The More You Buy, the More You Earn

When the S-grade rating for the first category, "Rune Quality," lit up, Welder no longer had much doubt about the mediocre name "Arcane Wind Blade."

But the second "Stability" test that followed made his breathing catch.

[Calculating Stability...]

This was a measure of the probability that a spell would collapse, distort, fail, or malfunction due to issues within itself, and it was often tied to "operating method" and "casting environment."

For example, improper operation, outputting magical pressure beyond its rated limit, or casting within an area contaminated by elemental pollution.

Therefore, compared to "Rune Quality," "Stability" carried far greater weight. After all, no one wanted their spell to suddenly collapse halfway through using it.

A moment later, a striking letter appeared on the screen—

"A!"

"A..." Welder murmured, his gaze unconsciously shifting toward Ivette.

Though it did not reach S-grade, it was still a top-ten-percent, far-ahead score in terms of "Stability"!

Could she really be a top-tier Rune Compiler? Welder could not help glancing at Ivette. Seeing that the young mage remained expressionless and composed, he slowly withdrew his gaze and continued reading.

The third metric was "mana consumption ratio," the most important aspect of any performance evaluation. It was the art of using Internal Mana to leverage External Mana, representing how much effect every point of input mana could produce.

And on this metric, the test result once again reached S-grade!

At this point, Welder could no longer hold back and took a deep breath. This was the first time he had ever seen an S-grade mana consumption ratio, and it was on a medium-scale spell with nearly fifty thousand runes. If this was not a masterwork, then what was?

Even the thugs at the door, who knew nothing about runes, sensed that something was off and began whispering among themselves.

"Why does the boss look like he's seen a ghost?"

"What the hell do you know? This is obviously a god-tier creation!"

The only one who remained perfectly calm was Rosaline. She had the most confidence in "Arcane Wind Blade," even more confidence than Ivette herself. Seeing the result, she merely felt that it was exactly as expected and nothing remarkable.

—This was Teacher's spell. How could it possibly be bad?

And I'm Teacher's only student... she proudly added in her heart.

After passing the mana consumption ratio, the most crucial, technically demanding, and eye-catching metric, almost everyone felt that a spell with overall S-grade performance was about to be born before their eyes.

But...

For the final category, "Security Protection," the result directly became J-grade. Everyone present froze, overwhelmed by a profound sense of absurdity and dark humor.

"Miss Mage, this..." Welder was dumbfounded. He could not believe that a master Rune Compiler capable of reaching S-grade in mana consumption ratio would be dead last in security protection—this was practically his own level!

Did the damn machine malfunction?

Ivette fell silent for a moment before calmly saying, "Sorry, I forgot to include any firewall or anti-hijacking designs."

"..."

For a moment, Welder did not know what to say. Such a top-tier Cyber Mage had actually forgotten something so important. It was like forgetting to write your own name on a college entrance exam...

"I can add it, but it'll take some time," Ivette said after thinking it over.

"No... this is better," Welder suddenly said.

The overall score had already been calculated. Because "Security Protection" had scored zero, the spell, which would most likely have been S-grade, was immediately rated A-. Even so, this was still the best thing to ever appear in the Junkyard Black Market—a rookie village tyrant, so to speak.

"Most of my customers are local gang leaders," Welder explained with a hint of mockery in his tone. "They're mages too, and they've learned a little about runes, but they can barely read a spell. They'll never reach the level needed for Spell Hijacking, so security design is completely unnecessary."

Then he gave a bitter smile. "Honestly, even A- is too luxurious for them... If you could 'degrade' it to B-, they'd be even happier."

"..." Ivette opened her mouth. After researching Rune Array optimization for so many years, this was the first time she had heard a request for reverse optimization.

But there was no need to fuss over such things in the dream. She simply said, "That's fine. I'll let you sell it at B-grade prices."

"...Really?" Welder's eyes instantly lit up—S-grade performance, A-grade rating, B-grade price?

Then should he buy a few copies for himself first? It lacked anti-hacker capability, but that did not matter at all!

The more he bought, the more he earned, wasn't that right?

The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. His heart burned with excitement, and the ambition he had buried for so long surged up again.

