Chapter 72 (2/2)
I was not baffled by this situation. The phenomenon experienced by a Hunter, who barely passed 50 percent in his previous life, was just unfolding in front of me.
“I’ll take a while.”
The system message that only I hear had been changed to something abnormal from just a moment ago.
– (##################)!
It was a distorted and disturbed system message. I’d experienced this phenomenon before. On the day I Awakened as Seo Jin-Wook. The message now penetrating my mind clearly conveyed some meaning, but I couldn’t understand it right away. It felt like a part of my mind had become clouded.
– (##################)!
But then.
The phenomenon did not last long.
– [The Successor’s Eyes (Rank: EX)] Detects interference with this force.
– Attempt to recover filtered semantic fragments. ···Recovery complete!
The meaning of the system message has now normally flowed into my head a tempo late. The message was actually telling this:
– (A* 150-grade contribution 88% confirmed. Spent time 1 hour, 12 minutes and 45 seconds. ··Error! Error!)
– (According to regulations No. 29-42-19048 ‘Compensation Evaluation Process According to Dungeon Break Response Contribution Rate’ and regulations No. 18-1-00921 ‘Dimensional Item Supply Criteria for Quest Progress Rate,’ a conflict is confirmed.)
– (Decisions to correct this error are beyond the control cognition’s autonomy. Requesting to summon the ministry spirit!)
When I checked the message, I sang joyfully to myself.
‘All right!’
I think what the Hunter in the past life experienced will follow soon. I told the two of them.
“I think I’m going to disappear for a while and then come back. Just like when we were attacking the dungeon.”
The look on the faces of the two people showed they couldn’t understand. According to what they studied, a Hunter doesn’t have to choose break compensation. So, they wouldn’t understand why I was going to be summoned.
“For more information, I’ll explain when I…”
Even before I was done talking…
Swish!
I was summoned there.
‘There you go!’
I was surrounded by darkness in the blink of an eye. It was a space full of dense darkness.
I’d experienced two similar places like this. One was the Altar of Trials that I visited as soon as I Awakened, and the other was the space to select additional rewards after Clearing a dungeon.
However, there was no silver altar here, and there were no white lights that surrounded me like the stars of the night.
‘If I wait like this, I will hear another message again. In a form that anyone can understand.’
However, the message my previous life received here was not general and mechanical telepathy. It was a more ‘human’ message, as I heard when I first Awakened, by the standards of the Earth’s people.
‘To hear such a message means that I will see that being again!’
A few seconds of waiting made my prediction a reality.
Swoosh!
The black air opened, and a woman’s body, glowing blue, appeared—a body shaped with Mana. At the same time, the system message rang.
– I’m sorry to keep you waiting so long. Something unexpected happened. To explain briefly what the user is currently experiencing…
Floating in the dark were screens of different shapes float wrapped around her. The woman-shaped being looks at one of the screens seriously.
I remembered. She called herself the ‘Military Spirit.’ Her eyes widened as if she had found something on the screen. The head turned, and our eyes met. The system message followed the movement of her lips and spoke in my head.
– What, it’s you again?
*
There was a strange silence between us two. What lingered in my eyes now was a little anticipation. On the other hand, there was an explicit feeling of annoyance in the eyes of the Spirit.
– You’re a being of many strange cases in ways. Your name is… Seo Jin-Wook?
This is the first time in history that a system message directly mentioned Hunter’s name. They are usually referred to only as Summoner and User.
‘Does she mean that it’s an exceptional case that she had to check my name? From that Spirit’s point of view, that is.’
However, right after making such a short comment, the Spirit turned its annoyed gaze back to the screen. The wall made of blue Mana was filled with Archid characters. I could simply read them and distinguish the shapes with my knowledge, but there were too many words I didn’t know. They weren’t words that I’d forgotten but were words I never learned in the first place. For now, I made myself store the shapes in my head using [The Successor’s Eyes].
– Anyway, I’m busy, so I’ll explain it quickly and briefly. The reason why you were summoned and why you met me here is simply because I couldn’t give you items that fit your contribution on the break.
I didn’t have to reveal that I had heard all the censored messages, so I quietly listened. This meant that it could not give items with the automated message’s authority or ‘control cognition.’
– Your grades are abnormally high. In the first place, it wasn’t the level of difficulty set for a single individual to get this grade. Anyway, you had a contribution rate of 88%, and the time it took was extremely short, so the expected compensation rating went up very high. But the problem is….
I knew. Whether someone clears the A-class dungeon or blocks the A-class break, the limit of compensation is the next higher grade. The compensation rank limit I can receive is SS-Class. However, according to a different standard from that, it concurred my contribution should be higher than the SS-Class.
‘Because my performance broke through the difficulty they set.’
Something of theirs called the operational regulations were conflicting with each other. I guessed what the Spirit would say.
‘It would say that although it is a grade that is right for me to receive an SSS-Class reward, it is not available by the regulations, right?’
However, the words that returned were not what I expected.
– Items that match your grade cannot be supplied at the dimension where the tutorial is still in progress.
What’s that supposed to mean?
‘It’s different from what the Hunter had heard!’
Although they are of limited amount on Earth, SSS-class items will be released in the past or the present life. Therefore, the item that the Spirit was talking about wasn’t SSS-Class, but a class higher item than that.
‘If it’s after the SSS-Class, it’s the EX-Class!’
In the past life, humankind learned about the concept of EX-class by discovering an EX-class skill. EX-class items had never been found on Earth.
‘Wait a minute, then, if I everything···.’
It wants me to bug off with receiving an SS-Class item instead of receiving an EX-Class item. Contrary to my expectations, the value of items I have to give up had gone up a notch.
– So, I’d like to give you an SS-Class item at the discretion of the power given to me and at the same time give you an additional reward. By any chance, is there anything you are hoping for?
So far, it was in line with the direction I was aiming for. In the first place, I was going to make a deal with the system by increasing my contribution rate abnormally high for this break. However, if the price to give up was an EX-Class item, I think I should have asked for more than I originally planned.
‘No, wait a minute. Before I decide like that!’
Let’s test the water one more time, “If you mean an item that can’t be released in the tutorial, I think you might be referring to an EX-Class.”
– ····You know the concept of it. Yes, that’s right. But I can’t give you this.
“What if I made extra results? Or would it be possible if I overcome ‘the ordeal’?”
The Spirit was determined.
– No, no condition is possible. The principle that one can’t release an EX-Class item in a tutorial is an absolute regulation.
I clicked my tongue inside. Damn! Given the existing case, the thing was impossible once the system message said that it was impossible.
‘By the looks of it, it looks that it is annoyed to death. I should get what I can scrape up from this as much as possible before I agitate her even more with the EX-Class item.’
Therefore, I threw a deal that was a steep upgraded from the request I had originally prepared.
“Right now, among humankind, SSS-Class items are valued for ten or more SS-Class items. Then, EX-Class could be valued as 10 of SSS-Class items, right?”
– No, wait a minute. Stop there. That’s hard. I understand what you’re trying to say.
I went on without caring about it, “Then, in the condition that I would receive an SS-Class item instead of the EX-Class item, I’d like to receive 100 of them, by my choice.”
Unless the word ‘never’ was mentioned, I had to give it a go.