I set my boxes down by the door just as Feras finished gathering up the last of his stuff. "Zuku! Just who I was waiting to see…"

"You finally leaving?" I looked him over, feeling a bit unsettled. I swear his gaze looked off for some reason.

He smiled brightly and slung his bag over his shoulder. "Just about. I can't keep leeching off you forever… my pay?"

"Chek." Ah, maybe thats what it was? My heart ached as I transferred the twelve hundred and fifty Rayn I owed him.

His smile brightened substantially once he checked his phone. "Thank you, boss! And thank you for giving me a place to stay. I think it's high time I get a move on though."

It definitely was. I couldn't wait to have the apartment all to myself again. My Perk Points needed spending, and it'd be nice to shower and sleep without any stress once more. "Don't miss me too much."

He chuckled and stuck out his hand. "It's been… nice. If you ever need a grifter, or just some help in general, you have my contact."

I hesitantly took his offered hand. "You have plans?"

"Yep! Some of my contacts finally got back to me, so I'll be back in the flow soon. And I've got a bead on a place to stay. You?"

"Relax for a week or two while I wait for another gig…" It was really just the waiting game for me. My future should be coming soon, and I needed time to spend my Perks. Not to mention the printer I just bought.

"Exciting… well! I'm off. Don't be a stranger, Zuku." He headed for the door, pausing at the frame. "Hey… you want to go get some food? I still owe you some ramen."

Oh? Was he trying to befriend me? What a los- actually… Maybe I should make some friends? My mom always used to scold me for playing by myself. Assuming this wasn't some kind of con artist trap or something. Never could be too sure. "Sure."

There was no obvious reason to turn him down, and being around someone else was a good experience for me… It could be looked at as another networking chance. Right, it wasn't like I was going just because I wanted a new friend…

— — —

I took a breath, trying to relax in the comfort of my own home once more. I just returned from the meal with Feras. It had been… preem? It was so weird being around someone willingly and not because a gig demanded it. In the past, only Mira came anywhere close to a similar position.

I stared at the wall, feeling a bit… lonely? That wasn't quite right. I didn't even like Feras much in the first place thanks to his nature as a grifter. There was no way I was feeling lonely now that he was gone… right?

It was the foxes surely. Right. It was the fox sprites that I missed, not the Magus. No longer would I be able to appreciate their adorable snouts and cute little paws as they padded around my apartment. Nor would I be able to run my hands through their soft, comforting fur.

My eye started to throb, doubling my vision. I tiredly rubbed at it as if to force away the malfunction. It worked somewhat. I grabbed the eyedropper from Nael and dripped a couple drops onto the chrome. Soothing cool spread out, easing my vision back to how it should be.

I settled down against the wall. I couldn't wait for my new furniture to come in, but until then- Perks! I waited a couple hours to make sure Feras didn't come back before I allowed myself to be pulled into the pavilion once more.

Sleight of Hand was first. It was a bit of no brainer on what I wanted.

「Ambidextrous - You can use both hands equally well.」

I pulled the scroll off the shelf, causing the flickering flame above to go out. The rest of the scrolls turned dark once more. I stepped across the moonlit pavilion on light feet, taking my time to enjoy the view of the sakura tree just in the distance. No clue what the process for this would be, so I mentally prepared myself.

I turned to the easel and entrusted the Perk scroll to it. The scroll instantly unrolled by itself, revealing a painting of two feminine hands. They were painted in a perspective as if a person was looking down at their own hands. A moment passed… two…

I raised my head to look around, immediately hit with a strong sense of vertigo. I'd been transported to a different place at some point. The hands I was staring at, had, in fact, been my own. Ugh- the five dimensional Perk paintings really hurt my head.

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I stood in the dark corner of a library. The space was seemingly full of books and yet I couldn't focus on any of them. A desk sat in front of me with several sheets of paper and pens. The papers weren't blank- no, they were covered in writing exercises for children who'd yet to learn their letters.

「Complete the task.」

I didn't immediately move to the desk like I did with other learning spaces. The library was quite intriguing, so I stepped away from the desk to look around. I reached for a book on one of the shelves, but a shock of electricity smacked my finger away before it could make contact. Guess there wouldn't be any free info then.

I tried once more just in case it'd been a fluke. A significantly stronger shock just shy of lightning slammed into me. I jolted back and rubbed at my hand. Note to self; books were dangerous.

The notification impatiently flashed into my view once more. I lightly ignored it and moved on. I walked past a few cases. The surroundings grew incredibly dark, as if the very light had been snuffed out. I could still see shapes in the darkness, but they made a chill go up my spine. They almost looked like faces, familiar ones at that.

