Mikan's take on the MMORPG Gaming Lifestyle

Chapter 3

The electronic shop was small but very clean and orderly, with shelves upon more shelves aligning the walls where items were displayed for the customers. A large cabinet stood against the far wall behind the counter where the more expensive gadgets were locked and displayed, only accessible by the store owner.

Two female students were already inside the store, looking around the merchandise. One of them had her hair up in an elegant bun with few strands framing the side of her face prettily. Her hair was a lighter shade of black, compared to the friend beside her, who sported a shorter and much darker hair, the tips just touching her shoulders.

Both were dressed in expensive clothing and had makeup on, what they were doing in a tiny store all dolled up, the store owner could only wonder.

The girl with the short hair rushed to one of the shelves and picked up a computer RAM before hurrying back to her friend's side.

"Yuri! Here, I found it. Come on, let's go pay for it."

"Wait, Wakako. Are you sure this is even going to work? You think he will help me when we don't know each other?"

The friend with the elegant bun, now known as Yuri, eyed the object and the girl holding it warily.

Wakako quickly hushed her friend, attempting to reassure her.

"Of course he will help you! You're the campus' number one beauty, there's no way he will refuse after hearing your name. We just have to fake having a computer problem using this RAM and have him help us out."

"But...how do we get to him?"

"Don't worry, Yuri, you just have to rely on me. I ran into one of his roommates recently and already set the plan into motion. So relax, hm?"

Wakako flashed her a reassuring smile, wiggling her eyebrows slightly and Yuri loosened up her tense shoulders, returning a dazzling smile back.

A smile that, no doubt, has lived up to her reputation as the school's beauty.

The two ladies headed towards the far end of the store where the owner stood behind his place at the counter just as Mikan and Anna stepped inside the shop and wandered towards the shelves beside the cash register.

"8,350 yen?! So expensive?" Wakako nearly shouted.

"Can you lower it for us?"

The store owner merely peered at the student in front of him peevishly before claiming, "Not a yen less, I won't sell for a price any lower than 8,350 yen. You can go around the other stores, it's the same price everywhere."

Mikan overheard the conversation as she lined up behind the two girls after picking out an affordable motherboard for her laptop. She could not help but feel disgust at the con artist disguised as the owner of the store and decided to intervene.

Coming up beside the other girls, Mikan interjected, "Hey sir, isn't your price a bit too unreasonable? Look at it."

At this, she took the item from Wakako, studied the object in hand and held it out to the shopkeeper.

"The memory stick doesn't even have the proper sheen on it, it's obviously been used. You've got guts selling it as new and even twice as expensive on top of that. Aren't you just taking advantage of them now?"

The man looked appalled and hastily tried to shut the girl up.

"What nonsense! Who are you to meddle in this, huh?! What do you even know about these devices!"

Mikan almost snorted and Anna spoke up behind her, immediately defending her best friend.

"We're Computer Science majors, why wouldn't we know? Your shop is right outside the school and yet, your business is so shady. What do you think will happen if word gets out about this? It's not going to look good for you."