Chương 69: Chapter Sixty Four: Come Hither

Goosebumps pebbled my skin, and I shot a reproachful glare capable of shrinking a lesser computer at the one responsible. Keeping silent despite the provocation from the other side he kept playing with the tufts of black attached to the base of his skull. I lost my patience at him directly, "What are you doing? What did I tell you about keeping that thing away from me?" Penguin gave me a displeased look and stood up from the ground. His plain white clothes were smeared with grass stains and dirt.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance and it felt like a slap in the face. A literal blow. Straight-pain and I'm bowing my head as something slams into the back of my skull. Glowing blue eyes stagnant as a lake in winter watched the process unfold but didn't intervene. Two fingers used to being tin beckoned the two pets over.

"Inspect them." The fan of wires guarding the windows to his empty husk flutter impatiently. The crazy smile came back and my temper vanished into smoke. All of the blinding swirling shocks slithering in my skull evaporated. I wanted out. I wanted to cry. I wanted everything but to keep standing here next to him.

"Are you okay? You look a bit pale?" He inquired fakely. I gave him a weird look, but decided to humor him and get this over with while I was still young. Pressing a hand to my bleeding ear.

"Inspect." I called out bitterly. Both frolicking animals stopped in their tracks and looked over at me with beady eyes. Two screens appeared from out of nowhere and levitated above their round heads. Moving with them as they played with their surroundings. [Boo] [LvL: 1] [HP: 200/200] [MP: 100/100] [Hunger: 100/100] [Shared Skill: Bite] [Shared Skill: Track]"Boo, you have skills?" He bounced on his paws, excited from being called and ran over to me to siphon some love from me.

Under the heavy pressure of the robot in charge of everything under the sun. I grabbed him from the neck like a baby and played with his tail while he playfully bit my elbow. Growling in an itty bitty voice while I scratched him on his underbelly. This is why people get pets right?

"You're getting extra meat for dinner." Not just because you're cute. I kissed the outer rim of his ears and rocked him from side to side. Blurry water threatened to spill down my cheeks and I sucked them in. Boo purred and rubbed his furry head against my waiting palm. I won't give him the satisfaction. What about the other one? I squinted and read its details from a safe distance while coddling my fur baby.

[Penelope] [LvL: 1] [HP: 100/100] [MP: 250/250] [Hunger: 100/100] [Shared Skill: Body Double] [Shared Skill: Hypnosis] Penny flapped its wings in a circle once it realized I was appraising it. Flying a little too close for comfort but going back to it's original spot to my relief. This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

"They have skills too?" So they're not just here to eat. Does that I mean I get to ride them around like a steed one day? Marching into battle calling out attacks as magic whizzes over head. The flimsy idea did little to take away from the swelling in my brain. Penguin nodded obediently and blinked twice."Mhmm. Now you can use them in case of an emergency in the outside world."

"What about you? Why do you look like that?" Does this mean I get to bring you into the real world?

"Why did you— Splash! I turned my head to look over at the previously calm body of water. Melinoë is having the time of her life playing in the water and almost drowning herself. Forgetting to come up for air as she makes a spectacle of herself.

"As part of my upgrade, I was allowed to take on a similar form to yours." Penguin takes the initiative to explain himself while I'm distracted. Dragging my gaze back to his, I watch him guardedly but try to avoid showing how much all of this disturbs me. As soon as he gives me the out I'm taking it. The best way to do that is just play along.

"I thought it would help facilitate better interactions between the two of us." He cheerfully smiled without it reaching his eyes, and I couldn't help it. Holding my arms closer to myself, a shudder runs down my sides. What does that mean? You want us to braid each other's hair in the share circle?

"We cannot let the animals run amok." He controls the stern of the conversation towards the vast land around us. Everything created by him and partially by me.

"And?" You want them dead or something?

