Chapter 66. Executing Operation, Codename: Date, Afternoon. (2/4)
The two of them each put a coin in then picked a song and difficulty.
“Have you played this before Rosa?”
“No, not at all, this is my first time actually.”
“Oh, I see. Do you know how to play?”
“To be honest... it’s also my first time being in an arcade, I’ve never had the time to go to one before. I don’t know much about these sorts of things.”
“Well, it’s not too hard. You just need to press the pad on the ground with your feet which corresponds to the directional arrow that scrolls to the top of the screen with the right timing. That’s really all there is to it. Once the arrows from the bottom line up perfectly with the ones at the top, you press the corresponding pad. It’s that simple.”
“That sounds easy enough.”
“Uh… okay, let’s go with this song and difficulty then.”
Using her knowledge she carefully selected a song that would be fun for someone new, wasn’t too slow, but simultaneously not too hard because of overly complicated patterns.
I could tell by how she was navigating through the songs. She was a thoughtful and considerate person. She wasn’t interested in showing off how good she was at it.
This was exactly the type of person an arcade needed as their customers. She wasn’t just an honor student, but an honor customer as well. Damn it, why is she such a good girl? It makes me want to cry a bit. What’s with those dog shit friends of hers making her feel like a third wheel?
I had the urge to go over and bash them in the face for troubling this sweet girl, to kind for her own good.
Woah! Hold up, me. Enemies. That’s right, we’re enemies. I shouldn’t be helping an enemy any more than I need to. My existence was the antithesis to hers.
I took a seat and watched the two of them play. It wasn’t hard to tell Alicia was meticulously controlling her score so she didn’t create too wide a gap. She was missing a note here and there and not hitting back-to-back perfect notes the way she had on the first song she danced to. She was holding back until Rosa got the hang of it similar to how I had with the previous fighting game.
Rosa was a quick learner though and she caught on quickly. She was hitting more and more notes perfectly as time went on. Unlike with that fighting game we played, it seemed she excelled at these more physically demanding games that relied more heavily on one’s body.
Once the song was over and Alicia realized how quickly Rosa had picked it up she increased the difficulty a notch further.
They went at it again. Rosa struggled a bit in the beginning when more complicated patterns showed up but she got into a groove soon enough.
She looked like she was genuinely having fun.
A few songs later and the two of them were up to the max difficulty on the songs. Alicia didn’t need to hold back and got into her own groove. They were both wearing wide smiles and having a blast together. Moving both their arms around in the air, their feet slid and moved naturally across the dance pad while laughing as they chatted together about girl stuff. Unbeknownst to them, they started to attract the gazes of those in the surroundings.
Two top-tier beauties dancing together was bound to attract such attention. People started to gather around and watch the dancing duo, but the two of them were too caught up doing their own thing to notice such a development.
I decided to slip away and go to the washroom to avoid the crowd. On the way, I discovered that kid from before staring at the two girls dancing together having fun. It was none of my business so I ignored him.
Alicia’s score had been extremely impressive and she was on track for an AAA clear. Although Rosa had only just played today for the first time, she’d done quite well for herself. She had a seemingly endless supply of stamina. Though she couldn’t beat Alicia’s score, she still appeared to be on track for a solid A or possibly even near AA rating. If I did something as tiresome as playing this awful game, I’d have undoubtedly dropped dead. I thanked the heavens Alicia was here. She’d inadvertently saved me from hell. If it had been anyone else but her who’d used that machine, I’d have been screwed beyond belief. It being her turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Thank you, Goddess Alicia, you have saved my oh-so-limited amount of energy. I offered a prayer to her in my heart as I entered the washroom to relieve myself.
A few minutes later I exited the washroom. It didn’t seem like the two of them were finished playing yet though. That being the case I took a short stroll around the arcade and I came across a bunch of crane games I hadn’t touched yet.
Since those two were still at it I figured I’d waste some time on the crane game. It was something I considered a waste of money, but I figured I could get a momento for Rosa as she’d just confirmed it was her first time at an arcade. I felt a souvenir from the crane game was perfect.
