For his second store, Zhou Wang chose the established luxury brand Louis Vuitton.
To be honest, Zhou Wang wasn't particularly fond of LV's style. Having started as a luggage maker, their selection of men's ready-to-wear was rather limited. If it weren't for LV's high price tag—and the possibility of the Azure Dragon Blade delivering a pleasant surprise—Zhou Wang might have turned left and gone to Armani, which offered a wider range of clothing.
Ultimately, at Ranran's suggestion, Zhou Wang decided to purchase a complete black suit from the New Formal collection, thinking it might actually come in handy in the future.
To complete the look and boost his System score, he also bought an S-Lock briefcase from LV to match the suit. Normally, Zhou Wang wouldn't carry a bag at all, as it didn't fit his usual style.
At checkout, the suit cost over 110,000 yuan, and the briefcase nearly 30,000 yuan, totaling just under 150,000 yuan.
After swiping his card, the System notification arrived as expected: "Impression Points: 81." Well, it seemed even the System disliked LV's clothing. "Looks like I still have good taste after all," Zhou Wang muttered sarcastically. He was relieved he'd added the briefcase; without it, his score might have been even lower.
The refund rate was only 81%. Without the Azure Dragon Blade's return, this transaction would have resulted in a loss of 30,000 yuan.
To Zhou Wang's disappointment, the Azure Dragon Blade didn't trigger another critical hit, granting only a 0.5x refund, totaling just over 70,000 yuan.
Thankfully, after the exchange, he still ended up with a profit of over 40,000 yuan. If the blade had returned only 0.1x, he would have been in the red.
"Brother, I haven't been feeling myself lately. Could you do me a small favor?"
Zhou Wang was about to call Ranran to head to the next store when she suddenly stopped.
As if to emphasize how trivial the request was, Ranran pinched two fingers together and made a tiny gesture, looking utterly adorable.
"What is it?" Zhou Wang asked.
"Well, I want to change my phone wallpaper. People say that when you're feeling down, you should look at handsome guys often. But I can't find any good pictures... so... could I take a few photos of you?"
Ranran clasped her hands behind her back, leaned forward slightly, and gazed at Zhou Wang with bright, sparkling eyes. A playful smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she finished speaking.
At first, Zhou Wang was confused, but when Ranran revealed her true intentions, realization dawned.
Holy shit...
Zhou Wang's eyelid twitched involuntarily. For a moment, those were the only words that occupied his mind.
"Listen up, everyone! Settle down and listen carefully. This is what I mean by 'knowing how to talk'!"
Ranran was asking Zhou Wang to take photos for her, yet she spoke in a pleading tone, explicitly stating she wanted to use the pictures as her phone wallpaper, and even threw in a compliment for him...
Who wouldn't be flustered by that?!
Zhou Wang decided to retract his earlier judgment.
How could anyone describe a girl like this as "calculating"? Even the Jade Emperor himself would see her as a kind and understanding little sister!
Naturally, Zhou Wang couldn't find a reason to refuse. No sane man could resist such a request from a beautiful and charming woman.
"Hehe!"
Seeing Zhou Wang's agreement, Ranran pulled him to a decorative wall inside the mall and whipped out her phone, snapping photos left and right.
Afterward, she leaned in, showing Zhou Wang the photos and asking if he disliked any of them.
To be fair, Ranran's photography skills were quite good—certainly better than anything Zhou Wang could have taken himself. So, he reluctantly agreed to take a group photo with her.
Just then, Ranran's phone rang. Zhou Wang noticed the caller ID: "Brother Xiao Mao."
"Ah, damn it!"
Ranran suddenly remembered she had a client waiting for her.
"What's wrong?" Zhou Wang asked, puzzled.
"Nothing..."
Ranran hung up the phone quickly, muted it, and instantly resumed her cheerful smile. "Brother, where should we go now?"
"Versace?" Zhou Wang suggested casually, pointing at random since he didn't know much about luxury brands.
"Brother, you have such great taste!" Ranran exclaimed dramatically. "Versace's designs are so distinctive. It's one of my favorite brands!"
Zhou Wang, being too kind to expose her act, took her to the Versace boutique on the B1 level. Along the way, Ranran naturally took the shopping bag from his hand and slipped her small, cool hand, which she had wiped with a wet wipe, into his palm. The icy touch greatly enhanced Zhou Wang's shopping experience.
At Versace, they selected a coat and casual outfit totaling 93,000 yuan. The System's rating was 93, one point higher than Balenciaga's, but still failed to trigger the Lucky Number.
Zhou Wang's luck seemed to have run out. The Azure Dragon Blade only yielded a meager 0.3x multiplier this time, resulting in a small profit of 20,000 yuan overall.
