Chapter 331: Points Owed
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
“Justice Points? As a reward for you? You need Justice Points?”
I couldn’t sit on such important information, so I left behind those terrible teammates of mine and rushed straight back to the wood spirits’ campground atop Erebella. However, the astonishment on Samantha’s face after I spoke to her was quite obviously real. Perhaps, in her mind, she had never considered the fact that I, too, would need Justice Points.
“It’s all because of those garbage teammates—they kept attempting to find out how many Justice Points my mission was worth and how many they could receive. If I don’t give them a satisfactory amount, they’ll end up annoying me to death. Also…”
“Also?”
“I really do need Justice Points for myself.”
Indeed, why shouldn’t I earn Justice Points as well? In fact, I truly lacked Justice Points.
I had used a modern-day Earth management system and separated my Justice Point account books into one for personal use and one for official use. Yet at the moment both accounts were quite lacking in Justice Points.
Despite the fact that Thorn Garden was doing great business in the Cloud Tower, the archmages were all hermits with barely any Justice Points. Most of them were still paying me in gold coin. The products we were selling—which could only be bought with Justice Points—were sold to them on a debt system…
What does it mean to sell to them on a debt system? To be direct, it just meant they owed us Justice Points. Archmages at the Legend rank or higher typically had good reputations for not having outstanding debts for too long. As long as I sent them out and made them work for Justice Points, I would achieve my main goal—to stop the Cloud Tower from hiding away as hermits and rallying the archmages to toil for my cause.
Of course, I had confidence in my ability to collect the money I was owed. In this day and age, the debtors would be more vicious than the creditors. It was no joke to say that the person who owed money was the “granddaddy.” Still, if you borrowed a high-interest loan from some underworld power, you would probably want to return the debt as quickly as possible. And in the eyes of masses, I was arguably the most evil power out there in mage society… even though there were quite a few archmages in front of me on the Calamity Rankings! This was discrimination!
Fine then, I admit that I charged a thirty percent interest rate and, against those archmages who never intended to pay me back, that I employed some methods that could never see the light of day—to scare the rest into submission, of course. Wasn’t this just me using my trademark methods to force them to work hard and pay me the Justice Points they owed me? This was my way of expressing my passion towards mages!
Unfortunately, the mages didn’t understand my way of thinking at all; instead, my reputation became even stranger. Anyhow, I did want to exchange for some items to improve my future personal treasury—were there really true saints in the world that had no selfish desires whatsoever?
Perhaps my thirty percent interest rate would bring me great profits in the future, but for now my “official” Justice Points account book was empty save for a bunch of IOU slips, truly deep in the red. My Great Industrial Party also needed a great quantity of precious experimental ingredients and historical secrets and knowledge, so I needed a huge amount of official Justice Points.
As for Justice Points for my personal use—points I could freely spend to improve my power level—I had nil.
Why nothing? Because I hadn’t had the chance to earn any Justice Points. The core Justice Points calculation system had been established only after the Gods’ proclamations. Back then, I was too busy fighting with the undead to get one of those Hero Armlets which could calculate Justice Points. So I didn’t even get a single Justice Point after fighting all of those undead.
After that, I was at the Cloud Tower messing around with this and that, which naturally didn’t have anything to do with obtaining Justice Points, a currency awarded for combat achievements. Yet despite all of this, I was filled with expectation and excitement about the Justice Points exchange list.
I fancied the sword techniques of an immemorial generation’s Sword Saint. There were also research records that belonged to the first-generation undead and immemorial demons available for exchange, and even Ayer’s secret personal undead collection could be chosen. Records on the powers of Order and Holy Light and immemorial Gods were not few, too. All of this knowledge was true, priceless treasure, not to mention they had to do with all my various fields of expertise. What? You’re asking why I didn’t mention any top-level ice magic knowledge? Well, even if I exchanged for some top-level ice magic knowledge, I doubted I would understand it. And if I really needed it, the Frigid Nightmares in the snow mountain and Harloys were excellent teachers to begin with. At the very least, they were more than enough for my current needs.
As for swordsmanship, undead research, and the powers of Order and Law, I was already quite skilled, but finding high-level teachers in this field was no easy task. I was already at quite an elevated level myself, so what I required was top-level knowledge that would help me make new breakthroughs.
“It’s said that Sword Saints from the immemorial generation don’t actually value complex sword techniques. Instead, they preferred to kill their enemies using simple, basic techniques—the basic characteristics of these were that they were coarse, yet powerful. However, it’s a great pity that practically none of their sword techniques have lasted until today. My sword techniques are self-taught for the most part, so perhaps I can greatly benefit from obtaining their sword techniques.”
