CHAPTER FIFTY SIX

  Richard glared daggers at the insolent system message.

  +-|—[Baby Ascender (VII)]—|-+

  +25,000 [Legendary] Blank Lottery Tickets!

  +150,000 Free Points!

  Glared, jammed his mental thumb into the stupid accept button, for what had to have been the umpteenth time, and waited. Drum roll please…! To no one’s surprise, like all those times that came before, nothing much seemed to happen.

  “Seriously what gives?! Did I break something? This is highway robbery! Where are my tickets?!”

  As if in response to his plea for justice to be upheld, a second notification expanded to overlap the first.

  ***ATTENTION***

  A system affiliated administrator wishes to meet with you about an unexpected complication involving your recent title acquisitions.

  Due to the unique nature of the request, it is fully within your power to refuse this offer, and instead continue on as you have been.

  Should you choose to do so, any and all attempts to freeze, stall, or otherwise prevent you from accessing the rewards you are contractually entitled to shall be halted, henceforth and in perpetuity.

  Do you wish to meet with the administrator?

  YES/NO

  Richard blinked.

  Huh… of all things… I didn’t expect to be meeting with the administrators so soon. Of course the first thought that comes to mind is that I’m in deep shirt, but the wording of it implies quite the opposite.

  A wicked smile began to creep onto Richard’s face.

  As a matter of fact, the way this reads… it’s almost as if I’m being asked to the negotiation table. And not from a position of disadvantage either. No, far from it.

  A full throated cackle on the edge of his lips, Richard opened his mouth to say yes, when he thought better of it.

  “Am I allowed to request a system arbiter to ensure this administrator deals in good faith?”

  There were a few seconds of silence, a spinning wheel communicating that the system was thinking or recalibrating or what have you, before a new line of text appeared.

  This request is acceptable.

  Do you wish to meet with the administrator?

  YES/NO

  Richard grinned, fought the urge to laugh maniacally, and promptly selected yes. In the next moment, there was a flash, a sudden lurch of vertigo, and abruptly, he found himself somewhere else entirely.

  +++

  Richard found himself sitting in a nicely upholstered chair. A pleasant upgrade to the comparably hard ground. Relaxing into its padded embrace, he took a few seconds to blink the stars from his eyes, then subsequently wait for the world to stop spinning, before he finally took a good long look at his surroundings. Once his vision had cleared, his eyes immediately focused on the barrels of two military grade, anti-armor, direct energy rifles hovering just a scant few inches from his nose.

  Richard looked past the two barrels, and the hulking reptilian soldier types holding them, to a Ra’ak Neerian man sitting at a desk far too simple for the luxurious office space surrounding it. Floor to ceiling windows giving a breathtaking view of the city skyline beyond. Bookshelves lined with evenly sized tomes, that looked more decorative than functional. Precious vases sat on pedestals, while landscape paintings adorned the walls. All very tasteful stuff, and evidently expensive, which, obviously, begged the question…

  “Is that the move? Because if so, honestly, I can’t say I agree. I mean, do you really want to go and get blood and brains all over this wonderful décor? Seems like an awful waste, if you ask me.”

  The tall, lean, what some might even have called skeletal Ra’ak Neerian male sat before the less than imposing folding table—having collected himself following the initial shock Richard tended to have on people—and immediately found himself at a loss for words once more. Mouth hanging slightly ajar.

  “You know, you’re liable to catch flies, with your mouth hanging open like that.”

  The apparent administrator snapped his mouth shut with an audible clack! The male glared. Richard, meanwhile, continued to meet his gaze with a shirt eating grin. Out of his periphery, he saw the two brutes in combat armor share a bewildered look. Evidently, this was not how this particular social call was supposed to go. They continued to stare at one another for a while, Richard unwilling to be the first to break the silence.

  Hey, you’re the one who invited me, remember?

  Eventually, the administrator’s practicality won over his irritation.

  “Listen here… uh, human child-”

  “I’m listening,” Richard cut in, cupping his head in his hands—a fairly remarkable feat, he thought, considering the head to hands ratio he was currently dealing with.

  The administrator scowled briefly at the interruption, before continuing.

  “This is how things are going to work. Cooperate, and you have my word as a system affiliated administrator that no harm will befall you or the ones you love,” he contorted his face into a suggestive leer, really trying to nail the point home.

  Richard merely nodded.

  “Sounds reasonable enough so far.”

  The Ra’ak Neerian’s brow furrowed at his tone, before, with a shake of the head, he continued.

  “You will hereby renounce all claim you hold to the fortune of company assets you somehow tricked the system into offering you, after which you will be free to-”

  “And why on earth would I go and do that?” Richard cut in once more.

  The skeletal boss man froze, spluttered, looked from the rifle toting army men waving their guns in his face, to the small baby in the very comfy chair, and back to the gunmen again.

  “Y-you’re joking.”

  “Hmm?” Richard blinked. Eyes flicking to the twin barrels as if he were seeing them for the first time. “Oh! You know? I didn’t even see those! Must be that magnificent desk you have there. It really does catch the eye.”

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  A vein in the reptilian man’s neck bulged. He made a sharp gesture to one of his goons. With great pleasure, as evidenced by the flash of razor sharp teeth, the reptile man turned the stock of the rifle around, and brought it down hard onto the side of Richard’s skull.

  Or at least he tried to.

  An invisible force slammed him face first onto the stone tiles, instead. Hard enough to send cracks racing away from the impact. Where he was then pinned, helpless to move even an inch despite struggling to do so.

  “You should tell that one to stop straining. He’ll give himself an aneurism at this rate.”

  The other goon, eyes gone wide, took a couple wary steps back—bumping into the flimsy folding table and nearly knocking it over—evidently under the impression that the fate of his fellow was his doing. Alas, it couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

  Infraction Detected: [Infringement on the Code of Civil Conduct.]

  A Commensurate Fine Has Been Issued to the Violator.

  50,000 Free Attribute Points Added to the Tally Owed the Offended Party.

  The voice was very audible to all four of them, and entirely too familiar for three. The smallest iota of the system’s vast attention centered on their quaint little meeting room. The System arbitration he’d requested coming in handy with the assist.

  Richard whistled. Starting to realize just what exactly was going on here.

  “Fifty K?! Now, granted, I’m not an expert on multiversal economy, but fifty thousand attribute points, on top of that ‘tally’ I’m already owed, well, if that doesn’t break the bank, really I don’t know what does.”

  The look of icy hatred the administrator shot his way might’ve chilled him to the core, if he didn’t effectively have total system immunity. Richard grinned.

  “What… are you…?”

  “Is that really important? Actually, as a matter of fact, why don’t we get this ball rolling? System, in terms of equivalent exchange, how much would it cost for me to insist that every one here sign an ironclad, system binding non-disclosure agreement, which states that nothing said, seen, or heard in this room can be shared under any circumstance?”

  The system wasn’t long in responding.

  Such a request would cost 50,000 free attribute points, or the equivalent of one and a quarter legendary grade assets.

  Richard tsk’ed.

  Seems a bit steep. Still, it’s not as if I have much choice.

  “Fine, I want that,” the system quickly drew up a contract which each person in the room was then compelled to sign, the administrators disbelief palpable, even as his arm signed his name on the dotted line.

  “Oh! And, system, just for the sake of convenience, could you please convert the valuation of all of the blank tickets I’m owed into free attribute points? Purely so that I have a better idea of what I’m working with.”

  Certainly. Calculating the worth of randomized system assets in accordance with the most current market valuation.

  Please hold…

  Calculations complete.

  Estimated valuation of all known assets is roughly: 1,390,253,500 Free Attribute Points.

  No matter how calm his overall expression, with his over one hundred twenty points in strength, Richard saw the moment the administrator’s eye twitched. It was just so absurd, Richard simply couldn’t help himself. He laughed.

  No wonder they’d called him here so urgently. Apparently, someone, somewhere, had royallymessed up.

  +++

  Borak stared across his desk at the baby- no, the demon—cackling madly even as his entire world fell down around him. A valuation of over one billion…?! Even before he’d invested a good portion of the company treasury in hopes of diversifying their portfolio, they hadn’t owned a quarter of that sum. He didn’t know who they were, or how he’d find them, but whatever intern implemented the incentivized rewards algorithm would hang just as surely as he would.

  He might be doomed to go down with the ship, but that didn’t mean he’d be going down alone.

  That much, oh… that much he swore.

  It was a commitment he was fully prepared to stick to. Right up until the little bobble headed devil spoke those four magic words, and suddenly, it was as if a ray of hope had speared through the dreary clouds of his ruined career.

  “Right then. All jokes aside, I’d say we have a lot to talk about, you and I. What do you say. Wanna make a deal?”

  +++

  Of course the very first thing he asked for was what the equivalent exchange would be for a Medal of Distinction, one of the few ways he knew of to increase one’s peerage. Unfortunately, he neither had the free points to purchase such an item, nor did the Consortium treasury currently have an extra one just lying around. A bit of a bummer, but then, it’d been a long shot anyway.

