The Author's POV

"How much do you want to change?"

"Let's go with 5,000 U first"

With a bright smile, the cashier of the arcade greeted me. Handing my card to the cashier, the cashier quickly scanned the card and handed me a black card along with my bank card.

"Thank you for your patronage"

"Yup"

"Sure"

I took the card and turned around.

To be honest, I was just as excited as Emma was. I loved arcades. Glancing behind me, I looked at Kevin who was patiently waiting in line and shouted.

"I'm gonna go play some games, meet me once you're done"

Turning his head, Kevin nodded his head.

"Sure"

"Alright"

...

Roaming the arcade, I couldn't decide on which game to play first.

'Which game should I play first? Hmm, should I try the classics or the new ones? Oh, that one over there looks nice'

There were just so many games that I wanted to play.

From the virtual race car game to 4D Pac-man, there were just so many options to choose from.

"...this is rigged!"

Whilst I was pondering on which game I should play, I suddenly heard a familiar voice in the distance.

Without even needing to look at who the voice belonged to, I instantly knew that it belonged to Emma.

Turning around and glancing in her direction, I spotted her fiercely staring at the machine before her. Poor Amanda was next to her trying to calm her down.

The sight looked rather comical.

"Emma, please don't shout"

"Is money what you want!? Take it, I've got enough for the likes of you!"

Ignoring Amanda, Emma furiously glared at the machine as she cursed.

'Ah, she's playing the crane game'

With her hand carefully controlling the joystick of the machine, Emma's lips were plucked outwards as she fully immersed herself in the game.

Lowering the crane, Emma successfully picked up a stuffed teddy. Excitedly looking at Amanda, Emma exclaimed.

"I can feel it, this time I'm going to win!"

"mhm"

Having heard the same words more than five times already, Amanda bitterly nodded her head.

"I've got this, come on..."

With her tongue out, Emma slowly moved the joystick. She was so immersed in the game that she did not notice me coming from behind her. Controlling the joystick, Emma tried to move the claw towards the small hole on the bottom left of the machine.

-Plap!

Unfortunately, she failed as the teddy bear fell before she could reach the hole. When she saw this, Emma's face turned red.

"Shit!"

Sitting down on the machine next to her, I said "That's not how you do it"

Turning around, Emma shouted, "Who is it?"

"It's me"

Finally noticing me, Emma's voice became monotonous, "Ah, it's you"

"What an enthusiastic reply"

"What? did you want me to be excited or something?"

Shaking my head, I pointed at the machine before her and said "Nevermind that, you're playing the game wrong"

Raising her brow, Emma mocked "What? Are you some kind of expert or something?"

Nodding my head, I proudly puffed my chest, "In fact I am"

This was not a lie.

In fact, the very reason why I was so good at this game was because back on earth I used this machine to make some spare change.

By winning the bears and selling them on the internet, I was able to make a small profit. With that, I was able to fuel my arcading addiction.

Not believing my statement one bit, Emma suddenly smiled as she thought of something, "Alright if you're such an expert, how about we make a bet"

Instantly, I frowned "A bet?"

Nodding her head, Emma elaborated, "Yeah, how about this. I'll pay for the next fifteen games, and if in those fifteen games you manage to get even one bear, It'll count as my loss. However, if you don't get any bear during those fifteen tries, It'll count as my win"

Hearing the terms of the bet, I almost laughed out loud.

Fifteen tries?

I didn't even need two and I was certain I could win.

Trying my best to keep a straight face, I frowned slightly. With a solemn expression on my face, I nodded my head, "Sounds fair, what are the terms of the bet?"

Having caught my interest, Emma laughed inside of her heart. She knew that she had baited him.

It was already her fiftieth try, and she had still not got a bear. The machine was rigged and Emma knew it. There was no way she was going to lose this bet.

This was her chance to get back at him!

Trying her best to keep a straight face, Emma proposed.

"If you win, dinner's on me. Regardless of place, I will pay"

"What if I lose?"

Emma smirked, "he...If you lose?" Crossing her arms, Emma cocked her head up a little, "If you lose I want you to apologize to me"

Hearing the terms, I tilted my head "Apologize? Apologize for what?"

Glaring at me, with her arms still crossed, Emma gritted her teeth "For being rude to me"

"What? When have I ever been rude to you?"

Snapping her head at me, she bared her teeth "Don't pretend that you don't know!"

"ehh...okay, sure?"