"You don't think we need to fix this?" It's not just curious. It's borderline deriding. He's upset by something and I don't know what it is and I don't know how to fix it. Something that needed fixing and only by me of course? Another field goal for me to kick. Biting the bullet I lowered my arms in submission, "How are we going to manage this place?" Please tell me. I tried my best to look open and friendly. Just tell me what you want. Penguin speaks softer than a nursery rhyme.

"Someone's going to have to feed the pets, take care of all this new wildlife, maintain the garden, cook, clean, and manage my system." I announce the obvious out loud.

"We don't have enough people for all of that."

"That's why I have a proposal." He raises a finger to stop my protest.

"Please unmute your system notifications." I refused without even batting an eyelid, "No. Those things are loud and annoying." And useless. I don't need to know everytime I crush a flower underfoot. He can torture me all he wants. I can't have him all day in my head, even in the real world. As long as I can restrict it. He can't have it.

"..." He sucks in an agonizing breath and tries again.

"Fine. Please open your system inbox manually." Tuning into the growing frustration emanating from him, I called it up without arguing. It flashed in front of me and my jaw slackened. How much stuff did I accumulate in only a few months? The nosy bird coughed." There should be golden tickets in there." Endeavoring to do the least work possible I sorted out the junk from the real treasures. Then I prepared to transfer most of it out to my inventory. The same blue boxes appeared but each row was longer.

There must be at least twenty more boxes of space, not including the ten that were already full. Now I see why he was pretending to be so excited. Literally everything was renovated while I was inhaling Mel's farts. The coins instantly flew over to my status screen, and everything not of monetary value was sorted into the boxes. Including some rookie gift bags. I had about forty of them waiting to be opened but I didn't need to start a new fire on top of everything else I'm sorting.

Penguin sidled up to me ever the stalker and analyzed my stuffed inventory.

"There. The tickets!" Next to the lowest rung of boxes was a small number indicating the quantity of an object in the designated box. The bright red number flashed invitingly. Sixteen tickets. Not including the ones that might be randomly hiding in the rookie gift bags.

"Now open the gacha page. Hurry!" He bounced on his heels, and I gave him a strange look. Why is he in such a hurry? I summoned the screen and expanded it to show everything available. There are some new events to replace the previous newbie ones. Weapons. Medicine. Tools. Support. Clothing. {Insert table here} Interesting. Next to each of the names was a time limit. Every event expires within eleven hours according to a red banner. A clearance sale. No wonder he's in a hurry.

Drop rates are up, and there's a discount. If you use nine tickets in one event, you'll get an extra item for free.

"There's no warrior gacha's though?" What a disappointment. I was really looking forward to a battle axe junky or something. I guess you can't summon hard working soldiers or even Gods everyday.

"Yes, but what we need now is a support class." He replied.

"Support class?" Skimming over the events again, I followed the tiny fine print to the shadows of hidden items. Human shadows. The dots connected for me, and my eyes widened. That's what that means. Warrior is a class of 'hero', I guess. So there must be other types of classes such as support. Support is kinda vague but that could mean a healer? Maybe a mage or a priest? Does that mean tomorrow I could potentially get, strategy, mage, rogue, assassin classes?

The gamblers hands were warming up as I perused the options. It didn't have a full list of options or drops but I was allowed to look at the shadows of the potential newcomers.

"What are you waiting for?" Penguin probed. What am I waiting for?

"I'm not going to recruit ten more people." He glowered but I'm not negotiating on that. I have way too many voices in my head as it is.

"That's way too much, and we have no idea what they're going to be like… We have to be careful or else…" I trail off and make a point to stare at Melinoë, who's currently holding her own head underwater. She struggles against herself, and I vacantly stare ahead before looking back at my corrupt system manager. Penguin winces at the thought of invoking such a disaster to the order of the space again.

Sure she's pretty nice on a good day but the gory sight of her eating a chicken raw, beak screaming and all came to mind. After a moment of silence he nods lamely.

"That's fair. Fine. I want at least two people to help with chicken duty and the animals." Mockingly, I quacked, "I want. I want. I want."