The Shadows on the first floor were indeed paupers. Even when charmed and completely obedient to Kisugi Ai, emptying their pockets only yielded one or two thousand yen and some Soul Stones imbued with weak magic power.
According to the Mysterious Person, although these Soul Stones could be used to recover some magic power, the efficiency was really not great.
Moreover, manipulating a Persona consumed mental power. These things could only be used as low-level rations for the Persona. Maybe feeding it more could improve the Persona's attributes?
Besides money and these useless scraps, their other harvest was hearing a bunch of equally meaningless gossip from these charmed wandering Shadows.
For example, who hid private money, or who didn't flush the toilet.
Shadows on the first floor could only access these things.
"Although I was mentally prepared, it still feels weird watching these guys willingly take money out of their pockets. And these Shadows actually care about this gossip. The Metaverse and Shadows are indeed quite wondrous powers," Shinomiya Kaguya complained, while also carefully checking the extorted coins.
Confirming they were real money, many girls in the group were worried that if they farmed too much in the Metaverse in the future, it might cause problems in the real economic system.
"There's no need to worry about such things. Even if we obtain hundreds of millions of yen in the Metaverse a day, it won't cause much of a splash in the market. Of course, if you really worry about the source of this money in the future, our Shinomiya Group can also charge some handling fees to help you launder this money." Shinomiya Kaguya replied in the group.
Overall, this experience of extorting non-human life forms was quite rare. It was precisely because of this action that Ichinose Chizuru, who originally had some unease in her heart, breathed a sigh of relief.
She also went up and tried to fight the Shadow that had already been charmed by Kisugi Ai.
Although these Shadows looked scary, their strength was not as strong as she originally imagined. Even if the other girls didn't take action, if it were her, she seemed barely able to handle a fight.
"After all, this is only the first floor, and our current location is at the entrance of the first floor. The Shadows appearing here can be said to be the shallowest incarnations of desire. For example, it's like when you are not very hungry but smell the aroma of food, and then want to eat a little bit, but just subconsciously think about it in your head for a while and then stop thinking about it. The Shadows near the entrance are almost all such aggregates of desire. Even if we ignore them, they will dissipate automatically after some time. As long as you overcome the fear of their appearance, it is relatively easy to deal with them using Hamon and Breathing Sword Techniques."
Sudou Ayami honestly completed her job as a "guide," speaking the lines given to her by the Mysterious Person.
Although the girls present felt a little subtle listening to Sudou Ayami's description, considering that she was the winner of this reward and hadn't spoken much in the group before—even Shinomiya Kaguya only knew Sudou Ayami's name after entering the Metaverse and hadn't investigated her family situation in advance—they accepted it.
Sudou Ayami then briefly explained the size and situation of this floor: "With awakened Personas or possessing supernatural power, the first floor is relatively safe. But occasionally everyone should be careful. If you attract the attention of too many Shadows at once, it will also be troublesome. The first time I was in the Metaverse, danger appeared because I attracted too many Shadows."
While speaking, Sudou Ayami led everyone towards the save point, also modifying her encounter with the Mysterious Person in the Metaverse in her story.
Along the way, they also encountered many wandering Shadows, but as long as dozens of Shadows didn't attack together, these guys didn't pose much threat to the five-person squad.
When they arrived at the save point, each person received four or five thousand yen and a pile of broken stones, which was quite a distance from the "small goal" mentioned by Shinomiya Kaguya.
This was because Kisugi Ai's Persona's charm ability was too effective on these low-level Shadows. If they did it themselves, the final income would probably shrink by more than half.
"It seems that earning money here is also hard work. It's just that I seem to have played a little too much." Sitting on the bench at the save point, Kisugi Ai's face looked a little tired due to multiple uses of skills.
"After all, a Persona is the power of the mind. Using it too much will naturally make you feel tired. When I changed my parents' hearts yesterday, I was exhausted and slept for more than ten hours to recover. If you really feel uncomfortable, you can use 1 Reading Value to restore your state, but it's not necessary today because we can almost go back now."
"Later, if you want to enter the Metaverse, it is best to form a team of two or more. If you encounter any accidents, you can also contact us via mobile phone in time."
Listening to Sudou Ayami's words, Ichinose Chizuru felt a little strange: "Ayami, don't you plan to team up with us in the future?"
"It's not that, just reminding you. I will basically come to the Metaverse to open up wasteland every night if I have nothing to do. Just don't call me if you want to enter the Metaverse during the day."
People in the group knew that Shinomiya Kaguya was about to transfer to Jujutsu High, where there were almost no classes but full of self-study and missions. She would definitely have a lot of time to explore the Metaverse then.
Sudou Ayami said so, and at the same time reminded the girls again not to try to go to the deeper parts of the Metaverse before being confident.
"As for changing hearts, because you need to first let those who need a change of heart know that you are going to change the desires in their hearts, which is the so-called Calling Card, I think Miss Kisugi, you should be very familiar with this process."
Kisugi Ai nodded.
Their Cat's Eye always sent a Calling Card to the target before stealing things.
Although she didn't know why a phantom thief like Kid did this, they chose to become phantom thieves to investigate the reason for their father's disappearance and to recover the paintings their father lost back then.
The Calling Card, an overly ostentatious method, was to make as many people as possible notice their actions. If someone could realize their purpose, they could also track back along the traces revealed by the other party.
And now, needing to send a Calling Card in advance before changing the hearts of Shadows in the Metaverse actually made her feel at ease.
"However, I don't have any targets needing a change of heart currently. At most, I want to find those who collected my father's paintings and ask if they hid any clues."
Kisugi Ai turned to look at the other girls.
Shiina Mashiro didn't answer. Although she thought about changing Shiina Mahiru's mother's heart, firstly, she felt that this matter should be decided by Shiina Mahiru, and secondly, it wasn't suitable to expose the power of the Metaverse in advance.
But now the latter problem had been solved. With Miyauchi Hikage's help, she successfully grabbed this slot and could make this power public.
Later, she just needed to find an opportunity to explain to Shiina Mahiru, and then wait for Shiina Mahiru's own decision.
Shinomiya Kaguya gently flipped her long hair: "Although the Shinomiya family does have many business competitors, using this method for pure business competition is still too utilitarian, and it also violates the rules of the Inner World. Unless the other party uses supernatural means first, I won't use this power on ordinary people."
"But maybe I will try it on those supernatural beings in the future. It's just that according to Sudou, the Shadows of those supernatural beings should be in the deeper parts of the Metaverse."
To be honest, Shinomiya Kaguya could actually use this power on the Shijo branch family whose ambition was too excessive. After all, according to the manga the Mysterious Person shared with them, the current Shijo family had accumulated a lot of power. They just needed to wait for her father's health problems to tear at the Shinomiya family like beasts.
However, such a thing might have put some pressure on the original Shinomiya Kaguya, but for her who had already stepped into the Inner World and now had the strength of a Grade 1 supernatural being, the future focus of the Shinomiya family was destined to shift from the Outer World to the Inner World.
As the confirmed head of the Inner Shinomiya Family, she just needed to ensure that her brothers who inherited the Outer World Shinomiya Group could live peacefully and carry on the family line. The rebellion of those branch families wouldn't affect her status in the family.
It could even be said that after knowing the talents of Shijo Maki and her twin brother Shijo Mikado, comparing them with the palace intrigue dramas her three brothers were still constantly staging, she really didn't mind letting the Shijo family become her spokesperson in the Outer World.
Therefore, the power of changing hearts was indeed just icing on the cake for her currently. She valued the ability to obtain intelligence in the Metaverse more. If she could know the secrets and weaknesses of those jujutsu sorcerers in Jujutsu High, that would be truly adding wings to a tiger.
"Maybe, I can also secretly investigate Miyauchi Hikage's Shadow?" This was a secret Shinomiya Kaguya didn't say aloud and hid in her heart. It was just that she also knew that even if Miyauchi Hikage really had a Shadow, it was obviously not in a place she could reach now.
In comparison, Ichinose Chizuru had no targets she wanted to change hearts, or rather her current idea was whether she could meet her own Shadow in the Metaverse.
"According to the explanation given to me by the diary, after obtaining a Persona, one's own Shadow will no longer appear in the Metaverse. But you haven't obtained a Persona yet, so your Shadow should indeed exist somewhere in this space."
Sudou Ayami took out her phone and entered Ichinose Chizuru's identity into the APP.
A search icon appeared on the APP on the phone, and an answer was given about ten seconds later.
"It really exists, Ichinose Chizuru's Shadow. And it's on this floor, but it's still very far from our current location, only a general direction."
Looking at Ichinose Chizuru's somewhat eager expression, Sudou Ayami waved her hand: "But let's talk about it next time. After all, we came in a hurry this time, and Kisugi's spirit is almost unable to hold on. Anyway, your Shadow won't suddenly disappear before you awaken your Persona..."
Pausing for a moment, Sudou Ayami remembered that when the Mysterious Person mentioned this point, his tone seemed a bit elusive, and he also gave a vague explanation that "Persona can indeed be awakened in this way."
"But meeting your own Shadow may cause unknown effects on your spirit. Even if your Shadow goes berserk, it's not strange. In short, before you go to see her, it's best to be mentally prepared to fight another self in advance."
To defeat others requires effort and talent, but to defeat oneself requires a contest of will.
Especially since the "self" in the Metaverse was a strengthened version. Sudou Ayami thought of her parents' Shadows going berserk. If it weren't for the help of the Mysterious Person, even if she awakened a Persona in advance, it would probably be difficult to deal with, let alone an ordinary person like Ichinose Chizuru who hadn't awakened a Persona yet.
After reminding them, Sudou Ayami glanced at the time: "It's almost eleven o'clock. I should go back to rest. You guys should go back to rest early too."
She waved her hand, said goodbye to several girls, then clicked the logout option of the APP and left the Metaverse.
She knew that these girls would probably chat about her for a while after she left.
But this kind of thing didn't matter. Anyway, as long as the Mysterious Person didn't expose himself, who would have thought that her reward was a gift from the Mysterious Person?
Moreover, she also needed to sort out her harvest tonight.
"So, could that Shinomiya Kaguya be another spokesperson for the Mysterious Person?" Lying on her bed, Sudou Ayami picked up the glove the Mysterious Person gave her on the desk.
After obtaining a Persona, this glove was not so useful to her. considering that this thing was a consumable, she didn't bring this glove into the Metaverse tonight.
If she remembered correctly, Shinomiya Kaguya seemed to be wearing a string of black hand rope on her hand?
The style was simple. No matter how you looked at it, it didn't look like an ornament that someone with Shinomiya Kaguya's family background would choose.
But if it was a protective charm given to Shinomiya Kaguya by the Mysterious Person, it would be easy to understand.
"But that might also be a supernatural item Shinomiya Kaguya obtained relying on the Shinomiya family's financial resources. After all, she only has a string of hand rope, and I have a glove here," Sudou Ayami gently stroked this unassuming glove with her hand.
With such a comparison, Sudou Ayami felt that regardless of whether the hand rope on Shinomiya Kaguya's hand was a gift from the Mysterious Person, she seemed to be superior.