Seeing how snappy she was being, with a confused look on my face I didn't ask for more details.

Even though I didn't know what she was talking about, it didn't really matter. I was gonna win anyway.

I was that confident in my skills.

With a confident look on her face, Emma extended her hand, "Deal?"

'Hmph, let's see for how long you can keep that arrogant attitude of yours. I'll use this chance to get my revenge on you'

Irked by her attitude, I smiled and shook her hand, "Deal"

'Since you're asking to be humiliated, don't blame me for humiliating you'

Turning her head towards Amanda, Emma said, "Amanda, you can attest for the bet"

Alternating her eyes between me and Emma, Amanda helplessly nodded her head.

"Okay"

Tapping her black card on the side of the machine, the number fifteen was instantly displayed on the right side of the machine as the mechanical claw returned to its regular position. Standing up and taking the seat next to it, Emma smiled as she patted the machine, "Alright, you can start"

"I won't be polite"

Taking Emma's seat, I took the joystick.

In one swift motion, I quickly moved the claw machine to the right. Stopping right before one of the bears, standing up I looked around the machine to see if I had gotten my angles right.

In order to make the game harder, the workers tended to change the strength of the claw throughout the day. Knowing this, I knew that I couldn't rely on the claw of the machine. Only proper angles could help.

"Perfect"

After finding the right spot, sitting back down I pressed on the red button of the machine.

Staring at me intently, Emma snorted, "Hmph, I wanna see where your confidence comes from"

Emma firmly believed that the game was rigged.

There was no way he could win.

Unfortunately for her, she had spoken too soon. As soon as the claw clutched the bear, it quickly went back up and deposited the bear in the bottom left compartment. Staring at the bear in my hand in disbelief, Emma's face turned red as her voice raised a few pitches.

"...w-what! Impossible!"

Smirking at Emma, I casually said "I guess dinner is on you today"

Recovering from her stupor, Emma gritted her teeth, "Y-you!"

Raising my brow, I teased "What, you not going to honor the bet?"

"Who said I'm not! Amanda let's get out of here"

Gnashing her teeth, Emma tried to drag Amanda aways. At the moment she wanted to bury herself inside of a hole.

She was too embarrassed.

Seeing that Emma was about to leave, I shouted "Wait, who said I'm done"

'You think I'm just going to let you run away after only one bear?'

No, no, no.

I was going to thoroughly crush her pride today.

Halting her footsteps, Emma looked at me in confusion "You're not done?"

"Watch me"

Turning around, I once again repeated the same process. This time, I failed.

Seeing me fail, Emma felt slightly better as she couldn't resist the urge to mock me, "I guess you were just lucky"

Glancing at her from the corner of my eyes, my lips tugged upwards

"Oh really?"

"Yup, just dumb luck"

Smirking, I once again turned my attention back to the claw machine. Repeating the same process as before, this time I succeeded. Opening her eyes wide open, Emma's mouth dropped to the ground.

"W-what! How come!"

Staring at Emma, I mocked "Luck"

Gnashing her teeth together, Emma's chest heaved up and down unevenly. Not bothered by this, I turned my attention back to the game.

For the next couple of minutes, I continuously harvested teddy bears as a crowd slowly formed around me. Not minding it one bit, I skillfully controlled the joystick and once again took another bear.

"And that's the sixth!"

In the end, after I used up all of the fifteen tries, the total harvest came to six bears.

Emma, who stood by the side looked as though she had seen a ghost as her complexion was extremely pale. Pointing at me, she weakly said.

"Y-you're cheating!"

Rolling my eyes, I retorted, "I've been using the same machine you were using before. If I had cheated someone would've been able to tell. Moreover, you were right next to me the whole time. If I had cheated, you would've noticed it immediately"

Unable to refute, Emma dejectedly lowered her head in defeat. "Ghh..."

"Here"

Ignoring Emma, I casually threw one of the teddies in Amanda's direction. Confused, she asked, "Me?"

"Take it, I don't need this teddy"

From the very beginning, Amanda had been staring at the bears with a longing look on her face. I wasn't dense. With her secretly loving cute things, I knew that she wanted the teddy bear.

Thus, I gave her one.

The other five were for Nola.

"Thank you"

Thanking me and taking the teddy, Amanda's face did not change.

Seeing her reaction, I shook my head.

Even though it did not show from her expression, at the moment she was very happy. I could tell since whenever Amanda was happy, her brows tended to go up.

