Keep What You Promised

"In exchange, make sure you keep what you promised."

Ukria said it in earnest.

"Depends on the item. But fine. For now."

"For now? You're not planning to go back on your word later, are you?"

"As if. If you hand me junk that's no better than trash, wouldn't it be stranger if I kept the promise? That's all I mean."

Ukria nodded.

"So you want the best item I have."

"It'll still come cheaper than your life."

"Fine."

Things were going his way. In truth, killing Ukria here would have gained Yujun almost nothing. He could strip whatever she was currently wearing, but that wasn't where her real worth lay. What he wanted were the consumables in her inventory.

"For the record, I don't need equipment."

"...You really are impossible to please."

"Think about what you did to me."

From Ukria's side of it, she had only been thrashing to stay alive. If Yujun hadn't actually been strong, though, he would have been the one who died.

"Wait."

"If you're scheming something strange again, I'll take your head on the spot."

"Quite the threat. Don't worry. I have no interest in fighting you."

"Then you'd better hand them over properly."

"I get it, so stop rushing me."

Paulo never lowered his guard, keeping his sword leveled at Yujun. Yujun didn't bother stopping him.

What Ukria drew from her inventory came to two items.

"That's all? A little disappointing."

"See for yourself. Those two ought to be more than enough."

"Toss them."

"Don't drop them. They're incredibly precious."

Clicking her tongue as if it pained her, Ukria threw the two items one after the other. Yujun snatched them out of the air, triggered Super Concentration, and read their information in a flash.

"What is this? Where did you get it?"

Startled, he asked Ukria before he even had the chance to check the next item.

"I told you. That alone should be enough."

"You don't have more fragments? At twenty percent, there's no guarantee the effect lands even if I eat five of them."

"That's for your luck to decide. It's none of my concern. I clearly gave you a Transcendent-grade item."

"...No. No matter how I look at it, this feels like a scam. This won't do."

He raised his sword.

"Wait! Check the next one too!"

Ukria's face was desperate. Yujun lowered the sword again and inspected the remaining item. The second was a rolled parchment bound with a black rubber cord.

"...Are you kidding me?"

"What? They're good."

"They're both probability items. If my luck's rotten, I get nothing at all."

"That's right."

"Then why are you so confident?"

"Because I gave you the best things I own. Do you think I walk around with Transcendent-grade items by the handful? I've already used two on you alone, and now I'm giving you these on top of that."

"You've got things you made yourself, don't you? Ukria's Spear, or whatever it was called. Give me that. The one with the high level requirement."

"Even I can't easily craft something with an equip restriction past level 500."

"So you were going to palm off something you can make without breaking a sweat? Is that all your life is worth?"

"...I already gave you two Transcendent-grade items. Those two are practically my entire fortune. Show you anything else and you'd definitely be disappointed. And the effects are absurdly good precisely because they come with a probability. You can't get those two anywhere."

"Hmm..."

She wasn't wrong. A probability was attached, and a low one at that—but if it succeeded, the power would be tremendous. That was a value that couldn't be compared to the experience he'd gain from killing Ukria alone.

"For now, let me see the spears. How many do you have?"

"You're nothing but a thug."

"So you're not giving them?"

"Here."

Ukria handed over three. Two of them carried the same effect and the same restriction. The last was a little different.

They looked impressive enough, and yet their attack power still fell short of the Planet Destroyer's Sword. Even with the options stacked on top, that didn't change.

Seeing these really drives home how good my sword is.

A Mythic item good for a single use had attack power like this. He couldn't begin to fathom what the permanently usable Planet Destroyer's Sword was made of.

To think I'd get these again. And straight from the maker herself.

Ukria's Holy Spear was a crafted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠item. Depending on her condition and her luck, the level restriction could change—which was why, back when he was playing War of the Gods, Yujun had obtained one of her spears before.

With the Planet Destroyer's Sword, I might be better off lending these out. Or just giving them away.

Even so, Ukria's Holy Spear was a fine item.

"Are we done? I can go now, right?"

"Hold on. Wait here."

