Chapter 24: Processing and haggling

Jaya shrugged, letting out an amused laugh.

“Oh, Suzu didn’t tell you, did she? For most of these vehicles, there is always a fixed processing term between the purchase and their actual acquisition. Usually one or two days. Maybe three, depending on my personal system’s availability.”

“... What? But why…?”

“If it had been one of these fine vehicles I already have materialized on display right here, it would have been one thing, but you chose a very specific model that needs… certain preparations before it can be sold. That’s just how the system decided it, I don’t make those decisions, ‘master Haruto’.” she said, giving out another snigger.

(‘Certain preparations’? Like what? It’s just a goddamn car. This is basically a video-game world! Just have it appear like everything else appears around here!! It can’t be that complicated!)

“Then, what? We’ll just have to stay stranded here waiting? That is ridiculous.”

“And yet it is just how it is…” she replied, letting out a somewhat forced sigh. “However, there is a way to appease the system and make it work faster, for your information.”

“And that is?”

“An additional fee is required.” she smirked.

(Tch… So, this is what matchsticks was talking about back there.)

The boy frowned. If they had to stay in that town for even one more day, let alone three, his options to explore that world and discover, say, what there could be in store elsewhere would be extremely limited. It wasn’t like had a particularly strong urge to travel, but that, even though he didn’t quite realize it, it came by instinct that he simply preferred to have as many options available as possible at a given time, if he could afford to weigh them out. Being bound to Kataki was not at all in his interest. Furthermore, it felt distinctly that someone was trying to rip him off, there. In a very poor attempt, too.

“...”

(What should I do, here? It’s not like I can just speed up time… But…)

“My master will need that vehicle ready soon.” Suzuka suddenly spoke up, taking a step past the boy and stopping just in front of him.

“And I already told you,” giggled the woman, as jovial as ever, “that’s something that will take at least two days to–”

“Assigned skill activated: Fireblast.”

The girl lifted her left hand, holding it just at eye-level with the car dealer.

“You heard my master. Two days is not soon enough.”

Her voice echoed throughout the shop, in the same flat, frigid tone Haruto could still recall from a few hours prior.

“Haha… Ha… Oh, come on, Suzu!” the woman kept her smile, though he could notice a heavy tinge of nervousness wash over it like a salty wave. “There’s a limit to how fast people in my line of work can finish up requests like these, especially something so out of the blue… And I… I already told you flames inside the shop is bad for business, and –”

“We’re already paying you a hefty fee. Work faster.”

Waving her arms around, Jaya finally gave up, heaving a deep sigh.

“Alright, alright! I’ll speed things up a bit for you, just this one time, so, please put the flames away, cutie-pie! Okay? It took me a whole week to clean up the whole shop after the last time you decided to have a fight in here! Don’t you care about aunt Jaya…?” childishly begged the woman, bringing both palms together in front of her face.

“That’s enough, Suzuka.”

The girl stared back at him, startled.

“... Ha… M-Master…?”

“Put the flame out. Miss Jaya there will be glad to make our life easier for us. Won’t you, Miss Jaya?”

“O-Of course!”

He could already see the cold sweat drenching her face. Whatever Suzuka had done to her before, he was glad the airheaded owner still remembered it.

Looking back at him for another lingering moment, Suzuka nodded, letting her arm drop.

“Okay, master…”

“Assigned skill canceled.”

Haruto heaved a sigh. To be frank, that whole exchange had scared even him just a bit. Even as a slave to his will, Suzuka was still as trigger-happy as ever, though she’d gotten a bit better at hiding it. He had to admit, though, being on the other side of a potential fireball assault had actually felt quite nice, for a change. Not that he would ever do it out loud, of course.

Meanwhile, Jaya had already started to check over a couple of menus.

“So, let’s see…” she went on. “If I up the processing rate as much as feasibly possible, I would be able to reduce your wait time to… about 14 hours, at the lowest.”

She laughed nervously again as Suzuka sent her another burning stare, but she merely repeated the observation once again.

“I’m sorry. This is as low as it goes, I swear! You’ll just have to wait ‘till tomorrow morning, and it’ll be available in your inventory just as promised! O-Okay, Suzu? It’ll all be in order, hopefully, and you’ll be able to use it right away. You need to stay within a radius of at least ten kilometers of the town, though. Your inventory will be temporarily linked to the shop’s and you need to stay in range for the transfer to be successful. In the event that something goes wrong and you find problems with the vehicle, you can always come back here! A…Alright?”

“Fair enough.” nodded Haruto. “Thank you for your time, Miss Jaya. We will be back, if we need anything else.”

