I take a quick look around and I check my fresh, then I proceed to-to my mission

The rough part about Kim’s upgrade was that only half of her time was spent modeling the clothes and walking around the hotel trying to sell them. Unfortunately, the other two hours out of her schedule had to be spent in the shop proper. And she doubted anybody would be coming to buy anything anytime soon, not after all the sales she’d made that morning.

It was actually shocking.

“I hate to say it, but Vivian was right,” she murmured, drumming her fingers on the glass counter. “That was probably the best investment I could have made in my transformation.”

“I’d certainly say so.”

Kim jumped in surprise. She straightened up, not wanting to look like she was slacking on the job.

Particularly because the boss was here.

“…Dakota,” she said, eyeing the other woman cautiously. Dakota smirked, and waved at Kim with one hand while the other clenched her cane tightly. Not an overt threat, but it hung over the atmosphere with pointed clarity.

Still… Kim had gotten worse threats from employers in the past. She wasn’t sweating it.

Kim relaxed, and looked curiously at the host as she approached the counter.

“It seems you’re doing quite well for yourself,” Dakota mused, tapping her cheek thoughtfully. “What was that little trick you thought of?”

Kim pressed her lips together into a sly smile. “Bulk floor sale price,” she replied. “500 BP a dress for a bulk sale, provided they bought immediately. Vivian isn’t the only one with ideas to make money, you know.”

Dakota laughed. “I’d say not! After all, they all knew they could come right over here and get the dress for free. Just by doing a fashion show… but by showing them designs they liked immediately, and offering such a good deal up front, you got them excited and ready to buy!”

Kim shook her head. “Not only that,” she replied. “It’s simply that the girls didn’t want to show off their new dresses in front of the cameras. You can’t blame them. Dawn was the catalyst of that little idea.”

Dakota nodded thoughtfully. “I was sure that she’d take the smart move and get a free dress. But alas… apparently not.”

“She was just being nice,” Kim pointed out. “And Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin immediately rushing to buy a dress? That didn’t hurt either.”

Kim remembered the rush that her assassin assistant had caused quite clearly.

“Unfortunately, you couldn’t get everyone to buy,” Dakota chucked.

Kim scowled. Not the best reminder.

“I knew she was going to stab me in the back,” Kim muttered, shaking her head.

“These dresses all look nice,” Vivian mused, stroking her chin thoughtfully. “But I’ve got plenty of dresses in my closet to pick from. So I’m going to have to pass.”

Kim’s mouth twisted in shock. “B-but… this was your idea!” She hissed at the other girl.

Vivian shrugged. “I said I’d help you make sales. Doesn’t mean they have to be my sales, right?”

Kim was livid, but she understood where Vivian was coming from. And besides, she didn’t want to be too pushy- if she tried to **** the issue, then she’d start to feel pretty sleazy. It was one thing to be proactive about making a good sale, and a completely separate issue to be an overbearing sales-chaser like that.

So she decided to bear with it.

Vivian wasn’t the only one in that situation. Dani gave it a pass as well, which Kim expected, given that they shared the Fashion Suite. Dani could have her pick of the clothes in there. It was lucky the tomboy would even be coming to the party in the first place- she didn’t exactly give a rat’s ass about being classy and fancy, she preferred sweats. No chance would she spend money on a dress.

Not for herself, anyway.

“This should work fine,” Carly mused, checking out her appearance in the host costume. It was a fancy suit. While she might have preferred an evening gown of some kind, she definitely could make this work well.

Besides… Dani was clearly enamored with it.

Still, that didn’t mean Carly and Dani were immune. There was someone else who might need a dress, after all.

“What? You… you want to buy a dress for me?” Marley asked, stunned.

“That’s right,” Dani said bluntly.

“Come on, Dani, you don’t have to do that!” Carly shook her head. “I’m fine paying, sis. I can cover it, no sweat.”

“It’s really not a big deal!” Marley didn’t care much about dressing up anyway. Maybe it was a holdover from when her preferred choice of outfit was going buck-naked and dripping with slime. “Besides, I won the last party prize, remember? It’s no sweat if I half-ass this one.”

“But Nick’s going to want to see you in a pretty dress,” Dani said gently. “You know that.”

Marley blushed a little and glanced at her sister.

“Hey, don’t look at me!” Carly smirked, shaking her head. “I think it’s cute! …But Marley’s right on one thing, Dani. I can cover it.”