"Why?"

"I need to be ready in case the probability fails."

"That's none of my—"

"No. My luck happens to be extremely good. Both of them failing doesn't make any sense. One is fine. But if both items vanish and neither effect takes... I'll assume you tampered with them."

"What kind of nonsense is that? I really didn't do anything."

Ukria protested as if she'd been wronged.

"The results will tell us soon enough."

"No, I really didn't do anything! Probability has nothing to do with me!"

Yujun ignored her plea and opened his inventory. An infinite space, packed with every kind of item. Ukria might own plenty of rarities, but she was no match for him. Owning two Transcendent-grade consumables was astonishing even with probabilities attached to them—and still, in sheer variety, she couldn't beat Yujun.

He drew out a stone that shimmered in shifting colors.

It was an item released a week before War of the Gods shut its servers down. True to a predatory game, it had been a cash-shop item, and the price ran to a staggering thirty dollars. On top of that, it was a limited edition with a fixed sales window. Yujun, of course, had no immediate use for it—and still, the moment he saw the words limited edition, his eyes went wild and he bought them in bulk.

And a week later, the servers closed...

Even so, he couldn't call it a total loss. They were still sitting in his inventory like this. More precisely, in No-Pay Casual Gamer's inventory. Either way, the Probability Enhancement Stone was perfectly suited to the moment. Best of all, he had so much stock that there was no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠need to be stingy, and that was an enormous advantage.

Seeing the real thing, it's honestly gorgeous.

Back then it had been expensive and useless on the spot, and everyone around him had told him not to buy it. But who could have broken that stubbornness? Where spending money was concerned, Yujun had truly behaved like a madman.

Not thinking twice and dumping cash like crazy really did pay off.

He remembered Ner—a goddess—offering him her thanks. A god, expressing gratitude to a mere human! Looking back on everything he'd done, though, it made sense. The money he had spent was genuinely terrifying.

I was too scared to even check how much I'd burned through.

He had made a fortune in Bitcoin, and still he'd been no different from a thoughtless child. He hadn't spared a thought for the future, pouring more than a million dollars into a dead game. War of the Gods had unusually expensive items, and it was easy to get at them—and that was exactly why Yujun had thrown himself even harder into spending. It let him stand far apart from everyone else.

He shot Ukria a sidelong glance. She didn't seem to recognize the Probability Enhancement Stone.

A cash item. So she can't get one now?

Pleased with himself, Yujun pressed the stone to the Dragon Heart Fragment. It seeped into the fragment and, at some point, vanished. When he checked the item again, the option had changed. The original twenty percent had become forty.

Forty percent was still an unbearably uneasy number. Even so, Yujun decided to trust his luck. Manuela's blessing was still in effect, so his fortune right now was as high as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it could be. Failure wasn't impossible—but his luck had never once disappointed him.

Here goes.

Without hesitating, he consumed the Dragon Heart Fragment first, the one with the lower odds. The fragment slid down his throat in an instant. It was clearly a sharp thing, yet the moment it entered his mouth it melted gently away and disappeared. A system window appeared before his eyes.

It was the message he had been waiting for. The holographic text didn't stop there.

A warning. Yujun's expression twisted. Just as the system had said, a shock slammed into the area around his heart.

Don't tell me... a side effect?

Anxiety swept through his whole body, but he had no room to dwell on it. The pain seemed to take him over. To keep from blacking out, he drew on the Equanimity trait as hard as he could. The pain showed no sign of fading.

It was the same when I got the dragon blood. Why does everything to do with dragons have to be like this?

He clenched his teeth and endured. He was not safe right now. And sure enough—Paulo, realizing Yujun was in pain, launched a surprise attack. He drove his sword into the chest of the man writhing before him.

Clang!

Of course, Paulo's sword couldn't pierce Yujun's solid armor. The blade bounced off in vain. It had clearly been an attack charged with every bit of magic Paulo could muster, and yet, far from landing, it hadn't even scratched the armor.

"...I'm screwed."

Paulo muttered it, his face blank with shock.