The five female clerks had a lot of fun playing dress-up on Hiro, and he quite enjoyed playing oblivious when the girls took cheap advantages of him.
It felt heavenly with their dainty hands tracing his firmly outlined muscles and buffed chest, to the point where he decided to overlook the little mischief that took place below his waist.
Luckily, the girls didn't go too far, and the good times eventually came to an end when Hiro left the shop.
He decided to wear one of the selected outfits for himself, tossing away the oversized shirt and pants he endured for the entire week.
Wearing a cool dark blue jacket on top of a fancy wrinkled T-shirt, denim pants, and brandy shoes.
He also had a pair of honey-gold sunglasses that complimented his blazing crimson hair.
All in all, he was fabulous.
The system rewarded him 20 AP points for this task on the to-do list, bringing his total up to 95 points.
Moments later, Hiro did indeed find a famous clothing store and got in touch with the manager, expressing his interest in working as a part-time clerk.
The manager, a man in fashionable clothing with black-rimmed glasses and white hair, crossed his arms and carefully inspected Hiro.
"Hm," he gently tapped his right index on his arm while thinking. "It's not that I'm not tempted to have such a handsome eye candy work in this store, but I can tell at a glance that you don't know anything about fashion, so how can you work here?"
Hiro was rendered speechless for a moment as he thought to himself; that's right, how come I overlooked something that crucial?
The man went silent for a while and came up with a suggestion.
"How about this? I can let you work in the storage room. You know, unloading and unboxing packages from delivery, moving them to the shelves, or cleaning up near closing hours. I won't have you maintain that job permanently, but only for a probation period while you study our store's fashion catalog.
If you pass the test one month from now, you can be promoted to a clerk, not to mention that we're a huge franchise with great promotion opportunities if you work hard enough."
Hiro's eyes lit up as he said, "Alright! I can accept that, Manager!"
The man heaved a sigh of relief, glad to have scored a potential mascot. He also knew how important aesthetics were to people who cared about fashion.
Perhaps most people would say it's more important to judge people based on their inner hearts, but such nonsense didn't exist in the fashion industry.
If the camera couldn't capture it, then it was nothing more than hot air for all they cared.
The man clapped his hands. "Do you want to leave your personal information; name, ID, and bank account with me? If you do, we can start working right away!"
Hiro felt that the manager's enthusiasm was on par with his, if not more. Gladly, he followed the manager into the back office and completed the necessary paperwork.
The moment he signed his name on the electronic documents, the sweet bell chime of the system echoed in his head.
He ignored the 100 AP from getting a part-time job after a glance and focused on the following notifications.
[Notice: Congratulations, mission "Grinding" has been completed!]
[Reward 1: 1x Fantasy Crystal!]
[Reward 2: 10x Gems!]
[Reward 3: 1x Game Voucher!]
[Notice: You've unlocked the "Simulation Space" feature!]
[Notice: You've unlocked the "Synchronization" feature!]
…
Basic knowledge about the simulation space and the synchronization features flooded Hiro's mind, leaving him dumbfounded for a moment.
The simulation space draws from the 10,000 simulated fantasies and games Hiro played in his past life as a foundation, creating a simulated game reality where Hiro becomes a character in the game.
The synchronization feature allows Hiro to synchronize with any character of his choosing from the simulation space, instantly gaining that character's ability, power, comprehension, etc. for a limited amount of time.
That time duration is decided upon by using achievement points, with 10 AP per hour.
That might look cheap, but the difficulty lay in entering the simulation space, as the simulated games are very expensive.
The prices range from 60 gems and above!
Luckily for Hiro, he obtained a voucher to choose one game for free, but he couldn't put his mind to it.
Which game should he choose?
While he was thinking, the manager seemed to have finally completed the registration process and added Hiro's name to the employee database.
"Alright, Hiro, everything looks alright to me so we can go into the storage room and I'll show you the ropes! Are you ready? Oh, by the way, I'm Mathew, but you can call me Matt from now on." Mathew smiled kindly, fixed his glasses, and stood up from behind the desk.
Hiro quickly snapped back to his senses and asked a question, "Do I need to change my clothes or something?"
Mathew gave Hiro a weird look. "As long as you look good, I don't care what you wear. Well, please don't come here wearing our competitor's brands, and it would be even better if you put on our clothes."
Mathew patted Hiro on the shoulder and left the small office. After rubbing his nose and chuckling in embarrassment, Hiro followed after Mathew while checking his balance.
[Achievement Points: 295.]
[Gems: 10.]
It's so annoying that my AP count isn't a rounded number… Hiro thought grumpily before he willed for a pop-up window with the system shop to appear.
He curiously browsed the items since he was feeling a little rich with nearly 300 AP to his name.
He first checked the lifestyle menu since it was the cheapest.
Lies.
It was the only available menu at the moment.
A vast array of lifestyle items and skills was listed in the shop.
Cooking skills, driving skills, fighting skills, sports-related skills, academic skills, medical skills, business skills, etc.
Hiro was overwhelmed by the array of options… and the prices. The more convenient the skill, the pricer it got.
I don't have a car, Hiro thought to himself. And even if I wanted to get one, I don't have the money for it nor do I have the time to apply for driving lessons.
After considering his options, Hiro chose the safe route and spent 100 AP to buy the {Professional Combat Skills} package.
Hiro confirmed the purchase, and as soon as he did so, he felt a buzz in his mind followed by that mysterious, familiar energy circulating through his body.
It touched every fiber of his being, giving Hiro the illusion that his consciousness tagged along to a trip all over his body, introducing facets of the human anatomy that astounded him.
In a moment, boundless inspiration on how to regulate his forces internally, express them externally, and control his limbs and muscles to execute various combat maneuvers took root in his mind.
Walking ahead, Mathew suddenly paused and turned his head in confusion. Hiro immediately stopped, looking back at his new manager with a similar level of confusion.
"Weird," Mathew rubbed the back of his head for a moment, shook his head, and continued walking.
Hiro silently followed after him.
"Why did you stop movi-…" Mathew turned around again, but his words were stuck in his throat.
Huh? Mathew was feeling confused.