Yujun's Feelings Reach Harp

Yujun's feelings passed straight through to Harp, unaltered.

"Oh yeah! Dad! I can buy even more of the things I want, right?"

"You sure can."

In truth, Peace Contribution was not something one could gather without end. There was a ceiling. Even if you leaned on a lich's undead resurrection to refine contribution without limit, the return was hard to call generous for the time it devoured.

Yujun had gathered his carefully, right up against that limit — and he had never imagined the system would double the whole of it as an achievement reward.

If I'd known it would turn out like this, maybe I should have scraped together a little more Peace Contribution.

The thought did cross his mind.

No. Drag my feet, and those Demon God Worshippers who were already here might have walked into the shop ahead of me.

Coming even a moment sooner had been a mercy. They would enter the event dungeon as well, and however brutal the clear might be, someone among them was bound to come away with the key. Then the achievement reward would have been stolen along with it.

Nothing to regret, then.

He ought to be grateful he had made it at all, even now.

"Yu— Yujun!"

Manuela called out to him, startled.

"You got it too?"

"Yeah! Double! It's double!"

"Nice."

"You too?"

"Yeah."

"You already had a ridiculous amount. If that's doubled..."

Yujun only smiled. Toss the figure out carelessly, and all he would do was leave her feeling robbed.

Manuela pursed her lips.

"Tch. Just tell me a little."

"My lady. I am fully aware. Precisely two hundred—"

Yujun drove a kick into the back of Paranet's knee. Thwack! The blow carried monstrous force, and Paranet's legs folded of their own accord, dropping him to his knees.

"Ack!"

"Quiet."

"Yes!"

"Two million...?"

"I believe I mentioned the figure from before it doubled."

"I overheard it without meaning to, and forgot..."

With that message, an item list appeared. The goods unfurled in a holographic spread, and the sheer quantity was no joke. Was all of this showing because he was a VVIP, or had the Peace Contribution Shop simply been stocked this deep to begin with?

"Looks like we'll be picking through merchandise for a while."

"Yeah. There's so much..."

The party gradually fell quiet, attention swallowed whole by the browsing. Only the summons, Tapagol and Paranet, had nothing to do, and could only stare idly at Yujun.

"You two can't see any of it?"

"No, sir."

"We could usually share the view, though."

"So we could."

"You'll be bored. Want to just head back in?"

"Please do not say such a thing. For us, that would be the duller fate by far."

"That so?"

Paranet soon struck up a lazy chatter with Harp. Yujun had no attention to spare for his summons, or for Harp.

They're selling Transcendent Stones too?

The stock was capped at three, but this was something he had to buy, no question. The catch was the price. A single Transcendent Stone cost a staggering 100,000. With his Peace Contribution hovering near three million, it might not look like much — but a hundred thousand was a serious sum. Most people struggled to gather even tens of thousands, and even that was a story that applied only to the upper ranks. You could accumulate contribution only once you were strong enough to face the undead, and among those who could, plenty would die fighting the undead legion.

Nor did it end there. There was still the matter of clearing the event dungeon and securing the shop key. In short, almost no player ever reached the Peace Contribution Shop. And even if you survived every trial and came away with the key, the Peace Shop sat inside a branch crawling with Demon God Worshippers. It was the sort of arrangement that would make it perfectly reasonable for players to curse the system. What good was stacking contribution if you could never spend it?

Long as it isn't me!

Yujun did not go so far as to pity the others. The Tower of Infinity was a world where the strong took everything, and spending the time one might waste lamenting that on effort in some other direction was far more productive.

Just in case, maybe I should save the Transcendent Stones for later.

He might yet spot something he truly needed and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠find himself unable to afford it. The stones weren't urgent, and they wouldn't vanish if he left them sitting, so there was no reason to snatch them up in a rush.

Filter out every piece of equipment.

A long look told him none of it beat the gear transmitted from No-Pay Casual Gamer. It wasn't a narrow gap, either. The difference was blatant.

The inventory transfer really was an opportunity nothing else could touch.

Call it a privilege handed down by a god, and it was still fair to say the reward was excessive. So his eye went only to the consumables — and every last one of them was good enough that choosing became a genuine torment. One item, though, seized him at a glance.

