Ok. Now we're stuck in the grind, and we are going to have to start speeding ahead. Literally.

The March needs power and Hiro needs money, so we've been alternating shifts between the Arcade and the Economy Centre.

Sadly, they’ve both been pretty uneventful. No sign of the girl of our dreams at the arcade. Though again, I haven't been playing the crane game. Maybe if I do that she'll come back, the materialistic toy bear obsessed lady she is.

The Economy Centre has also been uneventful, well… at least as far as that place goes. Half the time Hiro discovers nothing, the other half it's just rats.

Just once, however Hiro did run into a new enemy type: a Metal Thief! Unlike the Book Thief, this one is grey!

Presumably because he's made of metal.

This played out about as well as you'd expect, with Hiro being knocked unconcious… again… and still refusing to tell anyone about it, lest it call into question his effectually as a security guard.

And, as Hiro often does when recovering from traumatic experiences, he once again turns his attention to his magazines.

Excuse, anger and despair.
Four things called “Huuiki”.
An engine that repeats the process.

Boy, even Hoku seems like he's in a sour mood. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he just wrote a Haiku about our car.

We've put so much money and effort into this thing, and we still haven't got a single win.

Perhaps there's something to buy in the Communications section that could help us.

Uh huh… Aluminum foil....

I think we can see where this is going. Let's skip ahead a week to its arrival.

Ding Dong!

: Hiro-San. This is a delivery.

: Ugh! What is this! Aluminium foil for cooking?!?

Really now Hiro, what did you expect?

: That's horrible. Why are there so many cars? This is what they're selling.

: That's why I thought it would be cheap!

You know the saying Hiro, fool me once, fool me twice, fool me three times…