Just a small character trait that she had.

Weakly tugging Amanda's sleeves, Emma said "Let's go Amanda, I'm no longer in the mood to play this game"

"Okay"

Putting all of the teddies in my storage space, we went out separate ways.

During the time, I roamed around the arcade looking for new games to play. In the end, we spent a total of two hours inside of the arcade before we finally decided to leave and have dinner.

To honor her bet, Emma invited everyone to a fancy restaurant that resided on the top of a high-rise building.

Since it was free I naturally did not hold back and ordered the most expensive dish they served.

'Steamed Arcane Sparrow glazed sprinkled with a touch of white truffle and a side of foie gras'

With her mouth open, staring at me who was gulping down the food like a starved beast, Emma exclaimed "Although I said I was going to pay for everything, did you really have to order the most expensive dish? Two at that?"

Stuffing myself with the food, I gave Emma a casual look. "Hm? You're loaded anyways, this is merely spare change for you"

"No, that's not the point"

"Soo good"

Ignoring Emma, I blissfully ate the food before me as my tonsils jumped with joy. With every bite of the dish I took, juices would come rushing into my mouth promoting me to eat more.

Staring at me, Kevin shook his head as he tried to console Emma. On the other side of the table, sitting next to me, with a knife and fork, Amanda cut the steak before her as she took small bites of the steak.

Ignoring the others, as I ate my food, I couldn't help but reminisce at my past self back on earth where I would continuously eat fast food every day as it was cheap. Even after I came into this world I had not treated myself to proper high-end food.

I have to say, after today, my palate will forever be changed.

Instant noodles? To hell with that I say!

After an hour, I was finally stuffed. With a dark look on her face, Emma went to the cashier and paid for the food.

In the end, the total bill for the food came at a whopping 750,000 U. As the food was made from rare beasts and herbs, it was naturally very expensive.

Staring at the bill in Emma's hand, I took a step to the side and whistled in the air.

'Let's just pretend that 450,000 of that 750,000 wasn't just me'

Unfortunately, my wish did not come true as Emma glared and cursed at me.

"You! How can you eat so much! You pig!"

Shrugging my shoulders, I hid behind Kevin "You are the one who proposed the bet. It's on you not me, plus you're rich anyway, this shouldn't be too much for you anyways"

"Hmph!"

Crossing her arms, Emma turned her head away from me and proceeded to ignore me. Noticing how angry Emma was, I frowned.

'Why is she reacting this much?'

I was honestly confused. Since I had created her, I knew her character best. And I knew that she wasn't a stingy character as she never bothered forking out millions of U for useless stuff.

Stepping in, Kevin tried to calm Emma down.

"Alright guys calm down, how about we go back to the academy for now. It's already getting late"

Hearing Kevin's remarks and calming down a bit, Emma nodded her head, "Fine"

"Good"

Like that, the shopping trip came to an end as we all took the air train back to the academy.

...

Outside of the train station, near the Lock.

After parting ways with Emma and Amanda, only Kevin and I remained.

Looking at me, Kevin said, "Weren't you being a bit too harsh on Emma?"

"Me? harsh? I was just teaching her a lesson"

"What lesson?"

Without hesitation, I replied, "Don't bet against me. You're bound to lose if you do so"

Unless I was certain about my victory, I was not the guy who would take a bet.

That was my principle.

Therefore, if I ever accepted a bet, it was because I was certain that I was going to win.

Shaking his head, Kevin patted me on the shoulder and changed the topic, "If you say so. Anyhow, I wish you the best of luck for tomorrow"

Confused, I looked at Kevin, "What are you talking about?"

Smiling mysteriously, Kevin didn't answer as he walked towards his dorm.

"Good luck"

"Wait, hold on, tell me what's going on!"

With his back facing me, Kevin casually said.

"You'll see tomorrow"

"What, come on!"

Despite all of my protests, Kevin refused to answer me. In the end, shaking my head, I muttered "What's up with him being so vague?"

'Tsk, what a terrible friend. First, he betrays me, and now this? Hmph, I'll get you back in the future'

...If it were me, I would've immediately have told him everything.

Turning around as I kicked a rock to the side, I wondered what Kevin meant by good luck. Was something going to happen tomorrow that I was not aware of?

Unfortunately for me, I would only find out what Kevin was referring to tomorrow.

And when I did find out, my face twisted so much that my charm dropped all the way down to H rank.