  Next, he contemplated simply flipping the bird to the scaly skeleton, kicking over his flimsy table and making his grand escape. Financially crippling the consortium sounded pretty darn appealing right about now. But then, making an enemy out of the entire Consortium without the backing of at least a few gods would’ve been the height of idiocy. Even now, he was placing himself in significant danger, bargaining with such absurd amounts of currency. Still, that wasn’t to say it couldn’t be done, merely that he’d have to tread carefully.

  He thought his next ask was a bit more reasonable. Quickly listing off a number of ability cubes he’d need in the creation of his dream ability later down the line. Apparently not, as it so happened. It would seem that, in the greater universe, ability cubes were far rarer than he’d ever imagined, and sold for an exorbitant premium. Of course, he’d been told before that it was hard for newly integrated denizens to gauge the worth of things, compared to born residents of the multiverse, but he’d never truly understood until now.

  “How much for a rare ranked ability?!”

  30,000 Free Attribute Points.

  “But- that’s nearly as much as a legendary ranked item!”

  Clearly fed up with his show of ignorance, this time it was the administrator who spoke up.

  “The general consensus being that items, weapons, and equipment can be stolen, while things such as abilities, classes, and skills remain with you until the day you die.”

  Richard frowned. Okay, well that made a little since. But still…

  “Why on earth is all of it so rare?! I mean, surely you’ve had centuries to research the drop requirements right. You should be producing ability cubes hand over fist!”

  The Ra’ak Neerian sneered openly.

  “Figures. Only a newly initiated denizen could ever say something like that aloud without an ounce of sarcasm.”

  Richard frowned. What was this guy going on about?

  “Classes, abilities, even attribute points to an extent. Only those of you from freshly integrated worlds are so blessed as to treat these things so flippantly. Granted unimaginable riches by the system with little to no effort expended on your part. Disgusting. Meanwhile the rest of us are forced to acquire power the old fashioned way. Through arduous work and cold hard currency.”

  Richard blinked, thought about asking for more clarification, to somehow unpack that little bombshell, when his mind locked back onto the task at hand. Time hadn’t stopped just because he’d left the tutorial, after all.

  “Alright so, if you can’t boost my peerage and can’t find me the ability cubes I need, then what good are you?”

  An expression of panic briefly flit across the lizard man’s features.

  “I-it’s not that we can’t do anything for you, it’s merely that you’ve been asking the wrong questions. I can’t give you assets that the company doesn’t have, but I can make life more, let’s say, comfortable for you? Enjoyable? Inside the tutorial, that is.”

  Richard perked up at this. Though perhaps not for the reasons the lizard man suspected.

  “Yes! Accommodations! Servants! While others struggle to find their next meal, you’d be living the life of luxury, being waited on hand and foot. You won’t want for a single thing so long as the tutorial is in session. You require females? I can-”

  “What about information?”

  “P-pardon?”

  “On the next stages of the tutorial. Can you give me information?”

  “I- yes well, it really depends on how confidential-”

  “System is there anything he knows about the next few stages of the tutorial that would be prohibitively expensive for me to exchange for with the debt I’m owed?”

  The system took a second, before replying.

  No. There is not anything Senior Financial Liaison Borak Na’Sheer knows about the upcoming system events that is not well within your indicated price range.

  “Perfect!” Richard began to rub his hands together. “Oh and system, I want to send some letters out to a few friends inside the tutorials. A few personalized ones, and then a mass email to all the members of earth’s surviving population. Does that fall within my price range?”

  It depends entirely on the content, although, barring any confidential information purposefully hidden from tutorial taking participants, the cost of such a request would be negligible.

  “Even better! Now, onto my very first question, and I don’t want to hear anything like how does he know this, or how does he know that. Just precise and coherent answers, got it?”

  Instead of responding, the sneaky lizard man looked up and appealed to the system. The system listed its price, and Richard gladly paid 1000 Free Points for the privilege.

  “Great! Now, give me the exact coordinates of the starting locations for all seven great sin manifestations on the third floor. As much as I loved the part of the Peerage Games where they ran roughshod over the allied nations and massacred millions, I think I’d prefer it if we skipped that part this time around.”

  The administrators eyes bulged, and yet, having given his word to the system, all he could do was answer in as concise a way as possible. Gaze never leaving his, as the enormity of what he’d just signed up for truly began to set in for the first time since their little meeting had been joined.