Receiving an overall A- rating was not the end of the testing. There were still specialized tests afterward, such as Arcane Wind Blade's penetration, coverage area, firing speed, range, and so on. The results could all basically be summed up in three words: stat monster.

However, when they reached the final Encrypted Packaging stage, things became a little troublesome. This was an enormous technology in the field of Rune Compilation, not something an individual could develop. Ivette had never encountered it before, either.

"Use Black Tower Pharmaceuticals' remote Encrypted Packaging service." Welder sighed and brought up a holographic interface. "Five thousand credits per use. You can pay with digital currency, and it generates a spell package with an activation code."

"Five thousand? That expensive?" Ivette hesitated. She only had twenty-eight hundred credits to her name.

Welder smiled and explained, "Once activated, their Encrypted Packaging automatically binds to the user's spiritual body. It's nearly impossible to crack. Of course, more importantly..." He lowered his voice. "It's Black Tower's encryption. Who would dare crack it? They're the emperor of Ish Island!"

"Then... let's make five copies first." Ivette looked at him. "But I don't have any money. Please cover it for me first. Sorry for the trouble."

Thus, because the young mage was short on cash, Welder was forced to advance the fee. Even so, he immediately bought two packaged copies of Arcane Wind Blade—fifty thousand each, one hundred thousand in total. He did not have much liquid capital either, or he would have bought them all.

After deducting twenty-five thousand for packaging and transferring seventy-five thousand, along with the twenty-eight hundred already in her account, Ivette now had a total of seventy-seven thousand eight hundred credits.

It looked much more comfortable, but it was still quite far from the five hundred thousand credit price tag of the Elemental Decay Completion Technology.

When they left, Welder personally escorted them through the long air-raid shelter.

Bullet marks remained on the rock walls, flickering in and out of view beneath the dim yellow lights. Seeing Rosaline curiously looking around, Welder smiled faintly and explained to the little girl, "This place was dug out by hand by the residents of Pixel Street during the Silent War twenty years ago."

"Back then, the Corporate Alliance and Global International went to war, and Ish Island became a key target of the New Eden Commonwealth." He kicked aside a piece of rubble and gestured at a height, his expression filled with reminiscence. "I was only this tall then, curled up in here every day, gnawing on compressed biscuits..."

Ivette was not familiar with the historical event known as the Silent War. After the apocalypse, gathering this sort of information had never been a priority for her. She only vaguely knew that the eight super corporations had joined forces to wage a prolonged hot war against Origin Star's global government.

In the end, both sides declared a ceasefire and reconciled, leaving the matter unresolved.

The Corporate Alliance and Global International were presumably the names of the opposing camps.

As for the New Eden Commonwealth, that was simply the country Ish Island belonged to. However, Black Tower Pharmaceuticals had essentially taken control of the place, and the New Eden Government had little presence.

"I know about Black Tower Pharmaceuticals. Who else is in the Corporate Alliance?" Rosaline listened for a while before she could not help asking.

"Spirit Vine Company, Sky Dome Technology, Scale Shedding Organism, Gravity Group, Ember Trace Chemical Industry, Void Tear Group, and Black Tide Company. Counting Black Tower, those are the eight super corporations." Welder raised his fingers one by one as though reciting treasured names, then sneered. "Of course, after that war ended, they may have become the eight new kings of this planet."

"How did the Silent War end?" Ivette asked.

Although he did not understand why the young mage's historical knowledge was so lacking, Welder did not think much of it. "No idea. Neither side announced anything. They suddenly declared a ceasefire, there was no winner, and the strange part was that Global International had clearly held the advantage before the truce... After peace returned, there were at least tens of thousands of conspiracy theories. Doomsday weapons, mind control, population reduction, even alien invasion... Rumors were everywhere."

Ivette frowned slightly. "Doomsday weapons? What kind of weapons?"

Welder thought for a moment. "I remember one theory saying there was a super bomb that could be sent to the planet's core and destroy the world, threatening the government forces into a ceasefire. There were other supposed doomsday weapons too. Anyway, I think mutual destruction at the very least sounds pretty plausible."

I thought it was the aberration virus... Ivette shook her head inwardly, but still remembered the incident.

Mm, while she was still in the dream, perhaps she could look into information about the Silent War.