The significance of Prices
Does the river of all the questions culminate into one sea named Glitch?
No.
Kai asked and answered himself, staring at the words that seemed Chaos' way of ridiculing a Contestant. He had learned when he was small that one word or thing couldn't be the answer to everything. Possibilities lay everywhere, hidden in the tiniest, forgotten, and unimpressive corners, just waiting to be found.
'Chaos,' Kai thought, refocusing his eyes on the words in a fresh perspective. 'You say it's because of my Glitch, but I don't trust you to take your words for granted, fucker!'
Still, it was enough to go on. It was enough to not lose his mind, thinking about why he was the only one who could come here. Turned out that he wasn't the only one. If he could twist the System's words, then didn't it mean whoever had Glitch could come to the White Room as well? Chaos' Valley hadn't seen Glitches for a million years, but surely the Order's Peak had. Here lay his advantage, then.
'I will confirm these words later,' Kai nodded to himself, 'one way or another.'
Finally, after being troubled over this for quite some time, Kai pushed himself forward, putting his mind over other major issues. There were too many questions in his mind. Yet, his thoughts of asking about them to the Chaos while in the Random worlds were few and far between. Now that he could, he didn't have MCs to support them.
He could find out how far they were standing on the ladder of importance, though.
It was Kai's favorite way.
One of the oldest signs of curiosity.
"I have more questions," he began, now relaxing. "What is Cosmic Lore?"
[
…
Price: 100,000 Mission Credits
Do you accept the transfer?
]
'Eh?!' The corner of Kai's lips twitched. 'This must be some joke, right?' He thought incredibly. Or why else the price made little sense to him given that he was just a freshly ascended 4th-floor Contestant, and had yet to imagine the feel of these many Mission Credits.
The notification persisted. Believe it or not, now this is the truth, it seemed to say.
Kai smacked his lips, took a deep breath, and remembered his next question. He had already figured out the purpose of Cosmic Authority Lore, but no harm in getting an official answer.
"No, I don't," he replied, refusing the transfer. "What is the significance of a Cosmic Authority Lore?"
[
…
Price: 300,000 Mission Credits
Do you accept the transfer?
]
'Oi! Oi!' Kai's eyes widened. 'Are you on something?!' The Lore had directly resulted from the new Stat, Cosmic Authority. So it perplexed Kai's mind, thinking how its price could be three times as much.
'Let's move on,' Kai told himself, but a weird premonition had already taken hold of his thoughts.
"How to make the Dementor Progenitor Skill reveal its Stats?" he asked. Kai had already figured out that he needed something to trigger these locked Stats. But how much time would it take to find those things out? Who could say?
[
…
Price: 1,000,000 Mission Credits
Do you accept the transfer?
]
Kai just went quiet. Now he truly believed that Chaos was making the numbers up. 1 million Mission Credits? Kai doubted if he would ever get to see these kinds of numbers in the immediate future unless someone were to come and just hand them over by themselves.
Was there any point in asking about the locked stats of a Legendary graded Item, then? Kai observed. No, there wasn't.
But Kai was a curious lad, so he asked anyway.
"How to make the Eon Soul Dew Item reveal its Stats?"
[
…
Price: 700,000 Mission Credits
Do you accept the transfer?
]
"It went down?!" Kai blurted. He narrowed his eyes, calculating hard to make sense of the baffling phenomenon. One was a Skill, belonging to a D+ graded blood essence, and the other was a Legendary graded Item. Legendary. Didn't the Chaos just say that Names matter?
'There must be a reason,' Kai reflected, pondering hard, the cells of his brain steaming as the gears of imagination and reasoning spun.
'Wait a minute!' His mind cried out, stumbling upon something. 'Is this because the Dementor's blood essence is growth-type?' Yes. This logic seemed reasonable to him. And he just had the question to confirm it.
"How to make the Focus Punch Skill reveal its Stats?"
The Focus Skill had gone back to show a question mark after its use. But Kai had already remembered everything about it. Neither Golduck's blood essence nor the Skill had anything to do with growth remotely. Kai's instinct told him he was right.
And never had those incomprehensible instincts betrayed him before.
[
…
Price: 50,000 Mission Credits
Do you accept the transfer?
]
'Bingo!' Kai grinned, his heart crying in victory. This sum was still beyond Kai's reach, but considering that Focus Punch was a C- graded Skill, it seemed fair.
'300,' Kai remembered the Base Damage. 'That's almost like one-shoting a Contestant with around 25 Stamina if there are no external factors in play. Or so what Item-M told me.'
With this, Kai had only one question remaining. It was the one he was saving for the last.
"What does Outer One mean?"
A brief silence lingered, and Kai couldn't help but furrowed his brows, realizing that Chaos had scarcely taken so much time before putting a price on the question. Was it because of the price or the question? He didn't know.
The notification appeared, but slowly.
[
…
Analyzation Complete
Price: 1,000,000,000 Mission Credits
Do you accept the transfer?
]
"…?!"
What surprised Kai the most was that he remembered asking Chaos about a Contestant's info after the completion of his Initiation Mission. The System had bluntly told him he couldn't afford such requests. Yet, here was Chaos, giving him a sum of 1 billion Mission Credits, like he could afford it.
"You know," Kai chuckled, "you didn't even put a price on a Contestant's information when I inquired about it. And yet, there are a bunch of Old Ones in the Primordial Tower, who just can't seem to shut up, giving random details about Contestants to others for dumb sacrifices. I just can't believe the sheer hypocrisy of this all."
Another stony-gray flashed, popping up instantly as if Kai's words had angered it.
[
One can't compare what THEY do and don't to words that apply to insignificant mortals.
No one. No one is outside the purview of rules set by the Systems.
To even think you can surmise THEIR reasoning and actions beckon ridicule.
You overestimate yourself, Contestant Kai Stormborn.
]
Kai smiled as he saw the last line. The smile became a grin before blooming into a laugh.
"I am done here," he spat. "Send me to the Primordial Tower."
[
Sending Contestant, Kai Stormborn, to the 4th floor of the Primordial Tower
Constant Vigilance!
]
'Huh?!' Kai had only looked at the last two words when it all blurred and darkness claimed his senses.
The words lingered in the Absolute Whiteness for some time, even after his teleportation.