"These rooms are where the guests will watch video tapes in the future," Luna Belle explained.
Grace patted the wall beside her, full of confidence. "I've already pre-planned the wiring and structure, so leave the installation and maintenance of the equipment to me! It's the perfect chance to study the VCR Fairy made; maybe I can even optimize it..."
As she spoke, her eyes began to sparkle with that characteristic tech-geek glint, and her hand instinctively reached for her tool kit. Luna Belle quickly cleared her throat to pull her attention back.
"Grace! We can take our time with the optimization; there's no rush right now..."
Finally, they arrived at the third floor. The third floor was purely a living area, designed by Grace into a zone with over a dozen independent bedrooms, enough to satisfy the living needs of all Agents and any new partners joining in the future. Each bedroom was equipped with basic furniture and independent windows, providing good lighting and ventilation. Although the furnishings were simple, there was plenty of space, ensuring everyone's privacy.
"So many rooms..." Luna Belle looked at the long corridor and the neat rows of doors on both sides, nodding her head.
The core room that was originally located on the first floor in the game, carrying the functions of the "Inter-Knot" connection and the "HDD" system, had been moved to the third floor under Grace's arrangement and integrated into a private study next to Luna Belle's own bedroom. Standing at the door of her own room, Luna Belle pushed open the window and took a deep breath.
"Random Play... Sixth Street..." she muttered softly, the corners of her mouth curling up involuntarily.
The next day, when the rising sun cast its warm golden glow over the land of Sixth Street, the "Random Play" video store welcomed its first morning of official business.
Above the shop door, a string of wind chimes—meticulously crafted by Tineva from forest crystals and dried hollow grass stems—tinkled crisply and pleasantly under the gentle caress of the breeze. Inside the shop, on shelves wiped spotless, all sorts of video tapes were neatly arranged. Their cover designs were colorful, ranging from realistic styles to cartoon characters, quietly waiting for the first guest to browse through them.
A fresh scent of new wood and earth still faintly lingered in the air, mixed with the herbal incense Tineva had specially lit earlier that morning for its soul-soothing effect. Short Little Eighteen was standing on a high chair specially prepared for it behind the counter, trying its best to straighten its round body. With its small hands on its hips and eyes sparkling with serious and enthusiastic light, it was fulfilling its duties as the "front desk receptionist."
Just then, the shop door was pushed open gently, and the wind chimes above the lintel rang out another pleasant sequence of notes.
"En-na, en-na! (Welcome!)" Little Eighteen immediately shouted out the greeting it had practiced for a long time with full energy.
The figure of a young girl appeared at the shop entrance, silhouetted against the morning light. She had an upright posture and a steady gait, wearing a well-tailored knight's uniform in silver-white and blue that outlined her vigorous and graceful lines. Her long golden hair was meticulously tied into a high ponytail, swaying gently behind her with her movements, the ends flowing with a golden luster in the sunlight.
Her face bore some traces of travel-weariness, but her eyes, as blue as a clear sky, remained clear and sharp, currently taking in the unfamiliar environment. Her gaze quickly swept across the spacious display area and the dazzling array of shelves, finally landing on the round creature behind the counter that she had never seen before, which was trying its best to greet her.
The young knight stepped into the shop, her boots making a light and rhythmic sound on the smooth stone floor. She walked up to the counter and lowered her head slightly, looking at the little fellow on the chair who was looking up at her with an "ask me, ask me" expression.
"What is this place for?" the young knight asked, her voice cool and carrying the crisp decisiveness of a soldier, yet her tone was not aggressive.
"En-na! En-na, en-na! En-na! (This is a place where you can see many, many interesting stories! These boxes contain recorded images and sounds, and by using those big magitech devices on the second floor... the stories inside can be played just like they're real! It's like... like watching a crystal ball recording that can move and talk!)"
Little Eighteen explained with animated gestures. Although its language was somewhat difficult for the young knight to fully understand, and those technical terms were unheard of... combined with the little fellow's excited gesturing and those "boxes" on the shelves that were clearly not books, she still roughly understood that this was a place for watching recorded images through some kind of special magitech device.
"Recorded images... and reproducing them?" A hint of surprise flashed in the young knight's eyes. This technology sounded even more convenient and... widespread than some of the high-level image-retention spells used by court mages?
"Can anyone watch them?"
"En-na, en-na! (Of course! Just register your name, and you can pick a video tape you like, then go to a room on the second floor to watch it! You can even pay after you're done watching~)" Little Eighteen nodded vigorously, pulling out an exquisitely covered registration book and a quill from somewhere, clumsily pushing them to the edge of the counter. "En-na! (Please write your name here!)"
The young knight's gaze fell upon the open registration book. She reached out her right hand, clad in a white glove, and gently picked up the quill. The tip hovered over the ink bottle, but she hesitated for a moment. She glanced at the expectant Little Eighteen in front of her, then looked around at the quiet and novel shop. Finally, she dipped the pen in ink, her wrist moving as she left a neat and powerful name on the blank first line of the registration book.
"Falia."
She deliberately omitted her surname, which might bring unnecessary trouble.
"En-na! (Miss Falia!)" Little Eighteen happily read out the name and then asked enthusiastically, "En-na? En-na, en-na? (Would you like to take a look now? You can pick anything you want!)"
Falia put down the quill and nodded slightly. "Alright, I'll take a look first."
She turned and walked toward the rows of shelves, her gaze sweeping across the various video tape covers. "Hollow Deep Dive Guide", "Aether Gazer: Starry Tournament Records", "Cats and Dogs Fighting Dragons", "The Karl Family", "Astral Express Trailblaze Logs"... some of these names sounded like adventure manuals, some like competitive records, some like fairy tales or knight novels, and there were even word combinations she couldn't understand at all.
As a knight who strictly adhered to her discipline and whose life was almost entirely filled with training and missions, she rarely came into contact with this kind of pure "pastime." But at this moment, in this quiet and unfamiliar foreign town, in this strange shop that had just opened, a long-absent impulse to give it a try welled up in her heart...