I’m Really Unnerved In Tokyo

"Sousuke Araki, you are already a social person with a job (you haven't found it yet), it's time to say goodbye to the game hall."

Firmly holding on to the wallet and suppressing the desire in his heart, Araki Sousuke didn't dare to look at the game hall again, turned around and walked towards the original destination.

With the rise of many otaku cultures in recent years, the original basic functions of Akihabara have been gradually forgotten.

This is one, Electric Street.

Akihabara, which was rebuilt after the Great Tokyo Air Raid, was originally a serious electrical street with electrical appliances sales as its main business.

It was not until the economic crisis in the 1990s and the decline in sales of electrical appliances that this street had to go through the arduous transformation of digital products - otaku culture.

A decent electrical street has slowly grown into a "coquettish slut"-like housing circle.

Stepping into an unknown medieval shop hidden deep in the alley, Sousuke Araki walked around familiarly.

Rather than saying it is a "store", it is better to say it is a "warehouse on the first floor".

In the basement-like space, there are densely packed shelves, stacked with various commodities.

You can see second-hand home appliances of various ages, styles, and clearly marked prices.

There are even a lot of tables, chairs and benches.

In Japan, due to the high cost of moving and discarding large garbage and household appliances, many people choose to sell dilapidated household appliances and furniture to such second-hand stores at low prices or even free of charge.

After recycling, repairing, and cleaning, the second-hand shop will identify the new and old condition and sell it at a higher price.

Poor students and renters are frequent customers of such shops.

Here, even if it is a double-door luxury refrigerator with an original price of more than 100,000 yen, there is often a chance to start with 30,000 to 40,000 yen.

But the disadvantages, in addition to the unguaranteed quality, there may be "psychologically defective items" in these second-hand home appliances.

After all, you never know how many different owners the TV you bought back, how many different liquids it was splashed on, how many crazy late night shows and DVDs it played...

You can't even imagine how many vicissitudes of men and women's nightly singing and dancing are carried on the bed of N's hand, and how many honest instructions of dying old people are entrusted...

"Welcome, please feel free to buy."

An old man poked his head out from behind the shelf and greeted Sousuke Araki weakly.

"Oh! There is still this kind of big-head TV with Brown tubes, and it only costs 1,000 yuan? Can it really be turned on?"

Araki Sousuke walked around in admiration, and found many antique electrical appliances.

"Boss, my newly rented apartment is so empty that it explodes. Is there any discount?"

"For the discount event...there is a bundled new product in the corner inside."

The old man rolled his eyelids and pointed to the deepest shelf.

Araki Sousuke put his hands in his pockets and quickly walked to the place guided by the other party.

"The 90% new double-door refrigerator, 60-inch color TV, DVD player, microwave oven, and washing machine are all only 100,000 yen?"

Araki Sousuke quickly calculated silently in his heart. According to the prices of similar products on the shelves outside, the sum of these items would cost at least 200,000 yen or more.

It's like a 50% discount.

"Hey, boss, with such a cheap price, it won't explode when it is turned on... Or is it some kind of stolen goods of unknown origin, the kind where the police will knock on the door a few days after buying it?"

"Hehehehe... How is it possible? It's not because the store has been messed up recently... No, this is the limited promotional activity of 'Housewarming' that our store recently launched in order to get back funds... Besides, not every customer wants to buy a new house. How can you buy so many home appliances at once?"

The old man smiled exaggeratedly, denying his wild speculation.

"That's right..."

Hearing the word "limited", Sousuke Araki no longer hesitated.

There are various kinds of "limited products" in Japan, which are divided into time-limited, region-limited, quantity-limited, season-limited, etc...

Although it is clear that this is just a promotional activity of the merchant, the reason behind the popularity of limited products in Japan is that the quality, content or discounts of these products are indeed "unique and out of date" to a certain extent.

He negotiated the price with the boss for a while, and after the other party agreed to give away a half-year warranty service, he decisively decided to take this set of home appliances.

After all, this price is really too tempting.

Originally, his budget was only intended to buy TV sets, DVD players and refrigerators.

Now I can buy an extra microwave oven and a washing machine with a dryer, and I can save a lot of money in coin-operated laundromats.

Most of the urban areas in Japan do not allow clothes to be dried, and the clothes have to be washed and dried in laundromats on weekdays.

"I really found a treasure..."

After paying for the shopping and registering the delivery address, Sousuke Araki happily walked out of the dull basement, breathing the fresh air happily.

Being shy in his pocket, he originally thought it would take a long time to pick and choose to get it done, but he didn't expect it to go so smoothly.

"Since this is the case, the remaining time and money must be used to celebrate!"

Glancing at the phone, Araki Sousuke walked into the SEGA game hall humming a ditty.

...

"The key to victory is now..."

Ayano Mochizuki, who was petite, stood in front of a large machine with sharp eyes. After operating it cautiously, she took a deep breath and carefully pressed a huge red button like launching a nuclear weapon.

In front of her, separated by a layer of glass, a huge mechanical arm immediately grabbed down and slightly moved the carton on the two metal poles.

"Damn, just a little bit..."

Mochizuki Ayano took out a pale yellow change folder, found it was empty, sighed, and walked to the change machine in the corner.

That's right, she wasn't operating any dangerous machinery.

Although she is the head of the Ninth Special Operations Division directly under the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, in her spare time, she is actually just a 16-year-old girl.

Even though she is very talented, if she has stayed up late, worked overtime, and witnessed all kinds of supernatural tragedies for a long time, if there is no channel to release the pressure, I am afraid that whoever sits in this position for three months will end up in a mental hospital.

And her way of releasing stress is... a claw machine.

Japan's "claw machine culture" is quite developed. Not only are there various ways to grasp, but there are also a variety of products that can be grasped, and they are often updated.

From all kinds of dolls at the beginning, it has developed into animation-related scenery figures, wallets, towels, snacks, and recently even vegetables and fruits, instant curry, lobster, and customized instant noodles for claw machines...

What Ayano Mochizuki was holding just now was a box of figures of the blue-haired maid character from "Life in the Ghost World from Zero".

And it's "April special limited edition maid outfit detachable version".

Use the claws to repeatedly push the square carton on the two metal rods until it falls from the gap between the metal rods, then it is considered successful.

Of course, a large number of netizens on 2CH have already thoroughly analyzed this type of machine.

After repeated calculations, according to the optimal method, it will take at least 4 times to push the scenery down when the angle of the claws and the output are perfect.

Just when Mochizuki Ayano returned after changing the change, there was a burst of cheerful music in the store.

This is the sound that only sounds when someone successfully grabs the prize.

The ominous premonition made her quicken her pace immediately.

Sure enough, in front of her original machine, there was a tall man with a golden airplane haircut, smiling and pulling out the box from under the machine, and putting it into the pocket that the clerk respectfully handed over.

"Ah, I'm really lucky today. I picked up the leak that someone caught the last time when I came here... What a pity for that person. It's just short of the last time."