episode_0448

“If you’re going to act cute, stop right now.”

“You’re so mean! It was my repentance aegyo!”

“Do you want the enhancement to fail today?”

“Ah! No, I didn’t mean it!”

Despite repeatedly stating that the success or failure of the enhancement is not entirely up to me, the students were extremely cautious and careful not to upset me, as they believed it would affect the outcome of the enhancement.

It seems like they think if they make me uncomfortable, the enhancement won’t succeed.

“If you’re going to whine like that, you might as well get a talisman. There are plenty of things that bring good luck.”

Of course, I can’t guarantee that all the lucky talismans being sold have any effect.

But as long as it serves as a comfort to my mind, isn’t it worth buying for that peace of mind?

“Do you really believe in such superstitions?”

“Originally, luck accounts for 99% of enhancements.”

“No, even the boss says so.”

“Tsk tsk tsk! That’s why it won’t work for you. Boss. It doesn’t seem to work for this one, so just focus on me first.”

“Why are you so confident? Did you prepare a talisman?”

How can you just do that without telling me?

“If I really succeed in enhancing to +12 with this, I’ll let you know where I got it from. Is that okay?”

“Don’t tell anyone else, just tell me.”

“Got it. I won’t say anything until you reach +12.”

The strong bond between the two students led to reconciliation, and they returned to their original goal of ‘enhancement.’

“Phew, please do well!”

Clutching the talisman tightly in both hands, I couldn’t hide my nervousness.

It had been a while since I last enhanced, so the feeling was a bit strange.

‘I have a feeling that something good is going to happen.’

Perhaps the talisman the student brought might actually have an effect.

In fact, wasn’t I the one who believed in all sorts of superstitions and visited fortune-tellers?

In that sense, preparing a lucky talisman was nothing more than a playful gesture.

“Should we go inside for now?”

I couldn’t enhance openly inside the store.

The enhancement window wasn’t visible to other people.

While the sponsoring students knew about it, it wasn’t something to show to regular customers.

“Yes.”

Quickly following behind me, we entered the staff break room.

The stares that were persistently watching us from outside disappeared as soon as the door closed.

“But what about those people outside?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

I didn’t want to miss this timing.

Moreover, I couldn’t bring myself to deny it if I said I had a good feeling about the enhancement now.

I raised the enhancement window without saying a word.

“Please, please!”

As the owner of the unique equipment fervently prayed,

the enhancement window flashed brightly.

Kaaah-!!!

The resounding sound of enhancement ringing in my ears was bright and clear.

As expected, my intuition was right, and the result showed that it was successful.

The equipment of the 10th rank had been enhanced to the 11th rank, leaving only one enhancement left.

※ ※ ※

“It seems like that day really came.”

After seeing a friend successfully enhance to +12 without any failures and immediately rushing out to buy a talisman,

the next sponsoring student came in, and the actual enhancement process began.

And on this day alone, a miracle occurred where a total of 3 +12 enhancements were created.

Perhaps it was a better choice for that student to entrust me with the enhancement today rather than delaying it by going to buy a talisman.

‘I absolutely must not say anything.’

If this fact were known, it was obvious that all sorts of complaints would be made, so I decided to keep it to myself and not say it out loud.

I didn’t want to stir up unnecessary trouble.

And whether the feeling that came that day was special or not, the success rate of creating one +12 enhancement a day had decreased significantly.

Naturally, the students who brought talismans failed to enhance to +12 and had to leave.

My friend succeeded, and I felt a sense of deprivation as I failed, so I made sure to come and reinforce myself at least once a day.

“It’s regrettable.”

It seemed that the word had spread among the students that you should reinforce yourself when you have the chance, perhaps because they realized that I could suddenly leave my spot.

There were enough students lining up to reinforce themselves at least once a day.

There were even rumors that Mr. Nae had glanced at our store while passing by other shops.

“Lining up doesn’t mean they’re here to buy something.”

If you didn’t know the ins and outs of our store, you wouldn’t understand what was going on.

“The students who used to come for reinforcement don’t come anymore.”

The reason why students who came to reinforce themselves were now wandering around the store with suspicious eyes was noticed.

But it didn’t seem like they were openly giving those students a hard time.

Instead, it was the other students who seemed uncomfortable with the situation.

Even though I didn’t say anything, the number of students coming to the store gradually decreased.

