There Was No Such Thing as a System That Wasn't a Rip-off!

"Let's check the prices, too." Lu Wen raised a hand and tapped a hero portrait.

He had to see what he could buy with the few points he had!

Most importantly, he needed to fix his laughable movement speed first.

"Oh, my Chovy~ You're selling me traits! Give me a decent deal! Are these fucking prices meant for actual people?!"

Once he actually opened the trait shop, Lu Wen completely lost it! These fucking systems were all the same! What a goddamn rip-off! Where was their conscience?!

"You damn system, are you fucking robbing me? A lot of those people before me died because you sucked them dry, didn't they?!"

He had barely finished complaining inwardly when the system panel popped up automatically.

[This system's prices are fair to all! Everything is priced according to the trait's value! Therefore, no exploitation is involved!]

"Bullshit..." Lu Wen flipped off the system window that had popped up.

How did it have the nerve to claim it wasn't a rip-off?!

He had seen the note earlier saying that higher grades cost more! But this was way too fucking expensive!

The cheapest gray traits were priced in increments of ten, ranging from 10 to 90 depending on their strength! But the point costs were all round numbers, possibly three hundred or five hundred. Minute versions cost tens of points, hourly versions hundreds, and permanent versions thousands.

For white traits, minute versions cost hundreds, hourly versions thousands, and permanent versions tens of thousands.

For green traits, minute versions cost thousands, hourly versions tens of thousands, and permanent versions hundreds of thousands.

For blue traits, minute versions cost tens of thousands, hourly versions hundreds of thousands, and permanent versions millions.

For purple traits, minute versions started at a hundred thousand, and permanent versions at ten million! Gold minute versions started at a million, and permanent versions were calculated in hundreds of millions and upward!

Lu Wen glanced at the Phoenix Force priced at eight hundred million points and silently closed Phoenix's portrait.

The prices increased tenfold with each grade, rising steadily by a factor of ten through gray, white, green, blue, purple, and gold, but red brought a massive leap!

For red traits, minute versions started at a hundred million, and permanent versions at ten billion!

Besides, he couldn't just buy one trait! He would need several to swap between in different situations!

He didn't even dare imagine how much he would have to spend in the future! Even Chengdu didn't have that many bottoms!

"Sigh~ Better fix my movement speed first."

Lu Wen took a deep breath and decided not to think so far ahead. Thinking too much only piled on the pressure.

After considering it for a moment, he typed Black Panther into the shop's built-in search bar. He figured Black Panther should be a fairly middle-of-the-road enhanced human hero.

When he opened Black Panther's portrait, sure enough! All his attributes fell between white and blue! The super speed he needed was white-grade, and permanently redeeming it cost exactly ten thousand points!

"Did dear Uncle Deadpool figure this out ahead of time?"

Pushing down his question, Lu Wen redeemed the trait and installed it in his trait slot.

The instant he installed it, he felt a peculiar power surge throughout his body. He took a couple of steps around the room to test it. Although he didn't try running, the heaviness in his leg muscles from before had vanished completely.

Aha! Wasn't that better already?! This time, those so-called shared bikes wouldn't leave him in the dust so easily.

Having figured out the traits, he turned to the system bounty section.

Although the Battle of New York had ended, the bounties targeting the Chitauri Army remained. It seemed he could still kill them for points if he encountered them again.

But none of that mattered! Most importantly, he spotted a line of small print after the introduction to the system bounty section.

(Acceptance is not mandatory / Accept missions freely.)

Pretty fucking Silverwing of it!

He just didn't know why so many predecessors had died when the rules were this fair! Something had to be wrong. He would keep looking.

"Ha! I knew it! There's no such thing as a fucking system that isn't a rip-off! So this was where you were waiting for me!"

At the top of the Dimensional Market listing section was a notice labeled "Information for the Host"! When he opened it with a thought, a statement resembling a contract popped up.

No! That was a fucking contract!

[Dimensional Order Obligations]

[System missions: Not mandatory. The host is free to accept or decline.]

