Infernal Apocalypse

The man didn’t make another sound until he was in the safety of his room on the ship and multiple barriers to stop prying ears from listening in were put up.

“It is frustrating dealing with those people, but I’d say that went well enough. Although I’m going to go through a bit of trouble to get the item into the Tutorial, it will be worth it, but dammit is it frustrating to have to move her whims.”

The metal man was brought of his thoughts, when a calm knock sounded at his door.

“Speak.”

“Lord Yamaal, by your order Captain Ruyam is awaiting you in the bridge.”

Responding with a curt grunt, Yamaal, formerly known as metal man vanished form his room and showed up at the bridge. Once Ruyam saw him, he bowed in greeting.

“You called me for Sir.”

“How many of the Outposts received your message.”

“Sir, out of the 26 Outposts in the Tutorial, only 6 received and acknowledged the message. The other 20 rejected the message outright.”

“Fools.” Yamaal seemed to angrily grunt that word out before he continued speaking.

“Did the VIP make it to an Outpost yet.”

“Yes sir, he is at Outpost G. One of the Outposts that rejected our message.”

“Tch…I will go there myself.”

“Yes Sir.”

And so Yamaal disappeared once more. Though this time he didn’t quickly reappear at his intended destination, as entering the Tutorial world after it has begun was technically not possible, due to many system rules and the fact it was being held in a system-controlled dimension.

Yet due to being a part of the faction responsible for hosting the Tutorial, he could do so only once for emergency purposes.

He felt this time was one such purpose.

After a few minutes of waiting, Yamaal appeared at his target location. Inside the building behind the central building that Raizen was still browsing the shop in.

The green lady manning the shop realized and her face twitched a bit, as this was not normal. Though she didn’t do anything else as she felt the Outpost Leader would handle it.

Speaking of the Outpost Leader, he was seated behind his desk, in the process of sharpening a fine katana, when Yamaal appeared before him.

Even though he was a bit startled, he regained his composure and greeted him.

“I greet Lord Yamaal. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” Even though his words themselves were respectful, the tone of his voice was not. Instead remaining quite neutral.

“Enough foolishness. You were sent a message, why was it rejected.”

The Outpost Leader raised an eyebrow before responding.

“You used your one emergency entrance to ask why I didn’t accept a message?”

“Answer.” Yamaal gave a curt response, while he let his previously restrained aura release just a tad. Just enough for The Outpost Leader to understand he had to provide an answer.

“I was busy.”

That response almost drove Yamaal to anger before he calmed himself down.

“You are a fool. I will not waste my time further. Place the item I’m about to give you in your Outpost’s shop, do it now while the individual currently in the shop is still there. Only he may see it. Name the item ‘Raizen’. I will say it one more time. Only he may see it.”

And with that Yamaal disappeared, leaving a small black box on the desk of the Outpost Leader who simply stared at it for a moment. A million thoughts ran through his head.

Eventually he waved his hand and the box disappeared, and at the same time the shop menu was updated.

“Huh that was weird…hey you should check the cultivation manual section again; a new option was added.” Noticing the change, the green lady in charge of the shop, decided to let the young man know about it as she felt it had something to do with him. She could of course see what was added.

“Sure.”

A new option huh...I wonder why. Well let’s go check it out.

Manuals

1. Basic Cultivation Manual (Common) – 50 Copper Coins

2. Advanced Cultivation Manual (Common) – 250 Copper Coins

3. Raizen – 1 Gold Coin

Unless I just lost the ability to read, that clearly says my name. Why did something with my name appear in the shop at this very moment? Is it a reward or something? What else could this possible be if it wasn’t? Should I ask about it?

Plus, it costs 1 gold…that has to be a lot of money, right? Considering everything else in the shop was being sold in copper coins. I don’t know the conversion rate though, so I guess I no choice but to ask.

“Excuse me, how many copper coins does it take to get one gold coin?”

“One Million.”

Huh I’m not sure I heard her correctly.

“Sorry, say again?” I had to ask again, surely this time I would hear her correctly.

“One Million.”

It seems…I won’t be able to buy the item named after me anytime soon. So maybe it’s not a reward but a punishment? No…that doesn’t add up. Maybe it’s a challenge? But if it is I’m kind of stuck.

If it’s under the cultivation manual section that means, it’s a way to cultivate tailored to me, right? And considering there was already a basic and an advanced manual listed, some manuals should be more effective than others.

Thinking about it as rationally as I can, If I want more money I need more of these orbs. Which means more looting Goblins, which of course means more fighting and killing Goblins. Which finally means I need to be stronger to get all the kills I need.

To get stronger than I already am which isn’t much, most likely involves cultivating. Who knows how long it would take to kill a million coins worth of Goblins at my current level of strength, and who knows if there’s anything stronger out there that could attack me while I’m looking for Goblins. Maybe there’s even stronger Goblins than what I see now.

She mentioned the orbs from the Goblins are common orbs, and I don’t think it’s too big of a reach to think there’s uncommon or even rare cores from stronger monsters.

Okay.

It seems my next steps are already decided for me, I guess that makes this easy. The entry to this Outpost is free until Day 6, and its currently Day 2. I need to make use of this to save money.

The green lady here mentioned the conversion rate will change in the future so I will assume it will only get worse, meaning I need to take advantage of the rate right now.

Though there is one thing I need to confirm before I can finalize my decision.

“I apologize for all the questions, but is it safe to switch cultivation manuals?”

As if she expected my question, she didn’t miss a beat and responded as soon as I asked.

“Yes, it’s quite common for people to switch cultivation manuals when they find better ones, or they have reached the limits of the one they are currently using. Though It’s not something that should be done very often, as that can cause problems with your foundation.”

“Thank you.”

Unbeknownst to Raizen, the green lady manning the shop was giving him far more information than she would have given to anyone else. It didn’t take her long to realize the young man in front of her was likely someone important.

Between the fact that she felt Yamaal visit, and then a new item she couldn’t see the contents of appeared under the cultivation manual section with a weird name, she even saw him react to the name of the item when she pointed it out to him. With all of this information it would take an idiot to not realize his name was Raizen, and he was worth the attention of Lord Yamaal himself.

It would be best to build a good relationship with him.

Though there was one thing she couldn’t understand, why a full Gold coin? That was far beyond the reach of what Tutorial attendees would accomplish this early in the Tutorial. It’s literally only Day 2. If they were giving him special treatment, shouldn’t they make the manual more affordable?

So, while Raizen was reforming his plans of what to purchase after seeing the manual. She sent a mental message over to the Outpost Leader.

‘Jrino, I noticed Yamaal stop by. I also noticed the manual in the shop. It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together. But why is it 1 gold?’

The Outpost Leader wasn’t very surprised that the shop keeper reached out to him, as she was as strong as he was, and he couldn’t really dismiss her like he could with the other members in the Outpost and she was probably well within her rights to ask since she managed the Outpost Shop. So, he sent a mental message back.

‘That bastard stopped by to force me to put that item in the shop, but he didn’t say what I had to make it cost.’ He said this with a hint of pride and smugness. The Shop Keeper could almost see the smirk planted on his face as she heard his response.

‘Jrino…whatever I know how stubborn and petty you can get. Don’t blame me if this comes back to bite you.’

‘You were always too cautious Greja.’

Greja didn’t even bother responding as she just watched as the young man appeared to finally be ready to purchase something.