33: Buying Skills

The Inventory contained a vast amount of space inside and could store anything other than living beings.

Natsuo was excited to try it. With a single thought, he willed the ability to activate, and the phone in his hand vanished. The next moment, it reappeared in his hand as if it had never left.

"This is so convenient. I want to be a thief now. This thing can do wonders."

He stood up from the bed and walked over to the closet, where he had stored the backpack containing the gold.

"Let's see what more I can get." With 12,000 points, Natsuo was itching to spend all of them. He opened the Shop and started scrolling through the available items. Even with the filter that removed everything he couldn't afford, the list was still surprisingly large.

Things like cooking skills, dancing, driving, and various other practical abilities were all available at low prices, averaging around 500 points each.

Natsuo glossed over the available skills and bought Cooking for 500 points. Since he was planning to live on his own, knowing how to cook would definitely be useful. He also bought Parkour for another 500 points, figuring that it could come in handy in all sorts of situations.

He then bought Programming and Hacking for another 1,000 points.

Programming and hacking were not the same thing. A programmer didn't necessarily know how to hack, while a hacker generally only had a basic understanding of a single programming language, which was often Python. They mainly used it to write scripts and tools for whatever they were trying to accomplish.

Since the two skills covered different areas, Natsuo decided it was better to have both.

These two skills were very useful in modern worlds like Kana's world or his own. They would definitely come in handy the next time they had a mission.

"Sex... Instinct? I must have read it wrong... You mean Sixth Instinct, right?!" As Natsuo scrolled through the list, he suddenly stopped at a skill. He read the name, then rubbed his eyes and read it again in disbelief.

It wasn't a skill, but an ability that gave the user an almost instinctive understanding of sexual acts. They would naturally know how to pleasure their partner, sense what their partner wanted in the moment, identify their erogenous zones, know the best way to kiss them, and understand how to satisfy them physically without needing any prior experience or knowledge. It covered everything from reading their partner's reactions to instinctively knowing what would feel best, as though their body simply knew what to do.

It was more expensive than the other skills Natsuo had bought, costing 3,000 points. Of course, as a serious and honest person who would never indulge in such fleshy pleasures, Natsuo immediately swiped past the skill. Unfortunately, his finger slipped, and he inadvertently bought it.

It was absolutely not because his finger had been steady and he had pressed the purchase button dozens of times in a single second. Absolutely not. Natsuo was not that kind of person!

He spent another 1,000 points to buy Marksmanship. At least his aim wouldn't be screwed anymore. With it, even firing magic would become more precise, not just weapons.

He also bought Hand-to-Hand Combat for another 1,000 points.

Next time he sparred with Chelsea, he wouldn't be getting smacked around so easily like a bitch being slapped by a Pimp Named Slickback.

That left him with 5,000 points. Natsuo hesitated between buying Physique Enhancement and Magic Enhancement. Both cost 2,000 points each and could be bought as many times as he wanted, as long as he had enough points. In other words, he could keep buying them infinitely.

In the end, Natsuo decided that he would buy two Physique Enhancements, but not now. He would wait until after he took the Super Soldier Serum and then buy them.

If he used them now and later discovered that the Serum's effects were too weak because he had already become too strong, Natsuo would really cry.

As for magic, Natsuo would just stick to his training. He would drain his mana, then wait for it to recover before training again. Unfortunately, recovery potions cost 200 points each, even for the lowest quality ones, so it wasn't viable to use them to accelerate his training.

The only fortunate thing, however, was that the mana in his world was much denser than in Kana's world, perhaps ten or even twenty times denser.

"I should ask Hilda later. Maybe she can buy them for me," Natsuo suddenly thought. He could give her gold, and she could use it to buy the Magic Recovery Potions for him.

After playing around and chatting with his girlfriend for a while and sharing what he had brought with the other group members, Natsuo left his room with a towel and walked toward the bathroom. As he stepped onto the first floor, he saw Rui sitting in the living room. He glanced around and asked, "Where are Father and Tsukiko-san?"

"They said they'll be coming home late tonight." Rui glanced back at him from the sofa and replied calmly.

"Oh, they're quite active, heh. Maybe we'll have a new sibling soon," Natsuo chuckled and headed toward the bathroom.

His father and Tsukiko seemed to be getting along very well. Last night, he had heard them "working" really hard. Maybe they really would add another member to the family.

"Gross." Rui gave him a look of disgust.

Natsuo instinctively wanted to retort with something sarcastic, but he quickly stopped himself. Shaking his head, he walked away.

'It seems I got too used to arguing with Kana.'

