Meanwhile, Wise, who had arrived at the coffee shop, saw a man in a suit and top hat sitting in a corner.
Wise immediately recognized the man as the Shepherd and walked straight over to him.
The Shepherd, upon seeing him, greeted him warmly.
"You're here, my old friend. I haven't seen you in a few days, and you've really changed."
The Shepherd's sharp gaze made Wise feel slightly unsettled. It seemed that having such a high charm value was not always a good thing.
Although Wise knew the Shepherd was only surprised by his appearance, it was still better to be careful in the future. After all, the system still did not show any same sex favorability rating.
Anyway, the Shepherd obviously did not call him out just to chat. After a brief exchange, the Shepherd learned about the issue with their account.
He was very willing to help them, since opportunities for a guaranteed business like this were rare.
After receiving the commission transferred by the Shepherd, Wise did not stay for more pleasantries, since everyone had their own matters to handle.
On his way back, Wise noticed Nicole standing beside a roadside vending machine with an unhappy look on her face.
Surprised, Wise walked over to greet her.
"Hi, Nicole. Are you angry? What happened?"
Nicole turned when she heard his voice. Her eyes widened for a moment, clearly not expecting to see him there.
"Wise? You are out and walking around, so it seems you are fine now. You really scared us when you fainted yesterday, especially Anby. She was so anxious she wanted to give you first aid."
Though if Anby had been the one doing it, things might have gotten even worse. Nicole remembered the time Anby almost 'killed' Billy while practicing CPR on him, nearly pressing the poor robot to the point of nearly causing a system crash.
If she had not stopped her in time, Billy would have been in serious trouble, and the repair fees would have cost a fortune.
"Thanks for worrying about me, I am really fine now. But Nicole, you still have not told me. Why are you mad?"
"Oh, that? It is because of this vending machine. It is broken. Sometimes you buy one bottle and several drinks come out, but other times you put in a Denny and get nothing."
Nicole sighed with a faint hint of dissatisfaction.
"After hearing that rumor, I wanted to try it myself, but as you can see, nothing came out."
Nicole spread her hands as she spoke, and anyone who knew her understood that if Dennies was involved, she would never give up easily.
"I see. Then why do I not give it a try?"
Wise said this and stepped forward, and Nicole, realizing what he intended, stepped back a little.
When he reached the vending machine, Wise observed it carefully. It did not look like the drinks were stuck or anything similar.
After thinking for a moment, Wise pressed the sell button on the vending machine.
As soon as he did, a rattling noise came from inside the machine, and several bottles of drinks dropped out of the delivery slot.
"Wow, Wise, I did not expect you to be this amazing."
Nicole quickly praised him, and Wise could not help but respond.
"'I did 'not expect' is unnecessary."
He picked up a bottle, twisted it open, and handed it to Nicole. She froze for a moment, then accepted it.
"Uh, thank you."
"You are welcome. You put in the money earlier, right?"
"Yes, that is right." Nicole awkwardly scratched the side of her face with her index finger.
In truth, she had not put in any money. She had only come to check the machine, hoping she could take something for free.
She had not expected to run into Wise and actually end up with a drink.
Nicole looked at the bottle in her hand, then at Wise, who was drinking from another open bottle in front of her, and finally calmed down.
It seemed Wise had not noticed. If that was the case, her image would not suffer.
Actually, there might not have been any image to begin with.
[Ding! Target: Nicole has increased her favorability toward the host by 5. Her current favorability is now 80. Additionally, 300 Emotional Value has been obtained.]
[Current Emotional Value: 3800]
"Right, I should head back now. I will take one bottle for Belle, and you can bring the rest back for Anby and the others." Wise left right after saying this.
Not long after, he made his way back to the Video Store. Once he handed a drink to Belle, he turned his attention to preparing for the Shepherd's commission.
A moment later, his phone buzzed with a message from Anby.
| Wise, are you there? |
Upon seeing Anby's message, Wise smiled lightly and replied right away.
| Yes, if it is Anby, then I am always here. |
After he sent the message, Anby did not respond for a long time. Wise guessed she was probably still feeling shy.
And that was exactly what happened. In her room, Anby rolled back and forth on her bed after reading Wise's message, and it took her quite a while to calm down.
She thought for a good moment until she finally managed to reply with an 'Mm'.
There was nothing she could do. She was not good at chatting and had no experience in romance. Everything she knew about it came from books and movies.
But after subtly probing Nicole for a while, Anby realized that the techniques shown in movies did not seem to work in real life.
Anby had originally wanted to ask Wise how he was feeling, but since he could still make a joke like that, he probably was not doing too badly.
Wise, on his side, noticed that Anby seemed to be running out of topics, so he took the initiative and sent another message.
| Speaking of which, has the Cunning Hares received any commissions recently? |
| Yes, although the last commission regarding the safe failed because of me. But since the Cunning Hares has a good reputation, we still received quite a few commissions. |
Seeing this, Wise understood. He figured Anby must have made many friendly recommendations again.
| Anby, you have really worked hard. |
| It's not hard at all. I have been resting these past two days. Nicole recently received another commission with a generous reward, and we plan to act in a few days. |
Wise chatted with Anby for a while longer. It probably would not have ended so quickly, but the conversation paused when Belle said she needed to talk to him.
He wondered what it might be about as Belle quietly led him to the garage, carrying a bundle of discarded Bangboo signal emitters.
When piled together, these items could create a noticeable level of signal interference, similar to several small signal blockers.