Chapter 316: Screen Time

The next task on the list for Kalli was to find new recommended items from the store that she could highlight on the wall to encourage people to buy them.

There were many things that might actually make life better, but people never thought to ask about them, so she had never sold one. And likely never even realized herself that they would be beneficial. So, the solution was to look up some good things, and make them the featured items of the day.

When advertised to the people of Marimgar, there was a chance that they would be widely accepted and sell in large quantities, but just the fact that they were around would encourage people to ask about a wider variety of items.

And once that started, they would definitely be on their way to the goals of the trial.

Awakening the population was going well.

It was just the "Preparing for the Ascension of the world" that was lagging behind. Mostly because they had no idea what that looked like, but that was a minor detail they could overlook, and assume that it meant they would simply need to increase everyone’s power level and equipment.

They were doing both, and the city was slowly working on infrastructure as well, just in case what they had was not going to be enough. It should be, they had done a lot of work to make sure that they had the best city that they could afford.

But the difference between reality and perfection was a long, long ways.

Scrolling through the store, Kalli quickly realized that she didn’t even know what people were lacking. The apartments had been furnished with appliances and furniture, so they weren’t short on that yet.

It was all still new.

But there had to be something that they were seriously lacking in that would make life more comfortable, and she couldn’t think of what it was.

Her previous life had been rather simple. She kept the bare minimum in her apartment, and spent the vast majority of her life at work. Work provided free food at the in building cafeteria, so she rarely ate at home unless it was a late night dinner, or a weekend.

Assuming she actually managed not to get called in on the weekend.

Entertainment?

That sounded like the sort of thing that everyone needed, though it wouldn’t do much toward the mission goals. It was something to get them started, though.

Kalli searched through the store, and found one of the handheld game consoles from her world.

{M Box Mobile} Includes a full mobile game library of 200 titles. 10 hour battery life, 5 mana to recharge. 2 Points

At that price, everyone would want one for their kids, or just for the gamer in their family.

Even Kalli bought one and hid it under her desk for when she had no customers coming in, so that she could game in peace. If she wasn’t planning to sell the handheld consoles, she might be able to pass it off as a fancy work terminal, but nobody would buy that excuse for long when they all realized that it was primarily a gaming device, and the holographic keyboard took a lot of practice to use effectively.

Practice that Kalli had, but nobody else would.

A few minutes later, she was playing Klem Invaders, a tactical strategy game that she could explain as work research if anyone asked, when the next group of customers from the lower city came in.

"What is that? Is that a game console? Tell me it’s a game console," one of the men pleaded.

His friends laughed as Kalli paused the game and turned it towards him.

"It’s educational. Since we faced insect monsters similar to this in the past. But yes, it’s a gaming console. Two hundred preloaded games, networked mode, and a ten hour battery life. Recharges with mana, for only two points."

The man did a little dance as he fist pumped into the air.

"Sold! I will take one for certain, and I know that I’m going to be able to convince many others to get them, now that they know it’s available. Did you get new items for the store?"

Kalli nodded. "At the end of the Third Trial, but I never went through all the options before. In fact, I’m sure there are still more things I have not seen, because I stopped when I got to the game console.

I haven’t even looked through the list, but there are rarely alternate items for something like this. It’s more of a ’You already have that thing in stock’ situation.

So, if you want one, you should be able to buy with confidence, knowing that all your friends will be on the same platform, and the city’s network will connect them."

They would actually network themselves over this distance, but that was a minor detail.

As long as they connected to each other, the gamers would be happy, and they could play the games in groups. There were a number of MMORPG type games on there, as well as ones for smaller groups or individual play.

There were also card games, educational games and others, it wasn’t all action.

And apparently that was a huge selling point, because within minutes of the post going up on the Marimgar Forum about the gaming console being available for two points at the store, there was a flood of people entering the Hall of Heroes.

Enough that Kalli simply bought a hundred and set them behind the counter, so the robotic assistant could collect payment and hand them out.

Doing it that way saved a lot of time, as few wanted to stand around and chat at the counter.

They didn’t want to leave the store, and all the seats were quickly filled with gamers engrossed in their consoles, but that would fade as they started to move to other locations with food and drink to game for longer periods of time.

It might cost a full day’s wages for many of the level 0 sorts, but it was totally worth it.

What Kalli didn’t realize was, that now that the consoles existed in Marimgar, they entered the pool for Common Grade item drops in the two lowest level dungeons. The drop rate might be insanely low, but getting one would make someone’s day.