“The current undead are of three major species: zombies, souls, and skeletons. Yet I’ve heard that every single undead was their own unique species during the immemorial generation. The undead back then were supposedly capable of changing their own physical structures. They had normal physical reactions and needs, just like the living—they even had the power to reproduce. They even had a limitless potential for growth. I’d really like to dissect—I mean, see one for myself.”
“Just how did the God of Holy Light become so powerful to begin with? Where did this Holy Light, with the power of Order to cleanse distortions, originate from? If I could obtain firsthand information on this topic, not only will my power of Law greatly improve, but it’s also highly likely I can use it to my advantage against the Church of Holy Light.”
I’d always had such regrets within me. And even the slightly cheaper items, such as the God Equipment and magical secrets that would motivate even Myth ranks and SemiGods to come work for me, were items that I naturally desired as well. Unfortunately, my wallet was empty, and I could only look.
Why wasn’t I trying to think of some method to cheat and obtain them? Obviously because that’s absolutely impossible! Indeed, since Justice Points were administered by the Ayer faction’s True Gods, I could try using Wumianzhe to give myself some Justice Points. However, the moment I would try to do such a thing, I would probably lose more than anyone else.
Because if I truly did do so, it was highly likely that the God of Law and Contracts, Wumianzhe, would immediately perish!
Similar to how the Goddess of Wealth Beyana would obtain power through people conducting business and obtaining wealth, every exchange of Justice Points would help Wumianzhe obtain more power through his Divine Concept of Contracts. Each and every absolutely fair contract would be equivalent to more faith and believers for him. But, with power came responsibility, and with gains were losses as well.
In this Justice Point system, Wumianzhe was also the Concepts of Justice and Equivalent Exchange. And if Wumianzhe, the representation of Justice, began to secretly take funds for himself, Justice would become nothing more than a joke—it could cause his very Divine Concept to break down. Not only would the Justice Points exchange system break down, Wumianzhe would have to bear all the consequences and would definitely be the first to perish.
Perhaps Wumianzhe who was simply an automated divine entity had no such personal desires, but I, who was connected in soul to Wumianzhe, was definitely selfish. And if my selfish desires were judged to be equal to his selfish desires by the world’s natural laws, all of our effort up until now would be wasted. Perhaps it would even cause several of the True Gods that helped establish the Justice Points system to die together with Wumianzhe.
Maybe I could have done something before the Justice Points exchange system was established, but now, there was no other method apart from earning my Justice Points fair and square. I didn’t even dare to think about cheating, nor did I dare to tread the boundaries like I did in other things. The only person I’d never be able to fool would be myself. If any problems occurred with the Justice Points system, there would be destructive consequences.
And that was how even though I was the one who created Justice Points, in the end, I had to obey my own Justice Points system and think of ways to legitimately earn Justice Points. Not only that, I had to be on guard for any loopholes and deal with anyone who tried to abuse the system, aiding Wumianzhe in becoming even more just as he stayed in the heavens. Only this would help Wumianzhe gain strength and power.
“Ayer, man, why didn’t you give me some bonus Justice Points before you started the system?”
“Heh heh, you didn’t mention anything! How were we supposed to remember? We thought you wanted to work for your living.”
Alright then, it was all my fault. I even considered using my personal System to exchange for the items on the Justice Points exchange list, but anything that was essentially creating something from nothing would be astronomically priced. It would probably be cheaper to just exchange for what I wanted using Justice Points.
“An illusion master Sword Saint’s illusionary sword techniques cost 30,000 Justice Points to exchange for, and it’s only a copy of the original book. But you can make as many copies of this book as you want! This is daylight robbery!”
“…Do you really think you can rob such a book that quickly? Knowledge comes with a price. Besides, Wumianzhe was the one who priced all these items, not me. Why don’t you try discussing it with him?”
Indeed, since books on magical knowledge and combat techniques were easy to copy, their prices were far cheaper than items like God Equipment. However, for truly powerful individuals, these immemorial sword techniques and magic spells lost to time wouldn’t be any weaker than God Equipment.
In order to sell these books for a better price, people who purchased them were required to sign a magical contract that forbade them from distributing what they learned to anybody else. They could, however, pay a surcharge of extra Justice Points and buy the right to teach a couple others. But wait, there’s more! Top-level books had a limited stock; for instance, an illusion sword technique which had the ability to materialize solid illusions could only be purchased ten times before it would run out… Why did I feel like these methods to scam money seemed so familiar?
“Yep, this was Wumianzhe’s idea as well. Using his knowledge and memories, he came to the conclusion that ‘Even if it’s a rock, as long as you call it limited-edition and say ‘first-come first-serve,’ making people feel like they’ll regret missing the opportunity as it won’t be around any longer in the future, it’ll be quite easy to sell something for a high price.'”
As expected, these were the same methods that I learned from those devious, conniving merchants back on Earth. Was this yet another roundabout way of how I shot myself in the foot?
“…Then if you sell all ten of these illusionary sword technique books, you’re really not going to sell them anymore?”
