Fantasy Realm – Infinite Worlds Adventure-Chapter 265: Win-Win
The group stands around the shiny purple chest. It doesn’t take Alex more than a second to realize that the chest in front of him is a large chest—and thus extremely valuable.
I wish I could tell them about my insane LUK stat, but I’ll never reveal such details again. Neither my innate skill nor my stats are ever allowed to be revealed! I’d probably end up forcibly recruited by various guilds and forced to open chests during team missions. With my LUK, chests are easily worth twice as much as they should be, and their drop rate has increased, too.
Alicia speaks up first. “We picked up 5 green chests and 4 blue chests. This one appears to be a purple chest, but not just a normal one—it’s a large one. According to my experience, they contain twice as much loot.”
Wrong! In my experience, it’s more like 2.5 to 3 times as much as a normal chest.
“You know… There are no contracts in this world, so you might not believe me, but my LUK is slightly higher than it should be,” Alex says, not lying but delivering the most understated statement he’s ever made. He continues, “Usually, I open chests in our group.”
Stefanie immediately protests. “Yeah, but we don’t have contracts available to us in this world! We can’t trust you with it!”
…This little—what happened to our heartfelt date?
Rishi suddenly steps forward and suggests, “Why don’t we buy the chest? You can keep the 4 blue chests and the 5 green chests to yourselves, and in addition to that, we’ll also pay each of you a Soul Crystal.”
Everyone nods, but nobody looks truly satisfied.
“You know, we talked about equal distribution, but we didn’t realize this problem might occur,” Alicia says. “The group taking the large purple chest needs to buy out every other team. We’d be willing to take it as well and throw you all a small Soul Crystal. Let’s turn this into an auction. Highest bid wins the chest. The rest gets equally distributed to the other teams.”
This woman is cunning! I have a feeling she just wants to trick us into increasing the price, but we’ll have to accept it, this is a huge chance!
“One Soul Crystal and 3,000 FC per group,” Alex offers.
“One Soul Crystal and 5,000 FC,” Ben retorts, clearly just as greedy for the chest.
I need to shut this down now! If everyone feels invested, nobody will back off.
“I’ll remove the FC. I’ll offer one Soul Crystal, but in addition to that… I’ll make sure to provide 5 Green Healing items to every single group. I promise I’ll give them to you within two weeks, or if I fail, I’m willing to pay double the Soul Crystals—so two to every single group!”
“The quality of the healing items? Are they just Light Green?” Ben inquires.
“At least Green, probably Deep Green! If there’s not at least a third of them Deep Green, I’ll throw in a 6th healing item!”
The other groups quickly do some math, calculating that Green or Deep Green healing items are easily worth 3,000 to 5,000 FC. Alex is essentially offering each group 1 Soul Crystal and at least 20,000 FC worth of items.
“Sounds fair. You’re not getting anything out of the Green and Blue chests, and you’re essentially paying 50,000 FC per group—so 150,000 FC total. This is getting way too expensive for me. If you’re unlucky and only get two mediocre Light Purple items, you’ll get nothing and maybe only end up with items worth 80,000! This sounds like a losing deal, Alex,” Ben says with a smile, not shy about laughing at Alex’s expense.
I think it's more than worth it… now, take a step back to make them feel like they’ve gotten the better end of me.
“Maybe… how about 3 healing items, then? I think I misspoke,” Alex suggests, looking a bit ashamed and embarrassed.
“No, you said it. No takesie-backsies! We accept!” Stefanie says with a grin, Alicia nodding in agreement.
“Fine! You’re getting a bit greedy, don’t ruin our teamwork!” Alex says, picking up the chest and trading everyone a small Soul Crystal.
“You’ll get the food later,” he adds, in a grumpy tone.
Dearest Soulmate is such a proficient actor. Princess Jewel is in awe! ❤️
The calculations aren’t wrong. This would be a bad trade for everyone, but with my LUK… yeah, I don’t think we’ll be losing out with this deal. Anyway, I don’t feel guilty, as they’re doing their best to take advantage of us too. This is a win-win for everyone.
I just have to pay them the dishes. Menchi has enough ingredients for potions and food—I’ve brought her so many herbs and ingredients. She also has the Dragon Meat. I didn’t want to pressure her, but by now, she should have something to show for it. She’ll easily deliver Green-quality dishes, I’m sure of it! This isn’t a huge loss, I think.
“Guys… you need to see this,” Tereza says, not invested in the loot distribution as she stands in front of Aragog’s lair.
The area surrounding it looks like a desert, made up of dark, corrupted sand. Even the trees are dead. It’s like a deadly-looking underground pit of corruption.
“There are walls of corruption, even in the air. We can’t enter like this—we’ll die!” a soldier notes.
I have to agree with him. This is indeed the heart of the corruption. It’s not even part of the forest anymore. The system really infected this world with a strange disease.
“I think it’s not time for this last part yet… In any case, nobody is willing to risk going further. I’d suggest we leave!” Rishi notes.
Most people, tired and happy with their progress, nod at each other and are more than willing to flee, the corruption scaring everyone.
Alex walks up to the entrance of the dome-shaped lair of corruption, feeling the immense danger in the air.
I think it’s not only too soon, but we’re missing something. Perhaps now that we’ve come this far, we should talk to the Centaurs. Anyway, this raid was a success. Nobody died, and we pushed as far as possible.
— [Scene Break] —
Alex, Tereza, Rishi, and of course Jewel are back at their house.
“Did I overpay?” Alex asks, his greed showing.
“No, with your LUK, it’s worth it. Even two Soul Crystals would’ve still been worth it,” Rishi says.
“Yeah, open it already, don’t waste my time,” Tereza urges him.
“I’ll open it soon… but I’m a bit curious about your opinion. This was successful, right? There’s only the heart left, right? The last few months were hard, but there’s nothing left now—even the Wall of Corruption is gone.”
“The teamwork was good. Nobody sat back; everyone did their best. Also, with the fear of the traitorous team gone, I think the odds were on our side!” Tereza responds, looking satisfied.
“Almost a tad too easy—deceptively easy,” Rishi states, his face deep in thought.
“It’s a good sign. We’ll need that teamwork for the third task,” Alex says.
“...”
“...”
“...”
“Fine, I’ll open it! Stop staring!” Alex complains.
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He takes out the chest, and just as he’s about to open it, the door swings open. He quickly puts the chest back into his inventory, only to notice Menchi standing there.
“You’re back!” she says with a smile, walking toward Tereza and hugging her.
“I’ve bargained for a lot of dishes, Menchi… How do you feel about finally going all in with your cooking?” Alex asks.
“Thought you’d never ask! I’m finally confident. I’ll start tomorrow!” Menchi says with a confident grin.
Now, with no interruptions, Alex takes the chest out of his inventory and opens it, seeing a flashing purple light as he does so.