[Dimensional orders: The standard annual quota is five completed orders! Otherwise, the host will be replaced. (Only one order may be accepted at a time. Another order may only be accepted after the previous one is settled! The system accepts no responsibility for the host's personal safety after detaching!)]

[Reason: This is the system host's responsibility! The system grants you the ability to travel across worlds, and your work is required to keep it operating. Five orders a year already reflects the system's thoughtful allowance for the host to rest and strengthen themselves in the anchored world.]

[Additional orders: Beyond the five required orders, the host is free to accept more. The system will not interfere.]

[Time flow: Time flows more slowly in the order world than in the anchored world! The ratio is 2:1. For special orders whose mission timelines span too long, points may be spent to increase the ratio, at ten thousand points per increase.]

(Go wild without worry, then come back and carry on with your life.)

[World anchors: Whenever accepting an order unlocks a new universe, the system automatically activates a world anchor! After leaving that world, you may spend 1,000 points to travel there again.]

[Order selection: The order page may be refreshed five times per month. Once all refreshes are used, the page will lock! Host, please choose your orders carefully.]

[Friendly reminder: Manage your time wisely and cherish your life.]

[...]

┑(￣Д ￣)┍ "Heh~ I give up."

Since things had come to this, he might as well accept his fate...

Now, he had finally gained a thorough understanding of the difference between the system's two mission sections.

Of the two mission sections, one consisted of missions the system issued after he arrived in a world and it finished scanning, based on various events around the host and the characters in that world. Essentially, it guaranteed him, the host, a basic means of earning points.

The listing system covered a broader scope. It did have "dimensional" in its name, after all!

He had taken a look when accepting Deadpool's mission earlier. The entire page had been packed with all kinds of orders! Some offered points, while others offered various items as payment...

Directly below Deadpool's mission had been one offering a fruit covered in spiral patterns as payment!

Unless he had seen it wrong, that was a Devil Fruit! So he could be certain that the worlds encompassed by "dimensional" were very comprehensive.

Moreover, the system's accompanying explanation said that those posting missions weren't just natives! There were even fellow transmigrators posting missions!

The system's explanation was that his was the main system! Those able to post orders were lucky individuals randomly selected by the subsystems it had scattered!

Furthermore, most weren't permanent. In many cases, after someone received a subsystem, earned some points through system missions, and posted a few mission orders, the system would determine that their world lacked potential for sustainable point development and detach to find the next lucky individual.

The remaining ones were judged to have stronger potential for sustainable development, so they stayed longer, making them seem permanent! Most such cases involved worlds with longer-running stories and transmigrators in those worlds.

They only had permission to post mission orders and trade online. Only he, the main system's host, had the right to accept an order and personally travel to the issuer's world to complete the mission!

In other words, those people could only shop online, while he could provide on-site service!

After understanding these rules, he had a rough idea why so many previous hosts had died!

Aside from those dismissed by the system for failing to complete missions, the rest had probably accepted orders they couldn't handle and misjudged the gap in strength! They had died on their missions.

Although people with subsystems couldn't travel over to work like he could, some orders didn't require going there personally.

For instance, if someone needed food, people with subsystems could also trade food to them and complete that order for payment.

Moreover, missions that could be completed simply by providing something were mostly the easiest ones! As a result, the main system's host had far fewer easy orders to choose from!

That annual quota of five orders looked small, but thinking it over carefully, paired with those damned expensive traits, that refresh mechanism, and the mechanism allowing others to snatch orders... one bit of bad luck could spell disaster.

There was also that time flow! Two to one meant two days passed in the order world for every day in the anchored world. Each upgrade cost ten thousand points, so spending ten thousand raised it to three to one, and spending a hundred thousand raised it to twelve to one!

If he was unlucky and really encountered a mission that took years, he wouldn't even be allowed to leave before completing that order. If he had too few points and ran short, that would be dangerous too!

That was why he said it! There was no such thing as a fucking system that wasn't a rip-off!