I found one with some cute stuffed animals.
It took a few tries but I eventually got one out. Sadly it wasn’t the one I was aiming for. I pulled a cute yellow bunny directly beside the one I wanted. It was a furball in a seated position, bottom flat, arms between its open legs with its ears down beside its head. It had a mischievous but simultaneously innocent sort of look to its face, at least, that was how it appeared to me.
A bit dissatisfied, I made a few more attempts. Finally, I got a hold of it. An adorable-looking fluffy fox with a red coat, white underbelly, and black fur surrounding its white inner ears.
Satisfied with my return on investment, I took a look over where the duo appeared to still be dancing. Just how long did these two intend to go? It was already almost 5 PM by now.
Oh well, a bit longer doesn’t hurt anyone. I also had one last coin of my own to play a game. I’d used up the budget I’d allocated for the arcade. Might as well use the last coin. Maybe I can get a souvenir for myself.
I searched around for another crane game. One that looked like it could potentially cough something up with just one try. I stumbled across one that had a bunch of circular capsules with something inside them.
I figured I’d give it a shot.
I put the coin in then carefully lined up the crane hook. Once I felt confident, I pressed the button and the hood descended. When it rose back up I was caught off guard. Lucky! It was two for one. My favorite kind of special, buy one get one free.
When they popped out and I saw what they were I felt a bit dejected. It wasn’t something I’d be able to use. Looking at what was inside them, I could tell they were two necklaces. Both intended for girls from the look of it.
What the heck? I don’t want to keep any of the things I got for myself.
What do I do with the extras I got? Should I just give them to Alicia or something? The yellow bunny I got doesn’t suit Rosa at all, but it does suit Alicia. She’s innocent like one after all. I originally wanted the red fox because Rosa was sly and crafty as a fox.
Just when I was thinking of heading back to their location, I discovered the two of them approaching me. They appeared to have worked up quite a sweat. Though Alicia was still catching her breath, Rosa was only breathing a bit faster than usual.
I somewhat understand author here I'm addicted to flavoured drinks I've bought a box of pineapple juice (not a carton a literal box with around 30 1 liter pineapple juice) I finished it up in 20 day's I usually buy one box every month and it's excruciating how I had to drink plain water for the last week or so I've started decreasing the amount to 1 1,5 liter and 3 cans of pineapple juice per month now and I'm quite alright on drinking water of course I diversified it too buy buying a few cans of soft drinks but yeah my parents are happy that I'm not wasting my money on pineapple juice now
I’m almost a year in now on just water. The amount of money saved was worth it. Doing the calculations Coke’s like 10X+ the price compared to drinking water.
A can of coke was 355 mL. The water bottles are 500 mL. Costs like $3 for a 24 pack of water while 24 pack of coke is now like $12. Coke’s also designed to make you thirstier and wanting more as well. So I’ve even been drinking less liquids now a day. 1-2 bottles of water at most.
4 cans of coke a day? That's insane.
I like the original taste of coke.
Gonna be honest with you, this sh*t on spoiler? i feel you man. This comes from a guy that has been buying and drinking two liters of coke a day everyday since i was 17 till i was 24. Dead serious on this, the taste thing? I notice it around my 19. It suddenly became quite clear the difference in taste, felt like... dunno, more plastic? More... or less flavory? Something like that. The only notable tip to know which bottles had a bad taste was to see the expiration date and the size of the bottle. If the bottle is of 3 liters, then the expiration date better be two or more months away and this one is more a 50/50. To be sure buy it when it is 3+ months before expiration date. Smaller bottles have a different time frame. For 1 liter bottle you can drink up to 1 or 2 months and the chances of getting one with bad after taste isn't high. If you are drinking a 500ml bottle then you can even drink one one week before its expiration date and the taste will be fine.
Glass bottles and cans are another sh*t all together. The glass one is hard to tell for me, just know that the glass one always have a better flavor and the can? Well, most of the time it depends at the temperature it was being keep and its expiration date.
