Lee strolled toward the sports supply store, phone in hand, following the route it displayed.
"Hey, system, pull up Kiana's romance score."
A soft chime sounded, and a translucent panel slid into view, floating just above her vision.
Kiana Romance Score: 84
Lee blinked. "Eighty-four? That seems way higher than before. What happened to all the notifications?"
[System: They were muted.]
Lee frowned. "Muted? Why?"
[System: Because you reacted badly to them, and the score was fluctuating so frequently that it would have annoyed you. You'd just end up yelling at me about it.]
Lee hesitated. "…Fair. How many times are we talking about here?"
[System: Nine changes during your text conversation with Kiana earlier, and forty-seven changes in the last twenty-four hours.]
Lee whistled. "Okay, good call muting them. But could you at least let me know when it passes a milestone? Like… eighty, ninety, that kind of thing."
[System: (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶) Understood.]
That gave Lee an idea. "So can you track romance scores between other people too?"
[System: ◝(ᵔᗜᵔ)◜Yes I can!]
Lee grinned. "Then what's the score between Kiana and Mei?"
Another panel opened beside the first.
Kiana → Mei: 83
Mei → Kiana: 23
A cutesy heart icon popped up, containing chibi versions of Kiana and Mei. Chibi-Kiana twirled with sparkles in her eyes. "Mei is so perfect looking!"
Chibi-Mei crossed her arms, glaring to the side. "Kiana was laughing while looking at me while texting someone on the phone earlier."
Lee winced. "…Yikes."
Lee rubbed the back of her neck.
That's… bad, right? It's kinda weird that I'm higher than Mei here.
[System: Not weird. Just math. The romance score is a running total of emotional weight — not just romantic actions. Your actions have simply added up faster.]
Explain.
[System: Playing video games with her gave you +4 points. Sleeping together raised it by +11 points. Leaving without saying anything dropped you -6. Finding the note was +3. Your text conversation earlier cost you -2, and everything else over the last day was a net +2.]
Hold on. Sleeping together is worth eleven points? That's like—what, a third of my total?
[System: (˶˃⤙˂˶) It was a very emotionally charged moment!]
It was literally just sleeping! No touching, no romance, nothing!
[System: It was emotionally charged for Kiana — she has never slept with someone else before.]
…Fine, but neither have I, and minus two for the text conversation? I didn't even say anything really!
[System: (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶) It brought her overall feelings for you by down 2 points reguardless. ]
Fantastic. So I speedran my way into being her favorite person and got penalized for talking. That's encouraging.
[Achievement Unlocked: "Any% Romance Speedrun" +0SP]
…You're not even trying to hide that you're trolling me anymore, are you?
[System: (˶˃⤙˂˶) I am very serious.]
If you were serious, you'd have given me at least one SP for that.
[System: Zero is technically a number.]
Didn't you say you couldn't control the amount of SP?
[System: I can't control the amount. But there are approximately 34.7 billion achievements in the system.]
So basically you have total control over achievements, since you manually select which ones get completed.
[System: (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)]
Lee let out a long sigh and shook her head, finally looking up.
The sports supply store sat on the corner of a busy street, its wide glass windows gleaming under the morning light. Sleek mannequins in running gear stood in carefully arranged poses, and a colorful banner over the entrance advertised a spring sale. The inside looked bright and modern — polished wood floors, racks of neatly arranged clothes, and a faint smell of new sneakers and rubber mats.
Lee adjusted her backpack and stepped inside, the door chiming softly behind her.
Lee moved toward the baseball aisle, scanning the neatly organized display. Wood on one side, metal on the other, maple and ash bats with glossy finishes, and a row of sleek aluminum models with reinforced barrels. They looked innocuous, almost polite, until you remembered physics and blunt force.
Think practical, she told herself, running a hand along the cool metal. Which one actually hits harder without breaking.
The wooden ones were solid, and metal ones were hollow, but metal was metal and wood was wood.
She fished her phone out and tapped a quick text to Kiana.
Lee: What do you think would be better as a weapon
Lee: Wooden or metal baseball bat
Kiana: ???
Kiana: Definitely metal
Kiana: But why would you be using it as a weapon
Lee: Self defense
Lee: Don't you have a shotgun in your closet
Kiana: That's for self defense
Lee: Exactly, I can't get a gun but I can get a baseball bat
Kiana: Okay I guess, go metal
Lee picked up a mid-weight aluminum bat, feeling its balance. It had a matte finish, a stitched leather grip, and a slight hollow ring when she tapped it. Practical, durable, unlikely to splinter in a bad way.
Metal seems smarter, she thought. Less chance of it breaking in a fight.
Lee picked up the metal baseball bat and started to make her way to the front of the store, before remembering about her Abundance powers. She didn't know if a wooden baseball bat would necessarily be more effective than a metal one, since the wood was dead anyway. However it was worth trying.
Going back, she grabbed the first wooden baseball bat on the rack, which was made out of maple. She didn't really know anything about the difference between maple and ash bats anyway.