“Of course not. Apart from motivating people to work for our cause through all these tangible benefits, another goal of ours is to increase the overall combat strength of average people in this world. It would conflict with our goal if we stopped selling limited-edition books entirely.”
“Wouldn’t that be going back on our word? That would cause the True Gods to lose a destructive amount of faith and believers!”
“No, we just won’t sell them directly. We can create a ‘Mystery Technique Loot Box’ and charge only 15,000 instead of the usual 30,000 Justice Points to randomly get a top-level sword technique or magic spell. And if they draw a book that they’re unable to personally use, well, thanks for buying… Wait a moment, what’s the matter? Why are you kneeling on the ground and clutching your face?”
“Never tell anyone that this idea came from me! Everyone will want to kill me!”
Apart from first-come first-serve, limited-edition technique books, my incarnation, Wumianzhe, had actually managed to use the idea of random loot boxes, this supremely wicked pitfall that could anger even the Gods. I was already anticipating what would happen when people started learning about the random loot boxes after the first batch of limited-edition technique books were sold out. It was highly likely that whoever came up with this idea would become the entire mortal enemy of humanity. Perhaps it would even cause Wumianzhe to even gain new Divine Concepts of ‘Cheating’ and ‘Making People Suffer.’
Only those who truly tried it would understand the pain, anger, and despair of being sucked dry of blood by all those random loot boxes. All I knew was, “It’s the 17th time already, and all I received was yet another demon’s smiling mask. Is there really the golden Myth-ranked set equipment that I want in here!?” Those anguished wails would be filled with oh so much agony. Only those like me who similarly suffered would understand what it felt like for the truly fortunate to casually draw whatever it was that they wanted from the random loot boxes so easily, which made me so angry that I would want to crash my head into a wall.
“Um… I think that we should add an additional patch to this. If you draw a random book that you don’t like, you can exchange it at no cost for something of equivalent value with someone else who’s also dissatisfied with their draw. Of course, limit this exchange to one time only.”
I did my very best to come up with the above idea in order to not become humanity’s mortal enemy. Allowing a single-time equivalent exchange with another dissatisfied person was quite a rare act of generosity for me. Still, there were far too many techniques and magic spell books available, so even with this exchange, it would be quite difficult for two people to just happen to have books that each other wanted. That was why I was now absolutely determined to purchase the limited-edition books I wanted before they ran out of stock, before this damned random loot box system came online.
“Hey, I discovered that there’s an undead spy in our campground. Doesn’t this count as a contribution? Under the rules of equivalent exchange, shouldn’t this earn me at least 1,000 Justice Points?”
I felt that Samantha would give me an answer I wanted to hear.
“Indeed, this is a great help to us as it will negatively impact the undead. I can reward you with 154 to 210 Justice Points, according to the Hero’s Armlet’s calculations. Even with my authority, I can only award you a maximum of 210 Justice Points.”
“Who came up with this Justice Points calculation system! How terrible! 210 Justice Points? I still have to give half to those garbage teammates of mine, so I’ll only have about 100 from doing all this. How long is it going to take me to get 30,000 Justice Points for the first item I wanted?”
“Every Hero’s Armlet is a divine creation from the Gods. I doubt that anything can be done even if you complain directly to them. Besides, do you still remember your Plan W report? You were the one who wrote ‘Make the cheapest items really cheap, so that lots of people will start participating, especially the youngsters. Meanwhile, make the best items really expensive, and also make it hard to earn Justice Points. This will force all the hermits out there to toil their utmost to earn Justice Points, and it’ll be greatly beneficial for all of us.'”
Harloys was the one who answered my complaint this time. She seemed to be quite dissatisfied with the fact that I didn’t give her a Hero’s Armlet and that I wouldn’t agree to exchange for any of the items that she wanted… She wanted only the best, highest-tier items available—how was I supposed to afford them!?
“Ha, was there such a thing? I already forgot.”
Alright then. I pretended to be a fool as cold sweat dripped down my back. Just how many times had I shot myself in the foot, and that too today? As expected…
“…You’re thinking, ‘As expected, I should consider my future actions carefully; otherwise, I’ll accidentally shoot myself in the foot yet again,’ aren’t you? Relax, I can already see your future. Things will get much better for you…”
“You’re going to remind me to not shoot myself in the foot in the future?”
“No, it would be quite strange if you listened to me as you’d never change how skilled you are at shooting yourself in the foot. What I mean is that you’re going to get used to shooting yourself in the foot to the extent that you won’t even care about it anymore.”
And so, just as I was about to begin fighting my pet cat for the umpteenth time, Samantha interrupted our “friendly communication.”
“Although I can only give you 210 Justice Points, Father, you only need to carry out the next part of the task ‘Find and catch the spy.’ That will reward you with far more Justice Points.”