They said the price would be exchanged for "what was sought," but if no upper limit or scope had been set beforehand, what if the result could not be achieved? Wouldn't that seem terribly unreliable?
Driven by his doubts, Ronan thought for a moment, then posted a string of Little White questions in the "Chat Window":
"Can you grant any wish?"
"What if I want the world to be at peace forever?"
"I want to kill someone. How would you accomplish that?"
"How am I supposed to pay the price?"
"Why did you know there was an External Neuron in my head?"
"Oh, 'External Neuron' is the name I gave to the 'price' you indicated. What do you call it over there?"
With a probing yet teasing mood, Ronan communicated with "Cloak."
As for whether he might "offend" The Other Side...
He had never expected to gain any benefits from Cloak anyway. Even if it exchanged something he wanted, how could he dare use it without sufficient mutual trust? Although the Hidden Dominator of Lava Island had initially left Ronan with a fairly good impression, the overload incident that had nearly blown his mind, along with the name Balance of Truth, had sent that trust crashing to the bottom.
Faced with Ronan's questions, Cloak maintained a distinctly aloof attitude.
It offered no answers. Even when it responded, it merely presented the Sanctuary Contemplation Graphic over and over.
As if it were God's wish-granting machine, capable of anything.
That manner of response inevitably made Ronan wonder once again: was he communicating with a cunning, scheming "strange life-form," or an Artificial Intelligence with only basic logic?
Having confirmed that he could not get any deeper information from the Chat Window, Ronan decided to carry the Little White act through to the end: