Maids VS Apocalypse

An abandoned city truly was a treasure trove waiting to be opened. The knowledge that most items didn’t have much worth in the Higher Realms had brought Mark’s mood down for a while, but that went away the instant he entered another shop on his "to loot" list.

Candy stores hadn’t existed for a long time now, but as he stepped through the hole his maid cut through the shutters of an abandoned Game Start branch, Mark had the confidence to say that he understood how a kid feels while being inside one.

Stacks of common goods lined the shelves near the entrance, among them the most common brands of keyboards, mice, and headphones. Further inside where the display models of the computer cases. Some were the usual rectangular-shaped towers while others had the most bizarre designs, forgoing the idea of traditional computers.

Monitors with different sizes and resolutions, motherboards in colorful boxes, graphic cards of different specifications, processors, rams, and power supplies. It was all there.

"This is what I’m talking about..."

The end of the world means that the supply of computer components will soon be cut. The Overworld was sure to have a different level of technology, and there is always the chance that there are worlds out there that developed similar or identical technologies. Nevertheless, Mark wasn’t about to take chances.

He planned his path in a matter of seconds and went on the move. The items displayed near the entrance didn’t interest him, seeing as they were the cheapest and thus of the lowest quality.

He stopped at the rows of graphic cards, looked through them, then grabbed only the best available. His budget was unlimited so there was no need to settle for the weak stuff.

He did the same for processors, rams, motherboards, and cooling systems.

Mark made it to the game console section a few minutes later. He didn’t hesitate to grab all the collector’s edition stuff put on display as well as the game cases lined up everywhere.

He continued on his looting spree, taking the model kits, figurines, some posters, and a ridiculous number of controllers of every kind. He went to the back of the store and did the same.

Near the end, he didn’t care at all and just tossed whatever caught his attention into the extra-dimensional storage, a wide grin splitting his face the entire time.

~[ ]~

"Should I ask what you plan on doing with all that junk?"

Mark exited the store with the same glee he entered with and Elya’s disapproving did nothing to ruin his mood.

"First of all, I will build a bunch of identical setups." He replied. "Then I will fill each one with the stuff I want."

"You know what that sounds like? It sounds like a big waste of time!"

"Now now, it’s fine to have hobbies." Alex pulled his head back and laughed.

There was no doubt that the Overworld had its own forms of entertainment besides traveling to other worlds and slaying monsters. Even then, Mark still wanted to have the option to play games from his own world.

The coming years are going to be quite busy as he directs his focus to raising his stats and level, as well as navigating Overworld society. His Level 5 LRGS was bound to attract a lot of trouble, too.

It was practically guaranteed that he would feel nostalgic about his old life and want to experience the simplicity of time long gone. Mark didn’t want to face a reality where everything he liked had been swallowed by hell along with his old world.

’Well, that’s not really the main reason...’

Upgrading his System required him to update his game first. Until he knew for sure if he could use stuff from the Overworld to do it, keeping the necessary hardware from his original world was a must.

"Alright, next we will go to the phone store!"

"Oh c’mon!"

"Quit complaining," Franco said. "You got to check the stores you wanted. Now it’s his turn."

"That’s totally different!"

While Mark spent a few minutes gathering the stuff he wanted, Elya had spent two hours sorting through the nearby clothing stores and choosing the outfits she wanted to take.

Apparently, casual clothes were one of the few things that remained constant between the Lower and Higher Realms. Of course, there was stuff of higher grades made from special materials which grants them special characteristics, but one didn’t need to pay attention to those aspects when looking for something to wear while off duty.

"Don’t worry," Mark shifted his gaze to the store on the opposite side of the road. "It won’t take long this time."

The entire street was dedicated to technology and electronics so it wasn’t too difficult to find what he was looking for. It filled Mark with the desire to move from one store to the other and gather whatever caught his interest, but thankfully he had the self-control to stay focused.

’If only we didn’t have a time limit...’ He thought while checking the specs of an Android put on display.

Once he was done closing all the gates, the squad would depart for Hope’s End. After meeting his illustrator friend it’s straight to Amberwood next.

’Natalie said the CDC had progressed around it...’ the conversation he had with the Head General came back to him. ’That means it has already merged with the Underworld...’

He continued pondering the matter as he went through the models on display and after some time he arrived at the back of the store.

Phones were basically miniature computers so, just like what he did with the PC component, Mark only picked the devices with the highest specs, not bothering with anything lower.

While at it he caught sight of a box full of earbuds. They just so happened to be his favorite variant he decided to take them as well.

TAP

His hands froze as he reached down for the box full of earbuds. He had intended to close it to make storing it in his inventory easier, but before he could touch the thick cardboard something manifested out of thin air and fell inside.