Facts proved that one entire afternoon was completely enough for them.
The reason was simple: they did not have enough Lungmen dollars.
There were many things inside the shop, but the amount of Lungmen dollars in their hands was far too little.
The group had even started discussing the possibility of having Shirou project Lungmen dollars, only for Shirou to interrupt those thoughts with a hand chop for each of them.
Were they seriously acting as if he was not standing right beside them?
One thing worth mentioning was that this time, Shirou and the others finally met the owner of the shop, Closure.
Just like Warfarin, she was a vampire. The difference was that she did not seem to care much about blood. Instead, she was extremely obsessed with money.
All of this information was provided kindly by Blaze, who specifically warned them that when dealing with Closure, they absolutely had to keep themselves under control. Otherwise, one careless moment and their money would disappear before they realized it.
At the moment, Shirou could not really see it though.
From what he could tell, rather than the owner of a shop, she looked more like some kind of maintenance engineer.
The black grease on her face had not even been wiped clean, her waist was covered with all sorts of tools, and many of them were tools Shirou had never seen before.
She looked surprisingly approachable.
That was the first thought that came to Shirou, someone who frequently repaired club equipment back at school.
However, that impression shattered immediately after she opened her mouth.
"Hi hi! Welcome to the Procurement Department! We have everything you could possibly need here, so feel free to take your time looking around! It is winter right now, so I highly recommend these warm clothes! They are extremely popular inside Rhodes Island!"
The moment she started speaking, she sounded exactly like an experienced salesperson. All kinds of sales phrases poured endlessly from her mouth.
Even the Penguin Logistics group was beginning to feel tempted.
But that kind of tactic was completely useless against Shirou.
He had already seen far too many salespeople before.
Absolutely nobody could sway him in that regard.
Of course, the biggest reason was because the Lungmen dollars in his pocket had already been almost completely spent. Poverty kept him rational.
"It is time to go. We can come back next time."
When they arrived, the four girls had dragged Shirou over here.
When they left, it became Shirou dragging the four of them away by himself.
"Eh! We are just looking! We need to look first so we know how many Lungmen dollars to bring next time!"
Exusiai, whose collar was being grabbed from behind, waved her hand toward the shop while speaking.
There was so much equipment related to guns inside! She wanted to buy every single one of them!
And the etched ammunition here was even cheaper than outside!
"Let me looook!"
Croissant was in a similar situation, except her own strength was already tremendous. Shirou was almost unable to hold her back.
As for Sora and Texas, although their reactions were less obvious, the desire in their eyes could not be hidden.
That made Shirou feel like some kind of evil person preventing them from enjoying shopping.
In the end, he could only let them continue browsing.
At worst, they would just look around anyway. There was no way they could actually afford anything.
Buying on credit?
Very sorry, but Blaze had already told them that Closure only accepted direct payment upon delivery.
"If we go back any later, the cafeteria will probably already be cleaned up again. Then they will understand what true suffering is."
Finding a place to sit down, Shirou watched the girls excitedly wandering through the shop, then looked at the time on his terminal and sighed helplessly.
"Oh? Is there nothing here that caught your eye?"
After Shirou sat down, Closure walked over beside him and asked.
In her eyes, the other four were already potential customers. There was no need for her to put extra effort into digging deeper.
And among the five of them, this red-haired young man was obviously the one controlling the Lungmen dollars.
So she had to start with him first!
Closure had already seen through everything!
"Uh... not really. There is nothing I especially need. Also, could you wipe the grease off your face?"
Faced with Closure suddenly starting a conversation, Shirou felt somewhat confused.
After all, he was radiating an extremely strong aura of not wanting to buy anything, so why had she still come over?
Still, since she already approached him, Shirou could only casually chat with her a little.
The things in this section truly were not necessities for him.
Whether it was firearms, crossbows, swords, or other related equipment, he did not need any of it. As for snacks and desserts, there was even less reason to mention them.
The only thing he might buy would probably be ordinary clothes, but the others had already placed orders for those earlier.
So at the moment, there really was nothing Shirou particularly wanted to buy.
"Ah! When did this get on me? Seriously... good thing I did not dirty any other products, or that would have been terrible."
After hearing Shirou's words, Closure finally reached up to touch her cheek. She could indeed feel something there, then quietly muttered a complaint to herself.
Shirou, who heard every word clearly: "..."
So the thing she was complaining about was not when the grease got on her, but the possibility of dirtying the merchandise?
And what happened next caused Shirou's blood pressure to rise instantly.
She actually planned to wipe the black grease away using her sleeve!
"Do not move! I have tissues here."
Seeing this scene, Shirou hurriedly pulled tissues out of his bag, quickly dampened them with water, and handed them over to her.
Although there was no way to clean it completely, at the very least it could serve as a temporary fix.
"Ahem, do not mind it, it is just a small issue. My name is Closure, the head of Rhodes Island's Procurement Department and also the owner of this shop! You should be Shirou, right? I heard Kal'tsit mention you before. That terminal in your hand was adjusted by me, you know?"
After taking the tissue Shirou handed over and wiping her face, Closure finally realized that her earlier action had seemed somewhat inappropriate. She coughed awkwardly twice before immediately changing the topic.
Salesmanship was all about starting with acting familiar... no, it should be called launching a warm verbal offensive first.
The moment she saw the infection inspection device in Shirou's hand, Closure had already recognized him.
Back when she configured and adjusted that device, she had suffered quite a bit because of it. Even now, just looking at the thing still gave her a bit of psychological trauma.
Speaking of psychological trauma, she felt that Shirou looked strangely familiar somehow.
A thing that gave her psychological trauma being worn by a person who also gave her psychological trauma...
It was probably just her imagination, right?
"I am Shirou, yes..."
Faced with Closure's attempt at acting familiar, Shirou had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to respond.
If he talked with her, he could not think of anything to say.
If he ignored her, the device in his hand had apparently been adjusted by her, and they would probably have more interactions in the future. Being too rude would not be good either.
At this moment, Shirou found himself trapped in this awkward situation.
"Relax a little, I am not going to eat you. There are no customers right now anyway, so let us just chat for a bit! Besides, you are pretty free right now too, are you not?"
Seeing that he seemed rather nervous, Closure continued speaking.
When mentioning that Shirou was free, she deliberately glanced toward the Penguin Logistics group, who were currently gathered together looking at merchandise.
"Of course. What did you want to talk about?"
Following Closure's line of sight, the corner of Shirou's mouth twitched slightly before he continued the conversation.
"Hmm..."
All sorts of questions started appearing inside Closure's mind.
For example, Shirou's hobbies, things he liked, things he enjoyed doing, and so on.
Of course, it was not because she was interested in Shirou himself. She simply wanted to secure this potential major customer.
If she secured Shirou, it would basically be buying one and getting four free. Extremely profitable.
However, she eventually dismissed the idea.
After all, being too eager would not be good. These kinds of things needed to be cultivated slowly.
"Then let us talk about your opinion of Rhodes Island."
After thinking for quite a while, Closure noticed that Shirou seemed somewhat interested in the tools hanging on her body. She roughly guessed that he probably liked this sort of thing, so she brought up that topic.
"My opinion of Rhodes Island? I think it is a pretty good place. Everyone here has their own goals and is moving toward the ideals they believe in. And there is also the way Rhodes Island travels everywhere treating the infected under extremely lenient conditions and all that..."
Was that not a wonderful thing? Helping people, just like an ally of justice.
Shirou did not say that last sentence out loud, mainly because Closure's expression looked somewhat strange.
"Um... what you said was great! But I was asking about your opinion of Rhodes Island, the landship. I put a lot of effort into taking care of it, you know!"
Only after Shirou's voice gradually slowed and stopped did Closure finally speak.
After she finished speaking, several seconds of silence passed between the two of them.
"...It is an incredible vehicle. Are you responsible for maintaining the entire Rhodes Island?"
After several seconds of silence, Shirou decisively forgot everything he had just said and directly asked her a question instead.
With that topic acting as an introduction, the direction of their conversation gradually became increasingly technical.
Most of the time, Closure talked while Shirou listened.
After all, Shirou's ability to repair things relied more heavily on Structural Analysis Magecraft in operation. In comparison, Closure's skills were built upon massive amounts of accumulated experience, so the things she understood naturally far exceeded Shirou's knowledge.
