~~a couple months after the interlude~~
"Alright, so, we need milk, some cereal, and maybe some pizza…."
Wow. I made such a good decision ripping off Asmo. Like, holy shit why did I not power-level Reflection earlier?! Hell, even warping shit to the Inverse then bringing it home is nonoptimal; I can just bring a mirror to a store, slide it into a display case, wait till night, then bam! Free food/dust/what have you. Good thing I realized as quickly as I could.
I would not be able to deal with a depressed Summer without something to min-max. Like, god above, seeing Alternis Dim having a complete breakdown wasn't as depressing. At least I can assure myself THAT was a false reality; this? This is the last connection I have to the closest thing I can call a family here. Of course, my Reflection affinity wasn't the only thing I was building up. I was also doing a rather shady thing when you think about it; I was selling my blood to the local blacksmith. Do note: this is not some village we are currently residing in, but rather, a city that has a weaponsmith. Because apparently all guns needed to be swords too. Can't just have some good ol' fashioned hyper-dakka. I don't even know WHAT a ork is, but I can tell they were incredible artisans, and that Remnant could learn a couple lessons from them. Seriously, word beams of all the colors of the rainbow are worth NOTHING compared to survival.
Rant over, I decided to pull a pre-emptive NGNA kazuma: start a card game! I have plenty of material to draw from from back home; do I rip off Yugioh, Pokemon, or Magic? Designing the cards is no problem, my literal blood money can afford a pro…. I just realized how disgusting it is that my future dakka could be made out of my own, actual, blood. And considering how optimal my blood-metal (note to self: create proper name for the mineral. "Blood-metal" and "blood-steel" sound like edgy af oc names.) is for making bullets- hollow, sharp and fragile- chances are someone is gonna make bullets out of it.
Anyways, the plan is to sell the card games to local stores, and split the profits up 2 ways; 40% for the artist, 60% for us. Of course, it will be complete tins we sell, complete with a playing mat with the zones labeled, a playing coin and dice for the inevitable rngesus cards. This, of course, means we get to charge extra. I plan on selling each individual box for 15$ to the stores, and they will probably sell them for 20$ like they did back home. Anyways, I can only hope I don't contract contact depression from seeing a wilting rose.
…..hooooooow in the fuck did auto-pilot wind me up back home with everything?
"I'm home."
"...Hey."
"No. no sad."
"But-"
"It's like I have said at least 5 times already; I don't want you to be depressed, your parents wouldn't want to see their little flower wilt, and I don't think you want to make your family upset. Besides, I managed to snag us some pizzer. Not sure what kind though, might need to purge."
"...pizza sounds nice..."
"Plus, I managed to hire an artist finally."
"So, operation: card monsters is a go?"
A little hope creeped into her voice at that.
We shall not let her hope be vain.
"I swear, if it were anyone else, I would laugh at your desire to name every single "operation". But somehow, you just make it seem cute."