By this point, Zhou Wang's account balance had stabilized around 450,000 yuan after several fluctuations.
Leaving the Versace boutique, Zhou Wang paused in thought.
Having deliberately quickened his pace, less than 40 minutes remained on the round's timer, and the Azure Dragon Blade had only one refund opportunity left.
Zhou Wang had originally planned to continue buying clothes, but he suddenly realized a crucial point.
To accumulate wealth more rapidly, he should aim to spend every last penny during this final refund opportunity.
Protected by the Impression Points-backed reimbursement system, even if the refund multiplier proved disappointing, his losses would be minimal. But if he managed to trigger another critical hit at the last moment, the potential gains would be enormous.
However, simply buying an outfit from these luxury boutiques to reach that amount would be challenging. Even their most expensive ready-to-wear items wouldn't suffice, and there were no Haute Couture pieces readily available for him to choose from. Zhou Wang realized he had grown too accustomed to wealth; he was actually starting to find luxury prices inadequate.
But there was a contradiction. If Zhou Wang skipped buying clothes this time, he'd lose the guaranteed Impression Points, making the gamble on the return multiplier too risky.
As Zhou Wang wrestled with this dilemma, he glanced up and noticed a row of shops that stood in stark contrast to the surrounding clothing boutiques.
Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in his head. Wait a minute, who the hell said outfits were limited to clothes?
He had been limiting his own thinking.
Jewelry and watches were also integral parts of an outfit, weren't they?
The System had never explicitly confined "outfit" to clothing alone!
Zhou Wang naturally dismissed jewelry. A man should buy a watch.
He immediately led Ranran to the ground floor, where a dedicated area housed all the mall's watch brands.
At first glance, the selection seemed impressive: Rolex, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Vacheron Constantin, Blancpain...
Zhou Wang wasn't a watch expert, but his roommate, whose father was a watch dealer, loved discussing timepieces and often smuggled expensive models into the dorm to show off. Through osmosis, Zhou Wang had picked up some basic knowledge.
First, Rolex was immediately crossed off the list. His roommate had repeatedly lamented how difficult it was to actually purchase one.
If you asked at the brand boutiques, they'd vehemently deny any "bundled purchases." They'd always claim everything was sold at retail price, but they never had any stock available. In reality, most of the available inventory was snapped up by watch dealers.
Another awkward truth was the sheer number of fake Rolexes flooding the market. Zhou Wang once saw a news story—he wasn't sure if it was true or just a joke—about a dinner party where eight out of ten guests were wearing black and green "Hulks," creating quite a spectacle.
After a moment's thought, Zhou Wang headed straight for the Vacheron Constantin boutique. As the universally acknowledged "eternal runner-up" in the watch world, buying a several-hundred-thousand-yuan timepiece from them should be relatively straightforward, right?
"Are you looking to buy a watch, Brother?" Ranran, laden with shopping bags, followed Zhou Wang dutifully. Noticing him approaching the watch display, she asked curiously.
"Yeah, just seeing if anything catches my eye."
Zhou Wang chatted with her briefly, but his interest quickly waned when he realized Ranran's knowledge of watches was limited to "Rolex is cool" and "Patek Philippe is god-tier"—the typical layman's understanding.
Zhou Wang entered the Vacheron Constantin boutique and left in just eight minutes.
It wasn't that Zhou Wang couldn't find a watch he liked. In fact, after hearing his preferences, the sales assistant quickly presented him with a Vacheron Constantin Overseas 1225V, a pink gold model set with diamonds and featuring a striking blue dial, priced at 410,000 yuan.
Zhou Wang was impressed and ready to purchase it when he discovered... there were none in stock.
Then why did you even bother showing it to me?!
Undeterred, Zhou Wang inquired about several other models. Predictably, none were available for immediate purchase. Only a few women's watches in the display cases could be bought right away; most popular models required joining a waitlist, with estimated wait times possibly measured in years.
Oh, wait—they didn't even call it a waitlist. Instead, they asked him to fill out a "wish list." Note the emphasis on wish.
Zhou Wang suddenly realized that Rolex wasn't the only brand playing the scarcity game.
Looking thoroughly frustrated, Zhou Wang left the Vacheron Constantin boutique and scanned the remaining watch brands. With only half an hour left, he decided to skip Jaeger-LeCoultre and Blancpain entirely.
These brands were on par with Vacheron Constantin, and if he finally found a watch he liked there only to discover it was out of stock, the entire exercise would be pointless.
"Fine, then let's try IWC, which is a step down. Surely they'll have something in stock, right?"
Without hesitation, Zhou Wang grabbed Ranran and hurried into the IWC boutique.