Lucy and Jack stepped inside the mall.
Immediately, the clatter of footsteps was heard. The faint sound of music from performing bands in the center. The voices people echoed in the area.
While the were walking, people they passed by was turning their heads and looking at them. No, at Lucy.
'I will never get used to this,' Jack told himself as he laughed internally, once again noticing how long Lucy's eyelashes were and how symmetrical and ethereal her face was.
While walking, Jack just kept an stoic expression as some men kept looking at him for the wrong reasons.
Quickly, they made their way to the clothing section. The store was lined with clothes in hangers in racks and a uniform set of mannequins wearing different kinds of summer outfits, winter outfits, corporate outfits, etc.
The scent of new fabric hung in the air.
Almost immediately, two salesladies approached, smiling.
"Good afternoon, sir, ma'am! What are you looking for today?" one asked though her eyes never left Lucy.
Jack didn't forget to put a polite smile before talking. "We're just looking for uh..."
After all, it wasn't him who would wear the clothes.
"What do you want to buy?" Jack asked.
Lucy flickered from the racks and then to Jack, "What do you think?"
Jack blinked.
"Huh?"
She clasped her hands together and fidgeted nervously. "It's my first time in a place like this… I don't know what to wear."
He stared for a second, caught completely off guard.
'How do I even respond to this?' Jack thought, keeping his smile.
"Uh… maybe something ordinary? Casual clothes. Stuff you can wear to work or school," he suggested, rubbing the back of his neck. "You'll be enrolling next semester anyway, right?"
Lucy nodded shyly, her eyes following the direction of the clothes he was pointing at as if memorizing what casual looked like for clothes
Jack then couldn't help but chuckle, a little embarrassed.
"I'm probably not the best person to ask about this."
Then he thought, 'I never had a girlfriend. And I'm not exactly known for fashion advice.'.
The salesladies, meanwhile, had started hovering around Lucy like she was their personal doll.
They began holding clothes up to her, murmuring to each other about colors and styles as they were going to buy them all.
'Are they expecting me to pay for these? Why are they looking at me like that?' Jack said, terrified at the thought.
"Yes, yes, I guess she needs something like that," Jack said, surrendering to their enthusiasm.
Then, he leaned closer to Lucy and pulled him to the side as he whispered, "Hey, just to confirm, how much money do you have on you?"
Lucy blinked, then quietly pulled out her phone and showed him her balance as if it was the most normal thing to do.
Jack's eyes widened.
'Three million…?!'
'Three million five hundred forty-five thousand seven hundred eighty-nine credits.'
Jack almost dropped his jaw to the floor.
'This girl's a millionaire!' he thought, swallowing hard. 'And she's just eighteen?!'
"Is something wrong?" Lucy asked, blinking innocently.
"No, it's just…" He coughed. "You have a lot of money."
"Hm?" Lucy said, and looked at her phone innocently, "This is my allowance when I was deployed to this city. Maybe it's indeed a lot because I haven't spent much since coming down from the mountains?"
"I see," he muttered, unsure anymore.
Then she looked up at him curiously. "But don't you have more, Jack?"
'Not me. That other guy,' he thought grimly, remembering the system's balance he hadn't touched.
When they left, Jack and Lucy were carrying multiple shopping bags in each hand, all full of clothes.
Their next stop was supposed to be at a hardware store for Jack to buy his new phone, but Jack had to withdraw money first and get his credits honored.
At the ATM, he withdrew his latest mission credits.
Jack learned that the awakened society was integrated everywhere, including the civil service, military, corporates, and even banking institutions.
Everyone was kind of in it as a secret.
Inserting his access card he got from the company, Jack started to get his credits honored immediately, giving him payable cash in his account, and he even got a bonus of 30, 000 credits for which was a huge amount for finding Joe Carlos' hideout.
Soon, they went to a hardware store to buy his phone with excitement.
Jack was confident.
