“By the way... How much SP did I earn from Harumikazuchi’s stockings?”
“For Miss Harumikazuchi’s, I’ll award you 60 SP. If the passage of time and you holding them all that time hadn’t caused the scent to fade, I would’ve given you 80. By the way, a perfect score gets you 100 SP.”
“I see.” In other words, if I didn’t deliver at least two more pairs of stockings within the year, I’d lose access to the catalog. Also, if I wanted more items, I would have to give her more socks. Mr. Sneaky was a consumable item, and I probably wanted more of those.
Yeah...I’m starting to understand how the Goddess thinks. She doesn’t care how much I struggle, as long as I deliver her socks. Hmm... Does this isekai have slaves, I wonder? If I bought a slave girl to make her wear a bunch of stockings, could I farm SP infinitely?
“By the way, my SP evaluation criteria might change at any time depending on how I’m feeling. Giving me socks from the same person or a bunch of rapid-fire deliveries will only result in fewer points, so keep that in mind. Even a perfect delivery would get boring if I got it every day. Variety is the spice of life!”
“I should’ve figured.”
“Even if you forget and just give me offerings when I’m least expecting it, that’s totally fine! I like surprises!”
Only occasionally is totally fine, huh? Then maybe the slave girl route wouldn’t be such a bad option after all. I should look into that later... Dammit, I’ve already bought into this whole sock-delivering mess! Curse you, Goddess! You’re a shrewd saleswoman!
“Just to check, my stockings don’t count? I’m a beautiful girl too, right?”
“Nope, they don’t count. There are artists out there who don’t count their own works among actual art, right? It’s more or less the same as that.”
So I guess copying my own socks with spatial magic is also out. The magic power contained within would transfer to myself, and her power as a goddess would wane.
“I kind of feel like I was lucky to get those first stockings, though,” I said. “Socks from a beautiful girl aren’t exactly so easy to obtain. A guy’s socks don’t count?”
“That’s why I’m offering extra SP for more difficult acquisitions. Technically I’d be fine with socks from men, kids, or the elderly too, but they just don’t have that same shame factor.”
“Shame factor?”
“Absolutely. Shame is the ultimate spice, after all. Socks that don’t reflect the embarrassment of the wearer will always get an exceedingly low score. And the more beautiful and put-together a woman is, the more shame she feels toward relinquishing her used socks! I could feel the shame in Miss Harumikazuchi’s pair earlier! It was wonderful!”
So explained the Goddess. “Oh, and freshly laundered socks will get an automatic zero. That’s very important, so keep that in mind,” she added.
Sounds like I might incur her wrath by offering up low-scoring socks. That’s a scary thought. “Hmm... Well, for the time being, I guess I’ll shoot for the socks of that succubus nun outside.”
“That succubus is one of my own creations, actually. Not in a ‘reincarnated from another world’ sense like you, but she’s a messenger of mine. An angel, if you will. Her race is ‘succubus,’ though.”
“So she really is a succubus! No wonder she was so hot!”
“I know, right? One of my finest works, if I do say so myself.”
And since angels are like the hands and feet of the gods they serve, she, like me, wouldn’t count. Actually, what sort of goddess has a succubus as her “angel”?
“There’s an angel stationed at each of my churches within the larger towns so that the buildings don’t go unsupervised. They’re also your fellow coworkers, in that they harvest socks from my followers and give them to me. So be sure to get along with them!”
“Coworkers, huh?”
I thought I was supposed to be aiming to be a merchant. I don’t recall ever signing up to harvest used socks. Well, I’ll try and get along with them anyway.
“Um, if I try and bum socks off one of your angels without realizing their true identity, please don’t get too upset.”
“Then I’ll make it so that all my underlings can recognize each other at a glance. How’s that?”
“W-Works for me.” Sounds convenient...I think?
“Now then, the taste of Harumikazuchi’s stockings is calling me, so I’ll see you another—”
“Wait, Goddess. Last time you mentioned something about sacred treasures and the world being in danger?”
“Oh, whoops, I almost forgot. Tee hee!”
Let’s not forget something as important as the destruction of the world, shall we?
“To be honest, it’s really only at the level of ‘if it’s convenient for you, it’d be a stroke of good luck for me,’ but there are indeed items in this world known as ‘sacred treasures.’”
Sacred treasures—items that allowed humans to take a step closer to the divine, or items that simply manifested the powers or miracles of the gods. They apparently came in many forms—some were standard, like chalices, holy swords, or holy armor, while others assumed the forms of daily household items like pillows or blankets. Some were even inconspicuously mixed in with nature and looked no different from a regular boulder or tree.
As for their effects, they were so great that they could transform entire environments. Apparently they could enrich the land’s soil, turn a desert into an oasis, transform those who gathered a series of seven into a god, make a fortress impregnable, or eradicate tens of thousands of enemy soldiers in one fell swoop.
“You see, I was originally a little too generous with these and scattered them everywhere. Thanks to that, this world’s currently in an energy deficit. Ten more years, it’ll all go kaput.”
“And the world will crumble?”
“Well, I’ve been siphoning the energy from the other worlds I manage to keep this one alive, so it shouldn’t all fall to ruin as long as I don’t abandon it.”
“Oh, that’s good news...maybe.”
“Still, it won’t do to operate at a deficit.” She likened the current state of the world to a successful company using their surplus funds to offset the failure of one of their subsidiaries. Yeah, that doesn’t sound like a healthy business model to me.
“Plus, the further we sink in debt, the more I’ll probably feel like cutting my losses and leaving this world. But if you keep providing me with stockings, I might have a reason to stay. Get my drift?”
Hmm, yeah, I get it. This Goddess is only looking out for number one—herself. Well, she is a god, after all.
“Couldn’t you just take control of my body like you did during the tutorial and gather them all up at once?”
“Huh? Of course not. That’d be way too much work on my end.”
Oh, I see. Guess nothing can be done about that, then...
“For every sacred treasure you recover, I’ll award you a bonus 500 SP. So do your best!”
So...roughly eight times the SP I got from Harumikazuchi’s stockings? The fate of the world hinges on the recovery of these divine items, right? Doesn’t that value seem a little...low?
“More like Harumikazuchi’s stockings were worth that much!” the Goddess exclaimed.
“So it was the value of the socks you rigged. Should’ve known.”
Well, it’s her point system, so no use complaining about it.
Looks like socks are the most efficient path to obtaining SP. But I couldn’t just ignore the sacred treasures either. After all, if the Goddess ever decided to abandon the world on a whim, the world would fall to ruin in only ten years.
“All right, I understand,” I said. “Unless they’re being used to make the world a better place or something, I’ll recover as many as I can.” If recovering one being used to turn a desert into an oasis killed a bunch of people, for instance, it’d leave a bad taste in my mouth.
“You don’t need to prioritize the sacred treasures or anything. Just live your life as you see fit and make sure you deepen your connections with many beautiful women along the way, so you can get those glorious socks!”
“R-Right.”
She wasn’t even trying to hide that the stockings were more important to her.
“Now then, until we meet again, my dear Karina! Adieu! (･ω･)ﾉｼ”
“R-Right, another time. ‘Adieu’?”
And there’s that emoticon again. The people in this world don’t seem to know Japanese, but you seem to be awfully knowledgeable about my world, Goddess...