You are reading story After being rejected, I was reincarnated into an insane Death Race at novel35.com

Turning around, he headed for the dealership’s exit, followed closely by Suzuka.

“M-My, my… Always so cranky, all of you…” remarked the woman, with a hand in her cheek. “This isn’t the living world anymore, you know? There’s no big rush? Nothing to lose if you take it slow, so you should try to enjoy the time you have here now~...”

(Dear lord… Does she ever shut up…?)

“We’ll be leaving now, so good night.” he forced himself to say, just to cut her off, his sour-sounding voice bumping against a stone wall like a ball in a snooker table.

“Well, I suppose I shouldn’t be getting in the way of an up and coming slave master!” giggled the woman, completely dropping the fearful ruse. “Sorry Suzu. I’ve always cherished you, you know? But now, you’re on your own, so make sure to behave!”

Haruto stayed quiet the rest of the way, quickly grabbing hold of the double doors and pulling them open as he did his best to ignore that woman’s loud yapping.

Suzuka would occasionally glance back at the woman, blushing at her remarks, and then back at the boy as she walked behind him, but soon took the cue from him to nevermind her. They were done there, thankfully, at least for the time being.

“Don’t be so shy, Suzu!” persisted Jaya, regardless, waving an arm wildly at them from the middle of the shop. “You’ll grow to like it in a few weeks! Promise! It  totally fits your personality! It doesn’t hurt as much once you get used to it, cutie-pie!”

The streets outside had grown dark while they’d been inside the shop. It seemed they’d taken quite a bit more time in there than Haruto had originally thought. The sky above was no longer a mixture of gray and white, but solely a very dark gray now. And he could tell it was going to get even darker soon enough.

”Have fun, Mr. H.A.R.U.T.O! You just captured a 10/10 slave!”

“Whatever you say.” he dejectedly waved back, closing the double doors behind the two. “Crackhead.”

 

***

 

The two of them walked along the stony streets, Haruto slightly ahead of her.

By now, the sky’s checkerboard had become entirely covered in black and purple.

The only thing there to keep things lit was the occasional street lamp place along the sidewalk. No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t spot even the tiniest speck of light coming out of any of those buildings’ windows.

“These streets sure look empty… I don’t see a single person here.” he murmured.

It was as if in the space of only an hour or so, the outside areas of Kataki Town had become completely deserted.

“People around here… well, maybe even in the Cyberway in general… They don’t really have that much of an interest in being out here at this hour.” remarked Suzuka. “Most of them are a bit past the age of being interested in partying, or obligatory get-togethers, or… you know the drill.”

“Yeah. Good for them, I suppose.”

Truth be told, though, he couldn’t say he cared much about the matter, either way.

“In any case,” he continued. “Until that car is ready for me, we’ll need to find somewhere to spend the night.”

It was strange, though… Without realizing it, he’d found himself thinking ‘soon, it’ll be time to sleep’, as would be natural at such a late hour. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say he was tired in a general sense. However, he did not exactly feel a strong urge to sleep.

“Matchsticks… Do you… feel sleepy, by any chance?”

“Not really… In this place, you can’t really feel that anymore. Physically, anyway.”

“So, we can’t sleep?”

“You can, if you try… It will help soothe your mind, refresh your thoughts like usual. But you don’t necessarily need it to survive, or to be able to think properly. A lot of people still do it, but it’s mostly out of habit. Same with eating. You don’t really need it to survive anymore, but… You could say it helps keep us human, in a sense…”

“I see… Do you sleep?”

“Often. Even if my arms and legs don’t need it anymore, I still do it to keep my mind sharp.”

“Fair enough. Do you recommend any inn in particular around here? We can wait it out ‘till morning and then see about the car.”

She stopped walking for a moment, which prompted him to do the same. She looked at him for a few solid seconds, seeming to study his face in some weird manner. A few moments later, she nodded at him. He could sense an added level of apprehension to her demeanor, though. As if she was putting some sort of guard up.

“I… I know a good one a few corners from here… Master…”

“... Lead the way, then.”

He wasn’t sleepy, alright. And yet, he was so tired he felt he could die again.

(Sleep or no sleep, just lying on an even remotely soft bed would be nice…)

You can find story with these keywords: After being rejected, I was reincarnated into an insane Death Race, Read After being rejected, I was reincarnated into an insane Death Race, After being rejected, I was reincarnated into an insane Death Race novel, After being rejected, I was reincarnated into an insane Death Race book, After being rejected, I was reincarnated into an insane Death Race story, After being rejected, I was reincarnated into an insane Death Race full, After being rejected, I was reincarnated into an insane Death Race Latest Chapter