With more than 30, 000 credits in his account, he could buy even the high-specs phones people usually rave about.
Jack headed straight to the shelves to look when he noticed Lucy walking in front of him.
"Hey, don't touch that—" Jack said, but Lucy was suddenly pressing buttons on a display tablet and surprising her fingers moved with surprising confidence compared to her personality.
Jack blinked.
"This interface is inefficient," Lucy then murmured to him under her breath as if she was telling her a secret. "The core's mana conversion is unstable. It wastes too much energy."
Somewhat overhearing, the salesman standing behind them observing them furrowed his eyebrows. "Uh… ma'am? You understand the specs?"
Lucy flinched, suddenly realizing she'd spoken aloud. She turned away slightly, her ears turning red.
Jack had known this of course.
He had seen Lucy operate even high and unreleased technology with such ease and for some reason, he got this great fascination over technologies like a child.
Looking at the salesman who looked offended, Jack had to stifle a grin.
"Jack, you said, you're going to buy a phone, and with your current budget, I don't think the phones here is going to be of any use to you." Lucy then suddenly muttered again as if no one could hear her.
The salesman who was mesmerized at her at first blinked, unsure where the disrespect was coming from.
But then Jack just laughed and started to lighten the mood.
"She's just curious," he said quickly. "Anyway, I'm not looking for anything fancy just a decent phone I can use for school and sometimes video games."
After twenty minutes.
Jack finally picked a model after Lucy quietly glanced at it, then nodded approvingly.
After this, the salesman couldn't help but get impressed as she had chosen the best phone based on what Jack said he needed it for.
"Is your girlfriend an engineering student or something Sir? You're lucky," he then whispered to Jack.
Jack just smiled as the salesman waived at them as they went out.
By the time they left the mall, the skies had turned orange.
And some of the city lights started to flicker on, casting a warm glow.
They walked through the busy streets and hailed a cab with Jack checking his phone.
He had used the appraisal skill too while looking at the specs of the phones in the technology shop and this one indeed seemed to be the best, although he actually couldn't understand the mechanics well.
Hailing a cab, Lucy then get on.
As for Jack, it was time to return back to school for his evening classes.
"Are you sure you can go home by yourself?"
Jack was looking at Lucy as she stood by the curb of the street before a cab, her arms full of shopping bags.
His evening classes were only a few hours away, and though he wanted to go home, there just wasn't enough time.
"I'm okay. I got it all memorized. I won't get lost." Lucy said.
Jack then nodded.
"Mister, make sure she gets home safe," Jack said, smiling at the cab driver.
It was not like something will happen to an awakened, but Jack didn't want any problems. Lucy's look after all was indeed very beautiful.
Soon, the cab rolled to a corner and vanished into the traffic.
He exhaled.
When Executive Colminer had mentioned Lucy would be "monitoring" him, he'd expected her to follow him everywhere. Apparently, that wasn't the case.
Jack then rode a bus and headed to the university while tinkering with his new phone, installing every app he used to use.
But as he rode, he couldn't help but notice that he had developed a habit of staring at random strangers without thinking while looking at their stats with his appraisal skill and decided he should refrain from doing it.
Avoiding someone glaring at him, he blinked and stopped himself immediately.
'Great,' he thought, groaning inwardly. 'I'm turning into a creep.'
Leaning back in his seat, Jack stared at his reflection in the window.
When he reached campus, the sun had already begun to sink.
And Jack was almost late.
He hurried across the hallway, slipping into the room just as the lecture began.
He chose a seat in the back of the class, away from his usual classmates, whom he just smiled and waived at when he entered.
Just as he sat though, the male professor suddenly eyed him and raised an eyebrow.
"Mr. Crawluster," the man said, voice cutting through the room like a blade. "You were absent twice. What are you still doing here?"
Jack had expected this, but didn't want to accept it.
"Get out," the professor said flatly, adjusting his glasses. "I'm dropping you from this class."
The words hit him harder than he expected.