Chapter 48. Rewriting Fate – Round 1
"You're leaving?"
"Yeah. I need to give them my report. In person."
Necro told us that he would be going back to the Haze Republic at the entrance of our next destination, the [Stair Village]. The time was 6AM. It was an early morning, but there were still quite a lot of people running around, trying to prepare for a village festival. Demonic Walker, who managed to bring us all the way here, was watching all of this from the back.
"How long would it take?"
"Just two days, I think?"
"And here I thought I'd finally be free…"
Necro grinned after hearing my joke, and pointed at the saint.
"Ah, she's staying."
"Take her with you."
The saint stepped on my foot for that. It didn't hurt though. It stopped hurting after I had raised my defense stat.
"You two worked hard, so just rest till I get back, ok? Or come up with a plan for our next enemy. I don't know. Ah, come to think of it, they're starting the festival today, aren't they? Why not go on a date?"
"Necro!"
The saint just screamed and glanced at me nervously. Did she take his words seriously just now? How regrettable. I had my own plans. I actually had quite a lot on my agenda.
"Ah. I'll ask you one last time. Are you really fine with giving me everything other than the Thief's equipment?"
Necro told me to just give him the Thief's corpse and his items, without even bothering to ask what was in the Grand Thief's Vault. The items all came up to about 450,000,000 dollars. It was a lot of money, sure, but compared to what was in the Grand Thief's Vault, just pitiful change. Necro narrowed his eyes and threw a question at me.
"You already digested all of it, didn't you? Were you even going to give me some if I asked for it?"
"Course not."
"I'm fine with just this. If you really feel that bad about it, talk to the girl over there. I'm the one who can't understand why she doesn't want anything."
In the beginning the saint was hounding me for the cash, but by the time I opened my mouth about it, she vehemently refused to take any. The girl answered the question on our heads when she realized that we were all looking at her.
"It'd be better for Mr. Murderer to have the money, is it not? Just like how wizards need mana, money-cians need cash."
"money-cian?"
"Because you use money to fight."
Her naming sense was at the same level as a jellyfish.
"I'll be taking it then…?"
I yelled gladly in my head. In my imagination, I was already swimming in an ocean of gold.
"Do what you want."
Necro said this, and motioned the Demonic Walker to ready himself.
"In any case, I'll be going. Contact me if anything goes wrong."
"No way anything would happen."
Good. Finally some time to organize a few things. I'll sort the items I acquired this time, and convert all the gems and gold to money. Ah, I'll have to clean up as well. After saying my farewells to Necro, I took out a house from the vault. I'll be staying here till he comes back.
"Where's my room? Please take me to the bestest and the biggest one in the house!"
The saint demanded that she get a room after following me inside.
…Should I kick her out?
I pointed her to the bathroom, but the ungrateful girl began to storm through all the rooms in the first floor. I let the beast be in the first floor, and went up to the library on the second floor.
Peace and quiet, finally.
I sat down on a wooden chair, and moved to the vault. After taking a good look at the mountain of treasure laid out before me, I absorbed it all into my hand. The numbers quickly rose as I absorbed more and more gold. Was it because there was a lot of gold? The sound effect for the numbers going up wasn't 'ka-ching, ka-ching' anymore, but rather 'kachichiching'. After around three minutes, all of the valuables in the vault had been sold, and the money I was left with was 32,527,076,503.60 dollars. A jolly fanfare played out in my ears, and a window appeared in front of me.
<Level up! [Heart of Gold (Lv.3)] has become [Heart of Gold (Lv.5)].>
<Gained a new ability.>
It wasn't 32 billion for nothing. I leveled up twice. Well, I suppose I could also ask why I just leveled up twice with this much money. Just how much money would it take to advance to level six… Well, let's think about that later. I'll check my new abilities for now.
– [Lv.1] Trade (Buy, Sell)
– [Lv.2] Purchase (Luck, Talent, Appearance, Charm, Health, Skill, Knowledge, Information, Ability, Life)
– [Lv.3] Finance (Exchange, Savings, Checking, Checks, Loan, Vault, Stocks, etc.)
– [Lv.4] Service (Delivery, Business Trip, Vacation, Lodge, Entertainment, Sports, Medicine, Transportation, etc.)
– [Lv.5] Employment (Job Ad, Request)
So my new abilities this time are [Service] and [Employment]… Let's take a look at service first.
