As Rain had more or less expected, completing the last wish let him pick a second reward from the target's options.
Once he got back to his room, his consciousness dove straight into the system, returning to the previous rewards screen. The two options he'd given up before appeared again in front of him.
[Skill Inheritance · Stealth (Intermediate)]
[Skill Inheritance · Marksmanship (Intermediate)]
"I want both of these… can't I just be fast enough to grab them all?"
Rain stared at the two skills, torn.
"Marksmanship would give me an immediate combat boost, but right now I don't have many situations where I actually need to fight."
"Stealth, on the other hand… this kind of ability is showing up in the system for the first time. Its strategic value is immeasurable."
After a brief hesitation, Rain made his choice.
"[Skill Inheritance · Stealth (Intermediate)]!"
A cool, fine, mercury-like stream of information silently flowed into his brain and nervous system.
Countless bits of knowledge and muscle memory about hiding one's presence, erasing traces, and moving through shadows etched themselves into the depths of his mind in an instant.
Rain could feel that, if he wanted, he could now easily meld into the shadows of the room.
Once that was done, he was satisfied and ready to close the system and sleep.
Then he suddenly noticed that the shop icon in the corner of the menu—the one that had been greyed-out before—was now glowing faint blue and could be selected.
"Huh? When did that unlock? Not even a ding or a popup…"
He complained silently, then tapped it without hesitation.
The screen in front of him shifted at once. Two tabs traced with golden patterns appeared at the top.
[Standard Goods] · [Dimensional Curiosities]
Rain's thinking was very clear. He opened the more "plain and simple" looking [Standard Goods] first.
The next second, a dazzling list unfurled before his eyes like a waterfall.
Row after row of items appeared like racks in an armory.
[Marine-Issue Longsword]: Price 200 Sin Points
[Marine Standard Flintlock]: Price 200 Sin Points
[Fine Firearm]: Price 20,000 Sin Points
(Description: Upon redemption, the system will custom-forge a unique fine-grade firearm.)
[Good-Grade Blade]: Price 20,000 Sin Points
(Description: Upon redemption, the system will custom-forge a blade on par with a "50 Skillful Grade" sword.)
...
[Legendary Firearm]: Price 500,000 Sin Points
(…Custom-forge a unique Legendary firearm.)
[Supreme Grade Blade]: Price 500,000 Sin Points
(…Custom-forge a blade comparable to the 12 Supreme Grade Swords.)
There were not only swords, but also a variety of firearms—things rarely mentioned in the original story—but the ones worth using were all way out of his price range.
Rain calmly closed the page. He knew very well that for a good while, none of that had anything to do with him.
Scrolling past the weapons brought him to the items section: [Seastone Bullets], [Eternal Pose], [Vivre Card], [Devil Fruit Encyclopedia]… all the sort of things that would cost a fortune in the outside world were listed here with clear prices.
He even saw a [Devil Fruit Compass]: "You can designate a specific Devil Fruit, and the compass will point toward its location."
Stuff that clearly fit the One Piece world, but had never appeared in the manga.
What tempted him most, though, were the goods under [Skills] and [Haki].
In the [Skills] category, he saw his two skills that were still only at [Basic]:
[Skill · Basic Swordsmanship → Intermediate Swordsmanship]: Price 1,000 Sin Points
[Skill · Basic Marksmanship → Intermediate Marksmanship]: Price 1,000 Sin Points
[Skill · Intermediate Stealth → Advanced Stealth]: Price 10,000 Sin Points
Next, he opened the [Haki] category. Most of the items there were still greyed-out.
[Haki · Basic Armament Haki → Intermediate Armament Haki]: (Locked in grey)
[Unlock Condition: Host must first awaken or learn Basic Armament Haki.]
[Haki · Basic Observation Haki → Intermediate Observation Haki]: (Locked in grey)
[Unlock Condition: Host must first awaken or learn Basic Observation Haki.]
"As expected, you can't just buy Haki out of nowhere. You have to at least have the Basic level first…" Rain wasn't surprised.
After roughly skimming through all the goods, he confirmed two core rules in his mind:
First, the shop was almost omnipotent. It could provide weapons, skill upgrades, Haki enhancements, and various technique improvements—but the one thing it couldn't sell was [Physique]. Also, no skill or Haki rank could surpass his current physique tier by more than one whole level.
Second, the [Skill] and [Haki] upgrade packs in the shop could only raise the rank of abilities he already had; they couldn't make him learn a brand-new discipline from nothing.
"So that's how it is…"
In that moment, Rain instantly grasped the optimal growth route for the system.
"The true nature of the [Exchange Shop] is a leveling station, not a teaching machine. Its purpose is to rapidly push my Basic skills up to Intermediate or even Advanced, saving me a ton of training time."
"And the real treasure vault is in [Execution Rewards]! That's not only the only source of [Physique] upgrades, but also the only way to get those rare talents and entirely new skills that you can't buy in the shop at all!"
"After all, the value of inheriting the physique of a powerful fighter can't be measured with just a few thousand or tens of thousands of points."
Rain's thoughts snapped into perfect clarity:
"From now on, whenever I choose [Selectable Rewards] after an execution, I have to prioritize [Physique] or rare skills/talents that the shop can't provide. Sin Points are for quickly upgrading the rank of the common skills I already have."
With his plan set, Rain looked at his balance of [Sin Points: 2420] and didn't hesitate in the slightest.
"System, redeem [Intermediate Swordsmanship] and [Intermediate Marksmanship]!"
[2,000 Sin Points consumed… Redemption successful!]
Two powerful torrents of information poured into his mind. Countless techniques, tricks, and battle experiences for both sword and gun became crystal clear, ready to be drawn on at any time.
Rain could tell: once he actually started training, he'd probably only need two or three days to truly bring both skills up to Intermediate in practice.
Having settled the important business, Rain finally opened the impressive-looking [Dimensional Curiosities] tab with a touch of curiosity.
Unlike the dense list in [Standard Goods], this page was extremely simple.
There was only a single ornate golden display stand—with one item floating above it. Beneath it was a line of small text: "Refresh countdown: 29 days 22 hours 31 minutes…"
Rain squinted and realized it was… a strangely designed camera?
[This Month's Curio: Outfit-Changing Camera]
Description: Place a set of designed clothing schematics into the camera, point it at the target, and take a photo. The target will instantly change into the outfit shown in the design.
Price: 50,000 Sin Points
Rain read the description in silence.
He stayed silent for a full ten seconds.
"…That's it?"
"Fifty. Thousand. Points. Just to… change clothes?"
"And this is the 'Curio' that only refreshes once a month?"
"Is this system… being run by some dress-up-obsessed pervert goddess or what?!"
He could feel his inner tsukkomi spirit burning like wildfire.
Without hesitation, he closed the "not even slightly serious" page. In any case, for a very, very long time, there was no way he'd blow 50,000 points on something like that.