Chapter 164

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Translator: penny

Chapter: 164

Chapter Title: The Escalating Cost of Stats

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In a world where the organization's top competent executives were solely focused on devouring Japan or building a new one, I tended to be pretty forgiving toward the mistakes of a subordinate who only thought about offering me beautiful women.

Should I say my arm was bending inward on its own?

"What are you all doing? Let that guy go. Fukuda Ren has had plenty of chances to kill me. He's my first subordinate. Everyone makes mistakes in life—how can you push him toward death just for almost killing me? Let him go."

"...Big brother. Sniff... Thank you..."

Fukuda Ren sobbed, choking back tears.

It was the face of someone who had narrowly escaped death.

"Fukuda Ren."

"...Y-yes, Big Brother."

"I'll let this one mistake slide. Make sure it doesn't happen again."

"...Yes, yes. Of course, Big Brother. I won't make another mistake. ...If something like this happens again, I'll die in your place. I promise."

Honestly, if Fukuda Ren hadn't been trying to offer me a pretty woman and messed up like this, I would've killed him on the spot.

But he was trying to present me with a beautiful woman and slipped up? I could overlook that kind of mistake.

I calmed down my men who had rushed in, startled by the gunshots echoing from my bedroom. I needed to compose myself too.

And then..., the woman who had briefly lost consciousness from my punches and kicks slowly woke up and started giggling through her groans.

"Why are you laughing? Soon you'll be begging me to kill you, you wench."

"...You think you'll live just because I failed, you pathetic organization rat? The moment they learn I failed, a missile will rain down on this place. Heh heh heh... You deflected bullets—let's see if you can stop a missile too..."

Hearing her words, I just left Tower Floor 3.

Truth be told, I got scared.

If a missile came flying right now, I'd really die.

I quietly retreated to the relatively safer Tower Floor 4 and Floor 5 to kill time and wait out my skill cooldowns.

Floor 5 was a Hell difficulty world, so it was a bit scary. Mostly, I spent the time on Floor 4, quietly banging the girls locked in the confinement cells until my cooldowns were up.

And I reflected on my arrogance.

'I almost died in a way I never expected. I need to build up my strength. I've been too careless about raising my stats lately.'

I opened the system shop window, deciding to buy stat skills, and started shopping.

"Huh? What's this? Why does Lv.11 cost 1000 points? Shouldn't it be 1100? Are they giving a discount for bulk buying?"

Thinking that, I bought the Stamina stat skill Lv.11, and then I understood why.

"Hm? Am I seeing things? Why is it suddenly 2000 points?"

I blinked my eyes several times and rubbed them, but... the reality in front of me hadn't changed.

"...No way, is the upgrade pattern what I think it is?"

I bought one more Stamina stat upgrade to test.

"Holy shit, fuck. It's exactly what I thought."

Why do my pessimistic guesses always turn out right?

"Hey, system. Why does the purchase price jump like this? It never did this for dick upgrades!"

It was a response that made my head throb and my limbs tremble.

At this rate..., don't tell me stat skills demand 20,000 points at Lv.22?

Isn't the escalation rule way too brutal?

Lv.1, Lv.2, Lv.3: 100, 200, 300...

Lv.11, Lv.12, Lv.13: 1000, 2000, 3000...

Lv.21, Lv.22, Lv.23: 10,000, 20,000, 30,000...

That's roughly the pattern, right?

"Holy shit, fuck..."

I nearly died once, got shocked, tried to raise my stats a bit, and now the stat upgrade prices shocked me again.

"No, fuck. Fine for me, but what about people short on points...? Huh?! ...Oh, right, they probably can't even afford up to here... Hm..."

Just in case, I searched the real-world internet for stat skill point price escalation rules and found quite a few posts discovering the same odd pattern as me.

"Hm, I hoped it was just me being singled out, but no. The point escalation rule is just fucked."

Most other skills go up like 1100 or 11,000 at Lv.11.

Stat skills had a weird pattern.

From the posts, some skills had unique upgrade price rules occasionally.

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"But I'm short on points..."

I had about 15,000 points currently.

To evenly raise five stats excluding Magic Power among Str/Agi/End/Mag/Sta/Int/Insight/Mind? Barely got them to +2 levels.

Because (1000+2000) × 5 = 15,000.

'No, this won't cut it. I need an average of at least Lv.20 to dodge bullets by watching the barrel.'

As more info spread online, rough ability levels by level became public knowledge.