– Business Trip: Massages, Thigh Pillows…
– Vacation: Sauna, Onsen…
– Lodge: Motel, Villa, Hotel…
– Entertainment: Karaoke, Amusement Park, Casino…
– Sports: Health Club, Swimming Pool, Ski Resort…
– Medicine: Pharmacy, Plastic Surgery, General Hospital…
– Transportation: Taxi, Cruise Ship, Airplane…
Ah, I get it. It's an ability that allows me to make use of certain services. Mm, it's a little strange to be calling it an ability, now that I look at it.
I wonder what vacation and lodge is like…?
I tried clicking [Hotel] in the menu without hesitation. The white vault I was in instantly became colored, and the scenery began to change. Soon enough, my body was standing on top of a marble floor. I was in a hotel lobby. The people around me paused for a second to take a look at my appearance. Wait. This familiar scenery is…
No way.
The clothes that the people are wearing, and the words written on the wall. All of these are things that I recognized.
"Could it be…?"
I frantically looked around, then rushed out of the hotel. It was early evening outside. A white man that I almost bumped into frowned at me annoyedly.
"Hey, be careful."
No way. This easily… When I saw the hotel's name written on the entrance, I almost fell back in shock.
I had arrived in New York City.
*
To think I could go back that easily… After returning to the vault, I fell deep into my thoughts. The money that was taken out of my wallet after going to the hotel was 100,000 dollars… That should be the amount of money I had to use to cross dimensions. Where would I end up if I exit the vault? Would I end up in NYC, or in the other world? Is the reason my head didn't explode despite being away from the saint because I was in a different dimension?
I began cleaning the vault to try to calm myself. I put items I no longer needed in one corner, and organized the books and pieces of equipment as well.
…I suppose there's only one way to find out. After stepping out of the vault, I opened my closed eyes.
"Phew…"
Thankfully, I was back in the library. Quite a bit of time seemed to have passed, seeing how the sun was setting out the window already.
I thought I couldn't come back.
I sat back down in the chair out of relief. What just happened felt like a dream.
New York… This was how powerful Heart of Gold was? Powerful enough to cross dimensions this easily?
For a while, I was stuck in a state of shock. Eventually, I managed to shake my way out of it. Right, if immortality and the power to control time existed, it would make sense for this kind of illogical ability to exist as well. What was important was that 'it was possible'.
I crossed my legs, and put my hand on my knee. I still had 32 billion dollars. There were quite a lot of things that I still had to check out.
This time… Right, should I try buying myself a life?
I might revive if I just spent 10 billion. But… After thinking a bit, I decided that it wasn't worth it.
It wasn't like being alive was particularly good.
And more importantly, the advantages of being a corpse would disappear. It wasn't like I trusted Necro to revive me, but there was no need to rush things any more than I did now. If I was going to fight the Hero, it would be better for me to just increase my defense stat or my health stat.
Ah, instead of that. Maybe I should try buying luck? Currently, my luck stat was 1. It would cost 990 million dollars to raise the stat to a 100. The problem was, I wasn't sure if this stat was a "consumable" or a "permanent" stat. Plus, there might be side effects that comes with the stat. A one person's fortune is the misfortune of another.
For example, if I managed to get first place in a raffle, a child who wanted to get first place and let his parents go on a vacation would become despondent. Mm, that would most certainly be the case.
I'll buy it.
<Your luck stat has risen by 99 points.>
– You can pull out a joker card every time you pull out a random card from a deck.
I tried observing myself using the floating eye. There was no visual change to my outer appearance. I considered flipping a coin to test its effects, then paused when I heard someone walk up the staircase.
Knock, knock.
The saint peeked in through the door after knocking.
"Mr. Murderer~ Are you still busy?"
Did she cook? I could smell something from the first floor. I see. I'm dead, so I don't have to eat, but the saint does. It's dinnertime now, so I suppose she had breakfast and lunch by herself.
"I made dinner using the ingredients I got from town. I thought we could eat together."
The saint, who had an apron around her, said this with a bright smile. So she knew how to cook…? I'm finding that hard to believe.
"I can't eat."
"Can't you just put on the devourer ring?"
Ah, I haven't thought of that. Well, putting on the devourer ring would most certainly allow me to eat despite not having a digestive organ. Just like the saint, who didn't have intestines.
But.
Something like a meal… It's just annoying.
"I don't need it."
I waved her away after saying this. I didn't have any time to waste. There were more important things to do. The saint's shoulders drooped down, and after hesitating by the door for a bit, she looked down. She looks quite sad. Well, whatever.
"Get out, I'm busy."
I had things to do. And I didn't like being bothered.
I could eat later after I revived anyway.
I looked at the closed door in front of me, and put my chin on my hands. Nothing really lucky happened despite having pushed my luck stat to a 100.