If there was one thing Zero regretted most during this period, it was probably bringing Special Week to this arcade, especially letting her get her hands on all sorts of claw machines.
As everyone knows, the most common machines in Japan, besides vending machines selling all kinds of strange things, are various claw machines and gashapon machines.
And Little Special was completely engrossed in one particular claw machine.
It wasn't exactly a claw machine; this one dispensed various snacks, from the classic Umaibo Star Cup to Pocky and other treats, which immediately captivated Special Week's attention.
If it were just that, it would be fine, as whether you can win something from a claw machine depends on how many times you play. But the problem was, perhaps this store was more generous, and the claw's grip seemed quite strong.
As a result, Special Week ate and clawed, clearing out the entire machine while Zero went to buy a drink. The most outrageous part was that she still had more than half of her game tokens left.
It was impossible to finish so many snacks there. In the end, they filled four whole boxes, which had to be transported with a cart.
Then, while Zero was packing the snacks, perhaps a switch was flipped, and Special Week ran off to another machine. This machine dispensed various convenience foods, like self-heating rice, self-heating bento, and instant noodles.
By the time Zero noticed, Special Week had already won most of them. Zero, greatly alarmed, quickly went over and pulled Special Week back.
"Z-chan! The food here is so cheap! As expected of a big city!" Special Week was incredibly excited.
Zero silently packed the food Special Week had won. Good heavens, two more boxes.
Her gaze swept towards the staff and the boss hiding to the side; their eyes pleaded with her, seemingly begging her to take Special Week somewhere else.
Zero looked at the two, then at the excited Special Week, and sighed.
"Don't grab any more food. These are enough to last a long time, and if you get fat, others will eat these, you know?"
"!!!" Oh, right! If she got fat, she wouldn't be able to eat these, and then she'd be miserable!
As expected of Z-chan! My wise helper!
Seeing that Special Week wasn't going to continue grabbing, the staff and boss hiding to the side breathed a sigh of relief.
At first, they were happy to hear that Zero was bringing her team to play here, as the traffic brought by a celebrity was significant.
But everything started to go wrong when Special Week began grabbing food.
This child seemed to be blessed by the God of Food; she was incredibly accurate when grabbing food, often winning a huge amount at once.
Now she was finally stopped! Zero! Their Superman!
However, their subsequent actions plunged their relaxed minds into despair.
Zero only kept ten of her game tokens, pushing the rest to Special Week.
"Go play with something else. Remember not to grab food again."
"Oh! What about Z-chan?"
"Come find me when you run out of tokens. I'll be earning some here." Zero pointed to a machine next to them.
A coin pusher machine.
Then, they watched in despair as Zero, seizing the moment, carefully inserted a game token. The token bounced a few times, perfectly landing into a gap, completely filling the gaps on the nearby small platform.
Then, the coin pusher pushed, and a large number of game tokens clattered down, even dropping a few small prizes.
"Oh, oh, oh, oh! Z-chan is amazing!"
"Alright, go play quickly. Remember to tell everyone else too. I probably won't be short on tokens."
Are you kidding? A coin pusher of this level dares to be displayed in front of her? It seems they haven't experienced her 30% intelligence bonus.
Although, besides her strength being 10%, all her other bonuses are above 20%.
Each time she inserted a coin, it would precisely land in the required position, and she would even deliberately adjust the position to create a massive waterfall of coins.
Is this really not a computer disguised as an Uma Musume!?
The scariest part was that coin pushers, in a sense, are also machines that can easily earn back from players, so this area had a whopping ten coin pushers!
Demon King! This is the Demon King of the arcade!
Of course, Zero wasn't so ruthless; she just wanted to see the dramatic ups and downs of the boss and staff, from hope to despair.
You see, in her previous life, she had been scammed by these unscrupulous shopkeepers many times. Although it wasn't the same shop, it was the same type of shop, so it was essentially her revenge.
Anyway, her unmasked appearance had already brought enough traffic and money to this store. This small loss was negligible compared to what they earned.
After all, those snacks didn't cost much when added up. In the end, it was still a profit.
Of course, that was Zero's thinking at the time.
In the evening, when everyone was about to have dinner and go back, they were startled by piles of boxes.
"These... these were all won by Little Special?" Even Suzuka, usually calm, was a bit flustered now.
"..." Zero nodded painfully.
So many boxes; it was more than they could carry back, even if they were Uma Musume.
They could certainly carry them, but the problem was the sheer quantity was too astonishing to bring on the train.
Zero had told her not to grab food, so Special Week went straight for the general Uma Musume plushies.
The store staff had been keeping an eye on Zero and hadn't paid much attention, even when Special Week came over several times asking for game tokens, assuming the machines had eaten them all. They never imagined their own machines had been emptied.
Those Uma Musume plushies, from miniature to elaborate, and all different price points, had all been won.
So Little Special wasn't blessed by the God of Food, but by the God of Claw Machines, right?
"Ah haha... I got a little too carried away..." Special Week awkwardly scratched her head.
"How about... we return them?" Special Week nervously asked everyone.
"We've already taken them. Returning them now would probably have a bad impact on the store owner..." Even McQueen couldn't help but complain.
In the end, Zero called a moving company to deliver all these items to her home.
Oh, right, while Zero wasn't paying attention, Special Week also cleared out a few more snack and drink claw machines.
Anyway, there wasn't that much space in the dorm, so Little Special could just take the plushies she wanted. Perhaps these plushies could even be used as gifts for future events, like a big appreciation festival.
Everyone naturally went back first, leaving Zero and Special Week to oversee the items being loaded.
"Hey, Z-chan, did I cause trouble this time?" Special Week suddenly asked, a little uneasy.
"? What's wrong?"
"You see, everyone looked so surprised, and... Ouch!" Special Week clutched her head mid-sentence.
Zero, who had just flicked her forehead, withdrew her hand.
"Idiot, everyone was just surprised by your skill. They won't dislike you for something like this."
"But I really did cause trouble for everyone this time. We had even planned to eat together later..."
"There will always be opportunities to eat. Rather, your behavior today made everyone see you in a new light."
"Eh?"
"I never thought the usually clumsy Little Special had such a side to her, hehehe~" Zero couldn't help but smile, thinking of Special Week's excited expression while playing the claw machine.
Although they were initially startled by the mountain of "trophies," seeing Special Week's pure, heartfelt smile, everyone's thoughts converged on "She's so cute, let's forgive her." Besides, she won all these purely by skill and hadn't done anything wrong, so they naturally wouldn't blame her.
"Mmm..." Special Week puffed out her cheeks again.
"Alright, everything's been loaded. Shall we take the train, or grab something to eat first?" Seeing the movers finish loading everything, Zero waved to them and prepared to leave with Special Week.
And Special Week, after hearing Zero's words... Wait a minute, even though they couldn't eat together with everyone, she could have alone time with Z-chan!
Is this... is this... a date!?
"Eat! Of course, we have to eat!"
"You, you always get energized when food is mentioned, hehehe~"
"Hehehe..." Looking at Zero leading the way, strange thoughts popped into Special Week's mind.
Z-chan is so small. What would it be like to take a bite?
Looking at Zero's unguarded back, Special Week shook her head.
No, how could she have such thoughts about such a cute Z-chan!
But if she took a bite, would Z-chan cry?
Such a cute Z-chan, she'd probably cry for a long time if bitten, right?
"Little Special, hurry up, that restaurant might run out of seats soon, you know?"
"Oh! Coming!" Startled by Zero's sudden turn, she still followed along.
Taking a bite or anything like that isn't as important as eating with Z-chan!