I followed the route on my phone’s GPS as I walked toward a nearby café.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t hide the smile on my face. Then again, it wasn’t as though I was making much of an effort to hide it.
I looked once more at the bluish messages floating in front of my eyes.
[Natural growth threshold exceeded.]
[Strength: 10 → 11]
[Stamina: 11 → 12]
"Hehe..."
The corners of my lips rose a little higher on their own.
My battle with the pull-up bar had lasted much longer than expected.
I had failed four times while trying to complete my second pull-up, and only managed to drag my chin over the bar on my fifth attempt. After that, whenever my arms recovered a little, I switched between push-ups, pull-ups, and any other exercises I could manage. Toward the end, I had looked less like someone exercising and more like someone desperately clinging to the metal equipment for survival.
However, it had all been worth it.
My Strength and Stamina had each increased by one point. I had gained two stat points without spending a single Eclipsie Point.
I didn’t care that my arms were still trembling slightly or that my legs ached with every step. As long as White Snake continued working, I would mostly recover within a few hours.
A man in a suit walking past gave me a brief look. He probably thought I was a lunatic grinning while walking alone this early in the morning, but I didn’t care.
I had gained two stat points today, and I deserved a coffee to celebrate.
The GPS showed that my destination was about a hundred metres away. When I turned the next corner, I saw the café’s dark green sign.
It looked quite small from the outside. Behind the wide windows were several round tables, a wooden counter stretching along the wall, and yellow lights hanging from the ceiling.
When I pushed open the door, the small bell above it gave a light ding.
The sound wasn’t as pleasant as the system notification announcing my progress, but it couldn’t ruin my mood.
The strong scent of roasted coffee beans filled the café. Since it was morning, most of the tables were occupied. Some people looked at their phones while drinking coffee, while others typed on the laptops in front of them.
The man in a black apron behind the counter noticed me and smiled.
"Good morning. What can I get you?"
I approached the counter, ready to order.
"I’ll have a large Moon Mist. Make it iced, with two pumps of Purple Vanilla, Star Cream, and a little Night Dew Syrup on top."
The professional smile on the man’s face froze.
"Excuse me?"
"Moon Mist," I repeated. "But don’t add too much cream. It overpowers the vanilla when there’s too much."
The man blinked several times.
"I’m sorry, but we don’t have anything like that here."
I frowned.
"What do you mean? Moon Mist is available in almost every café-"
I stopped in the middle of the sentence.
Moon Mist was available in almost every café in my world, but it didn’t exist here.
I closed my eyes and pressed my palm against my forehead.
"Ah... Right."
I couldn’t help laughing at my own stupidity.
I had travelled to another world overnight, woken up in someone else’s body, and received a magical system. Despite all of that, I had somehow assumed my favourite coffee had travelled between worlds with me.
The man behind the counter spoke in a slightly cautious voice.
"Are you all right?"
"I’m fine, I’m fine." I waved my hand. "I just forgot which world I was in for a moment."
"Which...?"
"It’s not important."
I raised my head and looked at the menu hanging on the back wall. Most of the names were familiar: latte, mocha, americano, and cold brew.
At least the two worlds weren’t completely different when it came to coffee.
The café’s special drinks were listed near the bottom of the menu. They included Caramel Cloud, Cinnamon Sunrise, White Dream, and Black Moon.
My gaze stopped on the last one.
The name sounded cool, and it suited Noctis Evernight quite well. Without bothering to read the small description beside it, I cheerfully pointed at the menu.
"All right, then I’ll have a Black Moon."
"A large?"
"Yes."
"Plain and hot?"
"Exactly."
While the man selected the order on the screen, I took out my card. After I paid, he must have noticed the smile that was still on my face.
"You seem quite cheerful," he said. "Did something good happen?"
"Yes!"
My answer came out so quickly that the man flinched slightly. As I put the card back into my wallet, I continued proudly.
"I increased my stats without spending any Eclipsie Points."
"..."
The man stared at me with one finger frozen above the screen. Judging by his expression, he had no idea what I was talking about.
A few seconds later, I also realized that I had said that aloud to an ordinary person.
"Ha... ha..."
The man let out a dry laugh.
"That... sounds great."
He still didn’t understand what I had said.
"It is," I replied seriously. "It’s even better than you think."