“I’m not buying a dress anyway.” Dani was adamant. “Besides. I’ve got a ton of BP and nothing to spend it on. I’m not taking any ‘dream dates’ with Nick anytime soon, after all! And you’re saving up for that camera, right?”

She smiled bashfully at Carly. “Let me cover it this time, okay? I can even cover the entrance fee if you want.”

Carly shook her head. “That’s going a little too far,” she replied. She wasn’t going to let Dani pay 2000 BP on one night, not when Carly herself could spend that much and still have more in her pocket than her girlfriend. “But… if you want to buy her dress, that’s okay. As a gift.”

Marley blushed, but didn’t object. Dani was happy to take that deal.

“I won’t be needing a dress either,” Amelia said bluntly, adjusting her glasses. “My wardrobe can accommodate the dress code perfectly adequately.”

“Come on, Teach,” Vivian scoffed, rolling her eyes. “This isn’t some stuffy parent-teacher conference, it’s a party!”

Amelia glared sharply at her rebellious student. “What I choose to wear to an event is none of your concern, Carrington,” she snapped.

Vivian could have kept instigating, but she chose to back off. Kim was a little disappointed in not getting a sale from Amelia either, but on the positive side, everybody else looked like they were eager to buy the dresses.

In the end, she made quite a tidy sum.

Dakota whistled approvingly as she went over the books. “Let’s see… so not only did you manage to sell eight dresses, but at 500 BP a pop… And you get to keep all the proceeds? My, my, my, Kim, it seems you really are quite the entrepreneur, aren’t you?”

Kim beamed with pride. And this was just after one day of using her upgraded transformation. She had no idea if this momentum would continue or not, but she was definitely riding a high right now, that was for sure.

She had made back her 1000 BP investment and then some, and could already afford another trip to Dream Alley if she wanted to. Not bad for one day’s work.

Gina: 8400 BP – 500 BP = 7900 BP

Dawn: 2500 BP – 500 BP = 2000 BP

Dani: 5200 BP – 500 BP = 4700 BP

Rose: 10000 BP – 500 BP = 9500 BP

Morgana: 4300 BP – 500 BP = 3800 BP

Sylvia: 2900 BP – 500 BP = 2400 BP

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin: 4700 BP – 500 BP = 4200 BP

Ella: 4200 BP – 500 BP = 3700 BP

Kim: 2100 BP + 4000 BP = 6100 BP

Seeing all the numbers shift so rapidly like that gave Kim pause. She carefully considered her situation and looked over the numbers.

“It’s nice to get all this BP… but there’s really a discrepancy here, huh?”

Dakota blinked, and stared blankly at Kim. “Oh? What do you mean?” She asked, not sure what the other girl was getting at.

“I mean… it’s like what you said, for Dawn,” Kim sighed. “She’s got such a small amount of BP- she has the lowest out of everybody, right? But she still spent 500 BP anyway, when the smart move would have been to go do a photoshoot.”

Dakota shrugged. “Our cute little cat girl is feeling rather lazy these days, it would seem,” she said, knowing exactly why that was of course. “Perhaps she couldn’t be bothered to go to all that trouble, and just decided to take the easy way out.”

That didn’t make Kim feel any better. Especially not when she looked at the amused sneer on Dakota’s face. No, there was something that the host wasn’t telling her, like she was laughing at her own private little joke.

Kim scowled.

Dakota shrugged. “Dawn and Sylvia simply aren’t that popular it would seem,” she bluntly replied. “Or else they would rank higher in the polls. It can’t be helped.”

And it certainly didn’t help that Dawn had spent most of the round lazing in bed, rather than collecting bounties like the other girls.

“Well, they’re also going to be paying the entrance fee, too,” Kim sighed. “Hopefully they’ll be willing to scrounge up the money.”

Being one of the high-earners for a change was giving Kim a guilty conscience. Had she become one of the exploiters, taking advantage of the wealth disparity and exploiting the poor people to fill her own pockets?

…Well, maybe. But it was all monopoly money anyhow, even if it could be exchanged for goods and services.

“You know, you could give them an opportunity to earn more BP, so they wouldn’t be sweating as much,” Kim pointed out. Even with her newfound sense of responsibility, she hadn’t forgotten who was the culprit behind all this. BP distribution, prices, all of these things were set arbitrarily by the host herself.

If anyone was guilty of exploiting the desperation of the girls, it was her!

Dakota studied Kim closely and stroked her chin.

“That’s an interesting perspective, Kim,” she mused thoughtfully. “Perhaps I should take it to heart…”

“Huh?” Had Kim inadvertently said all that stuff about Dakota exploiting the BP system out loud?

“…Maybe I should provide a last-minute opportunity,” she considered. “After all, we want this party to be a success, don’t we? And it simply wouldn’t do if someone chose not to come because they wanted to be careful with their money.”

Kim was pretty sure Sylvia was in for the party no matter what. But she kept her mouth shut. As far as she was concerned, Dakota giving away money to the other contestants could only be a good thing.

Not that she thought the wicked woman would do so without some strings attached.

“…It was a pleasure talking to you, Kim!” Dakota tapped her cane on the floor. “You’ve given me a lot to think about!”

And with that she was gone, leaving a chill in the air in her wake. A shiver ran down Kim’s spine, and she wondered if maybe she’d made a big mistake.

Sylvia was thrumming with excitement! She and Gina had just finished their final consultation with Amelia about the party plans. And she was so proud of the punk girl for taking the reins and handling so much of it on her own! When Sylvia had first brought her to the island, Gina looked like she had trouble scrounging up enough responsibility to brush her teeth before going to bed. Now, she was handling party planning! Talk about moving up in the world!

Sylvia may not have been the host anymore, but she still felt like she deserved the credit for a good chunk of Gina’s growth.

…Gina deserved some too, sure. But it was mostly thanks to Sylvia. She’d brought the punk girl here, after all!

It was that kind of consequentialist thinking that spurred Dani’s desire to sock her in the mouth sometimes, but Sylvia couldn’t quite comprehend that yet.

Besides, who cares whether or not it was morally correct to bring Gina to the island? They had a party in just a couple hours! Sylvia headed back to her room, eager to try on her dress before going to get some lunch.

“Psst. Sylvia. Over here.”

Sylvia blinked. She looked around the lounge. Huh?

“Psst!”

Sylvia turned and saw a very conspicuous figure standing in the corner of the lounge, trying very hard not to look conspicuous.

It took her a while to process what she was looking at.

“…Nola?” She squinted.

“Who’s that?” The strange figure asked, their voice muffled through the combination of their mask and the high collar of their coat. “Call me… oh, actually, yeah, that’s perfect. Call me Deep Throat.”

Sylvia rolled her eyes.

“Deep Throat” looked around warily, like they were being watched. Then they beckoned for Sylvia to come over.

“What do you want?” Sylvia sighed in exasperation. “If this is about the party-”

“Follow the money.”

“Huh?”

“The money. Follow the money. I’ll keep you in the right direction if I can, but that’s all. Just… follow the money.” And with that, “Deep Throat” slunk back into the shadows.

…Which was a fancy way of saying they ducked behind the couch.

Sylvia stared blankly at masked stranger, who poked their head out from behind the cushions and stared back at her through opaque sunglasses.

“Follow the money,” they said again, pointing.

Sylvia looked down and saw a slip of paper on the floor. She picked it up and turned it over. It was an old euro bill, but with Nola’s face plastered over it, and embossed with little four-leaf clovers.

There was a whole trail of them in a neat little row leading to the Bounty Board. Where there just so happened to be a fresh, new bounty posted.

“Uh…” Sylvia turned back to her anonymous informant, but “Deep Throat” had vanished.

…Behind the coffee table this time.

“I’m taking a great risk meeting you here…” they said mysteriously, crawling away.

“…Right, uh… thanks, ‘Deep Throat’!” Sylvia called to her mysterious benefactor, and went to go check the Bounty Board. She reached to pluck off the flyer out of reflex, but remembered to read it first instead.

LIMITED-TIME BOUNTY: CLEAN THE HOTEL SUITES BEFORE THE PARTY

*SPECIAL NOTE: BOUNTY MUST BE CLAIMED BY TWO PEOPLE (HARD WORKERS ONLY)

REWARD: 1000 BP + Knowledge

“Ooh, fancy!” Sylvia’s eyes shimmered with excitement. Dakota had released a special bounty that was only eligible for a few hours! And thanks to her “informant” she’d gotten the inside scoop!

Sylvia was about to claim it, but she was curious. Why open the bounty to two people? And that line about hard workers…

“Oh! That’s just perfect!” She chirped, snagging the paper before anybody else could come in. “She’ll just love this, I know it!”

“Huh?” Dawn looked blankly at Sylvia, not sure she’d heard that right. She’d ducked into the Banquet Hall for a quick bite to eat, only to be ambushed by the redhead.

“It’s a bounty, Dawn! Just for the two of us!” Sylvia said, showing Dawn the paper.

