrade please," Chris said. He placed his money on the counter. "This'll be our first one."

Suitachi quickly swiped the 5000z from Chris before dropping a package with the Speed upgrade inside in the money's place.

"Have a nice day," Suitachi whistled, spinning around in his chair.

Chris LOSE: 5000z
Chris GET: Speed Upgrade #1