That stupid, foul-mouthed social media addict had nearly turned him into someone like her... What a terrifying thought! He needed to avoid her as much as possible in the future. Otherwise, his IQ might eventually become negative, just like hers!

"Haah!" Lying in the bathtub with his body submerged in the water, Natsuo let out a long, satisfied sigh. He tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling before raising one hand and aiming at the floor near the drain. With a thought, he fired a Water Ball.

Even without looking, the Water Ball landed precisely where he wanted it to. His aim had become many times more accurate.

Splash! Splash! Splash!

Natsuo kept firing the Water Ball repeatedly until all his mana was depleted. Right then, a wave of dizziness assaulted him, making him feel lethargic. A strong sense of sleepiness washed over him, making him want to close his eyes and fall asleep. He held his head and shook it lightly. This was the side effect of consuming all his mana.

Fortunately, it had become less intense than before after doing it so many times. When he had used up all his mana for the first time, he had passed out completely.

Now, however, he only needed to stay still for a while. Once he recovered some of his mana, the sensation would gradually disappear.

Clack!

Just then, the lights went out, and the bathroom door suddenly opened as someone walked in.

"Rui?" Natsuo squinted his eyes and looked at the figure wrapped in a towel. Why did this scene seem so familiar?

'Am I really destined to bang my stepsister?'

Would he really be testing the ability he had bought from the Shop so soon?

"It's me. I'm all sweaty and couldn't wait. Don't mind me, I'll finish quickly," Rui said calmly as she sat on the plastic stool and rinsed herself with the showerhead.

"You can't just walk into the bathroom when someone is already inside. This is sexual harassment," Natsuo muttered tiredly. He was too exhausted to argue with her, so he simply closed his eyes. He felt like he would probably fall asleep right there.

With her back facing him and her head lowered as she stared at the wet floor, Rui suddenly spoke, "You were with Hina-nee this morning."

"Oh, Hina? Yes, but how did you know?" Natsuo opened one eye and answered.

"I was looking for you after the break. Did you forget? You said you wanted to talk during the break," Rui explained slowly. She stopped speaking for a moment before adding, "I saw you on the rooftop with her."

'Oh, I nearly forgot with everything that has been going on,' Natsuo said, suddenly he remembered that he had indeed told her they should continue talking during the break.

"Did Hina-nee ask you for advice about her boyfriend?" Rui asked.

"Her boyfriend? So you really know?" Natsuo replied.

Her boyfriend was Shū Hagiwara, who had been Hina's high school science teacher. After noticing how sad and lonely she had become when her close friends secretly bullied and badmouthed her, he used puppets and ventriloquism to cheer her up. Over time, the two of them developed a close and friendly student teacher bond.

Years later, Hina crossed paths with Shū again during her fourth year of college, and the two of them rekindled their friendship. Eventually, their relationship developed into something romantic.

However, during this time, Shū was already married to the daughter of a professor to whom he was indebted.

Hina's relationship was a really messy one. She was dating a married man, and her boyfriend was married to an insufferable and controlling woman whom he didn't love. He was trapped in a toxic relationship, yet he didn't have the balls to divorce her.

So, all the parties involved were equally in the wrong, though it felt like Hina was the one who was most at fault here. Regardless of how bad Shū's marriage was, she had still gotten between a married couple. She could have waited until Shū divorced his wife before starting a relationship with him.

She could have maintained her self-respect and stayed away from the whole shitty relationship in the first place.

"I learned it from her phone conversation," Rui said as she started to turn around to face him. "I thought she was acting strange."

"Hey! Don't turn around!" Natsuo immediately stopped her.

"What's wrong? It's not as if you've never seen me naked before." Rui stood up and dropped her towel to the floor, speaking in a flat tone. "That's not the important matter here."

The lights were out, leaving the bathroom dark, but Natsuo could somehow still make out her figure. Last time, he had been too nervous to properly appreciate it, but this time, he squinted his eyes and took it all in, engraving the sight completely into his mental hard drive.

'Itadakimasu!'

Rui didn't seem to care about his gaze. She entered the bathtub, hugged her legs, and spoke in a sad tone. "In any case, Hina-nee used to be bright, friendly, clumsy, and filled with a strong sense of justice."

'If I didn't know her personality, I would have thought she was doing it on purpose,' Natsuo thought inwardly. He chuckled and said, "Look who's calling someone else clumsy."

"I confronted her when I learned that her boyfriend was married." Rui hugged her thighs tightly as she told him what had happened back then.

She had asked her sister to break up with her boyfriend, but Hina refused. Instead, she told Rui that someone who had never loved another person would never understand what she was going through and that she shouldn't interfere in her matters.

...

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