And Mr. Nae seemed visibly relieved that things were settling down without any major issues.

“They probably won’t come back in the future.”

“Why is that? Did you do something?”

“They probably didn’t notice me. They were probably more concerned about other students.”

More precisely, the students who came to reinforce themselves didn’t like the students who were wandering around, and they noticed that.

“They’re avoiding a confrontation. I didn’t do anything wrong, and it’s not a big deal, so don’t worry about it.”

“???”

The complex relationships among children of the same age are difficult for us adults to empathize with. Children of that age are much more afraid of seniors who are only 1-2 years older than their parents, and talented geniuses in the same grade make them feel even more distant and cautious.

“It means it’s been resolved.”

“Yes.”

“Oh! And if there are any guests coming for reinforcement in the future, tell them to go over there and wait.”

“Yes, I will!”

For the time being, I focused on reinforcing the students’ equipment as planned.

There were even instances where students brought various lucky items, as if there were rumors that one student had reached +12 through superstition.

Even though it was ineffective, they displayed them in the store and the store counter gradually filled with unique and mysterious items.

“It’s exciting when you reinforce it.”

Watching the kids genuinely enjoy reinforcing themselves made me feel a bit itchy to do it myself.

After pulling 19 SSR characters, I refrained from summoning heroes for a while.

But with the recent update of the shop and the appearance of new characters, I was eager to try my luck.

“Twins….”

New characters naturally had good performance, and the twin characters were honestly quite cute.

With platinum blonde hair tied in two braids, reminiscent of Hashi and Narel, the twins were unmistakably twins. The older sister had round, gentle eyes, while the younger sister had sharp eyes reminiscent of a cat.

It could be assumed that their personalities were completely opposite just by looking at them.

The two were holding hands tightly, showing a very close relationship.

“Can you resist the 1+1 offer?”

I was eager to see what kind of power the twin new characters possessed.

I had a cheating ability to summon 100 times at once.

New characters?

“They even increase the chances as an event, so I have to summon them.”

Perhaps because I hadn’t spent much money at the shop recently, this update seemed to have a lot of tempting offers for spending.

It felt like it was saying, “You’re not going to buy this either?” And I, being a big spender, couldn’t just ignore this challenge.

If you want to spend money, I could do it as much as you want.

“I didn’t spend money because there was nowhere to spend it, not because I didn’t have money.”

I purchased all the visible items worth buying.

I bought all the newly upgraded items, checked out the new systems that were introduced.

“Oh! A map!”

This new system upgrade was a very welcome addition.

It was the upgrade of the world map that allowed you to see the entire empire at a glance.

“I didn’t know they would do this.”

A world map was essential once you delved into purification.

Of course, it wasn’t just any ordinary world map.

“Monsters’ habitat maps, information on which boss monsters appear, and even farming items are all shown. Can they really provide all this? It’s a huge advantage for me.”

In the game system, not providing this would result in complaints about the lack of convenience.

But I thought that receiving such detailed maps in reality would be impossible with the current patch.

“It’s too much of a cheat.”

The world map clearly showed how many areas had been contaminated.

While the common lands dominated most of it, the only land shining in blue, the land of humanity, looked fragile and pitiful.

“I have to turn all of this into blue.”

Looking at the world map, I realized that the road ahead was long.

“Should I check that out too?”

This time, I decided to check the land purified by Mona Hwangtae and zoomed in on the map to find the location.

And sure enough, the land purified by Hwangtae was shining in blue.

However, it wasn’t as bright a blue as the uncontaminated land, it had a slightly faint blue glow.

It wasn’t strange since the border areas of contaminated lands had a faint blue glow.

“I should conquer this area next. Then I’ll be able to expand this land.”

When developing, the size of the land is important, but so is the shape.

If purification extends to this area, we will be able to use a piece of land about the size of a small island, making it easier to build roads.

As we continue to purify the contaminated lands and secure more land, we need to think about expanding the roads for scalability.

“It was really a headache to build roads in city simulation games.”

To attract people to the purified land, there needed to be many advantages.

Just as customers flocked to a general store after the road was cleared, to attract people to the purified land, good transportation was essential.

This world map seemed like it would be very helpful in that regard.

“I’ve basically obtained a cheat code.”

Even though it was providing so much convenience, I couldn’t help but feel grateful.

“Let’s spend some money!”

I was determined to show that I knew how to make the most of it when it came to spending.