Honestly it's not an expiration date problem as far as I can tell. We used to get like 24 cases at a time and that'd last several months. What I did sort of notice though is there is a difference in quality of the cans. Some feel thinner and less rigid to the touch when the coke tastes like shit, they just bend easier. The thicker cans where the coke tastes the way it should for me don't bend as easily when you squeeze them after they are open. But anyway I'm almost 2 months off of coke now. Haven't drank a drop since this author note but my mother still does. Been drinking water and it's not so bad.
@KiraMinoru
I don't even like soft drinks but this passion has moved me, lol like y'all really like the stuff. I always hated drinks that left gunk on my teeth and made want to obsessively brush my teeth every sip. I was always more of a coffee and tea person so the variety make it hard to relate tho, yet I can say coke was my mystery drink sometimes worth the brush, sometime I lefit spit it out lol 
Thanks for the chapter
I just drink diet coke with vanilla ice cream or rum. sh*t tastes good asf.
Jesus christ. I used to think I drink coke a lot but I bow down to you my man. Anyways, lol inflation. sh*t will keep happening if the president keep giving out free money
They didn’t change the amount of sugar?
I remember Fanta starting to taste shit, turned out they had cut down on sugar and added that horrible sugarfree stuff.
Oh, I find it highly amusing that you mention not caring about politics while complaining about inflation. Something you need politics to fix.
Thanks for the chapter, good stuff as always.
When I say politics I'm referring to politically correct woke crap. Politically correct woke crap isn't going to fix inflation, only real policies will. The state of modern politics is about as good as the toilet paper I use to wipe my ass.
As for sugar, yeah I remember reading something about them changing something up earlier in the pandemic. But during summer I was at least able to get original coke that didn't have the terrible orange aftertaste.
Honestly, speaking of policies, a policy to counter inflation came to mind.
It would be a means to apply pressure to demand and redirect demand to other goods. Tracking how much a certain good has gone up in price and if it inflates above a certain level it would be flagged across all stores.
Issue a new type of government issued card used at all stores, one to every household(can be stored digitally in case it is lost, if lost/stolen they can declare it lost/stolen to have a new one issued and use of the physical card itself will be blocked, but they can still continue to use the digital version they have instead). If a good comes up as being on the flagged list when scanned, they will need to swipe that card at any store they are purchasing said good from. This card will detect whether a person's household has purchased the imposed daily/weekly limit of this type of product. If they have, then they will not be able to purchase anymore today. It'd be like a hard enforcement of sales limit items but can also be used for items not on sale.
If no items purchased are on the flagged for inflation list then they don't need to swipe any card. The only thing that would be logged and stored is purchase of the flagged for inflation good.
Why may this sort of system potentially reduce inflation? Well, going off how increasing interest rates are thought to decrease inflation, it's the same concept. Encouraging/somewhat forcing people to seek out cheaper products that are less strained in demand rather than continuing to buy something they know is hurting them financially in the long run. Effectively, it's applying pressure to make them save their money forcefully and not go on crazy spending trips buying up stuff in bulk quantities. They won't be able to just go in and out of the store to get more of that good and they won't be able to go to other stores either to cheese the system.
With the artificial forced decrease in demand of a high inflation good, the price will naturally decrease. When it has decreased to an acceptable level, it can be unflagged for high inflation. I believe a sort of a quasi free market equilibrium could be achieved. Too much of anything can be a bad thing. There is always a need for moderation. Even too much freedom can be bad. So perhaps meeting halfway between freedom and restrictions is the best way to deal with inflation.
Personally I don't like this idea at all, but it's sort of a compromise between freedom and authority.
I'm sure this idea has lots of problems with it and I don't think it's necessarily a good idea.
I just finished downloading the latest novel (Volume 5) to my Kindle app on my cell phone. I'll have to give it a read a bit later though, as I have some other novels that have also updated.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks for reading as always!
Finally can go out lurking after that cliffhanger on volume 4. I'm still a bit mad ngl
I feel kind of bad lol. My bad. Volume 6 won’t have a cliffhanger ending, I promise. I already know how that one will end and I’m pretty satisfied with the ending I have for it in my head.
@KiraMinoru it's all good, after all it's still a good read