He was taking deep breaths and just finished enjoying his new upgraded stats when he decided to look at his status

“Status window,” he intoned, and saw that yes, the book really did make him stronger instantly.

[Name: Jay Kim

Level: 1

Class: Shopping Addict

Basic Stats:

Strength: 13

Agility: 13

Intelligence: 13

Skills: Shopping (Awakening Store currently in beta service)]

As soon as he closed the status window, Jay started to think as he made his return from the outskirts of town to the town square proper.

Based on what he heard during the aftermath of the battle, Awakeners gain three stat points when they level up.

That means, when I read the Tome of Hidden Knowledge, I gained three levels? That’s awesome.

He saw a group of Awakeners talking, and a lot of them were talking excitedly about the three Awakeners appearing.

“Good job with the goblins, Liam,” one of the mages in the group said. “All of us had gained one or two levels due to the goblin battle. How about you?”

“Three,” the cloaked young man with the sword said. “All those goblins proved to be simple enough to defeat.”

“Great,” the group’s medic said, “I guess you are the only one who gained three levels”.

Among hundreds of Awakeners of Brino, Liam was the only one gain three level during the incident, and Jay was able to achieve the same thing with a single strange book.

Even though such change was something worth noticing, no one including Jay himself noticed it.

Frankly, Jay didn’t care.

There was only the present concern in the corner of his eye, the sole thing that he deemed important.

***

It was a simple enough banner, but on it were three words that immediately captured Jay’s attention.

[Limited Time Sale: For the next 48 hours, our “Tome of Defense”, a book teaching the basics of defending oneself and avoiding injury is on sale! From its list price of 4500 points, it is now available for only 3000 points, a massive 33% off! Don’t wait or hesitate, as this offer is only available for the next 48 hours! Act now!]

Wonderful, Jay thought, the combined pleasures of getting to a rare or limited item and receiving an item at an exorbitant discount immediately rousing his instincts as a Shopping Addict and shopping addict.

Back home, as soon as Jay had the capacity to purchase items on a limited-time sale, he never missed any of those sales.

Just ask the old apartment he had, which was by now packed with plastic cases holding all the limited-time sale purchases he made over the years.

And now, even in this world, that offer was presented before him.

How could he refuse it?

“All right,” he said, “still have 1100 left over from the goblins and the bonus I got signing up for the shop. Now how do I get more points within 48 hours?”

His mind started to wander to places he did not want to go.

Jay’s face began to get flushed, and a haze seemed to settle over him.

Elsewhere, he began to pale, his heart beating faster and his body beginning to break out in a cold sweat, the starting signs of an oncoming panic attack.

“What do I do? What can I do? What if the next battle doesn’t begin within the next 48 hours?”

Meanwhile, Jay was too busy having a panic attack to look to the corner of the Awakening Store, but once he had gotten reasonably out of that heightened emotional state, he looked over there to see something that looked like a lifeline to someone who was adrift in a sea of insolvency.

The Awakening Store apparently had 1:1 Customer Service available.

The highs and lows of the day finally took their toll on him, and he had to slump down onto a bench in the town square before giving the Customer Service feature a try.

He opened an inquiry expectantly, awaiting an answer which he did not know if it would or would not come.

But he had faith, since the online shop he regularly went to carried itself like a virtual shopping mall, a sanctuary for the worst shopaholics around.

He left his question there: “I need more points to make a purchase of the limited time sale. Could you point me to a good place to hunt monsters?” And as soon as he sent his question, he felt his eyes grow heavy. Now sounded like a good idea to take a short nap…

…and the telltale sound of a notification only he could hear brought him out of it.

After taking a while to rub the sleep out of his eyes, he checked the time and saw that around ten minutes passed between his inquiry and being rudely awakened from his nap.

But there WAS a reply, so Jay took the time to read it.

[Customer Service has sent an answer to your inquiry. Open this message to receive it.]

Ten minutes… he thought. That has to be some kind of record! These guys are good – no, they’re the best! Even the mall I last went to doesn’t answer inquiries this quickly.

While in awe of how quick the Awakening Store Customer Service addressed his request together with the last bits of sleep leaving him, Jay rushed to check the answer.

[Thanks for contacting us! To answer your question, an orc hideout is located 20 minutes due west from the main gate of Brino. Hunting orcs in that location can get you the points you need! But be warned, if you have only battled goblins before, orcs will prove to be a challenge for you! We recommend Awakeners to be at level 4 as a minimum requirement to survive this encounter, and level 6 to have the best hunting experience. Should you need a weapon for hunting orcs, we also recommend going to our Armory section, because one of our entry-level equipment, the ‘Hardened Bat’, is currently on sale. Good luck and good hunting!]

Jay found a way to acquire the points he needed.

Those orcs would never know what hit them.