Apocalypse Rebate: Spoiling Beauties Makes Me Richer!

The next day...

The rest of the day had gone by relatively quickly after finishing his training session with Naomi, which proved to be far more mentally exhausting than he’d initially anticipated.

On reaching home, he’d used the pill as usual, resulting in him falling asleep while his body began changing once more.

Upon waking up though, he got to know that, after the drastic changes of the previous night, the changes this time weren’t as prominent. Causing him to conclude that his body was either getting accustomed to using Mana at a rapid pace, or there were fewer impurities in his body than before, resulting in the process becoming less pronounced.

This didn’t mean that his body hadn’t changed though.

After all, his belly appeared less pudgy than yesterday, while his chubby cheeks had noticeably reduced as well.

Other than that, the changes weren’t that significant.

Also, another of his Base Stats, namely Stamina, had broken past the average of what regular people were capable of, due to the pill.

Resulting in him feeling more rejuvenated and energetic.

Leaving home in the usual baggy clothing, he spent his morning as usual.

Starting off by helping Summer with the deliveries, which was practically the same as yesterday, but with fewer customers becoming defensive merely upon seeing him.

Then the duo made time to enjoy some quality time together.

With Summer acting as though she hadn’t kissed him on the cheek yesterday, while seemingly avoiding eye contact with him. Instead, taking interest in the most mundane things, while changing the topic whenever Bruce teasingly tried to enquire about her reason for avoiding eye contact.

On noticing it was time for her next shift, she quickly finished her snacks while thanking Bruce for helping out as usual.

But as she hastened her footsteps, Bruce still noticed her reddened ears as she picked up the pace, causing a smile to appear on his face at her reaction over merely a kiss on the cheek.

Though, in truth, he was equally inexperienced, as he’d never dated before either. But being mentally more mature, he was able to handle it relatively well compared to her.

Deciding to leave as well, Bruce headed to the gym after paying for the snacks they’d eaten.

Though he didn’t spend much today either, only about 130 Kepto in total for everything, and Summer’s Affinity Level towards him hadn’t increased, Bruce was still able to gain 360 Rebate Coins from spending time with her, while also receiving a x40 Rebate for the amount spent as usual.

Bringing his current Rebate Coins, after deducting 300 for the Permanent Enhancement Pill he purchased from the System yesterday, as well as the 5% deduction from today’s earnings, to about 567.75RC.

A while later, Bruce eventually reached the gym.

Greeted by Jones as usual upon reaching the entrance, Bruce spent a while chatting with him before slipping away once more after noticing the other regular gym Coaches Jones had introduced him to yesterday were beginning to join in on their conversation.

After freshening up a bit, he checked his reflection in the mirror upon wearing the Spandex tracksuit.

His figure was a bit more tolerable to look at than last time, as his belly looked less like that of a pregnant lady, and more like he’d simply overeaten this time.

Glancing back, he noticed Naomi was already waiting at the entrance of the quarters as usual.

"Well, you’re early today. What’s the occasion?"

Smiling on hearing this, Bruce simply shrugged in reply.

"Mama always told me it’s a sin to keep a beautiful lady waiting. Plus, I had fewer things to take care of today."

Smirking at his bold words, Naomi raised an intrigued eyebrow.

"Oh, seems someone’s getting ahead of himself again. Might have to crank up the difficulty a bit once more to fix that."

Broadening his smile, Bruce raised an eyebrow as well.

"Wouldn’t have it any other way."

Having spent a few days together, the duo had naturally grown closer over time, with Bruce being able to speak a bit more freely to Naomi, while she didn’t really mind either.

Kicking him in the rear as she got closer, Naomi instructed, her smirk widening as she did.

"Well get to it then, porkchop."

Shaking his head at her response, while secretly rubbing his poor butt that tended to suffer under her instructions, Bruce made his way towards the more spacious part of the room.

Sitting on the tiled floor upon getting there, he briefly closed his eyes, focusing his mind on a single objective.

Sensing his inner Mana at will.

When he’d first attempted this yesterday, the process had been long and seemingly impossible. Or rather, it had been extremely difficult to maintain.

Whenever he tried entering the state he’d been in last time that enabled him to sense the Mana, it would often slip away soon after.

Like a slippery eel, it kept slipping through his fingers the more he held on to it. The harder he tried, the faster it slipped away, giving him a major headache as it proved to be far more difficult than he’d anticipated.

The main issue was his inability to shut out the distractions around him, as his senses became heightened whenever he tried entering that state.

Making him easily susceptible to even the slightest sound, while requiring him to block out every distraction around him in a state where even a pin drop sounded as loud as a gunshot.

Just as he was about to give up, an idea had suddenly emerged in his mind yesterday.

Since he was trying to cancel out everything around him, why not focus on one particular thing while shutting out the rest instead?

The idea proved easier said than done, as even focusing on one thing was difficult.

However, he’d once been able to completely immerse himself in novels and comics despite being in an environment that was nearly impossible to read in, as the noise from hospital equipment, patients, and the busy streets outside was unbearable under normal circumstances, much less while trying to read.

But over time, he’d learnt to focus his mind.

One word at a time.

One scene at a time.

One picture at a time.

Eventually drowning out the surrounding noise while immersing himself in the story.

Deciding to use this method once more, he made a dull, quiet ticking sound with the back of his tongue, audible only to himself.

Yet, It was still difficult.

The sound, despite being quiet and barely audible, was extremely loud in this state, especially since he was the one producing it.

However, pausing after each successive tick, he chose to focus only on the fading sound instead.

Finding it slightly more manageable, he continued focusing on that fading sound until, unknowingly, he’d drowned out everything else in the process.

Causing his mind to enter a blank state.

Drowning everything else away.

In turn, enabling him to achieve his objective.

Using this same method now, Bruce repeated the dull ticking sound, focusing on its fading echo while slowly shutting out everything else.

As this occurred, the world around him gradually dimmed until Bruce found himself floating in a dark space once more, which, for some reason, felt oddly warm and nostalgic.

Everything around him seemed bleak and empty, as the space appeared devoid of anything other than a single spherical mass that gleamed faintly within the darkness.

Noticing this, a smirk crept onto his face as he thought,

’Got ya!’