188 The Beginning of Another Semester (1/2)

Winter break passed by without any real commotions as things gradually settled down as if a powerful tornado had blown past yet leaving behind a trail of tranquility, with no signs of damage. Rather, it was as if things were...better than prior.

The memories of our past have been altered in the minds of the others, making it so that everything was kept as similar as possible to the original past. I do not know the specifics of everything, but...everything seemed to be working? There doesn't appear to be any signs of oddities in the others. Then there was Luna. The memories that we had shared together in our original timeline had been heavily centered around her illness. It was a major factor in our connection. Just when I had wondered how it had been changed in this timeline, it was revealed to me that the illness actually still existed in this timeline. However, it was able to be cured in the century's largest medical breakthrough, meaning that her formerly terminal illness was able to be eradicated without any side effects or losses in her lifespan. This appeared quite confusing to me, but...I suppose the complex and arcane powers of the divines were able to sort everything out and build a timeline in which everything worked out in the end. Whatever the case may be, it wasn't up to me to question any of it or even criticize it.

The first day of the second semester begins tomorrow, meaning that today is the final day of winter break. Therefore, my goal for the day is to relax and enjoy the day to the greatest extent possible. It's gonna be a while until spring break, so I must enjoy whatever time I have left of this leisurely winter break and savor the cold temperature that winter had brought with it because before one would even realize, winter will have slipped away, leaving the world to the gradual warming-up period of spring. I enjoy the cold, so I am determined to enjoy it to the greatest of my extents.

Dressed in sweatpants and a dark grey sweater, I left my room and approached the living room where Loriana was laying down on the L shaped couch with the warm winter blanket that we had left at the couch.

I made a detour to the kitchen where I opened the fridge to grab myself some milk. Reaching my hand in, I was greeted with the cold temperature of the refrigerator and the cold sensation of the milk carton shocked me somewhat as it traveled through the nerves starting at my fingers and to my brain. I poured the contents of the milk into my cup, waiting until it was almost full, and placed the milk carton back into the refrigerator and inserted the cup of milk into the microwave, allowing it to heat for a minute and a half.

With my warm drink in hand, I walked over to the living room couch where she sat and sat down next to where Loriana had placed her legs. Without saying anything, I tugged at the winter blanket, signaling my desire to have access to the warm blanket as my feet were freezing despite being covered by my socks. Loriana glanced over at me, shifting her gaze away from the television, and then back at the television screen but lifted her legs somewhat, allowing me to slide over so that her feet rested on my laps. This did not bother me as this meant that I will have access to the warm winter blanket that has been heated by Loriana's body heat. It was a particularly relaxing feeling being able to escape the cold, and in the comfort of her warmth, I enjoyed a relaxing day.

At night, I sat in my computer chair, gazing out the sliding glass doors and at the beautiful skyline of Palisia outside where a gentle snowfall made the scene appear to be one of supreme relaxation and tranquility. It was oddly hypnotizing to watch as the snowflakes lazily floated toward the ground. With a relaxed sigh, I turned on my chair and back to face my computer monitor where my eyes drifted to the clock at the bottom right corner. Seeing that it was already 11:00 P.M., I decided that it was time that I should go to bed as I have school the next day.

After shutting down my computer, I walked over to my bed and climbed under the bed covers, shivering somewhat as the bed cover was cold as it lacked any body heat to warm it up. It was only after about a minute that the bed cover was truly warm and cozy. As I waited for it to warm up, I was on my phone, unwilling to fall asleep so quickly. I browsed sports websites, particularly basketball as I am an avid basketball fan. After exhausting the news page, I let out a sigh as I went back to the home screen of my phone, not sure as to what I shall do next. Even though I could go to sleep, I wasn't ready to fall asleep just yet.

The Socialization app... I stared at the icon of the app that God had installed on my phone. It's been a while since I last clicked on it.

I pressed on the icon with my finger, opening the app up. Almost immediately, the familiar app U.I. popped up on my phone's monitor. In the Active Missions page, nothing was present. I guess that is to be expected as there's no mission that has been assigned to me. Out of boredom, I clicked on the SP Market, curious as to whether or not there's anything interesting for me to purchase.

Come to think of it, the only time I've spent SP is to alter the memories of people after that one incident where Loriana had become intoxicated by alcohol...

I checked my SP balance in the bottom corner of the screen and was somewhat surprised to see that I had accumulated 524075 SP over the few months that I had the app. I compared the amount of SP to the price of the items that I could exchange and was surprised to discover that...the amount of SP I have is actually...a lot.

Does that mean I can start redeeming stuff now?

I scrolled down through the available items as well as skill upgrades that are available to be redeemed. I looked through the page that looked somewhat like a skill tree in a video game but left it without much interest as I currently am not in need of any of these skills. To be honest, I am more willing to spend my points on something that might be interesting and worthwhile, meaning that it won't be a waste of SP. Therefore, I scrolled through the available item page, hoping to find something that would interest me.

Gender Switcher

My eyes lingered on this...item? or should I say ability... But whatever the case may be, I am interested in it. To be fair, I've been intrigued by the concept when I saw it sometime in the past. Since it's price was nothing when compared to my SP balance, I decided that purchasing it wouldn't be of much harm to me afterall.

Still somewhat suspicious and doubtful of this service, I clicked on the Purchase button listed underneath the Gender Bender and pressed confirm. Then, I waited. Usually, if I were to make a purchase like this on a normal website, I would receive a confirmation either through a text or through EMail. However, I didn't get anything through the app. No notifications or anything. There's nothing notifing me of how to use what I had just purchased like the last time that I had redeemed my SP for something.

Did...I just got scammed by God? I asked myself.