Dawn read it over and raised her eyebrow inquisitively. “Well… that would certainly seem to be a bounty,” she confirmed. “But at this timing? The party is only going to be in a few more hours, you know.”

“That’s the beauty of it!” Sylvia nodded. “We can bang this out no problem! Rose and Ella clean the Master’s Suite every night now, right? And Holly’s been doing it for weeks! How hard could it be?”

Dawn still smelled something fishy about this, and not just because she was a cat girl. “Are you sure? This talk about a random suite… it seems like a set-up.”

“Right, but look at the reward!” Sylvia blew right past the other girl’s suspicions. “Knowledge? You love that stuff, right?”

Dawn didn’t dignify that with a respone.

“I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. She hadn’t tried her hand at a bounty yet, after all. And starting off with such a shady one? Sylvia might be a gullible moron who fell for everybody’s tricks, but she liked to think she was a little better than that.

Then again… I’m a bit short on BP, huh? Dawn hadn’t had many chances to get BP this round, and she wasn’t placing very highly in the popularity polls. If the swimsuit contest had been any indication, she wouldn’t this round, either. This could be her chance.

Plus…

The whole reason I don’t have any BP in the first place was because of that stupid room! Sapping away my motivation, making me not even bother taking any bounties… rrgh! Dakota, if this is one of your schemes, I swear-!

Normally she made her choices out of logic, but this time she was feeling rather emotional. All she wanted right now was to get through this round and haul her ass to a different room to sleep in. Then she would never set foot in the Luxury Suite again.

“So they don’t think I’m a hard worker, huh?” She muttered, crumpling the edges of the paper in her grasp. “Well, we’ll show them, won’t we?”

She looked up at Sylvia, who nodded excitedly in agreement.

“Oh yeah!” Sylvia nodded. “We’ll show ‘em big time! Let’s go, Dawn! Time to go do some cleaning!” She’d actually enjoyed Amelia showing her how to do her laundry this morning. Well, minus the laundry parts.

How hard could it be to clean up a room or two? The girls could handle that.

“Well, it seems you two are eager and ready to work,” Dakota mused, popping up in front of them as they entered the lounge.

“I knew it. This was your doing, huh? I thought the timing was too convenient.” Dawn eyed the other woman suspiciously.

Dakota laughed.

“Of course it was. Kim expressed some concern that there was such a discrepancy between some of the BP scores, so I figured I’d lend a hand, and give a few contestants a shot at earning a quick buck before the party, that’s all!” Dakota smiled cheerfully.

Dawn rolled her eyes. They’d lose half their reward to the entrance fee anyway! And they’d already spent the other half on dresses.

Not exactly digging themselves out of a pit, huh?

“The task is very simple,” Dakota said. “Clean the suites! You may start with whichever you like, but you have to work together to clean it. For each of the suites you clean, you’ll get 1000 BP. However many suites you can get to before the party begins, you’ll amass that much BP. But only if you clean the entire room! If you’re halfway done by the buzzer, sorry, that one doesn’t count. Even if you just have scrubbing the toilet left!”

She laughed at her private little joke.

Dawn’s ears perked up. “Oh. So it’s not just a flat 1000 BP for the work?”

“That’s so generous!” Sylvia smiled. “Thank you so much, Dakota!” She was just happy that Dakota had gone out of her way to do something nice for her. Even if it was on Kim’s advice.

Dakota herself looked a little uncomfortable being the target of Sylvia’s praise and affection. Fortunately, she didn’t have to deal with those feelings long, because Dawn leapt in with another question.

“What about the knowledge part of the reward?” She asked suspiciously.

Dakota was happy to tell her. “That’s the best part. Remember what I said the other day, about how each room had a special characteristic? Well, you girls don’t know all of them yet. So for each suite you clean, I’ll tell you the special characteristic of that room as part of your reward! …Provided you haven’t discovered it for yourself by the end,” she added with a giggle.

Dawn’s brain was already racing. That changed the math considerably. They’d been working under the assumption that they could start with whichever room they wanted, and she’d been planning to choose the Luxury Suite, since she was a neat person by nature so it would only be half the mess to clean up.

But with that little detail, it would be smarter to prioritize the rooms they knew little about. Knowledge was power, after all, and if she wanted a new suite next round, she’d need to be prepared, and know what she could expect from it.

Her tail started flicking behind her in excitement. This bounty was worth quite a bit indeed!

“You’ve got yourself a deal,” she said, and Sylvia nodded eagerly as well.