(A couple of minutes later...)
"Hmm... Are you sure this is alright?" he asked.
By ’this,’ he obviously meant the large potato sack filled with jewelry over his back. He looked like Santa Claus.
"If you’re comfortable, then it’s fine. We don’t need to do any explaining. We just need to get from point A to B, then back the way we came. If anything happens, I can teleport us back home. I’ve practiced a lot since the first time I used teleportation, so don’t worry," she replied.
Arthur nodded. "Sounds good to me. But what if they’re prepared for teleportation this time? Or have some other kind of means to counter you?"
"That’s also fine. I prepared a force field, as well as a built-in GPS inside my brain that shows me the location of everyone bearing any ill will against me. So you don’t have to worry. Let’s go now."
With that, the two of them stepped out of their neighborhood. The first step felt strangely heavy, but when he realized that they weren’t killed yet, he felt a lot more relieved. He had actually wanted to go out into the city for a while now, but he was too afraid to do so.
Not only that, she had managed to figure out a way to see, at least theoretically. She would use sound waves to locate the nearest object around her. She would use this method several thousand times per second, and in a way, it’d be the same as vision, minus the vision, obviously.
She had essentially created her own form of echolocation. Thousands of tiny sound pulses bounced through the environment every second, allowing her to construct a rough image of everything around her.
Right as he had that thought, she suddenly pulled his hand down, nearly making him fall. When he glanced back, he realized she had tripped on a rock and begun doing the splits with a conflicted expression.
"So, uh... Whatcha doing there?"
"...It looks like if I lose focus for even a moment, I get a massive migraine that makes me fall. This is only viable for walking around, not for fighting. It’s good to know that now, since—"
"Mhm. It doesn’t matter. Get up now. We’re going up to the Mid-Level of Vivum," he interrupted her and dragged her into the elevator, taking her up.
He wasn’t expecting much, but it looked like whatever kind of technique she was using to see really messed with her senses whenever she was in any moving object.
How else could he explain her gagging and nearly vomiting all over him?
Oh well. Once they reached the Mid-Level, things became a lot more stable. With the footsteps of other people around her, she didn’t need to exert that much effort to use her ability.
As for him, all he really needed to do was not stray too far away from her, just in case she needed to grab his hand and quickly teleport him away. It was hard to imagine how they’d need to act like husband and wife, though.
And it seemed like he wouldn’t need to wait long to find out, as half an hour later, the two of them were stopped in front of some expensive-looking jewelry store. There were three men dressed in black, and from the looks of things, they weren’t exactly friendly.
"Arthur Vegas and Victoria Vegas, I presume?" the one in the center asked.
"Yes?"
"We’d like it if you two could come with us. There’s something very urgent that requires your attention."
Heh. Well...
"Sorry, we can’t," Arthur replied, pulling Victoria closer. "You see, this is actually our first time exploring this world after arriving. Think of it as a honeymoon, mm?"
"...That’s right. Find some other time to bother us," Victoria added.
The government soldiers looked a bit conflicted. If their orders were to bring them in, then they obviously wouldn’t care about any kind of honeymoon.
"Ah, tell that woman who’s giving you orders that if she wants to ask me any questions or invite me elsewhere, she can do it by coming herself," Victoria said out of nowhere.
Immediately, the soldiers went on high alert. As for Arthur, he realized that she had somehow managed to hear the conversation between the soldiers and whoever was on the other end of their earpieces.
She was like a literal telepath. How cool was that?
Before the soldiers could make a move on them, though, Victoria snapped her fingers, igniting the earpieces inside the soldiers’ ears. Not only that, the earpieces gave off some kind of scent that knocked the soldiers unconscious.
Seeing this, Arthur wanted to mess with her less and less. For all he knew, at the slightest inconvenience, she could snap her fingers and all of a sudden, one of his family jewels would be gone.
A shiver ran down his spine as the two of them walked past the three bodies and into the jewelry store. The receptionist, who saw everything unfold, diligently straightened her back and began pressing the panic button to call a police squad.
"Ah, we’re not here to rob you. I already disabled that button as well as all the cameras. Arthur, it’s your turn," Victoria said.
Arthur smiled and walked up to the frightened receptionist. "Hello. Like she said, we’re not here to rob the place. We’re only here to sell some gold jewelry. So here, how much would this get us?"
He dumped the gold jewelry on the table in front of her. Her eyes widened, this time with greed.
"O-Oh. If you were customers, then you could’ve just said so."
We tried.
"Give me a moment then to calculate the value of all of this. Also, we won’t be buying the jewelry itself, but the gold, as we’ll be smelting it."
"That’s fine with us," Arthur said.
After that, the exchange went surprisingly smoothly. The receptionist gathered all the jewelry, weighed it, deducted taxes and many other variables, and then eventually named a price.
"This amount of gold would sell for roughly 600,000 Pora on the market, and as per our store’s rules, we offer 90% of the market price, which would be 540,000 Pora. Would that work with you?"
Arthur smiled. "That seems fine. We’ll take it."
She signed a check, and after everything was finalized, Arthur and Victoria left the jewelry store. Since it was a check, they needed to go to a bank to cash it in. But first, they needed to create bank accounts for each other.
"I think it’s best if we create a joint account," Victoria said. "That way, we could funnel all our money directly into it and not have to worry about splitting costs. We can each spend whatever we want."
"I don’t mind, I guess. Though, I am curious about earlier." He paused for a bit, glancing at her. "How’d you hear their conversation? Was it through those sound waves as well?"
She nodded. "It is. They vibrated at a certain frequency that I was able to translate. I take it you’re also curious why I let you do all the business talk?"
"Haha. Yeah, a little."
Of course he was. She was supposed to be the rich girl here who knew how to make money. So why leave him with big money decisions like that? He couldn’t understand it.
"Well, for one, I’m not interested in contracts or anything that could legally bind us to a store. Why should I have that kind of gun pointing at the back of my head when I plan to buy their whole company and resell everything anyway?"
"What about the second reason?"
"Hm? The second reason is that I was busy trying to capture the sniper who shot at us."
Arthur’s eyes widened. "...Pardon?"
Shot at them? When?
"When she started tallying everything, the sniper shot at you. Look." She pointed at the window.
To his surprise, there was a very small crack in the main display window. If not for his Perception stat, he wouldn’t even have noticed it.
But damn... Had he gone alone, he would’ve died? That was scary to think about.
However, that also made him realize that if he wanted the same neutral-grounds safety that Victoria was going to get, then he definitely needed to sign up for the Academy.
He shook his head and set those thoughts aside for later.
"Anyhow, we need to cash this check in, so before it gets dark, let’s create a joint bank account."