"When payment was needed, create it for payment. What humans in this world lacked least was all kinds of costs."
"Suppose there was a Relic whose ability was to produce one ton of gold at the cost of one piece of wood. Correspondingly, there would definitely be a Relic that could produce ten pieces of wood at the cost of ten grams of gold."
"Just produce wood when gold is needed."
"And produce gold when wood is needed."
"Then these two Relics could form a cycle, perhaps even make the meter run backward and cause resources to increase without limit. Those resources could then be used on other Relics that required such costs, completing a more comprehensive Transfer Payment."
"Of course, such ideal circumstances were rare. Two Relics that could mutually convert resources were already hard to come by, but as long as there were enough Relics, a relatively complete cycle could be formed."
"If two Relics weren't enough, what about three?"
"One Relic that made gold from stone, one that made wood from gold, and one that made stone from wood—the three Relics would form a complete cycle."
"What if there weren't even three? Then four... The more Relics there were, the greater the chance of forming a cycle. Resources could form bonds and convert into one another, perhaps even multiplying in the process."
"That was only the simplest case. Here's a more complex one: suppose the cost of one Relic was causing someone's hair to grow wildly, while another Relic required the user's hair as payment. Then those two Relics could achieve a balance."
"Balance could be achieved not only between abilities and costs, but also between costs themselves. The chain of this cycle was not one-way, but two-way."
"That created even more options. The more Relics participating