As ever, anything tied to experience was better the more of it you held. The charm demanded 150,000 contribution. Steeper than a Transcendent Stone, but worth every point — worth more than its price, if anything. After a rough pass over the other consumables, Yujun weighed it a moment longer, then bought the charm.

What remained was 2,770,878. Still a fortune, but he was careful. A drizzle soaks you through all the same, and a few purchases like this could drain the pool to the bottom before he noticed. The items tempting him ran, for the most part, at the charm's price or higher.

The next thing he chose was this.

An item that created a new stat — and not some middling one, either. It was Healing, plain and simple. Thinking of what Touch of Healing could already do, he could not simply walk past it.

The problem was the price. Five hundred thousand contribution. Watching half a million vanish in a single lump honestly stung, but if a Healing stat was worth that much, there was nothing to agonize over. In the end he bought the Pure White Holy Relic as well. His contribution fell to 2,270,878.

He was pouring out everything he had stockpiled, and he had never enjoyed himself more. Why else did people with money get addicted to shopping? Set wealth aside entirely, and shopping was still a pleasure for anyone.

If I could follow my heart, I'd buy every last thing in here.

It rankled that even contribution gathered to this degree only stretched so far.

There's hardly a player alive who could afford a single Transcendent Stone. In my position, I ought to be grateful.

Quite a few items could be had for around a hundred thousand, but ask whether any of them matched a Transcendent Stone in worth, and the answer was no. His heart refused to lean that way. Human greed, after all, had no bottom. Once the relic was his, Yujun bought nothing else for a while, comparing options and sketching out the cost of each.

I really think I have to buy this one... but the price is brutal...

There was an item sold only to VVIP members. It cost 1,500,000 — ten times the Shining Experience Charm, the same as three Pure White Holy Relics. And it was also an item he had no earthly way of leaving behind.

The special stats in question were things like Barbarism, Chaos, and the Healing he was about to obtain. None of them could be raised with unallocated points, which made growing them an exhausting labor.

So one fruit, and they jump fivefold. No — wait. Five hundred percent stacked on top means sixfold.

A percentage, not a flat number. That pleased him even more. Look at the option. There was simply no version of this in which he walked away. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Not magic power. Special stats.

He bought the specialization fruit on the spot. He had already decided what he meant to take, so the hesitation ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was gone. In a single stroke his contribution plunged to 770,000. Three fine items in hand, and still the sight of the number falling in real time left a hollow ache behind his ribs.

Huh? Where did all my contribution go? Life is a trip. Life is a journey...

He nearly let his mind slip, and only just hauled it back. There was still plenty one could do with 770,000.

First, the three Transcendent Stones.

Once those were his as well, 470,878 remained. The last item he had marked wanted exactly 450,000.

Whether it was truly worth the price, he couldn't say. Someone's memories and techniques was a thoroughly vague promise, not least because the description never said whose. Even so, Yujun had a reason for spending 450,000 contribution on the Crystal of Memory. It sat right there in the option: the result would be heavily swayed by luck.

He trusted his luck without reservation — trusted it enough to claim that no one on the Continent surpassed him. And in fact, none did. Had believing in that luck ever cost him? He could say, without a flicker of doubt, that it had not. More than that, once an item wrote the word luck into its own option, it was something he absolutely could not let slip.

With the Crystal of Memory purchased, roughly twenty thousand contribution remained. Set beside what he had walked in with, it was a pittance, but he had no intention of flinging even that into the empty air.

He hadn't bought it for himself. With New-Generation Magic at GX+, he had no use for the thing at all. He had chosen it to give to Manuela. She commanded not only magic, but high-grade magic skills besides, and a gift like this looked as if it would serve her very well.

I can do at least this much. She even gave me an Enchant Stone.

What little contribution remained went into an assortment of odds and ends — potions, elixirs that stirred up one's vigor, things of that sort. Wistful and, in the same breath, deeply satisfied, Yujun closed out the shopping and opened his inventory. Everything he had bought sat there, exactly as purchased. The thought of using them one by one already had his pulse up.

He drew out the Pure White Holy Relic first. A precious Transcendent item, and one that would raise his Healing stat by fifty. He fed magic into it, and the relic — a thing like a glass chalice — began to pour out a brilliant light.

This is it!

That message was the only one he had been waiting for. He had been certain Touch of Healing and the Healing stat were bound together somehow — and just as he had expected, the thing had begun to unfold.