Checking out at the register, she put the 2 baseball bats in her backpack. It didn't fully close with the 2 baseball bats inside of it sticking out the top, but that was fine. After leaving the store, Lee texted Kiana again.
Lee: I got wood and metal
Kiana: Why
Lee: Going to try them out to see which one is better
Kiana: On who exactly?
Lee: Nobody
Lee: I am not going to start randomly beating people up if that's what you are worried about
Kiana: Wrap the handle tight. Add some tape or cord so it won't slip.
Putting her phone away, she started searching for the nearest empty alley, however she was apparently in a more popular part of the city, and there were tons of people on the sidewalk everywhere, and the alleys had cameras.
Wandering around for about 20 minutes, she finally discovered the perfect alley, one way, with a gate at one end, it was between 2 nondescript apartment buildings with no entrances that lead into the alley, and no cameras.
Pulling out the baseball bats, she set the wooden one down on the ground first, along with her backpack.
Standing back up, she held out the metal bat in front of her in a two handed grip, and gave it an experimental swing.
She didn't really know how it felt, it just kind of happened, which is to say nothing really happened.
Well I guess I was expecting it to feel a little more impactful
After taking a few more experimental swings, she reached for the wooden bat.
Its heavier then the metal one, I thought it would be the other way around.
She also gave the wooden bat a few experimental swings, before starting the real test.
Ever since becoming a pathstrider, she had felt the path energy inside of her. She could control it like another limb, mobilizing it to heal, and hopefully, also to hurt.
Closing her eyes and controlling the flow of the Abundance path energy inside of her, she focused on trying to move it outside her own body and into the bat. Opening her eyes again, the bat was glowing with a soft golden light.
She gave it a new experimental swing, this time, the bat cut through the air like there was no resistance at all, throwing off her swing and almost making her fall over. The bat slipped out of her hands at the end of her swing, slamming into the wall and leaving a rather large chunk of brickwork knocked out.
Well that seemed promising.
Lee leaned against the wall and stared at the chunk of brick she had knocked out.
Is this considered a physical attack or an imaginary one?
She thought about Jingliu, who used a sword but was ice type. Her own main weapon now mirrored Stelle's bat. Kevin and Kiana had also used bats as primary weapons at one point. Hoyoverse really does love giving protagonists bats.
If it's similar to Stelle's bat, it should be physical, she reasoned, even though she channeled destruction path energy. Then she paused. Wait, does Stelle even use destruction path energy for her main attacks or just for improving her fitness?
The energy powering Stelle's bat probably comes from the bat itself. It's a curio, so it must contain a ton of imaginary energy that gives it anomalous properties.
She twisted the bat in her grip, thinking back to Stelle's other powers. When she uses harmony path energy it counts as imaginary, but her remembrance path energy was ice type. Maybe "imaginary" in damage type has nothing to do with actual imaginary energy. Kind of like quantum damage doesn't really relate to the Sea of Quanta, except for Seele.
Lee set the bat down deliberately and marked her attack in her mind. Physical. Definitely physical.
The bat hummed faintly with her path energy, ready for another swing if she needed it.
Lee gripped the wooden bat tighter and swung again. She focused on controlling the Abundance energy, and trying not to let it slip out of her hands this time. The bat hummed and cut through the air cleanly, her feet shifting to keep balance.
Halfway through her practice swings, something strange happened. A small leaf sprouted from the bat's surface. Lee blinked and looked at it for a moment, tilting her head.
Well, that's new.
Shaking her head, she set the wooden bat aside and picked up the metal one. She tried channeling her path energy the same way. It worked, but the swing felt clunky compared to the wooden bat. Not as smooth. I guess metal doesn't play nice with Abundance energy the same way.
After a few more swings, Lee placed both bats carefully back into her backpack. She pushed the zipper closed as much as she could and started walking back toward the sports supply store. She grabbed some grip tape, wrapping it carefully around the handles to prevent slipping.
Another thing off the list for today.
She checked her phone. 12:42. Time for lunch. Pulling up the map, she scanned nearby restaurants. The highest rated spot was another Homu-themed place, this time a pizza joint. Rated 4.9 stars. The pictures of the pizza looked incredible.
Lee headed in that direction, weaving through the bustling streets of Nagazora City.
She reached the pizza place and paused at the entrance. The smell of baked dough and melted cheese hit her immediately. Okay, this smells amazing. She walked inside, scanning the menu display above the counter.
The restaurant was bright and lively, a mix of soft music and quiet chatter. A few Homu-themed decorations were scattered around, from posters on the walls to small figurines by the drinks station. Lee smiled faintly.
Homu again, but I'm not complaining, this smells amazing.
She ended up getting a medium pepperoni pizza, which, since this wasn't the United States, was much smaller than she expected. However it was amazing and she ended up eating the entire thing in one sitting there at the restaurant.
Sitting there, she considered what to do next.