And there was another important point.
Most electronic devices in Terra used Originium. Once the discussion touched upon that area, things became much more troublesome for Shirou to handle.
Because of that, most of his own repair work focused on ordinary household appliances, which was also one of the income sources for the children at the Fuyuki shop now.
"Wah... has Shirou already become completely obsessed with studying?"
Watching the two discussing things with apparent enthusiasm, Exusiai quietly snuck over and secretly listened to part of their conversation.
Although she could not understand any of it, the fact that Closure casually dismantled a discarded terminal in her hands to explain things to Shirou already made the situation very obvious.
She truly had not expected this.
To think that someone could still study at a time like this!?
It was far too shocking!
Although, considering that Shirou himself loved repairing little gadgets, it was still somewhat understandable.
Back then, Texas's headphones had been repaired by him after all.
As Exusiai moved closer, the other three gradually gathered around as well.
Yet both Shirou and Closure failed to notice the commotion entirely, with most of their attention focused on the dismantled terminal.
"Can I touch it?"
Closure had explained many things, but Shirou mostly understood only fragments of it. There were simply too many technical terms, and he could only vaguely grasp what she was trying to express.
Compared to verbal explanations like this, he preferred directly working with his hands.
Why unnecessarily increase his own troubles when he already had such a convenient tool as Structural Analysis Magecraft?
"Of course. I can even give you the whole thing if you want. It is already an obsolete product anyway. It was probably going to be handed over to the Engineering Department for training purposes later."
Faced with Shirou's request, Closure immediately handed the device over to him without hesitation.
What customer? What big fish? None of that mattered anymore!
Right now, standing before her was someone interested in engineering!
The Engineering Department was desperately lacking manpower!
If only she could drag him into the Engineering Department somehow, that would be perfect!
"Thank you."
Directly accepting the discarded terminal Closure handed over, Shirou held it carefully with both hands.
He activated his magical energy, and magic circuits spread from his palms onto the discarded terminal.
Very quickly, Shirou roughly understood how most of the components inside operated, though anything related to Originium still could not be clearly analyzed.
It seemed that this was still something he would have to work hard to understand on his own.
The entire process was not very long, only about a minute or so.
After opening his eyes and withdrawing his magical energy, the first thing Shirou saw was the four members of Penguin Logistics stacked together at the side, staring blankly toward another direction.
Following their line of sight, Shirou saw that Closure was currently hiding beneath the shop counter.
From this angle, he could see her because they happened to be standing at the side of the cashier desk.
Looking around, aside from himself and the four girls, there was nobody else nearby.
So why exactly was Closure hiding?
Surely it was not because she saw him using magecraft analysis and found him terrifying?
If he remembered correctly, there were plenty of Originium Arts here far scarier looking than his magecraft.
Turning a suspicious gaze toward the four girls beside him, Shirou attempted to seek an answer from them.
"Uh, do not look at us! We do not understand either! The moment you used magecraft, she jumped up like she had seen a Sarkaz and immediately ran backward. You were the one who scared her!"
After receiving Shirou's gaze, Croissant spoke with an innocent expression.
She was worried Shirou might think it was somehow their fault, so she immediately explained the entire sequence of events.
Shirou: "..."
So it really was because he frightened her while using magecraft?
Carrying both doubt and concern in his heart, Shirou slowly walked toward the cashier desk, holding the terminal in his hand. He crouched down slightly and spoke softly.
"Um... your device."
"Wah! I do not randomly raise prices anymore or mess around with products now! I carefully inspect every product before putting it on shelves! I also properly store all the things I invent! The current me is just a little vampire trying to honestly run a legitimate business and peacefully survive by selling things!"
The moment she heard Shirou's voice, Closure suddenly trembled violently, then recited an entire string of words at astonishing speed.
That speaking speed was practically on par with Shaw.
"So, in other words..."
Looking at her condition, Shirou attempted to continue speaking to her, but she only trembled even harder.
In the end, Shirou could only step back and ask the Penguin Logistics group to come help instead.
Meanwhile, Shirou himself stood outside thinking deeply about one particular question.
Was he really that terrifying?