After Sawamura Sayuri left, Suto glanced at the system wallet.
[0 gold coins, 2 silver coins, 13 copper coins]
Hm?
Something seemed off.
Every time Suto killed a fish and picked up the copper coins from the ground, he would pay attention to the change in his wallet balance.
Just now, after helping Sayuri kill that sea bream, it had dropped 3 copper coins.
After storing them away, the number in his wallet at the time had been:
[0 gold coins, 2 silver coins, 8 copper coins]
Compared to now, it had only increased by 5 copper coins.
Strange.
Why was Sawamura Sayuri’s drop rate different from everyone else’s?
Suto felt somewhat confused.
However, he did not have time to think about it right now.
That was because another customer had come to buy fish.
Suto sat down and continued killing fish.
After working for almost another hour, he earned 83 copper coins, and the number in his wallet became:
[0 gold coins, 2 silver coins, 96 copper coins]
Seeing that the sky was getting dark, Suto prepared to go home.
After all, Beika Town was not very safe at night.
Uncle Takagi quickly washed his hands and handed him some money.
“Uncle Takagi?”
“Take it!
This is what you deserve!
I can’t let you work for free.”
“Then thank you, Uncle.”
“Whenever you’re free in the future, come if you want.
I hope you can achieve your dream of becoming a chef.”
“…Mm.”
After leaving the market, Suto counted the money in his hand and found that it totaled 4,000 yen.
The hourly wage in Tokyo was around 1,163 to 1,300 yen.
He had worked for an hour and a half today and a little over an hour yesterday.
Uncle Takagi had probably directly counted it as three hours of work, and the hourly wage he gave was even higher than normal.
“Uncle Takagi really is a decent person.
It’s just that my dream isn’t actually to become a chef…”
Suto shook his head, put the money away, and headed toward the subway station.
On the way, he passed by a bookstore.
Suto walked in and asked the clerk, “Excuse me, do you have a book called Love Metronome?”
The clerk thought for a moment and said, “I remember we do.
Please wait a moment.
I’ll help you look for it.”
A few minutes later, the clerk came out holding a new book with a little dust on it.
“Customer, is this the book you’re looking for?”
“That’s right.
“All right.”
The clerk went back inside and brought out another copy.
“That will be 1,400 yen.”
Suto paid, then stuffed the two new books into his schoolbag.
…
There were not many people on the subway.
Bored while sitting there, Suto took out one copy of Love Metronome, removed the plastic wrap, and started reading.
But after reading for only a short while, his eyes began to feel sore.
As expected, reading at night in bad lighting was not good for the eyes.
Suto put the book back into his schoolbag, closed his eyes, and began doing eye exercises.
A girl sitting across from him looked at him curiously as he rubbed his face with his fingers.
After all, Japan did not have anything like eye exercises.
Suto silently completed the full set of movements for massaging the pressure points around his eyes.
He felt his eyes grow a little warm, and the muscles around them also relaxed somewhat.
Even the noise by his ears seemed to disappear.
He slowly opened his eyes, only to discover that the scene around him was no longer the subway, but a familiar-looking mist.
A glowing panel floated in front of him, displaying a set of finger massage movements that looked somewhat mysterious.
An extremely passionate sales-pitch voice, like a livestream shopping host, rang out from who knew where.
“How long has it been since you clearly saw the texture of leaves?”
“How long has it been since you clearly saw the face of the person you love without wearing glasses?”
“The embarrassment of your lenses fogging up when eating hotpot in winter, the frustration of your glasses slipping down from sweat in summer—how much longer do you want to endure it?”
“Look here!
Our [Clear-Sight Eye Exercises] are no ordinary massage!”
This is…?
Suto froze for a moment, then realized that this seemed to be the same kind of “ad” he had seen after dying last time.
However, the product being sold this time was no longer a [Devil Fruit Mystery Box], but a strange set of [Clear-Sight Eye Exercises].
“It produces immediate results!
Every time you massage your eyes, your prescription will decrease by one degree!”
“It doesn’t require you to set aside a large block of time.
Ten minutes before bed every day, listen to some soothing music, follow along, and it’ll feel like placing a soft blanket over your eyes…”
“Don’t hesitate!
Buy now!
Original price: 9.9 silver coins!
Current price: only 1.9 silver coins!
You can immediately obtain one copy of [Clear-Sight Eye Exercises]!”
A [Buy Now] button popped up on the panel.
Suto looked toward the upper-right corner of the ad.
There was a countdown there.
[00:00:20]
Suto knew that this represented the strange ad having 20 seconds left.
So, should he buy it?
The discounted price of 1.9 silver coins was not expensive compared to its miraculous effect of reducing nearsightedness.
Suto currently had: You are reading on g.com, the official source.
[2 silver coins, 96 copper coins]
In other words, 2.96 silver coins.
He could afford this item.
However, Suto was not nearsighted.
Actually, he had originally been nearsighted, but after his age regressed by ten years, his eyes had returned to their condition from ten years ago, and his vision had recovered to normal.
It seemed like he had no use for it.
Suto thought back to the advertisement’s wording.
[It produces immediate results!
Every time you massage your eyes, your prescription will decrease by one degree!]
This description did not seem to limit it to massaging his own eyes.
If this set of [Clear-Sight Eye Exercises] could also work on other people’s nearsightedness…
Suto thought of Sawamura Eriri.
She was severely nearsighted and usually wore contact lenses.
There was also Kasumigaoka Utaha.
In the anime, her image often included glasses.
Although the plot did not clearly say so, considering that she was a light novel author who often had to sit and write for long periods, she most likely had nearsightedness too.
If he mastered these eye exercises, then he would have a legitimate reason to touch their eyes.
If he met other nearsighted [Heroines] in the future, he could use the same method to touch their eyes and “check in” with them.
They would recover their vision, and Suto would farm copper coins.
This could be called a win-win!
With that thought, Suto reached out and directly tapped the [Buy Now] button in front of him.
The next moment, a notification appeared on the screen.
[Purchase successful!]
[Current wallet: 0 gold coins, 1 silver coin, 6 copper coins.]
After that, the surrounding mist began to rapidly disperse.
Suto found himself still sitting in his seat on the subway.
The other passengers were there too.
But all of them were frozen in their original positions, completely motionless.
There was not a single sound in the air.
Suto looked out the window.
The scenery outside was also frozen.
Even the wind had stopped moving.
Except for him, everything seemed to be in a state of “time stop.”
A few seconds later, the mist completely disappeared, and time resumed.
Suto saw the passengers begin moving again from their frozen states.
The girl sitting across from him blinked.
When she suddenly noticed Suto looking at her, she lowered her head in embarrassment.
Suto smiled, opened the system panel, and looked at his inventory.
Inside one of the slots lay a thin booklet quietly glowing with blue light.
[Clear-Sight Eye Exercises]
…
…
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