Chapter 552 - 342: Online Shopping is Addictive

Twin Tower City, Repin Mage Academy.

Something major had happened at Repin Academy recently. The headmaster announced educational reforms, no longer organizing the student body simply by Schools, but by a more specific and detailed system.

In short, they were modeling it after Hogwarts.

They were even preparing to enroll the first batch of students with no Casting ability, who would focus purely on theory.

Taking this step required a great deal of effort, as many of the traditionalist Mage professors were quite resistant to the idea of accepting Ordinary students.

After repeated discussions and round after round of meetings, they finally compromised, but on the condition that students who could cast and those who couldn't would be housed and taught separately.

This whole episode was more Hogwarts than Hogwarts itself.

They also planned to cooperate with the Research Institute to offer interdisciplinary courses in both Magic and technology.

The Research Institute was quite enthusiastic about this, as their long-held philosophy was that Magic is simply another branch of science.

As a result, the students' lives at the academy lately felt like opening a blind box—they had no idea what their curriculum would look like next semester.

None of this had anything to do with Uffie, however.

Exceptional talents always receive special treatment.

Although she hadn't graduated yet, she spent most of her time away from the academy at the Zog Group, only needing to return to take a few exams at the end of the semester.

Today happened to be the day she returned to campus.

Uffie carried a box of delicate little cakes, her steps light as she headed for her dorm, ready to visit her dear roommate, Galina, who had been "holding down the fort" alone for several months.

Just like Repin's scattered academic buildings, the dorms were also spread throughout Twin Tower City.

Uffie's dorm was a historic red-brick house. It had been renovated many times and now looked quite tidy, with white mortar outlining the brickwork, like the sort of quintessential little house you'd see in a comic book.

She arrived at their familiar dorm room door. It wasn't locked; Galina must be inside.

She carefully gripped the handle, ready to fling the door open.

"Surprise!"

The scene she had imagined—Galina shouting "Uffie!" and jumping on her for a hug—did not happen.

All she saw was a flood of delivery boxes.

"Flood" wasn't a very logical way to describe a pile of boxes, but it was Uffie's first reaction to the sight before her.

The crushed and misshapen delivery boxes tumbled out, sliding into the hallway and forcing Uffie to take several steps back.

Straps for binding the cartons were scattered all over the floor, and the air smelled of ink and the damp odor of waterlogged cardboard.

Given the humidity in Twin Tower City, Uffie figured they weren't far from growing mold. 'Maybe mushrooms will be sprouting here by tomorrow.'

"You..."

Uffie looked in confusion at Galina, who was practically buried in delivery boxes.

"Are you moving out?"

"Well," Galina said, giving Uffie an embarrassed smile, "I was just... you know, online shopping. I couldn't help myself and bought a few too many things. But they were all super cheap, way cheaper than buying them in a store!"

Her tone even held a hint of pride.

Uffie "swam" through the sea of boxes, laboriously wriggling her way over to her bed. She cleared away a small patch of floor to make a place to sit. She was a bit tired after walking all day.

'There might be plenty of girls who are neat and tidy, but Galina definitely isn't one of them.'

'So this is who's using the online shopping platform Zog created.'

'At first, I thought people would be too afraid to use it, worried that online payments weren't secure enough.'

'Leave it to the rich, silly girl to keep it in business.'

"What is all this stuff you bought?" Uffie asked, placing the small cake box on a package that looked relatively clean.

"It's all super practical, great stuff!" Galina noticed the treat Uffie had brought. "Ooh, is that cake? Gimme, gimme, I'm starving."

"Don't tell me you've gotten to the point where you can't even afford to eat?"

"Not exactly," Galina said, grabbing the cake and devouring it in a couple of bites. "I mean, I still have some credit left on my card... just not a lot."

Her credit limit...

Uffie put a hand to her forehead. 'She's a lost cause.'

'It felt like Galina deserved some of the credit for the salary she earned from Zog.'

"Oh, don't worry about it! I can pay it all off when my allowance comes in next month. And since you're back today, you can help me unpack all these boxes. There should be another batch arriving later."

"More?" Uffie couldn't believe it.

"Yep."

"All 'super practical, great stuff!'" Uffie said, mimicking Galina's tone.

"Yeah, it's all super practical, great stuff. If you want to buy some too, I can share the links with you."

And so, the two began the long process of unboxing packages.

Uffie was then about to find out just how "practical" Galina's so-called practical items really were.

"Why did you buy so many candles?"

"These aren't ordinary candles. Look, these ones have transparent fishing line attached to the top."

"So?"

"So you can hang them from the ceiling, just like in the Hogwarts dining hall!" Galina said excitedly.

Uffie glanced at the box of candles. 'I have to admit, the packaging is pretty exquisite. These merchants are really creative, coming up with something like this.'

"What about the other two boxes?"

"They're the same."

"Then why did you buy three boxes?"

"Because three boxes got me free shipping," Galina answered matter-of-factly.

In her mind, the items themselves could be expensive—she could afford them—but if the shipping fee was also expensive, that was just unacceptable.

"But isn't buying two extra boxes more expensive than just paying for shipping?"

"Huh?" Faced with this question, Galina finally processed it. "Oh. I guess you're right."

...

Next, they unwrapped heart-shaped fried egg molds, even though Galina never cooked and cooking wasn't allowed in the dorms anyway.

There was also an embossed lighter. Uffie couldn't understand why a person whose entire repertoire of Magic consisted of different styles of fireballs would need to buy a lighter.