After a long sleep, Leo opened his eyes, feeling an itch on his chest.
Dazed, he thought it was time to open his convenience store and headed downstairs, only to notice in the mirror that he was naked—but there was something even more shocking.
The system's experiment tubes on Leo's chest that collected luck energy weren't as full as he remembered.
The red energy was almost half full, and the gold energy had increased slightly, reaching roughly seventy percent.
The combined total of the two energies was definitely enough for the system to recharge itself.
"Hey hey hey. My little dragon I kissed the mother of! How long have I been asleep?"
[M… m… m… master! There's a hole in your chest.]
"That's not the answer to the question I asked!"
The little dragon's voice still trembled, but this time it didn't make a mistake when answering Leo.
Leo learned that he had unknowingly been asleep for two days.
The reason was that he had used too much mental energy while preparing the intelligence for selling.
[Actually, the invincibility effect you possess has already reached the spiritual transformation stage. So at this level, mental fatigue wouldn't normally matter, but because your brain had never expended this much energy before adapting to the situation, it instructed your body to secrete an excessive amount of sleep hormones. Next time, if you work at an equivalent level, your brain will already reassess your capacity, so you won't experience the same thing.]
"Fuck you! Okay? You can let me reach the spiritual transformation stage without undergoing maturation, but you can't make my body adapt to avoid simple side effects? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! Fuck!"
Cursing about all the problems the damn system had created, Leo opened the curtain and looked outside. At that moment, a thin red thread floated through the air and came toward him.
Feeling the urgency, Leo didn't dare waste any more time. He went downstairs while entering his profile for one last check.
[Profile]
[Name: Leo Crane]
[Market Level: 4]
[Experience Points: 7,526/100,000]
[System Points: 12,526]
[Total Assets: 0 Won]
[Invincibility Level: Spiritual Transformation Fourth Stage (Active)]
Before sleeping, Leo's remaining system points were around 890, and after the roughly 12,000 points from Alice, it should have been at least 12,900. That means the system spent 500 points just for heating.
Suppressing his urge to check the system shop, Leo immediately unlocked the door of his convenience store.
Before making the windows transparent again, he spent some points to clean up the trash inside and restore the sales counter to its original state.
As soon as Leo reopened his store, a crowd surged in from outside.
For a moment, he felt caught in the middle of a chaotic scene.
For the past two days, almost everyone had been talking about Leo and his convenience store. After all, they would be staying here for seven days with nothing else to do.
Thanks to the combined efforts of the old man and Alice, people waited for Leo to open his store rather than spend their money on the vending machines downstairs.
Even though the first-level steam engine sold for 50 coins downstairs, and Leo sold it for much more, people had learned that even the ordinary waters he sold were treasures of high rarity.
Thus, the situation became: for any materials not used to upgrade their trains, the store owner Leo had to be visited. After all, the quality of the materials used to upgrade a train still mattered.
Those entering the store stared in shock at Leo, who was sitting hidden behind a curtain in the middle of an empty shop, then fell silent.
Fortunately, after a while, the crowd split like a swarm of mice, allowing one person to enter.
As the old man approached slowly, his footsteps masked all other noises. Human nature worked in that way.
From the moment they entered the city where fighting was forbidden, the effect of chaos diminished, and people began choosing a leader and gathering around them again.
Getting everyone to show respect… was never easy.
After glancing at the old man, Leo told everyone to step outside.
"Everyone! Please leave my small convenience store for now. As long as more than one person is in the store without my permission, I will not sell anything to anyone."
Those who heard Leo's voice were momentarily surprised, then gave the old man a nod and stepped outside. Were they surprised because Leo had an incredibly magnificent and seductive voice? Of course not. Many people assumed he was some kind of superhuman being because of his mysterious figure and the legends surrounding him. That's why hearing Leo's calm voice startled many.
As everyone was leaving, Alice and Sonia entered hand in hand.
Leo deliberately said nothing, which was why they were not made to leave.
"I have a special item, old man. More precisely, intelligence. Such intelligence that it will absolutely allow the players of Channel 99 to earn coins at a rate surpassing everyone else."
The old man calmly sat in the chair across from Leo and asked for the price.
This was a question Leo didn't have time to think over.
He considered that Alice had nearly fifty thousand coins in total. But Alice was a world-ranking player. No matter how rich the old man was, he didn't have as much money as Alice.
Considering the money of all other players, the total number of coins in Channel 99 was very unlikely to exceed 120,000.
Leo showed no mercy.
"This intelligence doesn't concern just one person—it concerns all of Channel 99. So it will be acquired collectively by all players in Channel 99. Don't be too surprised by the price. One hundred thousand."
"Hmm. Assuming roughly four thousand players survived, that comes to 2,500 coins per person, while many players' balances are only around 100 coins."
Leo heard the number of remaining players and remembered that everyone would have to spend coins to acquire the title mentioned in the intelligence.
For a moment, he realized he had quoted an impossibly high price without thinking too much. Just as Leo was about to retract his words, the old man stopped him.
"But it's not a problem. First, I'll cover the 100,000 coins from my own pocket, then collect repayment from everyone. I'll even apply late fees. In the worst case, those who refuse to pay will work on my train. Additionally, I can use this opportunity to reinforce my leadership. After all, I'm just an old man."
Before Leo could say anything further, the old man placed a colorful Ice Train Coin on the table.
[Sir, this coin is worth 100,000 system points.]