"Of course."
He now seemed certain that I was insane.
"I’ll call you when your coffee is ready."
"All right."
I moved away from the counter and sat at an empty table beside the window. The moment I settled into the chair, I once again noticed how tired my arms were.
I took out my phone, unlocked it, and opened the streaming platform out of habit.
Small red notification icons appeared beneath my profile picture. When I opened the creator dashboard, my eyes widened slightly.
[New Followers: +23]
[New Views: +197]
"Ooo..."
Another twenty-three people had followed me since last night’s stream, and the total view count had increased by one hundred and ninety-seven.
The numbers still weren’t large. Famous streamers could probably gain that many views in a single minute, while I had needed an entire night. Still, considering that I had started from almost nothing yesterday, the result wasn’t bad at all.
Most importantly, people were continuing to watch the recording even after the stream had ended.
When I scrolled down my profile, I saw that most of the comments were about my swearing and unusual behaviour.
At least a few people said that they had enjoyed the game and the stream itself.
I began thinking about what I should stream that evening.
Continuing the RPG from yesterday would be the safest choice. I was still near the beginning of the story, and several viewers had written that they wanted to see what happened next.
However, wouldn’t playing the same thing again immediately become boring?
I had been decent at FPS games in my old world, and I had found several popular games here that looked similar. Getting used to their mechanics might take some time, but if I played well, I could prove to the people who only came for my appearance that I was genuinely skilled.
Of course, if I played badly, they would get to watch a cute femboy being shot and losing his temper during a livestream. Unfortunately, I suspected that would attract even more viewers.
"RPG or FPS..."
I lightly tapped the table with one finger.
Should I make completely different content instead?
I could start a simple chatting stream, but I erased that idea the moment it formed. If I spoke with the viewers for several hours, there was a high chance I would say something I wasn’t supposed to know about this world or react in a way that didn’t match Noctis’s personality.
I could also do a cooking stream, but I would need to learn how to cook first.
As for a cosplay stream...
"Absolutely not."
A woman sitting at a nearby table raised her head and looked at me. I coughed before returning my attention to the phone.
The system might give me another quest before evening and ruin all my plans anyway, so there probably wasn’t much point in deciding right now.
I had just opened the list of FPS games when a loud voice came from behind the counter.
"Black Moon is ready!"
"That’s mine!"
I quickly locked my phone and stood up.
After collecting my coffee, I left the café and began walking home. The warmth from the paper cup heated my fingers.
For a while, I was content with only smelling the coffee.
If it tasted good, I could come here every day after training and perhaps try the other drinks on the menu one by one.
I carefully took a sip through the small opening in the lid.
A second later, I stopped in place and grimaced.
"Damn, that’s bitter!"
Two people walking nearby turned to look at me, but I ignored them and pulled the cup away from my face. I examined the coffee as though it had personally betrayed me.
This wasn’t coffee. They had thrown charcoal into boiling water and stirred it.
The sharp taste lingering in my throat made me stick out my tongue and breathe several times.
"How do people drink this?"
I looked at the label on the cup.
[Black Moon — Double-shot espresso, unsweetened.]
If I had read the small description on the menu, I would have known that beforehand. However, that didn’t stop me from blaming the coffee.
"Is every coffee in this world bitter?"
I remembered Moon Mist’s sweet vanilla and soft cream with longing.
The only bad thing about that coffee was that its decorative appearance made people refuse to let me drink it before they took a picture. The Black Moon in my hand wasn’t worth photographing at all.
I considered throwing it away, but then I remembered how much I had paid.
"Tch."
Perhaps it would become more tolerable after cooling down.
As I continued walking with the cup in my hand, a brief notification sound came from my phone.
Ding.
It was probably another comment on my creator profile, so I didn’t bother taking out my phone.
Ding.
Ding. Ding.
I frowned.
The notifications continued arriving one after another, and the phone was vibrating almost constantly inside my pocket.
"Who is messaging me this early in the—"
Dudududuun!
This time, the phone began ringing, and a bad feeling formed inside me.
I moved the coffee to my other hand and took the phone from my pocket.
The screen showed the profile picture of a red-haired, blue-eyed girl. She held both hands beside her face, making victory signs with her fingers while smiling widely at the camera.
Only one name was written above the picture.
Eris.