Chapter 1709 Wager Conditions
Date- 15 April 2321
Time- 17:13
Location- Southern Region, Blossom District, Sky Blossom City, Dungeon Highway, Barren Lands, Central Tower, Blood Rock Cave Gate Dungeon, Seed World
"True, true, but you know that is not how things work in the real world. The price of something is determined by its market value, supply, and demand. Though there is only one of you as far as I know there is demand for you. The market value and demand for the special soul is good but not equal to a million reading hours of the Infinity Library. By that logic, your life as stake for the wager is not a fair compensation," Zaltan did agree with Wyatt"s words but also reminded him that was not how the market worked. Then he claimed that Wyatt"s life was not a fair stake for this wager since what he was staking was worth a lot more than his life.
"If not for my urgent requirement of the executive function of the Infinity Library"s VVIP membership, I would not have been willing to stake my life. Because as far as I am concerned, be it a million reading hours of Infinity Library or the executive function, neither is worth my life. Now the question is, whether you feel my life is worth you helping me activate the executive function. If not there is no need for you to go ahead with this wager with life and your help as the stake of the wager. I have told you already, I am not forcing you to make this bet," Wyatt did not agree with Zaltan nor did he try to convince Zaltan to go ahead with the wager.
As Wyatt knew Zaltan wanted him to beg him to take his life for his help which would mean that Wyatt was agreeing that his life was worth nothing just as Zaltan constantly kept implying. Now Wyatt had no problem with shameless pestering but begging was where drew the line. If not the executive function, he could do something else to ensure his cover or he would risk it. He has made it so far purely on his wits and luck alone, so he had no problem continuing to rely on them in the future.
"Wyatt, if you want to step out of the wager then just say so rather than making me withdraw the wager," Zaltan had no clue what was going on in Wyatt"s mind.
Was it not Wyatt who kept him pestering to help him unlock the executive function? Now that he has given Wyatt a shot at what he wanted shouldn"t he be trying to come up with better stakes for the wager or begging him to go ahead with the wager with his petty life as the stake even though it was not a fair compensation because that was all he could afford?
Was it because he had no confidence in winning the wager and did not plan to stake his life on a losing bet? Even so shouldn"t Wyatt be begging him for help in exchange for his life or something of the same effect? If so, How come Wyatt was not doing that but rather acting indifferent toward the wager and him?
Did Wyatt no longer want to unlock the executive function of his VVIP membership? How can he unilaterally change his mind after wasting Zaltan"s time? This wouldn"t do, he needed to be compensated appropriately for his time and Wyatt"s life would make a fair compensation. Though he could not outright say this he could only think of other ways to compensate for his time such as by going through the wager.
"Zaltan, I cannot thank you enough for the wager. You given me the opportunity to get what I want but if we cannot agree on the stakes then I do not see the point of continuing the wager. Since I do not want to take advantage of your generous nature," Wyatt"s tone remained neutral throughout the sentence. He showed no interest in bargaining for better conditions let alone continuing with the wager proposed by the Zaltan but he did not show any interest in backing out of the wager either.
Zaltan was now without words, he proposed the wager knowing that Wyatt, a level-mortal, would never be able to meet the requirement of minimum contribution to the Infinity Library. In the heat of the moment, Wyatt not only agreed to a losing wager but was also prepared to stake his life. However, Zaltan"s s.a.d.i.s.tic nature took the best of him and he began to play with fish that had already been hooked now that it appeared to have stopped struggling he began to worry if it had gotten loose.
"Your life against my help, these stakes are good enough for me if you are willing to allow me few conditions to the wager," Zaltan proposed. He was no longer interested in showing Wyatt worthless his life. Right now he wanted to own that worthless life as with it he would have more control over the pixie experiment.
"Let me hear the conditions first?" Wyatt said coldly, laminating how the situation had changed. However, he was not foolish enough to try and bargain for better conditions because he knew unlike Zaltan he had no leverage.
"First, you will meet the minimum contribution required for unlocking the executive function within a year, a human year. Second, you will not let the wager between us negatively affect your relationship with Dredre, if it does I will win the wager by default. Lastly, in case of your unexpected demise during the course of the wager, I win by default and your soul belongs to me. These are my three conditions to the wager with agreed-upon stakes, if you agree to them then we can sign a contract and officially begin the wager," Zaltan proposed.
Zaltan showed how much he cared about the pixie experiment he was conducting by stating that he was worried that the wager would negatively affect the relationship between Wyatt and Dredre directly affecting his pixie experiment. But still, his capitalistic nature found a way to make it Wyatt"s problem.
Wyatt had no problem with the three conditions proposed by Zaltan because he believed he would not even require a day to win the wager so he did not have to worry about Zaltan trying to kill him to win by default using the third condition. However, he could not readily agree to them because he did not want to spook the fisherman that the fish he had hooked was not just a big one but a killer whale about to swallow him whole.
"One year is too little time and the third condition is a bit shady," Wyatt bargained the time limit to the wager and third condition proposed by Zaltan knowing that he would not compromise on the second condition considering his invested interest in the unknown pixie experiment.
"Well, as you said your life is short so I cannot give a century, otherwise there would be no point to you wagering your life. Besides, my time is precious, one human year is all I can expend for this wager. As for the third condition, it is just insurance that I don"t make a loss because of your lack of strength to protect yourself. We can add terms and conditions to make the third condition seem less shady to you," Zaltan argued. He found it amusing that Wyatt thought Zaltan would use the third condition to cheat him. Still, he a.s.sured Wyatt that was not the case and that if it helped they could add terms and conditions such that Zaltan could not take advantage of the third condition.
"Fine, I will draw the contract, sign it if you are okay with it," hanging up the call, Wyatt soon drew a contract for the wager and shared it with Dredre so she could share it with Zaltan. After Zaltan signed the contract, Dredre shared a copy of it with Wyatt"s demon merchant codex.
Once, he had the wager contract copy in his hand Wyatt no longer wasted any time and began to share the copies of books with Dredre that he had prepared to exchange for the contribution toward Infinity Library.
These books were the Astronomy books on the workings of the universe from the earth that Wyatt had rewritten through the perspective of advanced mortal alchemy of the card world. Using his memory and Hive AI, he had rewritten nearly a thousand books exploring and trying to explain the machines and various possibilities of the universe, and how it came to be. Wyatt was confident that these books should be enough to gain him the required minimum contribution to unlocking the executive function.
Wyatt was not worried about any repercussions from these books because various civilizations across the myriad realms have their own theory about the myriad realms and the cosmos. Each one was more intriguing than the other. Wyatt believed that his book on the universe would be a drop in the ocean among them. If this was not enough to get him the required contribution he could talk about genes and how they could be holding the secret to carbon-based life forms such as humans and other myriad races.