Something about the darkness beyond felt… off. The chill spread throughout my body as if only death awaited me if I were to head into it. Potentially worse than that, what if I got lost here, never to return to the real world? The chill down my spine hit for an entirely different reason.

I slowly backed up. My heart pounded as I returned to the desk and took a seat. Might as well follow the instructions.

— — —

I shifted slowly against the wall, feeling my joints creak and pop from a couple days of not moving. I slowly stood up, my bones grating against each other due to the awkward way I'd been sitting for two days. If it was like this for me, I can't even imagine going into the interface without Quick Healing.

Crow's Canteen of Chaos entered my hand in the next second and I gulped down water, drinking about half of it in one go to ease the agony in my throat. The soothing liquid flowed down the path of glass, refreshing me once more. Then, just because I could, I swapped hands without a hitch. Absolutely no issue using either one.

I checked my phone, spotting several missed notifications. The first message was from a delivery service, informing me my stuff was delivered into the mailroom. Then there was a message from Ishimaru thanking me for exposing the Savant Lab.

Last but not least, Mira texted me about an hour ago. 'Hey! Pa just got his new deployment orders. We've got a month before we need to go, so I figured we should go ahead and celebrate your birthday. I went by your container, but you weren't in…'

That sucked… I hoped they'd stick around for a bit longer this time around. Orders were orders though, and the FSA rarely let Uncle Ezra have a long time off. 'I moved. Here's the address. My birthday isn't for another two months, so don't worry about it.'

'Still…'

'Can you give me a few days?' I really wanted to get the rest of my Perk Points spent while I could. Every single one of them that got out the door was just another boost to my survival.

After texting Mira, I headed out of my apartment and down to the first floor. Getting the boxes of furniture out of the mail room and up into my apartment was a pain in the ass. It was made far easier thanks to the elevator, but still an annoying process. The stuff was heavy, and the landlord didn't have a dolly I could borrow, so I had to slowly move the boxes one by one.

What made it worse was the slags around me. I could feel their gazes on me as I rubbed at my eyes and carted my stuff to my apartment. Their gazes felt judgemental, almost. Like they could tell I bought the stuff with blood money.

Once everything got moved up into my apartment, I started to put it all together. The tables were definitely cheap since they came from a junkyard, and felt as if they could collapse at any moment. The one I planned to eat off of didn't matter so much, but the other one worried me. It would seriously suck for it to collapse under the weight of whatever I was working on.

Since they were cheap, they looked more like mere scraps with rough screw mounts than actual pieces of furniture. Most of the legs didn't even match, seemingly pulled from random other bits of recycled furniture. The work table itself had a massive dent on one side, which was still better off than the mess of dents covering the dinner table. I swear it looked much better in the photos.

I also set up the 3D Softworks Printer, which was surprisingly painless. Everything snapped together rather flawlessly, and even the materials had their slots to be easily exchanged. I just needed some practice actually making stuff with it, and then I'd be good to go.

The bed wasn't as painless, but eventually, I tightened the last bolt and twisted the final screw, making the place one step closer to home. Once everything was set up, I jumped onto the bed, feeling the soft mattress embrace my body. It wasn't top-of-the-line, but the bed was far better than the mattress I used back in the shipping container. I could just fall asleep on it-

I shook my head and cleared away the drowsiness. I had one more Perk to spend before I fully got to relax. As soon as this was over, I could take at least a couple of days to relax and decompress. I really needed it.

The interface pulled me into the pavilion once more. I moved for a new shelf in the room: Deception. The scrolls were laid out just as neatly as the rest of them, allowing me an easy viewing experience.

Deception had some… interesting Perks. There was a particularly high amount of them that would allow me to use my body to better sell what I was saying. Unfortunately, most of them were the kind I wouldn't want. It took a bit to read through them and narrow down the options, but one in particular stood out to me: Honest Face.

「Honest Face - Others will perceive you as a more upright and innocent person, allowing you to be 'honest'.」

A light chuckle escaped me. Innocence. Ha. Like such a thing even existed in this day and age. I looked down at my hands and walked to the easel, feeling reminiscent of a younger me. One without quite as many crimes upon her shoulders. One surrounded by a loving family-

Ugh- those memories hurt. Best keep them locked up where they were. I tossed the scroll onto the easel to distract myself. I half expected to be sent out of the pavilion and back to my bed similar to Hidden Hands thanks. Unfortunately, this wasn't an active type Perk.

As soon as I stared at the scroll's masterful painting, which depicted a joyful child unaware of the cruel truths of reality, I was pulled into another place entirely.

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